Q: Wind Mobile Activate iMessage / Facetime

This is absolutely fantastic. Well done to whoever figured this out! I'm donating right now just a small token to say thanks.

Not yet.  I will try again when I get home from work.  I may ask for your help.  I don't know why this is happening.  It was easy b/f my number was ported. 

Has ANYONE had success with a ported number as it seems the main issue is with porting. Can someone shed some light as to if they ported and then used the method in this thread with success ? Please and thank you

thanks so much for all the info

im stuck right now though -

I can locate the logs just fine, but there is no hex string anywhere!

we have a ported no. from rogers...

I see the outbound message:

• 56.610 mms: Carrier bundle does contain phone number registration recipient address: +447537410207!
• 56.653 sms: Composing SMS message using GsmModel
• 56.653 sms: In GSMModel::setDestAddress with address +447537410207
• 56.653 sms: Final address was +447537410207.
• 56.653 sms: sendSmsMessage setting validity period to 30
• 56.653 mms: Will track Phone Number Registration with message ID: [40000001] result was [1]
• 56.653 sms: sending Gsm7 SMS of body (length 89) in 0 segments
• 56.653 sms: queueMessageForSend: Sms messages in queue = 1
• 56.653 sms: MO SMS Message details:
• 56.653 sms: Destination:     +447537410207
• 56.653 sms: Validity:                        30
• 56.653 sms: Msg Encoding: 0 (7bitGSM)
• 56.653 sms: Body Length:   89

And this is the closest thing I can see to an inbound...

• 383.513 sms: Baseband is ready
• 383.513 sms: Current Technologies: (GSM/UMTS)
• 383.513 sms: Current Encoder: 3GPP
• 383.513 sms: Current VM info: Count: -1, Available: Unavailable, Waiting No
• 383.513 sms: Device supports MO SMS on IMS, We are not IMS registered, and we will not fallback to signaling on IMS send failures
• 383.513 sms: Reply address is not being used

Any help or insight would be phenomenal... Thanks so much..

For all of you who are having trouble with ported number, try the following and report back if it worked (I ported my number and had to do the following in order to get my imessage working):

Turn on Facetime

Log out of your current account (If you have one attached to it already)

Create a new Apple ID

Login with this new Apple ID

Then try logging your baseband and see if you get a reply from Apple Servers.

After you have activated your Imessage/Factime through the website, you can log off you new apple ID and log back in with your old one and attach your ported number to your old apple ID.

This worked for me. Please respond to this thread if this also worked for you as well.

Thank you so much for another approach... no success yet...

For some weird reasons, I'm getting to a screen which has my new Apple ID email and then the phone number that Wind gave as the temporary number for the three hours between porting my old one over... ARG this is so frustrating!

Hi all!

I've finally done it with my ported number!  First I have to restore my phone, which actually resets and then restores from a back-up.  My steps:

Sync your phone to your computer (I don't use iCloud Syncing, but that my work too).  This makes a backup.

Then Restore your phone from iTunes.  Upon completion of the resetting part, don't yet restore from your back-up.  Use your phone and go through the whole process of setting it up on the handset it's self so that you can access the iMessage setup area.  Then follow the setup procedure found on:  http://www.theonlinemac.com/wind from our wonderful smcclay.  I think I then turned off my phone and turned it on again to confirm it still worked, and yes it did. 

Then, do a restore from a back-up from iTunes.  I think after I did that, I think I had to do the steps again from:  http://www.theonlinemac.com/wind. 

My reasoning, if you can call it that, is that the phone gets stuck with the old info from the old SIM.  Resetting and then trying theonlinemac procedure before a restore from back-up makes sure there is nothing left of your old info.  Then the restore part can use the new info but give you all your needed old stuff. 

Totally a hassle, but still worth it and it would be totally worse if we didn't have smcclay's website. 

I donated, and everyone else that uses it should too.  We need to keep it going until Wind gets their act together.

thanks for the tip! i will try again tomorrow.

for now, we're just not using imessage from the iphone and relying on text - might as well, since it's unlimited/global...

i guess the main problem for us, is that the iphone isn't getting a response for whatever reason... hopefully the new methods will help!

Finally got it to work! I think for ported numbers, maybe waiting 24 hours for the international SMS-ing to activate would be important. In any case, thank you so much for theonlinemac.com - I will be making a donation

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!

I have tried the website way 3-4 times, Using the diffrent apple id aswell. I did before and after full restore, Wifi on and off but I can find "GSM SMS Point to Point PDU" in the file. My apple id each time had my phone number registered. I have just ported my number from bell to wind

Tazfromcan wrote:

 

I have tried the website way 3-4 times, Using the diffrent apple id aswell. I did before and after full restore, Wifi on and off but I can find "GSM SMS Point to Point PDU" in the file. My apple id each time had my phone number registered. I have just ported my number from bell to wind

If you are a Pay Before customer, and you don't have international SMS included in your package, you need to have money in your account in order for the registration SMS to get to Apple's server.

I am a Pay after customer and i have international texting on my plan.

Thanks in advance

I found the "GSM SMS Point to Point PDU (as hex str)", I follwed every step and I did this for the final step:

• 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.

BUT ITS STILL SAYING "WAITING FOR ACTIVATION" I DONT KNOW WHAT ELSE TO DO! SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME AS FAST AS POSSIBLE !