iPhone 4: Activation fails, "Device Unknown" after restore

What country are you in?

In most of the world, that device is no longer even usable as a basic phone. Carriers in most developed countries require a device capable of VoLTE. That means an iPhone 6 at minimum.

If you happen to be in an area where there is still a 3G GSM network (some rural areas still have such a network), it may have worked before restoring it, but you will not be able to activate the device again.

That phone is long obsolete. Recycle it.

The iPhone 4 is classified as Obsolete by Apple. That means no support for the device, including activating the device.

I'm sorry, but I do not think that it will be possible to get the iPhone 4 working again.

There might not be a solution for a phone that old and obsolete. Severe recent threads on these forums indicate that it might be impossible to reactivate such phones.

My only advice is get Apple 1, then they will do what they can.

So you have proof that Apple actually removed the serial numbers from the activation server, or you're just shooting of your mouth...

Yes, it's pretty obvious from an analysis of the network communication that is going on during the attempted activation. Also, there is a specific error message, "Unable to contact Activation Server" that appears when Apple servers are blocked by the firewall or there is no network connection. On the other hand, "Device Unknown" is a very specific response from Apple's activation server indicating that the device cannot be found in Apple's database of genuine devices and therefore the device can't be verified as authorized to run iOS.

Then switch to your Android devices. As I already said, we don't care. Apple did not "lock" your devices with no data recovery provisions. You should really be careful about making unfounded accusations... Apple has very good lawyers.

I've switched for now to iPhone 5 running iOS 10, which apparently was not included in the recent purge. It's the first model to use the Lightning connector, as well as the first iPhone with LTE, although it's also the last 32-bit iPhone. It came out in 2013, why is this device still good?

Apple's activation servers are clearly to blame here, and it's easy to prove. They are simply not authorizing valid, genuine devices to activate anymore and use the versions of iOS that they are licensed to use. And in this state, no version of iTunes can even execute a backup operation to recover the data on the device.

Apple has made blunders like this before. Think of Battery-gate and Antenna-gate, if you remember. Headaches for their good lawyers. There are probably millions of these obsolete devices sitting in people's closets and garages turned off. Denying further activation of these devices after 10 years or so from discontinued support may have seemed like a good idea to Apple, but that decision, like others it has made in the past, may backfire as more people check out their old devices and become aware of the issue.

Same sort of thing has just happened to me on iPad 2 and iPhone 4S, both on iOS 9.3.5.

The iPhone 4S I've had powered on and connected to Wifi continuously for the last few years, using it mostly as a homekit light switch remote control. I changed the battery this past June since the old one started to swell and break open the phone (no damage to the device occurred), so it probably was last rebooted then, without issue, since I rarely allow it to run out of battery and shutdown.

A few days ago, I tried to access App Store and got strange error message, "Verification Failed" after entering the correct Apple account user name and password. Then last night, out of the blue, it displays a message, "Activation Required." Of course, trying to do that, we land at the "Device Unknown" activation failure screen.

So it isn't even a factory reboot or backup restore that causes the issue; it can happen on its own while the phone is running smoothly, without notice, and lock you out permanently. Connecting to the MacBook yields the same message. See attached. So you cannot even execute a backup to get your data once this happens.

Frankly, this is gross negligence on the part of Apple and seems like a termination of the iOS License Agreement without cause or advance notice. Any valuable data, priceless photos, paid third-party apps, etc. that are stored on the device, access to them lost in an instant without warning.

As you can tell, I'm really upset with Apple right now. I just watched the YouTube video, "I hate that you made me love you" on the iPhone 4S itself the night before they locked me out. That's about how I feel about Apple right now. If they are going to drop support for a device, their last iOS update should have dropped device activation, or at least they should have issued one before they did this and given sufficient notice or a way for their support agents to untether the device from them since they don't care about it any longer.

[Edited by Moderator]

I'm sorry you're upset that the device you have which were discontinued over 12 years ago and haven't been compatible with a new version of iOS in over 9 years aren't living up to your expectations.

Perhaps you should go ask owners of Android devices that were discontinued in 2014 how their devices are holding up...

Your rant is wasted here. This is a user forum. We can't alter reality.

Rant here is partially to get someone's attention at Apple that their behavior in removing these serial numbers from the activation server without removing activation requirements for iOS running on these machines is an embarrassment to them and likely will cost them money if they don't come up with a plan to address it.

As for your other remark, I have no such trouble at all running old Android devices on Kit Kat (4), Lollipop (5), Marshmallow (6), and Nougat (7). Although I am a bit peeved that Motorola took down their OTA server for downloading Software Updates that I never got, but that's a far cry from what Apple has done locking out the devices entirely 15 years later without even a warning and no data recovery provisions.

cparke wrote:

Rant here is partially to get someone's attention at Apple

And if you'd bothered to read the Apple Support Community Terms of Use you would know that's not going to happen.

This is a user forum. Apple doesn't participate here.

that their behavior in removing these serial numbers from the activation server without removing activation requirements for iOS running on these machines is an embarrassment to them and likely will cost them money if they don't come up with a plan to address it.

So you have proof that Apple actually removed the serial numbers from the activation server, or you're just shooting of your mouth...

As for your other remark, I have no such trouble at all running old Android devices on Kit Kat (4), Lollipop (5), Marshmallow (6), and Nougat (7). Although I am a bit peeved that Motorola took down their OTA server for downloading Software Updates that I never got, but that's a far cry from what Apple has done locking out the devices entirely 15 years later without even a warning and no data recovery provisions.

Then switch to your Android devices. As I already said, we don't care.

Apple did not "lock" your devices with no data recovery provisions.

You should really be careful about making unfounded accusations... Apple has very good lawyers.

Agree

I will tell you this. I lost about 2 or 3 thousand dollars of music I purchased over time, found some of the receipts and they want nothing to do with me.

MLA72 wrote:

My only advice is get Apple 1, then they will do what they can.

What does this have to do with anything?