iPhone 5s won't activate

Question

iPhone 5s won't activate

switched my kid's iPhone 5s from consumer cellular to my att account. it keeps getting hung up on a 'activation required' message and will not let me go any further. press home, the passcode comes up briefly, then if refreshes to say 'activation required'. won't go any further. I've done the following:

1. used 2 different SIM cards from att - same problem

2. switched to old consumer cellular SIM, everything ok

3. shut off 'find my iPhone' app

4. tried to do this through iTunes and wireless

nothing. any help is greatly appreciated

the att rep said it must be something with apple because the att SIM is showing 'LTE' at the top of the screen

iPhone 5s, won't activate with new SIM card

Posted on Dec 13, 2017 12:54 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

madra31

Level 6

9,940 points

Dec 13, 2017 1:00 PM in response to kingofallbacon

Did you have Consumer Cellular unlock the phones first?

If so, all that should be needed is to insert the AT&T sim.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201328

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Answer 2

Dec 13, 2017 12:57 PM in response to kingofallbacon

it will also say, after restart, "your iPhone could not be activated because the activation server is temporarily unavailable. try connecting your iPhone to iTunes to activate it, or try again in a couple of minutes." which i've been doing for the last day or so

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Answer 3

Rudegar

Level 10

170,706 points

Dec 13, 2017 12:58 PM in response to kingofallbacon

The apn settings has to be set to att for it to go on the internet if its not you need to be on wifi and manually set the internet data settings apn later on

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Answer 4

Dec 13, 2017 1:02 PM in response to kingofallbacon

in iTunes, after about 3 minutes of failing to activate, it says "the iPhone could not be activated because the activation information was invalid. please try again later'

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