iMessage Activation issue

RVN10

Hey guys , removed my sim today and when i put it back in i get an error for iMessage activation ? Sporadically it wont even log out and back in ?

whiterebel

RVN10 wrote: »

Hey guys , removed my sim today and when i put it back in i get an error for iMessage activation ? Sporadically it wont even log out and back in ?

Same with mine, seems to be a problem with it. I've tried all the steps that apple support suggest the fix it, and no go.

Cushie Butterfield

RVN10 wrote: »

Hey guys , removed my sim today and when i put it back in i get an error for iMessage activation ? Sporadically it wont even log out and back in ?

Are you with o2 by any chance?

The reason I ask is if you are it might have something to do with the recent merger & you may need to get a replacement sim from three.

It could of course be something else completely, just throwing it out there as a possible problem to bear in mind when troubleshooting.

whiterebel

I'm with eMobile.

Cushie Butterfield

whiterebel wrote: »

I'm with eMobile.

Well that's my theory out the window so

RVN10

I followed all apple steps and even started from scratch , nothing has worked, seems to be a big issue going by the Internet

SpaceTime

Same issue ! I've tried everything including erasing and restoring the phone!

Rang AppleCare and they suggested loads of things none of which worked. I might ring them this morning and just log it as a fault.

I just switched back from Android and so far I've had nothing but trouble with Apple's cloud services and online services. Can't say I'm impressed!

aine1980

I've had exactly the same issue & I'm on Meteor.. also my Mum came back from holiday last night & iMessage isn't working for her either.

Been on to Meteor who say it isn't their issue & Apple have gone through all the troubleshooting steps to no avail..Pain in the rear as Meteor charge for each activation attempt!

So here we are with no iMessage for the best part of the week & no solutions that work.

whiterebel

SpaceTime wrote: »

Same issue ! I've tried everything including erasing and restoring the phone!

Rang AppleCare and they suggested loads of things none of which worked. I might ring them this morning and just log it as a fault.

I just switched back from Android and so far I've had nothing but trouble with Apple's cloud services and online services. Can't say I'm impressed!

It usually works like a charm, to be honest. Which phone company are you with?

SpaceTime

I'm on 3

I've been onto Apple and while they're very nice they didn't fix anything.

When I got the phone it was the say of the iCloud meltdown! I'm really not having much luck!!

whiterebel

SpaceTime wrote: »

I'm on 3

I've been onto Apple and while they're very nice they didn't fix anything.

When I got the phone it was the say of the iCloud meltdown! I'm really not having much luck!!

Not just meteor/eMobile so. What iCloud meltdown?

SpaceTime

This one:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/03/11/apple_itunes_store_outage/

I had no access to iCloud for half the day and then no access to iTunes or AppStore or Mac AppStore for basically a full day. Unfortunately it was the day I had my iPhone 6 delivered so I initially thought it was a dud! Turned out it was just the iThing services...

whiterebel

SpaceTime wrote: »

This one:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/03/11/apple_itunes_store_outage/

I had no access to iCloud for half the day and then no access to iTunes or AppStore or Mac AppStore for basically a full day. Unfortunately it was the day I had my iPhone 6 delivered so I initially thought it was a dud! Turned out it was just the iThing services...

Ok, the only problem I had was trying to update an app on my Mac through the store, so it didn't affect me too much.


I have been onto Apple who advised me it is the carrier. Got onto eMobile via "chat" who can't do anything because "its a 3rd party app". On to Apple again now, but I won't hold my breath.

SpaceTime

I got onto Apple it's not the carrier. Got it assigned to a senior techie etc they're following up.

To test the activation relay text Help to 51369

If you get a message back straight away, the carrier is unlikely to be the issue!

They'll put you through a heap of standard tech support scripted tests first though.

It seems to be a system issue at their side though it's not the phone companies or our devices by the sounds of it!

whiterebel

SpaceTime wrote: »

I got onto Apple it's not the carrier. Got it assigned to a senior techie etc they're following up.

To test the activation relay text Help to 51368

If you get a message back straight away, the carrier is unlikely to be the issue!

They'll put you through a heap of standard tech support scripted tests first though.

It seems to be a system issue at their side though it's not the phone companies or our devices by the sounds of it!

Apple told me it takes 24 hours for it to activate, but that smells of BS to me. The fact that its waiting for activation might explain why the battery life has fallen off a cliff....

BTW. mine wouldn't send to 51368 at all.

