How to Fix iMessage

[rgardner]

Hi -

I am using Clover and am able to get iMessage working however I've noticed something kind of strange.

Whenever I log out of iCloud (through Sys Prefs) and then log back in to iCloud I can get iCloud logged in but iMessage logs out, and does not work when I try to log in. It gives me the Customer Code screen (the same customer code I have always had). I have had to call and get apple to unlock three times now in the past two weeks.

a.) Is this normal behavior when logging out of iCloud?
b.) Has anyone else had to call apple multiple times in a few weeks? Do they start to not want to unlock for you?

 

[julianl68]

Great work on this.

I was able to follow the guide and now have a very good understanding of the mechanics of the iMessage identity. uuid rom etc.

REALLY APPRECIATE YOUR HELP!

 

[jaymonkey]

Whenever I log out of iCloud (through Sys Prefs) and then log back in to iCloud I can get iCloud logged in but iMessage logs out, and does not work when I try to log in. It gives me the Customer Code screen (the same customer code I have always had). I have had to call and get apple to unlock three times now in the past two weeks.

a.) Is this normal behavior when logging out of iCloud?
b.) Has anyone else had to call apple multiple times in a few weeks? Do they start to not want to unlock for you?

@rgardner,

I've got OSX 10.10 running on multiple machines and have not seen this behaviour however i have see a number of posts over the last two weeks of other users reporting this ....

I'll be looking into this over the next few days while working on a few other related iMessage issues and solutions ....

I assume all your id's are correct and are not changing ? as your getting the same customer code, most important is to check your OSX S/N is not registered to anther MAC and that the prefix & suffix matches your system type - see part-1, step-3

Cheers
Jay

 

[jaymonkey]

Great work on this.

I was able to follow the guide and now have a very good understanding of the mechanics of the iMessage identity. uuid rom etc.

REALLY APPRECIATE YOUR HELP!

@julianl68,

Thanks for your feedback, glad to have helped ....

Cheers
Jay

 

[rgardner]

@rgardner,

I've got OSX 10.10 running on multiple machines and have not seen this behaviour however i have see a number of posts over the last two weeks of other users reporting this ....

I'll be looking into this over the next few days while working on a few other related iMessage issues and solutions ....

I assume all your id's are correct and are not changing ? as your getting the same customer code, most important is to check your OSX S/N is not registered to anther MAC and that the prefix & suffix matches your system type - see part-1, step-3

Cheers
Jay

Yes IDs are the same through reboots (one weird thing with clover is that it will only work when i use the USB drive to boot it, but the config.plist that it reads is the one from my hard drive... strange but i decided to give up and just keep the usb in and it boots fine, id's and S/Ns are always the same....)

When you say doesn't belong to a real mac - I used the clover wizard like you mentioned but I am not sure if it belongs to a real iMac or not... is there a way to check? At this point if it does, should i think about changing it? one thing I want to do is upgrade this Machine's motherboard/cpu and keep the graphics and minipci wifi/bluetooth - should I just wait for that? what's the best way to recycle Wifi's (i saw your post but wasn't sure the solution? should i just log in with the ethernet cable, wifi off, make sure it works, then i can use the recycled wifi going forward?)

thanks again for all these details - it has been a life saver and saved tons of hours debugging etc!!!!!

 

[dariomass]

Hi! jaymonkey
Colud be a list of kexts that can modify or change the identification of hardware and therefore provide iMessage fail, having imessage activated?


thank you!

 

[fidesachates]

When you say doesn't belong to a real mac - I used the clover wizard like you mentioned but I am not sure if it belongs to a real iMac or not... is there a way to check? At this point if it does, should i think about changing it?

If you're talking about the serial number, you can check selfsolve.apple.com to see if it is being used. I found that mine was, so I changed it; you want the website to say it's an invalid sn. After changing, I did have to call Apple, but it was fine.

 

[jaymonkey]

Hi! jaymonkey
Colud be a list of kexts that can modify or change the identification of hardware and therefore provide iMessage fail, having imessage activated?

@dariomass,

No kexts are used ... all of these iMessage issues effect the core OSX kernel and security layer ... most ID's checks are performed on Apples backend servers, the only way is to ensure all your ID's are unique, persistent and correct syntax as detailed in the guide.

Cheers
Jay

 

[mgldan]

I wanted to add my quick and surely inadequate thanks for this guide. It was daunting at first, but every step in the troubleshooting process works out exactly as jaymonkey lays it out. This is not trivial at all.

The thing that finally got me to switch to Clover was the upgrade to Yosemite. Ultimately I found that was not nearly as bad as it is made out to be, although you do have to make the time for it. I didn't experience any KP's but I did read the entire Clover wiki to make sure that I wasn't setting any flags that I shouldn't have.

I also wanted to share my experience working with Apple. I simply told the rep that I had just installed Yosemite on my iMac, and that this customer code had come up. He had me verify my Apple ID, log in at id.apple.com, give him the temporary support PIN that I generated there, then finally the customer code. The call took about 10 minutes once I got off being on hold. He did ask me if I had ever called about this issue before (maybe he saw the tons and tons of failed attempts I had had logging in before), and I told him it was my first time. He was practically apologetic when we got off the phone, saying that the customer code was basically just a security check.

Before calling, I made sure to generate a new UUID and an unused serial number that goes with the system profile I am using. Then I just played dumb about the whole thing and the call went fine.

 

[monteolsen1]

This is an outstanding guide. I really appreciate the time and effort it took to prepare and write this. My problem is that I have the exact same motherboard as Jaymonkey the GA z77z UD5H and am having one heck of a time getting iMessage and FaceTime to work. I can access the Skydive and the App store, but I'll be darned if I can get either FaceTime or iMessage going. I have pretty much worked my way down to the NVRAM section and tried all of the utilities and entries. I am a bit worried that Apple may have locked me out...

Anyway, any help getting it going on my system would be GREATLY appreciated. I'm an old fart, who is enjoying the process of making this thing work. I have Clover humming along like a champ. It boots off the EFI partition and really runs well. Got sound and the network going. Just can't seem to get iMessage and FaceTime working any more. (We have iPhones and an iPad, and it would be great to be able to hand those off to the desktop, too.)

Thanks for any help anyone might offer. It is appreciated.

MO
Eugene, OR