iMessage problem after traveling

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Level 1

8 points

iMessage problem after traveling

I am facing a trouble in activating I message and FaceTime. It was all working fine with me. On 2 iPhones, latest software. Had a trip where I got an orange sim in France. Went afterwards to Portugal and Spain. All was working fine and the iMessage used the new number with no problems. When back my country, Lebanon, I could not use iMessage or FaceTime after using my original sim. Note that it is working fine with my AppleID, I just could not allocate the phone number to them. And the silent message sent to activate the services on the phone are visible to me. It’s like iOS is not reading them and am receiving the sms as if it’s a normal sms, the services are not connected to my phone number. Tried activating it on other phone that was working flawlessly, (I never changed the sim on that when abroad) and it too got the same problem. Please note that on my first phone, I am still seeing the French number in iMessage and FaceTime. Any help would be appreciated. Tried all possible was I found online to solve this problem to no avail. This is the message I am receiving, receiving a lot of it, every time iMessage tried to be reactivated:

ùéèΩy@@REG-RESP?v=3;r=715272475;n=+9613130122;s=025CA0D28BFFFFFFFF9B1E5CC4B063F5F44231A43DC22ED603506D9B00

Thanks for your help.

Jazz

iPhone XS Max, iOS 12

Posted on Mar 31, 2019 8:14 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Jazzar0178 Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 2, 2019 10:52 AM in response to Joseph_S.

Finally worked out for me. Not sure if it only takes time or what I did was the solution. I removed the sim, turned off the iPhone, it worked on both by the way. Turned it on again. No SIM card was not displayed, so I turned it off again and on. The no SIM card message was displayed. I went to bothe iMessage and FaceTime, and both were working on my Apple ID, clicked on it, then change location. It showed searching sign then Lebanon, my country, pressed save. (Did this bot iMessage then FaceTime). Turned phone off. Inserted sim. And turned phone on. Voilà my numbers appeared and are linked again to iMessage and FaceTime.

thanks all for your help and hope someone will benefit from this.

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Answer 2

Moozito

Community Specialist

Apr 1, 2019 5:28 PM in response to Jazzar0178

Hello Jazzar0178,

Thank you for using Apple Support Communities! I understand that you're unable to activate iMessage and FaceTime on two different devices after traveling out of the country, and using a SIM from a different provider. You've come to the right place for a resolution.

Let's start by taking a look at the iPhone that you're still seeing the French number on. With the SIM card that you would like to use on the device installed, go to Settings > Phone, then confirm if the correct phone number shows. If not, try updating your carrier settings, then activate iMessage again:

Update your carrier settings on your iPhone or iPad - Apple Support

You may need to contact your carrier to confirm that they support SMS phone number verification to activate iMessage and FaceTime for use with your phone number. Here are some additional troubleshooting suggestions you can try as well:

If you get an error when trying to activate iMessage or FaceTime - Apple Support

Take care.

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Answer 3

Joseph_S.

Community Specialist

Apr 2, 2019 7:15 AM in response to Jazzar0178

Hi Jazzar0178,

Thanks for getting back to us with the additional information. When you go to Settings > Cellular or Mobile Data, do you show more than one cellular plan? If so, select the plan you want to erase, then tap Remove Cellular Plan. You may also want to contact the carrier of the cellular plan you're erasing to ensure it's been cancelled.

It may also be helpful to reset your Network Settings. This would reset Wi-Fi networks and passwords, cellular settings, and VPN and APN settings that you’ve used before. You can find that option under Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings.

If you're still unable to activate iMessage and FaceTime after trying those steps, you may want to consider updating the iPhone while in recovery mode. Updating the device in recovery mode using iTunes will attempt to place a new copy of iOS on the iPhone without erasing any data. It's a good idea to backup your data first:

How to back up your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch - Apple Support

This resource will walk you through how to update the iPhone in recovery mode:

If you can't update or restore your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support

Let us know what happens from here.

Take care.

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Answer 4

Jazzar0178 Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 1, 2019 7:57 PM in response to Moozito

thabks for your reply, I do have the correct phone number showing in phone. And yet the French number is still showing in iMessage. I think it’s not a carrier problem as it used to work pretty fine before I travel. And same is still true to my friends.

I think that while traveling to either Portugal or Spain something was installed to my phone, maybe preventing it from reading the language that the silent sms is sent to activate iMessage. Tried to find a profile and could not. But while searching for profile is settings I found these results shown, strange as they have no relation to profile

However when I try to access the accessibility items related to spin or Norwij I can’t find anything to activate or diacrivate. Maybe this is related somehow to my problem and is what prevents the iOS from reading the silent sms to activate iMessage sent to me, and that’s why I read it as normal sms instead

thanks

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Answer 5

chuck_3rd

Community Specialist

Apr 2, 2019 12:52 PM in response to Jazzar0178

Hi Jazzar0178,

We're glad to hear you were able to get iMessage and FaceTime activated again. Thanks for following up to let us know the solution!

Have a wonderful rest of your day.

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iMessage problem after traveling

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