Are y'all using a separate apple id for iMessages?

Posted on
Tue Apr 27, 2021 2:47 pm
mundmc offline
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Are y'all using a separate apple id for iMessages?

I set up a dummy apple id ages ago, and it appeared to work for some time on iMesdsages on os10.15 Catalina. Then it stopped.

I keep getting "an error ocurred during activation try again" when I try to log straight into iMessage.

If I skip the login and try to enter through iMessages->Preferences, I get "an error ocurred during authentication."

I just went down a 1 hour rabbit hole deleting plist entries, keychain entries, deactivating keychains, clearing NRAM, and so forth.

Everything looks fine on icloud

Any easy thoughts on how others made this work? Do I need to go to apple and say my home automation account is locked out (j/k)?

Posted on
Tue Apr 27, 2021 3:13 pm
GlennNZ offline
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Re: Are y'all using a separate apple id for iMessages?

Hi

I’m still using a indigo server specific iMessage login. Need to avoid 2 factor authentication for FindiFriends usage, but for iMessage shouldn’t matter. (As plugin just needs local account to be up and running on indigo server)

So basically issue will seems to be why can’t authenticate iMessage account on Mac?

Presumably google might be friend here ?
https://www.saintlad.com/error-occurred ... me-on-mac/

But would guess that google is the shovel that you have dug your hole with currently?
Can you create a new account with a new email?

Good luck!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Posted on
Tue Apr 27, 2021 10:16 pm
mundmc offline
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Re: Are y'all using a separate apple id for iMessages?

Thanks for your thoughts. Unfortunately, I tried everything on that list.

Fun fact: On the phone with tier 2 support, i learned that appleid’s need to be verified with messenger ON AN IOS device, not on osx.

Now, I know this worked for me before without using an ios device, so i suspect this is a new safety rule from one of the updates. Also, i’m still on Catalina osx and 14.4.2 on ios.

Posted on
Sun May 02, 2021 9:38 am
MarcoGT offline
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Re: Are y'all using a separate apple id for iMessages?

Same problem here, on the my father’s MacMini.
No chance to get iMessage (and FaceTime too) working

Posted on
Sun May 02, 2021 12:03 pm
mundmc offline
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Re: Are y'all using a separate apple id for iMessages?

I am considering using a decommissioned iphone to register imessages, but i’m a little concerned that once i become reliant on the plugin and imessages it will require some other workaround.

Posted on
Sun May 02, 2021 4:40 pm
GlennNZ offline
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Are y'all using a separate apple id for iMessages?

That is a pain.

I’ve gone the route of mounted iPad’s - for indigo control pages which also allow FaceTime (the auto answer after a few rings is great)

These all share my OSX Mac indigo apple account - so send iMsg to ‘Indigo’ account, receive from this account, and can FaceTime Indigo - to connect to the mounted devices.

A old decommissed phone is probably the way to go, although new accounts may come across demand for 2FA (fine for IMessage) but slight pain for FindiFriends.

(On that note life == workaround does it not? )


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Posted on
Wed May 05, 2021 7:00 am
mundmc offline
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Re: Are y'all using a separate apple id for iMessages?

Thanks Glenn,

As an update, I was entirely unable to activate iMessages with a dummy account on a scrubbed iphone7… i suspect the iMessage feature is hitting a bug. Unfortunately, it is fairly critical that my imac running indigo server be under my primary/personal appleid, and i suspect that is causing the conflict.

Giant bummer as this plugin was great during the brief period when Messages was working.

Posted on
Tue May 11, 2021 4:05 pm
Welshdog offline
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Joined: Aug 06, 2006
Location: Austin TX

Re: Are y'all using a separate apple id for iMessages?

I have had this same issue for about a year now. Gave up trying to solve it. To be clear the Mac Mini uses my wife's Apple ID for everything but Messages. I have a separate one for the Mini that had worked for a long time. The Mini downloads all her photos onto the hard drive as a backup of sorts. Since the Mini specific Apple ID stopped working I have had to run Messages on her ID. This works, but Indigo notifications are delivered as being from her and not from the server. I have considered calling Apple, but since some of you have already tried this with no luck, I guess it is pointless.

