Unable to set up Messages in Mavericks (10.9.2)

Hi,

I have a routine.

At about 7pm my time (your first post is timed and close to 4am) I start by looking at email notifications form the Apple Communities and answering new replies to threads I am already in.

Depending on the number and the complexity I then read the Unread items in Mavericks using the iMessages and Messages filter, followed by a similar option in the Mountain Lion areas and the standalone iChat Area.

Around 10pm I finish for the "day".

Your 6.43pm post raised your post back up the list of unreads.

This issue in Mavericks is unclear at the present moment.

Something similar did used to happen in iChat and Messages 7 in Mountain Lion.

Open a Finder window.

Now use the Go Menu whilst holding down the ALT key (The one two away from the sapce bar on either side)

This will show the Library in the menu list. (the Library is hidden normally)

Select this.

No navigate to the Preferences Folder.

Find com.apple.ichat.plist (Messages is built on thre iChat engine)

Drag it to the Trash and relaunch Messages.

The .plist will be recreated

At present this "fix" is not as successful as it used to be.

At this point if it was not successful open Applications then Utilities and Open the Disk Utility item

Change the tab to First Aid if not already selected.

Select the Macintosh HD if that is the drive you are booted from.

Chose Repair Permissions bottom left of the right hand pane.

This may take a while to run.

As I said it is late here and it will be a while before I pick up on further replies.

10:18 pm Friday; March 28, 2014

It should be promting you for a "Apple ID"

Do you have one? If not, set one up here.

-Josh

Ok, sign in with the prompt.

If there is no prompt, click the Apple in the top right and select System Prefrences.

Go to "Internet Accounts" and set up your APPLE ID. Click the "+" in the bottom left corner to do this.

Log out of your OS X account (not your messaging account) and log back in. A shortcut would be to force-quit the imagent process in Activity Monitor.

Hi,

In Mavericks the Apple ID in use does seem to need to be an iCloud linked ID where as in Mountain Lion it could be any Apple ID including older @mac.com names you may not have linked to iCloud.

Of course you need to be able to access the Preferences to follow mrbear253's advice.

Nor can it be set up in System Preferences > Internet Accounts (There is also no option to activate the iCloud ID for Messages either in Internet Accounts or the iCloud pane either).

As Linc says you can use the Applications/Utilities folder to open Activity Monitor and select imagent in the list of running items and Force Quit the item from the icon top left of the app. (Or restart the computer)

Another test would be to open a second Mac User Account (System Preferences > Users and Groups ans create one first if you don't have one).

Then log in to that new Mac User Account and launch Messages there.

If the app is at Fault then you will not be able to set up the iMessages here either.

Most likely the App will work in another Mac User login in which case we have to try and find the fault with either one of your .plists (each mac User account stores it's own .plist for an App) or it is something to do with the Keychain.

Each Mac User Login has a Keychain where passwords and SSL certificates are kept.

Can you confirm the Messages app works in another Login to a different Mac User account on your computer ?

If it does not work in the other Mac User account Restart the computer holding down the CMD and R keys and then chose to Reinstall the OS as it is the only way to Reinstall Messages.

7:22 pm Saturday; March 29, 2014

Having very similar issues.

The "preferences", "add account" menu options are grayed out. I can log into my google messages account, but am presented a gray window when trying to start a new chat.

It looks as though I'm logged in, but can't receive or send messages.

Hi,

Reboot the computer into Safe Mode

It this works just restart the computer normally.

If it does not work restart the computer holding down CMD+ALT+P+R keys all at the same time until you have heard three start up "Bongs" in total.

7:14 pm Thursday; May 29, 2014

Restarts did not fix. Rather as strange, as I appear to be logged and can see 'buddies', but when trying to start a chat all i get is a blank window (as shown above).

Hi,

From your Pic you are logged in to the Gmail Accounts in Messages.

You can see the Buddy list is Available and that Buddies are showing as On line.

bring the Finder to the "front".

Use the Go Menu > Go to Folder and type in (or copy it from here) the following path

~/Library/Containers/com.apple.soagent/Data/Library/Preferences.

Some of these Preferences are Aliases to the original in the ~/Library/Preferences Folder itself (the ones with the little curved arrow)

However some are .plists that are only in this location.

Find all the ones that start with the following com.apple.messageshelper (there will be more to each name after this.

Drag them to the Trash

Also drag the com.apple.soagent.plist itself to the Trash.

At this point restart the Mac.

7:41 pm Wednesday; July 2, 2014

Thanks again for the suggestion, but after following the steps above (twice for good measure) the condition persists.

Hi,

Rather than trying Reinstall at this point try Installing the COMBO version of the OS X 10.9.4 update.

9:35 pm Monday; July 7, 2014