Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT
Hi,
I have problem connecting the iMessage account on my iMac running El Capitain. I have this error every time I try to sign in:
FaceTime connects without problems.
How can I diagnose this problem? What "error" this could be?
Thanks for any help,
Thanks Eric,
Believed for a second that the /etc/hosts might be my problem 🙂 Unfortunately no, nothing looking like apple or verisign in that file...
I don't have two-step authentication, so the advice concerning it doesn't apply to me. I don't have a firewall. Other points are useless (like check your internet connection or AppleID spelling :)
I noticed one strange thing. The first time after I restart the computer, iMessage actually connects successfully, but couple of seconds later shows an error message, and then keeps showing it each time I try to reconnect. Weird.
Hi,
Each device you have registered with iMessages has it's own Login.
On the Mac this is a combo of the password for the Apple ID and the Serial Number which in turn places an Auth Token item in the Keychain (Login).
It also looks like this Apple ID is also your Google ID and that appears to login to the GoogleTalk Jabber server OK from the pic
I would open the About this Mac pane from the Apple Icon Menu first and check the panel shows the Serial Number.
You will need to click on the OS X version number line twice.
It will change to the Build Number (Another way to count the OS version) and then to the Serial Number.
If it is missing go to a Apple Store and have it put back.
If it is not missing open Keychain Access in Applications/Utilities.
Have Login set top left.
Have Passwords set lower left.
On the right find the item that reads IDS: (yourName)@gmail.com-Auth Token and delete it.
Restart Messages.
If this does not work you will have to contact Apple Support and explain you have an Apple ID issue with the iMessages servers.
Apple ID issues are free to fix but the Level one people who answer the phones are script led.
You are likely to have to ask at some point to speak to a Level 2 person.
Even then they might not reset your Apple ID on the server for that particular Mac. (even if they are going to you will have to prove you are you).
Recent posts suggest that this also gets the Engineers involved - it seems it is a security feature that is over zealous but you cannot reset it yourself - the engineers want to know why it trips out..
9:45 p.m. Tuesday; October 13, 2015
Thanks Ralph for the detailed explanation. Concerning Google ID, that's right - jabber account functions well in iMessage.
About the serial number, I believe your instruction is outdated: in El Capitain and Yosemite (at least) the serial number is always shown when you open About this Mac..., on the last line (see pic), and only build number appears when I click on the version line (no matter how many times).
So I tried to delete the IDS:<...> line from the Keychain, but it did not help. The line appeared again when I tried to login in iMessage, and I got the same error. I also deleted a bunch of expired certificates, without success (obviously).
I guess I'll have to contact the support...
Yep,
But posting in Mavericks will fool anyone.
Good luck with contacting Apple Support.
Be polite and be persistent and I would also say ask for it to be done "today".
7:22 p.m. Wednesday; October 14, 2015
Called support this morning, spent an hour... First the guy wanted to charge me 30€ for the support (because the software support is not free once the 2 warranty wears off), but when I said I was on El Capitan he made it for free (as an issue happened during 30 days after the installation of the new OS version).
It turned out it wasn't the problem with the security - the guy did nothing on his side. After several other unhelpful manipulations, he made me reinitialize the NVRAM (or PRAM) by holding Alt+⌘+P+R during restart, and that worked.
So yeah Ralph I suggest you add this to the list of solutions 🙂
Hi,
In Yosemite that had seemed to stop working but I will add it back for New Upgrade Installs of the New OS.
9:15 p.m. Thursday; October 15, 2015
Deleting the IDS Auth Token and deleting a bunch of iMessage certificates from my keychain seemed to fix the problem for me.
Thanks for letting us know.
7:44 pm Thursday; March 24, 2016
Your way helped me out a lot man. Thank you so much for all your help
You're welcome.
8:22 pm Sunday; April 10, 2016
for the
Points
7:39 pm Wednesday; October 12, 2016
This seems to possibly have worked for now. I have fixed it for a few minutes before so hopefully this will stick. Thanks either way 🙂
Thank you for this info!
On my computer iMac I can't get thru my iMessage and FaceTime, too.
Please help!
Thx!
iMessage: "An error occurred during authentication"
