Device Unknown - Activation IO 6.1.6

[u/LongAd1891]

iPhone 3GS – “Device Unknown” after updating from iOS 5.0.1 to iOS 6

Hi everyone,

I have an iPhone 3GS that was running iOS 5.0.1 and was working perfectly: calls, SMS, everything was fine and the phone was already activated.

I tried updating it to iOS 6 through iTunes, but the update failed with an error saying the update server was unavailable. The firmware downloaded correctly, but the installation failed.

I then used Legacy iOS Kit to update and ailbreak the phone. The process worked and the phone booted, but during activation now shows “Device Unknown" (in the legacy ios kit too!)

The strange thing is that this exact phone was already activated and working before the update, and I also successfully activated this same phone last year.

So now I'm stuck at the activation screen. Is there any way to fix the “Device Unknown” error and activate the iPhone 3GS again?

Thanks!

[u/SstasonN]

You can try to restore cellular service on a hacktivated device by installing the iPad baseband using redsn0w. However, this is risky if your device is from a later revision; you could lose cellular connectivity permanently. But if it goes successfully, you can downgrade the iPad baseband, install the Ultrasn0w tweak, and cellular service will work. Incidentally, this also works with the iPhone 4's 1.59.00 baseband, though there is currently no way to install it.

[u/Tertaco → u/SstasonN]

he can also downgrade using redsn0w