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

I have an iPhone 4s...this worked for me for iMessages:

Settings -> messages -> receive at -> apple ID -> sign out. Powered down my phone, restarted, went back to apple ID under "receive at" and logged back in. After that, my iMessage function turned back on, and the validating thing went away.

It doesnt work for me. I hate my iphone. This isnt my phone number, and I am not able to change the number.

Do you have outgoing text messages blocked for your mobile?

Which mobile network?

if its not three uk then

turn imessage and facetime off

go into settings>phone and check 'My Number'

It should change to your mobile number

then turn iMessage and Facetime on

Same fix worked for me Bono11, Thanks

Sad to say I am now also in the same predicament. This was working fine on my 4s with 5.1 when I first activated but now I had to do a restore and seem unable to get this done now as also on 5.1.1. Ive tried everything on all these forums including:-

- checking with provider, no restrictions on SMS in or out

- Lots of balance on my account

- Date/time issues make no difference

- Restore from backup and restore as new iphone no difference

- my mobile already listed in Settings --> Phone

- My info already specified in Settings --> Contacts --> My Info

- Apple id only has one number in it matching my mobile number

- Reboots via hold of power button as well as home + power button

- variations of 2g, 3g and wifi

- Email activation is fine, it is the mobile number that is not activating

- Setting the mobile Line1 on my SIM card to match mo mobile number

- Mobile number does show in Contacts above the search field

Any other suggestions?

- Andres

dre_apple. I have the EXACT same problem. With extensive extensive research I have been led to only one solution. Do you happen to have a series of zeros in your actual phone number?

Unfortunately not, no 0s at all, I saw this in another thread and not at all..

Finally iMessage worked for me.... Tried all the possibilities which are explained .... I am using FamilyMobile (USA) with unlimited calling and unlimited texting .... still had a problem.

As few members mentioned, when you click on Cancel iMessage enable option, it will be on with your apple ID but your phone number will not be displayed as part of the caller ID.

I called my phone carrier customer care but they dont have any clue ...😠

From my observation... after trying all the options listed to enable iMessage, I think your phone (carrier) should be able to have the option to send the international texting or able to send text message to non regular texts. As the last option, I recharged $amount to my extra pack which allow me to send the internaltional text messages and other access to 411 etc... and did imessage off and On and WOW .... Issue is ressolved. and surprisingly it doesnt cost me anything from the extra pack 🙂

Hope this helps....

I just had this problem today as my old number ported in...i tried a few suggestions on here didnt work...sooooo what i did was: sign out of the imessage thing, switch it off and facetime, take sim out, switch off phone [for 3mins o be exact 🙂) put sim in and power on phone, wait for a bit, go to menus sign into imessage swtich it on and stared at it for a bit and it said i can now use imessage and it works!

good luck, i work for t-mobile and taking the sim out fixes 90% of all issues in store lol

Here is a working solution...

1. Make sure you are connected to either 3G, 2G or wifi

2. Go to settings, click on store. Logout of your apple account

3. Turn off iMessage and FaceTime

4. Go to your network settings under the general tab and click on reset

5. Reset network settings only... (warning: do not reset your entire phone as you will lose all your contents).

6. After clicking on "rest network settings", your phone will restart automatically

7. Re-login your apple ID for the store by going to the settings again

8. Click on iMessage from the settings, turn it on. It will prompt for your apple ID password and will be verified this time

9. Click on FaceTime under the general tab, turn it on and also login your apple password

The above should solve your problem

MikeS,

I do have a series of zeros in my number and every since my last update I HAVE BEEN UNABLE TO VERIFY my phone number for FaceTime or iMessage... When people try to FaceTime my phone number it says "FaceTime Failed" and that I'm unavailable for FaceTime on their phone... Any suggestions for how I can get my FaceTime to work properly? I've been on the phone with both Verizon and and Apple about this matter to no avail...Thanx

thanks! tried this and it works for me!

I have the same issue. Apple engineers confirmed that they know about the 0000 problem and they don't have a fix at this time.

HEY....i had this issue, tried all your above suggestions....none worked....here's how i fixed it

logged into my apple account....went to account information....in account information i went to my 'phone numbers" page/section......my phone number was correct....but i decided to re-type it in and save it...just to make sure it was listed properly....and wam...fixed.

Problem solved by iOS6.