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Level 1

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iMessage not working on iPhone 5. Help!

I'm so frustrated. I'm a first-time iPhone user. Very limited technical knowledge. iMessage does not seem to be working. Called Apple, and they said all of my settings are correct. Did a restore that took about 9+ hours...no change. I understand that when I am trying to send a message to another apple user, the place where I type my message should say 'iMessage' instead of 'text message', correct? Also something about my speech bubbles should be blue? My sent messages are green.

I text regularly with a friend using an iphone with iMessage activated, in Australia. Unfortunately, this issue I seem to be experienceing has cost me a lot on my Verizon bill! eeks! I NEED to figure this out asap, since that was one of the main reasons for getting an iPhone!

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

iPhone 5, iOS 6

Posted on Oct 29, 2012 9:58 PM

Best reply

Ocean20

Level 6

13,727 points

Posted on Oct 30, 2012 1:02 AM

You say all your settings are correct so I am assuming that in settings/messages you have imessage turned on. I also assume that you have a data plan with your carrier because data is used for imessage when you are not on wifi. I guess you have cellular data turned on in settings/general then cellular

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75 replies

Oct 30, 2012 7:33 PM in response to justjesper

rubyjunes Author

Level 1

0 points

Oct 30, 2012 7:42 PM in response to zakdp

zakdp,

thank you for your input!

I've checked everything on your list, with the help of an Apple advisor. The only thing I question about the things you mentioned is the part about making sure my 'receive at' address in my settings is my iphone number and not my Apple ID...

I do have both my iPhone number and my Apple Id listed as my receive at address, the phone number does have a check mark next to it, as does the email ID, but the phone number is grayed out. I can't figure out how to make it just my number, if that is what I'm supposed to do.

Ideas?

Everything else seems to be set up ok.

Thanks again.

zakdp

Level 1

5 points

Oct 30, 2012 8:09 PM in response to rubyjunes

Okay, well that's fine. If the issue is still persisting after going through that checklist, proceed with a backup and restore. You will be able to find a step by step article on the Apple Support page for backing up and restoring your device if you search for "HT1414". This will help determine whether the issue is to do with your software or hardware. If you'd like more guidance than just an article, you can always ring AppleCare again and request that the advisor guide you through it. 🙂

RigDoc

Level 1

0 points

Oct 31, 2012 6:25 AM in response to rubyjunes

I had the same problem. Went through all the fixes and 'no joy'. Then discovered that I had two messages in my 'saved' messages on my iPhone 4s that I just deleted, restarted the iMessage App and now all is well. Spent MANY hours trying to fix this one and to me it seems like iOS6 just dosen't like the 'not delivered' messages.

Hope this works for you.

rubyjunes Author

Level 1

0 points

Oct 31, 2012 8:34 AM in response to RigDoc

I appreciate the input from everyone!

I tried iMessage last night with a friend here in the states, and it appeared to work correctly!!!

Now, if I could just figure out how to do it with my friends in Australia. I wonder if I should have their number entered a certain way with/without the country codes, etc?

I'd be thrilled if I could figure this out!

fromsouth

Level 5

4,945 points

Oct 31, 2012 8:47 AM in response to rubyjunes

Because every ISP in US is controlling and managing traffic on the borders, that is how massive virus and spam distributions are prevented. Your friends messages, do not go through to US imessage server. If you will ask her to imessage to someone else in US - you will confirm if I am correct or not. If they can imessage to each other, I am wrong.

rubyjunes Author

Level 1

0 points

Feb 12, 2013 8:30 PM in response to fromsouth

Still no luck using iMessage from my iPhone 5 to another iPhone user in Australia. I am in the USA. Ideas? Sooo frustrated with this! Thanks!

Mar 11, 2013 9:13 PM in response to rubyjunes

I bought an iPhone 5 the other day and had the same problem (iMessage awaiting activation).

got onto the Apple people and they said;

- Plug phone into iTunes.

- Back it up (I backed up on the computer, but you can do to iCloud if you want).

- Restore phone to original factory settings (from the computer not the phone).

- Set up phone again and restore from back up (plug phone into iTunes (for me)).

- Wait a minute or two till all apps loaded.

- Should be ready to go.

This worked for me

rubyjunes Author

Level 1

0 points

Mar 12, 2013 8:57 PM in response to housewifeben

I do not have the 'waiting activation' message...it seems like things should be all good to go, but it just doesn't seem to work right. Still acting as if it will only go through as a regular text message to my iphone using friend in Australia. Odd, since another friend in Australia has an iPad, and imessage appears to work fine with him?

Apr 9, 2013 5:23 PM in response to rubyjunes

my phone keeps doing this as well, one iMessage won't send and it will go back to SMS and not seem to understand to go back to Imessaging. I've tried restarting my phone, exiting out all my apps and turning iMessage off then on and none of it worked. Finally I went to my texts and deleted only the SMS messages and as soon as they were gone iMessage turned back on.

fromsouth

Level 5

4,945 points

Apr 9, 2013 5:45 PM in response to lovelylace

Imessage servers where down up to three minutes before you left your message. Search Google for imessage system status you will see downtime for today until 8.20

kltcwzrd

Level 1

30 points

Apr 12, 2013 5:33 AM in response to rubyjunes

It's April 12th, 7am cst, and, iMessage seems to have been down for an hour now, here in the midwest. Myself, my wife, and several of my coworkers are having difficulty with iMessage not going through. Turned it off and back on, but it hangs, 'waiting for activation' stays on and on and on...

What's up Apple...?

Oh- I did check Apple system status, and iMessage is green, but not here in Northern Illinois...

pdroth

Level 5

5,171 points

Apr 12, 2013 5:42 AM in response to kltcwzrd

It's down here in NYC also for about 1/2 the ppl I know. So it's a spotty outage yet again that isn't getting reported on system status page.

kltcwzrd

Level 1

30 points

Apr 12, 2013 5:45 AM in response to pdroth

Thanks, pdroth. Was beginning to believe it was just us.... It's getting really frustrating. Third time in a week for us... Guess I'll have to make sure sms is our main texting, for a few days... Hope it clears up soon

Cortni22

Level 1

15 points

Apr 12, 2013 5:52 AM in response to kltcwzrd

Same thing here in NC. It's 9am now and it's been out since 6am that I'm aware of. I thought it was just us too! My apple ID isn't working through my phone, yet I can sign in through itunes on my desktop fine. Anything associated with my apple ID isn't working on my phone though. Hmm....

iMessage not working on iPhone 5. Help!