How to Fix iMessage

[Wolfie81]

Thanks @Jaymonkey

I just want to reaffirm to everyone the importance of having persistent MLB and ROM values.

I was on latest Chimera 3.01 and 1.13 NVRAM. I noticed my ROM values kept changing on every boot. Even if I was logged in. I wanted everything to be 'stable'.

So feeling adventurous I decided to see what Clover was about. That naturally changed my ROM values (but kept it consistent on every boot). iMessage stopped working so I had to call Apple last week to 'unlock it'. It worked fine. I had issues with Clover as it does not seem to want to play nice with Apple Cinema Displays. It could be an issue with the UEFI though and no solution on the internet exits. The ACD often did not switch on and while the computer booted fine, I was left with a black screen. Feeling frustrated.... I installed Chameleon.

As soon as I installed 2283 my ROM values changed once again and I was logged out. I had to call Apple again to unlock iMessage. On the plus side using Chameleon keeps my ROM values consistent.
I have since updated Chameleon to the very latest version 2380 (test) and it works fine. Values have remained.

SO the point of the story is this. MAKE SURE YOU KEEP ROM AND MLB values the same on every boot. IF YOU HAVE ISSUES INSTALL CHAMELEON AS PER GUIDE. There may be a bug in Chimera.

Thats all.

 

[interpolgp]

Just wanna say thanks to JayMonkey, called Apple today.

The customer support guy was a lot more knowledgeable. He read my information from the support case number that was opened up and immediately began to verify who I was, took the code from iMessage and said try it now. Re-entered my Apple ID and like magic iMessage is back!!

Great guide, great support as well JayMonkey, big thumps up

 

[jaymonkey]

Thanks @Jaymonkey

...... There may be a bug in Chimera.

Thats all.

@Wolfie81,

Thanks for the feedback, glad your up and running. The problem is the memory structure allocated to the SMBIOS table in Chameleon (Chimera is based on the core code of Chameleon) each version of these boot-loaders is slightly different which causes problems when FileNVRAM wants to populate the SMBIOS table with NVRAM values.

The problem out of control and I doubt very much that much effort will be put into resolving the problem given that the future is Clover. If you can get it working with a combination of Chimera or Chameleon and FileNVRAM then great, but It's becoming increasing difficult to find a version of Chimera or Chameleon that works with FileNVRAM and allows injection of MLB & ROM and over-rides SmUUID for those with the SId bug and supports all of the newer features of OSX and newer hardware, it just too much of an ask for Chameleon.

The more users who adopt Clover and help with its development the less this will be come an issue

Clover completely negates all of these issues, but its still in beta, I recommend you raise a ticket on teh Clover support page for the issue with TB/Display port issues when using Apple Cinema Display. The Devs of Clover are very keen and should be able to help you address the issue.

Cheers
Jay

 

[tovkal]

Called Apple here in Spain.

Before calling I checked that this values where persistent:

@Flo655,

It does not matter if S/N is not valid but OSX S/N, UUID, MLB & ROM must be persistent, if any of these values are changing between reboots then you will have issues with iMessage if you have to log back in again.

See Part-1, Step 5d to check if ROM & MLB are persistent, Part-1, Step 2 for advice on S/N, Part-2 covers SmUUID.

Cheers
Jay

Then did this:

As much as many of you are not wanting to call Apple it is the best way to fix the issue. Instead of calling Apple directly arrange a call from AppleCare Support.
Step 1. Go to this link: https://getsupport.apple.com/GetproductgroupList.action
Step 2. Click on "More Products and Services"
Step 3. Click on AppleID
Step 4. Click on "Other Apple ID Products"
Step 5. Click on "Messages and Apple ID"
Step 6. Click on one of the 2 or 3 selections depending upon their call load. When the call volume is lighter (usually early mornings or evening "Talk to Apple Support Now" will be available). Enter the appropriate info for Apple to call you back.

Told the problem to the first guy, said he was from iOS. Got transferred. Told the problem to the lady, said she was from Macs, but from hardware. Got transferred again. Told the problem to another guy, this one said he was from Superior AppleCare or something like that.

All of them asked for the S/N, which I didn't have because I wasn't in front of the machine , but I did have the customer code. All asked for the customer code, but finally the last guy said he would remove the block from my account. So he did, now let's hope it lasts.

