Wind Mobile Activate iMessage / Facetime

I tore my hair out for nearly a year over this iMessage / FT Wind issue for nearly a year now. But I finally found a real solution. And as of this morning, I have both iMessage and Face Time activated with my phone number. The process may seem a bit intimidating at first -- but it's really not ver hard if you have good intstructions and follow them carefully and completely.

Thie website below will walk you through the steps to take to setup your iPhone to retrieve a log of the entire activation process from the Apple server in the UK that handles activations. It then instructs you on how to transfer this log file onto your computer. You then open the log in the console app (on a Mac -- not sure what Windows people would use, but the website author has a few lines of instructions for them, too.) Finally you do a search in the log file to a few lines of code that you then cut and paste into an activation window on the activate page. Click the submit button and the website will automatically activate iMessage with your phone number in about one minute. It's then a cinch to activate Face Time by turning it off and back on to start the process. This only takes seconds becaus FT uses the number that's now linked to iMessage.

This link is to the help / instructions page, as you really should start here. It will probably seem daunting at first; but it's pretty straightforward if you know the tricks I learned in slogging through it on my own and figuring out how to do the critical things that are glossed over on the site. I will try and take care of that for you -- so you should read this whole post once or twice and come back and refer to it if you get stuck along the way (and you will).

But please don't get me wrong, this site is the real deal. It's only true solution to the iPhone / Wind issue I've found in a year of searching. And finally having the full benefit of your iPhone on Wind is definitely worth the effort.

Now, I suggest you go check out the instructions page, then come back here so I can fill in the blanks and give you the tips you need to avoid the many mistakes I made as I muddled through on my own. (BTW, the service is free; but donations are encouraged.)

http://www.theonlinemac.com/windhelp

Now, some basic things you need to know and take care of before you start anything. Of course, it should go without saying, make sure your iOS and any firmware are up to date. A few things that are not obvious, but essential:

• Activation is very picky about time zones and correct time. Make sure your phone is set to your own time zone and that the option to set time automatically is turned on. [Settings → General → Date and Time].
• Another critical basic requirement most people miss: iM and FT activation are all centred around your Apple ID. You should log on to Apple's account ID page and make sure all the information there is current and error-free. The most critical item here is your mobile phone number. Make sure it's correct and that it's labelled "mobile" not "home" or "work." I avoid confusion by only providing my cell number. Also check that any alternate emails associated with your Apple ID are correct.
• Some forum discussions erroneously say that activation should be done only through the cellular network and that Wifi should be off. This is FALSE. Leave both the Wind network and Wifi on for all stages of the process (except for when you have to turn it off and back on, of course). It took me countless failed activation attempts before I learned from scanning the huge activation log file that the process requires access to every minute detail of your phone's features and configuration, including wifi and Internet, and of course details from Wind about your plan, roaming, etc.
• Mid-way in the activation process, you have to plug your iPhone into your computer and sync it in iTunes. This is how the diagnostic log file is transferred from the phone to your computer. For this phase, the websites instructions are a bit misleading. The website says to watch the iTunes activity display and look for a message that the diagnostics log is being transferred. The site says if you don't see it, just sync again. This is a bad idea. Turns out syncing is so fast the name of diagnostic log never shows up in the window. But odds are, if you followed all the steps correctly, the log will transfer just fine. The danger if you sync a second time, you actually add lines of text and code to the log, and you end up with two different versions of the snippet of code you need to copy from the file for posting to the activation page of the site. And this code is the very heart of the wizardry of this process that does what Wind has failed to do for a year: actually activate iM and FT with your number.
• Another tricky thing is locating the log file on your computer. On a Mac, the file path is something like this: ~/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/MobileDevice/[Your Device Name]/Baseband. Don't make the mistake I did and go searching for it through Spotlight of the Finder. You'll never find it. It's stored in a hidden system library not accessible through the Finder. Another mistake I learned the hard way. There's a real easy fix to this: use the Console app. It's on all Macs. (Again, don't know the Windows way.)

