How to Fix iMessage

[johnny37v]

@johnny37v,

Thanks for the positive feedback, sound like your making progress and have identified that the issue is now with keeping MLB & ROM values persistent. All the fixes that I know for this issue are listed in the suggestions in Part-1, Step-5d of the guide. All i can say is to keep trying - if your using OSX earlier than 10.9.x try updating to Mavericks and using Chimera 3.0.1 and FileNVRAM 1.1.3. If that doesn't work you could try using Clover as your boot-loader which has far superior support for building the NVRAM cache at boot-time and allows direct (persistent) injection of MLB & ROM values.

Let me know how you get on, if you find a solution that is not listed in the guide please let me know so i can add it to help others.

Good Luck
Cheers
Jay

Thanks for push over to Clover, I had tried previously and been frustrated but this was absolutely fix...MLB/ROM/IOPlatformUUID consistent (and easily configurable) through reboots.

(now to tackle audio)

 

[ellissitzky]

I had the same issue, look at my post right before yours. I did a clean install, removed my extra NIC and extra WIFI card, and followed everything perfectly and stopped getting the zeros. Maybe you want to try a fresh install and removing any additional cards, then doing the fixes right away.

 

[ellissitzky]

Eureka, it worked!

I'm not sure what did it but here's what I did:

• I installed the version of Chameleon you recommended using the wizard.
• When I booted I had the SID bug so I fixed that.
• I then noticed according to my terminal logs that I may have never tried a manual inject of the ROM and MLB on my last attempt in Chimera so that may also have been the issue.
• I did a manual inject, cleared NVRAM, trashed NVRAM, booted with -f, etc.
• When I got back in I had different values but I realized now I have my new NVRAM.
• I did another manual inject and rebooted.
• Voila!

Although it looks like my UUID broke again, the values were consistent for the last boot.

Also I can't seem to get the max clock speed working on my Sandy Bridge processor in either Clover or Chameleon, I think I'll just stick with Chimera and no iMessage and take the 1/2 a gigahertz instead. Besides, I probably shouldn't call Apple twice in a row anyway, for now.

@afster97 & @ellissitzky,

Try switching to Chameleon instated of Chimera, its easy to switch using Chameleon Wizard, I've updated the first suggestion in step 5d with more info on this, links and versions ...

Since it seems quite a few users are suffering from this issue i'll look into a bit further and try and find a proven method .. i got a few ideas but i need to test them.

Chimera is based on Chameleon so its safe and easy to switch between them, however you may have to change some of your boot options in com.chameleon.Boot.org ...

Cheers
Jay

 

[afster97]

@afster97 & @ellissitzky,

Try switching to Chameleon instated of Chimera, its easy to switch using Chameleon Wizard, I've updated the first suggestion in step 5d with more info on this, links and versions ...

Since it seems quite a few users are suffering from this issue i'll look into a bit further and try and find a proven method .. i got a few ideas but i need to test them.

Chimera is based on Chameleon so its safe and easy to switch between them, however you may have to change some of your boot options in com.chameleon.Boot.org ...

Cheers
Jay

Thanks Jay, Making progress now!! Installed Chameleon r2238 and now my ROM values aren't resetting. Trying to log into iMessage gives the contact support message when before I would only get the couldn't activate message. I'll try contacting apple support tomorrow.

 

[jaymonkey]

Eureka, it worked!

Although it looks like my UUID broke again, the values were consistent for the last boot.

@ellissitzky,

You may have to inject SM-UUID using a different path, please see Part-2, Step-7 - The method you need to use depends on the version/release of Chimera or Chameleon your using. You may have to experiment to find a version that solves all your issues. Sorry i cant be any more specific, everyone's system is different so trail & error is the only way. Let me know how you get on.

Thanks for push over to Clover, I had tried previously and been frustrated but this was absolutely fix...MLB/ROM/IOPlatformUUID consistent (and easily configurable) through reboots.

(now to tackle audio)

@johnny37v,

Clover is the future and we should all try to get our heads around it and help with its development. However I realise it can be a bit daunting for some users.

@ellissitzky, @johnny37v,

Glad to have helped and that you both now have persistent MLB & ROM values (would appreciate if you hit the 'Recommend' button at the top of the guide to help others find it).

