In Europe for vacation. We're from US. My son turned off iMessage for some reason, then was unable to reactivate it. We have a Global Data Talk and Text Plan for the trip through Verizon. Since turning off iMessage he can't get it to activate with his phone number but it does work via his e-mail.
Is this a foreign phone carrier issue? Is it likely he will need to wait until he's back in the U.S. to use his phone number for iMessage?
iPhone 5s iOS 8
Howdy fireflymd,
If you're having issues getting iMessage to activate properly then the steps outlined in the article below can help get your son's phone number linked. This way your son will be able to receive iMessages sent to his phone number.
If you get an error when trying to activate iMessage or FaceTime - Apple Support
Cheers
I appreciate your taking the time to respond but we have done all that and more. I have scoured the Internet for possible fixes and my son thinks the problem lies with the foreign carrier. Because I don't wish to use up my global minutes calling Verizon from Europe, we are going to see if it turns back on once we are back in the U.S. If not, the next step is a trip to the Apple Store Genius Bar. Unfortunately, I'm already going there because my daughter's iPhone 5s won't take pictures consistently despite a lot of space on phone and paying for additional iCloud storage. It also shuts down at 33% battery.
Truly frustrating. Husband has been very happy with his non Apple phone and the multitude of problems we have had with our iPhones over the last 2 years has made me rethink our next upgrade.
Well, my son was right! Once we re-entered the US and our phone service was back with Verizon, his iMessage started to work again with his telephone number.
Lesson learned:
Don't turn off your iMessage when you are in a foreign country, even if you have Global Service, because you may lose the ability to use iMessage (because of the way iMessage works--apparently there is some kind of brief, initial communication with the local phone service, but because his phone number was not recognized by the foreign phone company, iMessage was disabled.) As soon as we got back to the US and the phone service changed to Verizon, his iMessage was back in business.
None of the standard Apple explanations worked; and none of the internet fixes I researched worked. I probably could have contacted Verizon while in Europe but his e-mail address worked so we waited until we got back home.
Problem solved!
iMessage won't turn back on overseas
