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Aimee1234567 Author

Level 1

12 points

imessage/FaceTime - Waiting for activation

I know that this question has been asked quite a few times already but I can't seem to find a solution to my problem. I recently bought an iphone 4 and updated to ISO 5.1.1 and imessgae will not work it just say's 'waiting for activation' and then after a while cancel's out telling me it failed and to try again. I've tried the following to try and fix problem

Restoring phone completely with and without backup information
Changing Date & Time from automatic and back again
Turning off imessage/facetime then turning off phone and on again
Signing in with Apple ID and back out again (only option i get)

I do not get the option to sign in using a mobile number only my apple ID, what I get is in the first picture (I have put my number in under settings>phone>my number).

If i click on sign in with apple ID and sign in with it i get this page in second image

If after that I click on recieve at I get the what is shown in the image below.

I don't know if any of these pictures will help nor if this is where my problem lies or if I am just doing something wrong and missing something else but I would appreciate any help anyone can give me and thank you in advance.

<Image Edited by Host to Remove Personal Information>

iPhone 4, iOS 5.1.1

Posted on Jul 11, 2012 7:27 AM

Best reply

aleroux95

Level 1

4 points

Posted on Jun 28, 2017 11:51 PM

Had the same problem. After a lot of time spent trying to figure it out, I noticed that the bundles that I receive from my carrier (MTN SA) are "minutes" to call, SMS bundles and data bundles - which has always worked for me and my iMessage and Facetime worked perfectly until one day when it stopped.

Turns out, in order to activate iMessage/Facetime for a mobile number, you will need value (airtime in currency) - even just the slightest amount will do. Data/WiFi is not enough to activate iMessage/Facetime for mobile numbers.

What I did:

purchased the smallest amount of currency-value airtime
went to Settings, turned off iMessage andturned off Facetime
force restarted my iPhone (hold power and home buttons for 6 seconds) to completely clear any connections/apps
returned to Settings, turned on iMessage and turned on Facetime

I had to wait a while so that everything synced up (with my Apple Watch too) and within 5min I everything was working again 🙂

Maybe this helps?

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16 replies

Qalsafwa

Level 1

4 points

Aug 3, 2017 5:39 PM in response to Aimee1234567

Hi the facetime is not work in my mobile, so what the problem?

imessage/FaceTime - Waiting for activation