Can't log into iCloud: Verification Failed - Your username or password is incorrect.

In DP 1 I got a few problems with iCloud. I wasn't able to remove and re-add my account either. After I upgraded to DP 2 (after an upgrade to a new DP there is always a "setup wizard light", where you have to enter your iCloud-Password, but no new user will be created) I was logged in, but - stupid me - because of the problems I thought it would be wise, to still remove and re-add my iCloud account. Removing was no problem, but re-adding is not possible, because I'm getting the following error:


Verification Failed

Your username or password is incorrect.


Yes, I double- and triple-checked and I copy and pasted. Username and password are correct. I also tried the alternative e-mail-adresses (@icloud.com, @me.com). Nothing. I can login in iTunes, however App Store also doesn't work.


Long story, short question:

Does someone know a solution to this? Or is it by any chance possible to run the "setup wizard light" again that pops up after an upgrade? Or do I have to wait a long week until DP3? 😉

(Yes, I know about the .AppleSetupDone, but I have to create a new user then.)

I wish you a nice day. 😀

Accepted Reply

I just tried logging out of iCloud, rebooting and, from Finder, running the Setup Assistant app (/System/Library/CoreServices/Setup Assistant.app).


It prompted me to login to my iCloud account with a username and password, much like after the first boot of the update. It changed nothing else - didn't even close down any other apps. It contains an executable called "minilauncher", reference to which is contained in a compiled (i.e. gobbledigook) file close to the string "firstbootiCloudlogin"...


So, you never know...

Replies

Thank you, that was again a valuable hint. You localized it.

I experimented in combination with the SetupAssistant.plist - again none of the booleans in there made any difference.

  • open Setup Assistant.app:

    Terminal shortly flickers, nothing happens.

  • Setup Assistant.app/Contents/SharedSupport/MiniLauncher:

    Nothing happens at all.

  • Setup Assistant.app/Contents/SharedSupport/SetupAssistantSpringboard:

    Well, the wanted wizard light starts here. Yeah. But the only thing ever happened was "Setting Up Your Mac..." and then it closed. So I removed the whole plist, rebooted and called the app again. And YES, this time the iCloud setup really started. I could enter my login and it was accepted. M8, I love you. <3


However, there are still some problems. iCloud Keychain is not activated and if I try to activate it, I still get the username/password incorrect error and also my iMessage won't login, but I was expecting something like this. I am a great step further. Thank you for walking this through with me. I really appreciate this. 🙂

Well, after I called SetupAssistantSpringboard a second time it allowed me to login into keychain. Nice. So there is only Messages and the App Store Login missing in my login journey. I realized that "Messages" in't even listed in "Internet Accounts" under "iCloud". "iCloud" now is listed in Messages itsself, but deactivated. I can't activate because it wants me to log in (which won't work).

Brilliant! I'm glad that running the SetupAssistantSpringboard has proved to be at least a partial workaround. Thinking about the underlying problem though, I was wondering if maybe the login keys for your account had become corrupted.


In the KeyChain Access app, you could try "KeyChain First Aid" from the main menu. You could also checkout the "Keys" items in the "Login" keychain...

Thanks for marking my answer accepted.

The keychain keys encrypt and decrypt your account login - that's why I think they may be the cause.


Failing that though, you could obviously try to force the fresh creation of the App Store and Messages accounts by deleting the related account files/plists in the manner with which you are evidently familiar. I'll have a look later to see which would seem the likely contenders.

Since you seem so interested in the progress I'll just keep you posted. 🙂


I looked with

find . -type f -exec grep -il "Apple ID" {} \;

in my Preferences dir after every file containing my Apple ID and removed all of them beginning with "com.apple.". Furthermore I removed all containing "iChat" and "imessage". The result was that the zombie process still was in there "Messages seems to expect at least a iMessage login".


But.


