Unable to use Apple ID for iMessage

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Level 1

4 points

Unable to use Apple ID for iMessage

Roughly a month ago I purchased an Apple Certified Refurbished iPad 6th Generation. All seemed to work at first, but when I tried activating iMessage or FaceTime, I would get the following error message:

iMessage Activation

An error occurred during activation. Try Again

After reading the support articles online for this error message and trying the proposed solutions, nothing changed. I spoke with Apple Support today and they recommended deregistering iMessage online - tried this, no luck.

After digging around in the settings on my iPhone, I noticed that when I tried to press "Use your Apple ID for iMessage" under the "Send & Receive" menu, I was presented with the same error I received on my iPad, even though I have been able to use iMessage perfectly fine on my phone in the past year that I've owned it.

Does anyone know how I might be able to rectify this issue? I can live without being able to use iMessage from my iPad, but the fact that I am unable to use my Apple ID to send/receive from seems very odd...

iPad, iOS 13

Posted on Nov 19, 2019 11:52 AM

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Answer 1

Eric Root

Level 10

685,323 points

Nov 19, 2019 12:41 PM in response to jmshaw21

You may have seen the below.

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

Messages Troubleshooting

Do you have access to another WiFi network where you can try? That has worked for several people.

Try a restart.

Restart your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

Try a forced restart.

Reset Device

If necessary

Hard reset

Do a backup and try a factory reset. Then restore from your backup.

Restore to Factory setting

Backup - Restore your device from an iCloud or iTunes backup

Have someone else attempt to sign in using their Apple ID. If they can successfully sign in and use Messages/FaceTime, it may be your Apple ID. Someone I know had this happen and I was able to sign in using my Apple ID. After a call to Apple Support and then being elevated to a tier 2 support person, it turned out it was a problem with their Apple ID. It took the software engineers 3-4 days to fix the problem. When calling Apple, make sure you tell them it is an Apple ID problem so you don't get charged.

You can also try signing in on another device/computer. There have been a couple of posts where people's device/computer was blocked. You will need to contact Apple for that problem also.

There is a contact link.

Apple ID Support

Apple ID Support (2)

Apple Support by e-mail or chat

Apple Support using Twitter

Or fill out and submit this form.

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Unable to use Apple ID for iMessage

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