Activation Error and Developer Registration

haq55 · Jul 23, 2013

I want to start off by saying this post is not asking how to obtain iOS 7 illegally. What I'm asking is quite the opposite actually.

So I will admit to having obtained iOS 7 is a questionable fashion, and am finally facing the consequences of my actions. An error message now appears upon unlocking my phone stating that my device is "not registered as part of the iPhone Developer Program." Instead of backing up to a prior OS, I made the decision to actually register for the Developer Program, and have a question about it.

What will happen upon registration? Will my phone just magically work again? I need to know if I'm going to lose any information on my phone by having to restore to a prior backup even after registration.

So what I'm really asking is, will all the information that is currently on my phone be kept if i simply register for the Developer Program?

Thanks in advance for the help

aimee.elizabeth · Jul 23, 2013

haq55 said:
I want to start off by saying this post is not asking how to obtain iOS 7 illegally. What I'm asking is quite the opposite actually.

So I will admit to having obtained iOS 7 is a questionable fashion, and am finally facing the consequences of my actions. An error message now appears upon unlocking my phone stating that my device is "not registered as part of the iPhone Developer Program." Instead of backing up to a prior OS, I made the decision to actually register for the Developer Program, and have a question about it.

What will happen upon registration? Will my phone just magically work again? I need to know if I'm going to lose any information on my phone by having to restore to a prior backup even after registration.

So what I'm really asking is, will all the information that is currently on my phone be kept if i simply register for the Developer Program?

Thanks in advance for the help

Basically you thought you were smart enough to bypass the UDID check, and you failed. Next time, I suggest you do more research before you try another beta, or anything technologically related really. I personally didn't spend 99 dollars, but I commend you for doing the "right" thing.

Anyways, once your registration goes through, you have to register your UDID, which can be found on iTunes with your phone connected, and once you've registered your UDID, I suggest you do a clean restore then use the backup. No, you will not lose your information, you can just "restore from backup" and choose the backup you want, and then everything'll be fine.

haq55 · Jul 23, 2013

aimee.elizabeth said:
Basically you thought you were smart enough to bypass the UDID check, and you failed. Next time, I suggest you do more research before you try another beta, or anything technologically related really. I personally didn't spend 99 dollars, but I commend you for doing the "right" thing.

Anyways, once your registration goes through, you have to register your UDID, which can be found on iTunes with your phone connected, and once you've registered your UDID, I suggest you do a clean restore then use the backup. No, you will not lose your information, you can just "restore from backup" and choose the backup you want, and then everything'll be fine.

I suppose I should clarify, I have had iOS 7 running successfully for about a month, so the initial attempt at by passing the UDID is not the problem. Only just a few hours ago did this error randomly effect my phone. Due to this, my last backup was from when I originally put iOS 7 on my phone. Losing a months worth of data would not be ideal.

Mengels7 · Jul 23, 2013

I believe Beta 2 just expired. Try the third beta.

aimee.elizabeth · Jul 23, 2013

haq55 said:
I suppose I should clarify, I have had iOS 7 running successfully for about a month, so the initial attempt at by passing the UDID is not the problem. Only just a few hours ago did this error randomly effect my phone. Due to this, my last backup was from when I originally put iOS 7 on my phone. Losing a months worth of data would not be ideal.

I see, well right now you cannot do a clean restore, so I suggest going back to iOS 6, and then do whatever you did to get to 7 again, and restore from backup and see if the activation error still occurs. Right now the dev center is still down, so even if you wanted to, you can't register your UDID until after it's back up. So the only way to solve your problem is to try again from scratch. But to answer your main question, no you will not lose any data after you bought a dev license.

Edit: The poster above me may be correct as well if you haven't upgraded to beta 3

haq55 · Jul 23, 2013

Mengels7 said:
I believe Beta 2 just expired. Try the third beta.

You actually are right, that is my problem. But am I able to upgrade to Beta 3 if I have the expired OS on the phone?

aimee.elizabeth · Jul 23, 2013

haq55 said:
You actually are right, that is my problem. But am I able to upgrade to Beta 3 if I have the expired OS on the phone?

Yes, but since you cannot do it OTA, you have to get a hold of the .ipsw and do it manually. And since right now the dev center is down, you have to look elsewhere.

Mengels7 · Jul 23, 2013

haq55 said:
You actually are right, that is my problem. But am I able to upgrade to Beta 3 if I have the expired OS on the phone?

Try it through your computer. Same thing happened to a friend of mine tonight and he resolved the issue by upgrading. You'll need to get the beta 3 ipsw for your device, not too hard to find.

muuhamed · Jul 23, 2013

The problem is that you restored to iOS 7 without being registered.

