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Why doesn't imessage connect? Restoring iM from backups. Activation problems

Activation freezes in standby mode and then crashes with a message about the impossibility of executing it. At the same time, if you add your email linked to your Apple ID to the Send/Receive address section, correspondence is resumed even if there is an error, but not to the phone number. The search query revealed the depth of the problem. It turns out that I’m not alone at all and the lines from the song of the group “City 312” immediately came to mind: “there are millions of us...”. Jokes aside, but the crux of the problem is that he takes money for each one. It turns out that we parted ways with our relatives, but we never got what we wanted. Since I’m not one of those who give up, the decision to figure out what was going on didn’t take long.



First of all, we checked all the settings on the phone and followed all the recommendations of the service Apple support. Since my phone number is determined correctly, the time zone corresponds to reality, resetting the network settings and resetting all settings and content, followed by setting up the device as new did not lead to positive results, then the spirit of the experimenter prevailed. For good purposes, a SIM card from another operator was donated, because replacing it is now not difficult. The scissors quickly gave the desired form factor and lo and behold, activation was quick and successful. Returning the original card to the tray brought the header picture back into place. The culprit has been found - Operator!


A letter was written describing the current situation, supported by screenshots, with a call for help to understand the problem. But a completely expected answer followed, a carbon copy from a certain template. It's not my fault, it's all them! Reading many forums, trying to understand what was going on, I met answers at every step this kind from technical support of operators and their text is approximately the same.



Responses of this nature can lead to apathy towards continuing the struggle. But such a sad excuse had a directly proportional effect, because it reminded me that not so long ago it was possible to break through this wall in the fight against the avalanche of SMS spam that overwhelmed our phones. Were connected whole line services that once and for all closed the issue of spam with short numbers. And here I remembered the process that occurs upon activation: the phone sends a message to the British number 447786205094, after which it waits for a response. The problem is that for some reason the response message does not arrive! Studying the list of connected services on my tariff allowed me to find the right solution.



And here is the reason. Turned it off for a while personal account, waited for confirmation of completion and moved the treasured toggle switch to . Activation went “without a hitch” in a matter of seconds, just like in the FaceTime settings section. The operation of both applications has returned to its previous steady state. After which the service to prevent subscriber fatigue with advertising was turned back on and did not in any way affect the activation.


Check all your settings carefully and if they are absolutely correct, ask your operator for an explanation of why the response to the activation request and refund for unsuccessful attempts is not received. I dare to assure you that the majority similar cases related to certain services of your operator. It is beneficial for them to block third party service exchange free messages, bypassing their own and not at all free. We do not take into account jailbreak, because here there is a direct interference in iOS that can affect the operation of some functions.


Most often, the activation problem occurs after replacing the SIM card. The summer period implies its possible replacement on vacation. Be sure to turn off iMessage and FaceTime on your iPhone before you return your permanent card. This will help protect you from unnecessary inconvenience, as it is often one of the reasons for activation failure free opportunity chat with friends.

Most often, the activation of Face Time goes smoothly, but sometimes errors do happen. Failures are accompanied by an explanation indicating that the system was unable to complete activation or login.

Turn on Face Time

Before you understand the reasons for the Face Time activation error, you need to make sure that you enable the service correctly.

After activation is complete, fill in the “Your call address” and “Subscriber ID” fields. The setup is complete - you can now make calls via Face Time. To use the communication service, find a contact in the Phone application and select an audio or video call in the “Face Time” field.

If the contact does not have such a field, this indicates that the recipient has not activated Face Time on his device, or he does not have such a program at all - for example, he uses an Android device.

Activation problems

When activating Face Time, problems may occur, accompanied by an error message. It could be:

  • Stuck "Waiting for Activation" message.
  • "Failed to complete."
  • "Check your network connection."

The reason for this behavior of the system can be various factors, including those beyond the control of the user - for example, problems with Apple servers. To resolve the activation error:

  1. Make sure your device is connected to the internet via mobile data or Wi-Fi.
  2. Check your balance personal account. Activating a phone number in Face Time will require messaging, which is not captured in the corresponding app. Depending on your operator, you may be charged for sending SMS. If there is no money on the balance, the “Waiting for activation” notification will appear until the account is replenished.

Some tariffs may prohibit sending SMS to other countries. Face Time is not activated in Russia, so this limitation is also the reason for the error. Sometimes only replacing the SIM card helps - keep this in mind. Some users have to change SIM cards several times until they find one that can handle activating Apple's service.

Just in case, reset your network settings. There may be an error connecting to the Apple server. Resetting network settings will help eliminate it quickly and without negative consequences:

  1. Open settings.
  2. Go to the "Basic" section.
  3. Select "Reset".
  4. Click Reset Network Settings.

When you select this reset mode, only the network settings will be restored to the factory state. If while connected to the Internet or sending SMS there were some errors, they will be corrected.

