Ever since updating my iPhone 17 to iOS 27, I’ve been experiencing a recurring issue where iMessage and FaceTime randomly lose activation with my phone number.
The strange part is that both services will sometimes work perfectly for hours, or even longer, before suddenly failing again. When this happens, my phone number becomes unchecked under Settings > Messages > Send & Receive, iMessages switch to RCS, and FaceTime can no longer activate using my phone number.
Sometimes I briefly lose cellular service before this happens, but the issue persists even when I’m connected to Wi-Fi.
I’ve tried practically every troubleshooting step I can think of, including restarting my phone, toggling iMessage and FaceTime, resetting network settings, deleting conversations, checking my Apple Account settings, and repeatedly attempting to reactivate my phone number.
I’ve also spent hours troubleshooting with Verizon and Apple Support. Verizon confirmed that everything looks normal on their end and even issued me a completely new eSIM. Unfortunately, that hasn’t resolved anything.
What’s especially frustrating is that many of these troubleshooting steps seem to fix the problem temporarily. My number will successfully activate, everything will work normally, and then the exact same issue returns without warning.
Apple Support has told me they cannot escalate the issue unless I contact them while it’s actively happening. Since it’s intermittent, this makes getting any meaningful support incredibly difficult.
At this point, I’m wondering whether this is an iOS 27 software bug involving phone-number activation rather than a carrier issue.
Has anyone else experienced this exact behavior, particularly the phone number repeatedly unchecking itself under Send & Receive? Has anyone found a permanent solution rather than another temporary fix?
