How To Get Imessages To Work New Phone After Transferring Number

If in that location's i thing nosotros don't love around here, information technology's high roaming charges. We're big advocates of taking phones on the road, of course, we only prefer not to pay a fortune to use them. That's why nosotros recommend unlocked smartphones and local SIM cards or eSIMs for almost every traveler.

Cheap information connections like these come up in handy for many things when you're traveling, and we recommend buying one if you'll be in a country for any length of fourth dimension. They're typically readily available, straightforward to install, and allow you lot use your telephone merely like you would at home.

Well, mostly. Equally it happens, iPhones tin have a bit of trouble adjusting to their new location. While they'll hands recognize the new SIM for voice calls and general data use, some features may not exist quite so compliant. That's especially true for iMessage and FaceTime.

This picayune kink first came to haunt me on a trip to Panama. Calling and WhatsApp happily accustomed the new SIM, and I didn't think to cheque other apps until a friend e-mailed me, a trivial bewildered, asking me why I wasn't replying to my iMessages.

Puzzled, I checked the settings on my iPhone, merely to find both iMessage and FaceTime were asunder. Well, technically, they were "waiting for activation," the screen told me, but the end result was the same: they didn't work.

It wasn't a fluke, unfortunately, as the aforementioned thing happened on other trips: going back to Mexico after Panama, to Spain to visit family, to the US for work. I'm inappreciably the merely one, either: I establish plenty of complaints during one particularly-desperate endeavour to set the problem.

Of class, you don't take to be traveling to come across this trouble. Swapping SIM cards at home (like when you lot switch to a new cell company) can cause exactly the same problem. Whether you're in your kitchen or thousands of miles from habitation, it'south a major frustration.

Here'southward what I've learned about fixing it.

1. Why Information technology Happens
2. How To Prepare It
- 2.one. Have You Turned It Off and On Over again? No, Actually.
- 2.2. Add a Piddling Credit
- ii.3. Bank check Y'all're Still Reachable
- 2.iv. Set Date and Time to Automated
- 2.5. Reactivate the Sim every bit If Information technology Was New
- 2.6. Reset Network Settings
- 2.7. Re-Link Your Apple ID
- 2.viii. Wait It Out

Why It Happens

The iMessage problems doesn't only happen when irresolute to an international number, simply also if you change providers within the aforementioned country, and even when upgrading to a new operating system.

The get-go time it was widely reported was later the iOS 7 launch in 2013, and Apple admitted at that place was a bug preventing iMessage and FaceTime from working properly on both iPhones and iPads in certain situations. The company promised to take a set gear up for the next software update.

Alas, it didn't, and users have continued to written report problems ever since. For at present, iPhone and iPad users are left to their own devices to discover a cure.

How To Fix It

There are a number of piddling tricks to endeavor to fix the problem, but sadly no foolproof solutions. Here'south the simplified version, with the nearly successful approaches start. If 1 proposition doesn't work for you, just work your way down the listing.

Have Yous Turned Information technology Off and On Again? No, Really.

IT departments the world over take said information technology loud and clear: the start lodge of business organisation when trying to fix anything tech-related is turning the device off and on.

This pace is two-fold in this case. You should first try to turn iMessage and FaceTime off for a few minutes, and so back on and check if the app has picked up the changes.

If that doesn't help, plough off your iPhone or iPad, and burn down it support over again. In most cases this volition have washed the trick. If it didn't, continue reading.

Add a Lilliputian Credit

To ostend you own the number you're trying to activate, Apple sends it a "silent" SMS. In some cases, that SMS can be chargeable, and if your SIM plan doesn't include text messages and yous don't take any credit on your telephone, that SMS will never arrive. End result? iMessage and Facetime don't activate.

If you lot retrieve this might be affecting you, try topping up your phone with a fiddling actress credit, and then restart it and check iMessage and Facetime over again. Several readers have mentioned this arroyo works for them, so it'southward worth trying!

