iMessage no longer works. Upgraded to El Capitan

[danielgmac]

Mac Pro. iPhone 6. Handful of other Apple hardware products that work fine with both iMessage (Messages) and Facetime.

On this Mac Pro, iMessage and Facetime worked great. I used them two/three times a week each and they were a non-issue.

Upgraded to 10.11.2 El Capitan and got everything up and running including Facetime. iMessage opens with the "Log in with your appleid and password" I do, the fields go light gray for a second or three then come back full colour. Nothing else happens.

I click "Not Now" and get into the program. All of my gmail and appleid accounts are there with (inactive) on them. Try to log in with my appleid and password and "An Error Occurred During Authentication" Just now while I was writing this I got a "must log into icloud with System Preferences again, so I did. Still getting error occurred and spinning disc with nothing happening other than that.

I have turned iMessage off and on on my phone, set the time/date manually then automatic, rebooted computer, logged into computer in single user mode, I'm running out of ideas.

Help?!?
Thanks
DanH

 

[chas_m]

Some specifics on the Mac Pro model would be very helpful, but in the meantime I'd suggest logging out of, and then back into, your iCloud account from System Preferences. That is where the problem is happening, not in Messages: if the iCloud account is properly working, then Messages won't ask for credentials at all.

 

[danielgmac]

Well that didn't work. iCloud drive works, facetime works, contacts got repopulated, safari bookmarks et al are back, calendar is back with items in it.

Only iMessages doesn't work. Everything else from iCloud works fine.

 

[chas_m]

The program is called Messages, and can you be a bit more specific about EXACTLY what happens? Does it launch, for example.

 

[dtravis7]

I had that once not long ago and had to go to apple and request an App Specific password for messages. Put that in and all was fine.

Not sure if that is your issue but might be worth a try.

 

[danielgmac]

The program is called Messages, and can you be a bit more specific about EXACTLY what happens? Does it launch, for example.

I do software testing as part of my daily job. Perhaps reading my first post closer might help. This part specifically:

iMessage opens with the "Log in with your appleid and password" I do, the fields go light gray for a second or three then come back full colour. Nothing else happens.

I click "Not Now" and get into the program. All of my gmail and appleid accounts are there with (inactive) on them. Try to log in with my appleid and password and "An Error Occurred During Authentication" Just now while I was writing this I got a "must log into icloud with System Preferences again, so I did. Still getting error occurred and spinning disc with nothing happening other than that.

But should someone not understand what I meant by all that:

First I click on the launch icon (small rocket on the bottom of the screen)
I then click on Messages (cartoon talking bubbles, blue and white with the white one having three blue dots in it)
I get this box:


I type in the same Apple ID and Password as I've done on my iPads, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, Mac Pro (previous OS install) and Mac Pro (this install with all the other items that require Apple ID and Password. They all work)



About 99% of the time the Apple ID and Password boxes go light gray (and nothing can be typed in them) and then just come back exactly as they look above. Well, with my actual Apple ID rather than stars. No error, no nothing. Just back to square one with the boxes filled in. I can enter the information all day and get the same thing or I can just hit the Sign In button and light gray-return to that box.

Every now and again I get the iMessages application (it says iMessages at the top of it so that's what I'll call it) comes up with the Accounts box open and all the accounts marked as inactive and with this error box:



I click on the OK button and that goes away. I then see "Enter Apple ID" with an Apple ID and a Password box looking like this after I fill it out (with my real apple id rather than stars in the Apple ID box)



Everything grays out for one to about 5 minutes then I get this error message:



I can try all day, reentering my Apple ID and Password, cutting and pasting from another app, just clicking on sign in when it comes back, whatever.

Now, for trouble shooting, I have:

Made sure I could sign in and out of Message on my phone, iPads, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air
Made sure I could sign in and out of FaceTime on all the above
Checked to make sure the machine's serial number is set in the OS
Made sure I was typing the Apple ID and password correctly, tried typing it in multiple times, tried cut and pasting
Made sure there was no proxy server set
Opened the Utilities , found Keychain Access. Deleted all keys that had Message
Tried to log in some more with exactly the same results.
Turned off "Find My Mac"
Rebooted, logged in as guest user, tried all the AppleID required programs. All of them work except Messages


Now, was that specific enough?

DanH

 

[dtravis7]

What I suggested is NOT in your list. You just might try it. It can not hurt you.

 

[danielgmac]

Yeah, I've logged onto and off of iCloud from every one of the Macs with a keyboard just to make sure the authentication works. Every machine that message worked on previous, worked again when I signed back in and this mac pro still does not. I've tried this at least two times on the other machines and a whole lot more than that on the Mac Pro.

When I "Sign Out" of iCloud it deletes all the local files from my iCloud. When I sign back in, they come back.

FaceTime works here. iCloud works here. iCloud Mail works here. Contacts works here. Safari bookmarks, history work here. Keychain works here. Photos works here.

The only thing that does not work is Messages.

