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

I had a problem with a connecting the iTunes Store from Passbook so I changed a Date and Time from setting>general>date and time and Set Automatically OFF and then set date months ahead based on a forums and it worked. Anyway thats when iMessage and Facetime start showing me "Wating for Activation" sign. I went back on Setting>General>Date and Time and changed to Set Automatically ON. Then went back to iMessage and Facetime and it worked. But when I change Set Automatically ON the Passbook stop working again it tells me Can not connect to iTunes Store. I guess I have to choose which one I have to use Passbook or iMessage, Facetime.

I did the ios6. Update and for a few week it worked on my iphone 4 then out of no where it stopped please help me

Hi Guys, I cant say how I know this, But if you really just want to fix this, Properly sync all of your data and restore the phone using itunes. Avoid all backups and set the phone up as new (from itunes or icloud, either way) and then sync your Information and content back over. Check facetime/imessage. It should be all good.

Trust Me,

AGHKs

You dont have to do that. Just in two steps you can fix that.
go to facetime/iMessage then remove the email address specified and add it again. It will fix this issue. I helped many of ma friends with this tip.

I have been having the same problem. I restored my phone a few days ago and it fixed the problem for a while, but today my imessage is not working again. when I when to setting and turned the imessage off and then on - it asked my to enter my appleid - which I did along with my password and it is saying it is incorrect!! I typed it in again and it still says it is incorrect - when I know it is not!!! Ugh. Any suggestions...

I've been having this same problem, and discovered something interesting.

Basically, following the recommended reset procedure, I can enable EITHER FaceTime OR iMessage, but not BOTH. Whichever one I activate first works instantly, but the next one will get the "Waiting for activation..." that never succeeds.

The reset procedure I mention is:

1. Turn off WiFi, iMessage, & Facetime.
2. Log out of your apple account in settings, "iTunes & App Stores"
3. Reset via Settings, General, Reset, "Reset Network Settings" (causes non-destructive reboot)
4. (After reboot complete), log back into apple account in Settings, "iTunes & App Stores"
5. Turn on iMessage (or FaceTime) from settings menu, the first one (either iMessage or FaceTime) will work. "waiting for activation..." is shown, but goes away within 10 seconds and successfully activated.
6. Turn on FaceTime (or iMessage, depending which you did in #5) - This one will fail. "waiting for activation..." never goes away, and FaceTime is never turned on, regardless of reboot or anything else.
7. Once you give up from frustration, you can turn your WiFi back on again, and whichever service you activated in #5 will continue to work just fine, and the other one wiill stay dormant, no matter if you reboot or anything else 😟

ℹ I am running iOS 6.01 on the iPhone5.

Update: After literally several hours, I found that the second activated service finally shows that it is activated (I noticed when the FaceTime button reappeared in my contacts). So, perhaps the reset procedure itself DOES work, but the second service (facetime or imessage), activation just takes longer for some unknown reason.

Anyone having the issues with iMessage activating, I found the following helped.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRNzXReLV44

I first followed the steps on the video, and it didn't work. So then I signed out of Messages on OSX Mountain Lion, and turned off iMessage on my iPad. Followed the video instructions again and it worked.

Well I had been using iMessaging fine up until yesterday. I tried a lot fo the fixes. diabling/reenabling, logging out, creating a test contact, synching with iTunes, restoring network setttings, hard reset, waiting a day... Nothing worked.

This morning, it still said waiitng for activation after I tried to turn it on. I finally went down to the "receive at" button and saw my email, but it was waiting for the phone number to verify...So I selected sign out. I then turned it on iMessaging and the phone number was instantly verified and iMessaging works!. I am not using the "Use your Apple ID for iMessage.

Also, I never upgraded to iOS6, don't want to lose the Google Maps yet.

We are currently working aggressively to resolve the iMessage server issues.

We thank you for your patience while we investigate the matter further.

Services should be restored by the end of the day.

At that time, simply go onto settings>messages>send and receive at> tap on your appleID sign out

then perform hard reset by holding the home button and sleep/wake until the apple logo appears on the screen.

Once the device has restarted go back into the messages settings and sign back in with your appleID and you will be able to use your device phone number for iMessages once the Servers are back at 100% percent.

Once again your patience is greatly appreciated!

-iOS Tech Support

Thx man... it worked for me!

I have done everything I have read in this post and iMessage and Facetime don't let me select the phone number as the way to connect (only apple id)...Furthermore, and I don't know if it is related with iMessage and Facetime issue (but I think it is) my phone (4S iOS 6.1) constantly display a message saying "Called destination is forbidden" (but I am not calling at all...)

Any ideas?

Thanks a lot

Luis

jeffreywhyte, I have the following problem, I have made ​​a numerical portability (LPN) from one company to another. I have my phone number works with the new company, but I can not get them to activate FaceTime and iMessage. I did everything, but services are not activated. As it somewhere on Apple's servers that my number was registered provider is old, and was not updated to the new ... You can help me? THANKS!!

I had the exact same problem on iPhone 4 on iOS 5 and 6 and I had tried various tutorials that were supposed to fix the issue but nothing worked until finally I tried the following combination:

1. Turn OFF iMessage and FaceTime (Settings -> Messages -> iMessage OFF, Settings -> FaceTime -> FaceTime OFF)

2. Make a backup of your phone using either iCloud (Settings -> iCloud -> Storage and Backup -> Backup Now) or connect to iTunes.

3. When backup is finished Restore the phone to factory settings (Settings -> General -> Reset -> Erase All Content and Settings NOTE: this will erase everything on your phone and you will need to resync your music Library from iTunes afterwards. So ensure that you have backed up your stuff). The iPhone will be reset and you will have to set it up again.

4. In the setup process DO NOT restore from backup yet, set the phone up As a New phone using your Apple ID and complete the setup process WITHOUT using iCloud to backup.

5. When the setup process is finished turn iMessage ON (Settings -> Messages -> iMessage ON). Note you have to be connected to WiFi or cellular network for this to work. You will have to wait a few seconds for iMessage to be activated, it can help to go back one step and then into Messages again.

6. When iMessages has been activated (I hope it has after less than a minute or so), try to send iMessage to another iOS device and then back to your phone, just to ensure that it is working properly.

7. Do the same thing with FaceTime (Settings -> FaceTime -> FaceTime ON) and when FaceTime has been activated try to make a FaceTime call to another iOS device and also back to your phone.

8. I hope you have made it so far. Next step is to Restore your phone again DO NOT make an iCloud backup before this restore. To restore the phone go to Settings -> General -> Reset -> Erase All Content and Settings and the phone will be reset and restart.

9. In the setup process this time Restore your phone from the latest backup and then complete the setup process.

10. When the restore process has been completed and all your apps have been re-downloaded turn iMessage ON and now it should activate in a few seconds.

11. When iMessage has been activated, turn FaceTime ON as well (it took a little longer to activate than iMessage, but finished under a minute).

This process worked for me and I sincerely hope that it will work for you as well. I think the step to activate iMessage and FaceTime on a NEW iPhone setup did the trick for me.

I didn't see this before running a similar scenario on my iPhone 5, but the restore worked for me as well. The only thing I did differently was to skip the setup as new iPhone - I went straight to the restore from previous backup.

Thanks for describing every step in detail though, will help if I ever need to do this again!

its been three days i hv bought my iphone 5 and since then it says waiting for activation.. i have tried network settings and rebooted it two times no result yet! HELP!