iMessage, Facetime, and time zone don't work iOS 8.4

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iMessage, Facetime, and time zone don't work iOS 8.4

Iphone 5S 64GB iOS 8.4

I just came back from being abroad for 6 weeks and my time zone won't change back. It's stuck on Africa/Cairo.

Now my iMessage and FaceTime don't work and will not activate. The phone still thinks I'm in Africa and I've had to manually change my time. Not sure if this has anything to do with my phone not wanting to activate.

I've tried resetting all the settings, and also resetting the networking settings. I really don't want to wipe the phone clean.

iPhone 5s, iOS 8.4

Posted on Sep 3, 2015 9:16 PM

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Answer 1

pedro d

Community Specialist

Sep 5, 2015 9:42 AM in response to DreamerMary

Hello there, DreamerMary.

it sounds like you're iPhone 5s is not displaying the proper time zone and this is affecting activation of FaceTime and Messages. The following Knowledge Base article offers a very thorough resource for steps on troubleshooting:

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

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 you've set up your time zone 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 a day?

It might take up to 24 hours to activate iMessage and FaceTime. If you've waited more than 24 hours, follow 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.

Thanks for reaching out to Apple Support Communities.

Cheers.

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Answer 2

DreamerMary Author

Level 1

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Sep 5, 2015 2:59 PM in response to pedro d

Hello,

I've tried doing everything that is stated in that already. None of that worked. 😟

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Answer 3

Sep 6, 2015 3:49 PM in response to DreamerMary

We have a similar problem with my son's phone. It keeps randomly changing out of auto time zone which displays the correct one (New York for us) to Beijing time. When that happens his imessage, and facetime do not work properly. If you find a solution, I'd love to hear it. It's extremely annoying as my phone will send the imessage but he won't receive it. We too have followed the above advice several times with no luck.

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