 

[MacInWin]

So I'm confused. The app is not named iMessages, it's Messages. That changed name was from some time ago, as I recall. I don't know why iMessages is still in the Launchpad (the rocket thingy) but if you look in the Applications folder, you should see Messages. That's what you need to use.

 

[MacInWin]

BTW, that's what chas_m pointed to in post #4. Messages, not iMessage.

 

[danielgmac]

So I'm confused. The app is not named iMessages, it's Messages. That changed name was from some time ago, as I recall. I don't know why iMessages is still in the Launchpad (the rocket thingy) but if you look in the Applications folder, you should see Messages. That's what you need to use.

I have started it via the launchpad, I've started it by double clicking in Finder under Applications/Message.app, I've started it by command line. Look at the screen shots I've put up there, all of them with the title of the program in it says iMessages. Yeah, the launchpad says Messages but nothing in the program does.

 

[cickite2]

I have started it via the launchpad, I've started it by double clicking in Finder under Applications/Message.app, I've started it by command line. Look at the screen shots I've put up there, all of them with the title of the program in it says iMessages. Yeah, the launchpad says Messages but nothing in the program does.

Any chance you got this figured out? I bought a brand new MacBook Pro yesterday, and I'm having the EXACT SAME ISSUE as you had (just as you described the first time ;-) )

 

[MacInWin]

Apple has reported issues with Messages, is working on a solution. There is an article here:

http://www.macrumors.com

It's from yesterday, so you'll need to scroll down a bit for it.

 

[macwerks]

I just (05.19.20) upgraded to El Capitan 10.11.5 and my Message icon did not work either. I put my iPhone next to my computer (MacBook Pro 17") and followed the directions
in this thread.

https://support.apple.com/kb/PH22363?locale=en_US

My iPhone already had already been set up and working prior to El Capitan upgrade, therefore my "Text Message Forwarding" was already toggled "ON" to connect with my Mac.

I simply toggled it OFF and then back ON. Instantly my computer screen had a code to connect to my iPhone. MESSAGES began working immediately on my computer screen without any intervention.

The solution might be just this simple for some.

Your Welcome.

 

[typosruinjokes]

Do we have an answer on this?

Same thing just happened to me yesterday! I think it has something to do with a process I disabled. I forget the process now, too.

Anyone?

 

[pm-r]

Same thing just happened to me yesterday! I think it has something to do with a process I disabled. I forget the process now, too.

Anyone?

You might want to provide some updated info and particulars about your Mac etc. as some of the info here is a bit dated now… and maybe let us know what process you disabled and did you try re-enabling it and see if that fixed things…think hard as to what it might have been…

 

[theirongiant]

I had this issue for several weeks on my Mac Pro after upgrading from Yosemite to El Capitan.

The solution that worked for me was to reset the PRAM (NVRAM).

Simple, right? So simple and yet not so obvious that I overlooked it while doing all kinds of crazy troubleshooting. I was *this* close to wiping my computer and doing a clean install. I thought, "what the ****, I've got nothing to lose and it can't hurt."

It turns out that Apple is using NVRAM to store AppleID account tokens. Mine must have gotten corrupted somehow.

 

[jonashoechst]

...working just fine

I can confirm that resetting the NVRAM aka PRAM reset helps to get iMessage in Messages.app working.

I was upgrading my MacPro4,1 to MacPro5,1, and thought the PRAM reset was done while applying the upgrade, but it wasn't. Right after the reset, the iMessage registration was successful!

The PRAM reset was even possible using a bluetooth keyboard and the right timing, which i thought could be problematic.

 

[pm-r]

I can confirm that resetting the NVRAM aka PRAM reset helps

Both good for some to know and welcome to the forums.




- Patrick
======

 

[typosruinjokes]

I am still without Messages. Some bozo at the Apple Store was more interested in leaving then helping me (annoying and I used to work there). Apple Support via phone recorded some stuff I did and sent it to engineering. Weeks ago. Hasn't heard back.

I have a theory. I believe the ports that Apple uses to contact its authentication servers are being blocked locally. I simply do not know how to unblock them or hunt down the culprit.

This article written by Apple seems to suggest this: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202078

This article by Apple may also be of interest: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202944

This is new stuff I learned trying to solve this, so excuse my incorrect lingo.

More specifically, it seems the ports 53, 80, 443, 4080, 5223 need to be open for FaceTime and Messages. Both of these apps alert the "/etc/pf.conf" file to open the necessary ports while they are running. I believe that Messages and FaceTime are not able to do this. Possibly because I ended a process I do not remember weeks ago.

In other words, both apps rely on the same mechanism of opening the correct ports on the Macbook. This mechanism is failing, it seems.

So the answer, I think, would be to make sure that whatever process these rely on to open the necessary ports is running. Because, I ran a scan, and I believe these ports are closed on my mac.

I have Sierra 10.12.1 on a Macbook11,1 MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013) with a 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7 and 16 GB Ram.

Someone please help. I know someone out there knows what's up. Feel free to email me directly. It's my username on the forum at gmail. I'll gladly reward you with an Amazon gift card or something.