Could not sign in to iMessage. Error message.

Hi,

A bit more info would help.

At present it is just a statement and more likely to get a response of "so ?"

8:26 pm Saturday; June 17, 2017

Thank you!! The keychain was glitchy/repeatedly asking for a password after I did this but after restarting MBP it seems to have worked. Thanks again, I am so appreciative.

Hi,

Can you tell us the steps you are taking to try to do this on each device please ?

The more detail the more likely that someone will spot something.

Have you worked though this document Get help signing in to FaceTime, Game Center, Messages - Apple Support ?

9:25 p.m. Monday; June 15, 2015

Hi,

You have one of the error messages in the Link I posted before.

Have you read through that Doc ?

On the iPhone in Settings > Messages > Send and Receive is the iPhone number ticked ?

It is always greyed out (you can't change this) but sometimes it still become inactive.

If this is the case removes the Apple ID from the Messages settings on the iPhone.

Place the iPhone in Airplane Mode for two minutes.

Then go back to the settings and make sure the iPhone number verifies.

When it has test an iMessages to the Apple ID (effectively the Mac)

Return the iMessages if it works.

If that works Add back the Apple ID.

Restart the Mac version and accept the op up that appears about the iPhone.

(it may not is you have a separate issue here)

Start the app on the iPad and accept the pop ups there.

If it works on the Mac reset Text Forwarding if you were using it.

It is late where I am and there will be a delay before I am back.

10:09 p.m. Monday; June 15, 2015

This could be a complicated problem to solve, as there are many possible causes for it. Test after taking each of the following steps that you haven't already tried. Back up all data before making any changes.

Before proceeding, test on another network, if possible. That could be a public Wi-Fi hotspot, if your computer is portable, or a cellular network if you have a mobile device that can share its Internet connection. If you find that iMessage works on the other network, the problem is in your network or at your ISP, not in your computer.

Step 1

Check the status of the service. If the service is down, wait for it to come back up. There may be a localized outage, even if the status indicator is green.

Step 2

Sign out of iMessage and FaceTime on all your Apple devices. Log out and log back in. Try again to sign in.

Step 3

Restart your router and your broadband device, if they're separate. You may have to skip this step if you don't control those devices.

Step 4

From the menu bar, select

 ▹ About This Mac

Below the "OS X" legend in the window that opens, the OS version appears. Click the version line twice to display the serial number. If the number is missing or invalid according to this web form, take the machine to an Apple Store or other authorized service center to have the problem corrected.

Step 5

Take the steps suggested in this support article. If you don't understand some of the steps or can't carry them out, ask for guidance.

Step 6

From the menu bar, select

 ▹ System Preferences... ▹ Network

If the preference pane is locked, click the lock icon in the lower left corner and enter your password to unlock it. Then click the Advanced button and select the Proxies tab. If the box marked SOCKS Proxy is checked, uncheck it. You don’t need to change any other settings in the window. Click OK and then Apply. Test.

The result may be that you can't connect to the Internet at all. Revert the change if that happens, or if iMessage still doesn't work. Remember that you must Apply any changes you make in the preference pane before they take effect.

Step 7

Select from the menu bar

 ▹ System Preferences… ▹ Flash Player ▹ Storage

and click

Block all sites from storing information on this computer

Close the preference pane.

Step 8

Make sure you know the ID and password you use with iMessage. Launch the Keychain Access application in any of the following ways:

☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

☞ Open LaunchPad and start typing the name.

Use the search box in the toolbar of the Keychain Access window to find and delete all items with "iMessage" or "com.apple.idms" in the name. Log out and log back in.

Step 9

Enable guest logins* and log in as Guest. Don't use the Safari-only “Guest User” login created by “Find My Mac.”

While logged in as Guest, you won’t have access to any of your personal files or settings. Applications will behave as if you were running them for the first time. Don’t be alarmed by this; it’s normal. If you need any passwords or other personal data in order to complete the test, memorize, print, or write them down before you begin.

Test while logged in as Guest. After testing, log out of the guest account and, in your own account, disable it if you wish. Any files you created in the guest account will be deleted automatically when you log out of it.

*Note: If you’ve activated “Find My Mac” or FileVault, then you can’t enable the Guest account. The “Guest User” login created by “Find My Mac” is not the same. Create a new account in which to test, and delete it, including its home folder, after testing.

If iMessage worked in the guest account, stop here and post your results.

Step 10

Start up in safe mode and log in to the account with the problem.

Note: If FileVault is enabled in OS X 10.9 or earlier, or if a firmware password is set, or if the startup volume is a Fusion Drive or a software RAID, you can’t do this. Ask for further instructions.

Safe mode is much slower to start and run than normal, with limited graphics performance, and some things won’t work at all, including sound outputand Wi-Fi on certain models. The next normal startup may also be somewhat slow.

The login screen appears even if you usually log in automatically. You must know your login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin.

Test while in safe mode. After testing, restart as usual (i.e., not in safe mode) and test again.

If iMessage worked in safe mode, but still doesn't work when you restart in "normal" mode, stop here and post your results.

Step 11

Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:

/Library/Preferences/com.apple.apsd.plist

Right-click or control-click the highlighted line and select

Services ▹ Reveal in Finder (or just Reveal)

from the contextual menu.* A folder should open with an item selected. Move the selected item to the Trash. You may be prompted for your administrator login password. Restart the computer and empty the Trash.

