iOS 12 iMessage: Waiting for Activation (me.com vs. icloud.com)

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iOS 12 iMessage: Waiting for Activation (me.com vs. icloud.com)

I have a SIMless iPhone 5s that I updated to iOS 12 using one of my me.com Apple IDs. Key information: me.com Apple IDs have a fixed icloud.com alias, but the "true" Apple ID uses me.com.

iMessage is stuck on "waiting for activation".

The curious thing is that it can send messages. When it sends they use the icloud.com address. If I respond to the icloud.com address it's processed. However I can't send or receive using the me.com address. The me.com address does not appear as an option in iMessage settings, but it shows in the "reachable at" screen in Name, Phone Numbers, Email.

The "waiting for activation" bug is old, but I think the me.com/icloud.com bug is new with iOS 12.

Posted on Sep 19, 2018 8:55 AM

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Answer 1

jfaughnan Author

Level 3

869 points

Oct 8, 2018 9:48 AM in response to jfaughnan

This still won't work for me, but in the absence of other reports I think I may have a fairly unique situation. The Apple ID I used for this device was caught up in the .mac, .me, .icloud transition. I have both myname@mac.com and myname@me.com and myname@icloud.com.

A rare mess only a handful of people will ever see. My hunch is some backend Apple fixes to their Apple ID infrastructure broke things.

I probably need to switch my test device to another Apple ID and try again. Just hate to get yet another Apple ID :-).

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iOS 12 iMessage: Waiting for Activation (me.com vs. icloud.com)

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