Q: iOS 7 iMessage won't activate

Read my instruction above.

@bearmon2010 - been there done that about 100 times. That was one of the first things that I did.  I have check the time zone.  I have logged in and out of icloud.  I have reset network settings.  I have restored to factory and set up as new. I have done every combination of all of them multipule times.   I have even done the Hokey Pokey and turned myself around!  Nothing!!!  Still the dreaded ' waiting for activation' 

Wow.. That's strange. I am on iPhone 4 and doesnt have a problem with 6.1.3 but update to 7.0.3 seems to have a problem so I followed this. The instruction for the "Settings -> General -> Reset -> Reset Network  Settings" doesn't worked for me so I searched on the google and found the instruction that I gave and it works fine! My roommate had a problem and I tried it on my roommate and works fine as well

You know, I was getting anxious with the "waiting for activation" until I stumbled upon somebody mentioning "apple servers are probably busy right now so wait a bit". I did exactly that, and after an hour or two, I found my iMessages activated.

Just turn on iMessages and wait for activation!

This would not help if you need the service in a hurry though.

Mine just constantly says unsucessful

I'm using an iPhone 4.

iMessage worked with 7.0.2 without problems.

After updating to 7.0.3 iMessage can not be activated.

After 30 seconds, the message: "Login failed ..." shows up.

Maybe a timeout?

Did you followed my instruction and wait for one minutes until the activation is done then try it again ?

Yup!  I waited Minutes, hours, days - NOTHING!!!  I followed your instructions to the letter.

ditto here in Milton, Wisconsin

Same here... still waiting for apple engineering to get back to me.

Eureka!! I have found someone with a smart, simple and efficient solution that actually works without all the hoopla (hard reboot/reset network settings/restore) suggested in this thread!

I have an iPhone 4 with iOS 7.0.3 and I went through those steps:

1. Go to "Settings">Scroll down to "iTunes Store & App Store">Logout from the account
2. Turn off your device, wait 1 minute or 2 then turn your device back on
3. Return to "Settings">Scroll down to "iTunes Store & App Store">Login (can take up to a minute)
4. And voilà! iMessage and FaceTime are back in business!

Note: it works without any need for a restoration.

This fixes as well all the problems in Google/Facebook/WhatsApp/etc. that require you to "Connect to iTunes to activate push notifications".

Thanks a lot to our fellow Apple Forumer Hunter Guerrero (see his valuable post here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5318138?start=75&tstart=0).

Hi Larryfilm,

now my iMessage is back alive. Thanks!

I'd to login twice, the first attempt failed again, the second succeeded :-)

During the first login iCloud came up with a password query, maybe this confused the iMessage login procedure.

Jörg

Larryfilm, Thank you very much for the solution!

Resetting network settings worked for me as well. Thank you SO MUCH for the post!

Resetting network setting worked here as well.  Thanks for the tip!