"You can’t sign in at this time. Try signing in again” when trying to sign in at iCloud System Preferences panel

[dysamoria]

This is not a question. This is me trying to offer useful info to the community for any users who may find themselves in my situation.

If you encounter errors logging in to iCloud, especially after a failed, or forced, log out of iCloud on your Mac (for instance, if you followed the advise found around the web for using “defaults delete MobileMeAccounts”, and are left with a machine that can’t log in to iCloud due to getting the message in the title), the solution (in my case) may be for you to replace the /Library/Keychain content with that from a FRESH OS install.

Note: that’s the Library Keychain found in the root of the drive. NOT your user Keychain found in your user Library.

My OS: High Sierra (final version).
My Mac: iMac 12,2

This hardware and software aren’t supported by Apple. They will only advise you to reinstall, or wipe out the system with a fresh installation. A reinstall over the existing OS does NOT fix this problem because it does not replace the root /Library/Keychain.

Their only other advice is a full system reinstall, which is NOT necessary, so long as you have access to a fresh (or working) OS boot volume with the appropriate freshly installed root /Library/Keychain content (mine was an external USB hard drive that I installed High Sierra on for testing and troubleshooting a previous iCloud sync issue).

I don’t know if this will work for you, but this did work for me after everything else failed to, and it did NOT require a user’s entire system to be reinstalled from scratch!

Good luck!

I posted this to Discussions.Apple dot com, and today I found some doofus had added a very poorly written followup that shows he didn’t pay a bit of attention to my post. He even seems to have marked his reply as “helpful” (so I did the same to my followup; what the hell kind of help site lets the poster mark their own posts as helpful!??!?).

I see how the site “rewards” people with higher ranks for various activities, and he has a high rank... it seems I’ve discovered why there are so many generic, unhelpful, and pathetic, replies on that site. Apple really need to manage that site in a practical and functional manner instead of merely policing it for Apple-preferred attitudes.

 

[canvasdesign]

Hi mate. I am really struggling with this exact issue. Do you have any instructions by any chance?

Thanks in advance

 

[dysamoria]

Hi mate. I am really struggling with this exact issue. Do you have any instructions by any chance?

Thanks in advance

No explicit instructions, but I hope the following info is useful:

The first critical thing to have is a working FRESH install of your current OS on anotherdrive, like a spare external hard drive. Having one of these on hand has been helpful on numerous occasions when troubleshooting problems.

Don’t install anything on it; just the version of your OS that you want to be using on a daily basis, without 3rd-party software or drivers installed.

I am stuck at the last version of High Sierra, but your OS might differ. Keep that in mind while reading this.

I had previously installed High Sierra to an external USB hard drive to test iCloud synch issues on a fresh OS. I put that drive back on the shelf after resolving that issue (Address Book contact photos can cause iCloud synch to break, and I found the contact with the problem photo and replaced it).

When my iCloud login problem happened, I was advised by Apple Support to reinstall the OS. An install over the existing one didn’t fix the issue and I wanted to avoid wiping out my drive and starting over again from scratch. I remembered my external drive with fresh High Sierra install and booted from that drive.

Booting from a fresh OS install confirmed that things worked from a fresh OS (I could log in to iCloud, after some password updates). This told me the problem was local (I had thought it was on the server, based on the error messages given).

You may wish to try this process to confirm the problem is on your computer’s end and not the server side. Once you confirm it’s a local problem, then you’ll need to determine what is different between the fresh install that works and the one that doesn’t work.

In my case, I booted back to my problem OS (the one I use regularly and didn’t want to reinstall from scratch) and started comparing the contents of the two drives using “DirEqual” (a quite handy tool I bought from the Mac App Store about a year ago to manage manual backups).

It gets verbose from here onward...

When we install Mac OS over top an existing installation, it’s meant to fix OS content, which is in the /System folder of the root of the boot volume (and the OS apps found in /Applications), but it does NOT change the OS configuration, which is in the /Library folder in the root of the boot volume, nor does it change the /Users folder (where your user account(s), documents, desktop, and settings are). This is why you can reinstall Mac OS and not lose anything.

If the problem we need to correct exists in the user account, we can simply create a new test user account and check for the problem while logged in as a new test user. If nothing is resolved when logged in as a new user, the issue is not related to user settings. User configuration thus ruled out, the next place to check is the OS config.

