My iMessage still says "Waiting for activation..."

I'm in the same boat! I posted a question with my exact issue earlier today, with no reply from anybody 😟 I have tried absolutely everything listed. I've ordered a replacement SIM, I've rebooted the phone, wiped it, had it replaced, restored it, restored network settings, date and time, editing phone number in my settings and iTunes, you name it - I've tried it! Only thing I haven't attempted yet is changing my DNS through my wifi, which I will do when I get home. I'll let you guys know if it works! If not, I'm fresh out of ideas!

I just fixed a friend of mines that had both Facetime and iMessage stuck on -waiting for activation'

1. Made sure the time was correct and on 'automatic'

2.Go to settings<messages<send and receive.

3.Do you see your phone number listed there with a checkmark or an email address/apple id with a checkmark?

4.If there is an email address selected, de-select it, then go back and turn imessage off.

5. Go to settings<Facetime and do the same, de-select any email addresses selected for being reached on Facetime.

6. Turn off Facetime.

**make sure no email accounts are selected as contact methods on either imessage or facetime before rebooting the phone.

7. Reboot the iPhone (hold down power & home until the phone power cycles and the Apple logo shows)

8. Once back on the phone go back to settings<messages<turn on imessage.

If it worked it should go into 'waiting for activation' and after a few seconds turn imessage on. (It might ask for your Apple ID password) and your phone number should now be shown under send & receive,then go to Facetime and turn it on, after a few seconds it too should turn on and have your phone with a checkmark and active. Hope it helps, good luck!

After it detects your phone number correctly you can re-select the email accounts again if you want them as contact options on both imessage and facetime.

I had a very similar problem. It ****** me off and I found a solution that requires nothing but pressing a couple things on the iphone itself.

Situation:

iPhone 4S on AT&T, stock, no jailbreaking, OS6

.

I use AT&T in Los Angeles. I flew to Paris. I bought an unlock on my IMEI from officialiphoneunlock.uk for 35 pounds and it didn't really do anything. After a day, I threw in an SFR sim card that the hotel concierge gave me. I got nothing to sync really so I was thinking, I'd rather just use wifi and receive imessages and emails and use data when I have wifi connectivity.

I threw back my AT&T sim card and everything seemed fine. Except, I was not able to send imessages to anyone. Only text which costs a lot. I freaked out and looked into imessage settings and saw that it still had the SFR sim card Paris phone number in an un-edit-able form where the number is greyed out. So I could only use imessage via email, which I don't like.

I went on trying to do what everyone in here has told me to do such as the DNS 8.8.8.8 thing which didn't do anything, my time zone was current and on automatic, I tried syncing back and forth etc but that didn't do crap and I also didn't want to do a full restore because I can't back up anything to my laptop since I didn't copy over my last sync data from my old laptop to my new macbook pro. Fail.

I also went onto my apple id online and set my phone number etc and email and did the reboot thing and nothing worked.

So I freaked out and played around more, exasperated at this thing and I went in and did this.

Settings -> General -> Reset -> Reset Network Settings

Reboot

BOOM. Works like a charm and now both my actual phone number that my AT&T sim card is always associated with is showing and is not greyed out and I have a checkmark next to both that and my email for imessage. Friends all confirmed that my imessages come at them with my real phone number attached.

I hope this helps at least one person so that typing this while I should be out getting drunk in Paris was worth the time.

The ONLY thing that worked for me, after 1 week of rebooting the phone, restoring it, replacing SIM, setting up as new phone, switching it on and off, chaning Apple ID passwords, information etc, I simply turned iMessage off, left for at least 24 hours and then turned it back on.

It activated within a few minutes. I'd definitely try that because I tried EVERYTHING and that was the only thing that worked.

Hope this helps guys!

Specialward's method of reseting network settings worked for me!

