iMessage and Facetime not activating

[darkgoob]

Hello everyone. I downloaded ios 7 and now facetime and iMessage wont activate. They both say Waiting for activation, I tried resetting network settings and that didnt work. Any ideas please?

I experienced this problem with Beta 1 and Beta 2. I reported it to Apple but they evidently did not fully fix it. It has also plagued previous iOS versions.

The issue is caused by corrupt or missing certifcate files inside your iPhone. Assuming you have a full pre-iOS 7 backup of your device, restore your device cleanly to iOS 7 and activate it as a new phone. Do not restore your old backup yet. Set up iCloud and iMessage with your AppleID. You will find that they work fine. Log into the Apple Store also. Make sure Find My Iphone and Activation Lock are both OFF.

Now, restore the old backup to the device. It should activate fine now.

If not, let me know; I did find a way where you can backup your non-activating phone, then mod that backup with the cert files from the fresh 'new phone' backup where it's working, using iBackupBot and an sqlite editor. But it's really complicated to perform this surgery and setting up the phone the other way seems better. (That's how Apple recommends you do it anyway, to the devs.)

Hope this helps,

-=DG=-

 

[sbessel]

I experienced this problem with Beta 1 and Beta 2. I reported it to Apple but they evidently did not fully fix it. It has also plagued previous iOS versions.

The issue is caused by corrupt or missing certifcate files inside your iPhone. Assuming you have a full pre-iOS 7 backup of your device, restore your device cleanly to iOS 7 and activate it as a new phone. Do not restore your old backup yet. Set up iCloud and iMessage with your AppleID. You will find that they work fine. Log into the Apple Store also. Make sure Find My Iphone and Activation Lock are both OFF.

Now, restore the old backup to the device. It should activate fine now.

If not, let me know; I did find a way where you can backup your non-activating phone, then mod that backup with the cert files from the fresh 'new phone' backup where it's working, using iBackupBot and an sqlite editor. But it's really complicated to perform this surgery and setting up the phone the other way seems better. (That's how Apple recommends you do it anyway, to the devs.)

Hope this helps,

-=DG=-

So what about those of us who didn't have a full backup prior to IOS7?

(Mine has had a backup error that Apple could not solve since 6.0, my first full backup in a long time was just after installing IOS7)

Apple has got to have a fix for this, one better than wipe and restore.

 

[jwc6160]

What a freaking disaster. Still no iMessage. I tried restore and now it won't let me back up from iCloud. It just keeps spinning when it asks what data I want to back up. I hooked to itunes and it says I have never backed up to icloud before??? Oh, and Imessage still doesn't work.

FU Apple. For the first time ever, I have to say that I am hugely disappointed in a product. This has just been terrible.

 

[NewishMacGuy]

If you had multiple iCloud/AppleIDs in your email accounts prior to the upgrade you may have to reconfigure your iCloud settings. Mine were all effed up. After fixing those and a Reset Network Settings, all the network and login/activation problems I had are resolved.

>

 

[jwc6160]

Just one ID. So upset if I can't get back my pictures. I will end up fixing the rest. No way am I updating my wife's phone until this disaster is worked out.

 

[ichats]

Activating FaceTime and iMessage

Went through almost all variants described, and finally found one that worked:

1. Download the latest version of iTunes.
2. Back up and sync your iPhone.
3. With the telephone connected, do a Restore. (Have heard that Erase works as well, but didn't try that).
4. When your iPhone has been restored, set it up as a NEW iPhone.
5. Log in with your iTunes password. The iPhone asks whether to use this for iMessage and Facetime as well. However, I noticed that neither were activated. You need to go to Settings, and log into both iMessage and Facetime separately with your iTunes password.
6. Activation at this point shouldn't take more than a couple of minutes.
7. Restore from Backup.
8. Sync with iTunes.

All should be fine now!

 

[leinadhok]

Happened last night after restoring, left it and was working this morning. Perhaps just slow, with millions around the world trying to do the same.