Posted on
Tue May 18, 2021 6:51 pm
jltnol offline
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Re: Are y'all using a separate apple id for iMessages?

I've been pretty much 'round the bend on this issue, and ended up running Indigo and the server in a separate user space with its own Apple ID. With Fast user switching, the Indigo user space can run in the background, I could switch to my main user space, and the Indigo server would keep running... And I could send out text messages from that 2nd AppleID(just the email address) to my main Apple ID/phone number.

Posted on
Sun Aug 08, 2021 10:26 pm
Welshdog offline
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Joined: Aug 06, 2006
Location: Austin TX

Re: Are y'all using a separate apple id for iMessages?

I've been pretty much 'round the bend on this issue, and ended up running Indigo and the server in a separate user space with its own Apple ID. With Fast user switching, the Indigo user space can run in the background, I could switch to my main user space, and the Indigo server would keep running... And I could send out text messages from that 2nd AppleID(just the email address) to my main Apple ID/phone number.


I tried doing what you said, using two user accounts and then fast user switching. Seems like it should have been the ticket, but it still didn't work. I even created a brand new Apple ID just to use with Messages and the new Mac user account and it would not work.

Then I got creative and had a fit technical nostalgia regarding file names etc. The Gmail account I was using had periods separating the three words before the @. I knew from work experience that older operating sytsems and servers used to be very sensitive about "special characters" in file names etc. So I did two things: First I created a even newer Apple ID using my iPhone so it could have an @icloud.com email. Then I created an email with no special characters: xxxyyyzzz@icloud.com

I'll be danged if it didn't work like a charm. So it's either Apple's system doesn't like Gmail addresses with special characters, or it wants an iCloud address - or both. Either way it's working now after more than a year of frustration. I spent the whole day working on this and some other iCloud related cruft. I dream of a day where Apple creates an entirely new system and makes sure these aggravating "features" are eliminated.

PS: on an iPhone if you go to Settings>Mail>Accounts>Add Account>iCloud>Create A New Apple ID this let's you make that Apple ID using (and creating) an iCloud email. You cannot do this on a Mac - it requires you to already have an email address which is why I had been using Gmail accounts. I like this method better since there is only one account to manage instead of two.

Posted on
Mon Aug 09, 2021 9:31 pm
jltnol offline
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Re: Are y'all using a separate apple id for iMessages?

So I must confess that since my last post, I've changed gears and my thinking on this matter. While I love the fact that I can log into either of two computers at home and have all my "stuff" from a server(in my case, Synology), sending messages was still kind of an issue. Kinda' worked, but not really.

Over the summer, I moved to Twilio for messages. I won't lie, setting up stuff on Twilio website is NOT easy(at least it wasn't for me), but the tech support is really good. Even for my tiny project, the help was great. The platform just isn't built for this, but it does work. It is not free, but it is VERY cheap. I gave myself a $50.00 credit sometime in June, and still have almost $35.00 left. I can send messages from Indigo thru Twilio to my cell #, and likewise can also text commands to Indigo thru Twilio. I also have a telephone interface box. It connects to the 'net and Twilio, and on the other end is a telephone. I don't use it for much, but its nice to have a backup. And you could easily use the free software to receive and originate phone calls with the number you get from Twilio from your computer. The Twilio plugin developer also has been of incredible support.

You can sign up for Twilio for free, and they will give you a $5.00 credit, so you can basically test the waters for free.

If anyone is interested, I can try to write instructions down for the Twilio site.
Last edited by jltnol on Tue Aug 10, 2021 7:03 am, edited 1 time in total.

Posted on
Tue Aug 10, 2021 12:22 am
mundmc offline
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Re: Are y'all using a separate apple id for iMessages?

Hey [mention]Jltnol, [/mention] I have a very basic functionality working with Twilio, but I agree that on the website side it is pretty deep, and, while not necessarily complicated, it’s a whole thing to learn.

I, for one, will be very enthusiastic about any Twilio side stuff you run and share.

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