iPhone 4 facetime not working

I know that a complete restore is not the easiest solution because you have to wipe out everything, synchronize all your data, all the apps and put all the id and passwords for each app requiring them, re-create the folders, etc.;

you lose your sms; but I confirm my iPhone 4 keeps on working perfectly. I have rescued 3 Gb of free space and FaceTime works like a charm.

Something corrupted something, nobody knows exactly what; but this solution exists, and it is not different from reinstalling an OS on a computer that became somehow sluggish. I think it can happen.

It took two hours and for me it was worth it. iCloud took care of Contacts, Notes and Calendars. I used "iPhone backup extractor" and "iExplorer" to manually put back many of my app's configurations without restoring a complete backup.

Thanks again to Gail!

p.s. bought my iPhone in France and I use it mainly in Europe.

So is the only way to get FaceTime working again to do a complete factory restore?

As far as we know, at least from this thread, it seems so. It worked for me and apparently for other people here.

Stumbled upon this (helpful) thread and just wanted to let everyone know I am having the same issues on the following devices:

iPhone 4, ios 5.0.1, Carrier: Fido (Canada) (My phone)

iPhone 4, ios 5.0.1, Carrier: Fido (Canada) (My wife's phone)

iPad 3, ios 5.0.1, no carrier (wifi only) (I will double-check this one)

I have tried my phone on other wi-fi networks without success. I have a feeling it has to do with phone registration on Apple's facetime servers, mainly because there was some server downtime a couple of weeks ago. When you do a complete wipe, perhaps all the various services on the phone are reestablished with Apple's servers, versus a restore that uses the old "certificates" (not sure if that's technically correct).

Just some thoughts....

Sorry, correction:

Not working on:

iPhone 4, ios 5.0.1, Carrier: Fido (Canada) (My phone)

iPhone 4, ios 5.0.1, Carrier: Fido (Canada) (My wife's phone)

Working on

iPad 3, ios 5.1.1, no carrier (wifi only)

I have an iPhone 4 and an iPad 3, both on the same iTunes account. Facetime connects/call failed on the iPhone,yet works as its supposed to on the iPad. This would seem to indicate that it is either an Apple server problem, or somehow certain iPhones have picked up a virus? (Lord, pray tell that Microsoft is now not the only target!)

I attempted to contact Apple's technical department as others here have suggested. It seems that one has to fork over money for the priviledge of advising Apple that THEY have a problem. If anyone has a workaround to get to their service department (other than lying about the upgrade to iO6 exemption), please tell us all. The more that call, the better the chance of getting Apple to address this issue.

Pinecrestjim wrote:

It seems that one has to fork over money for the priviledge of advising Apple that THEY have a problem.

I have an iPhone 4 running iOS 6.1.3 and I FaceTime family on a regular basis with no issues, so to say Apple have a problem is incorrect it would just seem you have an issue with either your device or Apple ID account. Also in terms of payment for support that would just mean your 90 days complementary phone support has expired and requires you to pay for tech support service.

15000 page views, with symptoms ocurring at the same time with common devices, and you don't think it's an Apple issue? How much evidence do you need?

Restore is not a solution, its a workaround to a problem, which has occurred at the SAME time (since July) to the SAME model (iPhone 4)...around the world ...to INCREASING number of people !

Apple is not Microsoft. Hopefully its not becoming one.

I got a ticket number as well ( I didnt pay anything)...I quoted birdie's ticket number as well

birdie's - 491723359

mine - 481436871

Engineering team sent quite a few questions -

"

1. When did this issue start?

2. What is the customers telephone number?

3. What is the customers Apple ID?

4. Does the customer receive an error message? Provide screen shot.

5. Does the customer have this issue with all contacts or specific contacts?

6. Can the customer receive FaceTime calls?

7. Does the issue persist on another Wi-Fi network?

8. Does the issue persist when the device is restored as new?

These are additional information that they would like to gather also:

ISP:

Modem make/model:

Router make/model:

Router firmware version:

Wireless encryption:

Radio mode (802.11a, b, g, or n):

802.11n band (2.4 GHz and or 5 GHz):

SSID broadcast or hidden?:

"

Clearly, point 8 is beocming a show stopper. I am using Skype now.

More people should log tickets .. ...you dont need to pay for that....first call phone support and tell them the issue...officially logged.

Puneet99 - agree with you. I'm not doing a restore with all the associated headaches due to an Apple issue. Just thought someone would know how to properly re-register FaceTime service (not just turning it off and on).

As I was suffering from the FaceTime outage as well, I decided last night to perform a Factory Restore to try to restore the functionality.

I did work and I am now able to FaceTime with the best of them...

Thanks to all the testers and trailblazers. Unfortunate that the solution was such a drastic one. Would have been good to know the underlying cause...

I don't think a restore is a solution. Its a workaround. Root cause has not been established.

For the record, I have an early iPhone 4, i'm in the UK and use OVIVO as my carrier.

Facetime was working fine until a few weeks ago. iOS 6.1.3

I dont want to lose all my game setting etc so I refuse to do a factory reset

I'm with you, I refuse to do a factory reset. Meanwhile, I will continue to use Skype until Apple addresses this issue.

I have a solution.... Nokia 1020. I am bored with work arounds, widgets, and apple os updates that make old phones obsolete... sorry apple... One person with a MacBook, iPhone and iPad who has had enough.

See you all around - enjoy your shiny, but buggy kit.