Activation Error and Developer Registration

[C DM]

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!

There are no random activation spot checks.

 

[Stupotpot]

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.

So you bash him for trying to get a freebie but admit to doing it yourself

and

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.

So everything he said (which sounds pretty plausible) must be made up because he hit UUDI rather than UDID? Well I'm glad sound reasoning and logic went into your decision making process and you didn't base your whole argument on (presumedly) a typo?!

Glad you offered constructive advice 🙄

 

[Unhyper]

I've heard of people having trouble even activating iOS 6 right now. Maybe stick with 6.1.4 if it activates until the maintenance is concluded, and then register your device and install 7.

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.

Apple wants developers to use UUIDs now in place of the deprecated UDID to identify devices. From your perspective there is no difference, so stop insulting him.

 

[Brian Y]

I've heard of people having trouble even activating iOS 6 right now. Maybe stick with 6.1.4 if it activates until the maintenance is concluded, and then register your device and install 7.

Apple wants developers to use UUIDs now in place of the deprecated UDID to identify devices. From your perspective there is no difference, so stop insulting him.

But it's easier to attack me than admit she was wrong 😉. I'll just report and move on 😛

And yes, UUID was a typo. As I'm sure she knows the UDID has been deprecated everywhere but the dev centre and I'm sure it will be there soon too.

I was just trying to warn people what systems are in place 😉. There *are* random activation checks which have been coming into force recently - as spotted by someone on reddit who deactivated theirs last week. They're obviously ramping up security after recent events, and the new non-leaking culture. I don't really care if people believe me or not - it won't be my phone randomly deactivating itself 😉

 

[Tyler23]

But it's easier to attack me than admit she was wrong 😉. I'll just report and move on 😛

And yes, UUID was a typo. As I'm sure she knows the UDID has been deprecated everywhere but the dev centre and I'm sure it will be there soon too.

I was just trying to warn people what systems are in place 😉. There *are* random activation checks which have been coming into force recently - as spotted by someone on reddit who deactivated theirs last week. They're obviously ramping up security after recent events, and the new non-leaking culture.

Any proof of this besides some random person on reddit?

I'm pretty sure it would be a bigger deal on here and other forums if there was anything like this taking place.

 

[aimee.elizabeth]

So you bash him for trying to get a freebie but admit to doing it yourself

and



So everything he said (which sounds pretty plausible) must be made up because he hit UUDI rather than UDID? Well I'm glad sound reasoning and logic went into your decision making process and you didn't base your whole argument on (presumedly) a typo?!

Glad you offered constructive advice 🙄

Sure it may seem whatever you want it to seem, but neither you or me know if it's the truth, which is why I asked him to offer proof or documentation, or else how would I know if he just pulled random facts out of his ass. But no, I didn't, he was spitting out all these supposed facts about how UDID checks work, and he doesn't even know the difference between a UDID and a UUID, one is unique to your phone, and the other unique to an app, which has nothing to do with activation on the OS. So yes, that did made me question his competence and where his facts came from.

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But it's easier to attack me than admit she was wrong 😉. I'll just report and move on 😛

And yes, UUID was a typo. As I'm sure she knows the UDID has been deprecated everywhere but the dev centre and I'm sure it will be there soon too.

I was just trying to warn people what systems are in place 😉. There *are* random activation checks which have been coming into force recently - as spotted by someone on reddit who deactivated theirs last week. They're obviously ramping up security after recent events, and the new non-leaking culture. I don't really care if people believe me or not - it won't be my phone randomly deactivating itself 😉

Or maybe you just don't want to admit that you're wrong and you're making assumptions based on a random user on reddit that claims Apple is now enforcing their policy. Sounds legit.

And yes I do know that UDIDs has been replaced in terms of apps identifying devices/users, but UDID is most relevant with registering your device for beta usage. And I'm sure you know that UDIDs will probably remain with registering devices since you know, they're basically like the social security number of your device.

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I've heard of people having trouble even activating iOS 6 right now. Maybe stick with 6.1.4 if it activates until the maintenance is concluded, and then register your device and install 7.

Apple wants developers to use UUIDs now in place of the deprecated UDID to identify devices. From your perspective there is no difference, so stop insulting him.

Apple wants developers to use UUIDs because UDIDs are sensitive information and the unique device does not = unique user. So yes, there is a huge difference, especially because UUIDs are for apps and UDIDs are for things like registering your device on a dev account.

