Help! Recurrent "activation required" message after upgrade to iOS 8.1

Hi,

Exact same problem for me too.

IPhone 5, iOS 8.1.1

Tried restore to backup, restore to new phone, DFU restore, new SIM card ... nothing helps.

The phone is for most purposes useless right now ...

i am not sure if i have the energy or time to try and resolve this problem. i am wondering if it is related to the combination of iphone update and carrier. when my contract expries it will probably be safer for me to move away from iphone. i suppose i could change my carrier - uwclub is my carrier and they simply use one of the well known companies - not sure who they use at the moment. i will keep an eye on this thread for any true solutions. there are some days i am activating my iphone 7/8 times a day. if i am away from wifi or then my phone becomes unusable.

Hi All,

Several days ago my iPhone 5 (updated to ios 8) began to do this same thing. Continuous "activation required". I see it as an open question on multiple threads. Has anyone discovered a/the solution?

in my case i had a friend who is a director of a apps company and he had a spare iphone 5 with ios7 that i could use until my renewal date in august 2015 .. i transferred the sim card and the problem was solved. my friend thinks it is a software problem between the sim card and ios8, which is unlikely to be solved by chat lines or the genius bar. i dont think you can reverse the updates once they have been made, so a new iphone 5 was the only solution for me.otherwise, my phone was almost useless. hope you can all find a solution. would be interested to know if there was another solution other than a new iphone not upgraded to ios8.

I'm experiencing the same exact problem too, the problem arises after a few days after getting IOS8.1.2 onto my iPhone5. You guys pretty much described what has exactly happened to my iPhone. It would drop it's telco reception before it starts searching again, and then it would find my telco and resumes. It happens in a loop and would occasionally ask for my icloud activation. I've tried to reset, restore and remove my account from icloud but it's still the same. I've not faced these problems before the iOS update. I hope Apple could personally respond to us as to what is going on, and provide an update for this bug. Thanks.

I'm now a new victim of this same problem. Coincidently or not, this problem started for me after a trip abroad this January. I live in Rio de Janeiro, and while I was visiting the US I replaced my regular Brazilian carrier SIM card by a local provider sim card (T-mobile). Once I was back to Brazil, I moved back to my Brazilian SIM card and upgraded my iphone to the latest iOS version 8.1.3. Then the activation problem started. I am telling this whole story because, to me, it seems the issue has to do with both iOS and iCloud configuration issues within Apple servers. It seems that after all these SIM cards exchanges, something went wrong with iCloud configuration and whenever my iPhone now loses connection with the carrier, iCloud services somehow understands that someone else is trying to reactivate my iPhone. I have the feeling that this issue is affecting a very few people, so I am not sure if Apple is going to address it in a near future. My hope is to see it solved in future updates of iOS or iCloud. Anyway, what I did so far as a workaround was to disable the "find my iPhone" feature. As far as I understand, Apple only asks for an iCloud account and password to activate phones if the find my phone feature is on. I know it's not a solution and not ideal either, but at least I have been using my iPhone in the last 4 days normally, with no 'activation required' messages, which freezes your phone until you get connected to a wifi network so it can be reactivated. So far so good, and of course I will have a problem only if I lose my phone or get it stollen, which for a person who lives in Rio de Janeiro means a real big threat.

That's an update on how the workaround I described in my post behaved after a few days. Differently from what I had thought, disabling the find my phone feature didn't prevent the occurrence of further "activation required" messages, bringing with it all the inconveniences we already know about. I then moved my carrier chip to an old iPhone 4S I still happen to have, and then all went ok with no more error messages. I then had an appointment with a genius who told me he was sure it was a hardware problem, being a phone replacement the only solution for me. So I've got a new phone now and everything is working as it should be. Just making clear that even though the tech guy told me it was a hardware issue, I decided NOT to restore a backup. Hope this helps.

been having this problem as well ... been through 2 replacement iphone 6 from Verizon ,they thought it was a software issue , still didnt help ,i updated to 8.2 and so far these past 2 days i havent had the problem , anyone still having the issue after updating to 8.2 ?

In a similar situation. I'm abroad right now (Canada, normally a US Resident). On the 4th day of my trip, started getting repeated Activation requests from the phone from the lock screen. Just tried disabling Find My iPhone from settings and signing out from the app. Hopefully this will work.

Yep I am also having this issue. I have a T-Mobile iPhone 6 from the USA. Third day in visiting Canada I have been asked to activate my iPhone five times, and I have to wait until I can find a WiFi network somewhere. It's rendering my phone useless while I'm up here. Very annoying.

For what it's worth, issue went away when I returned stateside. Also had an annoying battery drain pop up that lasted until the return.

I am having the same problem. I have an iPhone 5s from T-Mobile, and am a US resident visiting Canada (Vancouver area), which is where the problem started. I am now trying disabling Find My iPhone, based on what I have read in this discussion.

I think I may have found a solution if you're roaming on T-Mobile in Canada. I noticed that my phone was constantly switching between Bell, Rogers, and Telus networks and I think that might have triggered the activation lock. Once I set my phone to only use Rogers, the activation lock stopped happening. I only tested this for about 12 hours because I had to return state side, so not sure if this is a permanent solution or not.

To lock your phone to Rogers, go to Settings > Carrier, and turn off automatic. Then, your phone will start searching for carriers. Wait until it finishes searching (can take a few minutes), and choose either Rogers, Bell, or Telus (I went with Rogers). After that, your phone will stay locked to that carrier. Just remember to switch auto back on once you return to the US.

Exact same thing happening to me as garretto208. I am a T-Mobile customer with an iPhone 6. Am roaming in Vancouver, Canada and phone goes nuts switching between carriers. Also get the dreaded Activation Required periodically. Am trying garretto208's suggestion. Will update if it fixes the issue for me.

Any luck with this anyone?

Having this problem with my daughters iPhone for the last month and it's driving us both crazy

she is with koodo.

recently we have upgraded to latest iOS with apple music. And also had carrier turn off data To save overage costs.

Went to Apple Store. Wiped phone. Running as new with no restore. Also got new SIM card from carrier.

Thought problem would go away but it's still happening.