I live in japan and i have the same problem with my 4s,already tried everything .... today was the apple store and exchanged my device with a new one, I went in and changed the Softbank SIM card, and nothing works, before making the restoration of the new device is not functioning the same iMessage and facetime with the new device, I edited my itunes account and the app store and also did not work, so the problem may be the apple or Softbank!

somebody help me please!!!!!

oh....very ease to set up....i got the same problem like you guys...but...try this way..it worked for me..

go to setting....then facetime....turn on facetime..below the faccetime ...you will see sign in apple ID....then sign in apple id....(you must sign in apple id.)

then go back to imessage...click turn on...then you will see it working normal...(i am using simple mobile...not att or verizon )now...i go back to facetime...about 4 mins....they approved for my facetime within 4 mins...i think mostly..you guys didn't sign in the apple id....

goodluck to you all...sorry for my bad english....you don't need to reset anything...nothing wrong with your phone...mostly we didn't do rite step...

This worked for me.

Just had to sign out of appleID and then back in with Facetime, then iMessage worked.

Pain in the A**. I am using PureTalk USA, not AT&T, or Verizon or T-Mobile.

I thought it was PureTalk ......NOT.

Gotta love these forums..... sonner or later, someone comes up with a Fix.

I had the same problem "waiting for activation" on my 4s. It still seemed to still work with the "waiting" message. I added an email to my AppleID online. I then got a message on my phone asking if I wanted to add the email for FaceTime. I added the email and the "waiting" message disappeared. I then unchecked the email to revert back to using my phone number. Hope this helps somebody else.

I logged into iMessages on my MacBook, then..

Messages > preferences > accounts > then checked the box with my cell number in it

FaceTime and iMessages immediately recognized my number.

Hope this helps.

Hi guys,

I am new to the forum, but I hope my answer will help all of you.

It took me over 2 weeks to fix this problem,

you may see that my answer has answered from “ cant send sms texts the “waiting for activation” and “cant send sms texts” are linked to each other

any one whos got this far in the answers list must be as frustrated and annoyed as I was /am at the problem I hope this works for you I am going the main things apple have asked me to do (while talking to them via tech support) to help you.

I have an iphone 5 16 gb on o2

so if you call apple support or contact your communications provider they will ask the first few things,

taken from the answer submitted by “Ir. Bob”

Set phone number under settings->phone->My Number

• Turning iMessage on/off
• Turning the phone on/off
• Resetting network settings (Setting->General->reset->Reste Network Settings)
• Restoring the phone via iTunes
• Putting the SIM in another iPhone

they will defiantly ask you to do this,

one thing I found that gave me a little help is that when resetting my “network settings”

if I went to

“general>cellular/mobile> cellular/moblie data network” my cellular data and mms APN kept on ververting to idata.o2.co.uk ( this is fine if you are on a contract from o2 ) I had switched to a pay as you go chip so it needed to be “payandgo.02.co.uk”

and also this is another thing I found aswell

source http://community.o2.co.uk/t5/Apple-iOS-Devices-iPhone-iPad/Cant-send-texts-on-iP hone-5/td-p/306784

answer submitted by Jonsie

Try this using your dial pad, Make sure you press the call button after each!:

*#5005*7672# this tells you the message centre number installed in the handset
P&G should show : +447802092035If it doesn't, type in the sequence below.##5005*7672# this deletes the message centre number
Then **5005*7672*+447802092035# (for prepay customers)

Message service centre settings

• +447802000332 for Pay Monthly
• +447802092035 for Pay & Go

so each time I was told by apple support or my o2 guru support to do this I needed to red do these steps before getting back to normal pay and go status,

another thing to check is what “Kildares” said even though it may seem unlikely its better to make sure it all correlates,

I have the solution just go to setting/store/apple id/ view apple id/edit payment information and there put your phone number correct then save it and go back to imessage or facetime turn it off and back on and it will be done

so if you have found like I have that you have spent 2 hrs and 34 min ( yes I spent that long with them on the phone!

