Solution for iChat error: “You have attempted to login too often…”

Users of Apple’s iChat instant messaging software might come across a problem that won’t allow them to sign into their AIM accounts.

“You have attempted to login too often in a short period of time. Wait a few minutes before trying to login again” is the full error message iChat provides before signing the user off. The cause of the issue most likely roots from using your Mac at multiple locations (such as home, school, or work), which could lead to the preference files somehow getting corrupted. It sounds serious, but really shouldn’t take more than a minute or so to resolve. Follow these steps for detailed instructions:

1.) Quit iChat if it is already open, and then open Finder.

2.) Browse to your user folder (can be found by clicking on your main hard drive, then going to Users > Your Username.

3.) Open the Library folder and go to the Preferences directory.

4.) You’ll see a long list of files with a .plist extension. The one we’re looking for is com.apple.iChat.AIM.plist. When you find it, delete it by dragging the file to the trash.

5.) Launch iChat and this time you should be able to sign in to your AIM account successfully. iChat will automatically rebuild the preference file you deleted.