After some more removes and reboots and setups Messages was back logged in. But in the process keychain isn't anymore. So I now struggle with the keychain login (but its more important that Messages is back logged in) and the AppStore (there is no plist containing something with AppStore).


My daughter is back awake and I'll continue to tinker this evening. *^.^*//

Is there any solution yet? I can do nothing, not downloading updates in the appstore, nog login in iCloud via Systempref pane.

It's driving me crazy. The SetupAssistantSpringboard tip doenst do anything. It's say configuration, but after that, i'm still loged out of iCloud and can't login in iCloud.

I am seeing the same issue with iMessage not letting you login and instead kick out both username/password and activation errors. Funny thing is this happens on only 1 of my dev Macs running El Cap beta 2, the other is working fine.


I also saw the keychain error and opened a bug on it

I had a similar problem (when trying to install the iTunes 12.2 update) – my App Store updates list now shows iTunes having bee installed 6 or 7 times! The "KeyChain First Aid" worked – verify found a problem, repair fixed it, and the next try at installing iTunes worked.

rm ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.SetupAssistant.plist && rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/iCloud/Accounts && /System/Library/CoreServices/Setup\ Assistant.app/Contents/SharedSupport/SetupAssistantSpringboard


This will relog you into iCloud, and with a bit experimentation you'll get iMessage running, but App Store/Continuity won't work that easily. Please keep me posted here, I'm curious if someone manage to fix this. 😀

I gave up, this was way too time consuming. I got iMessage finally working (but none of the continuity features) and I was trying to fix keychain (I deleted ~/Library/Keychains and everything in Preferences that contains "keychain") - keychain already used to work at some point in my journey. In this process I lost iMessage again. Since apart from that there was always the knowledge that I can't login from something else than the SetupAssistant (there always would be at least the App Store verification error), I created a testuser to see if it works from there. Yes, it did. Then I completely deleted and recreated my main account (Of course I wiped the home folder). Same error in the freshly created account, I can't login into ay iCloud services. Strange. I did this whole procedure twice just to be sure before reinstalling the whole system. I really don't liked the condition of my machine any more where I have to create a user with another home folder than my first name (the chains of habit 😉) to get a fully functional account.


I created an image beforehand just in case the problem would remain the same, but reinstalling the system was a success. About 4 hours of reconfiguring my system surely are somewhat inconvenient but this seems to be deeper problem. But maybe DP 3 will already fix it. I didn't want to wait. It wasn't an useless action, I learned a thing or two in the process and I met a friendly buddy here who worked this out with me. 🙂

Hi Ryu, sorry to hear that the whole process turned into a time-consuming game of whack-a-mole for you. I'm glad that most of the missing functionality was recoverable in the end. Fingers crossed for DP3. 🙂

I have "fixed" it with the following.


Disable icloud two step verification. Then it works all again.

It was never enabled in my case. My error is back. All I had to do was restart.

Well, there will be most probably a new build tomorrow. Let's hope the best. 🙂

I'll just have to tell you this:


Since it worked after reinstalling the system, I set up my Time Machine to be prepared for another iCloud lockout.

Today my system didn't awake from sleep so I had to force reboot it. After it came up, I once more had iCloud issues. I let Time Machine do one more backup and then restored the restore point from yesterday, where iCloud was still working. It was not. It saluted me back with a iCloud error dialog box. So I thought that if so, I might as well use my newest backup and restored my restore point from today, after iCloud wasn't working anymore. I'm expecting the new build anyway in the next 30 hours.


But.


It worked. I really don't have to understand this. 😀


And I found out there is another way to bring up the iCloud Assistant: Backup per Time Machine and simply restore, then you don't have to delete anything. (However it's time consuming. Deleting the plist and calling the executable is the faster way. Just for the completeness of this thread. ^_^)

Hi Ryu 🙂


Interesting find - good to know there's a way to bring back the iCloud Assistant without deleting anything (less anxiety-inducing for some).