- The stock Messages app on iPhone and iPad lets you send iMessages and SMS text messages too. But the great thing about iMessage is that you can communicate endlessly with other Apple users with iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch, entirely for free, through the encrypted iMessage protocol. But what if Messages is not working on your iPhone or iPad?
- Reset All Settings. Thanks to iMessage functionality, the Messages app lets you share photos, videos, files and more from other apps. However, there might be instances where you may fail to see.
Follow our guide below to fix the iMessage not delivered issue easily on your iPhone or iPad. Before we begin looking for a solution – activate iMessage from iOS Settings. 7 Ways for Fix iMessage not delivered on iPhone or iPad running iOS 11 or Below.
When activating iMessage or FaceTime, you might see one of these messages:
- Waiting for activation
- Activation unsuccessful
- An error occurred during activation
- Could not sign in, please check your network connection
- Unable to contact the iMessage server. Try again.
Check your device settings
In all our years of iOS updates that cause Message App problems, the following quick tips fix most issues. When you share an Apple ID all your separate threads now become one potentially very large thread, featuring different people. IOS 12 combines all shared Apple ID Messages into a single conversation thread and into a single grouped notification. The bigger problem, however, is that in order to apply a backup to your iPhone or iPad, you have to erase your device and restore it with older data from an earlier point in time. This means you will lose any newer data between now and the time the backup was made (not to mention waste a lot of time waiting for the phone to restore from backup).
- Make sure that you’re connected to a cellular data or Wi-Fi network. If you're using an iPhone, you need SMS messaging to activate your phone number with iMessage and FaceTime. Depending on your carrier, you might be charged for this SMS.
- Go to Settings > General > Date & Time and make sure that your time zone is set correctly.
Turn off and restart iMessage and FaceTime
- Go to Settings > Messages and turn off iMessage.
- Go to Settings > FaceTime and turn off FaceTime.
- Restart your device:
- Turn iMessage and FaceTime back on.
Still not activated after a day?
Ipad Not Showing Imessages
It might take up to 24 hours to activate iMessage and FaceTime. If the issue continues after 24 hours, follow these steps:
- Make sure that your device has the latest version of iOS or iPadOS.
- If you're using an iPhone, contact your carrier to make sure that you can send and receive SMS messages.
- If your iPhone is used with a carrier not found in the wireless carrier articles make sure you can send and receive international SMS.
- Contact Apple Support.
Ipad Not Getting Imessages
Get more help
You can also use your email address with iMessage and FaceTime. Sign in to your Apple ID account page and review all the email addresses you have on file, including the one that you're trying to verify. If the email address is incorrect, you can update it. Then click Resend next to the email address that you want to verify.
If you can't sign in to iMessage or FaceTime on your Mac, see If you can't sign in to your iMessage account or FaceTime on your Mac.
FaceTime is not available in all countries or regions.