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Foxdog175 · Jul 11, 2008, 10:18 AM

Upon trying to update my iphone to 2.0, I am receiving the following error:

We could not complete your iTunes Store request. An unknown error occurred (-9838). There was an error in the iTunes Store. Please try again later.

When I try to use my phone, the home screen shows a picture of USB -> iTunes. If I turn my phone off and then on again, it reverts back to this image. If I unplug/replug the phone into my computer, it gives me the same error on the iPhone section of iTunes. My phone is completely useless and I can't update it. Anyone have any ideas on how to restore it? I'm trying to remain calm, but I'm about to go off on a nerdrage here...

zcasper · Jul 11, 2008, 10:20 AM

Same here - no idea what to do now.

mr breaker · Jul 11, 2008, 10:21 AM

just got the same error on mine.

Foxdog175 · Jul 11, 2008, 10:24 AM

I found the following on how to restore an iphone:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jzyy4puapig

Followed the directions, it worked and is now attempting to restore and install the newest firmware. I'll let you know what happens.

SCHMEGGA · Jul 11, 2008, 10:28 AM

It's all because of the new iPhone 3G. I was the first one out the door this morning from the AT&T store with a still-bricked white 16GB iPhone 3G. The store is unable to activate any phones and are thus just sending the customers home with the phones to activate it on their own iTunes. Well guess what? No can do. Get the same error you are describing. Big screw-up by Apple!

moki · Jul 11, 2008, 10:29 AM

I have a brand new iPhone 3G, and I'm getting the same error, so I'm guessing that it is failing to contact Apple's servers during the activation/validation process, because of how slammed they are.

The -9838 error is "...a secure network connection could not be established - make sure SSL 3.0 or TLS 1.0 are enabled and try again"

Which again to me essentially says "Can't connect to server" either because they are slammed, or down. Either way, not a good experience for new or existing iPhone customers.

Foxdog175 · Jul 11, 2008, 10:32 AM

Originally Posted by SCHMEGGA

I was the first one out the door this morning from the AT&T store with a still-bricked white 16GB iPhone 3G.

How were the lines? I'm going to be purchasing a 3G within a week or so and have really thought about getting white. Do you like that color? The only thing making me think twice is it's sort-of feminine look compared to the black iphone. I don't want a girly phone.

So tell me what you think - is white a sleek lookin phone up close?

stevesnj · Jul 11, 2008, 10:37 AM

I was at AT&T and they are not activating phones because they cannot access the servers either they are telling customers to activate thru iTunes at home, but when I bought this phone my old SIM is deactivated from AT&T network so I have no phone until I get it activated at home thru iTunes

moki · Jul 11, 2008, 10:37 AM

Originally Posted by Foxdog175

How were the lines? I'm going to be purchasing a 3G within a week or so and have really thought about getting white. Do you like that color? The only thing making me think twice is it's sort-of feminine look compared to the black iphone. I don't want a girly phone.

So tell me what you think - is white a sleek lookin phone up close?

I think it looks quite nice actually -- reminiscent of the original white iPods, neither are girly by any stretch.

SCHMEGGA · Jul 11, 2008, 10:42 AM

I like it. I had the same thought (girlie phone that is), but felt that it would hide scratches much better than the black (I was also 2nd in line last year at the iPhone launch). I like it though. I am pretty rough with my iPhone. I actually have kept a skin on my first iPhone (www.decalgirl.com) and they are great at keeping the scratches to a minimum. Plus it is simply a vinyl sticker (like on cars) so it doesn't keep it from fitting into any cases. They are also very very durable stickers.

stevesnj · Jul 11, 2008, 10:43 AM

Originally Posted by moki

I think it looks quite nice actually -- reminiscent of the original white iPods, neither are girly by any stretch.

lol... J/K

moki · Jul 11, 2008, 11:09 AM

Looks like people having issues activating their new iPhone 3Gs, or activating their older iPhones/iPod Touches are not alone:

http://www.coldfusionjedi.com/index....hone-20-is-DOA

Jawbone54 · Jul 11, 2008, 11:16 AM

Same error for me.

BLAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!

SCHMEGGA · Jul 11, 2008, 11:21 AM

What Apple really did wrong was releasing the 2.0 software at the same time as the 3G release. So now everyone with a 2.5G iPhone are trying to update their software to 2.0 while all the new 3Gers are trying to activate their phone. If they had simply released the 2.0 either yesterday or even better; the day before then they would have had almost all the 2.5G users upgraded already and would have only had to deal with the new 3Gers. But who am I to judge the brainiacs who work for Apple.

