Facetime Activation Broken?

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jmosen

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#72527 28-Nov-2010 08:32

I don't use Facetime often, but a friend of mine just purchased an iPhone 4 and wanted to try it. When going into the contacts, I noticed all the Facetime buttons had disappeared, so I went into Settings, Phone, and enabled Facetime.

For the last 12 hours or so, it's been hanging on "Waiting for Activation". I've disabled and enabled it a couple of times, but don't want to do that too often in case it is sending an international SMS every time I do.

My wife's phone was working fine with Facetime, but after she disabled and enabled, hers is also hanging on "waiting for activation".

I'm wondering if anyone else is seeing this, and if so, whether the problem is with Apple's SMS server or Vodafone.

Jonathan

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#410328 28-Nov-2010 08:51

Vodafone (myself) is working on the issue its not a iphone issue.

Should have more INFO tomorrow or even a fix

John

jmosen

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#410329 28-Nov-2010 08:53

Thanks John. Really appreciate that you take the time to keep us updated here.

Any ETA for a fix?

Jonathan

johnr

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#410330 28-Nov-2010 08:54

Sorry edited my post above (should know more tomorrow)

rawsoncj

22 posts

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#410349 28-Nov-2010 10:16

Glad to know I'm not the only one with this issue. I spent two hours on the phone with AppleCare yesterday regarding this issue. Their low-level techs were all clueless, and their senior advisors in Singapore were either asleep or drunk, because after two hours of waiting no one bothered to answer the support agent's repeated attempts to get hold of them.

Kind of ridiculous that FaceTime on iPhone still has to be activated via SMS anyway since the latest iPod touch activates via e-mail now.

chriswiggins

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#410446 28-Nov-2010 19:02

rawsoncj: Glad to know I'm not the only one with this issue. I spent two hours on the phone with AppleCare yesterday regarding this issue. Their low-level techs were all clueless, and their senior advisors in Singapore were either asleep or drunk, because after two hours of waiting no one bothered to answer the support agent's repeated attempts to get hold of them.

Kind of ridiculous that FaceTime on iPhone still has to be activated via SMS anyway since the latest iPod touch activates via e-mail now.

+1 Tried to get my Uncle's iPhone going on facetime but yeah same problem. The SMS is probably to confirm the actual phone number.. I dunno

animoller

5 posts

Wannabe Geek

#410620 29-Nov-2010 11:29

I called Vodafone about this a week ago who said they would get back to me in 3 days (never happened). I called them again Saturday who said they would call me back later in the day, never happened. Vodafone told me to call Apple which I did who said it was a Vodafone issue and questioned why they'd even tell me to call Apple (this was a senior rep that I'd been escalated to).

The issue is that I'm not receiving the silent text to activate the service, yet Vodafone are charging me 17c every time. I read the previous thread where the Vodafone Twitter rep says "it's not our issue you need to speak with the service provider". Which is partially correct, but I just signed up for 24-months with Vodafone SPECIFICALLY because I wanted to use Facetime and I was already using Vodafone. If there are issues with texts not being received, isn't that Vodafone? Even if it is Apple, shouldn't Vodafone and Apple be working together to provide excellent customer service to their customers?

I am so disappointed with Vodafone's service. They really don't care too much about their customers. Especially not that Twitter rep who replied via Twitter that it wasn't activating because everyone was downloading iOs 4.2. Umm, that's not it! If you don't know, why don't you just say:

"We don't know what the issue is but we are working with Apple to resolve this problem."

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johnr

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#410672 29-Nov-2010 13:08

Update:

Issue should now be resolved activating facetime I have just tested on my iphone4 and service activated.

Please test and let me know how you get on.

Thanks John

animoller

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#410676 29-Nov-2010 13:18

That works! What was the issue?

johnr

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#410677 29-Nov-2010 13:21

animoller: That works!? What was the issue?

Got a white board and 30 minutes

animoller

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#410679 29-Nov-2010 13:23

I'm just wondering where the issue was. Was it the silent text not coming through?

johnr

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#410681 29-Nov-2010 13:26

animoller: I'm just wondering where the issue was.? Was it the silent text not coming through?

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animoller

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#410684 29-Nov-2010 13:27

Was it a problem with the Facetime software? The network? I'm presuming the network since I haven't updated my OS...

johnr

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#410694 29-Nov-2010 13:42

animoller: Was it a problem with the Facetime software?? The network? I'm presuming the network since I haven't updated my OS...

The issue was not with Apple or the 4.2 update

shakti

14 posts

Geek

#410747 29-Nov-2010 16:03

Hi johnr,

Are you positive the issue has been resolved? I am still facing the same issue today as I was yesterday. Stuck on 'Waiting for activation...'. I've tried everything. Hard reset, soft reset, cycle on/off, cycle settings on/off...

Thanks in advance.

jmosen

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#410752 29-Nov-2010 16:13

Mine is activated now, I'm not going to disable and enable again just in case. Happy to have it working.

Jonathan

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