Checking Apple settings and servers

If your internet connection and balance are fine, check your date and time settings.

  1. Open settings.
  2. Select the "Basic" section.
  3. Go to the “Date and Time” submenu.
  4. Check that the time zone, date and time are correct. You put automatic detection data to eliminate the possibility of error.

If this was not the cause of the error, then try turning on Face Time again by rebooting the device:

  1. Open settings.
  2. Go to the "Face Time" section.
  3. Move the slider to the inactive position.
  4. Reboot your device.
  5. Open settings again and turn on Face Time.

Face Time and iMessage may take up to 24 hours to activate. If after a day the message “Waiting for activation” still appears, check the functionality of the Apple server. For this:

  1. Go to the Apple website.
  2. Go to the "Support" page.
  3. Scroll down the page. In the "Resources" section, select "System Status".
  4. Make sure there is a green check mark next to Face Time, indicating that the service is available.

If the mark is yellow or red, then you need to wait for Apple to fix the problem. Most likely, once the problem is resolved, Face Time activation will be completed successfully. If this does not happen, follow the steps above to resolve the issue yourself.

About mobile operators. However, now there is an occasion that directly relates to the theme of the site. This article again is not an advertisement or anti-advertising of any operator cellular communication. This is a personal and not only personal experience.

During insertion new SIM card The iMessage service is activated on the iPhone. It happens strangely from the user's point of view. A special SMS is automatically sent to some obscure foreign phone number. The user does not actually see this SMS. iOS only tells you that your carrier may charge you for it.

This method has 3 disadvantages varying degrees of lousiness:

SMS is always paid. The cost depends on the operator's tariffs. The maximum I saw was from Beeline several years ago - 17 rubles (perhaps they wrote off several SMS messages to me then in one payment). The minimum is about 4-5 rubles.

At If you change the SIM card, activation occurs again. This greatly saddens everyone who travels and is forced to change SIM cards. For example, I have come to terms with this fact... Recently, circumstances forced my wife and I to change SIM cards while traveling. In fact, we made 4 optional paid iMessage activations, simply because we needed to change SIM cards.

I'll blame these two problems on Apple. At a minimum they could do an alternative activation via trusted device. I don’t quite understand how everything works for them and why exactly send SMS abroad. As much as possible, local activation numbers could be made.

Well, the most main drawback activation via SMS - iMessage multiple activation. How does it happen?

  1. The operator sends paid SMS abroad for activation.
  2. Something went wrong….
  3. The operator automatically sends a repeat SMS for activation. The user does not see any message about this.
  4. Something went wrong….
  5. The operator sends SMS again...
  6. and so on.

And for all SMS, the operator debits money from your account.

This problem also occurred with other operators. MTS, when it got into such a situation, officially refused to return money to subscribers. I personally encountered such nonsense with Beeline several times. Naturally, the money was never returned to me.

And now it’s 2016, and the same nonsense is happening at Megafon. I have SMS sent 4 times at 30 minute intervals to activate iMessage.

It is suspicious that during these two hours I did not receive any SMS to activate MegafonTV. iMessage itself did not show anything and worked great - I even sent photos between the 1st and 4th SMS.

The money is funny in principle, but the sad fact is that the error occurred on the side of either the operator (most likely!) or Apple, and the subscriber must pay. The operator, by the way, says that this Apple problems and you need to contact the iMessage developers. I tried to find a similar problem on the English-speaking Internet, but only problems with activating iMessage were described there... And this is a little different.

I have some rhetorical questions.

What if there were 60 such unsuccessful activations? And such cases have already happened, judging by the reviews on the Internet...

And how many such activations are there across the country at those moments when something goes wrong for the operator?

Hello everyone! iMessage and FaceTime are simply wonderful services from Apple. I think hardly anyone will argue with this. Yes, they have shortcomings, but using them is a sheer pleasure. However, before you start getting this pleasure, they need to be turned on. And this is where the problems begin - failures and errors during activation, unfortunately, are not so uncommon.

Should we despair, worry, throw away our smartphone, send threats to Tim Cook and the rest of the employees of the Apple corporation? No! Is it possible to do something about this? Certainly! Let's look at all the reasons for the activation error of iMessage and FaceTime services, as well as ways to deal with this rare disgrace.

Let's go quickly and decisively!

A small digression. This instruction will discuss precisely the impossibility of turning it on for the first time. If the iMessage or FaceTime registration succeeds at first, but after a while they “ask” for it again and again (and money is constantly debited) - the solution will be a little different.

