Since Sunday night, I can no longer get my iPad to work with Messages, FaceTime, Find My

I am pleased to report that this issue is now resolved.

This morning, iPadOS 16.4 was showing as available for downloading on my iPad. I installed it.

Upon the iPad restarting, the little exclamation mark badge was still beside my Messages app icon.

I opened the Messages app. It had a large dialog box, asking me to sign in with my Apple ID to activate iMessage.

This time the sign in was successful. I confirmed that Texts and iMessages could be received again on the iPad.

I then opened FaceTime on the iPad. It had a little working circle off to the left, saying it was signing in to FaceTime. After a few seconds, it too was successful in signing in.

Then I opened Find My. This time, in addition to my other devices, it showed my iPad. And Find My on my other devices also displayed my iPad.

So, it seems that waiting for the next iPadOS update did it for me. Something certainly went awry on my iPad a week ago last Sunday afternoon. Maybe an update did not get implemented properly on my machine or my iPad communication with iCloud had a glitch, affecting Messages/FaceTime/Find My on the device. What ever happened as part of the update specifically or simply by virtue of the resetting of connections to iCloud that occurred during the update, allowed this issue to be corrected.

I am grateful for all the support from the Apple Community Specialists on this.

Thank you very kindly.

Hello ryane77,

Thanks for your response. I had already attempted the resolutions as per the link you provided (a couple of times actually) (and other things suggested elsewhere), before posting my question, but I had no success.

I have not made any changes to my Apple ID recently.

Everything else is working on my devices. Messages continue to show up on my MacBook Air just fine. It seems that the issue is limited to my iPad for Messages, FaceTime, and Find My. Even SMS messages seem to be very delayed in showing up on iPad, and no new iMessages show up there. Things like Photos, KeyChain, Safari Favorites, etc, that also use iCloud are working fine.

I was hopeful yesterday, when on Settings, there was a red circle at a 1 beside it saying "Update Apple ID Settings". "Some account services will not be available until you sign in again." I did sign in again. But it did not resolve the issues. For a while yesterday, after that, my iPad itself did show the iPad (and all my other devices) on Find My. But it is back today as showing only my other devices. My other devices are not and even yesterday did not show the iPad on Find My.

Thanks. Your support is appreciated.

Hello Alma1090, and Thank You.

What I figured, is that I would wait until the next iPadOS update comes out, thinking that possibly something went awry last Sunday afternoon potentially during an update (I cannot be sure). (I also reported this on Apple Product Feedback, just in case). I will check again after the next update (current is iPadOS 16.3.1) and then turn to Apple Support as you suggested if it is not resolved then on its own. I will report on the results here, to help others after it is resolved, one way or another.

I appreciate your support. Thanks,

Thanks SnickZ.

I went through the instructions per the links you provided. I confirmed that on my iPhone I have the Message log in aligned properly with my Apple ID. I am forwarding to my (wifi only) iPad (and MacBook). (As noted, everything is still working fine on the Mac with respect to all these things.)

On the iPad, under Settings, Messages, it brings up an iMessage screen with my correct Apple ID at the top. It often says Verifying at the very top and then later a pop-up comes on to say "iMessage Activation. Unable to contact the iMessage server. Try Again." If I click on "Try Again", the box just disappears. I can click into the first line where it has my Apple ID listed. When I do that it says "Verifying" at the top of the screen again, and in a while the "Unable to contact the iMessage server" comes back up.

If I open the Message app, it has a large white dialog box on top with iMessage Sign in with your Apple ID to activate iMessage. It is pre-populated with my correct Apple ID. I add the password and click on Sign In, it says it is signing in with a working circle indicator, but after a while it comes back with the "Unable to contact the iMessage server" box. I cannot get past this box.

FaceTime is also just always Signing In, and then unable to contact the FaceTime server. (Though it does not have a similar large dialog box like Messages, it is just saying that it is signing in with words off to the side of screen.)

So, on the iPad, I cannot "log out" of iMessage or FaceTime as I cannot even sign-in properly in the first place it seems.

Restarting the iPad, does not have any effect.

I am willing to try some more things, but as I noted, I cannot get past the app sign in screens in Messages and FaceTime and on their associated Settings pages.

Thanks,

For completeness:

iPhone is iOS 15.7.3.

MacBook Air is macOS Ventura 13.2.1

iPad (wifi only) is iPadOS 16.3.1

They all indicate they are up to date. They all are set for automatic updates.

Thanks,