How to Fix iMessage

[accountmac]

@accountmac,

From what you describe everything sounds correct, don't worry that Chimera 3.0.1 says R2286 on boot, its because Chimera is based on the core code of Chameleon. when you say you've tried everything have you tried removing the security plists detailed in the update to step 4, part 1 of the guide ?

I am 99.9% sure that this latest iMessage issue has nothing to do with the iTunes update, it seems more likely to be connected to the iMessage outage reported worldwide around 8/9 of Aug, although why it seems to effect some users and not others is unknown at this time. I and others have been able to reactivate iMessage on a number of machines using the following procedure.

• Follow all of step 4 including the optional step detailed in the update.
• Clear the NVRAM boot args - sudo nvram boot-args=""
• Remove nvram.uuid.plist from /Extra
• Empty the trash
• Reboot

There should be no need to inject SM UUID on GA-Z87N-WiFi its bios is not effected via the SId Bug, i have same Motherboard in two of my systems here and iMessage is working fine ...

If the above does not work for you try looking in your console log for pointers .....

Try to keep an update Timemachine backup at all times, you never know when you might need it.

If all else fails you could try a re-install of OSX which some users have done, however i personally have not had to do that in order to get iMessage working again.

Good Luck
Cheers
Jay

Jay,

I tried that as well and still no luck. Console says this:
8/15/14 5:14:18.060 PM identityservicesd[264]: [Warning] Needs deletion: NO (Registration info (0x7fbd08584c20): [Registered: NO] [Type: AppleID] [Device Name: AccountMac's Mac Pro] [Service Type: iMessage] [Env: (null)] [Main ID: ([email protected]] [Phone Number: [email protected]] [AppleID: [email protected]] [UserID: E:[email protected]] [C2K: YES] [Push Token: <8bbb4183 cfb2fc85 64dd5c14 b2f7e3f6 4f8375ca 0e766fb5 4193241a c2b9fac0>] [Region ID: R:US] [Base Number: +10000000000] [URIs: (null)] [Candidates: (
"[email protected]"
)] [Auth Cert: 0x7fbd08506950] [Reg Cert: 0x0] [Profile ID: D:57425673] [Auth Token: <V1MHKW0005923b7561b8b89d95c094...>] [Auth User ID: D:57425673] [Heartbeat Date: (null)])

Let me know if that suggests an obvious solution.

 

[BigDawg954]

JayMonkey-

Could use your expertise on this one. I recently updated to 10.9.4 with the combo update. iMessage and FaceTime are now inoperative and I had them working perfectly prior to the update (10.9.3). Both applications are throwing the same errors. "An error occurred during activation". You know them....

So far I tried removing the old "FileNvram.dylib" under the modules folder and re-installing the v1.1.3 version, no good. Keep in mind I did everything in your guide prior to the update and the item that fixed my issue in 10.9.3 was credit card information changes (I was using PayPal first) and serial number assigned.

Question becomes, Does the UUID of my "Mac" have to match the actual file name of the "Nvram..........plist"? I see they are completely different. What do you think??

 

[MilesTEG]

Hello Jaymonkey,
I've got a question.
My ethernet card is dying... (on my motherboard).
I have to order a new one. So the MAC address will be different.
Does it be a problem to activate iMessage with the same ID/SMBios infos I already have ?
Do I have to generate new values or can I keep my current values ?

Thanks
Miles

 

[rockinwaggy]

You can spoof the mac address via terminal, but I'm not sure if you can make it happen at boot time. If so, a simple launchdaemon attached to a script would probably do.

The system may check the mac address before the script could even possibly run as well, so take that into consideration. Maybe this is something the chameleon.plist could do?

The UUID of the system board will also be different. You may have to spoof that too. I'd save a copy of the Extras folder for your old board and see if you can transplant it onto the new one (if you do a reinstall of OS X that is. If not, it should be a big deal). That should at least save you some trouble in the UUID and Serial Number department.

