iPad could not be activated

Brilliant! I tried everything before finding this. Thank you so much for sharing.

I just upgraded my iPad 2 (WiFi & Sim - 32GB) to the latest software, and...

"Your iPad could not be activated because the activation server is temporarily unavailable. Try connecting your iPad to iTunes to activate it, or try again in a few minutes."

When connecting to iTunes on my laptop i get this.

"iTunes was unable to verify your device.

Please disconnect and reconnect your device.

If the error persists, please visit your nearest Apple Store for assistance."

So far tried...

1) Restart (Power button)

2) Hard Restart (Power and Select button)

3) Above with sim out

4) Recovery Mode and upgrade option (Wire and PC logo)

Any other ideas before i have to go to the Apple Store?

Thanks

This is a known issue by Apple.

Apple has acknowledge the issue with activation server difficulties with certain iPad models and have stated that they are working on this issue and that it will be resolved as soon as possible.

It looks like they've come up with something (at least it worked for me on an iPad 2): https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206214

Here's the summary:

To activate your iPad 2 (GSM model), update it to iOS 9.3 again using iTunes:

1. Connect your iPad to a computer. If you don't have a computer, you can borrow one, or go to an Apple Retail Store or Apple Authorized Service Provider for help.
2. Open iTunes. Make sure that you have the latest version of iTunes.
3. While your iPad is connected, force it to restart: Press and hold the Sleep/Wake and Home buttons at the same time. Keep holding down the buttons until you see the Recovery mode screen. (This screen will appear maybe 10 seconds after the big white Apple logo... just keep the buttons held down)
4. When you get the option to restore or update in iTunes, choose Update.
5. iTunes will try to reinstall iOS without erasing your data. If it takes more than 15 minutes, your iPad will exit recovery mode, and you'll need to repeat steps 2 and 3 again.
6. After the update is complete, you need to leave your iPad connected to the computer and complete the activation setup process for your iPad using iTunes.

If iTunes doesn't recognize your iPad after the update is complete, disconnect your iPad and reconnect it to the computer. If it still doesn't appear, try to connect it to another computer to complete the setup process.

FWIW, I had to do the disconnect/reconnect step at the end. But it worked.

To those who have this issue,try checking if you have a SIM card in,mine had an old orange sim and it would not let it activate,

I took the sim out and voila worked first time

ham_n_eggs -This was the fix that worked for me! Thank you