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I can't select my phone number for iMessage (-sigh- Yeah, this problem again)

Let me explain the whole scenario:

My iMessage and FaceTime worked perfectly fine this morning.
I turned off my iMessage to check if I would be able to get messages from other iPhones.

My observation is that when an iPhone has their iMessage turned off and someone else who sends an imessage to that phone, their message would automatically turn to "text" messages instead of imessages. (Whoa, that sounds a bit confusing).


Anyway, I turned my iMessage back on and what do you know, I can't click my phone number because it's grey

I'm only able to select my emails. So for "send and recieve" it says "No address" (Because i didn't select anything, I'm waiting for my phone number to 'magically' get selected)

I have tried so many things and it's irritating.


My Facetime worked well, I would turn it off and back on and my number would get selected instantly. And I messed around with it, turning it off and back on to see if it'll automatically choose my number and it did. But I turned it off and on again and now It doesn't choose anything, it just says "Waiting for Activation"


But now after so many attempts of trying to turn it off and back on just to fix this iMessage crap, I can't even sign in to my apple id anymore. It says that I can't sign in and that I need to check my network connection. (I'm using wi-fi. And it's working perfectly fine; My network connection is fine)


So now, I'm really screwed. my iMessage and Facetime don't work anymore.


I'm really looking for a solution to this annoying problem.


By the way, it's an iPhone 4s and my carrier is T-Mobile.

Posted on Nov 16, 2013 9:53 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Nov 17, 2013 9:18 AM

I tried that, now it just says "Waiting for activation" for both iMessage and Facetime.


For Facetime, the "You can be reached by Facetime at" my number is still greyed out and can't be selected.


As for iMessage, the "Send & Receive" says "No Address" and I can't select my number either.

51 replies

Aug 18, 2014 11:05 AM in response to bestkneesurgeon

Hi Dr. Shabd,

I am so frusturated and still having trouble with my phone. I am new to Iphones, Apple, and Sprint and bought a refurbished phone from Freedompop, which rides on the Sprint network. The phone is perfect and the calls are good, but for some reason when I click on settings then phone, the number next to "my number" is wrong. It shows up when I send messages and get on Facetime but it is faded out, so I can't change it either there or when I click on Facetime in the settings section. In the "you can be reached by facetime at" it lists my correct email but that same number, again faded out. The caller ID section isn't faded, but still won't let me change anything. When I call another phone, my actual number comes up- same with calling it. When I log on to apple's website and look at my information, this strange number doesn't show up anywhere, so I can't imagine where it is coming from or how to get rid of it. If you have any new ideas, I would really appreciate hearing from you. I have searched and searched and followed directions with turning messaging and facetime off, rebooting, turning back on, ect and nothing is working. Nothing let's me click on "my number" to change it. So frusturating!! Please help me. Thank you for your time!

Sincerely,
Michelle

May 30, 2015 3:53 AM in response to Tylegn

HI Ty!

I am having the same problem as everyone else on this feed and I have tried EVERYTHING. Randomly two days ago my phone stopped receiving iMessages, but I was still receiving them on my Macbook! I can see that the issue is that my phone number is greyed out and I cannot click it, I have tried everything, resetting my network settings, logging out of iMessage and FaceTime on all of my devices and resetting and then logging back in and it STILL wont let me click on my phone number! Any advice? I have tried everything every forum or apple support feed suggests!

I can't select my phone number for iMessage (-sigh- Yeah, this problem again)

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