FaceTime on iPhone 4 disappeared after activating me 5s

Question

Level 2

164 points

FaceTime on iPhone 4 disappeared after activating me 5s

Old phone: iPhone 4, iOS 6.1.3

New phone: iPhone 5s, iOS 7.0.4

Today I activated my new iPhone 5s. I did a restore from the iTunes backup I had of my iPhone 4. The upgrade process went fine with no issues.

But I just noticed that the FaceTime icon on the iphone 4 Home screen is gone. Also, in Contacts, there is no FaceTime button in any contacts. I have no Restrictions enabled. So basically the FaceTime function on the phone has been disabled.

I've used the Spotlight Search for FaceTime application. On the iPhone 4, Spotlight doesn't find it. On the iPhone 5s it does find it.

On the new iPhone 5s, the FaceTime icon is on my Home screen, and the FaceTime buttons show in Contacts. And FaceTime functions fine.

Is this NORMAL? I don't understand why both phones can't be used as FaceTime devices over Wifi.

Mid 2010 iMac OS 10.9.1

Posted on Jan 13, 2014 1:52 PM

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Answer 1

KiltedTim

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226,074 points

Jan 13, 2014 1:59 PM in response to pgoodwin

There was never a facetime icon on the iPhone 4 if it's running iOS 6.1.3. The facetime icon was a new feature of iOS 7.

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Answer 2

pgoodwin Author

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164 points

Jan 13, 2014 2:04 PM in response to KiltedTim

Sorry to disagree, but there was an icon. It's still on my iPad 2 running 6.1.3. It's gray with the blue lens inside the camera shape. And FaceTime run when you select it. You get the camera view with the Favorites, Recents, and Contact icons at the bottom.

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Answer 3

pgoodwin Author

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164 points

Jan 13, 2014 2:06 PM in response to pgoodwin

The upgrade process deleted it and modified my contacts on the iPhone 4 so that it no longer has the FaceTime button on a contact page. My contacts on my iPad 2 running 6.1.3 still have the FaceTime button.

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Answer 4

ChrisJ4203

Level 10

236,309 points

Jan 13, 2014 2:08 PM in response to pgoodwin

Sorry to agree with KiltedTim and disagree with you. It appears on the iPad because it is an iPad. The Facetime icon did not appear for the iPhone until iOS 7. The phone included Facetime in Contacts until iOS 7.

Go into Settings>Facetime and you should be able to turn it on from there if it is not restricted in Restrictions.

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Answer 5

ChrisJ4203

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236,309 points

Jan 13, 2014 2:09 PM in response to pgoodwin

pgoodwin wrote:

The upgrade process deleted it and modified my contacts on the iPhone 4

You didn't say that you upgraded the iPhone 4, all you did was make a backup of it. Did you update the iPhone 4 to iOS 7?

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Answer 6

pgoodwin Author

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164 points

Jan 13, 2014 2:10 PM in response to pgoodwin

My iPad 2 running iOS 6.1.3 is still fully FaceTime functional. Is there some limit to the number of FaceTime devices a user can have? I'll search on that and try to find something.

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Answer 7

pgoodwin Author

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164 points

Jan 13, 2014 2:21 PM in response to ChrisJ4203

You are probably right about the icon, it's on the iPad, and I thought it was on the iPhone 4 too; I guess it wasn't.

On the iPhone 4, in Settings>FaceTime, it's was still set to ON, and the status was hung at waiting for activation. For some reason, the new phone activation process interrupted the old phone's FaceTime settings. I turned FaceTime OFF then back ON, and it activated. Now the iPhone 4 has FaceTime and the Contacts show the FaceTime button. It's active on all 3 devices now.

Thanks to all of you for the help.

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Answer 8

KiltedTim

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226,074 points

Jan 13, 2014 2:21 PM in response to pgoodwin

An iPad is NOT an iPhone. The FaceTime home screen icon NEVER existed on the iPhone prior to iOS 7. iPad, yes. iPhone, no.

Check Settings>Facetime on your phone. Make sure it's turned on there.

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Answer 9

ChrisJ4203

Level 10

236,309 points

Jan 13, 2014 2:22 PM in response to pgoodwin

You're welcome. Your final assessment of the Facetime icon is correct, it never was there. At least you got it sorted out.

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Answer 10

pgoodwin Author

Level 2

164 points

Jan 13, 2014 2:24 PM in response to ChrisJ4203

I set up the new phone using the old iPhone 4 backup. I didn't upgrade the old phone to iOS 7 because of all the potential for performance hits on the old hardware after upgrading to iOS 7.

I got FaceTime back on the old phone - see post below.

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Answer 11

pgoodwin Author

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164 points

Jan 13, 2014 2:30 PM in response to KiltedTim

Thanks for the help. I apologize for disagreeing.

I hadn't used FaceTime in a while on the phone (i normally use the iPad) and was incorrectly remembering that it was the same as the iPad. It's not. You guys were right. After re-activating it on the iPhone 4, I searched using Spotlight and on the iPad and the 5s it finds the app icon. On the iPhone 4 it doesn't.

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Answer 12

pgoodwin Author

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Jan 13, 2014 2:40 PM in response to pgoodwin

You guys both got me on the right track - the Settings>FaceTime thing fixed it just by turning it OFF then back ON.

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Answer 13

pgoodwin Author

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164 points

Jan 13, 2014 2:50 PM in response to pgoodwin

Also, it's still a little clunky on the iPhone 4 with iOS 6.1.3. I just went into the FaceTime Settings again on the old phone, and it wasn't actives any more (like it turned itself off). I turned it OFF then back ON and it re-activated. And now even though it's active, and the apple ID and numbers I can be reached were showing, it still gives a status of Awaiting Activation. But it's fully functional and the Contacts show the FaceTime button. So it's OK, I'll know what to do if I ever need it on the old phone.

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Answer 14

ChrisJ4203

Level 10

236,309 points

Jan 13, 2014 2:52 PM in response to pgoodwin

Is the SIM on the old phone still active. If not, that would explain it. While you may only want to use it on wifi, if the phone number if inactivated, then it will cause activation issues.

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Answer 15

pgoodwin Author

Level 2

164 points

Jan 13, 2014 4:05 PM in response to ChrisJ4203

The old phone still has the old SIM in it, but I switched the phone number to the new phone (which came with a SIM in it) via a phone call to AT&T. That went OK. In the end, they just asked me to turn the two phones off and wait 5 minutes for their network to get updated.

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