FREE: FaceTime, iMessage, & Push Activation on iOS 5

[n00neimp0rtant]

If you can't get these services working on your iPhone with T-Mobile, it's not actually because you have T-Mobile; it's because your phone isn't properly activated. This tutorial will show how to properly activate your phone using a free tool in Cydia called SAM.

UPDATE: I have confirmed this trick does not work with a SIM unlock (gevey, etc.) I don't know why, but it only works with ultrasn0w unlockers.

Before you start

• This guide assumes your phone is both out of jail and unlocked.
• You will have to reboot your phone at least one time. If you're tethered, make sure you are at a computer before you start.
• Make sure you have SBSettings installed and assigned to status bar swiping. If you mess something up, sometimes it will kick you to the PC-Free set-up screen, and the only way out of it is hacktivation or SBSettings.
• International text messages are used to activate FaceTime and iMessage. This means that if you have a few extra bucks on your next cell phone bill, don't whine to me. Consider this (and the messages iOS will actually give you during this process) to be your only warning.

Here we go

1. Add the source http://repo.bingner.com/ to Cydia.
2. Install SAM.
3. Open SAM and go into utilities.
4. Press the button to revert your lockdownd to stock (I forget what the button is actually labeled).
5. Tap "De-activate iPhone," then tap "Regenerate SIM."
6. Go back to the main page in SAM.
7. Under the "Subscriber Artificial Module" section, turn "Enabled" to ON. (If "Hacktivate" is available, make sure it is OFF.)
8. Disable iMessage and FaceTime if they are already turned on.
9. Reboot your phone.
10. When your phone is done booting, connect it to your computer. iTunes will give you an error regarding updating carrier settings. If you get this error, SAM is working correctly.
11. Open Settings and turn on FaceTime. You should get a popup warning you about possible SMS charges. Accept it.
12. It can take up to 5 minutes for FaceTime to activate, and it usually takes at least 1. Be patient. After it activates, do the same with iMessage.
13. Under "Subscriber Artificial Module," turn "Enabled" to OFF.
14. Respring or reboot (reboot to be safe, but respring worked okay for me).
15. If your stuff activated successfully, make SURE you go into SAM > Utilities > Backup Activation. If you ever have to restore, your official, non-hacktivated, wildcard, fully-legitimate, T-Mobile activation will be available for restore.

How does it work
Think of activation as the process of your phone getting to know a little about you and your carrier so it feels more comfortable, much like an introduction and friendly handshake Hacktivation forces the phone to skip this step, so while it will still work, it won't know exactly how to do some carrier-specific things. (These "things" do NOT include data APNs, MMS proxies, etc. Those are in another tutorial.) Now, as its name suggests, SAM is a piece of software crafted to step in an "inject" a virtual SIM card into your phone that it would normally see as legitimate. This way, your phone can activate normally, and you don't have to go waste money on a dummy AT&T SIM just to get your phone activated the right way. Once activated, your phone can receive all kinds of other "certificates" to enable functionality that might otherwise be restricted. These aren't just limited to iMessage and FaceTime; push notifications and YouTube rely on certificates to be validated for use.

In other words: if you have an AT&T SIM on hand, you don't have to mess with SAM at all--just activate the phone normally and all of your push-related services should activate correctly.

Results
Here are two screenshots I took of my ultrasn0w-unlocked iPhone on T-Mobile. I did not use PushFix, Push Doctor, MiTime, etc. for this; they activated "naturally" after I repaired my phone's activation with the help of SAM.


Problem?
"FactoryActivated" refers to hacktivation. "WildcardActivated" refers to real activation, and is the only kind that will work for valid retrieval of push certificates involved with FaceTime and iMessage. Go into SAM > More Information and see what your ActivationState is. If it says FactoryActivated, just start over from the beginning. If it says WildcardActivated, make sure that "Enabled" is set to OFF under "Subscriber Artificial Module" in the root view in SAM preferences, then reboot. If you're STILL having problems, just reply here and I'll see what I can do to help.

[willryan42]

After following these instructions, Push and MMS work fine but iMessage and Facetime are both stuck on "Waiting for Activation." Any ideas?

[n00neimp0rtant]

Are you WildcardActivated?

[n80r]

if my phone is factory unlocked then if i stick in mt T-mobile USA sim then ill be WildcardActivated?

[Young Harlem108]

im wildcard activated facetime seems to have activated but....imessage still says waiting for activation..im on jailbroken preserved baseband and using gevey to unlock..thanks for the help in advanced

[willryan42]

Are you WildcardActivated?

Yes I am.

[Young Harlem108]

no my airplane mode keep kicking me off when im tryna unlock with my gevey

never mind got it to work

[Diddyo]

I activated mine with an old AT&T sim, FT still says "waiting for activation", can use with email but not phone number.

When I go to Phone in settings.app my number shows "Unknown", might have something to do with FT not working?

EDIT: Fixed FT and iMessages, all i did was eject and put sim card back in with iphone on, FT now fully activated and iMessages is also fully activated.

If you had this "unknown" number problem make sure when you put sim back in that you go to Phone in settings.app and manually add your number if it is not there already.

[harshmehta]

I did the exact same steps mentioned above. But, iTunes shows "Sim not supported". SAM shows "Unactivated". Please help?!

I'm using GEVEY to unlock and am on an Indian carrier.

[Young Harlem108]

are you supposed to get a message when you tap regenerate sim/?

[westc0ast]

I did the exact same steps mentioned above. But, iTunes shows "Sim not supported". SAM shows "Unactivated". Please help?!

I'm using GEVEY to unlock and am on an Indian carrier.

If you use gevey you don't need SAM.

[harshmehta]

If you use gevey you don't need SAM.

But, I can't get my iMessage or FaceTime to work. It says activated, but I cannot send or receive iMessages. Nor do I get a '@' sign in my keyboard to enter email id's in my message app. As for FaceTime, it says call failed every time I try to FaceTime. Also, my carrier charges me everytime I activate iMessage and when my friend types in my email id in his iMessage on his iPad, it says '[email protected] is not registered with iMessage' Will someone please solve this? I so want to use iMessage and FaceTime?!

[eergsxr]

were are you guys downloading the 5.0 firmware with no bb update?

[harshmehta]

You have to manually create the no bb update firmware via sn0wbreeze 2.8b8 or redsn0w 0.9.9b6 [not sure]

Please answer to my query above.

[Young Harlem108]

were are you guys downloading the 5.0 firmware with no bb update?

snowbreeze will do the trick just remember to back up your shsh blobs and make sure your on an unlockable bb before you update

[westc0ast]

But, I can't get my iMessage or FaceTime to work. It says activated, but I cannot send or receive iMessages. Nor do I get a '@' sign in my keyboard to enter email id's in my message app. As for FaceTime, it says call failed every time I try to FaceTime. Also, my carrier charges me everytime I activate iMessage and when my friend types in my email id in his iMessage on his iPad, it says '[email protected] is not registered with iMessage' Will someone please solve this? I so want to use iMessage and FaceTime?!

Ok I got it working. Try this
http://modmyi.com/forums/t-mobile/784024-working-facetime-imessage-gevey-unlocked-no-jailbreak-new-post.html

[Young Harlem108]

Ok I got it working. Try this
http://modmyi.com/forums/t-mobile/78...-new-post.html

gonna try this as soon as i get another facetime device!!!

[qharper3]

my iMessage says waiting for activation...how can i fix that?

[westc0ast]

but does it work?even thow it says that?
it should.

[qharper3]

no it does not