iMessage reset

Remove existing iMessage data & configuration files

If you are starting with a clean OSX install then there is no need for you to perform this step so jump forward to Step 5, however if you have been trying to get iMessage to work for sometime then the chances are that the iMessage plists are full of invalid data and/or settings.

Ensure that you have ‘Show all Files’ or similar utility for displaying hidden files and folders in Finder.
You can download 'Show all Files' form the community section.

Enable ‘Show all Files’, start-up Finder and navigate to:-

/StartupDrive/Users/Username/Library/Caches

Delete all files beginning with the following prefixes:-

• Caches/com.apple.Messages
• Caches/com.apple.imfoundation.IMRemoteURLConnectionAgent

Now navigate to:-

/StartupDrive/Users/Username/Library/Preferences

Delete all files beginning with the following prefixes:-

• com.apple.iChat.
• com.apple.imagent.
• com.apple.imessage.
• com.apple.imservice.

Now delete the folder:-

/StartupDrive/Users/Username/Library/Messages

Note: This folder is your local message store, if you want to keep your existing messages make a backup of this folder before removing it, once i message is working you can restore the backup or recover it from a Time-machine backup.

You can switch off 'Show all Files' now.

You should not loose any messages or contacts by performing this action as both are stored in your iCloud account and should sync up again once iMessage is working correctly.

Update: Aug 2014

After a 'glitch' in Apples backend servers that occurred sometime around the 8th or 9th of August 2014 many users found that they were unable to reactivate iMessage despite following the above and the other tips in this guide.

If you have tried all the guides steps and iMessage is still not working then you could try the following:-

With 'Show all Files' enabled navigate to:-

/StartupDrive/Users/Username/Library/Preferences

Delete all files beginning with the following prefixes:-

• com.apple.security.

This should be done in conjunction with all of Step-4 (remove all other iMessage plists)

Some users have found that they were unable to delete the security plists because they are being accessed by the security processes. If you find this is the case, open Activity Monitor and kill securityd_service, then securityd and try again (you may have to do this a few times before you can remove the plists)

Ensure you empty the trash before rebooting.

This optional step has been confirmed working by myself and several other users on this thread who were affected by this recent iMessage issue. Removal of these plists has not caused any additional side effects however as with all things Hackingtosh be sure you have a backup before you implement this fix. Any positive or negative feedback from applying this fix would be appreciated.