Mikey Campbell
Following reports of activation errors from users updating older iPhones and iPads to Apple's recent iOS 9.3 release, which rendered their devices unusable, the company on Thursday recognized the issue and temporarily paused downloads for affected models as it works on a fix.
According to a statement provided to iMore, the problem lies in the password authorization phase of the iOS 9.3 setup process. The exact issue has not been revealed, though Apple seems to believe users are at least partially to blame.
"Updating some iOS devices (iPhone 5s and earlier and iPad Air and earlier) to iOS 9.3 can require entering the Apple ID and password used to set up the device in order to complete the software update," Apple said. "In some cases, if customers do not recall their password, their device will remain in an inactivated state until they can recover or reset their password. For these older devices, we have temporarily pulled back the update and will release an updated version of iOS 9.3 in the next few days that does not require this step."
AppleInsider was first to report on the iOS 9.3 issue earlier this week, noting certain device owners, specifically those with older generation hardware like the iPad 2, were unable to proceed past the password authentication stage after installing Apple's new software. Those affected usually see authentication error messages in line with Apple's statement.
Some users found success in downloading iOS 9.3 through iTunes on a Mac and installing the firmware via a hardwired connection, suggesting there is an underlying issue on Apple's end. Others have found a full system restore also works, though the method is hit-or-miss.
In conjunction with the announcement, Apple published a support document offering workaround suggestions. The company urges affected users to reset their password through iCloud, perform an iTunes-based installation and activation, or remove Activation Lock through iCloud.com. As reported on Tuesday, those who tried these methods have found limited success.
Update: Apple has pushed out iOS 9.3, build 13E236, for iPad 2 models affected by the authentication issue.
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Wesley Hilliard
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44 Comments
I updated an Ipad 2, bought in December 2011 without a hitch, seems it may be early models with 3G that are the main ones having problems (from what I've seen).
Really, limited success, how on earth would you even know that. I know 3 out of 4 who tried those methods and it worked.
That seems to say that those methods are not crapshoots (or I'm in a statistically unlikely cluster of people).
Success may not be assured but "limited success" is plainly a lie.
Journalism is 100% dead, that's a "sure thing".
So, yes many who had that were able to update eventually, but it's still a bug for a substantial number of people; nothing can be said beyond that.
This bit us on two different iPad2 models with ATT Cellular (but cellular service unactivated). Both were being updated from 9.2.1, and we never even got far enough to be asked our passwords. Activation did not work via either the iPad itself or iTunes, and we tried to be patient and tried both dozens, maybe hundreds of times. Doing an update did not work for either of us, it led to the same "activation" timeout/error, so we ended up having to do a full restore on both iPad2s. Took the better part of a day for each to do the update, then restore a restore + reload the backup to get everything back to where it was before. I since have updated an iPhone 4S, 5S and 6S+ without any issues. So we now have 2 iPad2s successfully running iOS 9.3...but are sad to see that the iPad2 does not support NightShift, which was the main reason we were updating right away.
"Some iOS devices (iPhone 5s and earlier...")? Aren't HALF the the installed base 5s and earlier?
I updated my iPad mini 2 (Retina) after having the beta onboard the whole time. No problems whatever.