iPhone 4 facetime not working

Gail,

Well, I've been on this post since almost the beginning, actually I posted at least twice before you joined. Why? Because I am having this problem and google brought me here.

I am not attacking you personally. You have been very friendly and you are trying to help, I am not questioning that. I just want to point out this is not exclusively an AT&T issue, and if people insist in giving too much relevance to AT&T others who do not use AT&T like me but do have this problem with FT might be lead elsewhere.

I can't do nothing but thank you for trying to help all the folks here. I just wish Apple's helpdesk were at least half as commited as you are.

PS: the post above is just an example of people thinking this is an AT&T issue.

Message was edited by: nvfusa

Hi nvfusa,

I don't disagree with you that the AT&T aspect may be a red herring - but then again, so may the 6.1.3 link. After all, as you can see from Steve's most recent post, unless I am misreading it, his wife is still on 6.1.2, and she is now having the FT issue after updating some apps on her phone.

What we do know at this point, is that if people restore their phone to Factory settings, FT works. It is not until they restore using a backup that it starts not working again. So, at this point, we have to go through a process of elimination, which, on a thread is a bit difficult to do, since we don't have a controlled environment to test with.

I've not seen anyone post that they did a General>Reset>Reset All Settings, but maybe that is something someone who has done a Factory reset (and saw FT working), then has done a restore using a backup (and saw FT no longer working), can try. Seems to me like that would potentially rule out Settings as a culprit.

Are you game?

GB

Hi Gail,

I did a "General>Reset>Reset All Settings" and facetime still did not work. Then I did a factory reset and facetime worked but when I restored my most resent backup, facetime stopped working again. So I did a factory reset again, but this time instead of restoring a backup, I just synced (using itunes) my music, contacts, mail accounts, apps, etc and facetime continued to work. But as I mentioned earlier, I did lose my settings, app data, etc.

Hi reyrey,

Thanks so much for experimenting and for posting back! 😍

So, ultimately, you did a factory reset, and then sync'd with iTunes (instead of restoring to an old backup), right? And by doing it that way, you are OK with FT?

Also, by doing it that way, you lost your Settings (so you have to go in and manaully reset all of your iPhone settings, right?), and you lost your app data (meaning game progress and the like?).

Just want to make sure I am with you on exactly where you are at the moment, what you had to "forfeit", and to confirm, that you do have FT working by going that route?

Cheers,

GB

And many apologies! I see you posted that information several posts ago! Sorry I missed it. If you confirm that FT is still working, then we will at least have a set of steps that people can follow. Let me know, and if you confirm, I will post the steps (with credit to you, of course!).

That way, people can follow or not as they wish, but at least it will be one way to resolve it (hopefully for most!)

Cheers,

GB

Hi Gail,

Yes and yes. I did the factory reset then sync'd instead of restore an old backup. Facetime is working on my phone again.

So far, these are the things I noticed have been lost:

- all my settings (everything went back to default/factory - i am in the process of manually making changes)

- voicemail messages greater than a month (I got back messages as far back as 7/1/2013)

- all text and iMessages (but I still have copies of imessage conversations on my iPad and mac)

- data stored within apps (meaning game progress - you start fresh like when you first downloaded the app. some apps i have online accounts that sync but most apps the data is lost)

- screen display configurations (when my apps were added back, my folders and screen organization was gone)

- notes that were only on my phone and not synced with an email account

I will update the list if I come across anything else

No worries. Yes I do confirm that my facetime is working. I just now tested it again to be certain.

The factory reset is not totally ideal but it is an option for those willing to forfit app data and settings so by all means please post the steps.

Most excellent! Thanks for your help with this - you are a rock star!!!

