imessage and Facetime sign in activation error iPad ios8.1.2

I have a brand new iPad 3 Mini and exactly the same problem as you (I don't use an iPhone either - and certainly won't be considering one now). This product, and Apple service in resolving an issue that seems to have been going on for months, is a real disappointment. I have tried every suggestion everyone has made, and none fix it. It's down to Apple to resolve.

Here's an interesting tidbit - I went to a friend's house and she has an iPad Mini 1. I asked her to try logging into Facetime on my iPad with her AppleID, and it worked! I logged her out and tried logging in with mine and it failed.

I tried logging into her ipad Facetime, and it failed.

So that says to me there's something going on with the actual AppleID and the login/verification rather than the iPad itself so getting a new iPad shouldn't make a difference.

My friend asked if I was going to get an iPhone, and I said no. Because Apple is good at telling people how to do basic stuff but if you have anything anywhere near weird or complicated, they seem to flounder around. If it works it's great, if it doesn't and resetting it six ways to Sunday doesn't work, they run out of ideas.

Oh nicely done, proven that it is an Apple ID issue.

I created a second ID and that also fails.

Updated to IOS 8.3 and it still fails.

I am supposed to be getting an engineer call tomorrow, i doubt they will help but i have pretty much exhausted all possible fixes now.

I Have another AppleID from before I got my iPad. I tried it weeks ago and it it doesn't work either. My husband says they're blocking me.

i would love to talk to an engineer. I keep talking to my senior tech and honestly, as nice as he is, he's not actually helped. He is trying though.

I had also tried logging in on another device, and my ID fails, yet others can log in on my iPad with their ID. So, I also set up another ID for myself, but that also fails. Seriously thinking about taking the iPad back for a refund and giving up on Apple altogether.

Not going to waste any more time trying to resolve this. Have done 3 full restores and tried every other trick everyone has suggested, and wasted countless hours to no effect. Will keep the iPad Mini 3 for now, but Facetime and iMessage are history and consigned to the 'unused apps' folder. Have installed a third party app for text/voice/video calling - works perfectly, is hassle free and opens up comms with friends on all platforms. Might use Facetime again if a future OS update from Apple ever restores it to work as they claim it should.

I don't know that I've seen this remedy to the "suddenly can't connect to Messages or FaceTime" problem in the many, many comments or threads I've seen while looking for a solution these past months since my iPad stopped letting me use Messages and resets and restores didn't work.

I changed my AppleID password. I was then able to connect with Messages. Problem gone.

+ Michael

Add me to this list of problem. Setup a brand new Apple ID for a senior weeks ago as her birthday gift. Facetime works the first day and it stopped working a week later. Hard reset, trip to Apple Genius bar to reset again without using the backup (cause we were told that backup is bad!). Hours more on the phone with Apple support who claims the Apple ID/iCloud account is ok and will call back in 2 days.

I am convinced this an Apple ID as I took the same Apple ID to login from my Mac Book Air. iMessage and Facebook were not able to start from there using the same "bad" Apple ID either.

Oh yeah, changing he password on the Apple ID twice did not yet either.

Convinced that this is a AppleID/iCloud problem that has nothing to do with the iPad hardware. I am trying a get a poll from here about how many of you are having problem with newly created AppleID?

Mine was created in March 2015 and it does not have a credit card associated with it.