Since the OS configuration found in the root level /Library folder is not replaced when installing Mac OS over top of itself, the only way to test a fresh one of those is with access to a fresh OS install. So I compared the contents of my external drive’s fresh OS /Library to the one on the OS I needed to fix.

I focused only on Apple or OS-related content. I ignored anything installed by my music & graphics software, etc. because I knew those weren’t related to my issue and none of that changed prior to the problem appearing. I didn’t want to break any software authorizations or lose settings.

Some Apple-named .plist files were not present in the fresh “vanilla” OS install (stuff in the format “com.Apple.xxxxx.plist”), so I movedthem (not delete them) to a backup folder (just in case I caused a problem removing them). These changes were done a few at a time, rebooting to check for any changes.

Side note: My backup folder was laid out to have the same folder structure as the actual /Library folders I was examining. This way, I knew where the stuff I was removing came from and where it needed to go back, if I needed to put anything back. For example: on my desktop, I created a folder called “High Sierra” (the name of my boot volume). Inside that was a folder called Library (like what appears at the root of my boot volume). Inside that Library folder is a “Preferences” folder. Etc.

None of the changes I made in this settings comparison worked for my particular problem. What DID work was when I got to the /Library/Keychain folder.

The OS Keychain is different from the User Keychain. I didn’t realize this, or I would’ve fixed my problem a day sooner.

/Library/Keychain

/Users/[username]/Library/Keychain

I needed to deal with the first one, not the second.

In the fresh OS install, the /Library/Keychain content differed considerably from the one on my problem OS. I moved the current one out to the backup folder and copied the contents of the /Library/Keychain folder from the fresh OS to my “broken” one and rebooted. Upon reboot, my iCloud services were available and I was logged in automatically. It has been working since.

I hope this information is of use to you!

 

[reecord2]

I am having this *exact* iCloud problem, also on High Sierra, and just want to say how much I appreciate this post after running myself in absolute circles in Apple forum posts and official Apple pages that offered no help whatsoever.

 

[carrisco]

Sadly, it didn't work for me and changed nothing (except now all my mail accounts are prompting for a password, which will be fun to remedy...)

Solid write-up, though. i had high hopes it would fix my problem as well...

On a side note, doesn't anyone find it odd that we all started having this issue at the same time on older Macs with 10.12 or 10.13?

 

[afsalcreations]

On a side note, doesn't anyone find it odd that we all started having this issue at the same time on older Macs with 10.12 or 10.13?

Exactly! I'm also facing the same issue on 10.12 mac (Either apple want to force us to upgrade our machine or they've stopped service to certain versions of mac.) As an immediate solution, i've logged in to icloud web where i can access all the data needed at this time.

 

[Scrumper]

No explicit instructions, but I hope the following info is useful:

The first critical thing to have is a working FRESH install of your current OS on anotherdrive, like a spare external hard drive. Having one of these on hand has been helpful on numerous occasions when troubleshooting problems.

Don’t install anything on it; just the version of your OS that you want to be using on a daily basis, without 3rd-party software or drivers installed.

I am stuck at the last version of High Sierra, but your OS might differ. Keep that in mind while reading this.

I had previously installed High Sierra to an external USB hard drive to test iCloud synch issues on a fresh OS. I put that drive back on the shelf after resolving that issue (Address Book contact photos can cause iCloud synch to break, and I found the contact with the problem photo and replaced it).

When my iCloud login problem happened, I was advised by Apple Support to reinstall the OS. An install over the existing one didn’t fix the issue and I wanted to avoid wiping out my drive and starting over again from scratch. I remembered my external drive with fresh High Sierra install and booted from that drive.

Booting from a fresh OS install confirmed that things worked from a fresh OS (I could log in to iCloud, after some password updates). This told me the problem was local (I had thought it was on the server, based on the error messages given).

You may wish to try this process to confirm the problem is on your computer’s end and not the server side. Once you confirm it’s a local problem, then you’ll need to determine what is different between the fresh install that works and the one that doesn’t work.

In my case, I booted back to my problem OS (the one I use regularly and didn’t want to reinstall from scratch) and started comparing the contents of the two drives using “DirEqual” (a quite handy tool I bought from the Mac App Store about a year ago to manage manual backups).

It gets verbose from here onward...

When we install Mac OS over top an existing installation, it’s meant to fix OS content, which is in the /System folder of the root of the boot volume (and the OS apps found in /Applications), but it does NOT change the OS configuration, which is in the /Library folder in the root of the boot volume, nor does it change the /Users folder (where your user account(s), documents, desktop, and settings are). This is why you can reinstall Mac OS and not lose anything.

