iMessage & facetime "waiting for activation".

My FaceTime and iMessage acting even weirder.

I am having a related -but altogether stranger - problem. I am on iPhone 4 running 5.01 and for some reason, FaceTime and iMessage keeps turning off by itself. Turning it on only gets me as far as "waiting for activation".

In there few times that I progress, I get as far as the program asking me to verify my Apple ID password. I do so, and I get the notification "a verification email has been sent" but I never receive the email.

The only way to turn both programs on is to restore from a previous back-up where both were working. It does that fine, but after about 5 minutes they both turn off again!

Somebody help, please....

juro said:

I am having a related -but altogether stranger - problem. I am on iPhone 4 running 5.01 and for some reason, FaceTime and iMessage keeps turning off by itself. Turning it on only gets me as far as "waiting for activation".

In there few times that I progress, I get as far as the program asking me to verify my Apple ID password. I do so, and I get the notification "a verification email has been sent" but I never receive the email.

The only way to turn both programs on is to restore from a previous back-up where both were working. It does that fine, but after about 5 minutes they both turn off again!

Somebody help, please....

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Same issue as thread creator, I just live with it since I have unlimited texts, and have no use for Facetime..

Done all the research and suggested fixes with no resolution, I am not going to restore my 4s because of the obvious inability to rejailbreak on latest iOS, and the aforementioned reasons.

This is the second time that this has happened to me. iMessage has completely stopped working and simply will not activate. I reset network settings. I updated software. I even completely restored the phone. Nothing. iMessage is simply dead. The crazy thing about this is...it stopped working as soon as I turned my phone on in Los Angeles. If I recall, the last time it stopped working was....that last time I landed in Los Angeles.

Now, what is even weirder is that every text message I send to my wife (since I can't send iMessages, even though she also has an iPhone) goes to her email inbox... Seriously..WTF?

This crap, coupled with the abysmal reception that I get pretty much everywhere, has finally, after nearly 5 years of owning one, led me to decide that I hate this phone. It's just garbage.

It really sucks because we just had a baby and she was sending me photos over iMessage while I'm out of town for several weeks. Now it's a pain.

I had this issue on my 4s, and imessage and facetime started working after i inserted a sim card. It wasent working when i had it with no sim card inside .By the way my iPhone is factory unlocked and my number does appears in itunes when i connect it.

iam on 5.0.1 wont risk it by updating to 5.1

moosquared said:

Updated to iOS 5.1.1.
iMessage is still not fixed. Still has the same exact problem.
I know I can still use iMessage through email, but it's just really bugging me.

*sigh...*

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I updated and had to restore twice, then it finally started working again. Argh.

moosquared said:

Did you set it up as a new phone? Or using the old backup?
I did try both, still nothing. If I use an old backup, iMessage will try to verify my old phone number, which is not in service anymore. It'll take FOREVER to verify and eventually showed an "error" message. Turnin on/off doesn't help at all. Doesn't change a thing.

If I do set it up as a new phone, no phone number appear on iMessage. Only email address.

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I used an old backup. I have no idea what made it finally start working. I did so many things before it finally started. It's a really bad setup.

samiwas said:

I used an old backup. I have no idea what made it finally start working. I did so many things before it finally started. It's a really bad setup.

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The reason it was going to her email is because you were doing one of two things:

Using a pre-existing iMessage conversation thread, which probably has her email address as the default iMessage address. So you were emailing her via text since your iMessage wasn't working.

Or when you start a new iMessage convo you were selecting her email in the contact.


If my wife doesn't go to her existing iMessage convo thread with me, her texts go to my email as well. She is on a 4, I'm on a 4S. Her phone takes a long time to recognize if my email is an iMessage or not. She literally has to pull up my contact, select my email, and wait for it to turn blue before trying to input text.

Have you turned iMessage off, then back on?

The DRis said:

Have you turned iMessage off, then back on?

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.....really?

samiwas said:

.....really?

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Yes really. You never know, and it has solved quite a few issues before. What's your deal?

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moosquared said:

Turning iMessage on/off is the very first thing I did.

I know what you meant about the pre-existing convo, but that isn't the case with me. In order for me to receive iMessage, I must use my email, because iMessage is just not recognizing my number. If someone try to send an "iMessage" to my number, it'll be sent as a text.

I'll be more than happy to bring this to an apple store, but there is NONE in my country

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iMessage still has some bugs in it. Even if people use my email, I don't always get the message on both my iPad and iPhone. Sometimes I have to send a message to the person from my iPad before it will start to sync the conversations.