iPhone 4 Message:SIM Required (in phone that has no SIM card slot)

Good work everyone keep the information coming. Another bit of information that might be important to know is that none of the phones I have are currently activated iPhones. They are not on an account and have no cell service. The issue happens when I connect to WiFi to begin the setup process. Not sure if this would have any impact on the thought that a carrier update may have caused it.

Every post I have seen on the subject is the same on this point. Except one that just wanted to set it up as a iPod Touch, without a cellular plan (in a different thread). Which is essentially the same, except at the time that wasn't obvious.

Yep -- consistently, it seems, these phones are all "between" service... either deprovisioned from Verizon and being moved to a different subscriber or BTN/line, or not being reprovisioned on network at all. But crucially, they all seem to be off-network at the time of the reset, which means the phone is likely checking against Apple or carrier databases. If my Genius' hypothesis is correct, that is when they are being told it is an unlocked GSM phone awaiting activation and is expecting a SIM card.

We will see, hopefully soon!

Just an update that my customer complaints are starting to roll in from my online sales with the same issue. So far four complaints and it is exclusively the White 16GB iPhone 4 CDMA. If other colors or GB show up I'll update.

Someone else just posted a similar question. How do I activate an iPhone 4 which states "Please insert a SIM Card"? I provided them with a link to this thread and asked them to follow this and to come over and make a quick post so everyone was together.

FIXED! Just got off the phone with the Apple rep, my phone is fixed! He had me restore it again and wah-lah! He said the fix action was him updating my activation policy or something, I dunno, but who cares? So long as I have this: 74*****16, my case number. Surely any rep will be able to pull up the full details with the case number. Well, I guess our time has come to an end. Thank you so much Rosindabow for posting to the community, thank so much to everyone who posted, my apologies again to Lawrence Finch, times were stressful lol, sorry man, the best of luck to EVERYONE. And I'm not just leaving now that my issue is fixed, I'll continue monitoring this thread for at least the next few days in case I can be of any assistance at all but I honestly don't think I'm much help now. Amandajo1026, Apple came through, problem fixed, who were you gonna call if your android was acting screwy?? haha, they would have had you bouncing form the manufacturer, to the service provider to the os, wait, what's Android's help line number? Come over to the darkside man! lol. Thanks again, peace, oh yeah, gotta give a shout out to Meg St.Clair, this would have never been possible without her advice. .... heat, stress, end of it's life, Apple won't bother with an old iPhone... smh.

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No way, don't take 'no' for an answer! We had the SAME exact problem. Apple fixed my issue so they have the ability to do it, he needs to contact my rep, Aaron C., if he can't fix it you should accept no less than a new iPhone 4 at no charge. There's no refuting this, my case proves that Apple has the ability, probably only Apple, to fix this, so the responsibility lies squarely on them to resolve your issue. Don't quit, I felt like quitting 4 days ago!

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Also! I don't know if this may make any difference, but my iPhone, by the time it was finally fixed, WAS attached to a VZ account by the MEID, it was just waiting to be activated. Maybe that makes a difference, maybe not. Note that it was only attached to a VZ account because by the end of day 1, Apple had told me VZ had to activate it and upon calling VZ, they forced me to get on a monthly plan in order to activate the phone, BUT, once the phone came on today without a hitch, I called VZ and told them I needed that plan cancelled because I was never able to activate the phone (I didn't tell them it finally worked) He saw the notes and, as promised before, they canceled the line with absolutely no charge to me whatsoever. If this does turn out to make a difference, having your MEID number waiting to be activated by VZ, then when you call VZ make sure you do not ask for a pay by month subscription, it has to be a contract, if you do the monthly thing you will still be charged once you terminate. Keep me posted.

Remember, when I first dealt with Aaron, the only thing he verified with the VZ rep was that my MEID was waiting to be activated by their system. He specifically addressed that, she verified it and he let her get off the line, that was the last time I dealt with VZ. Today, when the phone restore finally worked, the phone booted as normal to the HELLO screen but I knew this time was different because on the top left corner it no longer said 'No Service', it said 'Verizon'. I knew it was promising but I did find it odd however because to my understanding, it shouldn't say Verizon up there unless you have service and I shouldn't have had service through VZ until dialing *22890 and selecting option 1. That's my understanding, could be wrong.

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Butcher is correct it can be fixed by Apple. I have a very knowledgable rep who was given permission to fix every phone in my inventory. So far he has submitted two tickets to the engineer team and both phones were fixed. My case number is 74******70. Basically when you call you need to very nicely tell them this is a bigger issue than a restore and you need the problem escalated to a Senior Technician. But in both phones I had my rep escalated it to the engineers and it was fixed within hours. Good luck everyone and the good news is that this CAN be fixed by Apple with minimal hassle.

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