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

my latest update from apple:

I wanted to let you know that the engineers have not provided any additional information at this time. I am not sure if you have decided to return the iPad at this time or if you have decided to keep it. If you would let me know if I should keep your case open that would be great. I apologize for this inconvenience and the time that it is taking to get a resolution. If you have any questions feel free to email me.

in other words NO UPDATE.

I Purchase my 85 year old Mother the newest IPad mini available. I did not get the cellular connection, as she doesn't have an iPhone nor plan to get one. I was so exctied as all of my family lives across country except myself and my Mother. She has several grandchildren, great and great great grandchildren, so imessage and FaceTime were my main reasons for getting it. It arrived on May 2. After spending 4 hours reading all of this and trying everything I called Apple, they acted like this was a first!!! after an hour on the phone, the senior  techs day was over so he was off the following day and would call me day after. In meantime I returned IPad for a new one and unfortunately had exact same problem. Since then I have had multiple phone calls with Senior Tech, has been turned over to Engineers for about 6 days now and have not heard a word back. So HAPPY Mothers Day....your FaceTime is Useless. I wish they would just admit their problem. I have tried every suggestion I have read on these threads and have come up with same thing. Can't login to imessage or facetime and usually gives no error! Just back to same login screen.

for the people in test mode how long was it until yours was fixed if it was fixed!

another super frustrated Apple ipad mini customer!

Mmine was in test mode for a bit over a week before it started working. It was a week after that when Apple called to have me try using FaceTime. They were very surprised when I told them it had been working a week already.

AS I have posted before, I don't know what caused mine to start working again. Something they did or me trying to get in right after getting out of airplane mode.

• First rule of apple support, act surprised that a customer has a problem with the perfect product.
• Second rule of apple support, flatly deny the possibility that any other customer would also experience a similar issue.
• Third rule of apple support, take all the customer information, tell them "we have escalated the problems to the engineers", end the call and hope the customer forgets there is a problem with the perfect product.

Take comfort in the fact that Apple will happily talk with you and will empathize with how frustrating it can be that the device is not working properly. Also, they will tell you the will do what they can to fix the problem.

Just try to forget that person has no ability to address your problem. They have no interest in providing any kind of expectation on when a fix will be available and get particularly annoyed that you call back regularly requesting a progress update. Generally they prefer you not call back at all.

Apple considers the job done when your cash is deposited into there bank account.

You should be thanking them for letting you have the privilege of owning an Apple device.

My AppleID  was created in March 2015, all of a sudden (iOS 8.3, nothing change from device, no call from apple engineer ) start working without me doing anything

#FaceTimeFail

I can´t believe it, mine finally worked.  I had tried all the tricks (airplane mode, date and time, etc.) so I cannot attribute the success to any one technique.  Just kept trying.  Probably the so-called engineers are going through the problem IDs one by one and debugging them is my best guess.

I'm glad yours is working now. Hopefully more people will get going soon. It's a ridiculously slow process though.

Jay 8 wrote:

 

My AppleID  was created in March 2015, all of a sudden (iOS 8.3, nothing change from device, no call from apple engineer ) start working without me doing anything

#FaceTimeFail

That seems pretty typical of the way this thing is going .... you might get a call in a week or so ... or not.

I got this issue on the ipad air after updating the iphone to 8.3 today. I tried everything suggested with rebooting the ipad, etc.with no help. Then I tried to log in the iphone using the email address that I used on the ipad. A message pops up asking for an app specific password instead of the normal password. After using the app specific password generated from "My Apple ID", I was able to log in facetime and imessage. Hope this will help someone.

Sorry to be a bit dim, I don't quite understand how you create an app specific  password generated from "My Apple ID". I have been unable to access Facetime or imessage on my ipad air for about two months now. I have tried everything suggested with no luck.

My mom has an iPad 3 (WiFi-only) which has this problem. As expected, my own apple id works fine with facetime and iMessage on the device, and her apple id works with facetime and iMessage on my iphone, so the problem is clearly an association of her apple id and the ipad. Also, I created a new apple id and it doesn't solve the problem. I was just in the phone with support here in Mexico and although the rep was very nice, she was completely dismissive about the stuff posted on this thread, literally saying "don't believe everything you read on the internet" and proceeding to point me to all the fruitless solutions everyone with this issue has already explored. I am planning to call them again and find a way to make them take this problem with the seriousness we expect from the "IT JUST WORKS" company.

After going through the same thing, trying every suggestion, even exchanging my iPad for a new one after one day, (was also a gift for Mother), nothing worked. Believe me there was nothing I didn't try. I had the iPad Mini 3 as well Wi-fi only. I believe the only solution is either wait and hope for a global solution, or call AppleCare and get in line. First step is to speak to a tech....it didn't take long before I was transferred to a senior tech....I spent about 2 hours at least working with him before he said he needed to give it to engineers. Next we put it in test mode with a temporary password, then.. My wait was about 10 days in test mode..each day I would put in my temporary password, it didn't work, then suddenly one night it worked and I almost fell out of my chair! The next day I got a call from the Senior Tech Advisor and he said the engineers had fixed mine. So far so good, only once it quit working again, and asked for my password again but this time it took it the first time.

I Will give them this, they are very nice at least my tech was and very sympathetic and through the frustration that at least made it a bit easier,

MAKE SURE TO GET A CASE NUMBER! So you are in the system, I'm so glad I didn't give up and get an iPad Air because my Mother is thrilled with the size of the mini.

Good luck to everyone here..,,,at least you now know it's not something you are doing wrong! I hope this helps someone!

I had this problem too with my iPhone 6, on iOS 8.3

Here's how I solved it:

Step 1: Under Settings → Message, scroll down to where it says ‘Send & Receive’ and tap on it
Step 2: Tap on the Apple ID and then press Sign Out

Step 3: Turn off WiFi
Step 4: Switch off iMessage

Step 5: Turn on WiFi
Step 6: Wait for a while, like 2-3 minutes and then switch ON iMessage
Step 7: Enter your Apple ID details and try to reactivate iMessage

It worked in the sense that now I can send text messages via the WiFi but in Settings>Messages under the iMessage switch says "Wating for activation..."

Weird.

Alexkoski, I hope that works for some, but for me and for many others there is nothing there when you go to settings and messages except the choice to log in, no send and receive, nothing to turn on and off and it won't log in no matter what!. When the agent heard this is when he transferred me to a senior agent, followed by handed over to engineers. It's so frustrating I agree, so any suggestions I welcomed when I was fighting this problem! But whatever works I say try it once!

Problem: iPad Air 2 (wifi only) FaceTime and iChat broken. Trying to log in to either results in dead-end looping back to the log-in procedure.  I have multiple Apple IDs and none will log in successfully.

The Apple support guy I've been working with acknowledged that there are several of his colleagues reporting the same problem; and further evidence of the problem's scope can be found at Apple discussion sites, like this one...  https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6789149

My son-in-law, the lead iOS engineer for a startup in Denver, personally worked on my iPad trying to solve this problem. He assured me it was solvable. In the end (after 2 hours of work and research on various of Apple's Support sites and no resolution), he came to the conclusion that the Facetime/iChat problem is a PROBLEM, widespread and Apple's to solve.

Here's what he found out along the way:

1. His two Apple IDs worked on my iPad while others did not.
2. He created a new Apple ID and it did not work.
3. The Apple IDs that did not work on my iPad did work on his iPhone.

We tried:

1. Reset Network settings. Didn't work-
2. Reset All settings. Didn't work-
3. Hard reset of the iPad. Used home button and off button to reset. Didn't work-

<Edited By Host>