We're getting a flood of reports from many of you that iMessage is down and you can't send or receive messages over Apple's network. Unlike iCloud, Apple doesn't provide a specific iMessage status page, so it's hard to tell how wide spread the issue is, how critical any failure might have been, or project how long it might last.
The pattern seems sporadic and the issues inconsistent, and it's working fine for me and the rest of iMore right now. If you are have problems with iMessage, however, please let us know when it started, where you are, and when it starts working for you again.
Reader comments
iMessage is down for many, is it down for you?
been down since 3:30pm in Inland Empire area still no change
Mine is down on my I pod. It stays this way for hours and is do annoying. It can't send to I phones and it's driving my insane. How do I fix it?!?!
And it will almost send it get to the end and then say sorry amble to send it failure
OMFG, are you Sirous I have full Internet signal and full everything and this annoying iPod won't send a message ! I was in the middle of a convisation last night at 12 just finishing the conversation and said bye etc. the next morning it just dicided it didn't want to work so.. I turned it off and did my own thing for hour or so come back turn it on etc go in to iMessage and dose it again its so frustrating for me I love your iPods but such a pain get it fixed! Now
Mine is down, I have the same password as my mum, and hers isn't down, I really desperately need it back as it is vital to contact people with!! Please help! Here in Cambridge
Annoying huh?
FaceTime as well as iMessage is down in Arizona and New Jersey.
My iMessage is down, but was working for about a week after I upgraded to the iOS 6. ~Ohio
Wont work and hasnt for over two hours- Ohio
iMessage won't let me activate. It keeps saying I have an error and of course restarting it won't work. It won't send imessages or even let me receive them. I hope this can be fixed - Houston,TX
I just upgraded from an iPhone 3GS to an iPhone 5. I had already updated my 3GS to run on ios6. My iMessages worked just fine on my 3GS but within a day of getting my 5 my iMessages quit working. I guess that was on Friday, Oct. 19th. I can only send texts to my boyfriend, and he can only send text messages back. No iMessages at all. My parents both have iPhone 3GS's and I can iMessage my dad just fine, but when I try to send a message to my mom, it just gets stuck trying to send. It won't even attempt to send a text message instead. Neither one of my parents has actual texting anyway, so I need iMessage to work! This is extremely frustrating and there seems to be no solution that I've been able to come up with!
My iMessage on my iPhone4s has been on and off working for about a month now it just wouldnt send the message(i usually deactivate and then reactivated) but this week and wont activate at all i taught there was something wrong with my phone because i have a friend on iPhone4s and one on iPad its working fine for them, just hope it starts working soon :( Im in Ireland
It's sporadic for my husband and I. We are in California. We have been geting lots of !Failed notices, but the messages actually seem to be going through (at least as far as we can tell). The odd thing is this seemed to start for us right after I upgraded my MacBook Air to Mountain Lion :-( a few days ago. I've also gotten failure notices with other iOS users.
iMessage here on my iPod touch 4G in California doesn't work! It won't send messages or receive them :( It started around late July early August
my daughters iPod 4 was working fine last night with the face time and iMessage. Today it stopped working. It says something like check network and it can't be activated. It then gives me the option to sign in or create a new account. Never had to sign in after the first time. This is for both FaceTime and iMessage. Then she tried to play words with friends and it told her she need to connect to iTunes. What's that all about. So, I hooked to computer and sure enough, it came up. Then unhooked and says again, connect to iTunes to use push notifications. HUH???
I have the same problem about the imesage thing. I accidentally logged out of it so I put in my correct apple id password and it didn't work .....
iMessage has always just been a buggy mess!
Its been on and off for me here in miami FL. i do remember though that it didn't work for like a whole month but it doesn't really faze me that's why i have text messaging :)
It has always been quite unreliable for me. I hear complaints all the time.
I had an issue messaging my friend's iPad from my iPhone but that was it. No one else.
I don't think imassage network is useful for apple customer and there are big difference between imassage and BBM( attract more customers to use RIM phones ) !
iMessages just started this year. and someone attracted to use RIM phones because of BBM? is ridiculous. BBM was not they way it is today years ago. BBM will die out eventually. no one uses blackberries anymore. atleast major corporate companies are jumping the ship and going to iphones instead...
Heh. this is too funny. This sort of double-standard is why I find iMore a lot less usefull then Crackberry.
You talking about the "Messages" function that I use to send texts to people who don't have Apple technology? Other than that, I don't see anything on my iPhone that's called "iMessage". "Messages" works fine. Haven't used it for anything but sending texts.
where have you been all this time!?
Messages is the app your phone uses to send SMS, MMS, or iMessages.
