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31st March 2014 - iMessage guide Updated

From some of the recent issues posted and lots of feedback, it has become apparent that the guide could do with a bit of restructuring. As such over the last few days I have made many changes and additions to the guide, the most notable being Step 5c - Install FileNVRAM, I have consolidated most of the notes from the tips section to the install section and how to check if FileNVRAM is working correctly. I have also added information relating to the use of the EFI partition for the Bootloader files and re-worded some of the other sections so that it reads better.

Thanks to everybody who has sent feedback, it all gets read and incorporated in to the guide.

Cheers
Jay
 
Hi TreeMan,

No such thing as a Magic bullet i'm afraid ...

The first thing I would do is confirm that FileNVRAM is loading and initialising correctly, goto to your /Extra folder and delete nvram.xxxxxx.plist (if its not there then thats your problem), reboot and then check that nvram.xxxxxx.plist has been re-created. if its not there then is something wrong with your install.

We did delete the nvram.xxxxxx.plist file every time we switched versions of FileNVRAM and it always got recreated in the Extras folder after a reboot, so I'm afraid that was not the issue.

Make sure that you don't have another drive that has the OSX boot loader (recently one user reported that he had forgotten he had a USB Unibeast plugged in the back of his PC so FileNVRAM was writing its nvram.xxxxx.plis to the usb not the OSX startup disk)

If you use the trick to move the /Extra folder and bootloader files to the EFI partition then it will not work, its the same issue that effects RAID users in that once OSX is booted the EFI partition is unmounted so no access to nvram.xxxxx.plist (I need to add this tip to the guide)

No other drive with a bootloader connected, and we did not move the bootloader files to the EFI partition (wouldn't know how to do that if we wanted to, and we don't want to).

Another test you could try is creating a new Apple ID, make sure its got a valid CC registered against it and try that with iMessage once you've confirmed FileNVRAM is working ok.

Did not try that, and am somewhat reluctant to for what may or may not be obvious reasons (especially in light of the Target CC breach and other more recent but less widely reported attacks on the CC system). We do know the present account has "good" CC information (Apple ID is Verified).

Only use FileNVRAM.dynlib Version 1.2.1

We never found that one - we tried 1.1.2 and 1.1.3, each of which had drawbacks as mentioned in my earlier post, and neither of which got iMessage to work. Do you have a link for 1.2.1?

Good Luck
Jay

Thanks, it looks like we will need a lot of it to get this working!
 
We never found that one - we tried 1.1.2 and 1.1.3, each of which had drawbacks as mentioned in my earlier post, and neither of which got iMessage to work. Do you have a link for 1.2.1?
Very sorry,

I of course meant V 1.1.2 my mistake - typo (Original Post Updated)

Try checking the contents of the nvram, open a terminal window and at the command line type: -
Code:
nvram -x -p
and press return, most of the output will be encrypted and not make much sense but on a system where NVFileRAM has been installed and is working there should be about two pages of output, if FileNVRAM is not working it is usually less than one page of output, its not a perfect test but one worth doing when you compare the output on working and non-working systems.

Next try changing the password on your current (verified) Apple ID, there have been quite a few reports that this can revive a non working (with iMessage) Apple ID.

Other than that I really would try creating a new Apple ID, If you read though the whole of this thread there are some examples where a user has fixed his problem by creating a new AppleID - Just be sure to do it from within iTunes or the AppStore then you should be safe. All of the recent scams have been done through fake emails that contain a rouge link to a fake Apple Login page (even though on legit server)

If all else fails you could try a re-install of OSX, I myself have had to do this once to get iMessage working on a mates system, we never did find out why it didn't work on the 1st install, we spent hours on it but a reformat of the start-up drive and a re-install of OSX and steps 3 & 5 from the guide and all was well, the reinstall only took us about 45mins. Its an extreme solution but as long as you have a good timemachine backup and/or a Carbon Copy Backup then its really not so bad and sometimes is far quicker than spending hours, days and weeks trying to fix - No guarantee it will work but at least you know you have a clean slate at that point - Just trying to give you a few options.



Good-Luck
Cheers
Jay
 
I followed the guide exactly and it worked perfectly for me. I tried other guides prior to this one and was unable to get iMessage functional, this guide works.

I am using 10.9.2, Mac Pro 6,1 identifier.
 
Thanks! iMessage was working fine, then one day stopped. It was the only issue I had (FaceTime and AppStore worked perfectly). I came across your post, and tried #1, #2, etc and was getting discouraged. But...#5 worked perfectly! I'm back up and running with iMessage!
 
There are 2 things that worded for me.
1.Add a credit card
2.Log in with you apple id on a real mac (not iPhone,iPad) to imessage.
On my hackintosh i had that error with call support etc… and then i tried to login to imessage on my iPhone didnt work…(worked only on the iPhone ) then tried on a real macbook pro and worked, then logged in back to the hackintosh and worked(i think its unblocking something on the apple server)
I made another hackintosh and again same error this time i add the credit card and worked :).
I hope this helps you guys.
 
I did the same and returned to work iMessage, add a credit card to the account through iTunes and magically works again, it is the power of a Mastercard :). regards
 
Any news on iMessage fixes? I've tried everything and re-installed a thousand times. This feels like the 169 dns errors in windows where nothing specific fixes it you just have to keep trying random things and finally it works. Using the GA-Z77X-UD3h. Everything works perfectly except for iMessage. I'm tired of re-installing and doing the same things over and over. :oops:
 
Hey Jay,

One of the biggest features for me on my Hackintosh is iMessage - I have many apple products and I use iMessage to seamlessly chat with everyone who has an iPhone (which is most of the people I know).

As a result it is the one thing I would trash the whole installation to fix. As a result I have had it broken a few times and I found something that has worked for me three times in a row.

Here is what I do:

Prep:
Download xZenue FileNVRAM.dylib (1.1.1) from archive:
FileNVRAM-1.1.1.zip49kB[559]

Download xZenue FileNVRAM.dylib (1.1.3) from current:
FileNVRAM-1.1.3.zip49kB[11375]

I place FileNVRAM.dylib (version 1.3) into modules and remove the nvram.UUID.plist file from the root extra directory.

Restart the Hackintosh.

Attempt to log into iMessage and fail (this always happens to me with FileNVRAM.dylib 1.3)

Then I remove the NVRAM.UUID.plist file from the root extra directory again, and I place the FileNVRAM.dylib (version 1.1) file back into Modules (simply over writing works for me)

Restart the Hackintosh

Upon logging back in I get a prompt from FaceTime to enter a password - and I enter the password. Then (three times in a row now) I am able to authenticate into iMessage successfully.

I would add that there are various attempts to log into iMessage unsuccessfully while the NVRAM 1.3 file is in place (both before the restart and after)

I cannot say whether or not they influence the problem.

I can only say that if I install FileNVRAM1.3 restart, try to login (fail), delete the generated NVRAM file, and then install FileNVRAM1.1 and reboot I have been able to successfully authenticate to iMessage.

Not sure if anyone else is brave enough to ruin a perfectly good working iMessage to test the theory but I thought I would share.

Thanks for the great post.

~Staypuft
 
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