*If you don't see the contextual menu item, copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. In the Finder, select

Go ▹ Go to Folder...

from the menu bar and paste into the box that opens by pressing command-V. You won't see what you pasted because a line break is included. Press return.

Step 12

Reset theNVRAM.

Step 13

Reset the System Management Controller (SMC).

Step 14

Reinstall OS X.

Step 15

If none of the above steps resolves the issue, make a "Genius" appointment at an Apple Store, or contact Apple Support. When you set up a support call, select "Apple ID" as the product you need help with, not the hardware model. That way, if you're not under AppleCare, you may be able to talk your way out of being charged for the call.

Hi,

I believe in the past it said "Remove"

Tap the Apple ID in Send and Receive and this Dialogue box will appear.

Use the Sign out option.

The Apple ID needs to be active to see iMessages sent to the Apple ID

The section that starts under the bottom edge of the Dialogue box is the choice for starting new conversations (either from the iPhone Number of the Apple ID). The Apple ID can be Off here.

7:01 p.m. Tuesday; June 16, 2015

Sorry to hijack the O.P. here - I'm having the same problem and followed Linc Davis' steps. I was able to perform step 9 - create a new user account and sign in to iMessage on that account. I am hoping this might give an indication of what the problem is and that Linc may have a solution.

Hi,

If the iMessages account using the same Apple ID works in another Mac User account on your computer but not in your regular one it tells us two things.

1) It is not the app itself that has an issue (It is therefore not a software issue)

2) It is not the fault of Hardware such as the Serial Number of the Mac which is used to create a unique Login to the iMessages server.

It does mean that something about the items that are held separately for each user is different enough to work in the "test" Mac User account and not in your regular on.

This could be a .plist (a storage of Preferences for each app) of which there are many for Messages that deal with different Accounts (iMessages, Aim etc), the way the app looks in certain places and various other bits.

AS the app is also one of the Sandboxed ones there are extra items stored in the place for that.

There is also the Keychain item that might be the issue.

We have ascertained that the OP has one of the five error messages that are in this Apple Document

Get help signing in to FaceTime, Game Center, Messages - Apple Support

Are you getting one of these ? (It is the same link as Linc gave in step 5)

Are you seeing something different ?

Did you try Step 10 (Safe Boot) ?

Or Step 12 ?

Step 11 is the .plist for the Apple Push Service Demeaon which is more global (because it is in /Library/Preferences which are system wide one rather than User specific).

9:04 p.m. Thursday; June 18, 2015

I am getting a similar error message but - the exact wording is

I think having filevault and a firmware password is preventing my being able to try steps 10 and 12.

I have tried step 11 too but no luck.

I was going to just reinstall the latest version of Yosemite given that a new account seems to fix the problem. When I went to download the OS from the AppStore I was greeted with this message after selecting "download"

I logged in to the new user account I created to test iMessage earlier and tried to download Yosemite there, but rather than an error message, it seems like nothing happens except for the spinning cog indicating some process in underway, but I never see the word "downloading" appear under the Yosemite Installer.

I have an old Yosemite Installer, would I be able to use that or would the fact that I am running a newer Version of Yosemite mean that it won't work? If not, my other option is an internet recovery, but now I am concerned that Apple won't recognise my computer as being signed (I don't have a great understanding of how their IP protection mechanisms work).

This seems to be an epidemic...

A couple of days ago, I became unable to sign into iMessages from my MBP (Mac OS X 10.10.3, all current). From Messages, I would get the error:

Could not sign in to iMessage. An error occurred during activation

Logging out and rebooting made no difference (it rarely does).

I created a new app-specific password (I use 2FA), and that didn’t work either.

I checked with Apple's service status dashboard page, and everything was "green."

To isolate the problem, I tried logging into iMesssages from from my my account on my wife’s iMac (no problem), and I had no problem logging in from a newly-created (temporary) account on my MBP. So, I think we can rule out an issue with my AppleID and iCloud credentials.

My conclusion was that there is something wrong with a file in my home directory, so I began blowing away prefs files to no avail.

Then it got really weird: My wife, from her account — on her iMac — began to get the same error message. No changes were made to her system, it was spontaneous.

Two different users on two different computers having the same problem!?!

I’ve read through the posts here, and didn’t see anything that might explain what is going on (e.g., I don’t have an iPhone to have the number not-be checked -- and just for giggles, I signed out of iMessages on my iPad).

Is Apple having a server problem that they are not reporting?

Is there a network problem (e.g., bad DNS entries) that might explain this?

I’ve run out of troubleshooting ideas.

I should also point out (I'm Stev3D -- too many AppleIDs to keep track of which one I was using), that I deactivated OpenDNS blocking (just in case) and it made no difference.

And, in the "one more thing" category... I turned on my wife's iPhone's cellular hotspot, and used that connection (so I moved onto a completely separate network), and the problem persists. Scratch home network off the list of "likely suspects."

HI,

It sounds as if there is a deeper problem with the OS that is impacting getting the download to be recognised.

Try a Safe Boot first.

7:34 p.m. Friday; June 19, 2015