July 11, 2008 12:00 AM PDT

3G activation problems render first-generation iPhones unusable

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Because of widespread issues with activation caused by the launch of the iPhone 3G, activations of first-generation iPhones that have been updated to iPhone OS 2.0 are unable to complete, rendering the devices temporarily unusable.

As described by one reader:

"Got the 2.0 upgrade through iTunes 7.7. Chose download and update option. All went well until just after the dialog 'Your iPhone has been reset to factory settings and will restart. etc.' The phone appears in iTunes but cannot connect to the iTunes store to reactivate."

Other users are receiving the error message displayed below:

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Topics:: News

Tags:: iphone,; News

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by ldnyc37 July 11, 2008 12:43 PM PDT: This happened to my dad, he just restarted everything (phone and computer) and it worked fine once he plugged the phone back in to the computer.; Like this Reply to this comment


by likeafox24 July 11, 2008 2:44 PM PDT: I was finally able to get my iPhone 3G activated and working! That was great. But my first-gen iPhone was a different story.

I was relentless with it for about two hours trying to continually activate it (for my wife) after it timed out or errored out of iTunes. No luck. I had to go to work, but I will be trying to get it working once I get home...hopefully they'll iron out their servers soon enough!; Like this Reply to this comment


by olyhomer July 11, 2008 3:15 PM PDT: I tried upgrading my first gen iPhone and had the brick problem happen when it suddenly started to work around noon pacific. My phone finally finished restoring about a hour later and now works great. I put some apps on it and have no problems. So hopefully they iron out the problems. Might work better this evening on the west coast when most of everyone else is asleep.; Like this Reply to this comment


by greenjbhsd July 11, 2008 4:06 PM PDT: I went the safe route and took the risk of downloading the files linked here yesterday. I was on 2.0 and 7.7 late afternoon which left me with little trouble. I just don't get how they don't see this coming.; Like this Reply to this comment


by libertarian July 11, 2008 5:44 PM PDT: This morning I got messages on iTunes saying that my iPhone was up to date. Late this afternoon, iTunes finally let me download 2.0. The installation failed. So far, the restores are failing with "unknown error 2005."; Like this Reply to this comment


by snapcridge--2008 July 11, 2008 6:16 PM PDT: From click of the update button in iTunes until I was able to start getting apps took just shy of an hour without issue. I started around 3:00PM ET.

And they do see this coming, but there's not much you can do about it when there are that many people moving at the same time.; Like this Reply to this comment


by dani7_dotmac July 12, 2008 8:00 AM PDT: It was just great! I did it! The way you explained before with the stand-alone 2.0 version of the iPhone... My 1G iphone is ready to hit the road!; Like this Reply to this comment


by jCounsel July 14, 2008 10:57 AM PDT: My iPhone 1.0 was interrupted during the update, but the update took on the phone. I did not have to re-activate (the software hung and returned an error message (two actually -4 and -3832 I think). Could not use iTunes due to iTunes not working (crashing?) on the server-side.

I did download apps through the phone--all worked well. The "update" on iTunes never finished, but the phone shows up now when plugged in. Go figure.; Like this Reply to this comment

(8 Comments)

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