SMS= Regular text messaging to another cellphone,
MMS= Video or File sent through text messaging to another cellphone,
iMessages= Apple's version of BBM (Black Berry Messenger)
if you text another iOS device, it will send the message automatically through iMessages
(Your send icon will be blue and the chat bubbles will be blue as well. if your texting someone with an regular cellphone/smartphone your text bubble will be green as well as the send icon)
It's strange mine has been sporadic the last couple weeks sometimes I would send the message and it would go through and "not say delivered" I would have to take my fiancé phone and send a message to myself for it to force through the back logged messages. In Settings it says Activation UnSuccessful but still send and receive messages and it has been like this for a while now. It will not activate for some reason and I have restored both as new phones and still it will not Activate :-(
Same.... except for te restored part it always says not delivered
I can still use mine but I noticed it was a bit slower sending them then normal
Vancouver, BC, sporadic all day, for a cople of days, some photos and messages not getting through, issue on iMessages on MBPro, ipad3, 2x iPhones. Spent ages troubleshooting!!!!
In San Francisco and imessage when came back on at 530p and is now out again 753p.
Clear in DC area - never had an issue
I lost Imessage at around 10a (in San Francisco) and it didn't return until about 530p
Down for me in NY. It was working at the time this articles was posted (5:45pm), but has since crapped out on me. Haven't had one successful since around 6:30pm
went back to iOS 5 and... it works perfectly fine again! i think its a beta 3 issue honestly
Its working fine in Baltimore!
Back up now.
No probs in TN
Mine's been down all day. Apple gave me a case number this morning and said wait 24 hours. Just now, it asked for my apple ID password and I notice I can imessage via my email address.
I DON'T WANT THIS because people's imessages to my phone number are not going through.
Now I can't remove my email address (greyed out option) and can't select phone number (greyed out option).
What's going on???
was down in 23452 VA, but it just came up within the past 15 minutes.....
Working just fine for me.
Back up for me now
Were you having the waiting for activation issue and now its working?
iMessage was down on my 4s for at least two hours in Tampa, FL. Gave up for a bit and just checked to see if it was back on. Finally working again. iMessage settings read "waiting for activation".
I was the first to break this news. I contacted apple and they are working on the servers. If you log out of iMessage you won't be able to log back in. Their activation server is down. I first experienced this problem on my iPod touch.
This is correct. Mine now says the same
Oh darn... I logged out of iMessage..... that's too bad hopefully it will get fixed very soon!
All is fine in north Carolina
mine has been acting up since yesterday - illinois
Mine hasn't worked right since beta 3.
As of last night around 2-3am EST, iMessage activation was down for me. I restored my iPhone and selected the option Set up as new phone, and iMessage and FaceTime never activated. It was weird because iMessage was working before I did the restore. I then restored my iPhone again but used an older back up from July 15, and voila, it was working again. The issue seems to be with activations. I did speak with an agent from Apple a while ago and they also confirmed that iMessage activations are currently down and that they're doing everything they can to get it back up and running.
It was down for my friend. He sent me a message that I never received. He stated that it showed that it tried to send it as a text message afterwards, but it still failed.
All is good in Long Beach, CA
From Los Angeles, Ca other line is in Asia
iMessage and FaceTime down for 2 out of 4 of my lines. Yesterday one of them working fine them early morning got error message: "error during activation". The other line FaceTime just doesn't connect. Used to FaceTime everyday internationally. But just a couple days ago it just stopped connecting.. Thinking 90% sure it's the service provider..
Been happening since 2pm est. still showing messages in pending stage
Btw Pittsburgh pa area
I have had problems for 8 hours now and actually made an appointment at the Apple store in Cincinnati who said they were made aware of the issue by others today. He was unable to do anything but tell me to wait 24 hours and try again and if it does not work then to call Apple Care and he established a case number for me. Hoping it starts working soon!
I recently stopped using it. IMO, iMessage is fine -- but -- it really is just Apple integrating their IM client into text messaging. I turned it off in settings, I'd rather keep SMS and MMS stuff separate from IM stuff...
down for me in new york
My iMessage stopped working around 3:45 PM EDT after I disconnected from wifi. It hasn't worked since. My phone is a 781 Massachusetts area code and currently I'm on vacation in Quebec. So, I am very aggravated because I paid for an international data package through AT&T and now cannot iMessage people. So that was a waste of money and now Immpaying 50 cents per each incoming and outgoing text message. Great timing Apple!!
Partially down here in the midwest.
I've been able to iMessage between IL and TX all day long, working fine.. had an issue last night however for a few minutes.
iMessage okay here in Indiana :)
Not down in IL
It's been down for me for about 6 hours now, but only when I'm trying to activate the new device I'm trying to add. Still works fine on my existing iPhone and iPad.
No Issues between Florida and Arizona.
Unable to send/receive picture via imessage (Toronto, Canada). But able to send message via imessage.
Seems to be down here is WA, USA i thought the person i was texting just had no network service so it was going through regular because their out of town but that would explain it
Well now it seems okay so i dont know
Mine works perfectly fine!
Down for my g/f, and other family members here in the UK. Mine seems to be ok. The main issue seems to be activation failures for both iMessage and FaceTime. Has been down for nearly 18 hours now...not good.
iMessage is not activating on newly restored devices.
nope, iMessage is totally fine for me. (San Francisco)
down for me. :(
I haven't had any issues with my iPhone, but I can't activate it on my brother-in-law's new iPhone.
no issues here between my iPad and iPhone in Florida!!!