I've spent days Googling and trying various things, and would like to see if anyone has any answers they could share.
Basically the initial background... Girlfriend was using iPhone 5s, she had brought it earlier this year as a 'refurbished' phone. We saw a good deal on a newer model so upgraded her phone, I was going to give the 5s to my mother for Christmas as she still uses a dumb phone and I'm slowly but surely dragging her into the 21st century.
So we got the new phone set up, and I performed an erase/wipe of the 5s to get it set up as new. Now the problem is it is unable to activate. I go through the screens and it just cannot reach the activation server. Here I have tried everything on Apples website, DFU, resetting, different WiFi/Cellular, different SIMs etc. Even logging into the iCloud account it was used with and ensuring it was removed as device. Nothing appears to work.
I have just gotten back from visiting an Apple store where sadly they were unable to help and could only offer a repair/replace at a cost. They're explanation is that it was refurbished with a logic board replacement or something, something hardware wise isn't right. Or that it was previously using a Jailbreak and so is unable to activate again.
Now I know nothing about Jailbreaking or hacking and stuff but it's all fine, it's a 5s, it's annoying but it thankfully isn't particularly costly. I just have a few questions.
The phone was working absolutely fine 100% before the reset, it was working with iCloud and using Apple's systems - it was not jailbroken to my knowledge. Also when it was purchased, it had gone through this activation without fault. Now is that all possible with a hack?
Is there anything anybody can think of here? I don't mind doing a hack or whatever to get it working again but as I said I know nothing about it, everything seems to point towards iCloud locks.
After Googling for a possible cause, I think the most likely is that it was network unlocked using a dodgy system, would that make sense? Can it be fixed?
The phone was brought in China, according to Apple's logs it came from Korea originally. I'm in Guangzhou, there are plenty of dodgy iPhone things going on everywhere so none of this surprises me. If no one can think of any genuine thing I can do I'm quite happy to throw a few hundred RMB at one of these stores to get it working.
I know that's a bit long but I'm trying to give some history which may or may not be relevant, any help here is seriously appreciated as I'm throwing up blanks. Even if I can just get an explanation of why it happened I'd be grateful, just seems bizarre to me to have a fully functional iPhone 1 minute and a paperweight the next!
Edit: Just to add, I've checked the IMEI online and everything looks in order, the IMEI also matches the number on the case. However the rear of the case doesn't look original (Missing 'S'). Also the IMEI reads as 16GB however the phone was 32GB. So that all lends to the thinking that something was repaired, Apple said something about a serial number expiring but I didn't fully understand what that meant.
Basically the initial background... Girlfriend was using iPhone 5s, she had brought it earlier this year as a 'refurbished' phone. We saw a good deal on a newer model so upgraded her phone, I was going to give the 5s to my mother for Christmas as she still uses a dumb phone and I'm slowly but surely dragging her into the 21st century.
So we got the new phone set up, and I performed an erase/wipe of the 5s to get it set up as new. Now the problem is it is unable to activate. I go through the screens and it just cannot reach the activation server. Here I have tried everything on Apples website, DFU, resetting, different WiFi/Cellular, different SIMs etc. Even logging into the iCloud account it was used with and ensuring it was removed as device. Nothing appears to work.
I have just gotten back from visiting an Apple store where sadly they were unable to help and could only offer a repair/replace at a cost. They're explanation is that it was refurbished with a logic board replacement or something, something hardware wise isn't right. Or that it was previously using a Jailbreak and so is unable to activate again.
Now I know nothing about Jailbreaking or hacking and stuff but it's all fine, it's a 5s, it's annoying but it thankfully isn't particularly costly. I just have a few questions.
The phone was working absolutely fine 100% before the reset, it was working with iCloud and using Apple's systems - it was not jailbroken to my knowledge. Also when it was purchased, it had gone through this activation without fault. Now is that all possible with a hack?
Is there anything anybody can think of here? I don't mind doing a hack or whatever to get it working again but as I said I know nothing about it, everything seems to point towards iCloud locks.
After Googling for a possible cause, I think the most likely is that it was network unlocked using a dodgy system, would that make sense? Can it be fixed?
The phone was brought in China, according to Apple's logs it came from Korea originally. I'm in Guangzhou, there are plenty of dodgy iPhone things going on everywhere so none of this surprises me. If no one can think of any genuine thing I can do I'm quite happy to throw a few hundred RMB at one of these stores to get it working.
I know that's a bit long but I'm trying to give some history which may or may not be relevant, any help here is seriously appreciated as I'm throwing up blanks. Even if I can just get an explanation of why it happened I'd be grateful, just seems bizarre to me to have a fully functional iPhone 1 minute and a paperweight the next!
Edit: Just to add, I've checked the IMEI online and everything looks in order, the IMEI also matches the number on the case. However the rear of the case doesn't look original (Missing 'S'). Also the IMEI reads as 16GB however the phone was 32GB. So that all lends to the thinking that something was repaired, Apple said something about a serial number expiring but I didn't fully understand what that meant.
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