AT&T Activations Servers Overloaded with iPhone 4S Launch

[alent1234]

That's why you buy some adhoc server time/bandwidth from amazon/rackspace, etc. It wouldn't take too long to take their activation to the cloud unless they are still running this garbage on some monolithic mainframe and COBOL.

this is probably a database issue and not something that will be fixed by da cloud

the rule with OLTP is you can only read/write to a piece of data at one time. depending on their schema a single activation could be locking too many data rows so people have to wait.

my guess is they have a table for pending activations and a process that reads it and then activates the phone which is why it activates by itself after a few hours

 

[mathewr]

finally. never got the email that i was good to go. did the activation through phone not itunes.

good luck to all

 

[Herm]

AT&T Your order has shipped email/activation

Sorry if this has been asked and answered, but are people following the activation steps that are in the "your order has shipped" email from AT&T? I'm wondering why it is so specific as to doing the steps in order and why i have to sync to iTunes, transfer all my music, etc., before I can activate?

 

[StudentDoc]

iPhone

Just talked to AT&T and they said that Apple is reporting a 2 hour delay in activation of iPhones currently. But she did point out that the iPhone's must all be activated through Apple, including the Sprint and Verizon iPhones. So expect a delay folks!

 

[mindquest]

this might have been posted above somewhere, but I just got my AT&T 4s, then I just went to their 'Activation website' at https://www.wireless.att.com/activations and it activated instantly after restarting...just a suggestion if anyone is having issues.

This worked like a charm, my iPhone won't upgrade, I entered in my info on the web page waited 10 minutes then restarted my iPhone. The iPhone 4s came right up with 3G.

I just completed this (02:47 PM CST) and total time was around 15 minutes.

 

[tidalwave1]

I ordered through Apple and called AT&T. Here's what they told me. If you get to the point where it tells you that your activation is partial and wait for an e-mail that that put you in the queue and should take 15-30 minutes. If that hasn't happened cycle through the power down and up cycle then go through the activation process and it finally worked!!!

I must say that I was really impressed with the AT&T technical support person I got. I wish that I had remembered his name.

 

[bwphoto]

This worked like a charm, my iPhone won't upgrade, I entered in my info on the web page waited 10 minutes then restarted my iPhone. The iPhone 4s came right up with 3G.

I just completed this (02:47 PM CST) and total time was around 15 minutes.

I tried this and got an error message that iPhone users must activate through iTunes.

 

[ratclone]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

This is what worked for me as well

 

[mindquest]

I tried this and got an error message that iPhone users must activate through iTunes.

I hardwired connected to iTunes on my iMac then restored my iPhone 3GS backup to the 4S. It didn't activate my new phone so that is when I used the URL and activated the 4S. I did not use WiFi at any time during this process.

 

[bdins]

4s activation pending and/or please try again!?

Are we supposed to wait for the email or keep trying again??!! Unclear!!

 

[kjs862]

This worked like a charm, my iPhone won't upgrade, I entered in my info on the web page waited 10 minutes then restarted my iPhone. The iPhone 4s came right up with 3G.

I just completed this (02:47 PM CST) and total time was around 15 minutes.

I'm getting this error message when trying to do this.

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.

 

[Prentice]

I ordered through Apple and called AT&T. Here's what they told me. If you get to the point where it tells you that your activation is partial and wait for an e-mail that that put you in the queue and should take 15-30 minutes. If that hasn't happened cycle through the power down and up cycle then go through the activation process and it finally worked!!!

I must say that I was really impressed with the AT&T technical support person I got. I wish that I had remembered his name.

Yeahhh that's BS as far as my experience goes. I first got the 'wait for the email' message four hours ago, and I haven't gotten the email. I've restarted a few times, tried activating on the phone again, and via iTunes, still nothing. I also called AT&T and the tech switched the IMEI and SIM card numbers on my account...still nothing.

 

[nwcs]

Yep, spam it. Mine just came through. No email was sent to me.

