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iPhone 4S activation timeout

Trying to activate my iPhone 4S, trying both twice from the device and once from iTunes, I make it through past then point of agreeing to the terms of service. I then get the following message:

Your activation is still pending. You will receive an email notification once your activation is complete.

We’re sorry. There was a problem connecting to the server. Please try again later.

Presumably Apple's servers are having the typical launch day troubles. (Why is it that Apple can't ever seem to get server stuff right?)

Two questions:

Anybody else seeing this?
Has anybody got this message, and then actually received the promised email notification about their activation being complete? I have a pretty low confidence that my activation request is really in some queue somewhere.

iOS 5, AT&T

Posted on Oct 14, 2011 8:11 AM

52 replies

Oct 16, 2011 7:31 AM in response to Paul Cantrell

No activation for about 35 hours here. Have called AT&T and the AT&T activation definitely worked - my new micro-SIM works if I put it in a different phone. So it's just an Apple problem. Applecare telephone support didn't know what to do, so I'm off to the Genius Bar today.

Failure is on iPhone and thru iTunes, via Wifi or 3g.

Anyone else unable to activate after 24+ hours?

Interestingly, two other phones on my account activated no problem. So it seems to be something particular to this phone.

Josepdin

Level 1

0 points

Oct 17, 2011 9:46 AM in response to Scott Shuchart

i'm dead in the water. A one point ATT killed the sim in my 3g and acivated the sim in my 4s without my permission. combined with the inability to activate the iphone, i'm in bad shape today. going to apple store tonight to insist on a replacement device or a solid fix. geez, not like the 64GB phone should work out of the box or anything. 66+ hours at this moment with no activation!

Oct 17, 2011 10:04 AM in response to Scott Shuchart

Just FYI, the Genius said the only fix for this is handset replacement. I was in and out with a new phone in about 15 minutes.

Unclear to me why anyone would buy a phone from a company that doesn't have helpful stores with free warranty replacements in every mall.

Josepdin

Level 1

0 points

Oct 17, 2011 6:15 PM in response to Scott Shuchart

Well, I managed to get to an Apple Store tonight (traveling on business and HAD to have a phone!) and it went down exactly as you suggested, Scott. They replace it and I was up and running in less that 15 minutes. Um, I DID have to wait 70 minutes for an appointment, but then, I guess their time is just more valuable than mine.

Nov 4, 2011 10:54 PM in response to Paul Cantrell

Same for me, in France with ORANGE. I'm trying and trying again. But always the same message since yesterday. Nobody could help me at ORANGE or APPLE. They told me to change phone !!

Do I have to be patient and try again ? Did you solve the problem ? No email received from Apple or Orange.

Thanks for your answer.

Josepdin

Level 1

0 points

Nov 7, 2011 7:28 AM in response to martinefromtoulouse

When I took mine into the Apple Store the genius that worked on it said several phones were coming up in the same state. They were just moving the SIM to a replacement phone and activating the replacement phone. WHen I was on the phone with both help desks (ATT&T for me and Apple), they were "finger-pointing" at each other as to responsibility for the problem. In my case, the hardware replacement fixed the issue and I was good to go. I had to actually go to an Apple store, though, to get the fix.

Jan 12, 2017 9:31 AM in response to Paul Cantrell

How to sole this problem

iPhone 4S activation timeout