RVN10

SpaceTime wrote: »

I got onto Apple it's not the carrier. Got it assigned to a senior techie etc they're following up.

To test the activation relay text Help to 51369

If you get a message back straight away, the carrier is unlikely to be the issue!

They'll put you through a heap of standard tech support scripted tests first though.

It seems to be a system issue at their side though it's not the phone companies or our devices by the sounds of it!

in the same boat as yourself then , spoke to a senior tech guy today , great help he was in fairness but has to be investigated further by an engineer it seems. Will call me back he said

SpaceTime

Some people on Twitter and elsewhere are reporting issues too.

If that SMS number isn't working you need to get onto your network operator as it would definitely indicate something's not going through.

I suspect it's something to do with the recent outage tbh! It's a bit too coincidental and similar (issues with authentication)

All we can do is keep reporting it to Apple and the network operators can keep reporting it via their channels too.

If you're on the Apple forums maybe start reporting it there too - they tend to pay attention to a big swell of feedback from customers online!

RVN10

The help message worked for me when i tested it with the agent , ruling out a carrier issue.

aine1980

It's a pain.. I got my new iphone 6 & was setting it up the day it crashed.. total nightmare, needless to say it's on it's way back to Apple for a refund until they sort their systems out.

Put the sim back into my 5S & iMessage wasn't working on it either.. total 'mare

SpaceTime

Did you all setup your iPhones on the day of the AppStore crash? Just hit thanks on this post if you did ...

Bummer1234

My mothers iphone 4s is having the same problems, I was made aware when her phone would say facetime unavailable, Looking at her phone it needed activation, I then looked at her emails for the activation email and when i click the link it brings up an error and unable to verify, Its very annoying, So currently her imessage and facetime is going via her email address and awaiting activation for the number.

Shes on vodafone but its nothing to do with them.. Its apples problem by the look of it.

SpaceTime wrote: »

Did you all setup your iPhones on the day of the AppStore crash? Just hit thanks on this post if you did ...

She was registered long before the appstore crash but it seemed to have perhaps started to happen around then.

whiterebel

Just off the phone to senior advisor in Apple. Looks like some carriers have not updated their carrier settings after the update. French customers show version 18.1, whereas mine, and the advisor who is on 3, show 18.0. He is having the saem issue, BTW. He will definitely ring me back by latest Thursday morning, he is escalating it to engineering now.

Bummer1234

whiterebel wrote: »

Just off the phone to senior advisor in Apple. Looks like some carriers have not updated their carrier settings after the update. French customers show version 18.1, whereas mine, and the advisor who is on 3, show 18.0. He is having the saem issue, BTW. He will definitely ring me back by latest Thursday morning, he is escalating it to engineering now.

Mind me asking where abouts you find the version number?

Cushie Butterfield

Bummer1234 wrote: »

Mind me asking where abouts you find the version number?

Settings -> General -> Carrier

guil

Cushie Butterfield wrote: »

Settings -> General -> Carrier

Settings-general-about and look for carrier.:D

whiterebel

As usual, eMobile want nothing to do with it, all Apple's problem. Quite narky pointing out that there is nothing wrong with THEIR 18.0 carrier file. Has to be it, it was ver 18.0 before the 8.2 update which seems to have broken it. I know its not eMobiles fault, but the least they could do is check things out from their side.

guil

Going to be an interesting call to vodafone.

guil

Customer care is gone to check with tech but not holding out any hope. As a side note that text to 51368 is failing for me too.

guil

Lovely, Apple support are telling me that there's nothing wrong with the carrier settings and no update is needed. I'm getting the usual restore the phone after all the other steps are tried.

aine1980

Text to 51368 failed for me also, I've spent the best part of an hour this morning discussing the issue with a Meteor Agent who told me that iMessage/FaceTime not activating is nothing to do with the network... Agent told me my phone is faulty and needs to go for repair - along with the other 2 iphones in the house with the same issue, definitely not Meteor's issue. They don't know why an SMS is being sent as it's facetime.

Escalated it to a Supervisor who said it's definitely not an issue with the phone or the network. He seemed to think that Apple no longer use mobile number for iMessage & has had me setup again using my email only, will have to wait & see if that works.

From looking online it definitely doesn't seem to be an isolated incident but I haven't found a 'fix' as yet.

whiterebel

Axel is the name of the senior advisor in Apple that I spoke to this morning......

whiterebel

Seems to be back working again now.

SpaceTime

It definitely wasn't a carrier issue.
It's been resolved server side.

