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vooke

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 14, 2014
270
230
im not new to iDevices having used iPads from iPad 4 to my current iPad Air 2.

I’ve also repaired and unlocked many iPhones so I’m well conversant with the activation process. But today I received an iPhone 8 that baffled me.

There’s a strange activation stage I have never seen where I’m required to enter American carriers( I’m in Kenya). Luckily I have a few American SIM Cards,so I tried Sprint and the phone after a few seconds looped back to the carrier screen. I then tried AT&T and the phone activated.

Here’s the activation carrier screen
404_EFB5_B-_E5_B1-44_BD-_B3_BD-3_E1476_A4_BD27.jpg


As I said, I cruised past this screen by using an AT&T SIM card but trying to use a local SIM card sent m back to the activation screen, just as if the phone is carrier locked.

After activation I received this pop up;
0_C611_F10-_D490-40_FE-820_A-7_B27_E661176_E.jpg

DD031_D14-_FA9_D-4990-9355-07_D9_C74699_B8.jpg

So apparently the phone despite going through activation was not yet activated.

On iTunes I got this message;
200691_CA-_FAAC-461_E-9_F04-44_DF761_F09_D4.jpg

The missing part is ‘To use this iPhone with iTunes....’
So there’s no shortcut. But after using the AT&T SIM card the phone was well detected by iTunes and even backed up.

Please note that after activation I can insert a Sprint SIM card without looping back to the activation screen.

I have attempted a network reset, total reset, restore and I’m not getting past this.
I also attempted to unlock the phone with AT&T but they said the IMEI was not AT&T
I checked my IMEI and I’m being told the phone is unlocked
Finally I contacted Apple on twitter and shared all these. They advised me to take it to an authorized dealer (we don’t have apple shops here yet).

Have any of you come across this, and if you did what did you do?
 
Last edited:
I tried some of those online IMEI checks.



heres what I got



Your unlock code has been successfully calculated.

IMEI: 3567XXXXXXXXXXXX



Unlock code:

IMEI Number: 3567XXXXXXXXXXXX

Part Description: iPhone 8 Plus

Product Version: 11.2.1

Initial Activation Policy ID:

Initial Activation Policy Details: S2388 US Loaner & Service Picker policy - iPhone 7/8/X - Eureka

Applied Activation PolicyID: 2388 Applied Activation Details: S2388 US Loaner & Service Picker policy - iPhone 7/8/X - Eureka

Next Tether Policy ID: 2388

Next Tether Policy Details: S2388 US Loaner & Service Picker policy - iPhone 7/8/X - Eureka

First Unbrick Date: 20/12/17

Unlock Date:

Unbricked: false

Unlocked: false



So, what am I supposed to do next?
 
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