How do I “Go to Settings > Messages and turn off iMessage.”? IPadOS 13.7, iPad Pro 10.5-inch.

I talked to Apple Support. Their response: update to iPadOS 14.1.

Very disappointing. If I was running 12.x, I'd understand. But I'm running the latest version of 13.x. That shouldn't be off the rails yet!!!

Will update this once I've taken the leap to 14.x.

I completely agree that the above is what it *should* look like! Instead, I have this:

(The black oval contains my Apple ID, which was auto-filled on the screen. I'm paranoid...)

Regarding the iCloud settings, I have explicitly turned off iMessages in iCloud in the hope that having it on was part of the problem. No change in symptoms whether it's off or on. It's my understanding that having this turned on simply allows me to see my MMS/SMS messages on my WiFi-only iPad. When this option initially appeared (many OS revisions ago) it was off by default. I could see only my iMessages on my iPad at that point. When I turned it on, I got everything, which is lovely. At this point, I have nothing!!!

All help is appreciated.

Also note that my iPhone and iMac are working just fine with all messages and FaceTime. So I don't think it's a general Apple ID problem. It's just the iPad that's off the rails.

Another bit of info: This started sometime during the night on Oct 19th. I gave it 24 hours to self-resolve. Sometimes that works...

2-factor authentication is on. The code would go to my phone, iMac, or maybe watch. They're all right in front of me and no code is being sent.

Yes, I've disabled iMessages in iCloud, rebooted my iPad, re-enabled iMessages in iCloud. Same symptoms.

I agree with this: "you'll somehow need to satisfy the login / get through the verification step." That is the core of the problem. That is why I created this thread. Hopefully, between all of us, someone will come up with something that allows me to get through this.

Apple Support is my next stop.

You asked whether the screen shown in your second screen shot indicates that I'm signed in to iCloud. Yes, it does. All other iCloud services are functional. It's just iMessage and FaceTime. I've focused on iMessage in this thread, but FaceTime has all the same symptoms. (Note that FaceTime has no iCloud settings.) Everything else is fine.

I updated. iMessage and FaceTime can now authenticate.

New issue: When I send a message from the iPad (WiFi only) to a non-Apple recipient, the message is in fact sent successfully via my phone. I can see it on the phone. However, the iPad is not notified and it indicates that the message failed. New messages received on this conversation do not appear on the iPad.

Before I contact Apple Support again I'll update my phone. I'm confident that will be their first suggestion. It seems that backward compatibility is a thing of the past.

I've now updated everything, and it's all working. The settings were all correct. This was all working prior to Oct 19th, so I didn't expect to find any issues with settings.

When this started, all of my devices were at a consistent level. Having that come off the rails is not something that should happen when working with a flagship software vendor like Apple. Backward compatibility is hard. I realize that. I participated in large, distributed embedded software programs for many years as a developer, manager, and program manager. I hired software development managers that had previously worked at Apple, so I know how their managers are trained. It's not pretty.

Maybe some day quality will become a priority again. I'm not going to hold my breath.