So, for everyone with the FT issue - reyrey has tested a solution that is working. You will have to manually reset all of your Settings, and you will lose any app data that you have accumulated for games (unless the gamesite has them backed up), but reyrey has confirmed that it works! So, here goes:

1. Sync your phone to iTunes to ensure that the most current information on your phone is sync'd to iTunes

2. Make sure you have imported your photos, and that any notes, documents, etc. are backed up to iCloud

3. Connect your phone to your computer (if it is not already connected), and on the Summary tab of your device profile, select Restore iPhone

4. When it asks you if you are sure you want to restore to Factory settings, click on Restore

5. Once the phone has been restored to Factory settings, sync the phone to iTunes (make sure you have selected all of the items that you wish to sync back to the phone via iTunes)

6. Once you have sync'd, you will have to manually "re-set" several things on the phone as reyrey has listed:

- Settings (everything went back to default/factory)

- Voicemail messages greater than a month

- All text and iMessages (these should be pushed back to the device from iCloud once you sign on to your account)

- Data stored within apps (meaning game progress - you start fresh like when you first downloaded the app, unless they have online accounts that sync but most apps the data is lost)

- Home screen organization - although all the apps will be there, they will no longer be in the order you had them prior to the restore, and any folders you had will need to be recreated

- Notes that were only on my phone and not synced with an email account or with iCloud (Notes on iCloud will automatically be pushed back when you sign back on to your iCloud account)

This should result in FaceTime working again without the Connection Lost issue. As has been pointed out by several posters who have restored to Factory settings, once they restored using a previous backup, the problem resurfaced, so pretty much the only way around it is to not use the backup....

Hope this helps everyone, and many thanks to reyrey for providing such clear information about how (at least one way) to get FaceTime working again!

Cheers,

GB

New to this thread tried pretty much all solutions bar the lastest one.

Confirming what others have said, reset all content and settings fixes the issue but as soon as you restore a backup. the problem returns

I tried interupting the restore, after it had done the main bits but before it copied apps and music back on.

Facetime didnt work.

I removed all email accounts, all messages, all call history, all notes, all wlan certificates, photos, everything i could think of. The usage section said only photos was using some data space but there was nothing in there. Facetime still didnt work.

I reset network settings, nothing. reset location and privacy, nothing. reset home screen layout, nothing. reset network settings, nothing. reset all settings, nothing.

updated my payment details that had expired, nothing.

Created a new apple id, nothing.

Not a clue how else to fix other than that latest suggestion that i might try tonight.

Same problem with two iPhone 4's. It started to occur a few weeks back and possibly right before I updated. These phones are GSM's and used to have AT&T cell service. They no longer have a cell plan and are being used as iPods for my kids. So it is not AT&T. Troubleshooted....and no fix yet.

A few days ago my FaceTime stopped working - lost connection in exactly the same way as described by others. Up until then it had been working fine and I have not made any changes or anything to have caused this to happen.

My son remarks that Apple Developer was hacked a coupleof weeks ago and wonders if Apple, to fix that, have done something in a server that inadvertantly caused this disruption to some accounts.

Anyway, I'm waiting for others to say they've tried reyre's solution before I embark on that myself.

I live in England, my broadband provider is TalkTalk and my mobile phone provider is Orange.

Fixed!

I followed the instructions from Gail above, factory reset through iTunes, set up as new phone and I'm back in business. I copied apps from iTunes back over, and even though they were associated with 3 different apple id's, FaceTime still works fine. Contacts came back via google card dav. During the restore there was a message that popped up about updated carrier settings and those installed successfully.

This was an AT&T lauch day iPhone 4 6.1.3 that was being used as an iPod for the kids.

I'm another iPhone4 6.1 on AT&T 14.2 without FaceTime. Haven't done anything weird or new to my phone lately; it used to work. Apple really needs to address the problem - it seems 100% software related and tied to restoring iCloud backups.

It's not tied to iCloud. I've never used iCloud! I've no FaceTime. It's not AT&T bloody T. It's apple update. If it was AT&T why am I in England on O2 suffering the same problems as folk all around the world. It 6.1.3. Conflicting with something already on the phone which keeps been restored. Question. What apps the case of this. Anybody tried turning off game centre?

YAY singlecoil! Thanks for posting back! Glad you are all sorted now!

Cheers,

GB