Q: keep getting "there was a problem connecting with server" in El Capitan

Have you tried removing the software you installed according to the developer's instructions?

There are many possible causes for this issue, and it may be hard to resolve. Please take whichever of the following steps is applicable that you haven't already tried. Back up all data before making any changes.

If you get the alert in the login screen before you log in, stop here and ask for instructions.

Step 1

If you get the alert as soon as you log in, it's probably caused by one of your login items or by software that otherwise loads at startup or login. Common offenders are "1Password" and "Adobe Resource Synchronizer," but there are many others.

Select the Login Items tab in the Users & Groups pane of System Preferences. Delete any suspicious items. If you're not sure which ones to delete, double-click each to test it.

To avoid confusion, note that checking or unchecking the box next to a login item does not inactivate it. You have to delete the item from the list.

Step 2

If there's an icon representing the server in the sidebar of a Finder window, hold down the command key and drag it out.

Step 3

You may have created aliases to files or folders on the server. If you don't know whether you did that, you can find all aliases as follows.

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

kMDItemContentType=com.apple.alias-file

Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C.

In the Finder, press command-F to open a search window, or select

          File ▹ Find

from the menu bar. In the search window, select

          Search: This Mac

from the row of tokens below the toolbar. Below that is a popup menu of search criteria, initially showing Kind. From that menu, select

          Other...

A sheet will drop down. In that sheet, select

          Raw Query

as the criterion, then click OK or press return.

Now there will be a text box to the right of the menu of search criteria. That's where you enter the raw search query. Click in that box and paste the text you copied earlier by pressing command-V.

The search window will now show all aliases on mounted volumes. You can see the target of each alias by selecting it and opening the Info window. Delete any that refer to the server.

Step 4

Open the Printers & Scanners pane in System Preferences and delete any network devices you no longer use. If in doubt, delete them all and add back the ones you want.

Step 5

Open the Time Machine preference pane and click Options. If the server is listed as a backup destination, remove it from the list.

Step 6

Copy the line below to the Clipboard as in Step 3:

~/Library/PDF Services

In the Finder, select

          Go ▹ Go to Folder...

from the menu bar and paste into the box that opens. You may not see what you pasted because a line break is included. Press return. A folder may open. If it does, move the contents to the Desktop, or to a new folder on the Desktop. Log out and log back in. Test. If there's no change, put the items you moved back where they were and continue.

Step 7

Open the folder

~/Library/Preferences

as in Step 5 and move the file named "loginwindow.plist" items in that folder to the Trash, if it exists (it may not.)

Log out and back in again, and test.

Step 8

Other possible causes are references in the iPhoto, Photos, iTunes, or iMovie library pointing to the server, bookmarks in the Preview application, and PDF files created by Adobe Acrobat with embedded scripts.

Try repairing the Photos library, or the iPhoto library, if applicable.

If you get the alert when connecting an iOS device with iTunes, re-create your iTunes library and playlists. See also this ASC discussion.

If you get the alert when selecting a screen saver, you may have moved your iTunes library to the file server.

Step 9

Resources such as images or sounds stored on the server may have been added to various applications. Examples would be pictures added to Contacts and custom sounds added to Mail. The range of possibilites is practically infinite, so I can't be more specific. You might get a hint by launching the Console application and looking for error messages that appear at the same time as the alerts.

Step 10

Disconnect all wired peripherals except those needed to start up. Start up in safe mode. Test. After testing, restart as usual (not in safe mode) and verify that you still have 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.

Step 11

Launch the Directory Utility application. Depending on what version of OS X you have, you may be able to do that by entering the first few letters of its name in a Spotlight search. If that doesn't work, triple-click anywhere in the line of text below on this page to select it:

/System/Library/CoreServices

Right-click or control-click the selected text and select

          Services ▹ Open

from the contextual menu.* A folder named "CoreServices" will open. The Directory Utility application is in that folder, or in a subfolder named "Applications".

In the Directory Utility window, select the Directory Editor tool in the toolbar. Select Mounts from the Viewing menu in the toolbar, and /Local/Default from the node menu, if not already selected. On the right is a list of names and values. By default, the list is empty. If it's not empty, post a screenshot of the window and stop here.

*If you don't see the contextual menu item, copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C). Open a TextEdit window and paste into it (command-V). Select the line you just pasted and continue as above.

Step 12

Open the following file as you did in the last step:

/etc/auto_master

It will open in a TextEdit window. The contents should be exactly this:

#
# Automounter master map
#
+auto_master          # Use directory service
/net               -hosts          -nobrowse,hidefromfinder,nosuid
/home               auto_home     -nobrowse,hidefromfinder
/Network/Servers     -fstab
/-               -static

If there are any other lines in the window, post them. Otherwise, close the window.

Please read this whole message before doing anything.

This procedure is a test, not a solution. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.

Step 1

The purpose of this step is to determine whether the problem is localized to your user account.

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 documents or settings. Applications will behave as if you were running them for the first time. Don’t be alarmed by this behavior; 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. Same problem?

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.

Step 2

The purpose of this step is to determine whether the problem is caused by third-party system modifications that load automatically at startup or login, by a peripheral device, by a font conflict, or by corruption of the file system or of certain system caches.

Please take this step regardless of the results of Step 1.

Disconnect all wired peripherals except those needed for the test, and remove all aftermarket expansion cards, if applicable. 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 software RAID, you can’t do this. Ask for further instructions.

Safe mode is much slower to start up and run than normal, with limited graphics performance, and some things won’t work at all, including sound output and 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. Same problem?

After testing, restart as usual (not in safe mode) and verify that you still have the problem. Post the results of Steps 1 and 2.

What happened when you took Step 9 in my earlier comment?

Please sign out of iCloud in its preference pane and see whether there's any change. No data will be removed from the servers, and you can retrieve it by signing back in. That said, you should always have a current archive of the data for safety's sake, even if you don't sign out.

If you use iCloud Keychain, when you sign back in to iCloud follow one of the procedures described in this support article to set it up on an additional device.

Please back up all data before proceeding.

Hold down the option key and select

          Go ▹ Library

from the Finder menu bar. From the Library folder, move the entire contents of the subfolder "Caches" (not the folder itself) to the Trash, then log out or restart the computer. Empty the Trash. Test.

If the problem is not solved, quit all running applications except the Finder. Open the Library folder again in the same way and move the entire contents of each of the following subfolders

          Application Support

          Containers

          Group Containers

          Preferences

(not the folders themselves) to a new folder on the Desktop (not to the Trash.) The "Group Containers" folder exists only in OS X 10.10 and later. Log out again.

The account will then be pretty much in a clean state. Test. If you can still reproduce the problem, then put all the folder contents back, replacing any that were created in their place, and log out.

To replace a preference file, you may have to move it to the Trash, then put the old one in its place. The change may take effect only after logging out.

If you can't reproduce the problem in the clean state, then start putting things back piecemeal, starting with items that seem unrelated to the issue. I can’t be more specific. After each group of items, log out and test. At some point, the problem may reappear, in which case you know that something in the last batch of files you restored is at fault. If it never reappears, the problem is solved.

Let's go back to the original question. You wrote:

It seems like this message has something to do with my iCloud service, I've tried disconnecting and deleting, and fixed but as soon as i re-activated iCloud it started popping-up again.

What exactly did you mean by "disconnecting and deleting?" What was deleted?