 

[fwp]

@Kriss - I tried your suggestion and generated what Apple considers a valid SN and registered my hack. Still had no luck with getting iMessage to work. I opened a chat with Apple support and the person I chatted with had me open my keychain and remove every entry that referenced "ids", iMessage and facetime at that time I was asked to reboot. The chat was lost during the reboot but I was assured that it would work. Unfortunately I still can't log in to Imessage.

As a side note I seem to be getting a different error then most. I don't get a pop with a code to contact Apple with. I'm attaching a screenshot of the window that I get.

 

[jaymonkey]

As a side note I seem to be getting a different error then most. I don't get a pop with a code to contact Apple with. I'm attaching a screenshot of the window that I get.

@fwp,

Please read and digest the guide ....

You have local issues which must be sorted out first, as continually detailed in the guide you can not and should not contact Apple until you get a request to contact customer support with a customer code, you are suffering from login and/or activation issues.

Apple can not and will not assist you in these issues as they only effect Hackingtosh systems.

This is in the very first part of the guide labelled IMPORTANT !!!!
So i don't really understand why you thought Apple would help ?

Use the guide to resolve your issues first.....

Check ROM & MLB are Persistent - See Part-1, Step 5d
Check your OSX S/N is correct for System Type your using - this is really important - See Part-1, Step 3
Check your SmUUID (SystemId) read Part 2 of the guide.
See Part 2, Step 8 for contacting Apple once you have customer code and request.

Once you get the message as shown in the guide then and only then contact Apple ....

Cheers
Jay

 

[johnny37v]

JohnnyV,

I too would like to know what links you used as a guide for Clover. I have been avoiding it like you mentioned thinking it was hard to setup/configure. I have a test drive that I would love to use to learn hwo to setup Clover so any links/suggestions you have would be great!

Jay,

A HUGE thanks to Jay for all of his hard work answering questions and keeping this guide up to date. I was able to get my system configured properly and called Apple. The whole call was at most 5 minutes including the wait time! iMessage is now working as it was before! I used your suggestion as well to update my SMBIOS to iMAC13,1 from the MacPro 3,1 that I had set (GA-Z77-UDH5 w/ i3770k CPU).

Thanks JAY!!!!!!!

I used a combination of guides/advice,

-standard UniBeast guide for Mavericks, stopping @ post install MultiBeast (you have to boot w/usb, but install clover @ that point)
-i also stayed away from clover configurator, the first time I used it I forgot to back up my config.plist and it added all sorts of stuff that i couldn't unravel and had to start over (i prefer to manually edit via text wrangler...go slowly! There is advice out there to add/remove as little as possible in that file, and that's when I started to see success.)
-i started with the stock config.plist that came w/current version of clover
-the official config wiki is a must read before you start - http://clover-wiki.zetam.org/Configuration

good luck! it took me three attempts, but imessage/facetime/everything is fully functional and stable and persistent.

 

[fwp]

@Johnny - I must have misread the post that discussed making sure that my SN was valid and registered with Apple as part of the recent changes made by Apple. I can't imagine that this is anything but related to a change made by Apple since iMessage has been working reliably for a very long time and stopped suddenly without a reboot of my hack. I've gone through the guide with no success and the message I'm getting is different then the recent issues people are seeing. I'm going through the guide again for a third time. With luck I'll find the problem on my end.

 

[Flo655]

@Johnny - I must have misread the post that discussed making sure that my SN was valid and registered with Apple as part of the recent changes made by Apple. I can't imagine that this is anything but related to a change made by Apple since iMessage has been working reliably for a very long time and stopped suddenly without a reboot of my hack. I've gone through the guide with no success and the message I'm getting is different then the recent issues people are seeing. I'm going through the guide again for a third time. With luck I'll find the problem on my end.

You need to make sure your SN, SystemID, ROM & MLB values are valid and consistent across reboots. If everything looks alright, then you will get this message asking you to call Apple with a Customer Code. According to Jay, it doesn't matter if the SN is actually valid - they could add this as another security layer though.. Let's hope they're not going to do this in the future

 

[twiztidninja]

@Kriss - I tried your suggestion and generated what Apple considers a valid SN and registered my hack. Still had no luck with getting iMessage to work. I opened a chat with Apple support and the person I chatted with had me open my keychain and remove every entry that referenced "ids", iMessage and facetime at that time I was asked to reboot. The chat was lost during the reboot but I was assured that it would work. Unfortunately I still can't log in to Imessage.

As a side note I seem to be getting a different error then most. I don't get a pop with a code to contact Apple with. I'm attaching a screenshot of the window that I get.

I am getting the same error as you nothing in the guide fixes it.....