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iPhone iPhone 4S was jailbroken, updated to iOS 6.1.3, now won't activate.

A

ahmorsy2

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 24, 2013
8
0
I have an iPhone 4S on AT&T. It was jailbroken and I decided I wanted to update my phone to the latest OS. The phone updated perfectly (apparently) but when I go to activate my phone, I can. I'm asked for Language, Country, I connect, and when I push to activate, I get the following error message:

"Your iPhone could not be activated because the activation server is temporarily unavailable. Try connecting your iPhone to iTunes to activate it, or try again in a couple of minutes."

This problem has persisted over several days, and I've seen several others across several carriers encounter the same problem. I've tried to activate over wi-fi, my cellular network, and iTunes. I put the phone back in DFU mode and restored it again on iOS 6.1.3, but to no avail.

I took it to the Apple store and their "technician" tried to activate it and couldn't. He even put in a different SIM card and it still wouldn't activate. He told me that the phone is out of warranty (I have had it over a year) and would need to pay $199 to replace it without affecting my contract. That's a load of bollocks if all I did was connect my phone to perform a standard update in the first place.
 
ahmorsy2 said:
I have an iPhone 4S on AT&T. It was jailbroken and I decided I wanted to update my phone to the latest OS. The phone updated perfectly (apparently) but when I go to activate my phone, I can. I'm asked for Language, Country, I connect, and when I push to activate, I get the following error message:

"Your iPhone could not be activated because the activation server is temporarily unavailable. Try connecting your iPhone to iTunes to activate it, or try again in a couple of minutes."

This problem has persisted over several days, and I've seen several others across several carriers encounter the same problem. I've tried to activate over wi-fi, my cellular network, and iTunes. I put the phone back in DFU mode and restored it again on iOS 6.1.3, but to no avail.

I took it to the Apple store and their "technician" tried to activate it and couldn't. He even put in a different SIM card and it still wouldn't activate. He told me that the phone is out of warranty (I have had it over a year) and would need to pay $199 to replace it without affecting my contract. That's a load of bollocks if all I did was connect my phone to perform a standard update in the first place.
Click to expand...

Have you tried talking to AT&T? Maybe they can provide you with a new SIM card (assuming that is what's causing the activation to fail)
 
darricksailo said:
Have you tried talking to AT&T? Maybe they can provide you with a new SIM card (assuming that is what's causing the activation to fail)
Click to expand...

Having worked with a technician over a chat box we came to the conclusion that the phone is bricked. Any ideas on how to get it unbricked?
 
ahmorsy2 said:
Having worked with a technician over a chat box we came to the conclusion that the phone is bricked. Any ideas on how to get it unbricked?
Click to expand...

If you are able to boot up the phone to a state other than the apple logo, I wouldn't say it's bricked since to me, the word bricked means you cannot boot it up. If it's stuck on activation, I would imagine your phone is not connecting to the server (whichever server that is used to activate the phone)

How about going to a local AT&T store?

Did you ever download battery doctor pro from cydia when you were jailbroken? What firmware were you previously on?
 
darricksailo said:
If you are able to boot up the phone to a state other than the apple logo, I wouldn't say it's bricked since to me, the word bricked means you cannot boot it up. If it's stuck on activation, I would imagine your phone is not connecting to the server (whichever server that is used to activate the phone)

How about going to a local AT&T store?

Did you ever download battery doctor pro from cydia when you were jailbroken? What firmware were you previously on?
Click to expand...

Well there's some room for optimism. I have a feeling when I finally fessed up that the phone was jailbroken that the technician just gave up. I plan on taking it to the store tomorrow. I never downloaded battery doctor pro and I was jailbroken on 5.1.1. A couple days ago I randomly decided to update my phone to 6.1.3 and then this happened...

Also, do you recommend I just NOT tell the reps at the store that it was jailbroken, because I feel like once the tech learned about it today he just threw his hands up...
 