Check Y'all're Still Reachable

This tip came in from a reader a couple of years ago, and it'southward a adept one. For them, iMessage and Facetime stopped working later on they activated a second number on their eSIM overseas.

Go to Settings – Apple ID – Name, Telephone Numbers, Eastward-post, and look at the "Reachable At" section. Make sure that the number you want to utilise for iMessage and FaceTime is listed. If it's blank or incorrect, change/add together it.

Next, become to Settings – FaceTime, and expect under "You lot Can Be Reached by FaceTime At". If the number you want to use isn't selected (ie, doesn't have a checkmark beside it,) tap on information technology to activate it.

Finally, go to Settings – Messages – Send and Receive, and look nether "You Can Receive iMessages To and From." Once more, if the number y'all want to apply doesn't accept a checkmark beside information technology, tap on information technology to activate information technology.

Gear up Engagement and Time to Automated

It sounds empty-headed, just something every bit uncomplicated as the wrong date and time can forestall iMessage and Facetime from activating correctly with your new SIM. That can exist a mutual trouble when you're traveling, particularly if you've manually set your timezone to be your home location.

The easiest manner to ensure this isn't a problem is switching the Date and Time settings to "automatic," which can and then force the messaging apps to work.

Reactivate the Sim as If It Was New

When everything above has failed, go right dorsum to the kickoff: accept out the SIM card and start afresh. Begin again with the process of setting upwards the new card, let the device recognize the number and cheque that iMessage and FaceTime have started working. Sometimes all that's needed is a niggling button.

Reset Network Settings

Next upward, it'southward time to reset your network settings. This will wipe out all of your remembered Wi-Fi networks, articulate cellular settings, and delete VPN configurations. Other data similar photos and apps won't be touched.

To do this:

Go to Settings – Full general – Transfer or Reset iPhone – Reset
Choose Reset Network Settings

It'south worth making a annotation or taking a screenshot of your SIM menu'southward settings earlier doing a network reset, in case you need to add together back an APN or configure other settings once more after.

Re-Link Your Apple tree ID

If the restart and reactivations didn't ready things, it'southward time to try signing out your Apple ID. Turn off iMessage or Facetime, then log out your Apple tree ID (from Settings – iTunes and App Shop). Log back in once again, then turn on iMessage or Facetime in one case again.

This volition showtime the activation process. If information technology succeeds, you'll meet a list of previous email addresses and telephone numbers that have been associated with the app at some stage. Go through and remove any that are no longer valid, or that you merely don't want to receive messages any longer.

Exist careful doing this if you lot have ii-factor authentication set upward for your Apple tree ID, as you lot'll need to be able to receive the verification code that's sent when you log back in.

Before yous first, make sure you accept another Apple device with you (a Macbook or iPad, for example) that's using the aforementioned Apple ID, or that you accept another way of accessing text letters or calls to the telephone number(due south) you specified for two-factor authentication.

If the activation fails, and you'll exist staying in a particular country for a while and really want that SIM to work with iMessage etc, you can also restore your device through iTunes with the new SIM card inserted. It takes a little time, and delight brand sure you successfully run a full fill-in before yous first, but this last resort ordinarily cures all.

Wait Information technology Out

Finally, sometimes all you can do is wait things out. iMessage and FaceTime can accept up to 24 hours to successfully activate. In this example, patience may truly be a virtue.

Has this messaging bug affected you when switching SIMs? Did you manage to go things working with 1 of these approaches, or some other way? Let us know in the comments!

Images via Judit Klein (hand with phone), Mizoguchi Coji (white iPhone on bench), Miki Yoshihito (girls with phones), William Hook (white iphone)

Patricia Rey Mallén

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A roaming writer and tech enthusiast, Patricia has been wandering the earth for 10-odd years. A passionate Apple lover, she is familiar with Genius bars from Sydney to Reykjavík to Mexico City, and just vaguely remembers life earlier the internet.

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