Factory Unlocked on T-Mobile: iMessage & Facetime Both Verified As Activated But Do Not Work

Question

Factory Unlocked on T-Mobile: iMessage & Facetime Both Verified As Activated But Do Not Work

Hardware: Iphone 4

OS: 5.1.1

Factory Unlocked

Network: T-Mobile (USA).

Hi all.

Like many I am having a problem getting iMessage & Facetime to work, however, the unique problem I seem to be having is that while both iMessage & Facetime report back that they are activated, neither work.

Anything attempted to be sent through iMessage fails to send. Standard SMS/MMS is only available. Iphone users attempting to send me iMessages are only able to transmit via SMS/MMS as well.

Facetime will not connect to anyone. Every attempt is met with an immediate "Call Failed." prompt on both my end and the Sender's end.

I am completely miffed as up until this on my other iPhone, a 3GS running 5.1.1 also on T-Mobile, there were no problems with iMessage or Facetime (unofficial tweak)

Thus far I have done the following which has yileded no success:

- Delink my Apple ID from iMessage & Facetime > Turn off Services > Turn off Phone > Restart > Reactive Services > Relink Apple ID > Reactivate and Verify iMessage & Facetime.

- Hard Reset (Power + Home)

- Change DNS to 8.8.8.8

- Remove my Apple ID > Turn off Phone > Restart > Reactivate & Verify iMessage and Facetime w/o linking Apple ID (Phone no. only).

I'm at a loss at this point. Does anyone have any other ideas? It cannot be a factor of Tmobile as Tmobile plays no factor in iMessage & Facetime ability, they are both network agnostic features as I understand. Additionally, both these features work on my 3GS.

iPhone 4, iOS 5.1.1

Posted on Oct 24, 2012 1:27 PM

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Answer 1

KiltedTim

Level 10

195,189 points

Oct 24, 2012 1:29 PM in response to ShadowDancer1000

Talk to T-Mobile.

There are known compatibility problems with them in the US. They are not a supported carrier.

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Answer 2

razmee209

Level 10

191,292 points

Oct 24, 2012 1:29 PM in response to ShadowDancer1000

http://discussions.apple.com/thread/4005360?answerId=18569817022#18569817022 already been discussed.

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Answer 3

Oct 24, 2012 1:37 PM in response to KiltedTim

@ Kilted -

Spoke with Tmo. Their response in so many words, "Yes, we know we're touting Iphone support, pandering and marketing to Iphone owners, but sorry, your problem. We do not officially support the Iphone."

It is misdirected slap in the face. I am almost certain the FTC will be investigating them at some point for duplicitious practices and false advertising.

The good thing is I am a bit more sophisticated than the average Iphone users and am not afraid to root into and modify or rewrite .plist and such if absolutely necessary, but I would rather not have to resort to this yet.

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Answer 4

Oct 24, 2012 1:40 PM in response to razmee209

@Razmee -

Unfortunately this sites search alogrithm doesn't do very well at discrete searches. I try to search before I post and I never saw this particular post. I'll look into it and see if it helps.

Thanks for the link.

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Answer 5

razmee209

Level 10

191,292 points

Oct 24, 2012 1:47 PM in response to ShadowDancer1000

No problem.

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Answer 6

Oct 24, 2012 2:39 PM in response to razmee209

Sorry, Razmee, no luck. I read the post and followed the steps. No change. iMessage fails to send/receieve. No Facetime although both report as verified and activated and are tagged to my Apple ID as the "Caller ID."

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Answer 7

Oct 24, 2012 2:47 PM in response to ShadowDancer1000

in the US, things like ftc, fcc, faa are funded by corporations. why do you think we are in this mess in the first place!

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Answer 8

Oct 24, 2012 7:08 PM in response to puneboy.p69

^^^Haha, well, that's one way to look at it. Still doesn't solve my problem though.

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Answer 9

Oct 24, 2012 9:51 PM in response to ShadowDancer1000

and it wont get solved will it?

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Answer 10

Oct 25, 2012 6:40 AM in response to puneboy.p69

We get the government we deserve. When there are enough intelligent voices demanding reform, then there were will be such. Until that time, we get the government we deserve. That's about all I can say about that.

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Answer 11

Oct 25, 2012 1:49 PM in response to ShadowDancer1000

This is weird. I have t-Mobile and everything works extremely well. Although I had to figure it out by myself though. I am not sure how familiar everybody here is with ibackup bot, but using that tool, you can pretty much fix everything. If you have already activated facetime, call someone who has it (I am not sure if you have 3g yet, I do, so I do not use wifi to start facetime) and whenever you are on the call just pinch facetime and should work, again try using it wifi just in case you do not have 3g. Also is mms, and group messaging working for you?

I know t-mobile needs some training. Download ibackup bot and I will try to get home and explain how to fix mms and group messaging. If you were charged the international texts, then chances are that your facetime is already activated, as imessage is pretty much free.

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Answer 12

Oct 26, 2012 10:34 AM in response to ShadowDancer1000

At another users suggestion I:

Disabled both iMes & FT, turned off wifi, rebooted, and then enable both without wifi.

Waited 15 minutes to activate

No dice. They both required me to enter my Apple ID, gave the me the warning about charges for text message to activate, waited 10 minutes and again both reported as activated.

Tried sending an Imessage and it failed (both with Wifi off and then Wifi on). I have not tried Facetime but I expect more of the same.

As a final measure, I reset the phone, restored and re-activated which did not solve the problems.

Immensly frustrated at this point. Does anyone have any other suggestions?

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Answer 13

KiltedTim

Level 10

195,189 points

Oct 26, 2012 10:55 AM in response to ShadowDancer1000

The only thing that's guaranteed to fix the problem is switching to a supported carrier who's network is compatible with the iPhone. In the US, that means AT&T if you don't want to buy a new phone.

Probably not what you want to hear, but it's a fact.

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Answer 14

Oct 26, 2012 11:02 AM in response to KiltedTim

@ Tim,

This is the issue that has me scratching my head. iMessage & FT are touted as being carrier agnostic features.

They run via WiFi and over Apple's servers (exception being Iphone 5 which I believe now offers carrier supported network Facetime)

Apple also sells unlocked phones touting these features. They would be sued six ways West of Wednesday if they did not indicate that the features would not work if the phone is not used on an Apple recognized network.

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Answer 15

KiltedTim

Level 10

195,189 points

Oct 26, 2012 11:14 AM in response to ShadowDancer1000

Unlock on the iPod and iPad, both, on the iPhone rely on silent SMS transactions with Apple's servers. Lots of things can cause this to fail on an unsupported network. An inability to send text messages internationally can do it. Failure of the carrier to correctly process the SMS messages can cause it, etc.

The T-Mobile network is known not to work correctly with these features. It may, in some cases, but the only ones who can address the problem are T-Mobile.

There is a reasonT-Mobile doesn't offer the iPhone in the US, and it's not for lack of begging. Until and unless they upgrade and correct the problems with their infrastructure, they won't get the iPhone and Apple will not support using the iPhone on their network.

Apple makes it clear that calling will work on any compatible carrier. The US T-Mobile network is not compatible. They also make it clear that not all features will work on all carriers, even supported carriers. A number of features require explicit carrier support. Personal Hotspot, VVM, Facetime over cellular data, etc.

T-Mobile likes to talk up how many iPhone users they have, because if it weren't for those, they'd be circling the drain. Some would argue they already are. The T-Mobile AT&T merger that failed to go through this year is probably a death sentance for T-Mobile in the US.

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