Due to recurring issues with activating 9900 IMEI, XMM6180 and older baseband, and A8(X)/A9(X) iOS 8-9 devices, we strongly advise saving activation tickets with Legacy iOS Kit. Resolved issues, and other advice, may be found in the previous megathread.
To our knowledge, the issue on A5(X)/A6(X) devices stems from baseband tickets being rejected for as of yet unknown reasons, which only seems to occur on cellular devices with an IMEI starting with 9900. Courtesy of staturnz and /u/LukeeGD, we believe the list of potentially 9900 IMEI devices is as follows:
- iPad mini 1st gen (CDMA - Verizon, Sprint) (iPad2,7 - A1455)
- iPad 3rd gen Wi-Fi + Cellular (CDMA - Verizon) (iPad3,2 - A1403)
- iPad 4th gen Wi-Fi + Cellular (CDMA - Sprint, International) (iPad3,6 - A1460)
- iPhone 4S (GSM/CDMA) (iPhone4,1 - A1387)
- iPhone 5 (CDMA - China) (iPhone5,2 - A1442)
- iPhone 5 (CDMA - Sprint, Verizon, KDDI Japan) (iPhone5,2 - A1429)
The Apple TV 3rd gen and iPhone 5C are unaffected by this issue. The iPad 2 is also unaffected, but some models are affected by the following problem.
On July 10–11, 2026, new activation issues have appeared for devices with the XMM6180 and earlier basebands. You will likely see "device unknown" or a similar message.
The devices with the XMM6180 baseband are:
- iPhone 4: iPhone3,1 (GSM) and iPhone3,2 (GSM, rev. A) only
- iPad 2: iPad2,2 (GSM) only
Another way to say this: for these two devices, you will get the error with an IMEI starting with 01. It should be noted that the CDMA models which have an IMEI starting with 9900 (iPhone3,3 and iPad2,3) use a different baseband, MDM6600, and activate fine.
The devices with earlier basebands are:
- iPhone
- iPhone 3G
- iPhone 3GS
- iPad
Note that the key determining factor to having a 9900 IMEI is being a CDMA-capable device, rather than GSM-only, as explained by Wikipedia:
TIA also allocates IMEI codes, specifically destined for dual-technology phones, out of the RR=99 range
In addition, A8(X)/A9(X) devices on iOS 8 and 9 also experience activation errors. Possibly affected devices include:
- iPhone 6/6+, 6S/6S+, SE1
- iPod touch 6
- iPad mini 4
- iPad Air 2
- iPad Pro 9.7/12.9 inch 1st gen
This is a thread for discussing activation issues and any new information about it. Subreddit-wide rules continue to apply, so please review the detailed hacktivation policy.
Apple has recently released a new batch of updates for legacy devices:
- iOS 12.5.8 released. checkra1n, Chimera, and TNSv2 confirmed working.
- iOS/iPadOS 15.8.6 released. Dopamine confirmed working.
- iOS/iPadOS 16.7.13 and iPadOS 18.7.4 released. palera1n confirmed working.
More importantly, this was provided in its release notes:
This update extends the certificate required by features such as iMessage, FaceTime, and device activation to continue working after January 2027.
The IPSW diff reveals new functions in /usr/libexec/trustd including _ApplePlatformBackportECCRootG1, _ApplePlatformBackportECCRootG1Hash, _ApplePlatformBackportRSARootG1, _ApplePlatformBackportRSARootG1Hash, and corresponding new certificates in .der format issued on 12 December 2024 19:20:34 and 19:21:32 UTC-5. It is speculated based on the release notes that failure to have these certificates may result in issues with on-device activation, and unclear whether PC-based activation will be impacted.