::maroma:: · Jul 11, 2008, 11:25 AM

Originally Posted by Foxdog175

I found the following on how to restore an iphone:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jzyy4puapig

Followed the directions, it worked and is now attempting to restore and install the newest firmware. I'll let you know what happens.

Any luck? I'm stuck with the error as well. The activation servers are toast right now.

Jonesy · Jul 11, 2008, 11:27 AM

Same problem for me in the UK. Nice looking phone. Just want to use it but no chance until Apple's servers get up to speed.

Foxdog175 · Jul 11, 2008, 11:30 AM

Originally Posted by ::maroma::

Any luck? I'm stuck with the error as well. The activation servers are toast right now.

It brought me back to the same point I was at before. Same error. Restoring the iphone does nothing to remedy the problem. We just have to wait...

sra · Jul 11, 2008, 11:42 AM

One more data point .... same problem here. No solutions yet, other than to complain on this BB...

When I unmount it and mount it again, sometimes the error shows up right away, and sometimes iTunes spins its wheels for a while trying to connect, and then I get the error "There was an error in the iTunes store." The last time, after trying for a while, it said "the iTunes store is temporarily unavailable. Try again later."

::maroma:: · Jul 11, 2008, 11:43 AM

I finally got through!

I'm not sure if this did it or not, but I quit iTunes, opened it back up and plugged in my iPhone. It sat there for a while trying to connect, then it finally did. Its updated to 2.0 and now its putting all my music and stuff back on.

Hope this works for the rest of you.

Foxdog175 · Jul 11, 2008, 11:50 AM

Originally Posted by ::maroma::

I finally got through!

I'm not sure if this did it or not, but I quit iTunes, opened it back up and plugged in my iPhone. It sat there for a while trying to connect, then it finally did. Its updated to 2.0 and now its putting all my music and stuff back on.

Hope this works for the rest of you.

For some odd reason, this worked for me also. I'm putting my money on it being a coincidence that we were just able to connect to the server though.

alligator · Jul 11, 2008, 11:59 AM

Same error message here. I'm not happy about this process at all. I'll try the suggestions here.

Lionsblade · Jul 11, 2008, 12:02 PM

Originally Posted by SCHMEGGA

What Apple really did wrong was releasing the 2.0 software at the same time as the 3G release. So now everyone with a 2.5G iPhone are trying to update their software to 2.0 while all the new 3Gers are trying to activate their phone. If they had simply released the 2.0 either yesterday or even better; the day before then they would have had almost all the 2.5G users upgraded already and would have only had to deal with the new 3Gers. But who am I to judge the brainiacs who work for Apple.

You're not kidding, I'd hoped for the update to come last night or later tonight [Friday] to avoid the chaos, no such luck. It seems as if the in store activations are going down all over the place in the US, and the Touch update keeps returning an "iTunes server is unavailable" error or something similar, and now tells me that the newest available software is 1.1.4. Apple today=epic fail. However, when I left the Apple Store in Indianapolis at around 10, they seemed to be updating fine, I don't know how they're doing now, though.

scottiB · Jul 11, 2008, 12:12 PM

Originally Posted by Jmakkar

Same problem. So basically our phones are bricks until they get this sorted out? This sucks...There is no way all our data was lost right. Someone please reassure me..

In the update process, the contents of your iPhone/Touch are archived onto your Mac/PC, the iPhone/Touch is reformatted and then the contents is restored onto iPhone/Touch 2.0.

As long as you don't delete the archive from your Mac/PC in the meantime, you should be fine.

alligator · Jul 11, 2008, 12:59 PM

No workarounds that I can find. Gotta wait until the iTunes store is back up. I bet someone at Apple is gonna lose their job over this mess.

SCHMEGGA · Jul 11, 2008, 01:08 PM

Originally Posted by alligator

No workarounds that I can find. Gotta wait until the iTunes store is back up. I bet someone at Apple is gonna lose their job over this mess.

