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When activating iMessage or FaceTime, you might see one of these messages:

How to enable iMessage. IPhone 8 Plus, iOS 11.4.1 Posted on Jul 28, 2018 9:24 PM Reply I have this question too (58) I have this question. However, iMessage does use data, so if you are on a monthly data plan but have unlimited SMS text messages, you may want to stick with SMS. Disable/enable iMessage. IMessage isn’t enabled by default on an iPhone, but when you first set up the phone, you have the option to switch it on. Go to Settings and select Messages.

• Waiting for activation
• Activation unsuccessful
• An error occurred during activation
• Could not sign in, please check your network connection
• Unable to contact the iMessage server. Try again.

Check your device settings

1. Make sure that you’re connected to a cellular data or Wi-Fi network. If you're using an iPhone, you need SMS messaging to activate your phone number with iMessage and FaceTime. Depending on your carrier, you might be charged for this SMS.
2. Go to Settings > General > Date & Time and make sure that your time zone is set correctly.

Since the error itself says that iMessage needs to be enabled, therefore this troubleshooting step can make you out of the trouble. You can disable your iMessage in 'Settings' and then enable it again. To perform this method, the steps are given below. Open 'Settings' in your iPhone and scroll for the 'Messages' option. In order to send and receive iMessages to your iPhone, iMessage must be enabled. By doing this, you will associate your phone number with the email address used for your Apple ID or iCloud account. Click the checkbox for 'Enable this account' to turn on iMessage on your Mac. If no Apple ID is listed in the left column, click the '＋' button at the bottom and enter the email address and password for your iMessage account.

Turn off and restart iMessage and FaceTime

1. Go to Settings > Messages and turn off iMessage.
2. Go to Settings > FaceTime and turn off FaceTime.
3. Restart your device:
4. Turn iMessage and FaceTime back on.

Still not activated after a day?

It might take up to 24 hours to activate iMessage and FaceTime. If the issue continues after 24 hours, follow these steps:

1. Make sure that your device has the latest version of iOS or iPadOS.
2. If you're using an iPhone, contact your carrier to make sure that you can send and receive SMS messages.
3. If your iPhone is used with a carrier not found in the wireless carrier articles make sure you can send and receive international SMS.
4. Contact Apple Support.

Get more help

You can also use your email address with iMessage and FaceTime. Sign in to your Apple ID account page and review all the email addresses you have on file, including the one that you're trying to verify. If the email address is incorrect, you can update it. Then click Resend next to the email address that you want to verify.

If you can't sign in to iMessage or FaceTime on your Mac, see If you can't sign in to your iMessage account or FaceTime on your Mac.

FaceTime is not available in all countries or regions.

Get the warning “Cannot Send Message. iMessage needs to be enabled to send this message.”? Check this guide to fix this message not sending issue quickly.

iPhone Message Tips & Issues

What does “iMessage needs to be enabled to send this message” mean? I can’t get my messages to send and when I try that pops up. What is it and how can I fix it?

– A user from Apple Discussion

With iMessage, you can collaborate with others in a conversation, decorate messages with stickers, share a song, and more – without leaving Messages.

However, sometimes when you send an iMessage to others, you probably will get this notice: Cannot Send Message. iMessage needs to be enabled to send this message. And even occasionally, when you send text messages, you will also get into this trouble.

Method 1. Enable Your iMessage

The first reason we could think about is that you have not enabled iMessage (How to Enable iMessage on iDevice and Mac) on your iPhone. Just like the words saying, you need to enable it.

Open the Settings app on iPhone > Tap on Messages > Switch iMessage to on and wait for it to activate. If you have enabled it before the problem happens, you can try disabling it firstly, and then enabling it again.

Enable Your iMessage

Method 2. Check If Apple iMessage Server Is Down

Another reason why iMessage Needs to Be Enabled to Send This Message issue comes is about the iMessage sever. If the server is not working, you can send messages. To check if it works or not, please go to Apple System Status.

Method 3. Reset Network Settings

Sometimes, the reason why messages cannot send is related to network connection problems. You can reset network settings to fix it. Go to Settings > Tap on General > Reset > Reset Network Settings.

Method 4. Reset iMessage Settings

Enabling Imessage On Mac

If all the above three methods do not work, the fourth way you can try is resetting the iMessage.

Step 1. Open Settings and tap on Messages > Choose Send & Receive option.

Step 2. Uncheck the email address and phone number in the section of YOU CAN BE REACHED BY IMESSAGE AT.

Step 3. Tap your Apple ID and choose Sign Out.

Step 4. Restart the iPhone, activate iMessage from the Settings, and sign in to your Apple ID again.

Reset iMessage Settings

Method 5. Erase All Content and Settings

The last way to fix iMessage needs to be enabled to send this message is resetting all settings on your iPhone, and then setting it up as new.

Go to Settings > General > Reset > Erase All Content and Settings. Then set it up from your iCloud backup, if you have one.

Or you can also directly restore your iPhone with iTunes. Launch iTunes and connect your iPhone with computer > Click your iPhone icon and then click Restore iPhone. Make sure you’ve turned off Find My iPhone > Choose a proper iTunes backup file and click Restore.

But no matter iCloud restoring, or iTunes restoring, neither of them support backup previewing, which means you will not know what contents the backups contain. And you need to restore them all to your iPhone, including the items you don’t need.

So to preview and selectively restoring iCloud and iTunes backups, we sincerely recommend PhoneRescue for iOS to help your get the job done.

Enabling Imessages On Iphone

PhoneRescue for iOS is good at getting back various iOS data from iPhone directly, iCloud backups, and iTunes backups. While, what PhoneRescue is different, and better than iTunes and iCloud restoring are,

• PhoneRescue supports previewing iTunes and iCloud backup files. It means you can check whether the backup contains what you want before restoring.
• You can also selectively choose what types of data to restore. There is no need to restore the whole backup file to iPhone.
• Supports all kinds of data, contacts, messages, photos, notes, calendars, songs, and more.

Totally getting rid of iTunes & iCloud various restoring drawbacks. So why not give it a trial now?

Step 1. Run PhoneRescue on your PC > Choose Recover from iTunes Backups or Recover from iCloud (here we taking iTunes as an example) > Click right arrow to continue.

Recover Deleted Contacts on iPhone with iTunes Backup

Step 2. Choose the iTunes backup, which contains the lost data > Click right arrow > It will pop up a screen for choosing what kind of exact data types you would like to scan. Taking Photos as an example > Click on OK button to continue.

Step 3. It will start scanning all photos in iTunes backup. After finishing, select the photos you would like to recover > Click on To Device button to download them to your device directly, or To Computer button to save them to computer.

See All Results For This Question

Select Photos to Recover from iTunes Backup

IPhone 11 Pro: How To Enable / Disable IMessage

The Bottom Line

With these five methods, you can totally fix iMessage need to be enabled to send this message issue. When you try restoring way, sincerely recommend you giving it a trial with PhoneRescue. Also if you have found other practical methods, please share them in the comments below.

Videos For Enabling Imessage

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