• The Console has a navigation bar on the left. It's file structure is setup a bit like the Folders in Finder, except the file structures is hierarchical, progressively indenting as you go deeper into the file structure.
• To get to the log file at: ~/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/MobileDevice/[Your Device Name]/Baseband, you navigate as illustrated here:

• The image doesn't show the entire path because there are dozens of files between levels once you get to your iPhone. Next level, you want to open is "Baseband." Scroll to the bottom of the Baseband folder and you'll find the treasured log file that is the heart of this whole process. It's name will look something like this: log-bb-2014-06-10-09-17-14-csi.txt. Click on this and the Console's main window will show its contents: Hundreds and hundreds of lines of text and code that we'll bring right down to size with the next step: an easy search for a short header line: GSM SMS Point to Point PDU (as hex str)
• We're almost done. Copy the tine GSM SMS Point to Point PDU (as hex str) and paste it into the Console's Search window and hit enter. And presto, that huge file in the main Console window will be reduced to the three or four lines we're after. The result should look something like this:

• All that's left to do is select and copy the few lines of hex numbers below the header line as shown above. Now there remains but one easy step to activate your iMessage in about one minute.
• Go to the "Activate" page of the website and paste the hex number sequence into the window. Click "Submit" and you're done! Your phone will be activated in about one minute.

Congratulations! You've done it. iMessage is now activated with your Wind phone number. Now you can activate Face Time by simply turning it off and back on. I will immediately link to the iMessage phone number.

You know have a fully functioning iPhone on the Wind network. A feat Wind has yet to achieve.

Hope this detailed walk through was helpful to at least a few people. If you give it a shot, please let me know how it goes.

Enjoy!

Hallelujiah!!

I tore my hair out for nearly a year over this iMessage / FT Wind issue. But I finally found a real solution. And as of this morning, I have both iMessage and Face Time activated with my phone number. The process may seem a bit intimidating at first -- but it's really not ver hard if you have good intstructions and follow them carefully and completely.

The website below will walk you through the steps to take to setup your iPhone to retrieve a log of the entire activation process from the Apple server in the UK that handles activations. It then instructs you on how to transfer this log file onto your computer. You then open the log in the console app (on a Mac -- not sure what Windows people would use, but the website author has a few lines of instructions for them, too.) Finally you do a search in the log file to a few lines of code that you then cut and paste into an activation window on the activate page. Click the submit button and the website will automatically activate iMessage with your phone number in about one minute. It's then a cinch to activate Face Time by turning it off and back on to start the process. This only takes seconds becaus FT uses the number that's now linked to iMessage.

This link is to the help / instructions page, as you really should start here. It will probably seem daunting at first; but it's pretty straightforward if you know the tricks I learned in slogging through it on my own and figuring out how to do the critical things that are glossed over on the site. I will try and take care of that for you -- so you should read this whole post once or twice and come back and refer to it if you get stuck along the way (and you will).

But please don't get me wrong, this site is the real deal. It's only true solution to the iPhone / Wind issue I've found in a year of searching. And finally having the full benefit of your iPhone on Wind is definitely worth the effort.

Now, I suggest you go check out the instructions page, then come back here so I can fill in the blanks and give you the tips you need to avoid the many mistakes I made as I muddled through on my own. (BTW, the service is free; but donations are encouraged.)

http://www.theonlinemac.com/windhelp

Now, some basic things you need to know and take care of before you start anything. Of course, it should go without saying, make sure your iOS and any firmware are up to date. A few things that are not obvious, but essential:

• Activation is very picky about time zones and correct time. Make sure your phone is set to your own time zone and that the option to set time automatically is turned on. [Settings → General → Date and Time].
• Another critical basic requirement most people miss: iM and FT activation are all centred around your Apple ID. You should log on to Apple's account ID page and make sure all the information there is current and error-free. The most critical item here is your mobile phone number. Make sure it's correct and that it's labelled "mobile" not "home" or "work." I avoid confusion by only providing my cell number. Also check that any alternate emails associated with your Apple ID are correct.
• Some forum discussions erroneously say that activation should be done only through the cellular network and that Wifi should be off. This is FALSE. Leave both the Wind network and Wifi on for all stages of the process (except for when you have to turn it off and back on, of course). It took me countless failed activation attempts before I learned from scanning the huge activation log file that the process requires access to every minute detail of your phone's features and configuration, including wifi and Internet, and of course details from Wind about your plan, roaming, etc.
• Mid-way in the activation process, you have to plug your iPhone into your computer and sync it in iTunes. This is how the diagnostic log file is transferred from the phone to your computer. For this phase, the websites instructions are a bit misleading. The website says to watch the iTunes activity display and look for a message that the diagnostics log is being transferred. The site says if you don't see it, just sync again. This is a bad idea. Turns out syncing is so fast the name of diagnostic log never shows up in the window. But odds are, if you followed all the steps correctly, the log will transfer just fine. The danger if you sync a second time, you actually add lines of text and code to the log, and you end up with two different versions of the snippet of code you need to copy from the file for posting to the activation page of the site. And this code is the very heart of the wizardry of this process that does what Wind has failed to do for a year: actually activate iM and FT with your number.
• Another tricky thing is locating the log file on your computer. On a Mac, the file path is something like this: ~/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/MobileDevice/[Your Device Name]/Baseband. Don't make the mistake I did and go searching for it through Spotlight of the Finder. You'll never find it. It's stored in a hidden system library not accessible through the Finder. Another mistake I learned the hard way. There's a real easy fix to this: use the Console app. It's on all Macs. (Again, don't know the Windows way.)

