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

[reecord2]

Hi everyone - just to chime in, after a week of dealing with this absolute nightmare, I'm finally able to get back into iCloud thanks to the certificate download listed above from Scrumper (I'm on 10.13.1, late 2014 MBP). I just want to thank all of you for being so helpful and communicative. I also want to thank dysamoria for starting this thread and teaching me about how keychains work and about creating backup OS installs. You all rock.

 

[Poncho]

Am about to try the certificate. I have an iMac and a Macbook Pro, both running Sierra as I need this OS to run legacy software. Both were unable to connect to the Apple ID servers last Thursday whereas my iPhone can. It can't be a coincidence. Spoke to Apple Support for around an hour on chat. Tried lots of stuff. No joy. They then said they would phone me back. But didn't. Will update you on whether the cert works

 

[Poncho]

IT WORKED!!!! Scrumper's shared certificate solution banished all the problems I was experiencing in a stroke. Apple support was saying it was my all sorts of problems my end (including my router), but that was it all along. Wish I'd found Scrumper's post four hours ago instead of wasting time with Apple Chat, getting cut off from them, rejoining with the same case number and then waiting for a call from them which never materialised.

Now all I need is a solution for 'Your message cannot be loaded at the time. Try Again later.' which I get when I access my Apple Mail online using the Safari browser BUT NOT when I use Firefox. Agani, consulted Apple chat on this, but again they had no answers and said someone would call me. But again, no-one did.

 

[nosfythegreat]

I can't believe I didn't have have an account on MacRumors! Now I do.

First off, my hat off to those who posted here. Dysamoria's fix didn't work for me. Scrumper's did. Thank you both! You really saved me time and a lot of grief as I didn’t know what else to do! And there’s virtually NO other help out there including a pointless phone call to Apple’s Tech Support who also told me that “I’d have to re-install everything OR move to a newer OS version.” These clowns and their corporate scripts! 


I run Sierra on my iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2017) for perhaps the same reasons why many of you still have to stick to these (stable and totally fine) older MacOS’s — compatibility with different needed software. In my case is Adobe which has been a pile of garbage and problems for years! They still, while they charge monthly fees for their "creative suites", have not worked out compatibility issues with the newer MacOS's. I can't even begin to describe the issues and the nonchalance this company is capable of!

My issue started when iMessage on my iMac stopped sending images in a text. Text would go fine but not images. Trying to troubleshoot the issue, I came across a possible fix which was to simply log out of iCloud and from all the accounts (including iMessage), go to the Keychain and unlock and lock it, restart the computer and that’s that! I didn’t change anything, moved files, or did anything else! Once I logged out iCloud from within System Preferences, I could not log back in! It was a “Can’t log in at this time, try later!” message. Days later the same and no fix. I could log into iCloud using any browser directly though. That never changed.

I tried everything. PLISTs delete and restarts. Safe Mode log ins. Nothing worked.

This Apple Intermediate Certificates keychain hack worked! Double clicked on the downloaded certificate, saw it in the Keychain, restarted the computer and it all worked after that!
It’s a nightmare if you run Adobe or some other older creative software (music, design, etc).

Anyway, I hope this thread saves many from going nuts and spending hours trying to troubleshoot.

Thanks again!

 

[Patrice Brousseau]

Thanks to @Scrumper , the certificate solved the iCloud bug on my Sierra MBP and on my old iPad 10.3.3. Certificate is only valid until May 22 however, hoping it won’t fail again.

The original solution on Apple forums is from 2020 so I guess it’s a reoccuring bug…

Also strange that it affects only some OS’es (iOS 10 and MacOS 10.12 and 10.13).

 

[Patrice Brousseau]

I’ve left a feedback to Apple but I have some doubts that they are hard pressed to resolve this for old devices.

 

[colleenaomi]

Hi all - I just wanted to join the chorus and thank Scrumper for this easy fix - I'm lucky I found this thread within a few minutes of trying to tackle this.

For posterity, I'm running Sierra, 10.12.6, on an Early 2011 Macbook Pro, and encountered this problem a few days ago when I realized my Notes app wasn't syncing between my laptop and iPhone 8.

As annoying as these issues are, I'm glad this community exists! Thanks again.

 

[Mitschell]

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!

This solved my issue with iCloud not allowing login on my Mac Pro 4,1 running High Sierra 10.13.6. Tried many of the other Google-search suggestions before finding this thread, I'm extremely grateful @dysamoria and @Scrumper !

