I experienced this having transferred my e-sim from 16 to 17 pro. There was no e-sim to remove from the old device. There is some form of race condition I believe on the far end which winds up with their systems thinking there are two devices with the same e-sim. It cleared after exactly 24 hours.
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Apple Provides Fix for iMessage Activation Bug in iOS 26
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I had this issue with my 17PM. I didn’t have any unused sim or eSIM. Was driving me nuts.
I configured the new iPhone like new with no backup, and transferred my esim from my 15PM in the setup process.
The only solution was to get a new eSIM from my Carrier (Movistar Spain). Deleted the old one, installed the new eSIM and voila! iMessage and FaceTime now work perfectly.
But…still can not activate RCS. It stays in Waiting for activation…
I configured the new iPhone like new with no backup, and transferred my esim from my 15PM in the setup process.
The only solution was to get a new eSIM from my Carrier (Movistar Spain). Deleted the old one, installed the new eSIM and voila! iMessage and FaceTime now work perfectly.
But…still can not activate RCS. It stays in Waiting for activation…
After iOS 26 the syncing between Mac and iPhone in Messages is lost partly. When I am at home and on the same network iMessages sync but not when I am away from home and come back like they used to do. I do not use iCloud for Messages and did not do it before either but syncing worked. Strangely text messages from those without iPhones sync regardless of where I am.
This is the icon i would use for an app that reminds users to close the lid on their HomeKit toilet.
i think that the biggest chance for things going wrong is when you have purchased a new iPhone, and, need to find the step by step process to do all of the following:
1 prepare your old iPhone for the transfer of data (and apps) and settings to your new iPhone
2 initiate the transfer
3 transfer your esim to your new iPhone
1 & 2 have good documentation and tools that apple has prepared. easy to follow.
3 is dependent on your carrier.
but for the entire process from 1 to 3 i haven't seen any real documentation or practical advice that provides a real clear step by step guide. again, because some of it is carrier specific.
generically, the steps are:
1 do a final Cloud backup
2 sign out of iMessage and Facetime on your old device
3 remove the old device from Find My
4 start the simple process that apple outlines (with two devices overlapped). transfer everything either via wi-fi or by bluetooth.
5 the new device will show its all happy and wanting to do the final steps to finish the new phone setup. do that.
6 its during that step that you will be able to transfer your esim to the new iPhone. some carriers have a quick transfer, other carriers need to send you a text message with a link for a QR code. either way isn't usually a problem.
7 on the old device, check under Cellular to ensure that no esim is still active. just delete it if you need to.
8 if you are trading in or giving or selling your old phone to someone/somwhere else, go back to the old phone and initiate the well outlined steps to wipe your phone.
9 after that, on your new iPhone, sign in to FaceTime and iMessage. Then sign in to Find My.
1 prepare your old iPhone for the transfer of data (and apps) and settings to your new iPhone
2 initiate the transfer
3 transfer your esim to your new iPhone
1 & 2 have good documentation and tools that apple has prepared. easy to follow.
3 is dependent on your carrier.
but for the entire process from 1 to 3 i haven't seen any real documentation or practical advice that provides a real clear step by step guide. again, because some of it is carrier specific.
generically, the steps are:
1 do a final Cloud backup
2 sign out of iMessage and Facetime on your old device
3 remove the old device from Find My
4 start the simple process that apple outlines (with two devices overlapped). transfer everything either via wi-fi or by bluetooth.
5 the new device will show its all happy and wanting to do the final steps to finish the new phone setup. do that.
6 its during that step that you will be able to transfer your esim to the new iPhone. some carriers have a quick transfer, other carriers need to send you a text message with a link for a QR code. either way isn't usually a problem.
7 on the old device, check under Cellular to ensure that no esim is still active. just delete it if you need to.
8 if you are trading in or giving or selling your old phone to someone/somwhere else, go back to the old phone and initiate the well outlined steps to wipe your phone.
9 after that, on your new iPhone, sign in to FaceTime and iMessage. Then sign in to Find My.
Well it doesn’t help with the same problem on the watch.
Apple this week provided troubleshooting steps for iPhone owners who are unable to activate iMessage with a phone number in iOS 26.
According to Apple, some customers might not be able to activate iMessage with a phone number if there is an inactive SIM or eSIM with the same phone number as an active SIM on the iPhone.