What you had to do is hold option+check for update on mac or shift+check for update on windows

You don't need a Dev account and make sure you get the third beta

haq55 · Jul 23, 2013

So I went through the motions (shift click on check for update, select new firmware, etc.) and everything went smoothly until the very end. The phone updated to Beta 3, but still asks me for activation. So am I basically screwed?

C DM · Jul 23, 2013

Mengels7 said:
I believe Beta 2 just expired. Try the third beta.

Pretty sure it's just beta 1 that expired not 2.

haq55 · Jul 23, 2013

C DM said:
Pretty sure it's just beta 1 that expired not 2.

It's beta 1 that I had.

nihl · Jul 24, 2013

haq55 said:
So I went through the motions (shift click on check for update, select new firmware, etc.) and everything went smoothly until the very end. The phone updated to Beta 3, but still asks me for activation. So am I basically screwed?

Firstly try restoring your phone to the latest iOS 6 and then shift update to iOS 7 beta 3.

Brian Y · Jul 24, 2013

Guys - that's not the error he's getting. Apple are (finally) cracking down on people using pirate copies of the beta. If it was expired, he'd get the "Activation server unavailable" message.

To do it, you'll need to buy the developer program, then register your phone's UUID in the provisioning portal. Problem - you cannot currently access the developer center or the provisioning portal in it. So you can't register your UUID. No ETA on when it's gonna be back, either.

But ask yourself - $99 to try some software before everyone else? Really?

aimee.elizabeth · Jul 24, 2013

Brian Y said:
Guys - that's not the error he's getting. Apple are (finally) cracking down on people using pirate copies of the beta. If it was expired, he'd get the "Activation server unavailable" message.

To do it, you'll need to buy the developer program, then register your phone's UUID in the provisioning portal. Problem - you cannot currently access the developer center or the provisioning portal in it. So you can't register your UUID. No ETA on when it's gonna be back, either.

But ask yourself - $99 to try some software before everyone else? Really?

Um no, the fact that the OP just admitted that he was in beta 1 proves that it's not a mere coincidence that his phone just randomly decided to reactivate. All he needs to do is find beta 3's .ipsw and get it on his phone. As for his UDID, not sure what UUID is, he can register that when the dev center is up and running and then he would be able to do fresh installs without worrying about the UDID check.

Brian Y · Jul 24, 2013

aimee.elizabeth said:
Um no, the fact that the OP just admitted that he was in beta 1 proves that it's not a mere coincidence that his phone just randomly decided to reactivate. All he needs to do is find beta 3's .ipsw and get it on his phone. As for his UDID, not sure what UUID is, he can register that when the dev center is up and running and then he would be able to do fresh installs without worrying about the UDID check.

Uhmm yes. Read the message he posted.

This is the screen: http://i.imgur.com/thU23Hl.png

One by one, Apple is now disabling iOS 7 devices that aren't properly registered in the program. Kinda funny really considering how much crap there was in this forum for anyone who dared criticise people for obtaining the beta illegally.

P.S. It's in the terms and conditions that you agree to when running the beta that they can deactivate your phone at any time.

Edit: don't believe me - check reddit.

aimee.elizabeth · Jul 24, 2013

Brian Y said:
Uhmm yes. Read the message he posted.

This is the screen: http://i.imgur.com/thU23Hl.png

One by one, Apple is now disabling iOS 7 devices that aren't properly registered in the program. Kinda funny really considering how much crap there was in this forum for anyone who dared criticise people for obtaining the beta illegally.

P.S. It's in the terms and conditions that you agree to when running the beta that they can deactivate your phone at any time.

Edit: don't believe me - check reddit.

Right, because the fact that beta 1 expires today has absolutely nothing to do with this. And I'm sure Apple is just devoting all their manpower to deactivate all non-registered phones with iOS 7 one-by-one!

And besides, OP already purchased a dev license, so there's nothing illegal about it.

Brian Y · Jul 24, 2013

aimee.elizabeth said:
Right, because the fact that beta 1 expires today has absolutely nothing to do with this. And I'm sure Apple is just devoting all their manpower to deactivate all non-registered phones with iOS 7 one-by-one!

And besides, OP already purchased a dev license, so there's nothing illegal about it.

Again. Read. The. Message.

If it was because it had expired, he would get an "Activation server not available" message.