Add me to the list of folk that have had this problem and interested in learning what the root cause is and what the real resolution turns out to be. In my case it was recently resolved after roughly two weeks of frustration. I purchased the iPad Mini 3 for my wife so she could facetime and iMessage with me when i was traveling overseas. The problem was never resolved until i returned from my trip. More on that below. All of the current reported and published fixes to this problem were attempted, many several times at the direction of, or under the direct action of Apple support personnel. None of the reported or documented fixes resolved the problem. The iPad mini was replaced, reloaded from scratch. In all attempts to fix the problem, the results were the same, which was when attempting to facetime or iMessage, the application asked for my wife's apple id and password. Over and over again, the application would process, and then return to the same screen that first prompted for the appleid and password, with no error message. My wife could use her apple id (and password) to download apps, and to but music on iTunes. Always worked for these applications. Also worked or the Games application on the iPad. This problem was worked on by the support people at the local apple store, to no avail. The Folks at the apple store had their Apple support people on the phone to help, to no avail. I was provided a case number so an Apple support person could work on the problem, and after numerous phone calls, resets, etc. no resolution. Ultimately it was "sent to engineering". After about a week, i received a note that said i should attempt Facetime and iMessage again. The message said ... " our engineering team have made changes to your device". The problem was resolved. I reported back to the support person the positive result, asked for a better explanation, and expressed my concern that the problem can re appear as i have seen reported in this forum. I asked for this in an email. I received a phone call today and i was told that an explanation was not not necessary and was not forthcoming. As of now, the applications are working. Although all the people i dealt with from Apple were most pleasant and understanding, i have little confidence in their overall technical support. I am sorry i cannot report to others what the resolution was. That was what i was hoping to do in this forum. I suspect a bug in their authentication process with Facetime and iMessage, or a corrupted directory of Apple ids. Best of luck to others with this same problem.

Except for replacing the iPad, your story is mine. I started using message and Facetime to talk to someone traveling, and it quit working while he was gone. I went thru all the steps and I also have a case number, and a senior rep who's been working with me for weeks. He's talking to engineering and they have had my account in test mode since late last week.

The solution has to have been something to do with her AppleID permissions or rights or something. Not the device - my friend's ID worked on my iPad 3 when mine didn't.

Just checked mine and it's still not working. Did you have to do anything special besides put her ID and password in?

'Shana, I have the same exact problem as you... Ipad mini 3, no facetime, no iMessage...

Tried everything, every hack, restore, everything... been over the phone and on chat for almost a couple of hours with apple... no joy...

When I found you original post, dated 3 months ago or so, I thought your problem should have been resolved by now... So actually I'm disappointed at apple...

The only thing that changed, after resetting all settings, was that instead of just returning to the sign in stage after entering the password, I was asked to choose which email account to use... After that, the email verifying processed failed, and back to square one... The only way to get back to the verifying stage is by resetting all settings...

I'm really at a loss here... Hope they fix it soon!

Thanks a lot for posting your problem!

Oh - I'm not the original poster. I am pretty sure their problem got solved at the end of January, beginning of February. I'm posting on this post because it had a lot of suggestions for people to try.

My problem started on March 20 and I first posted here on March 28 after running out of things to try. At that time I was one of the first to post about the current problem and didn't realize it was possibly a different problem than the OP had.

As far as I can tell, this version of the problem started after the 8.2 update. If I remembered exactly when I updated that would help, but I did update to 8.2 and started having this problem after that. I'm still waiting for a call back from my senior tech. I saw elsewhere that someone did get Apple to fix something and they have it working - but obviously it was not a blanket fix.

I have the same problem... I have an iPad mini 3 and can't login FaceTime... But you are all lucky, an engeeniering team is solving your problem... Because I live in Argentina they can't solve my problem... The solution they gave me was to create a new email just to have a new ID, because they don't know what happens with my ID... My phone call was a completele waste of time....

My first mini 3 was running iOS8.3 and couldn't get on with my AppleID but would allow one of the guys in the apple store to get in. I have tried various AppleIDs on my second mini 3 and running 8.0, which was OK for 24hrs, so I don't believe it is hardware and having got the replacement at an earlier iOS I don't think it is iOS dependant. It can't be a generic AppleID problem as none would work - so it must just be something sitting in some IDs that the verification process looks for (because we all know it connects and looks at the AppleID but then just says NO). So it must be something in the validation process that isn't satisfied and throws a 'wobbly'.