FaceTime Certificate Error Fixed by Deleting GlobalPreferences.plist

Since the release of FaceTime .9 (92) I have been unable to run it on my laptop with an SSD. Whenever I launched FaceTime the app would start without an error but it would be lacking the controls on the right side. There would be no interface to log in or and most of the menu items would be disable. The app itself would not even be launched in the foreground. I had to click on it to bring it to the front. I tried uninstalling it and reinstalling it with no luck. I looked in the Keychain for anything that sounded like it might be relevant since the error message appeared to be a Certificate error. No luck.

ApplePushService: +[APSCertificateStorage getClientIdentity]: Certificate not yet generated

Apparently the root problem has to do with the fact that my keychain was once on a different computer with a regular hard drive. That technical explanation aside, I managed to dig through other user responses for a fix. There is a hidden file in your Preferences folder called .GlobalPreferences.plist — note the name begins with a period to make it invisible. I’m not sure what it does. There is a corresponding visible file called GlobalPreferences.plist. When I looked there were 6 more temporary files in that directory with names the begin with .GlobalPreferences.plist. followed by additional random characters. I’m going to assume that it is safe to delete the temporary files. I am more cautious with the main invisible file and I’m not touching the visible file.

Here’s the procedure.

Open Terminal.app and go to your Library/Preferences folder

$ cd Library/Preferences

List any GlobalPreferences files (note the leading . and the trailing .*)

$ ls .GlobalPreferences.plist.*

Assuming you have some listed, let’s deleted them. They appear to be garbage.

$ rm .GlobalPreferences.plist.*

This leaves the main hidden file. Let’s move that our of the way rather than delete it.

$ mv .GlobalPreferences.plist GlobalPreferences.plist.bak

Now you should be able to start FaceTime normally.

You can restore the main hidden file since we do not know what it does.

$ mv GlobalPreferences.plist.bak .GlobalPreferences.plist