iMessage/FaceTime not Activating

[kieranhathway]

Hello, I've recently ported my number from EE and am having trouble activating my iMessage and FaceTime. I have...

- reset may phone

- logged in/out Apple ID

- checked the data/time

- checked location

- reinserted the Sim

- waited 24hrs

- reset network settings

- checked my phone number is on the account/phone

And it's still not working! Can anyone help? I also get the error message "your network provider may charge for SMS messages used to activate iMessage/FaceTime". Vodafone say all international services are setup and keep telling me to turn iMessage on and off.

ANY ADVICE?!

[BandOfBrothers]

My apologies if you've tried these tips @kieranhathway 

If you get an error when trying to activate iMessage or FaceTime. 

And

How to Make iMessage and Facetime Work When You Switch SIM Cards. 

[kieranhathway]

Hello

Thank for you for your reply. I’ve tried all these steps apart from the ‘activate the sim as if it was new’ - not sure how to do this? 

[BandOfBrothers]

Hi @kieranhathway 

How-do-I-activate-my-SIM. 

However I'm not convinced this is the route to take.

Maybe give it a little more time for these particular services to activate as your Porting to Vodafone may still have files settling hence these ongoing issues.

Perhaps forum members on the Apple Forum and or Apple support can help too.

[wf150783]

Sorry to re-hash this post from December, however I’ve gone round and round and round in circles with Vodafone AND Apple with this for 3 days and couldn’t get it sorted. Everything appeared right with both parties. But I managed to resolve this on my own accord, so thought I’d share.

I went into my Vodafone account and I did a swap to eSIM. That’s a pretty easy thing to do so I won’t go through all the instructions on here - maybe a mod could post instructions. But that had my iMessage and FaceTime up and running within 5 minutes of that activating.

This also got my Apple Watch up and running - the cellular data on that wouldn’t activate either. 

So SIM swap your SIM card for your phone to an eSIM if you’re having these issues and maybe you’ll be up and running, if like me, you’ve done every troubleshooting step tech support offer you and it doesn’t fix it.

Hope that helps!