Kelsey12

Q: IMessage won't activate my phone number

My iPhone 4 has been working perfectly up untill yesterday.

My iMessages stopped working from my phone number and started sending from my email address.

It says my phone number is waiting on activation

 

I have tried everything..

Resetting network settings

Turning iMessages on and off

Resetting my phone

Checked my phone number in settings>phone

Called apple who were as of no help

 

I have an iPad too I don't know if that has anything to do with it..

Posted on Feb 1, 2012 1:52 PM

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Q: IMessage won't activate my phone number

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  • by tungddao,

    tungddao tungddao Apr 9, 2013 8:52 PM in response to Justinb51
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 9, 2013 8:52 PM in response to Justinb51

    In recent day, apple imsg server has been acttacking by DDoS so your fone number could not be activated sometimes.

    But anyway, you can try my solution above to reactivate it. I did it many times with many ip which have same problem

  • by The Big 88,

    The Big 88 The Big 88 May 5, 2013 5:09 PM in response to tungddao
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 5, 2013 5:09 PM in response to tungddao

    I tried to use the two weird phone numbers but my carrier would come on the line and say we can not let you make this call..... so im still stuck on how to figure this out

  • by bmlzz,

    bmlzz bmlzz Jun 10, 2013 2:20 PM in response to Kelsey12
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 10, 2013 2:20 PM in response to Kelsey12

    OK, you MUST have an active payment method connected with your appleID!

     

    that's how I solved my issue with my iPhone 5.

     

    it turned out that my credit card that I had connected with my acount had expired and I hadn't updated that information.

     

    once I updated my new card information, all was fixed immediately.

     

    STEPS:

     

    1. go into itunes and sign in using your appleID

    2. once signed in, it should link you directly to your "Account Information"

    3. Look at "Payment Type" and edit your card information

    4. go back to your iPhone and go to Settings > Messages > Send & Recieve

    5. Both your email, and your phone number should now be listed and checked (EVEN IF YOUR PHONE NUMBER IS GREYED OUT, IT IS STILL CONNECTED)

    6. send a text iMessage to someone who also has iMessage to confirm that they are recieving your messages from your phone number and not your email address.

     

    DONE (:

     

    have a great day! hope this works.

  • by JamieCampbell88,

    JamieCampbell88 JamieCampbell88 Jun 16, 2013 5:56 AM in response to Kelsey12
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 16, 2013 5:56 AM in response to Kelsey12

    Ok so my imessage and FaceTime both show different numbers (neither number is my number) I'm from UK and one number is from Thailand and the other is from Australia. I've turned the imessage and FaceTime off and on, signed in and out of my apple ID. Reset the phone, removed and replaced the SIM card. Tried 101 solutions touted on the web but still same problem. When I click imessage to on and sign into my apple ID, it has my correct email and mobile number. However, when I click done and the view the send and receive addresses, the greyed out number is a Thailand number and no longer the mobile number that my apple ID had identified. I have also contacted my service provider and there is no problem on their end and I rang apple support and they said they didn't know what to do and that they hadn't heard of this issue before. Any profound suggestions?

  • by El Pituca,

    El Pituca El Pituca Jun 25, 2013 3:32 AM in response to bmlzz
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 25, 2013 3:32 AM in response to bmlzz

    It did work on my end.

    There was some billing info missing. After that my number came up right away.

     

    Thanks.

  • by alexestornel,

    alexestornel alexestornel Sep 17, 2013 12:52 PM in response to Kelsey12
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 17, 2013 12:52 PM in response to Kelsey12

    Has anyone experienced this same problem with Movistar in Spain? I was with Vodafone here in Spain and had no problems and now I've switch to Movistar and my phone number (same one I had with Vodafone) is not being recognized by iMessage.

    I've tried all the previous suggestions and have had no luck.

    Any other suggestions?

    thanks

    Alex

  • by JamieCampbell88,

    JamieCampbell88 JamieCampbell88 Sep 17, 2013 11:45 PM in response to alexestornel
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 17, 2013 11:45 PM in response to alexestornel

    It is a SIM card / carrier issue. My sim took 2 months for iMessage to start recognising it. The network people couldn't help me and neither could apple. I suggest getting your SIM swapped or else you will just have to make do. Good luck.

