Open Radar

 
Summary:

As a developer I have a ton of iOS devices around for testing purposes. To avoid hassles I bought most of them directly from Apple or paid a fee to have the SIM lock removed.

However when restoring an iPhone you still are required to put a SIM card into a phone or otherwise you get an "Activation Failed" message. 


Steps to Reproduce:

- Remove the SIM card from a sim-unlocked iPhone
- Restore iOS (e.g. any 7 seed)
- After choosing your country and WiFi, try to activate


Expected Results:

- A SIM-unlocked iPhone should activate over WiFi without requiring a SIM card


Actual Results:

- Activation Fails with an "Activation Failed" error message
- You have to start over after placing any SIM card into the phone to activate it


Regression:

This problem existed since forever.


Notes:

This is a big hassle and worry for me because I don't have as many contracts as I have iPhones. Also for most testing purposes you don't need any cellular data in iPhones, but just WiFi. Also some day I might have only Nano SIMs left if everybody is on an iPhone 5 and then I wouldn't have any SIM card available to activate older iPhones.

If I buy a SIM-unlocked iPhone from Apple or pay to unlock any iPhone after contract I should never again be forced to put a SIM card into this phone.