iOS 14 Unable to Activate after restore

Last night I restored my iPhone 11 Pro Max to iOS 14 beta. After iPhone restored I am stuck at the activation screen.

In setup assistant after selecting country and signing into my WiFi my iPhone tries to activate. After a few seconds I get:
"Unable to Activate

Your iPhone could not be activated because the activation server cannot be reached. Try connecting you iPhone to a Mac or a PC with iTunes to activate, or try again in a couple of minutes.

If this problem persists, contact Apple Support at apple.com/support"

  • Restored on a MacBook 12" running macOS Big Sur beta 2

  • Shutdown iPhone on setup assistant screen and restarted.

  • Used multiple good Wi-Fi connections.

  • Also tried activating on Cellular.

  • Tried removing sim card and reinserted.

  • Tried a different sim card from the same carrier.

  • Re-downloaded iOS 14 IPSW file.

  • Put iPhone back into recovery mode.

  • Opened finder selected iPhone, held down option while clicking on restore.

  • Selected iOS 14 IPSW file.

  • iPhone restored.

  • Get the same activation error.

  • Put iPhone into recovery mode.

  • Opened finder, this time I selected restore without holding option.

  • iPhone restored back to iOS 13.

  • Also tried activating through finder and I get the following error: "Activation Failed The iPhone cannot be synced. Received an unexpected response from the device."

  • Still receive "Unable to Activate".

It's almost 24 hours and I am still unable to activate my phone. Anyone else having issues?
Up vote post of nagrom1978 Down vote post of nagrom1978
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nagrom1978
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I to have the exact same problem same as others reported with specific Iphone 11 when took to apple said would be £250 to exchange to an refurbished device.

Posted by
novatroop77s
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Same problem on my iPad. Apple said it’d cost us £450. 🥺

Posted by
bluprince13
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I'm having the same issue with the iPhone 11. It couldn't connect to the cell data.. when I went to "Mobile Data", there were not setting options available and it said to update your iOS version. I was not able to update it as it kept getting stuck in "Verifying Update" after downloading the file.

Decided to do a hard reset and thought it might help. Unfortunately, it made it worst!

After resetting, I experienced the same issue that's shared here...unable to activate the phone... I tried using both the wifi and connecting to Mac methods.

Finally, I did a "restore and update" in the Finder...managed to update it to iOS17...but it's still stuck at the "Unable to Activate" stage.

Posted by
melonrhyme
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I am in the exact situation, the Genius bar told me to pay $500AUD, is a disaster maybe we can organize to get our refubrised for free. I had 3 months ago a battery replacement, then I did a fresh factory reset and voila... cannot activate and I have tried all the Macbook stuff/update/reinstall.

I need the device for work (run on old device and see performance changes).

Posted by
Victorsoyvictor
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