Could not sign into iMessage - 2015

Question

Could not sign into iMessage - 2015

I have been unable to Sign-in to iMessage (Messages) on my Mac for the past day or more. Mac Pro (early 2009) running OS X Yosemite 10.10.5 - (And no, I cannot upgrade to El Capitan).

I have tried many suggested remedies from the interwebs to no avail. Mail from my iCloud account is fine... FaceTime is fine... All my other devices (iPad, iPhone & iWatch) are all having no issues sending/receiving messages. I have deleted prefs, I have rebooted numerous times, changed password, etc. My Mac just doesn't want to authenticate. Any thoughts...?

Posted on Dec 6, 2015 4:50 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Eric Root

Level 10

684,027 points

Dec 6, 2015 9:17 AM in response to Scott Finlayson

FaceTime, Game Center, Messages: Troubleshooting sign in issues

Messages – Can’t log in

Messages - Error Processing Registration

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Answer 2

Dec 6, 2015 12:43 PM in response to Scott Finlayson

Hi,

All the other accounts in the picture are also inactive.

Is this significant ?

Can you go to Applications/Utilities and launch Activity Monitor.

Low down the list should be imagent

It is spelt in lower case and has no icon.

If you have not changed the settings in the General Section of Message's Preferences it will start up when the computer does.

In System Preferences > Security and Privacy > Firewall tab then Firewall options (you may need to unlock the padlock for the last bit) is the IMAgent being blocked by the Firewall ?

Is Stealth enabled ?

8:43 pm Sunday; December 6, 2015

 iMac 2.5Ghz i5 2011 (Mavericks 10.9)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 Couple of iPhones and an iPad

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Answer 3

Dec 8, 2015 6:32 AM in response to Ralph-Johns-UK

The others are intentionally "inactive".

I have done what you suggested - including many permutations of quitting, force-quitting, app open, app closed... no luck.

IMAgent is not blocked in firewall config.

Stealth mode is not enabled.

I even explicitly *ADDED* Messages to the firewall list and told it to accept all incoming connections.

No luck whatsoever.

All my other devices, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, MacBook Pro - they all work.

This all started after waking my Mac from sleep and seeing some dialog from FaceTime (which I *NEVER* use on my Mac) saying something about needing to log-in or something and I just dismissed it because I don't even CARE about FaceTime on my Mac. After noticing my Messages was not logged-in and going through the steps of changing my password, FaceTime seems to work again - on all devices - but it's **JUST** Messages on the Mac that STILL will not authenticate and work. I just rebooted for the gazillionth time and I really have no idea why this isn't working. I've trashed Plists and so-on. *sigh*

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Answer 4

Dec 8, 2015 7:11 AM in response to Scott Finlayson

On phone with Apple Support - will update if/when there is a solution. Thanks for your help.

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Answer 5

Dec 8, 2015 12:13 PM in response to Scott Finlayson

Hi,

Go to ~/Library/Preferences

Find the com.apple.imagent.plist and Delete it (Drag to Trash)

Restart the computer as IMAgent starts up when the computer does.

IMAgent helps both Messages and FaceTime login to the various servers involved.

if Messages and FaceTime are Quit then the IMAgent provides a "listening" functions for new calls to your FaceTime ID and for IMs and Instant Messages from servers that do Off line Messaging. (iMessages does effectively).

8:13 pm Tuesday; December 8, 2015

 iMac 2.5Ghz i5 2011 (Mavericks 10.9)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 Couple of iPhones and an iPad

Reply