iMessage and FaceTime “Waiting for Activation” problem after iOS 7 update? Here’s the fix!

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iOS 7 is now out in the wild and a whole lot of iOS users have already downloaded and updated our iDevices with it.

You might even have noticed a new dedicated FaceTime app on iOS 7! Excited, you check out the app and try and call someone. Then… “Failed Connection”. Then you try and re-activate FaceTime on, it just gets stuck at “Waiting for activation”. Darn.

Seems like a corrupted settings somewhere during the upgrade phase. But I decided to search Apple’s support site on this issue and found this troubleshooting note (link). And as they described in the Unable to activate FaceTime or iMessage with phone number and Apple ID after waiting 24 hours (iPhone only) section, the fix was to reset the phone as new. Wow! That was a little extreme! So I figured that there must be a better way around this, and indeed there was.

If you are one of the unfortunate individuals who faced this problem like I did, don’t worry, the solution seems quite simple as I’ve discovered. What it seemed that you needed to do is to simply reset the network settings.

Update: It looks like this is just a possible fix, not a definite one. The issue could very well be a server-side issue that is preventing some of our iDevices from being verified, perhaps a server congestion issue due to the high number of upgrades to iOS 7. This would explain why some users have been able to get their device verified when they kept trying to activate iMessage or FaceTime. Eventually it gets through apparently.

Like To do so, simply head over the Settings -> General -> Reset. Then tap on the option to Reset Network Settings. It will then ask for your passcode and after which you can proceed to reset the network settings (or still cancel the action). I’ve provided some screenshots below to help guide you through the process as well.

Once that’s done, the iPhone will reset itself and when the phone restarts, simple go to Settings -> Messages and re-enable iMessages again. It should work now, and if it does, FaceTime should also be re-activated at the same time.

The head to the Messages settings screen and deactivate/reactivate iMessage. FaceTime should now be reactivated as well.

The head to the Messages settings screen and deactivate/reactivate iMessage. FaceTime should now be reactivated as well.

And that’s it!

Did it work for you? Let me know it does sini can get a gauge if this is an actual fix or just a lucky co-incidence for me. If it doesn’t, drop me a comment below and let’s figure out what will work for you.

Update: I just had issues again with iMessage. Could receive iMessages but not send out at all. I could turn it off and on and it would reactivate again. However the problem persisted.

Then I tried to reset the network and it worked! Just I share and I guess perhaps you can continue to try this again and maybe it will work for you at another try, hopefully.

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15 Responses

  1. Brendan Cooney says:

    Except no. It doesn’t work

  2. Ken Ng says:

    So I’ve been told by others too. I suppose I was lucky? Some managed to get it by constantly reactivating iMessage/FaceTime. So it leads me to believe that this could be a server side issue on the activation.

  3. Ken Ng says:

    It seems that it could be a server side problem too since there are som who are facing the problem even when setting up as a new phone.

  4. Heather Sailes says:

    I upgraded my IPhone 4S to Ios 7 on Wednesday, and I’ve tried numerous suggestions including doing a reset on my network settings. Nothing so far has worked, and iMessage on my phone won’t activate. Also, I get a pop up message when I open certain apps such as whatsapp that I need to connect to ITunes to use push notifications. If I’d been smart, I would’ve waited about a month before upgrading to Ios 7.

  5. Scott says:

    Did not work

  6. Jas says:

    did not work

  7. Alex says:

    it does not work

  8. Wil says:

    did not work

  9. Eleanor Pitzer says:

    It did not work…I hope that you send us an update to correct this problem….because I am not very happy
    About this at all.

  10. Ken Ng says:

    Have you tried updating to the iOS 7.0.3? The latest update has supposedly fixed this bug on their end.

  11. Barbara says:

    Nothing worked for me =/

  12. Ses says:

    Totally worked for me, Thanks! I waited before downloading iOS 7 until Jan 2014 hoping the bugs would have been fixed and still encountered the problem.

  13. Ken Ng says:

    Seems to be a hit and miss, so I’m glad this helped you. But I believe this bug should have already been fixed.

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