Switch iMessage and FaceTime off and on again and it should activate.

whiterebel

SpaceTime wrote: »

It definitely wasn't a carrier issue.
It's been resolved server side.

Switch iMessage and FaceTime off and on again and it should activate.

Yes, all on Apple's side by the looks of it.

RVN10

Mine was resolved aswell last night , guy from apple phoned this morning to check was it up and running. Delighted to have it sorted

SpaceTime

I think it was hitting a lot of iPhones and iPads, as I'm not seeing some of the people who I know have iPhones showing up as "blue" on screen in message.

People need to reboot their phones or switch iMessage and FaceTime on and off again to get past the glitch.

I'd say a lot of people will stay off line not realising that they need to do that. Hopefully as their phones get naturally rebooted they reconnect.

I can't fault Apple's tech support, it was really excellent but they seem to have had a bit of an iMeltdown with cloud services / online services over the last few days. Hopefully it's the last outage we see for a long time. They are lashing a lot of money into new data centres though, including one in Athenry !

JonMac

I'm with eMobile. Just iMessaged Help to 51368 "Not Delivered;" settings show Carrier Meteor 18.0.
Powered off and on; FaceTime and iMessage off and on.
Send Help again, no change.
What next?

guil

JonMac wrote: »

I'm with eMobile. Just iMessaged Help to 51368 "Not Delivered;" settings show Carrier Meteor 18.0.
Powered off and on; FaceTime and iMessage off and on.
Send Help again, no change.
What next?

I think that number is bogus, are you sure it was showing as iMessage? If it's green its a normal message. It failed on me both times I tried when iMessage was not working and when it was working. The woman I spoke to in Apple supoort never heard of it and Google shows nothing relevant to it except this thread.

To check if iMessage is working, try text yourself. Blue is iMessage and green is standard text message.

whiterebel

JonMac wrote: »

I'm with eMobile. Just iMessaged Help to 51368 "Not Delivered;" settings show Carrier Meteor 18.0.
Powered off and on; FaceTime and iMessage off and on.
Send Help again, no change.
What next?

Make sure time zone is set correctly in settings as well. Mine was showing Munich for some reason.

JonMac

Well, iMessage is working fine to a known iPhone friend. Is this all a red herring?

guil

It wasn't worning the other day but is now. I wouldn't worry about texting that 51 number for the reasons I stated above.

SpaceTime

guil wrote: »

I think that number is bogus, are you sure it was showing as iMessage? If it's green its a normal message. It failed on me both times I tried when iMessage was not working and when it was working. The woman I spoke to in Apple supoort never heard of it and Google shows nothing relevant to it except this thread.

To check if iMessage is working, try text yourself. Blue is iMessage and green is standard text message.

The number is absolutely not bogus but Apple seem to be completely uninformed at first level tech support!

SpaceTime

Before I'm accused of posting bogus numbers :

From comreg number search

SpaceTime

The problem would appear to be resolved at this stage.

Basically the way iMessage sets up is as follows:

1) You activate iMessage.
2) Phone sends a silent message (hidden from you) to that number with a verification code. This verifies that you own the number.
3) Apple then register your number on the iMessage servers.

This process is totally seamless normally and you shouldn't notice it happening.

The issue over the last few days was down to a problem on Apple's side.

If you're sending a message via iMessage, SMS screen changes from Green to Blue and iMessage appears in text entry area.

They have that "help" test to verify if your carrier has blocked access.
Typically this would be because 1) You've no call credit / expired credit or because access to SMS short codes has been blocked entirely for some reason.

It just means that the 2nd level tech support can verify that your carrier isn't an issue.

FourFourRED

SpaceTime wrote: »

The number is absolutely not bogus but Apple seem to be completely uninformed at first level tech support!

This is accurate. Not something that's normally used however.

SpaceTime

It's also 51369not 51368 that was a typo on my behalf earlier in the thread!
See screenshot above.

FourFourFM: How could it not normally be used? That's how iMessage setup works there's no other way of verifying your mobile number.
Basically the process is quite simple:
Apple push a message to your phone using the internet containing a verification code.
Your iPhone silently sends that code as an SMS message to the verification number (you not not see this)
The servers then know that you own the mobile number and iMessage activates for your mobile number.

You can use iMessage with your registered iCloud email addresses too, but that's really only for non-SMS enabled iPod Touches and iPads or as an alternative to using your phone number on an iPhone.

