Q: iOS 7 iMessage won't activate

I'm with the couple or so guys who probably rightly say that Apple's servers are pretty overloaded right now.  I think trying later today rather than resetting everything multiple times (which let's face it has been pretty much reset already after upgrading to iOS7).  Maybe a simple power off/on will do the trick.  Failing that, I'm going to try the same in the morning.  It's taken me until 12pm today to even get iOS7 onto my phone, it wouldn't let me download it yesterday afternoon/evening, gave me a 45 hour estimated download time.  There's always good old SMS in the meantime, and fussing over it not working won't make it work any quicker

Try doing this it worked in mine so what i did was General>reset>reset all settings and after that the activation didnt hang : )

I just opened NOTES of all things on my MacBook, a message popped up saying my mobile number has been associated with this app on my iPhone before, would I like to use it.  I clicked yes, went back into my settings on my iPhone and iMessage now has a tick next to my (still ghosted) mobile number, same with FaceTime.

What I done and it worked for me so simple. I was having the problem 'Waiting for activation'

> Plug your iPhone in

> Go to iTunes.

> Go to the summary page
> Tick this computer then go to back up now.
> Once done, to make sure your phone has backed up properly go to the top left thing and a drop down menu appears click preferences, then devices and it should come up with your iphone device and a time stamp.
> Go back to the summary page click restore back up (it will most likely ask for you to turn off find my iphone, do that) then click restore back up again.
> Wait for it to do its thing, your phone is fully back to how it works but with imessage enabled through your phone number and not through your apple ID

You know, we all shouldn't have to find these little work arounds to get this crap to work.  What's next....hold my phone at an angle while singing a tune to get it to work?  I've tried all of the above and NOTHING works...still does not activate.  Totally unprofessional and unacceptable.  In the race to be first to market, you know Apple knew of this problem with this many people having the issue.  Total blame rests on Apple, guys.

What you can try doin is using a public wi-fi such as starbucks etc cause they have the server ports that imessage needs to activate!!!

Stop whining, try what I've just said and it works. If it doesn't wait. SMS message is still available you know. Go to android, you get nothing of the sort

Plus, I message still works if you send it through your Apple ID, just the reciept gets your email adress as the contact name instead of your phone number. Exactly the same thing, just without your phone number.

i tried this and it worked for me thanks so much

Nope.  None of that works.  Like I said, I tried all of the above.  Call it whining if you want, but for those of us that don't have time to "unlock the clues" on figuring this out, it's a pain and a disruption to our businesses. 

I dont see how you can not call that whining, its a 24 hour or less wait, do you fail to comprehend that there is millions of people doing the same thing on this day? So its obvious its not going to run smoothly, nothing ever does on something so large scale

Either way, I didn't 'unlock that clue' I done some research and tried it out and it worked, did you do what I said have you plugged your phone into your computer etc?

iMessage still worked for me although it said waiting for activation it just sent people my email adress as the adress instead of my phone number, I don't see how that doesn't work for you?

Worked for me .... Thank you :D

To all the apple peeps out there !!

By now most people who have there phones use iCloud as a backup for there phones.. Some may still use there computers.. If you were upgrading to a new ios I would hope that you would have performed a backup before you proceeded with the ios7 upgrade.. It asks you to before updating.. If you did create a backup on the computer this SOLUTION WILL WORK ! Also if you use ICloud it backs up automatically..

All you need to do is go into

Settings

General

Reset and ERASE all contents and settings

Do this and it will tell you it will erase everything.. If you have a backup you are good !!

When it is complete

Choose set up as new phone

When setting phone up it will ask you if you want to restore from backup

Choose the latest backup

Enter in your info and everything will work as it used to

Servers were PACKED.. Some glitches.. IT HAPPENS.. Even though it should not ... It does

Resetting this way FIXES iMessage and FaceTime ISSUE

Peeps who use the computer.. Just follow directions on the screen.. This will work ONLY if you performed a BACKUP before UPGRADING .. Which everyone should have done.. If not I'm sure APPLE will come with an update in the coming days.. HOPE THIS HELPS !!

Settings-general-reset-reset network settings ... Just done it and it worked for me :)

The my number is geryed out after updating ios7 can I know why?????

If what people suggested doesn't work, simply do a fresh downloand and install/restore through iTunes and iMessage/Facetime should activate correctly. I'm pretty sure those that are having activation issues did the OTA (Over-The-Air) update yesterday while the servers were getting hammered by everyone.