“Could Not Activate iPhone 4S” Error? Here Are Fixes for AT&T Activation Problems
The hoards of people attempting to activate their brand new iPhone 4S have overloaded AT&T’s activation servers, resulting in some users receiving error messages saying “Could Not Activate iPhone”, followed by the message details:
“Your activation is still pending. You will receive an email notification once your activation is complete.
We’re sorry. There was a problem connecting to the server. Please try again later.”
Making it beyond that, many users are stuck at a screen that simply says “Activation” with the spinning wait cursor, alongside a message of “It may take up to 3 minutes to activate your iPhone.” In some cases, users have reported seeing that message for hours, not just minutes. Even attempting to activate through iTunes can result in the error message.
Possible solutions to “Could Not Activate” iPhone error:
- Using your prior iPhone, dial AT&T’s 611 hotline and talk to a human for manual activation
- Visit AT&T’s online activation web page here and try to activate through the web
- Email AT&T Customer Care directly: attcustomercare@att.com with your account number and contact number and request direct activation
- Tweet AT&T Customer Care at @attcustomercare (they will probably tell you to email them)
- Simply wait it out and try again later when AT&T’s servers catch up to demand
The activation trouble is reasonably widespread in the USA, and there are multiple growing forum threads on the matter already. Currently, CDMA providers such as Sprint and Verizon do not seem to be undergoing any problems activating phones.
This is the second hiccup this week due to immense demand of Apple’s latest and greatest releases. The first was a series of “internal error” messages related to installing iOS 5, the most prominent being Error 3200 and 3002.
If you want to buy an iPhone 4S, here’s where you can find one today.
Folks, what worked from me was to go in to the restore mode.. hold power and home button till reboot and keep holding on to the home button…
then plug in to itunes..
nothing happens..
power off and power on unplugged from the computer..
I went through the welcome screens and registered with my provider att
I pre-ordered my 4s from AT&T, and upgraded from my 3gs.
My problem is, I don’t even get the activation sequence in the first place! The screen where it asks you to enter your billing information, the screen telling you it could take up to 3 minutes, etc…none of it even occurs!
I tried resetting my phone to factory settings, and this still didn’t work in terms of getting the screen to show.
I called AT&T and tried the whole “give them your IMEI and ICCID and they’ll do it for you” and no luck!
I tried plugging it into iTunes but iTunes doesn’t give me any activation prompts either!
What in the world am I to do???
ugh now im left with no iphone4 or the 4s. I keep getting sim card is not associated with the account? I hope they at least pay us back with itunes giftcards =) thats the least they can do
Hey guys, I did a double hard reset on my new iphone 4s and went through the standalone activation again and it went right through. This after 2 hours of trying this afternoon. Hope this helps. Let me know if it works for anyone else.
THANK YOU!!!! you’re officially my new best friend:)
whats the hard reset?
Call 611, talk to a PERSON, give them your sim card and IMEI number from the iPhone, activated instantly. I was on hold for 2 minutes at most.
You guys are angry.
Looks like preorder problems mostly, activations in most retailers went fine today.
OMG i finally got it to work! just restart your phone (press both buttons and wait for the apple logo to appear) and do the process again. woo!
I’ve waited for my “email activation” for over 4 hours. This works! Make sure you hold them down until the apple comes up. Don’t let go of the buttons till the apple sign appears.
Is the slooooow activation issue only with Apple.com purchased AT&T phones? Or any AT&T customer trying to set up their 4S?
James you crack me up… and don’t even talk about the iPhone 5 coming out — I haven’t thought about that yet!! Thanks for the added stress — I need another drink now..
LOL… I think iPhone 5 has a bartender app that mixes cocktails for you, so that’ll be nice. :)
ACT005: We apologize for any inconvenience. iPhone users must connect to iTunes to activate service. All other users click here to register your mobile number and update your new equipment. If you need further assistance, please contact Customer Service at 1-800-331-0500.
this is lame. had my iPhone 4S mailed into me, then tried to activate it, and no luck. while my brother went into Apple at 4am and waited in line, and got it activated on the spot. AT&T IM NEVER RENEWING ANOTHER CONTRACT AS LONG AS I LIVE. YOU GUYS SUCK. =)
i’ve never been so pissed off at AT&T in my life. i’ve been waiting hours and hours for this thing to activate
YOU chose to buy the iPhone on day #1… you KNEW this would be the situation (or you should have). It ALWAYS HAPPENS!!!