If the problem we need to correct exists in the user account, we can simply create a new test user account and check for the problem while logged in as a new test user. If nothing is resolved when logged in as a new user, the issue is not related to user settings. User configuration thus ruled out, the next place to check is the OS config.

Since the OS configuration found in the root level /Library folder is not replaced when installing Mac OS over top of itself, the only way to test a fresh one of those is with access to a fresh OS install. So I compared the contents of my external drive’s fresh OS /Library to the one on the OS I needed to fix.

I focused only on Apple or OS-related content. I ignored anything installed by my music & graphics software, etc. because I knew those weren’t related to my issue and none of that changed prior to the problem appearing. I didn’t want to break any software authorizations or lose settings.

Some Apple-named .plist files were not present in the fresh “vanilla” OS install (stuff in the format “com.Apple.xxxxx.plist”), so I movedthem (not delete them) to a backup folder (just in case I caused a problem removing them). These changes were done a few at a time, rebooting to check for any changes.

Side note: My backup folder was laid out to have the same folder structure as the actual /Library folders I was examining. This way, I knew where the stuff I was removing came from and where it needed to go back, if I needed to put anything back. For example: on my desktop, I created a folder called “High Sierra” (the name of my boot volume). Inside that was a folder called Library (like what appears at the root of my boot volume). Inside that Library folder is a “Preferences” folder. Etc.

None of the changes I made in this settings comparison worked for my particular problem. What DID work was when I got to the /Library/Keychain folder.

The OS Keychain is different from the User Keychain. I didn’t realize this, or I would’ve fixed my problem a day sooner.

/Library/Keychain

/Users/[username]/Library/Keychain

I needed to deal with the first one, not the second.

In the fresh OS install, the /Library/Keychain content differed considerably from the one on my problem OS. I moved the current one out to the backup folder and copied the contents of the /Library/Keychain folder from the fresh OS to my “broken” one and rebooted. Upon reboot, my iCloud services were available and I was logged in automatically. It has been working since.

I hope this information is of use to you!

Hi there, I'm really grateful that you took the time to address this issue when so many are just re-spouting all the so-called fixes which simply don't work. Your analysis and findings made for very interesting reading and I had high hopes that this would finally sort the issue for me. I am also on 10.13.6 using a 2011 MacMini and have had this issue for the past 3 days.

Unfortunately, when I did a fresh install of High Sierra on an external drive and booted in to that, I had exactly the same issue: "You can't sign in at this time". Sure enough, when I compared the contents of both -Library/Keychains folders, they were strangely identical! So what's going on there?

I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that Apple have just stopped older Macs and older OS versions from accessing iCloud - possibly in a cynical attempt to get us to upgrade (would if I could afford to)! TBH I wouldn't even mind so much if they just came clean and said so. Oh well, I can access iCloud via a browser...but it's not the same.

 

[dysamoria]

Sadly, it didn't work for me and changed nothing (except now all my mail accounts are prompting for a password, which will be fun to remedy...)

Solid write-up, though. i had high hopes it would fix my problem as well...

On a side note, doesn't anyone find it odd that we all started having this issue at the same time on older Macs with 10.12 or 10.13?

Damn. I’m sorry that it didn’t work for you. When you say that your email accounts need to be reconfigured, did you keep a backup of the Keychain so that you can put the original back?

Also, I’m somewhat surprised that the root /Library/Keychain would affect user-level email settings (I’d expect it if you’d replaced the user Library Keychain). I’m guessing there are system certificates or keys that were being used for email logins…(?)

 

[MBAir2010]

I started getting these messages with Mountain Lion in early 2020.
Hopefully Apple did not discontinue supporting icloud in High Sierra
this is only a matter of time, but way too soon.

what i always did when these problems with iCloud occurred
was to log out,
restart
then log in

I did not find any info about apple not supporting High Sierra,
but as Scrumper stated that Apple have just stopped older Macs and older OS versions from accessing iCloud - possibly in a cynical attempt to get us to upgrade (would if I could afford to)! TBH I wouldn't even mind so much if they just came clean and said so. Oh well, I can access iCloud via a browser...but it's not the same

anyways good luck with this and hopefully this is a silly glitch.