• The Console has a navigation bar on the left. It's file structure is setup a bit like the Folders in Finder, except the file structures is hierarchical, progressively indenting as you go deeper into the file structure.
• To get to the log file at: ~/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/MobileDevice/[Your Device Name]/Baseband, you navigate as illustrated here:

• The image doesn't show the entire path because there are dozens of files between levels once you get to your iPhone. Next level, you want to open is "Baseband." Scroll to the bottom of the Baseband folder and you'll find the treasured log file that is the heart of this whole process. It's name will look something like this: log-bb-2014-06-10-09-17-14-csi.txt. Click on this and the Console's main window will show its contents: Hundreds and hundreds of lines of text and code that we'll bring right down to size with the next step: an easy search for a short header line: GSM SMS Point to Point PDU (as hex str)
• We're almost done. Copy the tine GSM SMS Point to Point PDU (as hex str) and paste it into the Console's Search window and hit enter. And presto, that huge file in the main Console window will be reduced to the three or four lines we're after. The result should look something like this:

• All that's left to do is select and copy the few lines of hex numbers below the header line as shown above. Now there remains but one easy step to activate your iMessage in about one minute.
• Go to the "Activate" page of the website and paste the hex number sequence into the window. Click "Submit" and you're done! Your phone will be activated in about one minute.

Congratulations! You've done it. iMessage is now activated with your Wind phone number. Now you can activate Face Time by simply turning it off and back on. I will immediately link to the iMessage phone number.

You know have a fully functioning iPhone on the Wind network. A feat Wind has yet to achieve.

Hope this detailed walk through was helpful to at least a few people. If you give it a shot, please let me know how it goes.

Enjoy!

First, I'd like for us all to take a moment to truly appreciate what smcclay has done for us. He has helped us implement functionality that we SHOULD be able to access with any carrier, but were blocked from on WIND. He has done this service for free, and he is owed a million thanks (and a million dollars, though I have donated significantly less than that I'll admit).

Here was my experience, in case it clarifies anything for anyone. I was able to successfully receive the string of content, submit it for activation, and re-gain iMessage/Facetime functionality on my iPhone 5.

The details:

Date of successful activation: Sunday, January 4, 2015

PHONE: iPhone 5

Version: iOS 8.1.2

Carrier: WIND

Former carrier: Rogers

Plan: $40/month prepaid with unlimited global texting included

I tried following smcclay's activation process guidelines many times yesterday evening, once my phone number was finally ported over to WIND after a 3-day waiting period. I followed everything to a T, with the added step of disabling logging and restarting my phone before beginning the process again. I waited between 5-30 minutes between the "Toggling iMessage" step and the "Save the log on the iPhone" step, but after 3.5 hours worth of attempts with no text from +447786205094 in the log, I knew something was up.

smcclay offered three potential causes of these failures:

1. My phone number associated with my Apple ID / phone needed to be listed in the following format: + 1 (XXX) XXX-XXXX (Already done)
2. I needed to ensure that I had a top up amount that was available for international texting. (Already done, plus global SMS is included in my plan)
3. If my phone had recently been ported over, it may take up to 48 hours for this process to be successful. (BINGO. My phoone was only JUST ported over hours before)

I planned to wait 48 hours at this point, but I was still curious so I kept going... just in case. As some had mentioned worked for them, I then left my phone between the two steps listed above overnight. I saved the log and investigated its content in the morning, with no success.

