Messages in iCloud is currently disabled

Hey there miles280,

Thanks for reaching out to Apple Support Communities. I understand you’re experiencing some issues using Messages with iCloud. I’ll be happy to help.

You’ve done some thorough troubleshooting so far. To verify, can you currently use iMessage other iCloud features without any issues? Have you checked Apple’s System Status to see if there are any known issues with the service? Check and see:

Apple - Support - System Status

If that doesn’t help, it may be a good idea to back up your iPhone and reinstall iOS using the steps from the following links and attempt to use this feature once more:

How to back up your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch

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

Let me know if this helps.

kelliejeanhayes,

Apple support was able to resolve my problem today without restoring the phone by doing the following.

Support person ask if I still had my old phone that I just upgraded from yesterday and since I had ordered the new 11 online and it shipped to my house, I still had my old phone. The support person had me turn the old phone (XS) back on, connect to wifi and then sign back in to my iCloud account that I had made the iCloud backup on. Because I'm on iOS 13.3 and use Apple wallet, Two Factor Authentication was required when I signed back into iCloud on old phone. Once I verify the Two Factor Authentication on the new phone, my text messages started to download immediately. After ten minutes of downloading, all messages were restored and the message at the bottom of the Messaging app "Messages in iCloud is currently disabled" disappeared.

Support person stated if Two Factor Authentication is required on your account, it is best to leave old phone on and signed into iCloud while new phone is restoring from iCloud backup so the Two Factor Authentication can be verified when requested.

Everything is back to normal with my messages now. Thank you Apple support for resolving the issue.

Miles280,

I am having the same issue after upgrading to the 11. Were you able to get it back without factory resetting?

Upgraded to the 11 yesterday and having the same issue. Has anyone found a solution to this problem?