you must have a sim associated with an apple device for to be used for imessage and facetime

i tried all steps even swap my sim and still it does not verify my number.

i do not have my number associated to any other apple device.

shall I go with factory reset ?

one thing i noticed if i insert my brother sim with same carrier network it works but issue is only with my sim.

i did not get proper support from

apple someone can help 😔

Does the SIM work for other apps? Can you make a cellular phone call? Do you have access to cellular data?

If the SIM does not work, you may have an issue. While you can use iMessage from a phone without a SIM, there are limitations. The phone needs to be able to send an international SMS in order to activate iMessage. Once that is done, you can remove the SIM. However, if iMessage ever becomes deactivated, which can happen if it doesn't connect to data for several days, the process will need to be repeated.

I am puzzled by that message completely. I used to use an iPhone for Facetime that had no SIM card at all. I used it as an iPad Touch.

Your image was removed because it showed personal information. I do not know what it displayed. Is the SIM card detected by the device at all?

Exact same problem on an iPhone 11Pro. Means I can't activate Facetime or iMessage via the phone number, which was working only a few days ago. Also, I am not receiving texts for authorisation etc. from Apple when sent, but it receives personal texts from SMS etc. fine.

Such a pain!

I had this same issue and followed the steps here but it didn't work.

Under settings, phone, my, my number - my number was no longer showing. As soon as I added my number all the issues I was having with iMessage were resolved.

Ok so the ESim thing I did literally worked for two days.

i found a helpful thread on Reddit, that I did. Basically I deleted my old ESIM and downloaded a new one.

I have AT&T but I’m sure Verizon may have something similar as well.

AT&T only

If you recently transferred your iPhone from physical SIM to ESim and are getting the "iMessage activation unsuccessful" error. Here are the steps to get it to work:

1. Go to "settings" > "cellular" > "delete Esim"
2. Log on to your MyATT account and select on your device then find the "options and settings" then select "manage your sim" then tap on "Get new ESim". It will send a notification to your iphone asking to download a new ESim tap yes/approve.
3. Under "cellular" it should say "activating"
4. Restart your iphone (volume up, down then hold the power button).
5. Turn the device back on after 30 seconds.
6. Go to "settings" tap on your profile then tap on "name, phone numbers and email" under "reachable at" either delete the number that is there or hit "edit" and add the number over again.
7. Go to "messages" in the settings and toggle it off and back on. You should be able to then go to "send and received" then tap on your phone number and the blue checkmark should appear.
8. Then go to "facetime" and toggle that on and select your number under "you can be reached by facetime at".

zraineri wrote:

I'm sorry, it's been a frustrating day. I didn't see you weren't replying to OP but a different issue brought up on the thread. My bad

No worries. Maybe take a little time away from whatever's bothering you if you can. I find it's always hard to do solid problem solving when I'm frustrated and angry.

Hello everyone, I had the same issue and SOLVED IT :) (iPhone XS) here's what I've done: First under Settings -> Apple ID -> Name, Phone Numbers, Email: below Name I clicked Edit and added the phone number. Than I went to iMessage and saw the phone number show up there with the SIM card error message. All it took after was to turn off my phone and turn it back on. Now my iMessages can be sent via phone number or email. It works. Hope this helps someone.

I had this exact problem as well. Just purchased a new phone as was setting it up. All it took was to turn the old phone off as of course that was using the same phone number for iMessages.

I struggled with this for half an hour and read through this whole post then it occurred to me that if the old phone is on and connected by wifi then iMessage would want to be sending to that device.

The same message popped up when i tried to use my number for iMessage and facetime. Did everything i could. So use ny phone number as my apple id. And i have an esim too in my iPhone 13. The esim can be used for iMessage and facetime. But my primary phone number cannot be used for iMessage and facetime. Did everything. Please help

Hi all! My phone had the same issue, just spent 30min with Apple support only to come up with must download new software. I have that now and still did not work. Tried adding my phone number did not work either. It did not recognize my sim. On a whim, I decided to activate my ESim, and that worked!! Now I can send from my cell phone. Would definitely try it and see. I have an Apple 13Pro

Settings> Cellular>ESim.

it takes like a minute to verify but after that everything worked!

Hope this helps!

I had similar issue with my number. Turns out i had an old Apple ID and the number was associated with that. I deleted that account and after deletion confirmation tried the number again for iMessage and it went smoothly.

UPDATE: everything is up and running now. I decided to try to toggle on iMessage after the 48hr mark of me owning the phone. Finally worked and activated with no issues. If you’re porting in your old number to Verizon, try waiting the 48hr if nothing else is working. Cheers

I have had this issue for over 2 months now on my new iphone 15 pro. Its not a cellular problem as other people with the same cellular provider and the same plan are easily using imessage and facetime. I had a chat with the apple costumer care as well and i didnt get any solution. What might be the problem here?? please someone help me out with this….

Apple SOLVED this for me after 3 weeks of attempts. She said my number was still "blocked" from being ported in and had to verify who I was by texting me a code and then unblocked it. iMessage instantly started working without turning off my phone or anything.

The full story:

I got the number started on Google Voice in order to have a local area code for my business. Once I was ready to start paying for the additional phone line, I ported it into my provider - Pure Talk who uses AT&T towers. Initially, phone calls worked but no iMessage. It would attempt to send in blue, then fail, then switch to green and send just fine. I thought iMessage was the only issue so I wasn't especially concerned to get it solved right away. Then I started getting phone calls from friends and potential clients asking if I had received any of their texts as I wasn't responding. I then learned that I was not even receiving texts from some people, but they were also unaware that their texts were not getting to me. With this being my work number and having new potential clients trying to contact me and receiving no response I was becoming another contractor who does not respond. I called Pure Talk's tech support every few days for at least a few weeks, tried the whole list of resetting and turning on and off that they always make you go through. I actually ended up losing a bunch of photos from the who process which is still pretty aggravating. At one point I couldn't even send or receive texts from my wife for a couple days. I had been on with Apple support while screen sharing and the first person I got could not figure it out either. Finally I got the right lady who knew exactly what they issue was and fixed it in less than 5 minutes. I'm not on social media and not someone who's always got my phone in my face, but this really shut me down for a few weeks. When you rely on a phone to do business when you're self-employed, no communication eventually means no income. Think twice about porting a number in that was originated from Google Voice or anything else that's a land line I guess.