iMessage & Facetime Not Working On MacOS Catalina

I Have A Apple Account And I Love It So Far But, Facetime And iMessage Is Not Activating. My Macbook Air Kept Saying "Activation Error". I Don't Know What To Do. Also I Don't Have A Phone Number. How Can I Still Use iMessage And Facetime?

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Mar 22, 2025 07:17 AM

Similar questions

Cannot sign-in to iMessage or FaceTime I'm trying to launch my iMessage on my MacBook Air M1 (2020) after updating to macOS Sonoma 14.0. I click on iMessage and it asks me to login with my Apple ID, I put in the correct username and password and it tells me "an unknown error occurred". I know that my username and password are correct, I double checked them and logged into my online AppleID account. I'm having a similar issue logging into FaceTime. I previously was able to make FaceTime calls from my Mac without any problem. FYI, I do not have an iPhone, I have an Android. Why is this happening and what can I do to fix it?
4157 2
M1 pro Macbook Pro 16 Inch Apple ID issues. I just got a new Macbook pro M1 pro and set it up with my Apple ID.. However, I cannot sign into iMessage or FaceTime. On iMessage, it loads for a while and then says 'an error occurred'. Also, I cannot get Universal Control to work and things like copying a text on my iPhone no longer pastes on the Mac whereas this has worked on my other computer. Any tips will be much appreciated.
324 2
Cannot log into iMessages or FaceTime on Mac Hi folks. Hope you can help. I know this is a repeating problem, and I've fixed it before but just cannot get it to work now. I cannot sign into iMessages or FaceTime with my AppleID. I get an endlessly spinning wheel when trying to sign into iMessage, and I don't receive any messages on my MBP. Everything works fine on my iPhone and MBA, but not the MBP. I've signed out of iCloud and back in, to no avail, even though I think that's what worked before. And of course it is the same with FaceTime. Restarted, NVRAM reset, security update have not changed anything. The MBP is a 2013 running BigSur. What can I do to get this machine to sign into iMessages? Thank you.
628 1

1 reply

g_wolfman

Level 4

3,454 points

Mar 22, 2025 01:51 PM in response to jessie-the-biggest-apple-fan

On Catalina, I don't think you can use them anymore. Definitely not if you have other devices with newer versions of Messages and/or iMessage and have Contact Key Verification (and maybe a couple of other security service) turned on.

I suspect the only possible way you might still be able to use Messages and Facetime would involve choosing to downgrade security across all your devices by turning off all the modern security features like Contact Key Verification.

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

iMessage & Facetime Not Working On MacOS Catalina

Welcome to Apple Support Community

A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.

Learn more Sign up