Question: Q: iOS 7 iMessage won't activate

On my iPhone 5 the iMessage works but on my ipad retina display I can send messages but I don't recieve them. I can see on my iPhone that I sent a message from my iPad but when someone writes I can only see it on my iPhone.

This kept happening to me and for some reason after many, many attempts of trying to activate, i turned my phone off and then back on again and it immediately worked. Idk if i was just lucky or if this actually works

Try turning off any wifi connections and using your cellular data this worked for me!

Hi everyone! I found a solution! Go to Settings>General>Reset (Hit "Reset Network Settings") and wait for your phone to reload. Once it turns on again go to Settings>Messages>Sign into iMessage with your Apple ID and then your phone number should show up and you should choose that as your iMessage. It worked for me and I really hope it works for you too!!!

I can confirm that this solution worked for me as well. To repeat:

1. Settings -> General -> Reset -> Reset Network Settings.

2. Settings -> Messages -> Sign into iMessage with your AppleID.

3. Your phone number and your AppleID will show up, and my phone number was checked by default. Just make sure your phone number is checked.

This worked for me..... I had to hook my iphone 5 up to iTunes and restore it. It redownloaded ios 7 to my iphone and now everythings works!

Okay I had the same problem as all of you. After freaking out for awhile, i finally decided to plug my iPhone to my computer.

I then downloaded the new version of iTunes and synched my phone.

It worked for me afterwards.

Hope this helps!

i also having the same issue.. my iphone 5 stucked at the waiting for activation on both imsg and facetime

Installed iOS7 on three devices this afternoon. My iPad and iPad Mini installed on their own, accessing the wifi network. My iPhone 5 however showed my old iOS6 to be 'up to date'. I plugged it into ITunes and it then recognized the update.

The iPads worked great right off the bat. The iPhone had the iMessage problem 'waiting for activation'. It would also not connect for Facetime as well. Both times if I tried to connect it said there was a 'network problem'.

I tried some of the fixes noted here including restoring my network settings. Nothing worked.

So I backed up the phone and restored it on iTunes, then imported the settings back to the phone. Now it all works including iMessage and Facetime.

Hope this helps someone else!

I also reset network settings, like a previous poster suggested, and it solved the problem! Just have to go through reentering all wifi passwords, etc.!

You have to make sure your Apple ID is activated along with your iCloud I'd is activated and they have to match. That's how I got it to work. Or create a new name and sign into iTunes and I could with it.

This actually solved the issue for me. Thanks.

To recap:

1) backup

2) restore (with "backup settings" option)

3) restore settings from backup

would it say " an error occurred during activation" ? did you just keep pressing okay?

I'm willing to bet Apple's servers are getting hammered: this issue has happened before.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4127846?answerId=18989775022#18989775022

I would just give it 24 hours and retest.

Also, go to Settings>Messages and ensure iMessage is flipped to on. But by the length of this thread, I'm assuming you already did that 😉

I am having the same problem. Hopefully Apple with get this fixed ASAP!!