 

[dysamoria]

Hi there, I'm really grateful that you took the time to address this issue when so many are just re-spouting all the so-called fixes which simply don't work. Your analysis and findings made for very interesting reading and I had high hopes that this would finally sort the issue for me. I am also on 10.13.6 using a 2011 MacMini and have had this issue for the past 3 days.

Unfortunately, when I did a fresh install of High Sierra on an external drive and booted in to that, I had exactly the same issue: "You can't sign in at this time". Sure enough, when I compared the contents of both -Library/Keychains folders, they were strangely identical! So what's going on there?

I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that Apple have just stopped older Macs and older OS versions from accessing iCloud - possibly in a cynical attempt to get us to upgrade (would if I could afford to)! TBH I wouldn't even mind so much if they just came clean and said so. Oh well, I can access iCloud via a browser...but it's not the same.

Was the version of the fresh High Sierra installation version the final High Sierra? Did it have any security updates installed before you tried to use it for iCloud.

I’ve been wondering if there are changes made to the root Library by the 2020 and earlier security patches. I gritted my teeth installing them, but they haven’t harmed my install (but I also haven’t tried to mess with “Find My Mac”, which is what kept me from being able to log out of iCloud in the beginning - which was the second step in the chain of events that lead me to needing the process I detailed in my posts; the first step was that iCloud Drive wasn’t working, suddenly, after having changed my Apple ID password).

If the OS install itself is fresh, and iCloud login fails, can it possibly be anything other than a problem on Apple’s services end? Getting them to investigate is impossible when using stuff they don’t want to spend engineering time on.

I’ve experienced this before: trying to use Apple services on older machines and operating systems becomes progressively more problematic. I have been pushed forward several times against my own personal timeline. That’s why I have the used iMac I just dealt with this on. I need to get a new Mac, and I’m probably going to end up with another used older machine because of poverty and not being sure what the best course of action is on buying new stuff.

More detail on that off topic issue, if anyone is curious:

I need new equipment. My PC is obsolete (and dead), and my Macs are obsolete. I don’t want to buy a gaming PC in addition to a new Mac (for music and art and everything else), but my only choice for using one machine is to buy a [still very expensive] refurbished Intel Mac Pro (to use as a Mac and a moderate gaming machine, booted to Windows via Bootcamp).

The Mac Studio is interesting, but then I’d still need a gaming PC (I've not had a modern gaming PC since 2008 and I’m sick of seeing all these interesting games on the market that I can’t play), and I’m concerned about the reports of the machine not utilizing its full power envelope, as reported by YouTubers doing benchmarks. So I’m back to waiting on what Apple announces with the Apple Silicon Mac Pro.

??‍♂️

Regardless, I have to move on to a newer OS somehow. It’ll cost me the added requirement to replace my current audio interface (abandoned by the new owners of tc electronic), so that’s another several hundred dollars (a simple interface will not do, with my I/O needs), and then there’s the Wacom tablet replacement, too (Wacom abandoned driver maintenance on the Intuos model I own).

I hate the tech world. I wish I had never gotten into it.

 

[dysamoria]

Regarding Apple support:

Two Apple support people told me that iCloud is still supported on High Sierra, but what I found is that the practical outcome is actually no support, especially if the user finds that a fresh OS install (from scratch) doesn’t fix iCloud issues.

 

[MBAir2010]

I need new equipment. My PC is obsolete (and dead), and my Macs are obsolete. I don’t want to buy a gaming PC in addition to a new Mac (for music and art and everything else), but my only choice for using one machine is to buy a [still very expensive] refurbished Intel Mac Pro (to use as a Mac and a moderate gaming machine, booted to Windows via Boo

Try open core,
many macrumors member have older computer than us, me and are running Monterey.
just visit the unsupported macs on the Montrey or big sur thread here.
I installed Mojave on a 2010 MacBook air that runs well as mountain lion did
that was an easier process that the open core ones, for me.

 

[whywhyk]

hi everyone, thank you @dysamoria for opening this thread. I'm running High Sierra as well, and have been experiencing icloud drive issues the last couple of days. I resorted to signing out of icloud and then signing back in, but was unable to sign out. I then found this thread and also this one which gave similar fixes to signing out. The only thing the reddit thread offered was the keychain solution you allude to here. After brute forcing the command, I'm now signed out of icloud, but can't sign back in. Interestingly enough, while on chat with apple support, the advisor had me create another admin account and sign in, and I had received the same error as I'm receiving now, but then. I should've expected this to happen after signing out.

