iPad2 - post factory reset device activation step fails

Your iPad2 is long ago obsolete and now totally unsupported.

Multiple recent posts suggest that Apple has removed all server-side and re-activation support for obsolete 32-bit devices:

• iPad1
• iPad2
• iPad3
• iPad4
• iPad mini1

As such restoring and re-activation of your iPad2 may now be impossible, rendering the iPad unusable.

App Developers have also dropped all support for 32-bit devices - and have withdrawn older versions of their Apps from the Apple App Store. Withdrawal of Apps supporting older models of iPad is making their utility and usefulness significantly of these older models even more limited. Even if you are able to restore the iPad1, you’ll not be able (re)download or (re)install any Apps from the App Store. Most online services also require capabilities not supported by your iPad.

Sorry, while perhaps unwelcome news, your iPad2 has reached the end of the road.

Since the recovery-mode restore completes and you still get stuck at activation, I don’t think another DFU restore is likely to change anything.

I’d try activation once from a different Wi-Fi network, and once while connected to a Mac or PC running the current Finder/iTunes software. Apple recommends computer activation when activation on the device fails.

If that still gives “Unknown Device,” the important question is whether this is an iPad 2 Wi-Fi model or Wi-Fi + Cellular. A hardware problem on the cellular model can also prevent activation, even though the restore itself completes.

Apple’s activation steps are here:

If you can't activate your iPhone or iPad (Wi-Fi + Cellular) - Apple Support

The iPad 2 is also now listed by Apple as obsolete, so Apple no longer provides hardware service for it. At that point there probably isn’t another software reset or restore procedure beyond what you’ve already tried.

1- different WiFi - done; no change

2- using a computer - done; no change

I had a perfectly fine device - from a hardware perspective. I was forced to do a reset (frozen screen), had to return to a factory reset because I no longer had a backup (old device, used for showing pictures) and now it fails on the Apple (re-)activation lock. I feel highjacked.

Any other option at all?

Happened to me today. Turned a working iPad I used for mapping into a paperweight containing unrecoverable data.

Two hours with Apple chat support reveals that this is a feature, not a bug. These devices are trash, instantly - and in my case, remotely.

If the thing was not on my data plan, it would have gone forever.

I'd trade it in on a new one, but Apple only sweetly offers to "recycle" it.

Insult is always best after injury.

The page you point to does not have the error message I'm seeing: "Unknown Device"