 

[MilesTEG]

You can spoof the mac address via terminal, but I'm not sure if you can make it happen at boot time. If so, a simple launchdaemon attached to a script would probably do.

The system may check the mac address before the script could even possibly run as well, so take that into consideration. Maybe this is something the chameleon.plist could do?

The UUID of the system board will also be different. You may have to spoof that too. I'd save a copy of the Extras folder for your old board and see if you can transplant it onto the new one (if you do a reinstall of OS X that is. If not, it should be a big deal). That should at least save you some trouble in the UUID and Serial Number department.

Thanks for the advice By the way, I'm using Clover ^^
When I received the card, I'll try not to reinstall the OS. If it doesn't work, I'll change the UUID & Co..

 

[Fl0r!an]

Hey guys,

My iMessage is also offline for ~1 week now. I've followed all the steps on the first page, but non of that helped yet, iMessage still keeps telling me that login has failed (no customer code message though).

So I think nw, that my Fusion Drive is the problem, because the same "rules" as for RAID users apply to me?!
When changing something in my Extra folder, I always copied the changes to both helper partitions, as I did with the bootloader. From what I've read, this shouldn't work (and should never have worked before) with the nvram.uuid.plist?! I can't really believe this, I'm using the fusion drive for 1.5 years now and only once had problems with iMessage, which were fixed by a new bootloader (I think).

My setup:
GA-P55M-UD2 with i5 750
OSX 10.9.4 Mavericks
Chimera 3.0.1 (updated from 2.0 I think)
most recent MultiBeast
FileNVRAM.dylib 1.1.3
MacPro 3,1 system definition

I've also spotted that my UUID consists mostly of zeros:
nvram.00000000-0000-0000-0000-xxxxxxxxxxxx.plist
Is this normal?

Thanks for your help!

 

[jaymonkey]

Hey guys,

My iMessage is also offline for ~1 week now. I've followed all the steps on the first page, but non of that helped yet, iMessage still keeps telling me that login has failed (no customer code message though).

So I think nw, that my Fusion Drive is the problem, because the same "rules" as for RAID users apply to me?!....

@Fl0r!an,

I've never tried a fusion drive so i cant be sure if this will help, but in order for me to get iMessage working again after the 'glitch' around 8/9 august i had to do the following on my Apple Software Raid 0 (stripe) (2 x 128gb SSD)

• Clone main volume on to standard hdd
• Copy /extra from Raid helper partition to root of new hdd
• Install boot loader onto hdd
• Edit chameleon plist in /extra - remove raid reference from kernel flags
• Reboot using -f from hdd drive
• Perform all of step 4 including the update on 8th aug
• Clear boot args from nvram
• Delete nvram.uuid.plist in /extra
• Reboot
• Check nvram.uuid.plist in /extra - should be recreated with sm uuid
• If all looks good, try iMessage - you might have to log-in twice, also may also have to enable your account in preferences if its not enabled automatically
• Once iMessage is working, blow existing raid away and recreate it
• Clone hdd back to main raid volume
• Manually install boot loader on raid helper partitions (extract standalone/i386 from Chimera)
• Copy entire /extra folder from hdd to both helper partitions
• Get raid id and use as kernel boot flag in chameleon plist in /extra
• Reboot with -f from raid.

Its a total pain in the arse but i still haven't found any other way to get iMessage working again on a raid system. I wrote a lot more info on the iMessage/NVRAM/Raid issue in the guide. If the developers of FileNVRAM could implement a way to use a specified location for the nvram.uuid.plist then this issue would not occur....i logged the issue and possible solution with the devs who acknowledge the problem, i suspect that it may not be quite so straight forward to implement due to limitations with the boot-loader.

Good Luck
Cheers
Jay

 

[tastic]

I have this going on too, but I am somehow logged into and can send/receive iMessages from my email accounts, but can't enable my phone number (because I can't see the preferences to do so).

