activation lock on iphone 4s

First - turn off your caps lock. All Caps is considered shouting and therefore rude. Many will not

even look at your post due to the all caps your post is in.

Contact the person who initiated the Activation Lock to have them remove it.

There is no workaround for Activation Lock.

If you are the original owner of that iPhone, gather up proof of original purchase and take

that proof and the iPhone to a physical Apple Store, and Apple may be able to assist. If

you purchased the iPhone used/second hand, you have to get the original purchaser to

assist you.

iCloud: Find My iPhone Activation Lock in iOS 7 & later

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5818?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4515

The only person who can help you is the original owner who activated the lock with their Apple id and password

I assume that was not you since you do not mention it

It is an anti theft device

SteveKlein27 wrote:

I've owned the phone from new and recently out has locked and in activation mode for no apparent reason and I can't get any help from apple. I've tried to reboot but nothing on screen except for apple logo

The reason may not be apparent, but it is because when the phone was first turned on whomever turned it on registered it to an iCloud account. If you are the first owner that must have been you. The phone does not activation lock by itself.

SteveKlein27 wrote:

I've tried to reboot but nothing on screen except for apple logo

If you can't get past the Apple logo, then it's not an issue with Activation lock. You haven't even gotten to that point yet.

Make an appointment at the genius bar of your local Apple Store. Take the phone and the ORIGINAL proof of purchase.

They can remove the activation lock if you can prove you purchased it new from an authorized retailer. There is no charge for a genius bar visit.

Before you cart yourself off to the genius bar, if you can't remember the ID you used to set up Find my iPhone before, you can try and recover it at https://iforgot.apple.com/appleid.

You can reset your Apple ID password at https://iforgot.apple.com

SteveKlein27 wrote:

the email address I used to set up phone has now been deactivated as I'm no longer on ntlwotld/virgin media

Irrelevant.

You can still use the email address for your AppleID.

-> https://iforgot.apple.com/password/verify/appleid

After you get into the iPhone, turn off Settings > iCloud > Delete account.

Then update your AppleID to a new email address.

-> Change your Apple ID - Apple Support

After you update your AppleID, on the iPhone, Settings > Enable iCloud using new AppleID.

Make sure you turn on FindMyiPhone.

Sorry, Lawrence, starting with IOS 7.something and continuing through IOS 8.1.3, some iPhone 4s, 5 and 5s users are absolutely getting false "Activation Required" errors. The phone is unusable until you can manage to "refresh" the activation. I've had it happen twice since IOS 8.1.3 install a week or so ago. The first time it took hours and dozens of attempts to "re-activate" (failed to reach server).

Apple has a very nasty bug here.

Never heard of that bug at all. Got any documentation? I haven't even seen media reports about. Additionally, in the few hundred devices I manage, that has never happened.

Sorry, but without some documentation or sources to cite, combined with the fact that you are a fresh user here with no history of providing accurate or truthful information, I'll have to choose not to believe you.

Additionally, you seem to be confusing an activation error in regards to activating to a cellular carrier with an Activation Lock, which are two totally different things. I read the post you made in [iphone 4S displays Activation Required every reboot/every couple of days].

Is your iPhone asking you to provide an Apple ID and Password while in the Setup Assistant? Look at the images in this article: [Find My iPhone Activation Lock: Removing a device from a previous owner’s account - Apple Support]

That's what Activation Lock is. Your issue sounds like a cellular activation issue, which is totally different, and just as much the wireless carrier's responsibility (actually, moreso) than Apple's.

Perhaps before you bump a thread that is six weeks old and tell an experienced and proven user that they are wrong, you should make sure you understand the issue you are commenting on?

Dear TJBUSMC1973, my sincere apologies for "bumping a thread that is six weeks old". I'm sure that Lawrence appreciates your defense of his honor. Goodness, you must be fun IRL. Thanks for the laugh.

My phone looked exactly like the left-hand screen shot in your "Find My iPhone Activation Lock" link. FWIW. Here is another Apple Support thread (even older, oh no!) calling out the same problem :

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

I'll cop to speaking in English. My 3-YO purchased-new 4s throws a screen that says "Activate", I'm locked out of the phone for 4 hours, and I call it activation lock. Thanks for your attention, I'll seek solutions elsewhere.

BR, -Jay-

I HAVE AN IPHONE4S THATS MINES BUT I CANT REMEMBER MY APPLE IDOER MY PASSWORD

If you forgot your Apple ID - Apple Support

If you forgot your Apple ID password - Apple Support