Customers who are experiencing this problem will see a "Not Delivered" alert for sent iMessages, and iMessages won't be able to be received. Messages will be sent and received via RCS or SMS, and will have green bubbles instead of blue bubbles. Alternatively, iMessages might be sent using an email address instead of a phone number.
To get iMessage to work in that situation, users should remove the inactive SIM and attempt to reactivate iMessage. Deleting a SIM that's not in use can be done by going to the Cellular section of the Settings app, and deleting the inactive SIM if there are two displayed with the same phone number.
If the inactive SIM is a physical SIM, it should be removed from the iPhone. If the inactive SIM is an eSIM, it can be deleted from the Cellular interface. After the inactive SIM has been removed, iMessage can be activated by going to Messages, tapping on Send and Receive, and tapping on the displayed phone number.
Article Link: Apple Provides Fix for iMessage Activation Bug in iOS 26
I can’t activate iMessage for my son on his brother’s old watch SE because it thinks it is still my older son’s watch.
Doesn’t matter that the cellular service is removed, the watch was moved to a different Apple ID, and the old phone number is now used on an SE3. WatchOS 26 still thinks the old phone number is associated with the old watch.
I bought an SE3 for my son. I was not allowed to do family setup unless I moved to iOS26.
Should have returned the watch instead. Now I am stuck on this CF of an OS I never planned on using.
Yes, it happened to me. When it happened I contacted them and they told me it was Verizon not fixing their RCS line item activation issues. So I spent 3 days doing everything possible including resetting my phone back to manufacture, but that was after probably 30 different things they suggested, which 8 of which was each one they escalated me to had me turn on airplane mode and back on. Anyway They even deleted their entire RCS line on my account, save it, then entered a completely new line. I finally talked them into deleting my eSIM completely as if I left the company, then give a new one. ( by the way, the first thing they checked was if there were 2 sims, there wasn’t) Anyway, once the new one was activated, everything worked.
Apple this week provided troubleshooting steps for iPhone owners who are unable to activate iMessage with a phone number in iOS 26.
According to Apple, some customers might not be able to activate iMessage with a phone number if there is an inactive SIM or eSIM with the same phone number as an active SIM on the iPhone.
Customers who are experiencing this problem will see a "Not Delivered" alert for sent iMessages, and iMessages won't be able to be received. Messages will be sent and received via RCS or SMS, and will have green bubbles instead of blue bubbles. Alternatively, iMessages might be sent using an email address instead of a phone number.
To get iMessage to work in that situation, users should remove the inactive SIM and attempt to reactivate iMessage. Deleting a SIM that's not in use can be done by going to the Cellular section of the Settings app, and deleting the inactive SIM if there are two displayed with the same phone number.
If the inactive SIM is a physical SIM, it should be removed from the iPhone. If the inactive SIM is an eSIM, it can be deleted from the Cellular interface. After the inactive SIM has been removed, iMessage can be activated by going to Messages, tapping on Send and Receive, and tapping on the displayed phone number.
Article Link: Apple Provides Fix for iMessage Activation Bug in iOS 26
My issues were
1)No texts could be sent to non IPhone users.
2) No calls or texts could be received from non iPhones
3) Photos/docs/emoji couldn’t be sent at all
I was a beta tester and they were told They said it was a Verizon issue. See my post for more
I got iMessage to work finally after 20+ pairing attempts. At first it got so frustrated it would automatically unpair 75% of the way in.
I paired as my watch, as a replacement for an old 38mm I had. (Trying as new or as restoring an old larger watch would just end up with forced unpairing), with no cellular setup.
Next I updated to latest WatchOS26
Also updated to iOS26.0.1
Then I unpaired.
Then I set up as a family watch again— restoring from a NON-WatchOS 26 backup.
iMessage MUST be turned ON during setup, but Activities MUST be “set up later” as well as cellular, as well as emergency ID, all “set up later.”
Once I figured out those exact steps:
Non-OS26 image (important)
iMessage turned on during pairing (important)
Other features turned OFF during setup (nit sure which ones are important though I know that Activities crashed pairing every time)
iMessages finally works.
It doesn’t think it’s attached to the old phone number and is now working correctly with my son’s AppleID as the only thing linked to iMessages.
And I was able to enable activities and other features through settings after pairing complete.