The whole point of iMessage on iPhone is that it will take over automatically from the carrier SMS service where the number you're sending to is another iPhone with iMessage enabled and where you've internet access. So, you get a free "text" and can send long texts/multimedia messages via the internet rather than MMS.

So, you can use either any verified iMessage registered phone number OR any iCloud email address, or iCloud registered 3rd party email linked to an iOS device with iMessage enabled (and that is online).

SMS verification is only likely to fail for a few reasons:

1) Unpaid bill, No credit or expired account may block all SMS access.
2) You requested to block all premium SMS messages, and that has somehow also blocked non-premium short codes like this.
3) A temporary error with your carrier's SMS service system or, you've no coverage at all (e.g. you're in a basement). It will not activate if you have no mobile coverage, even if you're on WiFi.
4) Sometimes it may not work if you're roaming (but usually should as you're using your carrier's SMS centre, not the roaming network's)

SpaceTime

SpaceTime wrote: »

I got onto Apple it's not the carrier. Got it assigned to a senior techie etc they're following up.

To test the activation relay text Help to 51368
Should read 51369

If one of the mod's could please edit my post!
(Evidence of number's correctness and non bogus nature posted : http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=94728451&postcount=42) and here : http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=94728489&postcount=43

SpaceTime

aine1980 wrote: »

Text to 51368 failed for me also, I've spent the best part of an hour this morning discussing the issue with a Meteor Agent who told me that iMessage/FaceTime not activating is nothing to do with the network... Agent told me my phone is faulty and needs to go for repair - along with the other 2 iphones in the house with the same issue, definitely not Meteor's issue. They don't know why an SMS is being sent as it's facetime.

Escalated it to a Supervisor who said it's definitely not an issue with the phone or the network. He seemed to think that Apple no longer use mobile number for iMessage & has had me setup again using my email only, will have to wait & see if that works.

From looking online it definitely doesn't seem to be an isolated incident but I haven't found a 'fix' as yet.

Just contact Apple directly, don't bother with the carrier as they won't be able to help with issues to do with iCloud / iMessage etc.

Apple Tech support: 1800 804 062

If you still have an issue with iMessage / FaceTime now, just switch the services on/off and they should activate within a few mins (or straight away). Also try rebooting your handset.

The problem should be resolved by now, but your handset may not have re-tried if it's failed too many times and given up, so you might need to start the process again by doing off/on on the two settings options.

Basically with Apple devices:

Physical problem with device : your contract's with the carrier (Meteor) so, ring them first. They're the retailer, and you've also got a contract wit them.

For anything else i.e. technical support for iOS, iCloud services etc : Ring Apple first as the carrier's staff aren't all that aware of the technicalities and all they can do really is inform Apple of issues.

guil

SpaceTime wrote: »

Before I'm accused of posting bogus numbers :

From comreg number search

That number you posted originally was bogus. It was posted a few times after as well.

Are you sure that's the number iMessage and FaceTime is activated with? It was always an English number.

SpaceTime

guil wrote: »

That number you posted originally was bogus. It was posted a few times after as well.

Are you sure that's the number iMessage and FaceTime is activated with? It was always an English number.

Yeah, I hit a wrong key on my keyboard and am slightly dyslexic! I've corrected myself and asked a mod to correct it too!

Yup, the tech guy said that's how it's done.

They may well have used an English number in the old days but I suspect that was likely to have caused issues for some prepay customers or run up bills if carriers weren't zero pricing it. Getting charged at full whack for international SMSs would be pretty annoying.

Also, the carriers wouldn't necessarily appreciate floods of international SMS traffic either if loads of iPhones were setting up and generally prefer the use of local codes for those kinds of things.

They've test and setup numbers in each country at this stage.

Normally, you shouldn't even need to be aware of this stuff, and your iMessage should just 'magically' setup.

I would assume the phone gets this info in the carrier file or it identifies the country of origin of the SIM and has a database of uptodate numbers in a file somewhere in the system so if you use a foreign SIM in a unlocked iPhone, it would get the correct info automatically, assuming it's able to recognise the SIM anyway.

FourFourRED

SpaceTime wrote: »

It's also 51369not 51368 that was a typo on my behalf earlier in the thread!
See screenshot above.

FourFourFM: How could it not normally be used? That's how iMessage setup works there's no other way of verifying your mobile number.

You mentioned that it's not known on basic support level, my "it's not normally used" statement was with regards to troubleshooting iMessage it isn't used often.

I'm very familiar with how it works, you just read me wrong. Sorry