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When setting up an iPad Air 1 (2013 model), after I connect to WIFI is try to connect to the server, then I get the below message -
Unable to Activate
Your iPad could not be activated because the activation server cannot be reached.
iPad Air Wi-Fi, Cellular
This Apple document should help:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201407
If your problem is widespread, you should consider that you may have a network routing or DNS issue. Without assistance of your network administrator, there’s little that you can do to resolve the former, but the latter is relatively easy to test.
Manually set your DNS settings to a trustworthy recursive DNS provider, such as Quad9, OpenDNS or Cloudflare.
On your iPad, you can change your DNS settings here:
Settings > WiFi > [Your Network] - touch the “i” icon, then select Configure DNS > Manual and add/replace the existing entries with either of these Recursive DNS providers - all which are trusted and highly reliable.
Quad9
Primary 9.9.9.9
Secondary 149.112.112.112
OpenDNS
Primary 208.67.222.222
Secondary 208.67.220.220
If the issue you are experiencing is occurring because of bad DNS, this change should be successful in resolving the problem.
This Apple document should help:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201407
If your problem is widespread, you should consider that you may have a network routing or DNS issue. Without assistance of your network administrator, there’s little that you can do to resolve the former, but the latter is relatively easy to test.
Manually set your DNS settings to a trustworthy recursive DNS provider, such as Quad9, OpenDNS or Cloudflare.
On your iPad, you can change your DNS settings here:
Settings > WiFi > [Your Network] - touch the “i” icon, then select Configure DNS > Manual and add/replace the existing entries with either of these Recursive DNS providers - all which are trusted and highly reliable.
Quad9
Primary 9.9.9.9
Secondary 149.112.112.112
OpenDNS
Primary 208.67.222.222
Secondary 208.67.220.220
If the issue you are experiencing is occurring because of bad DNS, this change should be successful in resolving the problem.
This help page may provide some additional insight:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201407
The page refers to iPhone, but is largely applicable to iPad as well.
If still having no luck, you should consider contacting Apple Support to seek assistance. You’ll find the link to Contact Support at top-right of this page.
I hope you find this information to be helpful.
Thanks but unfortunately I've already tried them steps with no luck, when I try to activate via my Mac I get a "The iPad "iPad" cannot be Synced. An unknown Error occurred (1145)"
I'm going to try reset it again via FInder (Catalina), see if this helps. . .
PS: I have about 30 of the same devices in the same situation, some do connect but most do not. I have tried different WIFI points too.
I get this error after resetting the devices, so I have no options to change any settings . .
Unable to Activate