 

[Kram1975]

Activated. through iTunes. took about 100 attempts.

 

[dc0511]

I haven't been prompted for activation yet. I've restored a few times and still no luck. My phone has just been synced and says No Service. Any thoughts on how to get the activation prompt?

 

[Mitchismo]

There's no point in trying over and over.

Activated. through iTunes. took about 100 attempts.

I tried a couple of times. It failed. I decided screw it. Took my 3GS outside. About five minutes later, as I was texting, it went to "No Service". I went home and tried the phone again, and it activated. I did nothing but wait for my old phone to die.

I did not get an email or anything from AT&T, but I did get activated without wasting my day.

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I haven't been prompted for activation yet. I've restored a few times and still no luck. My phone has just been synced and says No Service. Any thoughts on how to get the activation prompt?

Try it one more time. Should work.

 

[h0mi]

Still no activation. I stopped for 30 minutes at 10:30 and another 40 minutes at noon.

 

[Win iPhone user]

Pre-Orders

So, I just left the apple store. After arguing with ATT about whos fault it was (theirs or apple's) I finally persuaded them to follow an analytical approach. Turns out the IMEI was wrong as well as the number on the SIM and the feature codes were messed up. No matter how long I waited it would have never worked. Turns out a lot of pre-orders never got the info from the shippers in China matched with AT&T. Don't take their excuses, make them do the following:

1) Check feature codes for data plans
2) Verify the IMEI
3) Replace with fresh SIM
4) Activate

 

[ChuckJ]

My iPhone is finally activated.

I am restoring from my backup now.

I kept trying through iTunes and via the phone thru wifi.
It activated on the phone thru wifi. I was startling when it finally worked.

 

[Nutes]

Same **** Different Day with AT&T.

WTF! You would think as technology improves this **** would get easier. Mine is doing the same thing.

 

[boss1]

Finally Activated!

Silly Me. It would have made sense for me to get OFF the old iPhone 4 and shut it down if expecting the newer iPhone 4S to activate.

 

[Nutes]

WTF! You would think as technology improves this **** would get easier. Mine is doing the same thing.

Or is it apple's server???

 

[JScharf7]

AT&T Negligent... again...

So Apple works hard to develop the phone, get the suppliers lined up to hit a due date, etc. UPS and FEDEX work hard to get the phones delivered exactly on Friday morning - can you imagine the logistics required to actually DELIVER the phones?! And good ole AT&T can't activate them - the simplest part of the equation. And they fall flat... again.

How can this be? They KNOW how many phones are being manufactured. They KNOW when there will be a giant bow wave of activations. They SHOULD test and prepare their activation process (s/w and h/w) with the anticipated volume. But once again, they can't manage the situation.

Honestly, they don't deserve our business. This is not rocket science. It's not even particularly difficult. Maybe the FCC should endorse Sprint buying AT&T so that someone who understands customers can actually be in charge.

Total frustration with their lack of planning, testing, execution, and management.

 

[Nutes]

Silly Me. It would have made sense for me to get OFF the old iPhone 4 and shut it down if expecting the newer iPhone 4S to activate.

I did this too but no dice! Still Silly.

----------

So, I just left the apple store. After arguing with ATT about whos fault it was (theirs or apple's) I finally persuaded them to follow an analytical approach. Turns out the IMEI was wrong as well as the number on the SIM and the feature codes were messed up. No matter how long I waited it would have never worked. Turns out a lot of pre-orders never got the info from the shippers in China matched with AT&T. Don't take their excuses, make them do the following:

1) Check feature codes for data plans
2) Verify the IMEI
3) Replace with fresh SIM
4) Activate

So do I need to go to the apple store to do this? Or can I do it myself? Please help.

 

[mrob44]

Mine finally activated (I'm in Virginia). I started trying at about 12:30PM and stopped for a few hours. Started up again about 45 minutes ago (maybe 9 or 10 attempts) and it finally went through. I think it's almost like a lottery at this point. Will you randomly find an available server, or be forced to wait again?