sim card not valid after update to ios 5

Ok so the senior advisor was really helpful.

He said that what's happening is that the serial numbers of replacement phones are getting mixed up with the original serial numbers registered for the user. For instance, the serial number on my phone is registered to a "Hutchinson" in the UK (I'm living in Canada).

The solution is that Apple has to correct the serial number on their end and then we have to restore the phones with the new sim cards here. I don't know about the SIM lock. It doesn't appear to be an issue for my phone at the moment.

So tomorrow afternoon at 2pm, when I restore my phone, everything should be fine. I'll let you all know if this is the case.

Interesting. This explanation sounds plausible at least. I am still a bit skeptical because the geniuses were still able to restore my replacement phone with their SIM card just fine. But if we then tried it with mine, the phone would lock up. Of course, the IMEI hypothesis wouldn't really explain this either. I guess we will just have to wait until tomorrow afternoon to see if Apple has fixed the problem. (Why is it tomorrow at 2 BTW?)

My update:

So the IMEI number matches on both myphone/Apple and O2 in this case.

I rang tech support and they said that my details show that my phone is locked to O2 so why the store when they looked at the phone said that it was locked to AT&T I don't know... unless the handset is a replacement handset that isn't brand new but one that has been refurbished and therefore has had a previous life and therefore serial number is getting confused and saying that it's original owner had it in America.

This really is a serious issue isn't it?

The tech support chap has organised it that I get a new handset on Thursday.

2 things bother me:

1) That I paid £139 for what has turned out to be a refurbished replacement handset an not a brand new one.

2) That the geniuses at the Genius Bar originally said that they could give me a new handset but it wouldn't make any difference...

It would be nice if Apple could make a statement to explain what is going on and what they are doing about it wouldn't it?

Same problem here in Chicago. My Iphone 4 was a replacment phone as well (first phone's battery died). Tried updating to IOS5 and received the SIM not valid error message. Went to the Apple store, they replaced the SIM, reinstalled software, tried other SIM cards, etc. Was there three hours. Couldn't get the phone to work and they eventually swapped out the phone.

I, foolishly, then tried to update the software on the new phone. Got the same error message. Went back to the Apple store, they just simply replaced the phone this time without any tests. Replacement phone is on 4.3.5. Suggested to go to AT&T as they thought it was a database issue on their end and not an Apple problem.

Because of this thread, I did contact AT&T to see if the had my correct IMEI code. They did not and have since updated the code in their system to the new Iphone. I am too gunshy at this point to actually try a 3rd time to upgrade software. Just planning on waiting a few weeks and seeing if there's a new software version that's released.

He just said it would take 24 hours to get it going. Sounds arbitrary, probably has a lot on his plate.

Hmm...sooner or later someone is going to have to try the update after getting the IMEI fixed. I would suggest you go back to your local Apple store and ask a genius to run the update for you. We definitely need to know if the IMEI mismatch is the cause of this problem, and an emperical test is the only way to confirm or disprove the hypothesis.

Upon further reflection, I am still skeptical about what the Apple CSR told eTalisman. I went through 15 replacement iPhone 4s due to this problem. There is no way these were all refurbs registered to previous owners. My money is still on the IMEI mismatch at this point.

My IMEI numbers match - have spoken to O2, got the one off my phone and got Apple to tell me theirs and they all matched. Dammit!

@katecocker....yeah same with me on O2,but they are saying it's French but even when they give you a replacement phone whether it's brand new or not the serial (ICCID) number will go from your old phone to the replacement and when they plug it in it will always say that,in your case,it's a AT&T phone even though it's locked to O2 as mine is.😠 It really is doing my head in.Which Genius bar did you go to by the way?

@justin 140 it doesn't matter if they bring out a new software version because the same thing will happen

@pipshaw... Trafford Centre, Manchester. So what do we do? How do we ever get out the loop - do we have to buy a new phone - but then surely the same thing would happen? I have to wait till Thursday and if I don't have a phone on Thursday I'll be pretty screwed.

Kate...i'm not sure what can be done,got mine replaced yesterday and keeping it on 4.3.5.Buying a new phone would get us out of the loop...but why should we have to pay out again when it's their **** up.Good luck on Thursday,let us know how you get on

So if IMEI's are matching with the provider than matching IMEI's is not the solution to our problem. I'm more inclined toward thinking that this problem caused by mismatched Serial numbers, and that the unmatched IMEI's are related but not necessary.

Like I said, if Apple can fix my problem by tomorrow than we'll have some answers.

@eTalisman looks like you are right. Let us know what happens tomorrow once Apple has updated your serial number in their records. BTW was it Apple's servers or AT&T's where the mismatch was happening? I'm just wondering because didn't know Apple checked serial numbers as part of the restore process.

Hopefully we will have some answers to this tomorrow!

Hi All

I took my replacement phone to the Apple store Solihull England today with the same sim issue everyone else seems to be having. The genius there took out my sim tray and inputted the serial No off this into his mac, it came up registered to somebody else and on a different network (i'm on Orange).He then needed my receipt for the origonal purchase to retrieve the correct information. He then gave me a replacement phone to update in the store on my mac explaining that the phone could not be put through the till until I had done this, otherwise the same thing would happen. I then left the store with a new phone working perfectly on IOS 5. However before I left the store I was told I could not restore or update the software on my phone for a couple of weeks until they had sorted my serial No issue out and that they would call me as soon as it was resolved.

Hope this helps

I'm actually with Bell, and it was Apple's system that had the mismatch. Everything at Bell was okay. So the serial number that I have on my phone matches with the serial numbers on record at Apple and Bell, but the sim card doesn't match the serial number at Apple.

I think this is right, but I'm a little confused. Regardless, we will know tomorrow.

Yep, looking more and more like the serial number is the culprit.

One thing I don't understand though: when you get a replacement phone from Apple after this happens, you have to register it in iTunes. At that point, the replacement phone should be registered to you and should show the correct carrier info as well. Why is it that you still get a bricked phone if you restore this replacement phone? I guess one possible answer is that the phone's serial number still remains registered to its previous owner in Apple's system. It still seems like this is also due to a rather agressive security protocall in iOS that maybe needs to be dialed back a bit.