 

[Unhyper]

But no, I didn't, he was spitting out all these supposed facts about how UDID checks work, and he doesn't even know the difference between a UDID and a UUID, one is unique to your phone, and the other unique to an app, which has nothing to do with activation on the OS. So yes, that did made me question his competence and where his facts came from.

No, it didn't. You already said in a previous post that you didn't know what a UUID was. You were oblivious and thought it was a typo, so you went with that; you only looked up the difference after the fact.

 

[aimee.elizabeth]

No, it didn't. You already said in a previous post that you didn't know what a UUID was. You were oblivious and thought it was a typo, so you went with that; you only looked up the difference after the fact.

Wow, that was sarcasm, guess I have to spell everything out for you as well.

 

[C DM]

The whole UDID thing aside, the real question that remains in regards to that is if there's any actual information (beyond an isolated Reddit case, or even two) that there are some sort of random activation checks happening. That has not been the case before and doesn't seem like much indicates that it is the case now.

 

[kmichalec]

My god. Don't worry girls, it's ok, you're all pretty. Can we stop now and get back to the topic at hand? Don't really care who did/didn't misspell what abbreviation.

The fact of the matter is, no one knows what Apple's doing behind the scenes with the Dev Center, or what they are planning as a result of this hack. Apple doesn't like being made to look bad, and they tend to come back hard and crack down when they get too relaxed and get taken advantage of. They very well could be working on locking out all the non devs if they feel it's a security concern or they may not even feel the two are related and it's not a big deal. But we do know they have the money/resources to do whatever they want, and we won't what that is until they bring stuff back online. We can all stop pretending like we know what's in the works.

It's odd that the OP's issue happened right when the Beta 1 was set to expire, but it's also not the usual message one would get for an expiration. However, it's also not the usual situation, as the activation server for the beta is also down at the moment due to the hack. So it's a perfect storm of exceptions at the moment.

How about we just keep posting what we are experiencing and see if we notice a new pattern/trend emerging?

 

[haq55]

Hate to break up the fight but I'm back with an interesting update.

I decided to take a risk and be reckless... As usual.

Instead of restoring to 6.1.4, I UPDATED to 6.1.4 (I know this is extremely risky). Upon doing the update and unlocking my phone, it appeared that almost all apps, contacts, songs, everything had been erased. I began to panic, but saw in iTunes that my phone was still at the same capacity, only most of the data was labeled as "Other". I figured there may be some compatibility issue, so I decided to proceed and re-update back up to iOS 7 Beta 3. Miraculously, after the update, the activation error message was gone, and all of the contents of my phone were restored (with the exception of my messages for some reason).

I have no idea why this worked the way it did, but I successfully bypassed the activation error by UPDATING down to iOS 6 instead of restoring. Doing this allowed me to keep the month and a half worth of data that I had accumulated since my last backup.

I'm just gonna attribute this victory to luck 😀

 

[senorstanley]

So I registered my iPhone for iOS7 and never updated. Of course, I am not locked out. I downlaoded the new beta and tried to restore it through iTunes but it tells me to turn off "find my iphone". Unfortunately, I can't access that since my phone is locked (or should I say "activation server is down").

Anyone know how I can turn of "find my iphone" through a computer?

 

[Tyler23]

So I registered my iPhone for iOS7 and never updated. Of course, I am not locked out. I downlaoded the new beta and tried to restore it through iTunes but it tells me to turn off "find my iphone". Unfortunately, I can't access that since my phone is locked (or should I say "activation server is down").

Anyone know how I can turn of "find my iphone" through a computer?

"Update" to iOS 6, turn it off, update/restore to iOS 7.

 

[senorstanley]

"Update" to iOS 6, turn it off, update/restore to iOS 7.

Thanks Tyler. But that did not work when I tried to downgrade it through iTunes. Still asks me to turn off "find my iphone".

 

[piranhadonna]

Thanks Tyler. But that did not work when I tried to downgrade it through iTunes. Still asks me to turn off "find my iphone".

If you are not worried about losing anything put into DFU and restore iOS 6. You will be prompted to enter user name and password after the restore.

 

[senorstanley]

If you are not worried about losing anything put into DFU and restore iOS 6. You will be prompted to enter user name and password after the restore.

Thanks piranhadonna. Looks like that will work.

 

[piranhadonna]

Thanks piranhadonna. Looks like that will work.

Welcome.