Re: Can't Activate iMessage on MAC

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Level 1

4 points

Re: Can't Activate iMessage on MAC

I feel your pain! I have same issues after putting in new hard drive. I can access the App store but only after it tells me it can't then it loads but is rendered in a strange way. My iTunes will load but then keeps warning it can't confirm the connnection and there are several versions of the warning that just keep coming up. My iMessage does not work-it tells me there was an error while activating it, my Mac Help will not load content-it loads the menu then when I click on an item it tells me it is unavailable, and FaceTIme doesn't activate either. My email works fine. I migrated to the new hard drive using Migration Assistant and did not bring over the applications which I loaded again. I did this all through a new account on the computer. In this account everything works great! It is just I don't have my KeyChain etc....I am on a Mac Book Pro 2009, OS 10.9.5.

I am considering physically putting all my Docs onto the user that works and get on with life and mothball my regular account. THis has been way to painful and a waste of precious time!

I also tried to reinstall OS, test in safe mode, delete various plist files from the Library, in fact I deleted all of them one time and replaced them with the ones from the account that works, I have reset the NVRAM, I have login and out several times in System Preferences--->iCloud, NONE of these worked. I think there is some security setting or identity setting somewhere for my regular user that is corrupted?

Posted on Apr 18, 2015 7:32 AM

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Answer 1

Drew Reece

Level 6

10,660 points

Apr 18, 2015 2:10 PM in response to Macborg1

Your system sounds like it is in a mess. Your post doesn't make it clear on what you would actually like help with either. Messages likes to have a full functioning OS, it can be fussy if the OS is misconfigured, sometimes it is not possible to complete it's setup.

You probably don't want to hear it, but it may be simplest to backup, erase the internal disk & reinstall OS X. Be very careful about what you move back. Since you appear to have been removing plists & other files it may be a good idea to create a new user account & move back just your important data files. Redo the settings by hand. If you can stand losing the preferences it should make for a more stable OS if you take care to only install what you need.

P.S.

If you have an old backup the keychain should be stored in ~/Library/Keychains ('~/' is the old user account), under the name 'login.keychain'. Copy that to the Desktop, rename it (so it is not the same as the default keychain) & double click to open it in Keychain Access.

The old keychain password should be your old user account password.

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Answer 2

Macborg1 Author

Level 1

4 points

Apr 19, 2015 6:40 AM in response to Drew Reece

Yes it sounds like a mess! I think it sounds like I am not sure what I need help with because it seems so widespread in the Mac related software. Sounds like a Systems issue possibly I guess. Started out simply as a hard drive replacement. I have copied the older keychain to the functional user and am in the process of physically transferring all the Docs, Music, Pictures from the old user account to the new functional account as well. I am selectively moving preferences as well but one at a time to see if it messes up anything. If it does then I will just delete it.

The other user account works perfectly. I can sign in with icloud do my mail, iMessages, App Store, iTunes, etc.... There is something wrong with my previous user account. It seems that all the mac software is messed-even Safari loads the Apple Support Communities web page by leaving out the header icons and text and replaces them with a blank box. I am using FireFox at present on this user. But again on the other account all is great.

I think at the least I may try to restore just the older account from TImeMachine and see if when I migrated before if something went wrong with the migration. Do you know if you can restore just one user account from a TimeMachine backup?

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Answer 3

Eric Root

Level 10

684,039 points

Apr 19, 2015 8:50 AM in response to Macborg1

Log in as that user, select the home folder, enter Time Machine, and restore the user folder.

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Answer 4

Drew Reece

Level 6

10,660 points

Apr 19, 2015 11:26 AM in response to Macborg1

As Eric Root suggested you can logout & try restoring the old user account into the /Users directory. So long as the account exists in 'System Preferences > Users & Groups' the data should be accessible for that user. Please ask if you would rather restore the data to a different user account, that is possible but it requires some care & a few extra steps.

Personally I would reset the home folder permissions on the accounts that seem to be in a damaged state. This includes the user that you have been moving data back into - this may have some permissions left over from the old user.

Repair user permissions

Backup before you begin – just in case.

Boot holding cmd+R. Recovery mode should startup (assuming you have a recovery partition).

Select Terminal from the Utilities menu.

Enter the word…

resetpassword

… & hit return.

The GUI app will open, select the main boot disk.

Select your user account in the popup menu.

Then click the Reset button at the bottom right. It will "Reset Home Folder Permissions & ACL's"

Repeat for the other affected users.

Quit ResetPassword from the menu,

Quit Terminal

You can also select Disk Utility and repair the system permissions & repair any disk damage that is reported via 'verify disk'.

Reboot

Test your user accounts again. If you continue to have issues please list the items that are problematic. We may be able to work out what files you need to restore - things like Mail or Safari can store a few important files in several locations making manual restoring difficult, but not impossible with time & care.

If this is all too daunting, consider a trip to an Apple store if you have one locally, they may be able to iron out a few issues to help you get back to normal.

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Answer 5

Macborg1 Author

Level 1

4 points

Apr 19, 2015 7:30 PM in response to Eric Root

Thanks for the information. Tried this and the restore button was not active on the bar at the bottom of the screen. I have not backed up yet since I put in the new hard drive. Looks like I need to backup and restore. I still want to use a previous backup to restore with encase there is some files etc... that are messed up on the current running user that is not functioning.

I did run Disc utility about 2-3 times to fix permissions just in encase.

I will try couple more times to restore and if that is not accessible then I will proceed with the Repairing user permissions as Drew suggests.

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