iPhone 5 "Could Not Activate iPhone" iOS 7

Hold sleep and home button to reset the phone. Then hold the home button down and connect to the computer and iTunes.

You should then be able to update the iOS.

It worked for me. The iPhone is now working.

It was a major pain since I now lost 1+30 mins of sleep. lol

For those still struggling you could try this. Luckliy I have an auto back-up from a couple of days ago.

http://www.imore.com/tip-put-iphone-ipad-dfu-mode

I completely understand the expiry timer being on the iOS but Apple needed to communicate more and let us know about the possibility of this happening....and how to fix it.

Had the exact same problem. I had the ISO 7 beta version on my iphone 5, where im a developer ive had it for a while. Out of the blue my phone spazed out on me and required activation, it was a real pain I spent 2 hours searching online and forums, thanks for post, this worked fore me its updated teh software. Hopefully everything is def fixed and my data is still on phone, luckly i just backed up a few days ago. Thanks again!

apple should turn the beta activation servers on again for 24 hours so we could backup our devices for god sake

I am useing i phone 4s yasterday i was update my phone softewear 6.1.3 to iso 7 but after that i am unable to disconnect incoming calls,

When phone is locked.

How to disconnect incoming call in ios7 when iPhone is locked

I'm traveling now and I was working on my iphone well but this morning I see my iPhone is need to be activated 😟 .. I'm using iOS 7 beta because I'm an apple developer but using my normal user! the activation message said "server unavailable"

I've been searching about the solution but all said I have to restore my iphone .. WHY I have to lose my photos?

The last backup was 4 days ago and I have new photos now, how can I activate my iphone please without losing my new photos?

THANKS

What I had to do to finally get something done was go into xCode, open organizer, and restore the iphone from there. The only downside to that is that if you don't have a backup, you'll lose your photos and will have to re-download all your apps

any update yet?

Yes I fixed mine last night.

If you were on beta , go download the GM or update and shift click and install update. It will eliminate activation and accept your Apple ID and pw

All this is done via iTunes

Are you sure this way will not remove my photos?

I need an urgent help.....my iphone 5 with iOS7 seems dead from this mornning....it was trying to activate but get failed. this happned when it was charging. Itried to reboot, connected with my laptop iTunes nothing helped I understand server might be down...but how long i need to wait ? i don't have a apple store here.

what i am afraid whether my phone is hacked or not..if yes...what are the consequences....

if you know anything please help me...this is first time happened with me...i have been using all iPhone from the begining....i am very upset.

Message was edited by: sgupta55

****, I tried 4 times Activating my iPhone after restoring it and it always said " Could not activate iPhone" and it said from the bottom " Your iPhone could not be activated because the activation server could not be reached." help us please .. have mercy 😟

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Possible causes:

1. Your antivirus is blocking access to gs.apple.com.

2. Your phone is jailbroken.

3. Your computer has been used at some time in the past to jaibreak some iOS device (not necessarily the phone with the problem), and its network database was corrupted by the hacking software that was used.

4. Apple's activation servers are down (very rare, and never for more than an hour or so).

For 1. try disabling your antivirus.

For 2. & 3. you need to go somewhere other than an apple forum for help. Although you can try deleting lines containing gs.apple.com from your "hosts" file on your computer.