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RCS not activating

J

jtmo3

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 27, 2005
38
10
I have an iPhone 16 pro at 18.5 on cricket. I had three eSIMs on the phone. I couldn’t get any of the eSIMs to activate. Been on waiting to activate for over three weeks. I moved one of my eSIMs (visible) to a pixel 9a and RCS activated immediately. My other two eSIMs are still waiting on the iPhone. Seems there has to be an issue with the iPhone and activating RCS. I’ve even done a complete reset on the iPhone with no change.

Anyone else experiencing this? It’s very frustrating. Hoping 18.5.1 would fix this but it hasn’t made ny appearance yet.
 
Thanks. I saw that thread. Done everything they have in the thread and no luck.
 
Interesting. I’m on Cricket and haven’t had any issues. I hope you get it figured out.
 
Were you on cricket prior to 18.5? I was on mint prior and rcs activated fine. I ported a few days after updating and three separate eSIMs will not activate. One of those eSIMs I ported over to a pixel 9a and it immediately activated. Seems something in 18.5 is causing the issue.
 
jtmo3 said:
Were you on cricket prior to 18.5? I was on mint prior and rcs activated fine. I ported a few days after updating and three separate eSIMs will not activate. One of those eSIMs I ported over to a pixel 9a and it immediately activated. Seems something in 18.5 is causing the issue.
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Did you ever get anywhere? I'm in the same boat with my iPhone 16 Pro Max.
 
Nope. Been working with upper Apple tech support also. They’ve downloaded my phone logs twice trying to figure it out. Nothing so far. Again, tried three separate carriers and none will activate on iPhone 16mpro. If I move the eSIMs to a pixel, they all activated immediately. It’s an Apple issue.
 
Over a dozen times. Did a phone reset and even a restore. No change. Apple won’t help. It’s a software issue that they told me, they have no fix for yet. That was last week. Hopefully will hear from them again this coming week? It’s frustrating and of course, no bug fix version update for two months and counting.
 
The latest case it through a support engineer and I don’t have a case #. I’ll post back when/if they contact me again this week.

Well, that’s interesting that it works on a 15 pro. Now scratching my head even more.
 
jtmo3 said:
The latest case it through a support engineer and I don’t have a case #. I’ll post back when/if they contact me again this week.

Well, that’s interesting that it works on a 15 pro. Now scratching my head even more.
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I don't think it's the model of the phone. I went to an Apple Store and they ran all the HW diagnostics no issues, they mentioned that my next steps are reset all setttings followed by a full reset/restore. However since T-Mobile opened a ticket for me, they said to wait to see what they say before going further.
 
Got the same advice and did both. Made zero difference. I believe it’s an Apple software issue that’s going to require Apple to fix it. It’s a waiting game.
 
That’s not the issue here though. I tried the different carrier and different numbers and nothing will activate on iOS 18.5. I even tried a dfu restore.
 
Just wanted to update, I hadn’t messed with even trying RCS for over a week. I went ahead and tried it again last night and it activated immediately. Nothing has been changed since last try. Strange that it now works but I’ll take it!
 
jtmo3 said:
Just wanted to update, I hadn’t messed with even trying RCS for over a week. I went ahead and tried it again last night and it activated immediately. Nothing has been changed since last try. Strange that it now works but I’ll take it!
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Did you have your RCS on or off during the week? Maybe I just have to keep it off for a while and try again later.
 
It’s been off for ~10 days. I basically gave up trying until the next update. Got a wild hair and tried last night and success. I’m wondering now if it’s been a google issue with my number the whole time?
 
jtmo3 said:
It’s been off for ~10 days. I basically gave up trying until the next update. Got a wild hair and tried last night and success. I’m wondering now if it’s been a google issue with my number the whole time?
Click to expand...
I'll be sure to keep mine off for like 2 weeks and see what happens.
 
Let us know what happens. The next update will be out before two weeks hopefully and I’d be curious to know if that update fixed your problem.
 
In the end, I’m not sure it wasn’t googles issue the whole time. The carriers put out the profile that works on most others. The iPhones activate most times. So the iPhone is capable and the carriers have it working for most others. Seems google activating the number might be the hitch. Good luck. I know it frustrating. Took mine 3 months to finally activate with no other changes.
 
Well... I have a Verizon (US Mobile WARP) line I periodically use on my phone. I turned it on this morning, and RCS was working on that line. I cycled my T-Mobile line, and RCS is back, except for one contact where he's sending me via RCS but I'm sending via SMS.
 
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