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I have an iPad 2 that I recently updated but can't get it to activate. Every time I try it says that the activation server is temporarily unavailable. I've tried connecting and activating it through to my iTunes but it just says Activation failed, operation timed out. The instruction says to contact Apple Support, please assist.
iPad 2, iOS 9
If your iPad is a cellular model, some have reported that temporarily removing the sim allows activation to complete.
You should check this article: If you can't activate your iPhone - Apple Support. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201407
Otherwise, 5 possible causes for that error message:
1] Activation server is actually down. Very rare occurrence, and of short duration when it
does happen. Solution - try again.
2] Your firewall and/or antivirus software are preventing the necessary connection. Solution -
temporarily disable your firewall and/or antivirus software until the activation completes.
3] computer being used for activation has been used to jailbreak an iOS device in the past.
Solution - use a different computer.
4] iPad has been jailbroken. Your favorite search engine may provide some direction, but jailbreaks often prevent
activations/updates from succeeding. Per Terms of Use for this forum, discussion of jailbroken iPads is
prohibited.
5] your region and/or timezone settings are inconsistent with your actual location. Solution - set region and/or timezone correctly.
If your iPad is a cellular model, some have reported that temporarily removing the sim allows activation to complete.
You should check this article: If you can't activate your iPhone - Apple Support. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201407
Otherwise, 5 possible causes for that error message:
1] Activation server is actually down. Very rare occurrence, and of short duration when it
does happen. Solution - try again.
2] Your firewall and/or antivirus software are preventing the necessary connection. Solution -
temporarily disable your firewall and/or antivirus software until the activation completes.
3] computer being used for activation has been used to jailbreak an iOS device in the past.
Solution - use a different computer.
4] iPad has been jailbroken. Your favorite search engine may provide some direction, but jailbreaks often prevent
activations/updates from succeeding. Per Terms of Use for this forum, discussion of jailbroken iPads is
prohibited.
5] your region and/or timezone settings are inconsistent with your actual location. Solution - set region and/or timezone correctly.
We are seeing an increased incidence of issues activating 9 year old iPad2 devices. If restart of your home router - or changing your DNS Server settings do not resolve the issue, you should directly contact Apple Support for assistance.
To restart you home router, disconnect power - then wait at least 30 seconds before restarting. When you router has rebooted (which may take several minutes), force-restart your iPad:
For recommended DNS servers (configured at your home router and/or your iPad), you might choose one of the following highly regarded Recursive DNS Providers (IPv4 and IPv6 addresses included below):
Quad9
9.9.9.9
149.112.112.112
2620:fe::fe
2620:fe::9
OpenDNS
208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220
2620:0:ccc::2
2620:0:ccd::2
Cloudflare+APNIC
1.1.1.1
1.0.0.1
2606:4700:4700::1111
2606:4700:4700::1001
Should it be necessary to escalate your issue to Apple Support, the quickest route to engaging with the Apple Support Team will be via the Contact Support link at top-right of this page.
You also need to know that Apple ended update support for iPad2 in September 2016. iPad2 cannot be updated to iOS 10 or later versions as the internal hardware does not meet the minimum technical requirements for new versions of iOS/iPadOS.
Many App Developers have also dropped support for older devices and iOS versions preceding iOS11/12/13 - and have withdrawn older versions of their Apps from the Apple App Store, now limiting utility and usefulness of older devices. Even if you do manage to resolve the Activation issue, you will find that Apps compatible with you iPad are now not available for (re)download or (re)installation - therefore severely impacting the usefulness and utility of your [now very old] iPad2.
If Apps that you need to use now have higher minimum iOS-version requirements, your only option is to replace your iPad with newer model. Of current models, even the budget priced iPad7 supports current iPadOS13.x (and the soon to be released iPadOS14) and has hardware specifications and capabilities that will vastly outperform your old iPad.
I hope this information and guidance is helpful in both resolving your activation problem - and in clearly outlining the limitations of your current iPad and available options.
Thanks for your advice Lotus Pilot, unfortunately I've tried all the steps and none of them work. Is there a way to uninstall the latest update? Or to do a hard reset without loosing the content on my device?
I realise that the iPad is remarkably old and due for an upgrade (as in buying a newer model), but at this stage I still have some important information on the iPad that I need to retrieve before retiring it for good and I'm now stuck in a perpetual activation fail loop. Remarkably it was still working perfectly fine prior to the upgrade (even though it's a dinosaur in Apple's eyes).
Unfortunately, reversing a update isn’t possible. A forced-restart of the iPad will lose nothing that remains on the iPad, however, the steps necessary to try to resolve the immediate problem will completely erase the iPad. As already noted, this will remove all non-core Apps from the device, very few of which (if any) will be available from the Apple App Store for reinstallation.
Given the age and support status of iPad2, I can’ t even suggest that you seek assistance directly from Apple Support.
Regrettably, if existing suggestions have been unsuccessful, other than you attempting a Factory Restore, you’ve pretty much reached the end of the line. Sorry, I appreciate that this not the news that you were hoping to receive; I wish I could offer more.
iPad 2 Activation unsuccessful after updating