So, services are not activated - why is this happening?

Here are three main reasons:

  1. The SIM card or telecom operator is to blame.
  2. Problem with iPhone or iPad.
  3. Apple is also not without sin.

What to do? Let's look at each case in more detail.

iMessage activation failed - problem with SIM card or operator

Yes, the first thing you should pay attention to is what SIM card you are using and whether there are any problems with it.

The fact is that to register iMessage or FaceTime, a special SMS must be sent from your iPhone to the UK. The most interesting thing is that it will not be visible in the “sent” ones. You can find out about it only by detailing expenses.

So, if the message is not sent, activation does not occur. Therefore we act:

  1. Checking the account balance. The message is not very expensive (5-15 rubles), but this money must be in the account.
  2. Your tariff must support sending SMS abroad. This is especially true for owners of corporate tariffs.
  3. We call on hotline operator and find out if everything is fine with them?

By the way, it is the third point that is the most common cause massive failures. When preparing this article, I read many sources and noted that in different time All operators had problems enabling iMessage. MTS, Beeline, Megafon - no difference.

iMessage does not turn on - check iOS settings

In fact, iOS almost always works "as Swiss Watches"and blame her for mistakes with FaceTime activation and iMessage is a waste of time. In most cases. Although... “glitches” are still possible. That's why:

With each action, we try to disable and then enable iMessage and FaceTime - check whether it works or not?

Apple's problems

As noted above, Apple itself is also not without sin. In some cases, its servers simply cannot cope with the load, which means messaging and video calling services will work with errors.

Most often this happens on the days when new products are released. iOS versions. And if yesterday or the day before yesterday there was a presentation new iPhone or iPad - failures are almost guaranteed. Although on “normal” days everything is possible. You can find out about these problems:


What is the conclusion from this? Very simple: the only thing we can do in this case is just wait. One joy - you won't have to wait long.

I guess that's all. Finally, it is worth noting that in my opinion own experience, the most common causes of the error are problems with the SIM card (operator) or Apple servers. And they usually affect more than one person.

Therefore, be sure to write in the comments and find out that maybe you are not the only one and the failures affected absolutely everyone. It is highly advisable to indicate the cellular operator - this will make it much easier to navigate.

P.S. In general, don’t be silent, like, let’s solve the activation problem together!

An excellent program that reduces the possibilities mobile operators sticking her hand into our wallet, but sometimes capable of driving us crazy. The most annoying thing is when she “loses” messages, but no less annoying is the error activating your Apple ID and receiving a message:

“Waiting for Activation/Activation unsuccessful/Not Working”

Before you start taking action this algorithm you need to make sure that everything preparatory actions done correctly:

  1. Make sure the phone knows your number. To do this, launch the Phone application and go to the Contacts tab. If you have all filters turned off, then the very first number will be your number. If it is not there, then go to Settings > Phone > My Number and enter it in the format +7 (xxx) xxx-xx-xx.
  2. Make sure the Date and Time on your phone are set correctly in Settings > General > Date and Time. Make sure the time zone is set correctly.
  3. Make sure the network is available. In some cases, operators may interfere with registration, such as incorrectly configured Wi-Fi. It's better if both channels work. In some cases, the activation message is sent via international SMS, so make sure that the operator has funds in your account.

Option 1. Through airplane mode.

As strange as it may sound, very often this method helps when registration in iMessage on your iPhone does not work.

  1. Turn off in iMessage settings and FaceTime
  2. Turn on "Airplane mode", they will be automatically disabled cellular network and WiFi
  3. Turn on WiFi
  4. Go back to Settings > Messages and turn on Messages.
  5. Enter your Apple ID.
  6. Go back to Settings and turn off Airplane Mode
  7. You should now be notified that your carrier may charge you for SMS. Click Ok. If it is not there, then turn iMessage off and on again.
  8. After a short period of time everything should work.
  9. You must see gray your number and address Email, linked to Apple ID. A little later, after checking with Apple, everything should work.

Option 2

Helps less often.

  1. Go to Settings > Messages > Send/Receive.
  2. Select your account and click "Sign Out"
  3. Turn off Messages.
  4. Turn off WiFi, wait a bit and turn it on.
  5. Turn on iMessage
  6. Enter data account again.

Option 3

This option is cardinal and should be used after you are convinced that the first two are not working. This option resets the settings and set passwords in phone.

  1. Synchronize with your computer and do archival copy phone contents. So that, if necessary, you have the opportunity to restore data on your phone.
  1. Go to Settings > General > Reset > Reset all settings.
  2. The phone will reboot
  3. Go to Settings > Messages
  4. Enable iMessage double click"Home" go to the menu of active tasks.
  5. Unload the Settings program from memory