 

[dysamoria]

Sorry for disappearing for a few days.

Thanks to @Scrumper for posting the link to the certificate update ??

I’m wondering if/why the certificates in my fresh High Sierra install (in the root /Library/Keychain folder, I assume) solved my own issue ??‍♂️

Was this stuff downloaded from Apple’s servers during that installation (several months ago)? I don’t remember what my installer source was. Might’ve been the recovery partition of my existing system (which Apple Support advised not using this time, in order to ensure there’s no local corruption, which turned out irrelevant in this case).

Being our own technical support for products abandoned by their makers is so effing frustrating.

 

[dysamoria]

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!

Thanks again for sharing those threads/links. I had a brief read over there… I bet this would’ve also solved my inability to log in to iCloud.com in Safari, too, which was my first hint of all this crap going wrong well over a year ago (the issue progressed from one machine to the other, which was weird), since someone specifically said it solved that issue for them.

Live and learn… how to possibly cope with abandoned products.

 

[carrisco]

Sorry for disappearing for a few days.

Thanks to @Scrumper for posting the link to the certificate update ??

I’m wondering if/why the certificates in my fresh High Sierra install (in the root /Library/Keychain folder, I assume) solved my own issue ??‍♂️

Was this stuff downloaded from Apple’s servers during that installation (several months ago)? I don’t remember what my installer source was. Might’ve been the recovery partition of my existing system (which Apple Support advised not using this time, in order to ensure there’s no local corruption, which turned out irrelevant in this case).

Being our own technical support for products abandoned by their makers is so effing frustrating.

I believe you hit the nail on the head... The same reason your system keychains worked and mine didn't was based on when the bootable installation was created. It didn't work for me as mine was created sometime in early 2020.

Theoretically, these certificates should be pushed to us by Apple through normal process, prior to expiration. Obviously, something went wrong for many of us on older macOS/iOS installations and it may not be the last time we have to manually update said certificates... Time will shed more light on this debacle.

-b.

 

[afsalcreations]

All assumptions aside, now i am able to login to icloud. Everything works as usual. Thank you @Scrumper

(Double clicking on the certificate didn't help me to add it. The keychain app asked to import it, and once that is done.. it worked perfectly!)

Thanks a lot!

 

[SunMoonStars]

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!

OMG I've lost hair trying to find this answer. I can't tell you how much I appreciate this info and you taking the time to post it. I was just getting ready to do a clean install and stumbled onto this site about migrating worried the problem would follow with corrupt files. Why I haven't found this place before now is mortifying. I think this will be my new sandbox.

 

[MBAir2010]

I'm happy there was a fix to this High Sirra iCloud snafu.
when I upgraded from Mt lion all my iCloud worked, but took a while to sync.
I feel the OS is coming to a close soon, maybe next year
then Mojave.

today I needed to install High Sierra for a Monterey upload.
and for fun tried to position the mountain scene with my "about this Mac"
which is not centered, as Mojave is.

 

[misha2022]

hola everyone, I'm about 5 weeks after Scrumpers succesful fix, when today my icloud notes wouldn't sync from iphone to my mac.

I downloaded the certificate again and immediately the notes synced back to my mac.

just leaving a message here in case it happens again for others too

 

[Patrice Brousseau]

hola everyone, I'm about 5 weeks after Scrumpers succesful fix, when today my icloud notes wouldn't sync from iphone to my mac.

I downloaded the certificate again and immediately the notes synced back to my mac.

just leaving a message here in case it happens again for others too

It’s a brand new certificate (valid until 2025) from the same place: https://www.apple.com/certificateauthority/AppleISTCA2G1.cer

 

[Mitschell]

hola everyone, I'm about 5 weeks after Scrumpers succesful fix, when today my icloud notes wouldn't sync from iphone to my mac.

I downloaded the certificate again and immediately the notes synced back to my mac.

just leaving a message here in case it happens again for others too

It’s a brand new certificate (valid until 2025) from the same place: https://www.apple.com/certificateauthority/AppleISTCA2G1.cer

Same situation to report here! My iCloud services ceased syncing again very recently, but upon going through Scrumpers steps again and performing a restart, syncing started up again. A log out of iCloud was not necessary, but the system restart seemed to be a key step for me. The certificate does indicate an expiration date of 2025 now. Cheers

 

[dysamoria]

Thanks for the updated info. If this happens on mine, I’ll know why.