. What's so hard about that point?!? I'm not going to argue with you - because I know I'm right. Just read the message again. The expiration date is just a trigger, here's what happens:

- iOS 7 has default deactivation date.
- iOS 7 periodically checks activation, and also checks it on the deactivation date
- When this date it reached - the phone must be reactivated
- The server will reply with (essentially) one of 3 things - "activate", "expired" or "invalid uuid".

Case 1: Activate - the phone is reactivated, and the same check is performed every 24 hours.

Case 2: Expire - the beta has expired and hasn't been renewed, and thus the activation profile is revoked.

Case 3: Invalid UUID. If a reactivation request is sent from a device which is unregistered, it is flagged against the activation servers as being invalid/OOP (out of program). An OOP device cannot therefore be reactivated using the development servers until it is re-enrolled in the program.

Before now, Apple have never really enforced Case 3 for iOS 6 or 7. They are now, however. Which means that when a beta expired, or your phone does a random activation spot-check - its activation profile will be revoked and marked as OOP.

And no, apple aren't devoting their manpower - but a server somewhere obviously is

.

Also - how exactly has he bought it - the developer centre is still down!

aimee.elizabeth · Jul 24, 2013

Brian Y said:
Again. Read. The. Message.

If it was because it had expired, he would get an "Activation server not available" message. . What's so hard about that point?!? I'm not going to argue with you - because I know I'm right. Just read the message again. The expiration date is just a trigger, here's what happens:

- iOS 7 has default deactivation date.
- iOS 7 periodically checks activation, and also checks it on the deactivation date
- When this date it reached - the phone must be reactivated
- The server will reply with (essentially) one of 3 things - "activate", "expired" or "invalid uuid".

Case 1: Activate - the phone is reactivated, and the same check is performed every 24 hours.

Case 2: Expire - the beta has expired and hasn't been renewed, and thus the activation profile is revoked.

Case 3: Invalid UUID. If a reactivation request is sent from a device which is unregistered, it is flagged against the activation servers as being invalid/OOP (out of program). An OOP device cannot therefore be reactivated using the development servers until it is re-enrolled in the program.

Before now, Apple have never really enforced Case 3 for iOS 6 or 7. They are now, however. Which means that when a beta expired, or your phone does a random activation spot-check - its activation profile will be revoked and marked as OOP.

And no, apple aren't devoting their manpower - but a server somewhere obviously is .

Also - how exactly has he bought it - the developer centre is still down!

The fact that you can't even spell UDID right makes me question all your so called "information", so unless you can provide me the source, I'm going to disregard everything you say

. And the fact is that the "server unavailable" error has been around for years and is not exclusively related to betas expiring, so basically what you said about it was made up.

haq55 · Jul 24, 2013

So is there ANY way to get my phone working again without losing a month's worth of data?

aimee.elizabeth · Jul 24, 2013

haq55 said:
So is there ANY way to get my phone working again without losing a month's worth of data?

Are you sure you did shift update? Try again and make sure you didn't click shift restore. And don't sorry, in the long run, you will get your data back one way or another because you have a backup. When the dev center is back up and if you decide to spend the $99, then you would be able to have the betas with no problem. For now, try what I suggested again, because unless Apple closed the back door, which I doubt they did, then you should still be able to get on beta 3 no problem.

haq55 · Jul 24, 2013

aimee.elizabeth said:
Are you sure you did shift update? Try again and make sure you didn't click shift restore. And don't sorry, in the long run, you will get your data back one way or another because you have a backup. When the dev center is back up and if you decide to spend the $99, then you would be able to have the betas with no problem. For now, try what I suggested again, because unless Apple closed the back door, which I doubt they did, then you should still be able to get on beta 3 no problem.

Yes I've done shift-click on check for update. The update goes fine, but once I unlock my phone again, it still brings up the error.

batting1000 · Jul 24, 2013

haq55 said:
Yes I've done shift-click on check for update. The update goes fine, but once I unlock my phone again, it still brings up the error.

You'll probably just have to restore. Updating from new software to "old" software isn't recommended.

C DM · Jul 24, 2013

haq55 said:
Yes I've done shift-click on check for update. The update goes fine, but once I unlock my phone again, it still brings up the error.

Did you first if back to iOS 6 and got that running fine?

ominx · Jul 24, 2013

I'll give this a shot.

Basically your phone is not activated... at all. Not on iOS 7, not on iOS 6, not at all.

Whether it happened due to beta expiration or Apple dropping the hammer is irrelevant to you at this point I'm sure. Bottom line is you need to activate your phone. So, restore to 6.1.4 and activate it. Then do your opt + update magic if you want back on Beta 3 and you should be ok.

Or... just wait until you can register your UDID.

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