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

Updated to iOS5 around noon today. My iMessage still says "Waiting for activation...", someone told me there was a email I was supposed to receive. I never got one. How do I get Apple to resend said email, or more to the point - activate iMessage on my Telus iPhone 4?


User uploaded file

iPhone 4

Posted on Oct 12, 2011 8:27 PM

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539 replies

Jan 15, 2013 12:16 PM in response to Schuff

Can u be kind enough to mention all the steps you did before Imessage started working.

I tried reseting network connections

Edited number under my number

signed out of my apple ids and did hard resets. imessage n facetime both stuck at waiting for activation forever.

i'm using airtel 2g connection and i do have wifi. imessage and factime was working fine through apple id email but i want it to work through phone number as most people try sening imessage to me through phone and not ipad.

Jan 15, 2013 1:35 PM in response to sayadil

I did all steps listed in all this discussion.


but I always got the "waiting for activation" and after 24H the error unable to verify my phone number.


I kept it that way for a week and one day just turned off/on imessage again. waited 24h hours and my phone number was validated.


just make sure you have international sms activated

Jan 15, 2013 1:56 PM in response to Batistag

I left Waiting for activation for few hours got a little grey note under imessage on/off saying activation unsuccessful. turned it back on and same waitin for activation and now im waiting.

also i wanted to know what number format should be under myinfo i'm based in India so it shows +91 9XXXXXXXXX at settings/phone/my number


but on appleid.apple.com under phone numbers it doesn't let us type +91 in country code so i typed just 91 as some user suggested ... also i left area code blank.. and then my 10 digit number.

my apple store purchases r working fine.. and everything else works fine except imessage activating over cellular phone and not Appleid emails.

Jan 22, 2013 5:02 PM in response to bradfromwinnipeg

I too was having this problem. I tried resetting the network settings, switch to airplane mode, hold the home and power button together to reset, etc.


Up to this point it was still not working.


It was not until I physically switched the power off, counted to 5, then power up again. Once I did this, both iMessage and Facetime was working.


As I tried a cocktail of the things mentioned here, I don't know which one thing fixed.


Hope it works for you too.

Jan 26, 2013 1:19 AM in response to Cameramen

I just signed out for my Apple ID from everywhere (iTunes, Game Center, Messages and FaceTime) and tried activating. It activated that day. But today, I had to restore my iPhone and had to activate iMessage again. But the same problem. It's stuck on "Waiting for activation".


Either there's a problem with Vodafone India network or simply Apple doesn't give a **** about Indian customers!

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

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