Bypassing Activation iPhone 3Gs

Question

Level 1

8 points

Bypassing Activation iPhone 3Gs

Ok, I have a unique situation and no one else seems to have ever had this problem. I currently have a iPhone 4s through Verizon. I had an iPhone 3Gs with AT&T up until the 4s came out. I just pulled my 3Gs out of my closet the other day and wanted to get some stuff off of it for nostalgic reasons but I ran into a wall. It wants to activate again. Well, considering I no longer have AT&T service there is no way to activate it. I've tried bypassing the activation screen multiple ways with no luck. I don't need to restore the phone for use, I just want what's on it, so I don't need advice on restoring it. I have no backup of the phone either. Just wondering if there is anyway around the activation block. I could see all the information just fine when I charged the phone the other day, but as soon as I went to go back it up with iTunes it tried to activate itself and that's where I am stuck. Any insight would be appreciated. Thanks!

Additional info:

(If anyone really wants to know, my real issue is that I want to get the text messages off my old phone. The only way I've found to do thit is with a few different programs, the one I'm using is Decipher TextMessage. What the program requires to see the text messages, however, is an iTunes mobilesync backup. I cannot backup the phone if it is stuck in this activation limbo, unfortunately. There's gotta be a way. Thanks again.)

iPhone 3GS, iOS 5

Posted on Jun 9, 2012 10:08 PM

Reply

Answer 1

randers4

Level 9

63,519 points

Jun 9, 2012 10:18 PM in response to simonreinert

You do have to activate it again, but you don't have to have active service to do this. You need an AT&T sim card...the sim card itself need not be activated, but it must be valid & present. If you don't have one, perhaps if you ask nicely and explain the situation the AT&T store will give you a deactivated one to use.

Reply

Answer 2

simonreinert Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 9, 2012 10:45 PM in response to randers4

Well that's good news. The sim that I have in there right now is my old AT&T one and it just wont activate with it. No way to just use that one somehow? Thanks for the new sim card recommendation though.

Reply

Answer 3

randers4

Level 9

63,519 points

Jun 10, 2012 9:41 AM in response to simonreinert

Actually you should be able to use that sim if it was the one that was used to activate it originally (see http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3406). Perhaps it's defective. Once activated you can use it as an iPod Touch (as well as backing it up). BTW, there are 3rd party programs that will transfer data from the phone directly, rather than extracting from backup, such as Touch Copy (pc or mac) and PhoneView (mac). Not sure if they will work if the phone is deactivated but you could contact them and ask in case you can't get it to activate.

Reply

Answer 4

wjosten

Level 10

95,327 points

Jun 10, 2012 10:15 AM in response to simonreinert

As randers4 pointed out, you have no choice but to activate the phone to do what you want, & activation requires a valid sim card. The sim card itself need not be active, but it must be present. Follow the steps here to first restart your phone, then try again to activate it. It that doesn't work, reset it, as described in that article, then try to activate it.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1430

Reply