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RCS Waiting For Activation

TechnicallyTee

TechnicallyTee

macrumors 68020
Original poster
May 14, 2013
2,435
3,789
I’ve been having some issues with RCS not activating and staying on waiting for activation. It was working fine but I swapped to Android and came back to iOS and then it stopped working.

I’ve literally tried everything at this point.
- Reset network settings
- De-registered from Google Messages when I swapped over.
- Deleted the e-sim and re-added
- Factory reset without restore

Contacted advanced tech support for AT&T and they can’t seem to figure it out as well. Is anyone else having this issue because it’s highly frustrating at this point.
 
I'm in the same situation currently. I’m with AT&T and RCS is stuck waiting for activation for just over a month now. I’ve done same things you have like deleting and installing new eSIM, reset network settings, deregistered my number with Google, etc. I haven’t bothered to contact AT&T support because I figure that’s probably hopeless.
 
Started having issues with SMS and RCS just this week May 15, 2025 after the iOS 18.5 update. Contacted AT&T and they had to reset something on their end. SMS started working again but RCS Messaging just says waiting for activation. AT&T claims that it may take from 24 to 48 hours for it to activate. We will see. Other phones on same plan aren’t having this issue.
 
GDMcG said:
Started having issues with SMS and RCS just this week May 15, 2025 after the iOS 18.5 update. Contacted AT&T and they had to reset something on their end. SMS started working again but RCS Messaging just says waiting for activation. AT&T claims that it may take from 24 to 48 hours for it to activate. We will see. Other phones on same plan aren’t having this issue.
Click to expand...
Did you get it sorted out? I’m having the same issue since porting a number to cricket last week.
 
After chatting with AT&T tech support, about 24 hours later and RCS activated again. So it’s all good now again. The oddest thing was the initial SMS failure which was the biggest problem.
 
I’ve seen this more commonly when swapping carriers. Always disable RCS before swapping carriers.
 
I am facing the same issue in my 17PM. Movistar Spain. Tried everything an still Waiting for activation.
 
I was having "Waiting For Activation..." issue on my wife's iPhone 15 Pro Max running iOS 26.0.1 on Visible (Verizon MVNO).

Resetting Network Settings didn't help. New eSIM didn't help. Visible representative suggested moving my wife's line to 2nd eSIM on my daughter's iPhone 13 mini and RCS worked immediately. Moved the line back to iPhone 15 Pro Max, still "Waiting for Activation..." - this made both of us believe the issue was with the phone not the network.

So I backed up my Wife's phone via USB cable to her Macbook Air. I restored her phone via USB cable using Finder. I then restored the backup to her Phone via USB. And Voila!! RCS works fine, no more "Waiting for Activation..."

Thanks to the Visible rep "Anthony" for being very methodical about the troubleshooting!
 
I am having this problem now and I don’t believe Apple is at fault. I moved my T-Mobile eSIM from my 16e to the Air. Didn’t think of RCS but at some point I noticed the “waiting for activation” in the settings. I remembered this from the past so I went to Google’s “deregister your number” form and deregistered my number which worked in the past. Not this time, so either the number isn’t actually being deregistered or it’s a T-Mobile problem. Absolutely ridiculous to set up a messaging system like this. I understand Google and the carriers are up against Apple and their patents but better to not even bother and just direct people to WhatsApp, Signal, etc.

I will try the iTunes restore and see if that works.
 
UPDATE: Not sure if this is gonna help anyone but here’s what I learned through this ordeal with T-Mobile. Transferring the eSim to the new iPhone in the T-Life app resulted in RCS never activating. However moving it back to the original phone the RCS activated immediately. Apple Store rep said another customer had the same problem. So I returned the new iPhone and purchased a new one. Called T-Mobile and gave them the new IMEI while the new phone was still in the box. That deactivated service on the old phone and I deleted the eSim to boot because why not try everything. Turned on the new phone, eSim activated and the RCS was activated. What a mess.
 
djc6 said:
I was having "Waiting For Activation..." issue on my wife's iPhone 15 Pro Max running iOS 26.0.1 on Visible (Verizon MVNO).

Resetting Network Settings didn't help. New eSIM didn't help. Visible representative suggested moving my wife's line to 2nd eSIM on my daughter's iPhone 13 mini and RCS worked immediately. Moved the line back to iPhone 15 Pro Max, still "Waiting for Activation..." - this made both of us believe the issue was with the phone not the network.

So I backed up my Wife's phone via USB cable to her Macbook Air. I restored her phone via USB cable using Finder. I then restored the backup to her Phone via USB. And Voila!! RCS works fine, no more "Waiting for Activation..."

Thanks to the Visible rep "Anthony" for being very methodical about the troubleshooting!
Click to expand...
I am having the same RCS issue on 26.2 with Visible. So to make sure I do the same thing you did you:
1. Backed up to Mac
2. Restored fresh iOS
3. THEN restored the back up?
I tried just restoring to a previous backup and that did not fix it. Thank you!
 
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