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Kronusdark Author

Level 1

30 points

iPhone Activation Server Unavailable?

My kids accidently wiped my wife's iPhone and now we cannot reactivate it. Specifically I get a message

"Your iPhone could not be activated because the activation server is temporarily unavailable. Try connection your iPhone to iTunes to activate it, or try again in a couple of minutes. If this probelm persists, contact Apple Support at apple.com/support."

It has been almost an hour and I have tried connecting to iTunes and I still get the same message. Does anyone know if the server is down, or what?

iPhone 5, iOS 7.0.4

Posted on Dec 7, 2013 6:33 AM

Top-ranking reply

Lawrence Finch

Level 10

213,672 points

Posted on Aug 18, 2016 8:24 AM

Just for completeness in this 2 year old thread, here are some reasons you might get the message that the Activation Server is unavailable:

It really is unavailable. Rare, but it happens. You can check its status at: https://www.apple.com/support/systemstatus/
Your antivirus or firewall is blocking access to gs.apple.com. Try temporarily disabling it.
Your router's firewall is blocking access to gs.apple.com or to a port that it requires (443).
Your phone is jailbroken, or it was at some time in the past. Try doing a DFU restore (google it).
Your computer was used to hack or jailbreak some iOS device in the past (not necessarily the device with the current problem), and its network database was corrupted. Hacking includes using some questionable apps such as recboot, reiboot, Tinyumbrella, redsn0w, etc. If this is a possibility inspect your computer's hosts file. If there are any lines in the file that reference gs.apple.com that is the explanation. You will need to rebuild the hosts file.
Your phone has a hardware problem. Take it to an Apple store for diagnosis.

View in context

17 replies

Jul 20, 2017 7:20 PM in response to wjosten

Yes

Nov 11, 2017 11:33 PM in response to Kronusdark

Trying a different SIM card is the best way to isolate

iPhone Activation Server Unavailable?