Q: imessage and Facetime sign in activation error iPad ios8.1.2

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?

Mine was created Jan 2015 but not used for Facetime or message till March '15

'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.

ME on a few iPad mini 3's here's my post ipad mini 3 imessage sign in loop

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....

Had a phonecall from Applecare last night from my senior advisor after referral to engineering 5 days ago -  and the engineering answer is....   "they are working on it" 

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'. 

I agree. Not hardware,  It's something in the validation of our AppleIDs. I have seen one person have success with a new ID but everyone else who has tried it has been unsuccessful.

i still haven't heard back from my senior tech. It's been a week since my account was put into test mode. I try signing in every few days but no luck yet.

APPLE MUST FIX THIS NOW.

This is quite pathetic from such a large supposed trusted manufacturer, its pretty obvious to me its a problem from Apples end, i could go on but ive had exactly the same problem as i have read on here, been onto apple who acknowledged it was their fault and it would soon be fixed, but this was around 2 weeks ago now and nothing as yet. I have spent around £2500 on apple products and not one of them will now sign into either imessage or facetime. The top and bottom of it all is that they have sold me products that are not fit for purpose and if this is not sorted fast I will seriously think about getting rid !!!!

They haven't told me it was an Apple problem outright, but when I told them that my friend's AppleID works on my iPad but mine won't work on her iPad (for FaceTime and iMessage) he did say it sounded like it wasn't device related. I don't know what else to do but ask anyone I see here that has this problem to call into AppleCare. Squeaky wheel and all that.

DEfinitely not device related for my friends and my dad id worked on my ipad. Mine works but not to facetime and imessage. This is just disappointing

I'm having same problem bought my son a iPad mini3  on Thursday evening, set up family sharing everything works fine apart from messages and FaceTime! Won't let me sign into it!! All my other products work fine and the new iPad let me sign in with my id but not my sons new account so frustrating!