Possibly bricked iPhone, not sure why...

[jcafarley]

Ok, so just over a year ago I bought an pay as you go iPhone from o2 (in the UK). I paid up the cash for them to unlock it so that I could use it on other networks. I received the confirmation and it seemed to work fine. A year later I've been having some problems with my phone backing up in iTunes. I decided to do a restore, that's where things went bad. After the 'restore' I get the message:

'We're sorry, the iPhone you connected may be damaged and cannot be activated for service. We recommend you visit your nearest Apple Store.'

I haven't tried to jailbreak my phone, everything on it has been legitimate with the latest firmware etc.

Any ideas? It's out of warranty and I'm also outside the country I bought it in so I guess no Apple store here (I'm in China) will touch it. I'm not sure it is a hardware problem as the signs seem to point towards activation issues, even though my phone was officially unlocked by my carrier.

 

[oakie]

it doesnt matter where you bought it... apple supports all of their products worldwide.

obviously this means, "take it to the apple store."

 

[jcafarley]

Really? I thought that applied to all Apple products apart from the iPhone, at least that's what my local store (in Shanghai) told me.

 

[oakie]

Really? I thought that applied to all Apple products apart from the iPhone, at least that's what my local store (in Shanghai) told me.

if your local store told you otherwise, then i guess not. but ive never had problems with international apple stores (Canadian iPhone, Japan Ginza apple store)

other than that, based on the level of detail in your situation, there's nothing else to tell you than "buy a new phone," if your local apple stores turned you away.

 

[jcafarley]

Thanks, I'll give them a go, otherwise yep, I'll have to buy a new one.