iPhone 4S could not be activated because the activation server is temporarily unavailable

I was getting the eternal "no service" message, and despite knowing my phone would be erased, I did a back up and have been trying this method to restore it for two days now. No joy. It restores firmware and seems like it's going all the way, but just that bloomin "We are unable to continue with your activation at this time", every flippin time.

I'm totally fed up now. I just wants a phone that works!

I'm using an iPhone 4s on Orange in the UK - I'm starting to wonder if Orange are the problem now?

That's it! I bought my phone 2 days ago, initially my texts to other numbers and iMessages worked - for about half a day, but since then my iMessages take 2 hours to go through and my texts are non operational. I've done the hard boot thing and the advice on apples pages, but I think the logical hung is to call my service provider. I'm with t- mobile, uk. Who are quite matey with orange.

I wonder if their networks are up to it? Let me know if you get any joy!

Update so far... spoke to Orange the other night, who put us through to their own Apple team. The team member checked the forums on here and, suprisingly, someone had posted on here, with the very same problem as I had. Fancy that! I didn't like to tell her it might be me.

Anyway, I was able to tell them I'd tried the processes outlined in this thread and elsewhere on this forum, and they suggested I contact Apple. So off to the Apple Store I went, yesterday. The people at the Genius Bar were lovely, and also tried all of the processes in this thread - so we know that this normally sorts the issue out. My sim was tried in a couple of new phones and it turns out it's either the sim or Orange at fault, as we suspected. Apple , to their credit, were ready to offer me a new handset if it turned out to be the handset at fault.

Phoned Orange back who tried to tell us it was Apple's fault(!). After a bit of persuading, they're now sending out a new sim. Apple have said the original sim looks like it's been activated but there's something not right about it. Fingers crossed, the sim works and the phone activates.

And I'm getting a major phobia for fruit! Not buying a flippin blackberry!

Hello again, well I did phone T-mobile, who were very helpful once I got through to speak to someone ! I went through the steps of on/off , hard re-boot, etc no joy.

Then, we went to Settings - phone - My number - which just had lots of zeros. I didn't realise, I needed to pop in my phone number (with the +country code minus the zero if anyone is trying this) and now my imessages and text messages are operational.

Just one thing. On settings - messages - underneath imessage it still said activation unsuccessful, despite it working. i had to turn it off then on again then the message disappeared.

now i,ve just got to work out why my ibooks and apps are only partially linking between my ipad and iphone.... boardz has linked, and icloud, and my music. But not other apps. Is the only solution to link it to a computer? Can you connect an ipad to an iphone?

My iphone won't activate it keep saying that 😟

My issue was eventually solved with a new sim card from Orange.

I had the same issues. I took it to the apple store and it activated immediatley. However when trying to update to IOS6 we had many problems. We could not upgrade it even with iTunes connection. The unit turned out to be a dud. I had it replaced. Lost the engraving. I am truly shocked that Apple could ship a dud unit. Do they not burn test?

Dear jhidrowoh,

I've tried restoring many times though these steps like you said but it's no change at all.

my iTune still says the sorry to me and my iPhone still could not be activated because the actiavtion server is "unavaiable"

Can you help me plz.

Does the app Cydia appear on your iPhone?

Has the iPhone been jailbroken or otherwise hacked?

Which iPhone? What version of iOS?

You really should start a new thread with your problem

rather than add to the end of a thread that has been

dormant for 2 months.

Same goes here. Dozen of times i tried and yet it didn't work

I tried the process and was happy to note that there was some process that I managed to start because the process did start ...

However to my disappointment, landed back at the same status which says

We're sorry, we are unable to continue with your activation at this time.

Please try again later, or contact customer care

I was using a GEVEY sim unlock with iOS 4.1 since (almost) last 2 yrs now in India on Vodafone. But as Apple designed it, there were several apps including Whatsapp, Facebook, Gmail and LinkedIn that stopped functioning due to the iOS updates and the subsequent (I guess 'mandatory' App updates). Finally yesterday I thought of updating to the iOS 6. As soon as I did that, I have been left with no choice but to see the above message.

The process by jhidrowoh starts corectly but iTunes doesnt give you the option of restore only ... it is forcefully clubbed with update and the button that is displayed in the dialog box that appears on pressing 'Restore' in teh recovery mode, shows 'Restore and Update' and as soon as the iPhone is restored, it automatically updates the iOS as well to iOS 6 and hence leaves you hanging in the stale situation.

Guys ... Need the data desperately ... Can anybody please help???

That is because Gevey sim unlocks are jailbreaking and they are illegal sims.

You won't get any help here for a jailbroken device - you are on your own.

I am having the same problem, I have unlocked the phone and yet still I get stuck at itunes

We're sorry, we are unable to continue with your activation at this time.

I don't know what else to do! I have placed in an att sims card and my straight talk sims card that works on other phones, and there is no hope. I get no service on my phone, even after many restores, and itunes won't even show me an option to restore it back to an old backup.

What do I do guys? My phone is an utter brick for 2 days now.

Had Same issue with my phone, once i put a sim card in, even an expired one, it worked and let me connect to itunes