If your iMessage is not working or not activating on iPhone 12 mini, it could be for a number of different reasons, including the iMessage waiting-for-activation error that’s common to many users. We’ve got a few troubleshooting tips to fix iMessage when it’s not working on iPhone 12 mini. iPhone 12 mini iMessage not working is a huge problem for users who rely on the service. If your iPhone 12 mini iMessage isn’t working or won’t activate, we’ll figure out how to fix it.
Sometimes when iMessage isn’t working on iPhone 12 mini, it’s a problem on Apple’s end. But most of the time, iPhone 12 mini iMessage not working is the fault of some buggy iOS or a faulty internet connection. If you’re wondering, “why won’t my iMessage work,” each of the following steps will help fix it. We have all the answers for when iMessages are not sending or failing to deliver, and more, so go through each part of the article until your iMessage issue is Fixed.
Why is iMessage not working on iPhone 12 mini?
There are numerous reasons why iPhone 12 mini iMessage can stop working: it could be an issue with Apple’s iMessage server, a problem with the Messages app, or your settings could need adjusting.
Fix iPhone 12 mini iMessage not working
1. Check if iMessage is down
Before you go through a bunch of steps attempting to fix iMessage Issue, make sure the problem isn’t with Apple itself. You can check if any of Apple’s online services are experiencing outages by checking the System Status page.
On this web page Apple gives you a heads-up about any services with planned maintenance work, along with a report of any recently resolved issues in any of its services. However, if your issue has only just appeared, bear in mind that the website’s update frequency tends to be measured in minutes, not seconds – perhaps as many as 30 on occasion – so the problem may not have been spotted yet.
You can also head somewhere like the Down Detector to see if others are reporting issues. If enough people are claiming similar problems, it could be a temporary server issue that will fix itself with just a little patience.
You could also search for the word iMessage and related terms on Twitter; if lots of people are talking about the problem then it’s clearly not just you.
The good news is that even if iMessage is down, you should still be able to communicate with your friends via normal texts.
If iMessage is failing, your message should automatically be pushed into green-bubble texts instead of blue-bubble iMessages. Green indicates that the message is being sent as a text, rather than an iMessage). (Here’s how to tell an iMessage from a standard SMS text.)
See also: iPhone 12 mini Not Sending Text Messages?Fix
2. Make sure you’ve got a connection (and enough data)
iMessage needs a data connection to work, so you need to make sure you’ve got 3G, 4G or 5G available, or a good WiFi signal. Without WiFi or a cellular data connection your iMessage won’t send.
You can easily check this by opening the Safari app and trying to load a website, like apple.com or iphonegeeks.com. If you see no results you’ve identified the root of your problem.
If you don’t have a good 3G, 4G or 5G connection you could try turning Airplane Mode on and off to see if you can improve your reception. Swipe down from the top right of your iPhone screen, and select and deselect Airplane Mode – the plane icon.
Even if the cellular connection is great, you might not have enough data. Is there a chance you’ve used up all your data for the month? Are you even sure that data is included in your contract? Contact your network provider to check. If you are out of data, or your iPhone 12 mini shows no service, try one of the following:
In addition to switching the aerials on and off using Airplane Mode, restarting your iPhone may also help it find a stronger signal. Go to settings > General > Shut down.
Log onto a nearby Wi-Fi network to send your iMessage. To find a nearby network, go to Settings > Wi-Fi and have a look to see if there is a free Wi-Fi network nearby.
If you are having Wi-Fi problems on your iPhone then turn off Wi-Fi and use 3G/4G/5G.
If none of those tips works you may need to reset your network settings. Go to Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings and see if this fixes the problem.
If you still don’t get a data connection, and there is no WiFi available, you should be able to press and hold on the undelivered message and choose to ‘Send as text message’ from the options that come up. A text message should get through even over a GPRS connection.
3. Make sure iMessage is on and set up correctly
Check you’re set to send and receive iMessages by going to Settings > Messages and checking that iMessage is turned on.
