Any way of activating without a SIM?

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Any way of activating without a SIM?

I have an iPhone 5C which worked well until there were connection issues - "searching..." (when it wasn't) and so on. So I followed all the instructions on Apple Support and finally did the suggested full restore using iTunes.

That went fine but now I have no way of activating it. iTunes just tells me to put in a SIM but the phone doesn't recognise it - I've tried three known working ones. Wifi still connects but it won't activate that way either. I've read it's probably all down to the baseband chip and is not that uncommon for 5C's.

However, if I could activate it, it'd still be useful as a camera, webcam, browser, calculator, micro iPad etc etc etc. Doubly annoying really as all of that was working fine before - and following the "official" instructions has left me with a paperweight.

Any way round it?

iPhone 5c, iOS 10.3.3

Posted on Mar 14, 2018 10:49 AM

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Answer 1

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Limnos

Level 10

411,223 points

Mar 14, 2018 10:50 AM in response to ancient person

If you can't activate your iPhone - Apple Support - https://support.apple.com/HT201407 - "If your iPhone can't be activated or an alert says the activation server is unavailable or the SIM card is unsupported, learn what to do."

Mar 2018 - https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8316036 - "While the phone can function without a sim card once its been activated, activation requires a sim card."

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Answer 2

Mar 14, 2018 11:14 AM in response to Limnos

Thank you. I'd tried all of those ideas one way or the other I think.

It has now activated. Weirdly! The SIM was the the same one that iTunes said wasn't there, but I didn't have it plugged into iTunes - I just left it to activate over Wifi. And it did, eventually. Then, once I'd been through the setup bits, over the home screen a box appeared saying "Incorrect wifi password". Now if the wifi password was incorrect how did it activate itself over Wifi?!?!? That's bizarre. I'll mark it as solved which it isn't really - just file it alongside 6x9=42.

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Any way of activating without a SIM?

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