iPhone 5s iMessage and FaceTime not activating. Please help!

Question

iPhone 5s iMessage and FaceTime not activating. Please help!

Hi everyone! 🙂

I have an iPhone 5s that I just restored to factory settings with the most recent backup installed (which only consists of text msgs and apps i didn't want to lose, everything else is empty) Lastnight after I did my restore and update, my FaceTime and iMessages stopped working, and were stuck in "activating" for hours. Finally it worked again out of nowhere, but when I woke up this morning, both FaceTime and iMessage were down again.

I've tried the airplane mode, timezone tricks and the like but no luck.

If anyone could help me figure this out I would be very thankful!

iPhone 5s, iOS 8.1.3

Posted on Mar 2, 2015 10:43 AM

Reply

Answer 1

chuck_3rd

Community Specialist

Mar 3, 2015 10:52 AM in response to PrincessJasmine

Hi PrincessJasmine,

From your post I see that you're unable to activate both iMessage and FaceTime after restoring your iPhone to its factory settings. I'm not sure of all the troubleshooting you have done so far, so I'd like you to please follow the directions below.

Check your device settings

Make sure that you’re connected to a cellular data or Wi-Fi network. If you're using an iPhone, you'll need SMS messaging to activate your phone number with iMessage and FaceTime. Depending on your carrier, you might be charged for this SMS.

Go to Settings > General > Date & Time and make sure that your time zone is set up correctly.

Turn off iMessage and FaceTime and restart

Go to Settings > Messages and turn off iMessage.

Go to Settings > FaceTime and turn off FaceTime.

Restart your device.

Turn iMessage and FaceTime back on.

Still not activated after an hour?

It might take a few minutes to activate iMessage and FaceTime. If you've waited more than an hour, try these steps:

Make sure that your device has the latest version of iOS.

If you're using an iPhone, contact your carrier to make sure that you can receive SMS messages.

Contact Apple Support.

If you get an error when trying to activate iMessage or FaceTime - Apple Support

Thanks for using the Apple Support Communities!

Cheers,

Alex H.

Reply

Answer 2

Mar 3, 2015 11:55 PM in response to PrincessJasmine

Restart your iphone nturn on wifi or mobile data then turn off both imessage and facetime

again turn off your mobile data or wifi

again turn on your mobile data or wifi

then turn on first imessage and then facetime

wifi betwork should be working n mobile data too

Reply

Answer 3

Mar 4, 2015 1:54 PM in response to chuck_3rd

Hi Alex 🙂

I've tried the steps you instructed and still no luck.

Reply

Answer 4

Mar 4, 2015 2:01 PM in response to udittehri

still no luck 😟

Reply

Answer 5

chuck_3rd

Community Specialist

Mar 4, 2015 2:14 PM in response to PrincessJasmine

Hello PrincessJasmine,

Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.

If you didn't receive the activation after waiting an hour, did you contact your carrier to ensure you can receive SMS messages? How about contacting Apple Support? If not, then please follow each step as was outlined in my initial reply.

Have a good one,

Alex H.

Reply