How to Fix iMessage

[astrobruin]

No luck so far.

"Could not sign in to iMessage.
An error occurred during activation. Try again."​

Messages was working for me back in late October (?) until it stopped for everyone. I haven't changed any settings.

I have two-step authentication on. I went onto iCloud and signed out of all browsers, logged out of iCloud on the computer, changed my Apple ID password, created app-specific passwords, restarted repeatedly, etc. All to no avail.

After all else failed, I even tweaked my config.plist slightly; the MLB had three lowercase letters, which I made all caps (per the the extensive guide linked to earlier).

I've read back to when Messages started working for everyone, and am wondering if there's anything else I should try before trying to create a new configuration.

Any thoughts?

 

[todesto]

No luck so far.

"Could not sign in to iMessage.
An error occurred during activation. Try again."​

if this is showing, you will never be able to log in, Apple can't even help you (if it's real Mac, yes)

You need to change MLB/ROM/SMBIOS/UUID to whatever the combination according to the required pattern so that either lets you log in or shows customer support code.

 

[astrobruin]

if this is showing, you will never be able to log in, Apple can't even help you (if it's real Mac, yes)

You need to change MLB/ROM to whatever the combination according to the required pattern so that either lets you log in or shows customer support code.

Thank you, I really appreciate it. I feared as much, but had really hoped it was something simple I was missing (given that no settings have changed from then to now).

This will save me a lot of time trying to solve a problem that can't be fixed (not that creating new IDs is quick or easy, but better to get straight to what needs to be done).

Cheers and thanks again!

 

[defbref]

if this is showing, you will never be able to log in, Apple can't even help you (if it's real Mac, yes)

You need to change MLB/ROM to whatever the combination according to the required pattern so that either lets you log in or shows customer support code.

Not necessarily, I would suggest he works thru the guide from the start. I've had that message in the past and it wasn't related to wrong MLB/ROM

 

[daimontoppi]

No luck so far.

"Could not sign in to iMessage.
An error occurred during activation. Try again."​

Messages was working for me back in late October (?) until it stopped for everyone. I haven't changed any settings.

I have two-step authentication on. I went onto iCloud and signed out of all browsers, logged out of iCloud on the computer, changed my Apple ID password, created app-specific passwords, restarted repeatedly, etc. All to no avail.

After all else failed, I even tweaked my config.plist slightly; the MLB had three lowercase letters, which I made all caps (per the the extensive guide linked to earlier).

I've read back to when Messages started working for everyone, and am wondering if there's anything else I should try before trying to create a new configuration.

Any thoughts?

look for my previous post a few pages back on page 357, i swear it should work for you, ONLY if you follow the directions exactly. i tried it using a different smbios then the MacBook Pro 11,1 and it didnt work, so i think it also has to do with the smbios


hope this helps!!!

 

[mrcivic98]

Hi!

Did you have some random generated values or did you proceed to specific generation for MLB and ROM?

Thank you for your help : on my side, I'm only able to get the customer code, I didn't dare to call Apple support yet, I feel uncomfortable with this (what do they ask for?)

Thanks !

I had random generated values -- whatever Chimera had originally generated for my Hack back a year ago is what has stayed in there. I haven't not changed them.

 

[mrcivic98]

@dekalb & All,

If this is true then it MAY indicate that Apple are opening iMessage up for other platforms ?

I'll do some more investigation over the next few days and try and confirm everything soon, but if your post and the previous one are true it would suggest that things are back to how they were pre Nov 2014 :-

• MLB & ROM can be local generated and do not have to follow the Apple patten
• MLB & ROM do not need to be white-listed
• Two factor Authentication is not a requirement

I find it hard to believe that this is the case but hey - it's my birthday today and getting iMessage back on all my systems is a great birthday present ....

Everyone please send feedback to confirm (or not) any or all of the above ....

Of course this could always be a 'blip' we know Apple have introduced 2FA for iMessage login which may have required a database rebuild / flagged ID purge ... lets see how things are after a few days .. but for now it's certainly looking good for everyone - and has arrived just in time to be included in the updated iMessage guide which will be on line soon.

Cheers
Jay

Jay,

Happy Birthday! What a nice present you (and we all) have received. To provide a bit more info- on my Hack, iMessage started working yesterday, having not worked at all since Dec 15. During that time, I made no changes to my MLB and ROM, which remained "basic" values that were auto-generated by Chimera when I originally setup my Hack at the end of 2013. At some point before Dec 15 -- perhaps Sept/Oct? -- I had to call Apple after being prompted to do so in iMessage on the Hack, perhaps related to the UUID mismatch issue, though I can't remember exactly what it was. However, this likely "whitelisted" my MLB and ROM at that time. Not sure if that will be helpful in diagnosing the current situation but hopefully it is!

 

[raketa]

I pretty much gave up with iMessage since fixing it with following your guide and then everything reverted back with it not working. Now I'm thankful that I didn't clone or continue messing with something that worked perfectly.

I read your message today and gave it a try again. Worked perfectly again!!!

Thanks for all of your work

 

[caseyfriday]

Awesome news! I never did cloning, but I'm now getting the message "Could not sign in to iMessage.
Could not sign in. Please check your network connection and try again."

I'm planning on upgrading to Yosemite soon, so I'll just wait to fix this until I've upgraded, and see if it still works. (It did work before Apple nuked it.)

 

[begleyj]

I too can confirm that iMessage service has returned.

Upon reading through the last few pages on this thread I decided to "roll-back" my config.plist to November last year, and drop the cloned MLB/ROM combo from my wife's MacAir, opting to use my previously generated MLB from Serial Number + 4 random characters and ROM from my en0 mac address.

Logging into iMessage presented me with the 2FA prompt, which I followed the steps, generating an "app-specific password", and logging back into iMessage. Now all systems are go.