Unable to make FaceTime calls using Siri on iPhone 7

Question

Level 1

9 points

Unable to make FaceTime calls using Siri on iPhone 7

I tried to use Siri to make a FaceTime call tonight and was given back an unusual error: "I wish I could, but FaceTime hasn't set that up with me yet."

I'm able to get Siri to open the FaceTime app, just not dial directly from my contacts, and apart from this Siri works just fine on the iPhone 7, including making regular audio calls and texting.

I tested making a FaceTime call using Siri on 3 older iPhone models (5S, 6+ and 6S), all running iOS 10, and it worked properly on each of them, which it had using both iOS 9 and 10 on that same 6S model for the past year, so this leads me to believe it's an iPhone 7 issue (or an individual defective handset) rather than an iOS 10 issue.

I checked a number of settings on the iPhone 7 before coming here:

Siri is enabled.
FaceTime is enabled.
Restrictions (General --> Restrictions) are turned off entirely.
iCloud --> Contacts is enabled.

iPhone 7, iOS 10

Posted on Sep 22, 2016 7:51 PM

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Answer 1

chris_g1

Community Specialist

Sep 24, 2016 7:34 AM in response to jsf23

Hi there jsf23!

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities, it's my pleasure to help you out with your iPhone 7 issue of Siri not being able to do FaceTime calls. I use Siri all the time and having her be able to do FaceTime calls is another great feature. It sounds like you've checked a lot of things I would check too, if I ran into the same issue.

Any time there's an issue with Siri or FaceTime, the first thing I recommend is to restart the iPhone and test Siri and FaceTime again.

Restart your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch
If Siri is still running into issues starting a FaceTime call, try doing a force restart. Keep in mind, this will be a little different on an iPhone 7.

On an iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus: Press and hold both the Sleep/Wake and Volume Down buttons for at least ten seconds, until you see the Apple logo.

Test again and then try checking for updates.

Update the iOS software on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch
Have a great day!

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Answer 2

jsf23 Author

Level 1

9 points

Sep 24, 2016 1:15 PM in response to chris_g1

TThanks for the suggestion. I did do a force restart during all of this, with no effect.

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Answer 3

jsf23 Author

Level 1

9 points

Sep 25, 2016 5:19 AM in response to jsf23

I've now since upgraded the iPhone 7 to iOS 10.0.2, and it's still not working.

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Answer 4

norm123

Community Specialist

Sep 25, 2016 5:39 AM in response to jsf23

Hello jsf23!

Thanks for trying updating and doing a forced restart. Next we would like you to do a backup of your iPhone, and erase and set it up as a new iPhone to test again. This will be able to sort out whether it's something in the backup preventing Siri from making FaceTime calls.

To back up your iPhone we have this article for you to check out:

How to back up your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch
Then you'll want to erase and set up your iPhone as new by following this article:

If you can‘t update or restore your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch
Please note that since you've got an iPhone 7, you'll want to use these steps to get the iPhone into recovery mode:

On an iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus: Press and hold the Sleep/Wake and Volume Down buttons at the same time. Don't release the buttons when you see the Apple logo. Keep holding both buttons until you see the recovery mode screen.

Best wishes!

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Answer 5

Sep 29, 2016 1:07 PM in response to norm123

When I say "Call XXX on FaceTime" I get the same error. If you say "FaceTime XXX" then it appears to work.

Anytime all the "specialists" say to backup your phone and reset it, they just don't know what is going on.

You should back up your phone regularly but if you have to reset it, try everything else first because you will lose all your texts and having to manually add back 100+ apps and put in folders is a pain in the ***.

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Answer 6

Oct 2, 2016 12:13 AM in response to norm123

As a support person, I find it astonishing that you would recommend the user to fully reset the phone.

Trying to reproduce the problem yourself would have made it extremely obvious that it has nothing to do with the user settings.

Just that somehow, recently you can no longer ask Siri "Call XXXX on Facetime". Instead you have to say "Facetime XXXX".

Hopefully apple will fix that.

And please delete that totally unhelpful answer...

You remind me of that joke where a person call because their mouse had reached the side of the mousepad and wondering what to do next. Like you, they advised to format their machine.

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