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Kindl

macrumors newbie
Jun 19, 2021
1
0
I waited 24 hrs since some things say to wait. Problem still existed so today at 3 I went online to Apple technical support, had them call me (no “senior”), and with just minutes of them just pulling up my wife’s account and seeing if there’s a block on her number/Apple ID, it just started working.

They even said there wasn’t any block on her number or Apple ID and that I should call Verizon, but right then it started working.

So it seems like the fix to this issue is just having Apple pull it up and looking at it ?

I had the same issue this week on a refurbished iPhone XS. I changed carriers and upgraded my phone and got the iMessage activation bug. Phone, internet, SMS worked fine, just iMessage and FaceTime wouldn’t activate.

I tried everything above and on apple support page that covers this topic including full factory reset and new Apple ID. Online support had me repeat half of that and dropped me during a handoff to senior advisor. ?

Next visited Genius Bar. Genius bar team said they hadn’t seen this before and ruled out the phone and SIM card. They helped me escalate to senior advisor and set up a support call for me since they can’t access these records themselves..❤️

Just like other folks above, the act of the senior advisor bringing up the record instantly fixed the issue, after 48 hrs+ of it not activating.
 

UKenGB

macrumors regular
Feb 21, 2010
145
34
Surrey, UK
I have been waiting 5 days since setting up my new iPhone 13 but Messages and FaceTime are both still showing "Waiting for activation" and the spinning daisywheel next to the iPhone's number. I was also unable to send or receive SMS on my Mac. Something I've always been able to do with my previous iPhone (with this exact same nano SIM).

After turning stuff off then on, all in various combinations, all to no avail, I began to wonder if the activation process needs the iPhone to have a cellular connection. Not as simplistic as it sounds.

At my home where I am trying to sort out my new iPhone, there is NO cellular coverage. This is not usually a problem as WiFi calling means effectively perfect reception and indeed the new iPhone has been able to make and receive calls and SMS since inserting the SIM. However, I was wondering if the Messages/FaceTime activation process for some reason cannot use WiFi calling.

So I walked 100 yds up the road to where I know there is a cellular signal. By the time I stopped, took the iPhone out of my pocket to look at FaceTime/Messages in Settings, the number was ALREADY activated. ?

So there are a couple of things we can take from this:-

• A cellular connection is REQUIRED for the activation. WiFi calling is not sufficient, even though tel. calls and SMS are working through that.

• When a suitable (cellular) connection is available, activation is almost instantaneous (which is my previous experience).

Some of the otherwise inexplicable activation problems could be due to this same problem.
 

vigi

macrumors newbie
Mar 30, 2022
1
0
Hello, I'm having the same issue with an iPhone 13 Pro Max, after changing my company, I've tried everything... , my company says that Int SMS are enabled, so Idk what to do anymore.
 
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