How to stop AppleIDAuthAgent flooding the console log with messages about expired apple id

Question

After upgrading to Mountain Lion I have noticed this message being flooded into my system console:

AppleIDAuthAgent[179]: SERVER Removing certificate for Apple ID "...@???.??" dsID="XXXXX" because it has expired or been revoked. (renewCertificateForAccount()/AppleIDAuthd.cpp #143) accountCheckDispatch

Anyone know how to fix this?

Answer 1

This seems to result from deprecated MobileMe and iDisk preference files laying around. This post at the Apple discussion forum may help you delete the relevant files:

~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.DotMacSync*.plist.lockfile
~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.idisk*.plist
~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.idisk*.plist.lockfile
~/Library/Preferences/MobileMeAccounts.plist
~/Library/Preferences/MobileMeAccounts.plist.lockfile
~/Library/Prefernces/ByHost/com.apple.coreservices.appleidauthenticationinfo*.plist
~/Library/Prefernces/ByHost/com.apple.coreservices.appleidauthenticationinfo*.plist.lockfile

Don't forget to close relevant applications (like Mail or Messages) before the deletion; it also might be a good idea to at least log out and in again afterwards.

Answer 2

Try to remove and add again the apple ID attached to your user account (System Preferences > Users & Groups).