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Activation server is unavailable

  • 4 September 2018
  • 3 replies
  • 124 views

Cave2041
New
 Contributor
I bought a new phone and I’m trying to put my sim in it and neither the new sim or my old sim works in the new phone. It lets me choose a WiFi and then when it says it’s setting up a message pops up “the activation server is temporarily unavailable please try again later”- I’ve done this for 2 days and the same message pops up every time

Best answer by Mohammed

Hello @Cave2041,

I've been dong some reading into this.

Where did you purchase the handset from, was it purchased from us?

I've extracted the relevant bits of what I found:

You might get the message that the Activation Server is unavailable:

  • It really is unavailable. Rare, but it happens. You can check its status at: https://www.apple.com/support/systemstatus/
  • Your antivirus or firewall is blocking access to gs.apple.com. Try temporarily disabling it.
  • Your router's firewall is blocking access to gs.apple.com or to a port that it requires (443).
  • Your phone is jailbroken, or it was at some time in the past. Try doing a DFU restore (google it).
  • Your computer was used to hack or jailbreak some iOS device in the past (not necessarily the device with the current problem), and its network database was corrupted. Hacking includes using some questionable apps such as recboot, reiboot, Tinyumbrella, redsn0w, etc. If this is a possibility inspect your computer's hosts file. If there are any lines in the file that reference gs.apple.com that is the explanation. You will need to rebuild the hosts file.
  • Your phone has a hardware problem. Take it to an Apple store for diagnosis.

Apply have a great topic here: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201407 that already has some steps you can take to combat this.

Have a look and let me know.

Mohammed
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3 replies

Mohammed
iD Mobile Employee
  • iD Mobile Employee
  • 7962 replies
  • Answer
  • September 6, 2018
Hello @Cave2041,

I've been dong some reading into this.

Where did you purchase the handset from, was it purchased from us?

I've extracted the relevant bits of what I found:

You might get the message that the Activation Server is unavailable:

  • It really is unavailable. Rare, but it happens. You can check its status at: https://www.apple.com/support/systemstatus/
  • Your antivirus or firewall is blocking access to gs.apple.com. Try temporarily disabling it.
  • Your router's firewall is blocking access to gs.apple.com or to a port that it requires (443).
  • Your phone is jailbroken, or it was at some time in the past. Try doing a DFU restore (google it).
  • Your computer was used to hack or jailbreak some iOS device in the past (not necessarily the device with the current problem), and its network database was corrupted. Hacking includes using some questionable apps such as recboot, reiboot, Tinyumbrella, redsn0w, etc. If this is a possibility inspect your computer's hosts file. If there are any lines in the file that reference gs.apple.com that is the explanation. You will need to rebuild the hosts file.
  • Your phone has a hardware problem. Take it to an Apple store for diagnosis.

Apply have a great topic here: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201407 that already has some steps you can take to combat this.

Have a look and let me know.

Mohammed

Cave2041
New
 Contributor
  • Author
  • New
 Contributor
  • 1 reply
  • September 9, 2018
Thank you very much
I rang ID to see if there was a problem with the servers and it was all clear so the suggested it is a problem with the handset and that I need to take it to an Apple store to get the actual handset unlocked.
Thank you for your help

Mohammed
iD Mobile Employee
  • iD Mobile Employee
  • 7962 replies
  • September 10, 2018
Cave2041 wrote:
Thank you very much
I rang ID to see if there was a problem with the servers and it was all clear so the suggested it is a problem with the handset and that I need to take it to an Apple store to get the actual handset unlocked.
Thank you for your help

Not a problem @Cave2041,

Glad I could provide some assistance on this.

Mohammed