2007 : http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9738300-7.html
2008 : http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/11/itunes-activation-servers-go-down-iphone-3g-customers-being-sen/
2009 : http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2009/06/iphone-3g-s-activation-delays-some-time-three-hours-or-2-days.html
2010 : http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/news/comments/iphone-4-early-activation-issues-restart-itunes/
I used the website link from here, got mine activated on first attempt.
The website link above also worked for me on the first try. The phone activated immediately. I had tried online activation from AT&T Premier services as they told me to in the confirmation email when I ordered the phone, but it did not work at all.
I called ATT at 611 and they tried to activate my new Iphone 4S manually and they could not get it done. I have now been trying to activate this phone for 3 1/2 hours. ATT just does not prepare for these Apple events.
According to @attcustomercare everything is FINE! This is what they sent me. http://i56.tinypic.com/167319g.png
Nice blocking out your twitter name, too bad you forgot to remove it from the reply! @jefferylaguna
Verizon and Sprint don’t have “these issues” because they have FAR fewer iPhone users than AT&T.
That’s like asking “Why does @New York always have so many traffic issues? @Maine and @New Hampshire don’t have an issue.”
(I found it funny you took the time to put @ in front of verizon and sprint)
Tried to use AT&T website and got this message:
ACT005: We apologize for any inconvenience. iPhone users must connect to iTunes to activate service. All other users click here to register your mobile number and update your new equipment. If you need further assistance, please contact Customer Service at 1-800-331-0500.
Yeah I got the same error. None of these work for me.
Are you a new subscriber or did you upgrade from an iPhone? There are a lot of mixed messages, there doesn’t seem to be much consistency from AT&T right now.
Yeah, but in a few weeks you’ll be trying to decide whether to hold out for the iPhone 5
That IS an issue. iPhone 5 is likely a much bigger upgrade than 4S (which is barely an upgrade at all). It would suck to grab the 4S and then have the 5 come out early in 2012 or something.
Good point D… maybe I’ll stick with iPhone 4. :-/
You are easily swayed.
Only cuz I’m tall and it’s windy.
Well isn’t James so much better than the rest of us? I hope you feel good looking down on everyone else, James.
hahaha. amen.
I don’t look down at everyone else… just people who make impatient decisions and then whine about it. It’s just like when Lion came out and all these idiots complained about long download times a couple hours after the release. What did you think would happen??? It just came out!
If you want to wait in painfully long lines for phones, vampire & Harry Potter movies or whatever to “be the first”… knock yourself out. But don’t cry about the long waits or crappy seats when you knew that’s what you were going to get.
I look down on people who whine and look down on other people who make impatient decisions and then whine.
Why do you feel the need to post this? Do you have nothing more productive to do?
Anyone who complains about this should get a foot up their @$$. It happens EVERY TIME a new iPhone model comes out. What did you expect?
It’ll be the exact same phone in 3 or 4 weeks when I walk into a quiet Apple Store and pleasantly buy my iPhone 4S off the shelf and activate it with ease.
You are worthy of admiration.
Bourgeoisie much? ignorant twit look it up
ctrl+c-ctrl+t-Ctrl-v enter
called 611 for activation. no prompts to activate. Got a person and they couldn’t do it over the phone.
I called 611 as well and got the same result.
Have been trying to activate mine sporadically from the phone and from iTunes for about 4 hours.
Ifail
Why iFail? The Verizon and Sprint networks seem to have no problems covering the user activation of the iPhone.
All I can say is the first Siri reminder I will be setting is to remind myself NOT to re-up on the AT&T network next go around.
Do you understand the percentage of iPhone users that are still on AT&T? Verizon and Sprint still has a minute share and aren’t dealing with the massive server activity that AT&T is.
We’ve spent two days in Verizon hell trying to activate the new iphone – is there an end in sight? We thought switching from AT&T to Verizon would be a breeze!