Both NVram versions 1.1.1 and 1.1.2 do this. It started a few days ago when I upgraded to 10.9.4 (I was at 10.9.2 previously) but from reading this thread it seems the problem might be with the iTunes update not the OS X update. Sadly I did not notice iMessages was borked until I had brought the update over to my system drive.

I am using onboard LAN 1 (other LAN port is disabled in BIOS) which is on en0. I did steps 1, 2, 4 and 5 and have this situation on my backup boot drive. I won't bring it over to my main system until I have it completely figured out though. Interestingly enough, it did not restore any of of old iMessages. I thought those would come down from the cloud, but I guess not.

FWIW, it seems to be working, even receiving iMessages originating at my phone number from other devices (iPhone, iPad, Macbook Pro) but I cannot see anything in Preferences or add the phone number to the desktop.

Any ideas?

@j0moi,

Yikes ..... never, ever seen that before ..... if it were me i would try to reset all the iMessage plists ... etc, try Step 4 again. Do you own a legit Apple device (iPhone, iPad ..etc) check the status of your AppleID via the web manager see step - 1.

Good Luck
Cheers
Jay

 

[tastic]

I have the same issue, did you find a solution?

Hey, Im a bit of noobe in this but Ive gotten up to step 5 and I've added the nvram plist, when I noticed I can't actually login. Whats happening is i just get a blank grey area even when i click on it, nothing
https://www.dropbox.com/s/cyrcgcsegwpasuo/Screenshot 2014-08-15 18.55.10.png
Any help is greatly appreciated
Kind Regards
Janis

 

[jaymonkey]

I have this going on too, but I am somehow logged into and can send/receive iMessages from my email accounts, but can't enable my phone number (because I can't see the preferences to do so).

Both NVram versions 1.1.1 and 1.1.2 do this. It started a few days ago when I upgraded to 10.9.4 (I was at 10.9.2 previously) but from reading this thread it seems the problem might be with the iTunes update not the OS X update. Sadly I did not notice iMessages was borked until I had brought the update over to my system drive.

@tastic,

Initially i too thought that the latest iTunes update was responsible for causing the recent iMessage issues ... however I now believe that it was just coincidence. For most users the latest iMessage issues started around 8th/9th of August. This seems to tie in with a major iMessage outage caused by a 'glitch' in Apples backend services - possibly connected to the implementation of Apples China iCloud data-centre which was rolled out on the 8th Aug.

As yet no one has a definitive explanation of what exactly happened and its effect of those machines that suffered iMessage issues. All i can tell you is that some people were able to get iMessage working again using the basic tips to reactivate iMessage (Steps 1-4). Some users including my self were still unable to get iMessage working. However thanks to posts of this forum it was discovered that removing the security plist from ~/Library/preferences (see the update at the end of step 4) seems to have got iMessage working again.

Since re-activating iMessage I was able to install the iTunes 11.3.1 update without any issues on both of the machines that were effected.

If you have a time machine backup from 6/7th Aug you could try that.

I've never seen the issue of the blank iMessage Account preferences panel before, so don't know if this is a rare symptom caused by the 'glitch' or a new iMessage issue.

Try the standard iMessage reset and see if that helps.

• Clear NVRAM boot args
• Delete nvram.uuid.plist in /extra
• Perform all of Step4 in the guide including the update
• Reboot - check for new nvram.uuid.plist in /extra and ensure uuid matches sm-uuid (see part 2 of the guide)
• Try iMessage

If it still doesn't work, use the same procedure again but try resetting your AppleID password, check credit card details and verify account (see step-1), if you are using raid or fusion drive see the revised procedure in post #1000.

If your using Chimera 3.0 /3.0.1 then try FileNVRAM 1.1.3 the link is in the guide not sure were you got 1.1.1 from so maybe a typo ?

If none of that works check you console system log for further clues.

Note: Two of the four OSX systems i have at home were effected by the 8th Aug 'glitch' once iMessage was reactivated i too lost the conversation history which would suggest that something has happened on Apples servers....

Good Luck
Cheers
Jay