FaceTime suddenly stopped working

Not having an iPhone doesn't matter. Something seems to be wrong with your Apple ID account. Only Apple can fix it.

Did you ever figure out a solution to this? I'm having the identical problem on one of my Macs.

I can say for sure that it isn't related to the particular AppleID account, however, because I get the same behavior with either my or my wife's AppleID (both of which work fine on other devices, including another Mac). The obvious things like creating a fresh user account, rebooting, making sure the time is correctly synchronized, all also don't help.

Since FaceTime is correctly connecting to Apple's servers initially--it shows the correct recommended addresses/phone numbers for the account prior to clicking verify--the issue seems to be a certificate problem or other low-level security validation failure, but one that's happening after the initial account login.

Not really looking forward to a complete OS reinstall, and there aren't many other people reporting a similar error, so I'm hoping you found something that worked...

Hi,

In the very first log is:-

2/12/2014 3:54:50.736 PM imagent[351]: [Warning] SocketStream: error Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=61 "The operation couldn’t be completed. Connection refused" occurred on input stream

@Marc,

If you followed Linc's Instructions do you have a similar line ?

I would use a Finder window then the Go Menu whilst holding down the ALT key.

Select the Library that appears.

From there navigate to Preferences

Find the com.apple.imagent.plist and drag it to the Trash.

Now open Activity Monitor (Applications/Utilities)

Find imagent in the list it will be lower down than the FInder and be in lower case and have no icon and it is a background app that start when the OS does.

Highlight it and use the Quit Button top left.

Confirm a Force Quit.

It is likely you will see it Restart. (it is usual)

Retry FaceTime

IF this deletion of the .plist and a restart (effectively) of IMAgent does not work go to the ~/Library/Preferences again and delete com.apple.imservice.ids.FaceTime.plist

Restart FaceTime after this.

8:34 pm Sunday; April 20, 2014

Ok,

Can you check these items ?

1) that System Preferences > Network > Advanced Button > DNS tab lists DNS Servers.

These should be the same ones you can see on the Status page of your Router or it should list Public ones.

It should not be the IP address of the router itself.

2) that Date and Time in System Preferences are correct and that the Time Zone is as well.

This Times Zone should match in your Router as well.

3) Check the Region settings in Language and Text as well.

7:38 pm Monday; April 21, 2014

Ralph Johns -- I do not have that SocketStream error anywhere in my logs.

com.apple.imagent.plist doesn't exist anywhere in my user prefs folder, which I assume is because FaceTime has never successfully managed to start. I did delete all of the roughly half-dozen com.apple.imservice.* preferences and reboot, but that didn't make any difference. Since a fresh user had the same problem, though, I don't see how delting a user pref would have helped.

There is of course a com.apple.imagent.plist in LaunchAgents, but it's not going to auto-launch if there isn't.

My DNS servers are hardwired to Google's, with a fallback to the ones recommended by my ISP, my region, time zone, clock are all set as they should be.

I have a slightly unusual router configuration (nothing wacky, just not bog standard), but that's clearly not an issue because my other Mac works fine with Facetime, as do all of my iOS devices.

I'll add that I'm a freelance small-office network administrator in my spare time, so I'm experienced with dealing with some pretty arcane network and Mac troubleshooting issues, but this one has me completely stumped, which is rare.

Hi Gellis12,

I may have missed it but did you try a Safe Boot ?

8:02 pm Tuesday; April 22, 2014

Hi,

Has FaceTime created com.apple.facetime.bag.plist in ~/Library/Preferences ?

This hold the Server info that it is supposed to be connected to.

The System/Library/LaunchAgents should launch IMAgent at the computer start up.

This should then be seen in the Activity Monitor (lower than the Finder and with no icon and written in lower case.)

Therefore in ~/Library/Preferences you should have a .plist for it - IF - you have permission to write to that Folder.

I would check the Read and Write permissions on the ~/Library and the Preferences Folder.

8:26 pm Tuesday; April 22, 2014

No, although imagent is running (one instance for every logged in user) com.apple.imagent.plist (or anything else with imagent in the filename) definitely isn't getting created in ~/Library/Preferences. It's not a permissions issue--my permissions look fine, the rest of my preferences are ok, I tried running the permissions/ACL reset for good measure, and I also created a fresh admin user and tried logging into FaceTime, none of which resulted in that preference getting created in the associated user Library.

...until, that is, I opened iMessage and tried to log in with it. THEN that pref got created. The login, however, failed; it logs into AIM successfully, but unlike FaceTime it throws up an error that it couldn't log into the iMessage system and gives a 16-digit code, telling me to call Apple on the phone and have them do something nonspecific to my AppleID.

I'm going to try calling tomorrow, although I expect that the error isn't actually anything to do with the AppleID, since my other Mac (and all my iDevices) can log in without issue to both Messages and FaceTime, and the problem isn't restricted to a single AppleID. But maybe they'll have to help troubleshoot.

As for other prefs, com.apple.facetime.bag.plist does exist (deleting it and rebooting didn't make any difference). Related plists I have are:

~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.facetime.bag.plist

~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.FaceTime.plist

~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.imservice.ids.FaceTime.plist

~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.imservice.ids.iMessage.plist

...none of which, when deleted, make any difference. But given that a freshly-created user has the same issue, it seems exceedingly unlikely that the problem is something as simple as a bad pref; it sort of has to be something system-level.

This article may be relevant.