Could not sign in to iMessage. Error message.

Hi,

You do seem to have covered most bases that could be effecting this.

Did you check Date and Time in both the Mac and the router ? (I think it is unlikely because we are well past Daylight Saving changes).

The Login to the iMessages servers is a unique login on a device by device basis.

On a Mac it uses the Serial Number of the Mac to create the IDS: appleIDemail-Auth Token that appears in the Keychain.

The Serial Number can be seen in the About This Mac panel in Yosemite (Apple Icon Menu top left of the Menu bar).

It does mean you cannot grab the IDS item from your girlfriend's computer to use on yours.

The use of the serial number and unique Logins does allow Apple to offer a level of security that is supposed to protect from "Man in the Middle" attacks.

My feeling is this is currently overzealous or that something is happening to the iMessages servers that is causing working Accounts to be disabled.

It does seem that large numbers (Or at least significant amounts to generate threads here) are being effected.

We were suggesting (after several tests to exclude set up issues) that people contact Apple Support.

It does seem that Level 2 Support people are no longer just resetting the Apple ID at the iMessages servers for the Mac effected but are involving engineers and data collection.

This is probably trying to analyse the issue to create a fix.

Contacting Apple Support and explaining you have an Apple ID/Account issue with the iMessages servers is probably the only way to go.

It seems the response is now involving the Engineers which adds a level of delay to resolving the problem.

7:57 p.m. Friday; June 19, 2015

Hi,

I was suggesting a full reset of the Messages app on the iPhone to make sure the Number was also a valid ID that was in use before adding back the Apple ID to the iPhone.

This way there will be a stage when you have only the iPhone Number active on the iPhone and you can test to the Apple ID (Choose the Apple ID as the ID to call) which will be the Mac. (or any other device using the Apple ID).

i.e. Unlink the Apple ID and iPhone Number and test.

If this allows you to login the devices that use the Apple ID as the "first ID" then we will know it was the linking process that got messed up.

If it does not resolve the issue you are likely to be at Linc's Step 15 and will need to call Apple Support.

8:10 p.m. Friday; June 19, 2015

Ralph, I appreciate the suggestion. BTW, clocks are fine, I rebooted the access point/router, and checked the clocks (in case it is a crypto issue).

It has been years since I contacted Apple (it was a much smaller operation back then), and even in the old days, getting past the "reboot your machine, take two aspirin, and call me in the morning" type of support was a challenge. Given the number of people on this thread -- and elsewhere -- who are experiencing problems like this, I'm inclined to think the problem is at Apple's end. But I don't want to spend hours on the phone (and paying by the minute) going through the obvious stuff with them.

So, my question is: How do I reach someone at Apple who will quickly get past the "you must have a problem in your computer" phase?

Thank you.

hi,

In contacting Apple Support you are speaking to Level one people who are very much script led and are told that everything is either a Hardware or Software issue (solve with payment or Apple Care).

Apple ID/Account issues are free to fix.

Due to the way that each service has it's own server you can find that the Apple ID does not work in only one place.

So iTunes, FaceTime, App Store, iCloud services themselves are unlikely to be effected.

You needs to get to a Level 2 person.

This means politely explaining to the Level one person that you have tried various things and have isolated the issue down to the Mac's use of the Apple ID at the iMessages servers and could you speak to a Level 2 person who might be able to reset the Servers for you.

Up to this point this used to work.

It is based on the Messages ver 7.0.1 error message:-

This is based on the lack of a Serial Number in most cases but is more generally associated with the iMessages server rejecting the Login from the Mac.

(it raises the question about why only the Mac is affected but that is a question for another day)

What we have now are a series of silent failures to login.

Most are later stage items that show the Contact as Red and saying they are "Not Registered with iMessages" or pop up an alert that says "Not Delivered" on each attempt to send an iMessage.

Now we are seeing other failures that still seem to show the issue is at the Apple iMessages Server end.

What is happening now when you get to a Level 2 is that they tend to be involving the engineers.

This involves further test and data collection and based on other posts here seems to involve the user being left overnight saying someone will get back to them then iMessages suddenly working after this the next day. (there seems to be a lack of people being called back).

To add to the issue I have seen some posts that suggest not all Level 2 people are aware of this issue yet.

8:59 p.m. Friday; June 19, 2015

Hi,

Thanks for the help and suggestions. My services are back up and I am able to log in to Messages on OSX Yosemite, however I don't know what the problem or solution is/was. I began an internet recovery to confirm that I would be able to communicate with the appropriate Apple servers to download and install a fresh copy of the OS. Then I erased the hard drive, used internet recovery to install Mavericks (the OS that shipped with my MBPr), and finally upgraded to Yosemite. Inellegant, but seems to have resolved the problem. It did take a whole day so perhaps nothing I did solved the problem - maybe with time it was resolved on Apple's end. I had been experiencing a few bugs - e.g. when I started the OS and logged in to my user account I was being asked to log in to iCloud, after I entered the password I would again be asked to log in to iCloud - so for me a fresh install was a bit of peace of mind.

