Do you know you do not need any extra mobile network plans for video chatting or messaging your friends if you have an iPhone and an Apple ID? Yes, you can use FaceTime for video chatting and the iMessage app for sending messages on an iPhone for free. But it needs to be activated.
Many iPhone users have complained that while activating, it shows a Waiting for activation error for a long time and is stuck without activation getting successful.
This issue could be due to one of the following reasons listed below.
- Apple server must be down
- No internet connection
- Issues with the Apple ID
- The date & Time might be set incorrectly
- Outdated iPhone or iPad
- Network Settings must be changed on the iPhone
After researching more deeply on the mentioned factors above, in this article, we have compiled a bunch of solutions that will definitely be going to assist users in fixing them.
Fix 1 – Use a different SIM of a different Mobile carrier
Sometimes your Mobile carrier might be the issue. So, try inserting a different SIM of a different mobile Carrier and may be this activation will happen at once without any issue. If this happens, you can surely figure out that your mobile carrrier was the issue.
Fix 1 – Remove the SIM Card and Insert it back
Sometimes the problem might be with the SIM Card and not your iPhone. Some iPhone users have resolved this issue by re-inserting the sim card. This can be done using the steps described below.
Step 1: First of all, you have to eject the SIM card holder from the iPhone by inserting a pointed pin tip in the hole on the side.
Step 2: After it ejects the Sim card holder, remove it and take out the Sim card from the holder.
Step 3: Use a clean muslin cloth to wipe the sim card and place it back into the sim card holder.
Step 4: Finally, insert the sim card holder back into your iPhone.
Fix 2 – Force Close the Settings app and open it again
Generally, when the settings app gets stuck on the iPhone, it might be the cause for this activation error. Therefore, force closing the settings app and reopening it on your iPhone can fix this issue as explained below.
Step 1: You need to open the App Switcher on your iPhone by swiping upwards from the bottom left side of the screen towards the right side exponentially.
Step 2: After the App Switcher opens, search for the Settings app and force close it by swiping it up.
Step 3: Once the Settings app is closed from running in the background, open it again by tapping on the Settings icon from your home screen as shown in the below image.
Step 4: After it opens, check whether the activation error is disappeared.
Fix 3 – Change the Content & Privacy Restrictions on your iPhone
Many iPhone users are able to fix this problem by enabling the FaceTime option in the Allowed Apps under the Privacy restrictions feature on their iPhones. We suggest our users try this method by following the steps explained below.
Step 1: First of all, you need to open the Settings page on your iPhone.
Step 2: Then search for the Screen Time option from the list of the Settings menu.
Step 3: On the Screen Time page, click on the Content & Privacy Restrictions option as shown in the below screenshot.
Step 4: Now click on the Allowed Apps option as shown.
Step 5: Once you reach the Allowed Apps page, make sure to enable the FaceTime option by clicking on its toggle switch as shown in the image below.
After doing this, close the page and reopen the Settings app to check whether the issue is resolved.
Fix 4 – Set the Date & Time correctly
Let us try checking the Date & Time settings on the iPhone since incorrectly set date and time can sometimes cause this problem.
Step 1: Open the Settings app on the iPhone.
Step 2: Then scroll down and select the General option by clicking on it as shown below.
Step 3: Now choose the Date & Time option by tapping on it.
Step 4: On the Date & Time page, enable the Set Automatically option by clicking on its toggle switch as shown in the below screenshot.
Fix 5 – Enable the Data Roaming Settings
When the Data roaming settings are not enabled, sometimes the internet connectivity is lost on an iPhone which causes this error. Therefore, enabling data roaming might help resolve this problem.
Step 1: Unlock your iPhone and head to the Settings page on your iPhone.
Step 2: Then select the Mobile Data option by clicking on it.
Step 3: Once the Mobile Data page appears, click on Mobile Data Options to open it.
Step 4: Now enable the Data Roaming by tapping on its toggle button as shown in the below screenshot.
Fix 6 – Sign Out of your Apple ID and Sign-in back
Sometimes authentication problems on your current device might be causing you to face this error message because the Apple ID password must be changed recently. Therefore, try signing out of Apple ID and then signing in on your iPhone using the steps explained below.
Step 1: First, you need to go to the Settings page from the home screen on your iPhone.
Step 2: Tap on the Profile Name at the top of the Settings page as shown.
Step 3: Scroll down the Apple ID page and tap on the Sign Out option at the bottom of the page.
Step 4: Enter the Apple ID password and tap on the Turn Off option at the top right corner as shown.
Step 5: Finally, select the Health, Keychain, and Safari toggle button if you want to keep a copy of it, and tap on the Sign Out option.
Step 6: After the data from iCloud is removed from your iPhone, wait for some time and you have to tap on the Sign in to your iPhone option at the top of the Settings page as shown below.
Step 7: Follow the on-screen instructions to sign in again by entering the Apple ID and its password.
Step 8: After signing in back, the issue must have got fixed.
Fix 7 – Reset Network Settings on your iPhone
When changes are done to the network settings, it might act weirdly and throw some of the errors as discussed above. So resetting the network settings would fix this issue on the iPhone.
NOTE – You probably have to re-sign in to all the networks like Wi-Fi, VPN, etc.
Step 1: Open the Settings page first.
Step 2: Tap on the General option.
Step 3: Then select the Transfer or Reset iPhone option at the bottom of the General page as shown below.
Step 4: Later, select the Reset option by tapping on it once.
Step 5: This pops up a context menu on the screen.
Step 6: You need to tap on the Reset Network Settings from the list as shown below.
Step 7: It might ask you to enter your iPhone passcode on the screen for verification purposes.
Step 8: After that, tap on the Reset Network Settings once again on the confirmation window as shown.
This starts to reset the network settings on your iPhone and once done, check whether the problem still persists.
Additional Fixes
Check if the Apple Server is down
This type of error usually occurs when the Apple server is down. So you need to check the status of the Apple Server and if it is shut down temporarily for maintenance, you can wait for a few hours and check it again.
Check the Internet Connection
For iMessage and FaceTime activation, it needs to have a strong internet connection otherwise it will throw such errors on an iPhone. You can check whether there is an internet connection or not by accessing a web browser or youtube videos on the iPhone.
So try restarting your Wi-Fi router and check if the wi-fi signal gets better. If still there is no internet connectivity, please switch to mobile data by going to Settings and tapping on Mobile Data from the list. Then enable the Mobile Data setting by tapping on its toggle button. This enables mobile data.
Restart your iPhone
Due to some minor technical glitches within the iPhone, these kinds of problems can occur anytime. Many iPhone users have resolved this issue by merely restarting their iPhones. So we advise our users to try restarting their iPhones and see if this helps.
Update the iPhone/iPad
Several iPhone users have related to this method where they were using outdated software on their iPhone and this was actually the reason behind this error. So try updating your iPhone by going to the Settings page and tapping on the General option.
Then go to the Software Update page and wait till it loads any updates available for your iPhone. Once it loads, please download and install it if any are available.