I tried a few more times from morning to afternoon, again leaving my phone between the two steps listed above for anywhere between 5-20 minutes, with no success. Finally, I resigned to wait the 48 hours... but no! I couldn't! I tried one more time, this time leaving the phone for JUST OVER ONE HOUR before saving the log. This time, IT WORKED! I grabbed the string, implemented it into smcclay's activation page, and within 30 seconds my iMessage FINALLY activated after hours of torturous attempts.

Here are some tips / what worked for me. Obviously some of these are not required and/or have been listed elsewhere in this very discussion, but I wanted to list everything.

1. Before starting the process, and each subsequent attempt:

• Ensure logging has been disabled after your previous attempt. If you've already tried the process once, before starting again, dial #5005*274# to disable logging, then start the process from the very beginning again.
• Log out of your Apple ID on both iMessage and Facetime. Ensure both are OFF.

2. Follow the process exactly as listed on smcclay's help page, with ONE EXCEPTION:

If you've tried without success, WAIT ONE HOUR between the "Toggling iMessage" step and the "Save the log on the iPhone" step. Just leave your phone alone to do its thing. Abandon it, watch a show, eat some food, go for a walk, take a nap, take up World of Warcraft, whatever it takes.

Additional tips:

• There is no need to touch Facetime at all during this process, once you've got it turned off before you begin. After iMessage is activated, you can turn on Facetime and it too will activate automatically.
• It likely wouldn't hurt to deregister your past iMessage account using Apple's tool if you're having difficulty. I personally got an error message telling me that my phone was not registered with iMessage, but this seems to have worked for some.

Well, I guess that's it. A big thank you to everyone who has posted to this thread with questions, tips, details and experiences. An extra enormous thank you to smcclay, without whom we would all be--as my mom would say--snookered. smcclay, may the PayPal gods be as good to you as you have been to all of us.

It may be that Apple has gotten around to fixing this bug. If you are using iOS 9.0.2, this is in the release notes:

iOS 9.0.2

This update contains bug fixes and improvements including:

• Fixes an issue with the setting to turn on or off app cellular data usage
• Resolves an issue that prevented iMessage activation for some users
• Resolves an issue where an iCloud Backup could be interrupted after starting a manual backup
• Fixes an issue where the screen could incorrectly rotate when receiving notifications
• Improves the stability of Podcasts

For information on the security content of this update, please visit this website:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222

Interesting ... how long did it take to active your cell # with iMessage (and FaceTime) after requesting activation via the normal channel within the set-up screen(s)?

When activating you cell #, did you follow any particular steps? For example, first logging out your AppleID from iMessage and/or FaceTime (or iCloud/ iTunes & App store)?

Any other tips for activating via the normal channel?

Thanks

I am a Wind Mobile customer in Canada, and I found out what the problem is.

The process Apple uses is as follows:

When you turn iMessage on, the iPhone sends a text message to Apple. It will go to one of several numbers in the UK. When Apple gets the message, they generate a response. This response uses something called Application Port Addressing to direct the message to a specific process running on the phone.

The only way to see these messages is to dump your baseband logs. Apple has instructions for doing this on their developer site under bug reporting.

The initial problem with Wind Mobile was you would never see the reply message from Apple. One could login to myAccount on the Wind site and check their usage and only see the outgoing messages. This recently changed, and at least for me, I started seeing the reply from Apple. Still, no iMessage activation with phone number.

In the iPhone baseband logs, the SMS messages can be read in PDU format. This is basically just a HEX representation of the message with some other data about how it should be delivered and where it came from. There are several online decoders that can interpret the message and give you something readable. Decoding the SMS PDU that came from Apple showed that something was wrong with it. After some minor manipulation of 2 of the fields in the PDU, the problem turned out to be with the encoding bit for the USER DATA of message. It was set to 8 bit and should have been 7 bit. Because of this problem, the length bit for the USER DATA was also wrong, as you can fit more data in the same number of bytes using septets than you can with octets. After changing these two bits, the online decoders displayed the correct message.

Where does this data change? Hard to say. We have to assume that Apple sends it correctly. Therefore it must be getting corrupt somewhere between Apple and the iPhone on Wind's network. There are applications called SMPP gateways that allow messages to be sent across networks. I suspect the problem is with one of these.

