How to Fix iMessage

[Gerard71]

@MyGuyzmo, @begleyj,

That is odd, we know MLB & ROM must be white-listed so if true this may suggest that Apple are storing the values as some sort of checksum that does not include the last digit of the ROM value in its key ?

But we also know that it is not necessary to use an Apple formatted ROM value as many are still using a locally generated one (usually NIC MAC address) so really any 12 digit hexadecimal value should work as long as it is unique ...

It's an interesting discovery though .... how many times have you tried changing the last digit ?

Has anyone else tried/confirmed this ?

Cheers
Jay

it does not work for me, I change the last number in the ROM of my mac mini 2010 and keep the same MLB


and I had the code to call Apple

 

[MysticalOS]

I had a strange occurrence today. Noticed iMessage and FaceTime were logged out. Tried to login, got a customer code. Verified numbers were correct. They were. Rebooted anyways. After reboot, FaceTime and iMessage logged in with no issues. Messages delivering and getting replies fine. No change in numbers or config. huh? the only thing I can think of is at the time of logout I was under HEAVY lag do to download. Sign in also took a long time. So I surmise what may have happened here is my connection to apples servers timed out, and got booted with a customer code that didn't have to do with values but instead had to do with possibly not sending values fast enough do to my connection lag. I don't even know. If the values had been blocked. I wouldn't have been able to log right back in when download finished and i rebooted. Just strange.

 

[jackbane]

Just wanted to report another success with generated 13-digit MLB, ROM and 11-digit Serial #. Spent a lot of time parsing the insanelymac MLB thread to understand the formatting for MLB and Serial#. Was already using MacPro3,1, so I stuck with it. Also, I am still running 10.9.3 with Chimera. I generally subscribe to the "if it ain't broke don't fix it" mindset, hence the older version. But eventually iMessage got broke, so ... I did what was advised by others having success.

- For ROM I switched from my eth0 mac address to a known Apple prefix combined with my eth0 address.
- Totally reworked my MLB number, following the guidelines for MLB formatting, using correct model no., manufacturing location with random production numbers and date information.
- For Serial # I set the date 3-4 weeks after MLB's date, insured consistency between manufacturing locations and production number. (Not sure if this last bit was necessary, cause it seems Serial # may not even come into play). Made sure suffix matched model using online lookup at powerbookmedic.com

Studied it over for a while, making sure all formatting was correct and values were plausible. Injected values into nvram manually and insured they survived reboots (all per this excellent guide).

Finally tried logging in, got customer code, called and after a LONG hold a senior tech whitelisted me in a minute.

Everything back up: iMessage, FaceTime, iTunes & Cloud (last two were always working).

Now I just wonder if the activation will last, or if with these generated values I am bound to get booted in the near future. For now, I'm pleased.

 

[MysticalOS]

it's a mystery why i got booted out earlier but now it's working fine again. Hopefully it stays this way

I always have my backup plan with real mac pro numbers. Only reason I haven't used em is because they USED to be in use on imessage before. They are not in use currently. However I still don't know for certain whether or not it's save to clone a mac that was in use with imessage/facetime, but isn't anymore. Or whether or not that mac still being in use as my mothers facebook computer matters (not signed into icloud, or imessage, or facetime, or anything like that).

Does anyone actually know if you can clone numbers off a mac that's in use but not signed into apple (and never will be, but WAS at one point months ago, when i was using it).

 

[jsproule899]

i cant get my imessages or facetime to work at all, could anyone explain how to generate a mlb that will work?

thanks

 

[begleyj]

@MyGuyzmo, @begleyj,

That is odd, we know MLB & ROM must be white-listed so if true this may suggest that Apple are storing the values as some sort of checksum that does not include the last digit of the ROM value in its key ?

But we also know that it is not necessary to use an Apple formatted ROM value as many are still using a locally generated one (usually NIC MAC address) so really any 12 digit hexadecimal value should work as long as it is unique ...

It's an interesting discovery though .... how many times have you tried changing the last digit ?

Has anyone else tried/confirmed this ?

Cheers
Jay

@jaymonkey
Based on MyGuyzmo's post it would seem that conceptually Apple are creating a checksum based on the machine's "valid" MLB/ROM combination, thus registering a unique identity of sorts with Apple's servers.

