Iphone 5 says "device unknown" when doing the setup

I have the same problem... I bought two iPhone 5 at Soho store in NYC... activated both of them with seperate numbers in Germany...both worked for a while just perfect, then I registerd one of them at apple product registration and it stopped working, or rather - the phone was working over the wifi but there was no network (searching...no service...searching...etc). As the other phone was still working I thought that maybe something went wrong with the update/syncing and I decided to just reset the whole phone. That was it... it lets me to choose a language, country and wifi and then says on the top of the screen : Device Unknow... and in the middle: Please visit the Service Answer Center at http://....

I can not(altough I will) contact support for I can not access the serial number on that phone no more (it seemed that that the product didnt actually register..for whatever reason).

So trying to be on the safe side I thought I better register the second one(and write down serial nr as well) and doing so, this one stopped working as well. It was working perfictly for 24 h until registration, so could it be something to do with that? I have not reset the second one, and wont hopefully need to either, but it just seems to strange that both of them lost their network after registering the products at apple!!!

I dont have a Genius Bar nor official Apple store near me, so im hoping that someone can tell me what to do... I will of course go tomorrow for authorised reseller and see what they say!!!

I live in Germany and the exact same thing happened to me. I bought an unlocked american iphone directly from apple. I brought it to the t-mobile store and they replaced my 4s sim card with a micro sim card for the iphone 5. It worked great for about 2 hours and then could not find a signal. I called apple and they had me do a factory reset. After that the phone would not activate at all. I can not do anything. I then went back to t-mobile and got a new sim. Same thing, worked great at first and then nothing. SO frustrating for an $800 phone!!!. If you find out any info on the problem, please let me know.

I am going to the Apple store in Frankfurt tomorrow. I read on some forums that you may need to turn off LTE for it to continue to work in Germany...But as you know, I cant access anything after the factory reset. I will post again after I return from frankfurt. Again, if you find out anything or have any suggestions, please let me know.

@Brad71313. What happened at the end? I have the same problem and I'm also in Germany (I bought it the US). I'm going today to FRankfurt, did they solve the problem? I also chatted with a guy in the apple support and he told me that if they couldn't fix the problem I would get a new one. What happened with you at the end?

I wnet to Frankfurt, but did not know that I has to make an appointment first. The "genius bar" was nice, but would not help me withour an appointment. They did tell me that there would not be much that they could do because it was an American Iphone. I returned my Ihpone to apple which has been a huge hassle itslef. They are processing my return now and hopefully I can get a refund. It still does not make sence to me why the phone does not work over here. This whole process has been a disaster. Please let me know what they told you or if you have any additonal info on the problem. Thanks.

I wasn't able to go, we were in our way to Frankfurt but there was a HUGE amount of traffic and it took us like an hour stucked in it, and then when we got out of it, we had selected Frankfurt in the GPS but it actually took us to the other Frankfurt. And when we realized we were heading the other way on the same highway. So we either had to get ourselves back again in the traffic or take another route that would have taken us an additional hour. So we just decided to go back.

Whatever, I think it's pointless to tell my story here. But I'd like you to repeat yours, because I didn't understand it. Did you mail your Iphone back to the US? Did you get to the store and they didn't do anything? Pleas try (if you can) to rewrite your story. I don't know if you speak german if you do, you can also write it in german. I'd really like to know what happened to you.

Thank you,

Greetings.

I am American. I live here in Germany. I bought an unlocked iphone 5 from apple.com and had it shipped to my family in america and then they shipped it to me. This was because apple does not ship to APO addresses overseas. I then went and got a new micro sim card from t-mobile. It worked great for about 2 hours and then stopped working. The phone said "searching" or "no signal" I called apple support for help. The first thing that they had me do was a hard restore on the phone. After this, I could not activate the phone at all. I went back to the t-mobile shop and they gave me a new sim card. The exact same thing happend. It worked for about 2 hours and then nothing. The next day, I took the phone to the apple store in Frankfurt. I did not know that you needed an appointment to see the technicians. The would not see me beacue I did not have an appointment. However they did talk to me and tell me that there was not much that they could do because it was an American Iphone. I am now in the process of returning the phone for a refund. I would alos like to know what the problems were with your phone in case I decide to purchase one in the future.

Thank you man, so what i'll do, is that I'll say the guys at the genius bar that what they have to do is force the Iphone to go the home screen so they can desactivate the LTE, would that be enough? Or do I really have to check models? And if yes, where do I find which networks supports my carrier? (T-mobile)

Thank you for all your help.