iOS 26 update iMessage Won’t Activate

[Tyle1720]

Updated to iOS 26 on iPhone 13 Pro. After update I can no longer use iMessage or Facetime. When I try to toggle on it it tries and then says activation unsuccessful. I’ve tried activating on wifi only and same issue. Anyone else experiencing this ? Or have you find a way to use iMessage?

edited by computergeek541:  changed category labels as this discussion is unrelated to Community

[JesseM1]

Thanks! Removing phone number and rebooting worked for me.

[ESilva77]

That’s a good point, my eSIM is around 2 years old too!

[Tyle1720]

Update: We upgraded to ios26 without any issues on my Wifes phone with existing physical sim. Hope this info helps someone.

[Tyle1720]

I wonder if they have different revisions of ESIM...? mine is about 2years old. I missed a message from them near the end of the troubleshooting process with apple and they credited my account 5$ and told me to get a new ESIM and that will fix it. 

[ESilva77]

So I emailed PM support and sent them screenshots, the next day, my iMessage & FT started working! They got activated and I’m still on my eSIM! I never had to buy a new SIM card. 

[Tyle1720]

So after lots of back and forth between Apple and PM. The solution is to purchase a new ESIM. So I went into setting and disabled imsg and FT. Then rebooted. Logged into public mobile app and purchased a new ESIM. I let it do its thing and install. I rebooted after the network came back. I then turned on imsg and FT and within 10 min it’s activated. I had to reboot once again for message app to default back to sending imsg rather than SMS. Long story short PM issue and purchasing a new ESIM works and is the only solution available. 

Side note my wife’s phone is still on iOS26 and she has a physical PM SIM card. I’m wondering if she will have the same issue if she updates. I’ll reply back to this if hers stops working and I have to switch to ESIM. 

[Tyle1720]

Contacted apple support they installed a logging profile on my phone. It logged the activation process and i waited 4 days for them to review. They concluded that it was indeed PM rejecting the activation and it was nothing the apple server side.

[ESilva77]

You can select the person's contact on iPhone and then choose their apple ID to send via iMessage. The number is not working right now for me either.. looks like cellular issue, and causing the activation to fail for iMessage and FaceTime, so that is the workaround to get iMessage to work for now. I feel like it also has something to do with the eSim, doesn't look like users with a Sim card have this issue.

[hTideGnow]

hi @Tyle1720 

i think you need to contact Apple support from here

[Tyle1720]

All Just an update I've tried everything in this thread multiple times and still not working. PM support has not been able to help either. Im open to any other ideas 

[hTideGnow]

hi @Tyle1720 

To update your iPhone's carrier settings, ensure your device is connected to Wi-Fi or a cellular network, then go to Settings > General > About. If an update is available, you will see a pop-up message or an option to install it on the "About" screen; tap to install.

[Tyle1720]

I tried this many times and still not activating 

[Tyle1720]

Thanks for the reply. I've tried the reboot and reset network setting. I'm trying to activate with my number. Can you clarify on how to check if the carrier profile is updated? I'm still not up and running with iMSG

[slusagm]

Some people have trouble when it started in beta 2 months again but most got it working on iOS26

Make sure Carrier Profile is updated after the iOS update, reboot phone, Reset Network Settings.  You should activate with phone number for better success (might need to remove phone number from Settings, Reboot and put it back in for a clean reregistration)

[hTideGnow]

hi @Tyle1720 

try toggle off again, reboot and toggle on for re-registration after an hour.  Sometimes just issue with Apple registration server

(and make sure the data and time are correct)