Good to hear you are up and running again.

7:15 p.m. Saturday; June 20, 2015

Ralph, after your initial recommendation (and before I saw your follow-up), I contacted Apple support.

I opted for the Chat version of Apple Support, started a session, and after 35 minutes of a repetition of "You should try this” and I’d say "I did that” (yes, very script-based) — he came to the conclusion that the only solution was for me to wipe my computer and start with a fresh install.

I was having none of that. I had no doubt that the problem was at Apple's end, and didn't want to waste the considerable time a "nuke and pave” (followed by a prolonged period of getting things back to the way I wan them) would entail.

I told him that the evidence is that there’s a problem with some servers at Apple, to which he replied that it wasn’t possible because there are so many users and (paraphrasing here) if there was a problem at Apple's end, there would be a lot more support calls. So it had to be a problem with *my* computer. Convinced that this wasn’t going to get me anywhere, I asked if I could continue the discussion at a later time, he told me that I could reference the ticket number when I resumed with them.

Later that night, I tested it again (and it failed again), and so I tried a few more tweaks to my computer -- like permission repair (really not necessary because I have it running daily, automated under cron control), did a Safe Boot followed by using Titanium Software’s Maintenance application to clear all sorts of caches (which required yet another reboot). I had no expectation that any of that would work, but I also wouldn’t want to skip something that *might* make a difference.

And to my utter amazement, after that last reboot, I was able to log into iMessage!

In light of that new “evidence,” I thought I would be able to solve the problem for my wife’s iMessage access too (by following the same sequence).

So I walked over to her iMac (which I hadn’t touched all day), and from her account (on her computer) tried to log into her iMessage account — just to establish a baseline (before I started making changes).

And I was able to log her into iMessage as well -- It "spontaneously" fixed itself!

So, I have to conclude that nothing I did to my own computer made any difference at all. And now reading that “five_eight_nine” can now access iMessages (with no apparent connection to any action taken there), my current hypothesis is that someone at Apple noticed that something in one of their servers wasn’t working right, and fixed it.

I only wish that the dashboard that Apple provides for such outages

http://www.apple.com/support/systemstatus/

showed a problem at their end (it’s always solid green), so I (and others) wouldn’t have wasted so much time troubleshooting a non-existent problem.

Hi Steve,

Whilst there are significant numbers reporting issues here the actual numbers are relatively small by Apple standards.

My personal feeling is that there is protection to ensure other people can't get at the data by being in the middle and spoofing you (Man in the Middle attacks).

From that I feel that some mechanism is over zealous in protecting people and stops some Mac Logins after it thinks there has been a problem.

Now it if were more general about the Apple IDs in total it would effect the iPhone and iPads as well as the Mac versions.

So it is unlikely to be people trying random Apple IDs to try and gain access.

Having said that though the Mac is generally the "first" device using the Apple ID and the Serial number becomes the unique identifier to send the data back to you and "proves" the Login is genuine. (the presumption being you are the only one in possession of the details to set up an iMessages account on a Mac.)

I therefore don't think it is Apple being attacked continually.

I think it is either a Server end issue that does not like the Mac login (it was designed for iOS first of course) or there is something that is "wrong" with the data from the Mac end - but this does seem to almost random in effect.

Of course this may take Apple a while to figure out.

8:04 p.m. Sunday; June 21, 2015

I try signing into my iMessage but it keeps saying error try again later.When ever I sign in and press sign in it takes at least 5 minutes to load and then it messes up.I really want to be able to text.Please help me.

Hi,

What have you tried so far ?

(please be as precise as you can - "everything" is not useful)

9:43 pm Wednesday; November 2, 2016

This may be a certificate problem. Open /Applications/Utilities/Keychain Access, check Preferences. In the Certificates tab what are the three drop-downs set to?

Hi! Not OP here but having the same issue as described in this thread. Have been unable to log in to iMessage using Apple ID since I updated to newest version of Sierra last week. Have filed 2 tickets with Apple Support and they have not been able to resolve... Apple ID is working otherwise (on iPhone, able to login through Safari), but not on iMessage on MBP. I created a test account and was able to login to iMessage using Apple ID on it (same computer).

Your help is greatly appreciated!!

Hi,

Open the Keychain Access App in Applications/Utilities

Have it at "Login" top left and "Passwords" lower left.

In the main section find the IDS: yourappleID-Auth Token and delete it.

The Login is device Specific and needs the Serial Number to do this.

The Serial Number is obviously there or it would not have worked in another Mac user account.

10:17 pm Thursday; November 10, 2016

You're Welcome.

7:44 pm Friday; November 11, 2016