The problem is with each revision of OSX the Boot-loaders need to be updated to support new OSX features, unfortunately as Clover will probably become the preferred method for OSX 10.10 most developers are concentrating on that route. FileNVRAM has not been updated in a long time and does not work with later revisions of Chameleon.

Cheers
Jay

 

[ishtam]

I got the dreaded

Your Apple ID [email protected] can't be used to set up iMessage at this time. If this is a new Apple ID, you do not need to create another one. To use this Apple ID with iMessage, contact iMessage support with the code below. Customer Code: ####-####-####

message the other day after iMessage having worked perfectly for months (BTW I needed NVRAM 1.1.2, 1.1.3 did NOT work). I begrudgingly called Apple up and explained the problem, expecting an argument but said it was my roommates Mac, and I "think" it is a Mac Pro or something like that. I also mentioned that my friend recently had this problem and it was due to his AppleID being locked out and they could reinstate it with the customer code. She seemed to immediately know what I was talking about.

When she asked for the serial number, I said, I'm not in front of the computer right now, and besides, you don't NEED the serial number, the Apple ID is blocked for whatever reason, and I gave you the customer code which is all you need to rectify the problem. She said "you're right" and immediately transferred me to someone else, who just asked for my Apple ID and the customer code with no identifying information or verification questions, said "Oh yes, we can fix this" did his magic and it worked.

So if you are having this problem don't hesitate to call Apple, and if they DO ask for a serial number just make up a story why you don't have one (or give them an invalid one and say you bought the computer on Craigslist) and they will not press the issue if you sound like you know what you're talking about. If they do, call back and get someone else who doesn't care...

I asked the guy why this sort of thing happens but he wasn't forthcoming with any information (or he didn't know himself)...

 

[jaymonkey]

I got the dreaded message the other day after iMessage having worked perfectly for months ..... transferred me to someone else, who just asked for my Apple ID and the customer code with no identifying information or verification questions, said "Oh yes, we can fix this" did his magic and it worked.....

I asked the guy why this sort of thing happens but he wasn't forthcoming with any information (or he didn't know himself)...

@ishtam,

Glad the guide worked for you, the reason it happens is due to checks on Apples backend Systems, It's vital that you have valid SM-UUID & S/N and persistent and valid MLB & ROM values. If not then the next time you log-in a difference / miss-match will be detected thus flagging your Account. I think in light of the recent iCloud issues Apple have implemented forced logouts on AppleID's who have devices with questionable SM-UUID's forcing a user to log back in, if any values do not match the values when you first registered with the iCloud then you get the above message.

Read Step 5d and check that you have persistent values for MLB & ROM and a valid SM-UUID as detailed in Part-2 of the guide, if you don't you'll have the same issue again soon, even if iMessage is working right now.

Cheers
Jay

 

[ellissitzky]

Uh oh, I don't know if this is related but I just got this:

 

[johnny37v]

@ellissitzky,

You may have to inject SM-UUID using a different path, please see Part-2, Step-7 - The method you need to use depends on the version/release of Chimera or Chameleon your using. You may have to experiment to find a version that solves all your issues. Sorry i cant be any more specific, everyone's system is different so trail & error is the only way. Let me know how you get on.



@johnny37v,

Clover is the future and we should all try to get our heads around it and help with its development. However I realise it can be a bit daunting for some users.

@ellissitzky, @johnny37v,

Glad to have helped and that you both now have persistent MLB & ROM values (would appreciate if you hit the 'Recommend' button at the top of the guide to help others find it).

The problem is with each revision of OSX the Boot-loaders need to be updated to support new OSX features, unfortunately as Clover will probably become the preferred method for OSX 10.10 most developers are concentrating on that route. FileNVRAM has not been updated in a long time and does not work with later revisions of Chameleon.

Cheers
Jay

Two things I found using the official wiki for clover's config.plist that were very counterintuitive (or my system is not following the rules of this multiverse).
-MLB and ROM values may be deprecated, but this method works and you need to take any spaces out of the ROM string value
-CustomUUID works only when InjectSystemID is /false. The explanation there is either wrong, not worded properly or I just don't understand how it works.

Either way, Clover seems to be pretty awesome and I'm feeling silly for avoiding it in the past.

Cheers!

 

[Kris404]

Got kicked out of iMessage today after weeks of no issues.

Receiving messages but with the contact names in Red color. Quit iMessage and logged back in and got the message with a code to call Apple.

Need to call them back at Business hours (7am Central)