"Waiting for Activation" iMessage and Facetime on brand new iPhone 4s

I have the exact same problem, but with my ipod touch

i have the same problem but with my ipod touch!!!!!!

I have a brand new iPhone 4s activated with Sprint. I have had this phone for almost a month and still am 'waiting for activaton' for iMessage as well as Facetime. I have literally tried everything. Hard restarts, restore from orignal settings, network resets, change locations, you name it. Nothing seems to work. I have had 3 phones since getting my first one, as well as spent countless hours at Apple's retail stores. Does anyone have any idea about what is the problem, or have a solution? It seems just out of this world that I could have this phone without this option and continue to enjoy it. I am just really dissapointed with Apple, and this is coming from a huge Apple product fan.

I am having the same problem on my wifes iPhone 4s waiting for activation on face time and i messaging, also the phone number is not showing up on the face time and i messaging activation screen, just the email id. We have been trying to get this problem resolved for over 3 months now. We have been to the apple store on Michigan ave. in Chicago 6 times already. They restored the phone as new so many times I lost count, they also replaced the phone 3 times thinking it might be the phone, the problem still exists. During this time we also were dealing with tier 2 apple phone support. They had us doing the same things as the apple store restore the phone as new on iTunes , reprogram the phone from our carrier, hard resets, turn on face time and i messaging, turn off face time and i messaging etc. etc. After doing everything that they tell you to do, and the problem still exists. they tell you they have to get with the apple engineers and will get back to you.

Which they never do! And when you email them and ask about the status, they don't even have the courtesy to reply back. This has been and still is a very disappointing, frustrating, and time consuming experience, with no results as of yet. We would like to get this problem resolved, any help would be appreciated. Also if anybody knows how to get in contact with Tim Cook CEO of Apple I would like to share with him all the documentation and correspondence I have collected on this ordeal. I'm sure he would put an end to this kind of behavior from his support team.

Bill Ostrowski

I had exactly this problem yesterday, both on my iPhone 4 (which had been working on iMessage for months) and on my wife's iPhone 3GS. I spent an hour on the phone to Apple support, but they couldn’t fix it. All they could suggest was an appointment at an Apple store. However, I managed to fix it on both iPhones by using Google's DNS server, 8.8.8.8.

Using my own proxy server, I found the servers that the iPhone connects to when activating iMessage. There are several, but two of them are deployed regionally with the same hostname but multiple IP addresses (and consequently multiple servers). I am in the UK and when I do DNS lookups, I get the following results:

init.ess.apple.com

82.96.58.9 from a UK DNS server

63.80.4.41 from Google's US DNS server at 8.8.8.8

static.ess.apple.com

82.96.58.47 from a UK DNS server

80.239.148.162 from Google's US DNS server at 8.8.8.8

The regional differences in DNS resolution are because Apple uses Akamai Technologies to deploy local points of presence, which is intended to reduce latency and intercontinental bandwidth. Therefore your iPhone does a DNS lookup on the hostname and a regional IP address is returned. UK DNS servers return the above 82.96.58.* addresses in Sweden; Google's US DNS server returns the above servers in the US, which I am guessing are Apple's primary iMessage servers. The Swedish iMessage servers seem to be deficient in some way, which is why you sometimes get this problem when activating iMessage outside the US.

After changing the DNS for your wifi connection to 8.8.8.8, you may need to restart your iPhone before trying to switch on iMessage again, as restarting will flush the iPhone's DNS cache. Otherwise your iPhone will retain the previous DNS mapping to regional Apple servers rather than to the more reliable primary Apple servers in the US.

Okay honestly I thought I was the only person in the world that has gone through the exact same thing with apple and their tier 2 engineers and all thief ********! I am going on 3 months and still no fix! I have tried everything in the book and it just frustrates me that this problem even exists.

I just found the solution. Spent 2 hours on phone with sprint; 1 hour on phone with apple; 1 hour in apple store...and figured out on my own just now:

****If you have Sprint like I do...sign into your sprint acount online. Go to preferences. There is a link to "block text". it will show all your devices. My new Iphone was showing texts were blocked. Simply chnaged to allow texts..then saved and the ""Waiting for Acitivation" on both facetime and imessages worked fine. Hope this helps!

Ugh nateys I seriously had a smile on my face from ear to ear when I saw this solution, butttttt it was not successful. There was no block text on my Sprint account. I was very hopeful that this nagging problem would finally be gone but I am still stuck with no iMessage or Facetime and I am waiting for that perfect solution. Thanks and please let me know if there are any other ways. PLEASE ANYONE H-E-L-P!

Sorry MikeS...best of luck. I thought I found the silver bullet. it did work for my situation....

Christophe you are the man! I tried that and it fixed my IMessage activation problem.

Guys, i had the same problem and have spend more than 24 hours in reading internet about the issue. I have a factory unlocked iphone 4s and i'm using T-mobile sim... it was showing "waiting for activation" on both imessage and facetime. I called apple support and they said that this feature doesn't work on Tmobile network... they were wrong.... the issue was simple, if you using prepaid plan then check your balances... because to activate service the imessage and facetime send an international text messages, so 2 things to make sure -

1. International message service is ON on your number

2. You should have sufficient balance so that international msg be sent.

Also make sure that Settings>> phone >> should have your number in this format "+1 XXX XXXX XXXX

I did the same and now my imessage and facetime are up and running.

Hope this will help!

Mine didn't work for 2 months and this fixed it, so I posted it in another discussion and have been getting "thank you" replies nearly daily:

Just update your date/time settings:

Settings

> General

>> Date & Time

>>> Set Automatically: Slide "ON"...If it's already on, then slide it off, chill for a bit (maybe restart it), then slide it back on.

I am using an iPhone 4 with iOS 5.1, but other users with 3GS, 4S, and even iTouch devices replied that it worked.

Hey... after having the SAME problem activating my iMessage (i had it working and having an factory unlocked iPhone 4S, i swapped SIM's once and then i couldn't get my number to activate again) a wonderful MAC GENIUS from my local store told me a solution that worked for another when all else fails (the DNS, auto-time, resetting, etc).

Call your carrier to see if they are blocking premium texts or third party texts.. some carriers have an auto-block to protect you from random charges or sometimes (like me) we put the block on ourselves.

I had my carrier remove this block and PRESTO... after they sent a network reset to my phone and i reset my network settings.. i turned on iMessage and FaceTime and they finally activated again!!!

I was able to put the premium block back on after and it still works just fine!!

Hope that works for those that couldn't get it to activate!

This solved my facetime issue.

Thank you,

@AdeptlyTina

Oh man Bono 11 you really had me pumped. I called my carrier (sprint) and they said that there was indeed blocks on my account. After I had them turned off, I reset my phone and its networks settings but still the same thing. I jut do not understand! Is there anything else?? I tried the automatic time and date, and the DNS. I am on a family plan, could it. E possible that if other lines are blocked could that effect it also? I am just clueless now and stunned. It just ***** so muh and no one has a valid answer. Thanks for your help