FYI, I lost all my data from beta 2, and now again on beta 5, but this time I figured out how to do this! Please repost so no one else loses their data because I see a lot of frustrated people.
#1: Get past your activation screen. Your beta os has expired and reverted to the activation screen. Thankfully on beta 5, this is still bypass-able, which means it's probably bypass-able in beta7 (which is out right now). To do this first reboot your device, then...
A: Swipe your thumb to enter activation
B: You should have no signal and a button which allows you to connect to iTunes to authenticate. Instead, press the Home button at the bottom of your phone, a menu at the bottom will come up with two options, press "Emergency Call".
C: On the emergency call screen, dial random ****, and press call. You should have no signal so the call does not go through after like 10 seconds, it comes up with the screen that says "Call Failed" with a single button, Cancel. Press the Cancel button.
D: Now press the Home Button again, and it dumps you to your HOME SCREEN! Yes, it sure does!This is the IMPORTANT first step to backing up your data real quick.
E: Go into settings (on your iOS) and change your date back to a date in which this beta was valid. I set mine to August 15th, 2011 (for beta 5, this date will need to be different and a date in which you know the beta was still valid)
F: Reboot your iOS device, it now doesn't automatically go into locked activation mode. YES!
HOWEVER... your iTunes still will say this device is invalid if you try to back it up, so BEFORE you plug it up to your Mac (or maybe PC also?) revert your date on your machine to the same date you used on your device. Then plug it up and back up your device!
You CAN skip this second step of changing the date on your computer if you want to just use DiskAid at this point to backup your data. But you MUST restart your phone with the old date before DiskAid will work because with the activation screen "backgrounded" you won't be able to backup still with diskaid or iTunes.
Warning, with this information out there, Apple will probably fix this and it won't work past Beta 7 or 8. If it goes past beta 7.
Cheers!
I tried to do this with iOS beta 6 but the emergency call just keeps saying "Emergency Calls Only", even if I dial 911. Is that a number we have to use to make the call go through?
