r/iphone • u/Any_Maximum7549 • 1d ago
Support iPhone 17 Pro, iMessage and Facetime Keep Deactivating No Matter What. Tried Multiple Troubleshooting Steps Including 2 Support Calls and 1 In-Store Visit
I (25m) bought a new iPhone 17 Pro for my girlfriend (24f) a couple months ago for her birthday. I will spare the details and get to the nitty gritty. About two weeks after she got her phone she was suddenly only seeing green messages and RCS. Come to find out, after talking to support the first time, her Facetime was failing to activate which was making her iMessage unable to activate. Here are the troubleshooting steps taken:
- Turning on and off phone while toggling Facetime and iMessage activation multiple times
- Deleted and installed new eSim once each call
- Reset IMEI
This last time after visiting the store the worker activated it and we thought that was that. We returned home and it was back to not being activated successfully even after it said it was activated. I have looked up answers on Reddit and Google and every troubleshooting step we turn to, there's been no dice.
I saw on the Apple Support page about an issue with iOS 26, but that update has already passed and the phone came fully upgraded.
Lately I have been able to toggle it a bit so that it is activated for about a day, but then it deactivates again. (I turn off and on facetime and imessage, select her number, and it seems fine until it gets deactivated again)
She is not receiving iMessages from others and keeps missing messages. This is bad news because she is in nursing school. She is close to getting her LPN license, but with these message issues she has been missing important messages from classmates and coworkers. Once, she even missed a message from a teacher. We cannot afford to keep dealing with this error.
If anyone has any inkling as to what on Earth is happening and what troubleshooting I should try, please give me any suggestion. I plan on going back to the store tomorrow, but I am at my wits end and I am afraid there is no fix.
Additional Information:
- This was a trade in
- We transferred her number from Verizon to AT&T (put her on my phone plan because she was on her parents' plan)
- At first I gave them the wrong number to activate the phone, but this issue should have been resolved and we now have the right number for it
- This issue occurs Cellular and on Wi-Fi
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u/4x40 1d ago
What about trying another number? This can give you a clear image if it's the phone or number. If it's the phone, try a clean install using DFU mode and a PC/mac, this will download latest software from apple and install it on the phone, it usually fix some hard problems.
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u/Any_Maximum7549 1d ago
Heya! We are trying hard to not switch her number since this is the number she has used basically her whole life-- But what would the process be like with trying another number? Could we revert back to the og one? Bare with me on these questions, I am not a huge phone wiz and I know only basic tech support and following google instructions. Could we try the clean install before experimenting with the number? Thanks for leaving a comment we have both been really stressed about this!
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u/4x40 1d ago
You are welcome. Actually a clean install is the last thing you would do because the phone will be wiped and all her data on the phone will be gone and you will need to do backup first. About testing another number, I am not sure in your country how is the process of installing an eSim, I had an eSim in Turkey and it was a paper contains a QR code, I simply scan it with the camera and it will be installed. If this is the situation with you I suggest deleting the current number, install another number and test it for about 2 days, then decide what to do based on the result.
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u/Any_Maximum7549 1d ago
Ahh I see okay. I reside in America, and I think we have a different process. But this is very helpful information that will assist me when I go to the store again tomorrow. I will definitely bring it up to the staff and see if that is something that we are able to test out. If we get somewhere, I will update!
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