Follow these steps to fix ‘Waiting for activation’ and other similar issues with iMessage and FaceTime on your iPhone or iPad so you can text and video call without interruptions..
You may encounter iMessage and FaceTime activation problems when setting up a new iPhone, after resetting all iOS Settings, or switching phone numbers or carriers.
When this happens, you’ll see a tiny “Waiting for activation” label in Messages or FaceTime settings. In some cases, the error messages might say, “Activation unsuccessful,” “An error occurred during activation,” or “Could not sign in, please check your network connection.”
Although the verbiage is different, these are all pretty much the same issues: you can’t get FaceTime and iMessage to work. Go through these solutions to troubleshoot such problems related to activating iMessage and FaceTime on your iPhone or iPad.
1. Make sure you’re connected to Wi-Fi or cellular
This is quite obvious, but if you don’t have any cellular or Wi-Fi connection, iMessage and FaceTime won’t be able to check in with Apple’s servers to start the activation process. Just make sure you’re connected to Wi-Fi and have cellular service.
If you’re already connected to Wi-Fi, turn it off and try activating iMessage or FaceTime over cellular data.
2. Turn Airplane mode on and off
Maybe the activation issue is just a dumb hiccup in the system. Before going any further in the troubleshooting of your problem, turn Airplane Mode on, wait a few seconds, and then turn it off.
3. Set the correct time
When Apple tries to authenticate you for iMessage or FaceTime, the activation server will expect the time between it and your device to match. To avoid any issue, go to Settings > General > Date & Time, and set the time and date to Set Automatically. Additionally, ensure the time zone is set correctly.
4. Turn off iMessage and FaceTime, then restart your device
This is a possible solution offered to me by Apple when I called them about my issue. In my case, it didn’t help at all, but you probably want to try that and see how it goes for you. Apparently, this is a trick that helps many people.
Go to iPhone or iPad Settings > Apps > Messages and turn off iMessage. Then, return to Settings > Apps > FaceTime and turn off the FaceTime switch. Finally, reboot your device, re-enable the two options, and wait. Both these services should activate shortly.
5. Make sure your cell plan lets you send and receive SMS
This is not obvious, but if you’re trying to activate FaceTime and iMessage on an iPhone, Apple might try to send an SMS as part of the activation process. This SMS is typically invisible to the user as all happens in the background, but this is basically the equivalent of Apple sending an SMS to verify its status.
If you can’t send and receive SMS messages, which I admit would be quite unusual, then Apple might not be able to authorize the device to activate FaceTime and iMessage. In this case, double-check with your carrier that you can indeed send and receive text messages. In most cases, restarting the iPhone and ensuring you have sufficient SMS/call balance should help.
6. Add credit if you’re a prepaid user
This is directly related to the previous possible solution. If you’re on a prepaid plan, you might not have enough credit to send a text message. In some countries, iMessage activation works only after sending an international text.
While troubleshooting my iMessage activation issue recently, I saw many people who were on prepaid plans. These people had to add a dollar or so of credit to their account to make sure they could send and receive SMS if needed.
Note: The free SMS included with your cellular plan may not have an international messaging allowance. So, recharge with a suitable plan and then retry.
7. Update to the latest version of iOS
If your iPhone or iPad is running outdated software, it might be a good idea to update to the latest version of iOS by going to Settings > General > Software Update.
8. Check Apple’s server status
The fault may not be on your side but on Apple’s end. Go to the official System Status page and make sure FaceTime, iMessage, iCloud Account & Sign In, iOS Device Activation, etc., have a green dot next to them, indicating they are working correctly. If there is an outage, consider waiting for a few hours.
9. Wait for 24 hours
Apple also suggested it might take up to 24 hours to activate iMessage and FaceTime. Since you don’t have anything better to do, maybe just sit back, relax, and wait a day or so to see if things magically start working again.
10. Reset network settings
As we discussed above, Apple does a bit of SMS trickery to activate FaceTime and iMessage on your device. If you’re having either Wi-Fi or cellular network issues, Apple won’t be able to activate your device over these two services. To rule out issues related to your connectivity, reset network settings by going to Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPhone > Reset.
Once the reset is performed, you’ll have to enter your Wi-Fi password again, but at least you’ll be operating on a clean slate as far as networking goes. In case the network reset doesn’t work, try resetting all settings.
11. Sign out of your Apple ID and sign in again
If you still have no luck activating iMessage and FaceTime, sign out of your Apple Account or iCloud and then sign back in. After this, restart your iPhone and try reactivating iMessage and FaceTime. It should be successful now.
12. Put your SIM card in a different phone, then reset that phone
I haven’t seen this solution anywhere on the internet, but this is the only thing that worked for me when my grayed-out phone number wouldn’t activate iMessage. All I did was pop out the SIM card and put it in a spare iPhone I had on hand. The same issue happened on that phone, but after going to Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPhone > Erase All Content and Settings, everything worked fine. I then put the SIM card back in my main iPhone, and iMessage activated almost instantly.
In retrospect, resetting my main phone, to begin with, could have done the trick, but I would have had to set up the entire phone all over again, which would have been a huge waste of time.
If you use an eSIM, choose to keep the eSIM instead of deleting it when erasing your iPhone.
13. Ask your carrier if they support iMessage
Certain cellular providers may not support activating iMessage. Visit social media or online forums, and ask other people if the carrier in question supports iMessage activation. If not, you can port to a different cellular provider while keeping the same number.
14. Use iMessage and FaceTime with just your Apple Account
Until you sort out issues related to iMessage or FaceTime activation via your mobile phone, consider setting these up with your Apple Account email address. You can then share your email address with close friends and family and ask them to save it to their contacts.
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