Photo Stream on MacBook Pro won't work

Question

I have a MacBook Pro and when I turn on Photo Stream in iCloud system preferences it comes up with a box that says "Photos in the iCloud account can't be accesses.  Please review your preferences." How do I fix it?

Answer 1

this topic comes up at least once a week here if not more often.
the headphone out on the MBP doubles as an optical audio output as well. it is supposed to auto-detect when you have a digital optical cable inserted, so the sound output will switch automatically to digital. that's what the red light is - the optical audio data stream. what has happened is that your MBP has somehow gotten stuck thinking there's an optical cable plugged in. you can try plugging in and unplugging your headphones a few times to try and get it to un-stick. other people have said they've been able to do it very carefully with an unbent paperclip. but if none of this works you'll prob have to take it in for a service.
this is one of my gripes with the design of these machines. as an audio pro I'm very glad optical audio is built-in. but the fact that there is no option to select which output is used, or to disable the output entirely and just use the internal speakers, makes me nervous. I suppose it's supposed to be convenient that it auto-detects, but so many people come on this forum asking exactly the same question as you, it seems that it's really all too easy to accidentally jam it to the wrong setting. I'm really really careful when I plug or unplug anything from that port, because having it jam is the last thing I need. but I've already written to apple and asked them to change the sound control panel in OSX to allow us to choose exactly what the output is doing at all times, regardless of what's plugged in. I'd love to be able to leave my digital cable plugged in all the time, and just select to disable it so I can listen to the built-in speakers.. if only to lower the risk of damaging it by having to plug and unplug things all the time. same deal for when I use headphones. hopefully they'll sort it out because it really seems like it's far too easy to jam the switch in this port (same deal for the input port too) leaving people with no option but to get it repaired.