I have been having the same issue and I have been dealing with this all day. 😟 Here's what I did: I installed the new iOS 9.3 version this morning, after it was done installing it came to this "Activate iPhone" screen which I have never came across before. The previous installations never asked me that. So, it asked me "This iPhone is linked to an Apple ID. Enter the Apple ID and password that were used to set up this iPhone. (d●●●●●@icloud.com)" The BIG problem is that I cannot remember the AppleID and the Password 😠
Therefore, I went to to icloud.com and created a new AppleID and password to see if I can access the home screen. I typed in the new Apple ID and password and my iPhone 4s didn't take it. Now, I am stuck. I tried to access thru iTunes and ran into the same issue and the same message, "This iPhone is linked to an Apple ID. Enter the Apple ID and password that were used to set up this iPhone. (d●●●●●@icloud.com)" came up,
Oh, I tried to log into icloud with my new account and it came across an error message, too. 😟 So, I can't proceed in fixing my issue.
Any solutions to this issue?