Mind you the person was very nice 🙂

your going be genuinely frustrated and peed off

by this time I had done every thing they told me, and I got to dire needs and thought okay im going restore my phone going wipe it and see if that made any difference.

I did that and no luck I still had the same problem so I tried making a new profile with my apple id and it still did not work.

Fair to say I was brain dead to say the least,

so I thought okay ive tried every thing and its not working ive tried restoring my phone not working ( btw restoring usually works for most people)

but it did highlight a few problems for me and made them a priority in finding the source of my problem.

Possible problems are

my apple id/ profile/ back up is corrupt and not working

my iphone has a hardware malfunction ( very unlikely but cant rule it out )

now at this time I did not think of this, but I am going add it to this list

my sim card was corrupt,

I had not thought this a likely out come as a sim swap form original sim to a nano sim is a mundane a rudimentary thing that done all the time.

So at this point I was stuck because I was not sure how to run a diagnostic scan of my apple id/ backup to see if it was corrupt,

after asking my cousin (whom is just as technical as I am (nice way of saying geeky I guess ^^ )

was stumped he had tried pretty much every thing and nothing worked !

At this point I was like all this and still no where!!! but alas we made a break through not a massive one but still significant he signed in to my phone using his apple id,

why is this significant ?

Because all of his details came up straight awy no fuss it activated like it should do worked like a dream ?? but how ???

so I eliminated the possibility of phone malfunction because my cousins profile worked fine

now only 2 possible problems perhaps my apple id its self or the sim, at this point I still not had thought about the sim.

So I booked an appointment at the genius bar and we went through all the usual's that I stated above and that others have generously in putted on this thread.

And after I explained every thing all that I had done and I mean every thing he told me I am going give you a new phone,

and I told him that not going fix the problem,

he also said that we will set this phone as a brand new phone set up at the apple store so we set it up there that means not using my back up but there one.

Guess what it didn’t work I was about to say “i told ya so!” but then he looked at me rather confidently and said im 100 percent certain its your sim card !! my wha?? seriously yes that’s right folks my sim card was the culprit and source of my problems.

The port from my original sim to the new had not gone correctly so I went back to o2 and asked to be swapped yet again to another sim, now if you are still having this problem I suggest you get your sim and then directly speak to the tech support team or in my case 02 guru online to activate the sim swap as the o2 employee said she had done it but when I contacted them online they had received no request for the sim swap.

So nearly 3 days later after looking at it saying to my self I bet it ain’t going to work I would not be surprised “ it actually did it sent a bloody msg!! it activated and worked fine !!.

I hope this helps,

try eliminating the possible sources of the problem focus on one at a time because tackling all at the same time well ( yea Im a guy so multi tasking is not my strongest skill) it can drain you to te point where you feel jus to far stretched and at least when you have eliminated one theory that goal just seems that little closer.

nish x

I want to know, you spoke about your SIM card being corrupt. Is there a way to tell if that is the issue, also were you able to function with that SIM card as usual ( make calls, send calls, send normal text, receive normal text, use your data without issues). But just not being able to set up ya iMessage.

yes the "sim swap" did not go correctly, i was able to receive calls and texts but not send them i was able to send imessages too

but every time i looked under the imessage icon to switch it on and off it would say waiting for activation,

the quickest way to tell if your sim is the culprit is by keeping your sim in the phone and the going to apple store or a friends house) do it on some one elses comp to eliminate the possibility it could be your own id/ back up just start a fresh i.e set up as a new phone, so do not restore from back up make it as a fresh new start.

if you are still having the problem it shows that your sim is the problem also allow another to sign in your phone using their apple id and see if it works properly if theirs works properly then its a very high possibility its your sim.

GUYS! you can try signing out and then back in again of your apple id under iTunes & App Stores > Apple ID. It worked for me.

Do hope I helped. (:

if your problem still isn't fixed, why not try signing out and back in again of your apple id? (: