Ninty91

Q: Have one contact that I can't FaceTime or iMessage off my iPad can it be fixed?

My FaceTime and iMessage is activated as I can iMessage and FaceTime other contacts in my phone. There is one contact that has an iPhone and they have their FaceTime and IMessage activated as my daughter can FaceTime/iMessage them. The contact lives in America and I have the right international code and right phone number. I only own an iPad and have no iPhone. I live in Ireland. Also I have tried deleting the contact and entering the contact. Is it possible to fix it as I really want to FaceTime over Christma? Thanks

iPad Air, iOS 8.1.2

Posted on Dec 23, 2014 2:31 AM

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Q: Have one contact that I can't FaceTime or iMessage off my iPad can it be fixed?

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  • by brenden dv,

    brenden dv brenden dv Dec 24, 2014 7:55 AM in response to Ninty91
    Community Specialists
    Dec 24, 2014 7:55 AM in response to Ninty91

    Hi Ninty91,

     

    I'm sorry to hear you are having issues with FaceTime. I also apologize, I'm a bit unclear what exactly is happening or what you are seeing when you try to initiate a FaceTime call with this contact, or they with you? For more general FaceTime troubleshooting, you may want to double-check the steps outlined in the following article, just to make sure everything is set up correctly:

     

    iOS: Troubleshooting FaceTime - Apple Support

     

    Regards,

    - Brenden

  • by Andreas Dobbertin,

    Andreas Dobbertin Andreas Dobbertin Dec 24, 2014 2:45 PM in response to Ninty91
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 24, 2014 2:45 PM in response to Ninty91

    Hi Ninty91,

     

    I have the very same problem with my iPhone 6. I can't initiate a FaceTime call through the address book (contacts) to one specific contact, but at the same time my wife can with her iPhone 5s. I haven't figured out how to ultimately fix the problem in a way that the FaceTime option will show up in contacts, but I found a work around that might work for you as well:

     

    1. Delete the phone number in question from the contact (no need to delete the entire contact)

    2. Open the FaceTime App and enter the phone number manually, including the country code (e.g. +1 for the US, +44 for the UK, etc.)

    3. Tap the phone number that shows where you would normally see the contacts name (if that phone number were still in contacts)

    4. A list with call options will open up, where you can tap on FaceTime or FaceTime Audio

     

    It won't fix the issue of FaceTime not being available through the address book, but it should allow you to make your Christmas FaceTime call.

     

    Regards,

    Andreas

  • by FJ in A Town,Helpful

    FJ in A Town FJ in A Town May 27, 2015 3:23 PM in response to Ninty91
    Level 1 (5 points)
    May 27, 2015 3:23 PM in response to Ninty91

    I Had the same problem with one particular contact and not with the rest of my contacts. I figured out that I was missing the email address for the contact (that email address was also his Apple ID). After I added the email address the option to FaceTime appeared right away.

  • by Sheli1965,

    Sheli1965 Sheli1965 Jun 3, 2015 1:19 PM in response to FJ in A Town
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 3, 2015 1:19 PM in response to FJ in A Town

    i had the same issue, i took FJ in A Town advice and it works like magic. .

  • by calum.89.robertson,

    calum.89.robertson calum.89.robertson Jun 26, 2015 5:28 AM in response to FJ in A Town
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 26, 2015 5:28 AM in response to FJ in A Town

    Great find! There was seemingly nothing else online that had this extremely useful advice.

    Cheers!

  • by grinsalot_67,

    grinsalot_67 grinsalot_67 Jul 27, 2015 9:57 AM in response to FJ in A Town
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 27, 2015 9:57 AM in response to FJ in A Town

    Great stuff, have been trying for days to fix this.

  • by jrgutierrez89,

    jrgutierrez89 jrgutierrez89 Sep 12, 2015 9:58 AM in response to FJ in A Town
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 12, 2015 9:58 AM in response to FJ in A Town

    This works, idk why cuz I have a lot of FaceTime contacts without their emails saved into my contacts and it still works but for whatever reason this helped. So thank you.

  • by mzaur,

    mzaur mzaur Jan 18, 2016 12:45 PM in response to jrgutierrez89
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 18, 2016 12:45 PM in response to jrgutierrez89

    This didn't work for me. I have both phone numbers and email addresses for my parents but I cannot facetime them. No icon appears. Yet they can facetime me. I'm also able to facetime them just fine on my macbook. I think it's an iOS bug.

  • by mpreisman,

    mpreisman mpreisman Mar 16, 2016 5:54 AM in response to mzaur
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 16, 2016 5:54 AM in response to mzaur

    This is the exact problem I have also.  I agree that it must be an iOS issue, since I can FaceTime them on my MacBook and iPad, but not on my iPhone.  It is very strange, since I don't have the issue with anyone else.  I will say that they are probably the only contact that doesn't also own an iPhone, so perhaps that could be part of the issue.

  • by lucky_thirteen,

    lucky_thirteen lucky_thirteen Jun 4, 2016 12:16 PM in response to mpreisman
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iPad
    Jun 4, 2016 12:16 PM in response to mpreisman

    I had exactly the same issue.  ipad2 (but I don't have an iphone).  See below* for the solution that worked for me.

     

    One contact would not work for facetime - facetime didn't even appear as an option for this contact.  Nothing I tried worked.

     

    When I deleted the contact I could search for the same person via facetime; I could then facetime them successfully - so it was a real puzzle.  Clearly not a problem with the person I was trying to contact.

     

    Creating a new contact with the same details also didn't fix it.  Tried all the usual other solutions that are often suggested - nothing worked.

     

    *The solution that worked for me:

    In the problem contact, add a second email address....the same one as the primary (facetime) address.  For some reason this second (identical) email address seems to have kickstarted facetime (and imessage)... no idea why, but it does work.  Same solution worked on my daughter's much newer ipad air.

     

    Just glad it now works...!  Maybe a big brain at Apple can work out why this is happening?

  • by Trebor@53,

    Trebor@53 Trebor@53 Sep 8, 2016 12:30 PM in response to lucky_thirteen
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Sep 8, 2016 12:30 PM in response to lucky_thirteen

    HI. Thanks for your input. I've got an iPad mini and an iPhone 6. One contact only showed FaceTime on my iPad. All the details were the same. I even air dropped the contact to the phone but still didn't show a FaceTime icon. So I tapped on 'add another email' and typed the same address as the one above and, VOILA! It worked.