My question for you @dysamoria is, if we follow the advice of the reddit thread, which I did, it basically recreates the keychain folder. How different would that be from a fresh install of High Sierra? And also, is there any chance you could upload the contents of the keychain folder from your fresh install somewhere so we could try using them?

I really hope this gets sorted out somehow, because so much of my digital existence these days revolves around icloud.

 

[carrisco]

Damn. I’m sorry that it didn’t work for you. When you say that your email accounts need to be reconfigured, did you keep a backup of the Keychain so that you can put the original back?

Also, I’m somewhat surprised that the root /Library/Keychain would affect user-level email settings (I’d expect it if you’d replaced the user Library Keychain). I’m guessing there are system certificates or keys that were being used for email logins…(?)

No worries my friend. I appreciate your time to write such a very descriptive post, outlining your situation and how you addressed it. It gave me hope in a situation where I was about to call it quits and take on some expense to upgrade that isn't really comfortable at the moment.

Concerning the email accounts, I should have been more clear. What happened was that it wiped all the password fields out of the outgoing and incoming server settings and some of them were old enough, I didn't readily have them available. No big deal—more of a hassle than anything else (and a small one in the midst of what I was facing with the iCloud login issue). As far as why it happened, I can only think that it is some sort of safeguard when the system keychains are changed from last boot. The email information ("Internet Accounts") is actually stored in ~/Library/Accounts, as I know. That said, replacing the keychain files back to what they were and even new copies of the previous contents of the aforementioned subdir did not put the accounts back to working condition and ultimately, changing mail server passwords was necessary.

Back to the iCloud login issue, I was able to get things working again but not via your method. Keep in mind, I was on 10.12.6, not 10.13.6 like you so my situation was slightly different. I pretty much got down to where my last card to play was upgrading to 10.13.6 (something I had avoided as it would break some other outdated software that I was still using on Sierra.) My thinking was that even though your system keychain replacement trick didn't work, there was probably some other corrupt system file that I had little-to-no chance in finding but that theoretically could get replaced/updated in the migration from Sierra to High Sierra (especially since High Sierra introduced APFS.) I figured it was worth a try since there were no other prudent options left.

After running a full backup with Carbon Copy Cloner, I took the plunge... To my surprise, it did the trick. The side benefit was that the software I was worried about breaking all worked with very little hassle (just some minor tweaking). That said, I don't think I would have been successful if I did a reinstall of Sierra as the problem file probably would have been left in place, resulting in the same issue (much like you explained in your original post). For those that are on Sierra and satisfy the hardware requirements for High Sierra, I believe updating may fix their iCloud issue as well. Hopefully others won't lose a day of their life to troubleshoot this nonsense like you and I did...

More generally: For those who feel this whole issue may be an evil act from Apple to sever legacy devices from iCloud, I do not feel that is the case. I do, however, think that they may have broken or changed something that effected many of us on legacy platforms running Sierra/High Sierra, which would explain why we all experienced this within days of each other. It isn't logical to think it was on purpose as it wouldn't explain why some of us have been able to remedy it and get back in. Apple has very little to lose by simply claiming that the lack of support for the older OSs create security risks that, in turn, propose security risks for iCloud. None of us will be getting very much sympathy for using decade-old hardware that runs on software that was orphaned 2-3+ years ago. I've definitely taken heed that all I accomplished by getting my iCloud issue resolved was a mere bandaid, buying me some more time to upgrade. In the meantime, I will be following a much more rigid backup schedule.

I hope the rest of you guys can remedy your issues as well!

Regards,

-b.

 

[MBAir2010]

seems to me that Mojave is HEADED for this "dog casing tail"
antics to use a daily, important and simple software.

 

[Scrumper]

Hello everyone. I posted this same issue on Apple Communities too and this morning got an answer with a solution that actually worked! I am (disproportionately) overjoyed that I now have my iCloud syncing properly on my 2011 MacMini running MacOS 10.13.6 High Sierra. The solution comes down to a certain updated certificate and the details came courtesy of an Apple Communities user called pedrocaiano, who wrote as follows:

Download the Apple Intermediate Certificates

• Apple IST CA 2 - G1 Certificate
• Double click the downloaded certificate to install it in Keychain Access.

Try to log in to iCloud after that, should work.

I Found this solution here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253811711

I hope this helps the rest of you as it did me. Now I have my Mac back with full iCloud integration as before, giving me a breathing space before I need to bite the bullet and eventually upgrade. Cheers everyone!

