Has this happened to anyone? I restored my phone and now I get no service after it completes the restore. It showed "congratulations your phone is now unlocked" upon completing the restore but now i get no service. What could've gone wrong? I've tried to reset network settings and reset iphone to no avail. Any help would be appreciated.
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Restored Verizon 5s and now get "No Service"
- Thread starter chocoyo00
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No because you will still show service even without activation. You just wont be able to make calls, use cell data, or send/receive text messages.
Try removing the sim card and putting it back it. Should give you the "No Sim" and then "Searching" and should acquire service. I've seen this issue before and that did it. If not try another restore and if all else fails call Verizon see if some provisioning is messed up on their end.
Thanks for the ideas. I actually went into an Apple store to have it looked at, and they ended up replacing the phone. Well, the phone came with iOS 7.0 installed, so when I plugged it in my Mac to restore a backup it asked me to update first, which I did. After the update was done, the problem happened again! I must've pressed the restore button instead of the update button, but anyhow, a restore is not supposed to damage a phone. Something is wrong, now I'm more likely forced to go back to the Apple store. This is very frustrating 
...
...I was on the phone with Verizon troubleshooting and was not able to fix it. I guess I will have to make another trip to the Apple store. I still cannot understand why a restore would cause this problem, I wonder if it has do to with the fact that after the restore is completed the "congratulations your phone is now unlocked" message comes up...maybe is removing the phone from Verizon's network somehow.
it happened!
if you could check your activation policy, you can see the policy has been changed from 2023 to 10.
Did you do activation after Oct. 15th?
This happened to my 5! Though it didn't say it is now unlocked, the phone just would not activate. I took it to apple and they replaced the phone after trying to restore it thru DFU and regular restore.
I even posted about it! https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1569312/
So to answer your question, yes! It has happened to others! Lol
Update: after visiting the Apple store again I was given another new phone and the problem was resolved. I will stay away from restoring my phone to prevent this from happening again, though I still don't know why that's causing the problem.
I wonder if the activation policy that's assigned to your phone is a bad one. iPhones only check the activation server policy when they are restored via ipsw restore.
And it makes sense that your 1st swap had the same issue after a restore. When a iPhone is swapped out by the Genius Bar, the activation policy from the original phone is moved to the replacement phone, but this takes usually around 10-30 minutes to occur from when the final paperwork is finished.
I'd guess that the 1st swap, from time of swap to when you performed a ipsw restore was more than 30 minutes. (Since you probably went home to connect to the Mac)
While Your 2nd swap, did you turn the phone on and use it within 10 minutes of swap?
And it makes sense that your 1st swap had the same issue after a restore. When a iPhone is swapped out by the Genius Bar, the activation policy from the original phone is moved to the replacement phone, but this takes usually around 10-30 minutes to occur from when the final paperwork is finished.
I'd guess that the 1st swap, from time of swap to when you performed a ipsw restore was more than 30 minutes. (Since you probably went home to connect to the Mac)
While Your 2nd swap, did you turn the phone on and use it within 10 minutes of swap?
Yes, I turned it on while at the Apple store. What is this activation policy you refer to? And how could I have been given a bad one? I purchased my phone off contract on release date and never had trouble before.
When you say "restore," are you doing a clean install of iOS 7.0.3? You're not trying to restore from a prior backup, are you?
Then you will want to determine what the problem is. In the future you are going to want to do another clean install, or unlock that phone, esp if you keep it for a few years or resell. You don't want this activation issue to linger -- and I think it is connected to your Verizon account of course, not the iPhone. Maybe one solution is to go to a Verizon store and get the phone in a true unlocked status, if it isn't in one already.
I've heard about that "true" and "false" unlock, but don't know what it means or how to do it. If I bought the phone off contract, shouldn't it be unlocked by default?
It's not a bad iPhone per say, from what I've read about your situation, it sounds like the activation policy is the issue.
Now as to activation policy, without going into too much detail, it's basically a policy that is assigned to each phone when they are purchased. Whether from Apple or a third party.
There is a lot more policies than just unlock or not.
For new phones that have never been used, whether retail new or replacement phones, they check the activation server for what policy they will be assigned. (All iPhones already have an assigned policy but check to see if it has been changed)
Whenever a phone is restored to factory state via downloading the software, it will check Apples server twice. Once to verify if that version software is allowed still and the second time when the phone is being activated to determine what the activation policy is for that phone. If you just erase all contents and settings, it already has the activation policy and will not check the server. (This is why you see when a previously locked iPhone is unlocked, they request you connect to iTunes and restore it)
I'd recommend inquiring about it but do not be surprised if a lot of employees are not very knowledgable about this.
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Thanks for the info. When I bought my phone, it was not activated at the store, I walked out with the phone still sealed, I wonder if this has something to do with that. If anything I'll just erase all content and settings if want to start clean again to be safe.