iMessage "An error occurred during activation. Try again."

Same problem on ipad mini wifi model. Can't do any of the suggested fixers either because in the settings menu I cannot even turn off iMessage/FaceTime since I can't sign in.

Absolutely embarrassing to say the least that this hasn't been fixed yet!!

I had iMessage "An errror occured during activation..." On my iPad mini retina running iOS7.0.4 while trying to sync iMessages w/my iPhone 5c iOS 7.0.4. I followed an example someone posted on this thread. Back up iPad via iTunes on my mac, then on iPad Settings/General/Erase All Content and Settings. I did notice after restoring my iPad via iTunes that my iPad's FaceTime had a popup box asking for some permission...I believe it may have been "FaceTime" that I had synced with my iPhone which could've been the problem from the start? But either way, my iPad iMessages syncs w/my iPhone now. 🙂

After hours of battling and trying numerous things - I found that by signing out of Find Friends resolved the iMessage issue and allowed me to sign in again - this is on iPhone4S with 7.0.4.

There was a little sign out button on the app where it asks for a password.

Interestingly, if I wiped the phone and started 'vanilla', then I could sign in. Restoring my backup resulted in me no longer can sign in, until I signed out of Find Friends.

Also a few days ago Apple made me change my AppleID password - this might have been the start of a downward spiral of stuff not working.

I experienced this issue after restoring a backup from an old iPhone to a new iPhone 5c. I restored to factory settings, then tried the restore from backup again, which worked. You can follow this blog post for instructions.

A huge thank you to 'SissyRibbons'!

I recently reset my entire iPad at the beginning of the year, for nearly two months I had no clue how to get my e-mails, iMessage or FaceTime working due to my the 'iMessage activation error' - my Father didn't even know what to do and frankly, the 'apple support communities' were no help to me at all! Until I came across this post!

Big, big thank you to Teeneylyn for posting on behalf of SissyRibbons!

After trying just about everything, including SissyRibbons suggested ChaCha and Hokey Pokey, I realized under
Settings > Phone > My Number I didn't have the 1 before my area code.
If you are in the U.S.A. it needs to say 1(xxx) xxx-xxxx. Took several hours for Apple to verify my new number now it works like a charm.

Hopes this helps!

go find sissyribbons in this very long stream of answers."
go to her. she will tell you your destiny.

no seriously. she has the answer. worked for me when i accidentally turned off my iMessaging and then it no longer worked.

GO! FIND SISSYRIBBONS! FIND HER (him?)!!!!

Thanks SissyRibbons, although this didn't work for me sadly. Make sure your phone can send an international text msg, I needed to buy more credit before I could activate my imessages with new iphone.

Cannot thank you enough. I am all the way in Thailand with no way to contact home unless able to fix this. I was in full blown panic for hours trying to fix this after my US number was removed from iMessage / FaceTime because I put a Thai Sim Card in another phone (which makes no sense at all). Thank you for letting me contact my family again!!!

Another product release and iOS update, another load of issues. I've got better things to do than keep typing the same correct ID & password in to no avail. Apple need to focus a bit less on grabbing people's money, and a bit more on making their dreadful software work!

Thanks for the fix. We're traveling in Vietnam and have three iPhones between us (all with data only sims). I've fixed two, and reckon I'll be able to manage the thirty one without instructions. I'll try to avoid chewing on my tongue in the process. Great fix for a stupid problem.

I am still having the same problem guys. Its been years and I have no fix. I am not a stupid computer user either. Everything else in my iCloud works. I am sick of apple's servers and I am ready to quit using Apple products.

Call Apple and DEMAND to know if the idiots running their servers have locked-out your devices. My wife had this ridiculously useless error "An error occurred during activation. Try again." on every device, except her iPhone. It turns out that Apple -surreptitiously and without any explantion explanation- blocked her devices from connecting. Oh, her Apple ID worked fine for their unwanted iCloud, but Messages and FaceTime would throw everything into chaos and refuse to connect with any real/meningful (they sure can spam the Apple ID email with every other thing, why not to report an issue that requires a call to Apple). It's not enough to pay top $$$ for their stuff, but to lock people out of their Apple ID (logging-into iCloud still works b/c they want it to, but not on actual devices where Y-O-U want it to work) without any notice and with a stupid error that is meaningless (as per this and many articles like it) is tortious interference, plain and simple.

We wiped her iPad and MacBook Pro over and over for naught. I could get one of them connected to Messages, but then trying the other would throw them both in limbo again. In every instance, FaceTime on her laptop would accept the login but then ask about something in the keychain and pop back to the login screen without explanation (credentials were unflinchingly correct). Doing that would then ruin her access to FaceTime and Messages on the iPad, but the iPhone was always good. After a full work day on the phone with a tech support agent who berated me (she was getting paid to hear my complaints, I was wasting time and money well beyond the call, which itself was too long), and then waiting almost 4 more days (2 "business days" so the weekend did not count), some higher support group simply unlocked her devices and they've been good to go since. Of course, when I asked W-T-F they did this, she outright refused to give any explanation. So, all that wasted time and energy, just b/c a bunch of moronic Hollywood twits lost their nude pics to hackers b/c they used brilliant passwords like 12345, so now we plebs get to pay for it?! Seriously, Apple. The pendulum has swung waaaaaay too far into the ludicrous zone...

So, save your time troubleshooting - first call Apple and ask if their lordships have deemed you not good enough to access your own dang Apple ID on your own dang devices, and see if they secretly cut you off without any good reason or any compensation, lest you waste all the time and effort we did.

I can't imagine how anyone with less technical savvy would get out of the mess Apple makes. Apple has totally abandoned the "it just works" mantra and even the simple (grand)mother rule in their testing and (morally and logically) bankrupt development decision-making.

No, the phone call and support is "free" ($-wise no, but time and effort, yes, it requires some of those two).

Just get your device(s) unlocked by the Messages/FaceTime server admins. The real problem here is that they silently slap your device there and drive you nuts without a clue, and even when you call, they're dodgy about it (in another thread, it took her FOUR reps to get this truth - one of which made her waste her time wiping her iPod for no good reason!), but if you confront the issue with them, they can eventually get your device removed from the ban and make this completely useless error go away and get on with life.

from apple :http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2755

let's see...