Error when activating facetime/imessage

I used to have facetime, imessage and iCloud registered to apple id A, which all worked fine.


Then I got another apple id B which is from different country, and I started use it as iCloud account but keep all the rest with id A. Still everything works ok unless I cannot forward phone call to nearby devices because iCloud id (B) is different from facetime id (A).


Now I'm trying to remove all numbers and addresses from A and link them to B. But I find that it always showing that error happened during activation. I have tried on different iPhones (different phone numbers) or Mac they all come with same error. Also tried every steps listed in https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201422.


Can anyone please suggest what could I do to fix the issue? Thanks!

iPhone XR

Posted on Apr 2, 2020 1:11 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Apr 2, 2020 5:52 PM

If you still have problems, 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 - Official Apple Support.    


Contact Apple for help with Apple ID account security - Apple Support.  (The link doesn’t always load)


Get Support    Work through the screens to get a chat option. 


https://twitter.com/AppleSupport


Or fill out and submit  iTunes Store - Contact Us - Official Apple Support   The form is for iTunes, but will get passed to the ID Support section. 



8 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Apr 2, 2020 5:52 PM in response to hong_g

If you still have problems, 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 - Official Apple Support.    


Contact Apple for help with Apple ID account security - Apple Support.  (The link doesn’t always load)


Get Support    Work through the screens to get a chat option. 


https://twitter.com/AppleSupport


Or fill out and submit  iTunes Store - Contact Us - Official Apple Support   The form is for iTunes, but will get passed to the ID Support section. 



Apr 2, 2020 3:27 AM in response to hong_g

You are very welcome. I wasn't sure what all you had done. You may be able to use what's below to straighten things our. Something may have gone wrong when you "got another apple id B which is from different country."


See Change your Apple ID country or region https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201389See this heading especially What to do before you change your country or region

 

Use this link in the document if you need to View your Apple ID balance https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202359

 

If you can't complete any of the steps, can't change your country or region, or you have less store credit than the cost of a single itemcontact Apple SupportNote that you could just purchase something of value greater than or equal to the amount of your store credit or ask iTunes Support to zero out your account balance using this  iTunes Support Form https://support.apple.com/en-euro/itunes-contact

 

And you also can contact iTunes worldwide support via text or chat using this link https://support.apple.com/choose-country-region/itunesChoose your country. At the bottom of your screen use Tell us how we can help to select among support options. You should be able to get telephone or chat support.

Apr 2, 2020 8:26 AM in response to hong_g

Are you running any anti - virus programs? Using a VPN?


Try setting up another admin user account in System Preferences/Users & Groups to see if the same problem continues. Please post back on whether or not this worked. Also try the Safe Mode. Please post back on whether or not this worked.


Isolating an issue by using another user account    


Safe Mode - About.       


If it works in the Safe Mode, try running this program when booted normally and then copy and paste the output in a reply. The program was created by Etresoft, a frequent contributor.  Please use copy and paste as screen shots can be hard to read. Click “Share Report” button in the toolbar, select “Copy to Clipboard” and then paste into a reply. This will show what is running on your computer. No personal information is shown. If the log won’t post, try posting it in Pastebin and provide a link in a reply. After pasting the report in a PasteBin page, go to the top of the page, and copy the address in the URL bar. Paste that in a new reply.        Pastebin.    


Etrecheck – System Information.      


Web site version if required.  https://etrecheck.com

Apr 2, 2020 3:38 AM in response to donv_the_ghost

Technically I didn't change the country of any apple id. I have one id in China and another one in NZ, and both are working perfectly for almost a decade.

The problem happens when I try to activate facetime/imessage on my NZ id, because I prefer to use iCloud in nz (iCloud cn is slow as it's physically stored there due to regulation) with call forwarding (which requires iCloud and facetime must be same id).

Apr 2, 2020 2:52 PM in response to Eric Root

I don't have an active VPN connection or AntiVirus software running on my MBP.


I did tried create another admin account and see whether I can login to FaceTime. Initially the error was "This account has no reachable address.", so I went to appleid.apple.com to add my phone numbers as reachable addresses (it was only an email address now email + phone numbers). But still I cannot login afterwards, the error is either "no reachable address" or "activation failure".


The same problem happen on both iPhone and my MBP, so still looks a bit more like an AppleID issue.

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Error when activating facetime/imessage

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