Isn't there a way you can downgrade the phone to a lower iOS version? Why don't you try that?
 
I doubt your phone is bricked....If you told the tech you JB your phone he jumped to that conclusion and doesn't want to help you any more.

Do you have another sim you can try? Have you removed the sim and put it back?
 
laudern said:
Isn't there a way you can downgrade the phone to a lower iOS version? Why don't you try that?
Click to expand...

I've tried that several times using redsn0w, trying with both 5.1.1 and 6.1.2. All my attempts were met with error messages.
 
So you're saying it was jailbroken and you just updated it? I think it would have been wiser to download the latest OS, set your phone in dfu mode and restore. Maybe that will fix your problem?
 
jacobss said:
So you're saying it was jailbroken and you just updated it? I think it would have been wiser to download the latest OS, set your phone in dfu mode and restore. Maybe that will fix your problem?
Click to expand...

Yupp I've tried that. I think it's just being locked out of the network. I'll take it to the store tomorrow for them to unlock it and if they ask me if it was jailbroken I'll DENY DENY DENY...
 
ahmorsy2 said:
Well there's some room for optimism. I have a feeling when I finally fessed up that the phone was jailbroken that the technician just gave up. I plan on taking it to the store tomorrow. I never downloaded battery doctor pro and I was jailbroken on 5.1.1. A couple days ago I randomly decided to update my phone to 6.1.3 and then this happened...

Also, do you recommend I just NOT tell the reps at the store that it was jailbroken, because I feel like once the tech learned about it today he just threw his hands up...
Click to expand...

i hope you updated via itunes and not using settings -> general -> updates

and yes, i recommend you NOT telling the reps that you ever jailbroke it. pretend you never even heard of jailbreaking if you even want to
 
darricksailo said:
i hope you updated via itunes and not using settings -> general -> updates

and yes, i recommend you NOT telling the reps that you ever jailbroke it. pretend you never even heard of jailbreaking if you even want to
Click to expand...

Unfortunately I DID update remotely using settings -> general -> updates :confused:
 
ahmorsy2 said:
Unfortunately I DID update remotely using settings -> general -> updates :confused:
Click to expand...

If you are jailbroken, never update via settings, never click reset all settings & erase all content and settings. Update by restoring via iTunes, don't click "update"

For the reset, you would put your iPhone into an infinite boot loop and your only option would be to restore

For updating via OTA (over the air), I always thought it would mess up the phone (as in glitchy stuff) and would need to restore to fix it

I don't think any of those two affect the activation process but I could be wrong
 
darricksailo said:
If you are jailbroken, never update via settings, never click reset all settings & erase all content and settings. Update by restoring via iTunes, don't click "update"

For the reset, you would put your iPhone into an infinite boot loop and your only option would be to restore

For updating via OTA (over the air), I always thought it would mess up the phone (as in glitchy stuff) and would need to restore to fix it

I don't think any of those two affect the activation process but I could be wrong
Click to expand...

Duly noted
 
Am3r1ca16 said:
Let us know how it goes today.
Click to expand...

So they had no idea what to do with the phone. I'm mulling my options. Either I use a regular GSM phone and transfer my sim onto it or I upgrade to the Samsung Galaxy SIII for $199. The SIII for $199 is more enticing than an iPhone 4S for the same price.
 
ahmorsy2 said:
So they had no idea what to do with the phone. I'm mulling my options. Either I use a regular GSM phone and transfer my sim onto it or I upgrade to the Samsung Galaxy SIII for $199. The SIII for $199 is more enticing than an iPhone 4S for the same price.
Click to expand...

Have you tried downloading the correct 6.1.3 IPSW from iClarified and then shift click DFU Restore as new? Maybe something funky is carrying over from a backup?
 
Hi ahmorsy2, have you found the solution for your problem yet? I`ve got the same problem on a 3GS.

Thank you!
 
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