 

[Scrumper]

Was the version of the fresh High Sierra installation version the final High Sierra? Did it have any security updates installed before you tried to use it for iCloud.

I’ve been wondering if there are changes made to the root Library by the 2020 and earlier security patches. I gritted my teeth installing them, but they haven’t harmed my install (but I also haven’t tried to mess with “Find My Mac”, which is what kept me from being able to log out of iCloud in the beginning - which was the second step in the chain of events that lead me to needing the process I detailed in my posts; the first step was that iCloud Drive wasn’t working, suddenly, after having changed my Apple ID password).

If the OS install itself is fresh, and iCloud login fails, can it possibly be anything other than a problem on Apple’s services end? Getting them to investigate is impossible when using stuff they don’t want to spend engineering time on.

I’ve experienced this before: trying to use Apple services on older machines and operating systems becomes progressively more problematic. I have been pushed forward several times against my own personal timeline. That’s why I have the used iMac I just dealt with this on. I need to get a new Mac, and I’m probably going to end up with another used older machine because of poverty and not being sure what the best course of action is on buying new stuff.

More detail on that off topic issue, if anyone is curious:

I need new equipment. My PC is obsolete (and dead), and my Macs are obsolete. I don’t want to buy a gaming PC in addition to a new Mac (for music and art and everything else), but my only choice for using one machine is to buy a [still very expensive] refurbished Intel Mac Pro (to use as a Mac and a moderate gaming machine, booted to Windows via Bootcamp).

The Mac Studio is interesting, but then I’d still need a gaming PC (I've not had a modern gaming PC since 2008 and I’m sick of seeing all these interesting games on the market that I can’t play), and I’m concerned about the reports of the machine not utilizing its full power envelope, as reported by YouTubers doing benchmarks. So I’m back to waiting on what Apple announces with the Apple Silicon Mac Pro.

??‍♂️

Regardless, I have to move on to a newer OS somehow. It’ll cost me the added requirement to replace my current audio interface (abandoned by the new owners of tc electronic), so that’s another several hundred dollars (a simple interface will not do, with my I/O needs), and then there’s the Wacom tablet replacement, too (Wacom abandoned driver maintenance on the Intuos model I own).

I hate the tech world. I wish I had never gotten into it.

I know exactly how you feel about the tech world but unfortunately it's the times we live in. Anyway, I found a solution that worked for me - it was all about an updated certificate which, for older Macs, you had to find, download and install yourself to regain proper iCloud functionality. See my post below (or maybe above) for details - but meanwhile thanks again for spending this time in trying to help us. You're a true gent.

 

[MBAir2010]

Thanks for posting this and hopefully many High Sierra Users will benefit from your post!

 

[jjgranger]

Just as an aside, the Apple Intermediate Certificates keychain worked on 10.12.6, where I was having the same problem. Thanks Scrumper!

 

[whywhyk]

thank you @Scrumper !!!

 

[misha2022]

Hello everyone. I posted this same issue on Apple Communities too and this morning got an answer with a solution that actually worked! I am (disproportionately) overjoyed that I now have my iCloud syncing properly on my 2011 MacMini running MacOS 10.13.6 High Sierra. The solution comes down to a certain updated certificate and the details came courtesy of an Apple Communities user called pedrocaiano, who wrote as follows:

Download the Apple Intermediate Certificates

• Apple IST CA 2 - G1 Certificate
• Double click the downloaded certificate to install it in Keychain Access.

Try to log in to iCloud after that, should work.

I Found this solution here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253811711

I hope this helps the rest of you as it did me. Now I have my Mac back with full iCloud integration as before, giving me a breathing space before I need to bite the bullet and eventually upgrade. Cheers everyone!

Soooo I made an account especially to thank you Scrumper for this fix!!! THANK YOU! ?

Honestly I was close to smashing my mac out of the window with this impossible login error- been trying some 20 other fixes before i found this post.

(My specs in case anyone wonders: Macbook air 2012 11-inch, high sierra 10.13.6)

 

[whywhyk]

sorry for the aside here, but isn't it amazing how many of us are running sierra or high sierra in 2022? how much does this speak to Apple's failure to provide us with a reasonable path to hardware upgrade? I'm on a late 2011 macbook pro, and last time I checked, I couldn't upgrade to anything higher than high sierra on this machine.

last year I purchased one of the new m1 mac minis, only to have the worst migration experience, overall software experience, and issues finding a compatible display, which ended in me returning the machine.

is the upgrade path here to purchase a 2015/16 macbook or whatever machine high sierra was designed for, migrate to that, then upgrade the macos to the latest, and then move to a 2022 macbook? have we missed the boat?

should I just forget about a migration and instead start fresh, linking my current and new computer only through icloud? what happens when icloud closes down for high sierra?

