Activated iPhone has to be activated?

Just sounds like something that went wrong as there isn't a reason to. Normally when it says connect to iTunes is because something failed and it wants to restore.

Had the same occurance with my orignal iPhone since the 2.2 firmware... VERY FRUSTRATING... and it will occur on different levels, I haven't found the cause exactly yet!

i have had this twice now, but on 2.1 and on 2.2 its very odd alot of people are experiencing it, but noone seems to know if its a major problem which needs to be looked at or just an annoyance, i would love to know if this means something is very wrong or its just an annoying bug...i personally think its a bug as alot of people are getting it...its weird how its just starting as had the iphone since august...weird

Try unplugging the phone with itunes still open, then plug it back in. This happened to me, so I pulled the plug, put it back, and no more activation notice.

Just happened to me too. Good thing I was home and could plug it in. Otherwise it would have been unusable.

This is a real concern!

Glad to have found this forum. Had this twice in two weeks. Not a huge problem when I'm at home near my MacBook but if I were away it would mean I didn't have a phone.
Anyone got any idea WHY and more importantly, how to stop this happening.
Thanks.

I have a similar issue. Occasionally, when powering up, I get an emergency use only message. Powering down and rebooting shows the message "iPhone now activated", and everything is normal. This is since 2.2 only.

Does this mean that you don't connect your phone to iTunes and reboot that way ?
You just turn the phone off and on again - is this right ?
If so it at least takes away the worry that this will happen when I am abroad away from my MBP and will be stuck with a temporary brick.
Would be gald to have your advice. Many thanks.

Can I just add something to my post....
Do you get the earth to iTunes graphic AND the emergency use only thing ?

This might be caused by a recent application you installed. I had the same problem after installing the game 2047 from the app store. When I rebooted the phone it went to the "phone needs to be activated" screen two different times.

I promptly removed the game and had no further problems. Just a suggestion. Hope it helps.

Thank you. Interesting.
So all you did was remove the app and all was OK ?
You didn't have to do a "restore" or anything drastic like that ?

What does concern me is that if it is an app issue - Apple are meant to put apps through a rigorous procedure before letting them on the store.

My problem may be different. My message did not say anything about itunes. My screen showed a picture of the usb cable and gave me the choice of ipod or emergency call. This sounds more like a problem reading the SIM card.

It happened to me today, totally randomly while the iPhone was sat on the counter-top. I got the message and graphic. Luckily I was home and could connect it up. It has never happened before. I did the upgrade at the weekend, but no idea if that is significant to this problem?

Message was edited by: CWphone

I un-installed the game and then did a hard reset. The problem hasn't happened again in over 2 weeks. I've added other applications since also with no issues.

I always do a hard reset after a new app. install and that paticular app was cetainly the culprit causing the "need to activate" screen.

Funny thing was that my phone looked like it had been completely de-activated but it went back to normal immediately upon hooking it up to iTunes. No back up, no synching it just popped up in iTunes and was ready to go. Needless to say, not a problem I was willing to deal with to keep a free game.