I assume that your numerous machines continue to work with iMessage and FaceTime today, and that they are using a common donor MLB from your "real" MAC Computer with a generated ROM Value based on their respective en0 address? Furthermore, I assume that in each instance you had to call through to Apple to have each machine whitelisted?

@MyGuyzmo
Is the ROM Value that you use based on a "real" Apple ROM, or generated from the MAC Address of en0?

@Gerard71
Is your ROM Value based on a "real" Apple ROM or generated?

I would expect (assume) that a donor MLB/ROM combination would allow for "instant" login to the iMessage and FaceTime services, matching a "known" (to Apple Servers) format, and NOT require a call to Apple, whereas a donor MLB and generated ROM combination would NOT match the aforementioned "known" format and therefore require whitelisting. Thoughts???

 

[Gerard71]

@begleyj
yes I use the ROM values and MLB my mac mini
without changing the values:
but we now cover more can I clone it allows the activation of iMessage, but the messages that are sent to the recipient fails
and I also noticed that when I use them on my hack that makes a malfunction iMessage on my iphone, my address imesssage turns off as if it were more activated with iMessage iMessage and switches to SMS mode
everything returns to normal once I remove the values cloned my hack

me it is a 17 MLB may be that it works with 13 MLB, but I see much use intere my machine is not working to its full capacity just for iMessage and used a 13 MLB with an old definition of Mac Pro 3.1

 

[Gerard71]

I have an idea but I do not know if it is possible


using an old mac mini, which puts osx server above is that it could serve as iMessage server or multiple Hack could so connected, without connecting each machine individually Apple iMessage server
the real mac get all the messages and re-distributed messages to hack

 

[carltom46]

@carltom46,

Clover & Clover Configurator is very particular of the format of the config.plist - if the MLB and ROM are not showing up in Clover Configurator but they are in the RTVariables section of the config.plist then it could be a formatting issue ... I've had this myself when manually editing the config.plist file. You could try removing the RTVariables section with an editor, save the file and load it back into Clover Configurator and re-enter your MLB & ROM values on the RTVariables page.

Good Luck
Cheers
Jay

That did the trick, thanks JayMonkey. I don't use RTvariables, as I read in the guide that that is deprecated, but I don't get why my smuuid gets filled with 0's every time I update either clover or the OS (not sure what causes it) if I'm copying back my config.plist. I had previous output of imessage debug lying around, and I used that information so I could get back to the customer code message.

 

[jaymonkey]

Based on MyGuyzmo's post it would seem that conceptually Apple are creating a checksum based on the machine's "valid" MLB/ROM combination, thus registering a unique identity of sorts with Apple's servers.

@begleyj,

Thats been my thinking for sometime now but is proving difficult to prove one way or anther, MyGuyzmo's post would suggest the checksum approach but it does not work for me - it would be very interesting to see if this could be confirmed (or not) by the community ... so far only Gerard71 has responded with the same result as myself.

I assume that your numerous machines continue to work with iMessage and FaceTime today, and that they are using a common donor MLB from your "real" MAC Computer with a generated ROM Value based on their respective en0 address? Furthermore, I assume that in each instance you had to call through to Apple to have each machine whitelisted?

At the moment I'm only using my old MBP MLB & ROM value on my Sony Laptop hack (MonkeyBook) - running a new Clover & Yosemite build that i'm in the process of documenting (guide coming soon). Since the Nov / Dec 2014 MLB verification changes & cloning detection/blocking i've gone back to using locally generated values for MLB & ROM on all my other machines while i work on the problem.

I would expect (assume) that a donor MLB/ROM combination would allow for "instant" login to the iMessage and FaceTime services, matching a "known" (to Apple Servers) format, and NOT require a call to Apple, whereas a donor MLB and generated ROM combination would NOT match the aforementioned "known" format and therefore require whitelisting. Thoughts???

Not necessary, whilst a genuine MLB & ROM pair should always allow iMessage to work, it depends if that pair has been white-listed - there are quite a few reports of people using MLB & ROM values from old/broken Mac systems that had never used iMessage (some systems were too old to run iMessage) - in these cases the standard Call Apple with Customer Code alert message is displayed and required the usual procedure to white-list their values.

Cheers
Jay