iMessage and FaceTime unable to sign in (IOS 9)

FIxed, thank you. Had two factor authentication enabled. Turned it off, did not fix. Then tried this, worked. If you use two factor, I would try this first, if it doesn't work, turn off two factor, then try this again.

It all started with text sms not working. I did troubleshooting with ATnT for half day and nothing worked. iMessage was giving activation error. iMessage works with your phone number and Apple ID. By default it use phone number. In my case phone number was not coming up. Something was messed up at sim level as phone number was exactly same when I am calling but when I am looking at Phone>All contacts> My number it was showing 13 digit number. It should match with my number. After sim changed it was showing my number and that 13 digit number was gone. I did reset settings, n number of power cycles but in the end ATnT recommend me to change the SIM. If anyone having similar issue pls check Phone>All contacts> My number.

Well, since my last reply, I decided to back up and then do a restore to factory.

That fixed the problem for me.

Since neither iMessage nor Facetime can be activated on either device it is not possible to disable then re-enable that option or edit any settings for them, so I tried -

rebooting and resetting several times,

logging into my Apple account to check my Apple ID and password were still correct,

checking my country was correct,

changing the date manually then switching it back to Automatic,

connecting on different wi-fi networks,

disabling and re-enabling Find My Device,

switching on two-factor authentication, verifying both devices, and trying an app-specific password,

sign out and sign in again for my apple ID on the device within Settings and the Apple Store app,

downloaded and updated apps,

but nothing worked and I still can't access iMessage on my iPad mini 1 and my iPod Touch 5th Gen after updating them both to iOS9. It has been over 24 hours now.

I had similar issue today. My text stopped working even iMessage was disabled. Not able to enable iMessage anyways giving activation error. In Settings>iMessage> Send & Receive only Apple Id was showing my Mobile number was not showing. In Phone>All contacts> My number was some 13 digit number. ATnT asked me to change the SIM. They registered new SIM with my mobile number and after that issue is resolved.

I could see My number correct, iMessage and Facetime able to activate with my Mobile number. Everything works as before.

HTH

Using iPhone 5c and recently installed ios 9.1 for the 2nd time -- I had rolled back to 8.4 after installing 9.0 because of the iMessage issue.

With 8.4 I constantly had iMessage turning itself off and I couldn't get it to slide to "on", but it worked half the time (after toggling the wifi endless times). Now, iMessage *never* works - it refuses to sign in ("cannot contact server for activation. try again').

When I first installed 9.1 everything worked for about a day. Now nothing will work to get imessage to sign in.

I have tried every single option suggested, including the factory restore/reset -- that only worked temporarily. Most of the suggestions either didn't work for me or worked only once -- then the iphone signed itself out, and won't go back in.

--Logging out of icloud and then back in worked once -- and hasn't worked since

--Factory reset worked once, and then it stopped working -- be aware that (unless something has changed), if you do a reset, you'll probably lose your 8.4 wallpaper -- Apple took out a lot of the wallpapers, including the one I used (night sky with stars) -- this was what really forced me to roll back to 8.4 the first time.

At this point I'm going to roll back to 8.4 permanently if I still can. I used to be a huge Apple supporter, but after all this I really despise iMessages and ios.

My only "solution" has been to use alternatives like a google voice # or whatsapp instead and to tell people to not text my cell #. This situation with imessages is absurd.

Thanks for the post! I wasn't able to follow the exact procedure as the login to Messaging after power on failed. I had to login to the cloud, then I could login to message. Apparently the real key is logging off and then powering the system off.

So thanks for the post, I was able to resolve the problem.

Still, this should not have happened in the first place or Apple should have provided some instructions to deal with issues like this as part of their release notes for the update that caused the problem.

Lets hope we get some Quality in Apple "QA"!

Very helpful. Thank you! I am sharing this method with friends.

This also worked for me, although I did have to adjust settings such as: brightness, messaging settings (group is default and I turned that off), fingerprint, wallpaper, font sizes, etc. And...I was finally able to set up the six digit password.

I have been struggling with this issue since last night and this did not help.

I reset all settings and now I still don't have iMessages working and now my phone needs to have all the f'n settings reset.

iOS9 BROKE iMESSAGE.

Hey all - I just tried the fix Casey suggested and nada, zip, zilch. 😢 Initially, I had the problem just on the iPad Air but this morning the problem is also on my iPad Mini - it was working fine yesterday. I took the Air to the Genius Bar yesterday, and they did all the usual stuff I'd already done. Then he reset the network - nothing. He said that he'd heard many complaints, and aside from blowing away all of the content on the iPad and rebuilding it from scratch, it would be best to wait for a patch. Frankly, I think that's a load of crap.

Any other thoughts, oh wise ones? This is really screwing up my mojo as I go from device to device like everyone else. Any additional thoughts welcomed - thanks in advance!

A reset worked for me too. Thank you for the help.

It's more than I can say for the Apple Support call center. They had me go through a lot of gyrations and it still didn't work. Yours was such a simple fix.

Thanks again.

I've tried everything suggested thus far, including a factory reset, and no luck. A public announcement of "we're working on it, sit tight" or something is absolutely in order. This is getting quite frustrating.

I agree, I am having the same problem. I have tried all of the described resets, factory resets, sign in/out procedures and none of them resolve them problem. Is the iMessage server down? This all started as soon as I upgraded to iOS 9. Never had this problem when Steve Jobs was around.

I Have the same instant message wont work problem with my iPad 2. - 64 gig. have down loaded ios 9.01 that allowed me to get into instant messaginging. I typed two test send messages. It took two hours on the first message to send. The second is still trying to send after 16 hours. I started a disscusion like this days ago but only got one answer so far, suggesting I reset my router. Things I have done so far: I have followed settings instructions for logging into instant messaging; reset router; reset password; verified my email in apple account settings, restart iPad, down loaded ios 9.01. some of these steps has helped get into instant messaging but none has gotten it to work. I think one of the most frustrating issuse is it asks continually for my user name and password when I Try to open the app, after it verifys my user name and password it opens settings for instant messages and asks for my user name and password all over again. Of course my iPad 2 is not eligable for apple care anymore so I hope an update to ios 9.01 comes out to fix this problem.

I wish this worked for me.....

my iPod Touch 5th gen is having the same issue. Can't sign in using Apple ID. I can sign in on my other iPads and iMacs, Macbook and iBook.

I've reset everything. Stumped.

But thanks anyway....