I have to say, this is my first macbook, and prior to this was working on a cheap compaq laptop. I'm just wondering what folks experience and strategy has been with upgrading their apple computer, if you've had the chance to go through that. are we dumb to still be running high sierra this late in the game? or are we the only smart ones who didn't see a clear path to hardware upgrade?

 

[MBAir2010]

whywhyk​

sorry for the aside here, but isn't it amazing how many of us are running sierra or high sierra in 2022?

I'm just wondering what folks experience and strategy has been with upgrading their apple computer, if you've had the chance to go through that. are we dumb to still be running high sierra this late in the game? or are we the only smart ones who didn't see a clear path to hardware upgrade?

If it were not for those troubleshooting in their workplace at home find solutions to keep our MacBooks alive.
I would be only using a dell xps 13" instead of my macbook air form 2010 running Mojave (thanks dosdude)

obviously Apple does not care about their past products
perhaps Dell, HP Lenovo and asus as well or windows wont support PC as apple does.
im just happy others wearing tshirts and waving solder guns progress
instead of suits gathered together in a share holder board meeting.

 

[miatamini]

This is not a question. This is me trying to offer useful info to the community for any users who may find themselves in my situation.

If you encounter errors logging in to iCloud, especially after a failed, or forced, log out of iCloud on your Mac (for instance, if you followed the advise found around the web for using “defaults delete MobileMeAccounts”, and are left with a machine that can’t log in to iCloud due to getting the message in the title), the solution (in my case) may be for you to replace the /Library/Keychain content with that from a FRESH OS install.

Note: that’s the Library Keychain found in the root of the drive. NOT your user Keychain found in your user Library.

My OS: High Sierra (final version).
My Mac: iMac 12,2

This hardware and software aren’t supported by Apple. They will only advise you to reinstall, or wipe out the system with a fresh installation. A reinstall over the existing OS does NOT fix this problem because it does not replace the root /Library/Keychain.

Their only other advice is a full system reinstall, which is NOT necessary, so long as you have access to a fresh (or working) OS boot volume with the appropriate freshly installed root /Library/Keychain content (mine was an external USB hard drive that I installed High Sierra on for testing and troubleshooting a previous iCloud sync issue).

I don’t know if this will work for you, but this did work for me after everything else failed to, and it did NOT require a user’s entire system to be reinstalled from scratch!

Good luck!

I posted this to Discussions.Apple dot com, and today I found some doofus had added a very poorly written followup that shows he didn’t pay a bit of attention to my post. He even seems to have marked his reply as “helpful” (so I did the same to my followup; what the hell kind of help site lets the poster mark their own posts as helpful!??!?).

I see how the site “rewards” people with higher ranks for various activities, and he has a high rank... it seems I’ve discovered why there are so many generic, unhelpful, and pathetic, replies on that site. Apple really need to manage that site in a practical and functional manner instead of merely policing it for Apple-preferred attitudes.

Thank you for starting this thread!

 

[miatamini]

Hello everyone. I posted this same issue on Apple Communities too and this morning got an answer with a solution that actually worked! I am (disproportionately) overjoyed that I now have my iCloud syncing properly on my 2011 MacMini running MacOS 10.13.6 High Sierra. The solution comes down to a certain updated certificate and the details came courtesy of an Apple Communities user called pedrocaiano, who wrote as follows:

Download the Apple Intermediate Certificates

• Apple IST CA 2 - G1 Certificate
• Double click the downloaded certificate to install it in Keychain Access.

Try to log in to iCloud after that, should work.

I Found this solution here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253811711

I hope this helps the rest of you as it did me. Now I have my Mac back with full iCloud integration as before, giving me a breathing space before I need to bite the bullet and eventually upgrade. Cheers everyone!

I open an acct so I can say THANK YOU to Srumper! my 2009 MacBook Pro is running on MacOS 10.12. and was thinking if this iCloud thing doesn't resole, then it's time get a new MacBook. however, I have old version of Photoshop and Lightroom that I have so much presets on. I just can't part with this almost 13 yrs told MacBook Pro yet.