iMessage and FaceTime cannot be activated

[M.Rizk]

Hello everybody,

I am currently rocking an iPhone 5S in Egypt. Everything was fine till last night when I removed my Egyptian SIM and inserted my Qatari SIM to do a call to a friend in Qatar (Cheaper using Qatari SIM).

Of course as soon as I inserted the Qatari SIM the iPhone asked me if I would like to send SMS to activate FaceTime and iMessage. I clicked cancel as Roaming Data was not activated anyways.

Once I was done with that call I inserted back the Egyptian SIM, went to both iMessage and FaceTime turned them off then on again to verify the phone number and activate both services like I always do.

Unfortunately this time something is wrong, they keep telling "Waiting for Activation" and my carrier keeps charging me for International Texting every 30 minutes to an hour till all my pay as you go credit was sucked by the iPhone.

I tried everything you could imagine, from Reseting network settings, and updating to iOS 7.1 Beta 1!! (I was on 7.0.4) but nothing is fixed.

Of course I had to refill my airtime credit to do some calls and the iPhone is burning through the credit as I post this....

Something is definitely wrong, because I am also not able to Backup my data to iCloud, and I can't receive any iMessaes on my Apple ID emails either (I can send though). It's really strange because both the Mac and my 4G iPad Mini are fine.

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[kch50428]

I believe FaceTime is unavailable due to government restrictions in Qatar... and even though you're not there... using the SIM from the Qatari provider makes the phone and the FaceTime systems are enforcing the restriction... I'm not at all sure what to do about it...

 

[TiredOfPhoneWar]

i thinks its more the egyptian govt restriction, you maybe cant use the qatari sim in egypt ,is it the first time you did that?

 

[M.Rizk]

I believe FaceTime is unavailable due to government restrictions in Qatar... and even though you're not there... using the SIM from the Qatari provider makes the phone and the FaceTime systems are enforcing the restriction... I'm not at all sure what to do about it...

Restrictions were removed since the iPhone 4S in both Qatar and Egypt. I always had FaceTime and iMessage working in both countries normally.

Activation SMS of FaceTime is also free over Vodafone Qatar even when Roaming.


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[M.Rizk]

I just inserted my Vodafone Qatar SIM since iMessage and FaceTime activation on it is free anyways even when Roaming. The device will normally activated on the Qatari number.

Then I inserted back the Egyptian SIM, the phone of course canceled the last verification and no longer uses the Qatari number for iMessage and FaceTime.

I decided to disable both iMessage and FaceTime and turn them on again while using the Egyptian SIM to activate my Egyptian number. I was charged for an international text, and FaceTime also iMessage was again activated on the Qatari number not the Egyptian one although I am using the Egyptian SIM... Not sure what to say here.

Anyways I am happy I got something wrong at least, all my contacts got my Qatari number so they call all message and call me anyways.


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[Ahmed Beko]

hiii sir
im from egypt and i can't use both ( imessage and facetime ))
plz help me :crying:

 

[M.Rizk]

hiii sir
im from egypt and i can't use both ( imessage and facetime ))
plz help me :crying:

Please explain your issue briefly so that someone could help.


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[Ahmed Beko]

i use ipad air wifi & 4g
anyone can help me :crying:

I can't see Egypt in regions. i used Us as my default region but i couldn't Register

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