Cannot Activate iPad IOS 9.3

Same issue - iPhone 5s update w/o any issue - directly afterwards iPad 2 (Wifi/3g). There the activation fails even with 10hrs of waiting.

Sorry,

Lock button (in previous post) is ofcourse the on/off button on top of the iPad.

Same issue - iPad 2 (Wifi/3g) activation fails - even after 24h of waiting.

Hope someone fixes that fast.

Very disappointing.

I have exactly the same problem since yesterday. I have search the fruns but I haven't find any solution!

I have an iPad2 WiFi / 3G and have the same problem. Waited for 14 hours and tried many time. Still cannot activate because the activation server is temporarily unavailable... Also activation through iTunes does not work: "iTunes was unable to verify your device".

Strangely the iPad seems to be partially functional. When connected to a PC, I can see my iPad as virtual drive and I can see the photos folder (DCIM). I just cannot go past the activation screen.

Apple?? Any reply??

1. This Problem is known since FIRST Beta of iOS 9.3
2. This Problem was there in EVERY other Beta of iOS 9.3(and there were a lot, which I tested all)
3. This Problem is now ignored even in the FINAL of iOS 9.3

Because of this history over the last months! I can see only one Destination this should Force us to.

Put away this old devices and buy some new! For my part I just changed my phone to android.

Apple, it's ur choice now if I buy an Android OLED Tablet or still Invest my money into iTunes.

Thanks for your suggestion. I did a restore via DFU but let it reinstall 9.3. All fine now.

Same issue here. Called support and they suspected an issue with the data capabilities on my iPad 2 wifi + 3G even though I've never used the data option. Was told to go to ATT store to put in an active sim card which I did (had to pay for 2G). iPad is not registering data access. Did all the restarts and connecting & disconnecting to iTunes. No luck. Called support again and let them know it seems there's lots of us with these iPads with this problem. They bumped it up the chain and I'm waiting for a call back. Support person said it's likely I wouldn't need to do a restore since it is an activation problem that may be handled on their end, so I'm not going to do a restore till I'm absolutely sure they can't fix it first. Will post when I hear.

Anyone thought about remotely turning off the Find My iPhone or the activation lock on the iPad via iCloud on the computer? Heard that security feature can mess with activation.

So, so. Finally activate it. First sorry for my bad english. The only solution that i find is to install it with clean copy and to erase all the information from your ipad 2. First I update it trough wi-fi connection but it's bad idea. If you make update just connect it with a cable to your PC/MAC and then try the update with itunes. (not test it and don't know it will work, just make full backup of your information from iPad). During the update notice that the update package is just around 183-190 mb. So may be the problem is here. I thing iOS 9.3 just replace some necessary file's with new files and that's way is became some kind software conflict, or some instruction or drivers is conflicting. Who knows!? So after the update I can't activate it and have same problem. That's way i download the full package of iOS 9.3 trough iTunes. And what I notice... it was around 1.34 gb-1.35 gb. After the installation I register it like new Ipad and now is working. Yes for sure I lose my information, settings and etc, but it's good that I have it in my Mac and google drive. Now have to download all the apps and documents again from app store and that will cost a time, but for me the important thing for this moment is that i can use my Ipad. For me it's very unuseful to release update that is not working. Did Apple test it on older devices? Nobody knows. Hope that information is helpful to all of you. For the moment this is the only solution that i found. I try everything that I have in my IT magic pocket. Hope Apple fix this bug soon, because it's a shame. Hope it's helpful and useful information for all of you.

Ok, that was a nerve wrecking day, but I managed to recover.

I restored my iPad with this procedure:

1. connect iPad to PC with iTunes
2. hold home and power button simultaneously for a long time. iPad switches off, switches on, Apple logo appears, and then finally the recover screen appears. Now you can release both buttons.
3. choose your recovery method. I chose full recovery, installed iOS9.3 and went for a blank (factory default) iPad.

Procedure took in total 30 minutes, including iOS download, reinstall and start-up iPad. But I have a fast internet connection. I can imagine it can take hours as mentioned in other posts if you have slow internet.

Phew !

Side note: I had become very frustrated with the extreme slow performance of my iPad2 in the past year or so. With each new iOS version, the performance seemed to degrade. Even simple actions, like opening s simple App, took more than 10 seconds. Really unusable and certainly no fun.

So I used this opportunity to 'start from scratch'. hence my choice to NOT re-install a back-up, but configure my iPad as a brand new, factory default, tablet.

Initial observation shows very promising. This responsiveness looks much more like my old friend iPad from years ago!

I just installed a limited amount of Apps to monitor performance and will check if performance degrades when I install more Apps or at specific Apps.

Summing it all up: I was frustrated with the extremely slow performance of my old iPad2. I was frustrated with the iPad launch of yesterday as I was hoping to buy a new (standard) iPad with the A9X processor. Not a far too expensive iPad pro. Then more frustration since my iPad2 died after upgrade to iOS9.3.

But on the bright side, with help of the above posts I recovered my iPAD2 with iOS9.3. I took the deep dive and go for factory default, but the iPad2 seems to be soooo much more responsive. Now I don't need to buy a new iPad. Thanks Apple!

Thanks @torontokev. This helped me to recover my iPad !

Thanks for the steps. I have an iPad 2 3g and I still get the "cannot connect to remote server" issue.

Hello all, just a thought...

The reports all seem to be linked to:

• iPad2
• 3G variant (are there reports for iPad Wi-Fi only??)

The authentication problem occurs after you selected the Wi-Fi network you want to use, but then cannot connect to the authentication server.

Could it be possible that the iPad somehow still tries the 3G connection, but has other problems with it?

What happens if you still have the problem and remove the data SIM? Maybe you then force to use the Wi-Fi connection?

(I cannot try this anymore since I already recovered through boot to factory default with iTunes)

At what point do you get stuck?

After hitting that "try again" button about 100 times since last night, I gave in and restored my iPad 2. Luckily it had backed up before I installed 9.3 so it is working fine now and all my apps and data appear to be intact.

I don't know if it made a difference, but I did remove it from Find My Phone in iCloud.

I hope this method works for you other frustrated people.