Q: Cannot Activate iMessage or FaceTime.. is there a fix for this?
Pretty silly issue, and I can see that I'm not the only one having problems. Apple support page seems pretty confident that this is solved.. but searching online on forums and reddit shows otherwise.
2 Day old Macbook 12, everything else works perfectly except iMessage and FaceTime. I cannot activate either using my apple ID
In iMessage Settings/Accounts it shows my working google id but iMessage says (Inactive). When I initially tried to sign in for the first time the login inf would grey out for 15 seconds and then return to its initial font colour. I selected skip for now after many attempts and when trying to log in from preferences, to be clear using my apple id and password that works everywhere else, I get this dialogue box: Could Not Sign Into iMessage. Could not sign in. Please check your network connection and try again.
To be clear:
1. My Apple ID is new, and associated with an email that have never been used with an apple product before.
2. iMessage and FaceTime not working after initial Macbook setup as well as after a clean install of El Captain a day later.
3. iCloud and Apple ID sign in is not an issue anywhere else, both work on apps, in internet services, system settings, and online at apple's own websites.
4. I live in Taiwan and bought the computer here. I have already fooled around with the time and date settings for time zones numerous times, with resets as well as iMessage resets, switching between selecting my city myself and allowing mac to automate time zone, date and time, etc.
5. This Macbook is my only Apple Device. I cannot set up 2 step verification with an iPhone or iPad I do not own. It is my understanding that you can freely use iMessage to message friends through the computer who own their own iPhones (or have iMessage on their mac computers) without having to own an iPhone yourself. This integration would be very nice to have and was a selling feature for me to buy the computer, as well as switching from Android to iPhone in the near future. but without this function the benefits of an iPhone vs an Android are greatly reduced.
I have read this issue is a very weird one and I have seen dozens of different fixes online, none of which have worked for everyone.
Any help would be appreciated. I love this Macbook so far and I really want iMessage to work.
Cheers.
Posted on Mar 23, 2016 10:00 PM