  • by Ikkyu-san,

    Ikkyu-san Ikkyu-san Oct 18, 2013 10:17 PM in response to JamieCampbell88
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Oct 18, 2013 10:17 PM in response to JamieCampbell88

    So at the end it was just a sim card issue?? you just waited two months and it settled on it's own?

     

    I have exactly the same problem as you did, using one number(U.S) and having two different ones(HK and Thai)registered for iMessage and FaceTime.

  • by JamieCampbell88,

    JamieCampbell88 JamieCampbell88 Oct 19, 2013 2:00 AM in response to Ikkyu-san
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 19, 2013 2:00 AM in response to Ikkyu-san

    Yes. So I went back to UK for a couple of weeks holiday and my UK sim has always synced with iMessage and FaceTime. However when I put my Australian sim back in then FaceTime and iMessage would then be stuck synced to my UK number. After having my UK sim in for 3 weeks I changed back to my Australian sim and it just started working properly.

     

    I've been escalated to the highest order in apple engineering and no one had ever heard of it happening before. They had me send them screen shots etc. turns out it must just have been a SIM card glitch. Total farce really. Hope it works out for you. Sometimes there isn't a quick fix for these things unfortunately and getting a new sim might be the best option.

  • by Ikkyu-san,

    Ikkyu-san Ikkyu-san Oct 19, 2013 2:11 AM in response to JamieCampbell88
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Oct 19, 2013 2:11 AM in response to JamieCampbell88

    Thanks for your answer, I'll just change the sim

  • by buragc,

    buragc buragc Nov 6, 2013 7:28 AM in response to Ikkyu-san
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 6, 2013 7:28 AM in response to Ikkyu-san

    I was able to fix this issue after two days of "waiting for activation".

     

    Here is my guess of what is causing the problem:

    - Your phone tries tell iMessage server that it should activate your number.

    - Based on where you live (region/country) your request gets picked up by different servers (UK vs US vs France for example).

    - The server that picks up the request sends a text message to your phone to confirm that the number really belongs to you. Depending on which server has been assigned to you, you may be getting the text message from a different country code.

    - Your iPhone monitors the text messages that come in. When the iMessage activation text message comes in your iPhone doesn't show you that message.

     

    What we are trying to do with the fix below is to tell iMessage to use a different server to send your activation message.

     

    Go to Settings > Messages

     

    Tap on your apple id.

     

    When prompted enter your apple id and password.

     

    Change your location/region (I changed it from US to UK).

     

    Go back and now everything should be working fine!

     

    Don't forget to change your region back to US afterwards.

  • by kgmorrill,

    kgmorrill kgmorrill Nov 6, 2013 7:32 AM in response to Kelsey12
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 6, 2013 7:32 AM in response to Kelsey12

    Try following the steps on the link below.  It worked for me, I hope it will work for you.

     

    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5538?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

  • by MJB29,

    MJB29 MJB29 Nov 13, 2013 9:55 AM in response to Kliffy
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 13, 2013 9:55 AM in response to Kliffy

    i am facing the same problem. the carrier am using is safaricom kenya and called them but they have no clue and confirmed they have not blocked any premium sms. this problem started recently it use to work fine. i have tested my phone with another carrier and worked immediately. Please assist. thanks

  • by mkmuya,

    mkmuya mkmuya Nov 13, 2013 12:12 PM in response to MJB29
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 13, 2013 12:12 PM in response to MJB29

    Same My Safaricom Line will not activate. But my Orange line works????

  • by JamieCampbell88,

    JamieCampbell88 JamieCampbell88 Nov 13, 2013 9:03 PM in response to mkmuya
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 13, 2013 9:03 PM in response to mkmuya

    This issue has already been discussed a couple of pages back. My orange SIM would work but my Telstra (Australian) sim wouldn't activate. It was a SIM card problem. I got a new SIM.

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