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Gator24765

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 13, 2009
781
3
Texas
Hello everyone. I just purchased an iphone 4s on craigslist. I checked esn and everything and it was clear.

Anyway, the phone was never activated. I am assuming the person bought it and never activated it just to resell for a little profit.


Few questions, first is there anyway to bypass the activation screen without putting in the persons account details? (zip and pin).


Second, is it possible to jailbreak an unactivated phone? I have tried with absinthe and redsn0w and both told me phone had to me activated.

Basically, I went into this deal assuming the phone had a BAD ESN but the girl was basically not tech savy at all and had no clue.

Third and last, I have Sprint, can I just activate the phone on my account for a bit just to get the phone up and running then activate back to my current phone a few minutes later?



Any help would be appreciated as I have searched the net for an answer and have not found anything.

Thanks.


Mods.. move this thread if needed.




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Gator24765

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 13, 2009
781
3
Texas
has anyone activated a phone, then switched back right away.. seems like it would make my current phone defunct for a while.
 

lordofthereef

macrumors G5
Nov 29, 2011
13,161
3,720
Boston, MA
has anyone activated a phone, then switched back right away.. seems like it would make my current phone defunct for a while.

We have done it on Verizon. With Verizon you just call a number, and it's done virtually instantly. I don't see why this would take you more than 15 minutes or so. Hell, you may even be able to tell the rep what you are trying to do, have him/her activate your iPhone, and then activate your other phone right away on the same phone call.
 

Gator24765

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 13, 2009
781
3
Texas
We have done it on Verizon. With Verizon you just call a number, and it's done virtually instantly. I don't see why this would take you more than 15 minutes or so. Hell, you may even be able to tell the rep what you are trying to do, have him/her activate your iPhone, and then activate your other phone right away on the same phone call.


yeah calling would be the best option probably. I tried activating online and it didn't work .



Ideally if anyone knows how to bypass this process so I can jailbreak that would be sweet. I have never dealt with an unactivated phone before.
 

lordofthereef

macrumors G5
Nov 29, 2011
13,161
3,720
Boston, MA
yeah calling would be the best option probably. I tried activating online and it didn't work .



Ideally if anyone knows how to bypass this process so I can jailbreak that would be sweet. I have never dealt with an unactivated phone before.

You used to be able to "hacktivate". That doesn't seem to be the case anymore with iOS 5.x
 

Gator24765

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 13, 2009
781
3
Texas
You used to be able to "hacktivate". That doesn't seem to be the case anymore with iOS 5.x


Yeah thats what I am looking for.


So I activated in onto my account but the activation screen wont go away and still has the old persons account info.



I then reactivated my current phone.

I kow the ESN number is good but just want to get past the activation screen.

I guess I will take it into a sprint store.
 

lordofthereef

macrumors G5
Nov 29, 2011
13,161
3,720
Boston, MA
Yeah thats what I am looking for.


So I activated in onto my account but the activation screen wont go away and still has the old persons account info.



I then reactivated my current phone.

I kow the ESN number is good but just want to get past the activation screen.

I guess I will take it into a sprint store.

Add the phone on your account and do a restore (as new phone) in iTunes.
 

Gator24765

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 13, 2009
781
3
Texas
Well Sprint said they had never seen that screen before and sent me to Apple. Apple said they had never seen that screen before either and called Sprint. Everyone was confused. Apple decided to give me a brand new iphone.. This was one weird situation.


So after switching between this phone and my own phone back and forth multiple times nothing seemed to work. The internet then stopped working on my current phone and no one could figure it out.. So Apple replaced my current iphone 4 too. This was the weirdest day ever.


On the bright side I walked out of Apple with two brand new phones. I wasn't even expecting to get any new ones. I thought it was a simple fix.
 
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