If when you get to this page you see a message suggesting that iMessage is “Waiting for activation” or “Activation unsuccessful”, then you simply need to wait
If iMessage is switched on and there is no message about activation, check that your phone is set up correctly to receive iMessages: Go to Settings > Messages and check the addresses and mobile number you have listed in Send & Receive.
Assuming it’s not an activation issue, run through the following:
Turn off your mobile number or email address in the list of places where you can Send & Receive from. We suggest trying a process of elimination to see if iMessage works with just your mobile number or just an email address.
Check there is a tick beside your phone number in the Start New Conversations From section if you’re using an iPhone.
4. Turn it off and on again and restart Messages
As in all good troubleshooting articles one essential piece of advice is to turn it off and on again. You could start off by swiping up from the bottom of your screen to launch the app switcher and swiping up on the Messages app, before relaunching it. If the app was hanging this may well fix the problem.
If things still aren’t working you could try the following:
Reboot iMessage by going to Settings > Messages and turning off iMessage, then turn off your iPhone by pressing and holding the on/off switch and either of the volume buttons, slide to power off, and then wait for your iPhone to start up again.
Once you’ve rebooted, return to Settings > Messages and turn iMessage back on.
Sign out of your Apple ID and then sign in again. You can do this from Settings > Messages then tap on Send & Receive and at the top of the page tap on your Apple ID and choose Sign Out.
Then sign in again and see if this has fixed the problem.
5. Delete some messages
If your Messages app has a lot of photos and videos it might slow down a bit. Deleting some of your iMessages – especially the ones with lots of photos might solve the problem (but note that images sent via iMessage won’t automatically appear in your Photos app).
There are a few ways to reduce the size of your iMessage library.
To delete messages you can swipe from right to left on a message in the Messages list and choose Delete.
Or you can tap the Edit button in the top left-hand corner of Messages and delete messages that way.
There is also a ‘Keep Messages’ option in Settings > Messages. Look for Message History and tap Keep Messages – you can select Forever, 1 year or 30 days.
While you’re here, you can also change your settings so that you send low-res images, which take up less space. Go to Settings > Messages and toggle Low-Quality Image Mode on. (It’s the last option, right at the bottom of the page.)
iPhone
6. Check iOS is up to date
If iMessage isn’t working on iPhone 12 mini, check to see if there’s an iPhone update you need to install.
To check if an updated version of iOS is available (and download and install it if so), go to Settings > General > Software Update.
7. Check Network settings
If you find iPhone12 mini iMessage not working, it may mean some extraneous setting was changed along the way. It is likely related to the network, so resetting your network settings to factory defaults might fix the issue.
Here’s how to reset your Network settings if Messages aren’t sending.
Go to Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings. Note that this will erase your network settings such as your Wi-Fi passwords etc. You could also try turning off Wi-Fi Assist. Wi-Fi Assist will switch to a cellular signal when it is stronger than your local WiFi network. Turning it off has worked for some people. Go to Settings > Mobile Data and scroll down to WiFi Assist and switch it off if it’s on.
8. Check your date and time settings
It may seem like a silly suggestion, but often this can be the cause of many iPhone 12 mini iMessage issues. This could be due to Apple’s servers having trouble syncing with your date and time settings. Go back and put them on automatic, if they aren’t. If that isn’t helping, try to set your time and date as exactly as you can. Just play around with the time and date settings a bit. Go to Settings > General > Date & Time.
9. factory Reset your iPhones
If all else fails, just wipe your iPhone clean and give it a fresh start. At this point we have no idea what could be causing your iMessage discrepancies, but a factory data reset will likely fix most of your issues, as it deletes everything on the iOS device and leaves it the way it was when you turned it on for the very first time. You can perform a factory data reset by going to settings > general > Reset > Erase all content and settings.
10. Contact Apple
We hope one of these methods got your iPhone 12 mini iMessage back up and running. If nothing helped, the problem has to run deeper than usual and you should probably consult Apple support.
Has any of you run across iPhone 12 mini iMessage not working issue? What did you do to fix it? Hit the comments and let us know if you have used these methods, or if you have any other ones.