Can this be worked around without the help of Wind? The short answer is yes, but it's complicated. You can take the corrupt message from the baseband logs, reformat it as an SMS Submit PDU, and send it to your iPhone's phone number.

This requires that you have another phone with a working SIM that can be used as a GSM modem. Not all phones have this capability. I used an old Nokia 5230. I was able to plug it in to my Mac and used the Shareware app ZTerm to send AT commands to it. I sent the re-formulated response message from Apple to my iPhone number via the old Nokia and now iMessage works with my phone number on Wind. I then did the same for my wife's iPhone and now hers works as well.

After going through this process, who do I point the finger at? I point it squarely at Wind. It is their responsibilty to ensure a message that uses Application Port Addressing is not corrupted on their network.

Hey thanks for the step by step!

I just have a few more steps to go.

I completed steps 1-3, however I am stuck on finding the message from +447786205094 in my baseband logs. When I open the most recent log, it has all this random data/values (as seen in the attached picture)

I just need to know where I can find those 2 lines of relevent data I need.

Also, please direct me to who I can send that relevent info to and how, via phone or this discussion board?

Last question.. on this webpage (https://developer.apple.com/bug-reporting/ios/baseband-iphone/) the last step is to disable logging, is this after everything is complete and my iMessage works?

Thanks for prompt response.

I found that number after I put the data into MS word, however it didn't come out as clean as you just showed.

Here is a screenshot, perhaps you can locate it? I've been staring at it for quite a bit 😕

thanks again to everyone! I will email the info to

wind@theonlinemac.com right away, not sure if my iMessage will start working right away ?

The only problem I'm running into, I've been trying to troubleshoot this for a while but with all the tinkering and variables im changing, nothing seems to work. I am getting my Baseband Logs but they are not the ones I want. The only 'GSM SMS.." hexadecimal string I get is from regular texts coming from my contacts. All the strings I'm getting from the +44 number consist of it saying I'm sending a message, and the attempt to resend it, but still nothing. Any ideas? If I can get that string I'd be home free

Hi hkhan,

If you've really followed all the steps correctly (see my detailed post from June 10 -- or thereabouts) and you can't find the "GSM SMS" line in the log file, the only thing I can think of is that you're looking in the wrong file. Here's an excerpt from that post. (But you should probably check the original as it covers all the common errors. Note also that my particular example is for a Mac. Windows will likely be different)

On a Mac the file you want is on the path:

Note the actual file name in my case was "log-bb-2014............csi.txt

Hope this helps. See my original post for more details and other possible issues.

Hello,

This mind sound ignorant, but I am not a techie at all.

My computer can't find the folder to find the logs. I go to :~/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/MobileDevice/[Device_Name]/Baseband/

My iPhone name is "Israel iPhone", Hence I type ~/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/MobileDevice/[Isra_iPhone]/Baseband/

And this comes out:

HELP?!

EDIT:: So I've just realized that Steve of theonlinemac.com has updated his website to announce that, apparently, none of this works anymore. Great.

Who do I get to thank for this? Wind, or Apple? And more importantly, what does any would-be iPhone user on Wind do from this point?

I read the troubleshooting for iMessage and Facebook activation on Apple's website and it clearly says in the step 6:

Contact your carrier to verify that there are no restrictions or blocks on text messages. Blocks on text messaging will prevent iMessage and FaceTime registration.

So this means the carrier support is not important, the carrier itself should not block the SMS. So consequenctly this is WIND's fault I guess.

Tried these number, they don't seem to exist. However, I went through my usage history with wind online, and there were a few number these texts were sent to. Tried activating iMessage and calling these numbers and still didn't work. Can anyone check the phone numbers on their usage history online that these texts have been sent to. Mine were

+447537410217

+447537410227

+447537410267

+447537410297

Also I tried going ont he Wind Away (3G) network settings but it doesn't work at all and it shows no service quickly. Will continue trying that to see if it would work.

You can find instructions on how to retrieve your baseband logs from here:

https://developer.apple.com/bug-reporting/ios/baseband-iphone/

You will likely need to sign up as a developer. You shouldn't have to pay for a developer subscription though (I don't pay to be a developer).

If you can get the logs, you need to look for a section that looks like this:

"GSM SMS Point to Point PDU (as hex str):"