I can tell you now that it will be all over the news tonight. Jobs will not be happy with all the negative press he is getting at this point. I can see the "I'm a Mac......and I'm a PC" ad now. Only it will be from Microsoft and it will go along the lines of "I just got a new Blackberry! I took it hope synced right up and was ready to go in 5 minutes. I didn't have to wait in line for 2 hours in order to get a brick that wouldn't work for over half a day." Sheesh. I have already been harangued all morning by 2 of the "PC Guys" here at work!

mutelight · Jul 11, 2008, 01:23 PM

This really is a total disaster and I completely agree with those that mentioned they should have rolled out the firmware upgrade a couple days ago or even one day early to ease the load. This is unacceptable.

alligator · Jul 11, 2008, 01:25 PM

My first gen just connected and updated to 2.0. All I can say is keep trying. I tried to connect for the past hour without success, and finally one time it just worked. Now I have to activate two 3G phones!

CorpITGuy · Jul 11, 2008, 02:06 PM

Steve trying to keep such tight control over everything finally came up and bit him in the arse. I hope he learns something.

64stang06 · Jul 11, 2008, 02:07 PM

Well, my phone somehow is activated but in iTunes, I can't get past "Accessing iTunes Store...", so I can't transfer my apps and music to the phone (.Mac member, push works great).

macdude · Jul 11, 2008, 02:14 PM

Steve deserves a big FAIL on this one. A fail of epic proportions.

Helmling · Jul 11, 2008, 02:22 PM

No joke. How did they let this happen?!? What a screw-up! I'm afraid to buy anything from the App store on the phone until I can get it synced with my computer, but it sounds like I'm lucky that mine even came to life at all.

Actually, I don't see what's holding me up. I just want to sync my content. Everything else is working...

Helmling · Jul 11, 2008, 02:24 PM

Originally Posted by 64stang06

Well, my phone somehow is activated but in iTunes, I can't get past "Accessing iTunes Store...", so I can't transfer my apps and music to the phone (.Mac member, push works great).

Oh yeah, you're pushing already? How?

64stang06 · Jul 11, 2008, 03:17 PM

Originally Posted by Helmling

Oh yeah, you're pushing already? How?

Once the iPhone was activated, I entered my information into the Mail app. After that, it proceeded to tell me about push and all that. Once that was done, it took a few seconds for my contacts and calendar to appear, but it worked well. Also, I made a change in iCal on the desktop and 15 minutes later, it appeared on the phone.

sra · Jul 11, 2008, 04:24 PM

Well, I finally got through, and it did the update, so my iPhone is no longer a brick.

However: contrary to everything I had read, I was never offered the opportunity to back up the stuff on my iPhone, and the update wiped out all of the movies and audiobooks I had painstakingly put on it. Which means that tomorrow's plane trip back to the US from Switzerland will be without entertainment....

Oh well. when I get back I can recover the other stuff from my home machine. But be careful when you do this update! The warning that everything will be erased is serious, and what you've read about automatic backing up beforehand is .... not.

alligator · Jul 11, 2008, 05:22 PM

Everything is back up and running on this end. My first gen is back online and up to version 2.0, and I was able to activate 2 new 3g phones. Still, what a huge waste of a half day!

Mrjinglesusa · 06:46 PM

Updating now...

6:07 PM: Connect iPhone and Pop-up that 2.0 available

6:08 PM: Downloading 2.0...

6:10 PM: Extracting 2.0...

6:11 PM: Backing up iPhone...

6:12 PM: "Preparing iPhone software for restore" (iPhone currently showing Apple logo on screen). I guess this is the part that takes awhile, 6:16 PM and still "preparing"...

6:18 PM: Restoring iPhone software...

6:20 PM: Verifying iPhone software...

6:22 PM: Restoring iPhone firmware...

6:25 PM: iPhone restarting

6:26 PM: Restoring from backup. Restart.

6:27 PM: Connected to iTunes and "Restoring iPhone music and videos...". Had about 5 GB of stuff on there so this could take awhile.

6:31 PM: Not even 50% done restoring my music and videos.

6:38 PM: Updated, restored, and activated

So about 30 minutes from start to finish. No problems encountered. I guess it pays to not be a part of the mass rush to get new software the moment it is released.

gentryfunk · Jul 11, 2008, 08:15 PM

Well....similar tale here...iPhone version 1.0 locked with similar error message as others. Did not have the phone for a couple of hours. I rebooted my Powerbook and reset the iPhone....reconnected about 1:00 PM MDT and it all works fine.

BTW, I still love my no-contract iPhone; goPhone works great for me!

TGF