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User profile for user: anonymoussir
anonymoussir Author
User level: Level 1
20 points

Apple ID on El Capitan does not work at all

HI everyone,


so I had some issues installing El Capitan yesterday but after I put my MacBook Pro into safe mode it all worked out OK, besides the fact that El Capitan is making the 3 year old Mac run about as fast as a dying 5,000,000 year old tortoise but I will forgive that for now.


the main problem is, I cannot sign into my Apple ID in El Capitan *at all*. I have two step verification which worked fine in Yosemite. I would just create an app specific password for iMessage, FaceTime, etc. it worked the day of the installation before the actual installation. Now, however, when I try my regular password, it says "authentication error". When I try the app specific password, it says "wrong password". therefore, I can't sign into iMessage, FaceTime, iCloud, etc. and I cannot use AirDrop or Handoff BECAUSE I cannot sign in.


what do I do? Besides this, the rest of the system seems to work fine and I am sure that the ridiculously slow speed will subside after a few days.


also, please forgive my capitalization errors. I am typing on my iPad and this discussion forum doesn't capitalize normally for some reason.


thank you all for your help!

MacBook Pro, OS X El Capitan (10.11), null

Posted on Oct 4, 2015 3:11 PM

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105 replies
User profile for user: aPenguin
aPenguin
User level: Level 1
19 points

Oct 25, 2015 9:10 AM in response to anonymoussir

The following procedure worked for me. Please note that it will delete your Apple ID account information for the current user and you will need to log in again.

  • if the App Store is opened and stuck in the login process, force close it

  • open the Terminal

  • issue the following commands:

    • sudo pkill -9 -f Account

    • sudo rm $HOME/Library/Accounts/*

  • open the App Store and log in

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User profile for user: Just hanging
Just hanging
User level: Level 1
5 points

Oct 25, 2015 6:36 PM in response to anonymoussir

I had the exact same problem with a very simple fix (I tried some of the other ones listed here first so I don't know if this will work right away).


For me, instead of logging in through iCloud in system preferences, I selected Internet Accounts (right next to iCloud in system preferences). You can enter you iCloud password on this screen and it accepted it first try for me. I then opened the iCloud preferences and I was already logged in (I did not have to enter my password again). I hope the fix is this easy for everyone else.


For the record, before finding this solution, I had tried deleting my iCloud files from the account support folder, and I had started in Safe Mode and logged in individually to iTunes, App Store and Messages.

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User profile for user: kdh05
kdh05
User level: Level 1
0 points

Oct 26, 2015 6:48 PM in response to aPenguin

FYI. This didn't solve the issue for me.


To recap,

1) I CAN see my Serial Number in "about this mac".

2) My login to iCloud and iTunes hangs when I try to login. If I provide a bad password, it will tell me right away, but it hangs with the proper Password.

3) I tried to change my password but that didn't help.

4) still Frustrated!!!

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User profile for user: kdh05
kdh05
User level: Level 1
0 points

Nov 3, 2015 3:53 PM in response to kdh05

An update on my situation...


I scheduled an appointment at the Genius Bar yesterday. The first person to help me had me login to iCloud.com and she saw that my account wasn't validated and quickly turfed me to some other person. I validated my account while I waited for the second person to show up (I had 2-factor auth setup).


The second person started in with the usual stuff. He tried to run permission checks on the disk drive, but couldn't find where to do that in El Capitan - so gave up. He then asked me to disable 2-factor authentication on my iCloud account. Did that, it didn't help. He then deleted my key chain files (or copied to a different location). After restart, things still didn't work. As a reminder, I can see my Serial Number in "about this mac". The guy talked to several others behind the Genius Bar and finally said that I should call Apple Support directly.


I was desperate to get past this issue and didn't want to spend hours on the phone so I asked if I could do a clean install of El Capitan. He helped me load an image of El Capitan while in the store (which was very fast). I then went home and finished the setup and restored all my files from a Time Machine backup taken the previous day.


I hated to do the clean install, but things are now working. One weird thing... After the reinstall, I then upgraded to 10.11.1. During that process, my machine wouldn't reboot correctly. It would start, then sit there and ding,ding, ding, continuously on the restart screen. This also happened during the original install of El Capitan. I needed to reset the smc and pram to get things working.


This is a very ugly experience for a product billed as being well polished.

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Apple ID on El Capitan does not work at all

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