Unable to activate iPad Air Model A1475 Cellular

[TheRealOne78]

Hi. 3 years ago I had reseted my iPad Air A1475 and I can't get it past the activation process, which makes it completely unusable.

I've tried to approach this issue with many variants, like:

• talking to Apple Support numerous times (don't recommend, still have PTSD)
• inserting a SIM card
• connecting it to iTunes, which gives me the following error:
  
• using SliverPHP (until I found out it's for iPad 2 only (and why it only works for iPad 2 only))
• even Checkra1n until I'd realised what it actually does
• creating macOS VMs with KVM, which for some reason failed because of some USB redirection issue from apple
• using other shady third party proprietary software which were probably just some fancy wrappers for some of the above... which of course failed

Yesterday I also found out about libideviceactivation and got me some hopes, but it fails. I've searched the issues page and I found something about an iPad Air wifi only, but doesn't seem to suit my issue here. The person who's made the issue also didn't share how they got their iPad working. It's the issue #34 if it helps.

Log file: https://therealone78.ddns.net/uploads/log-iPad-Air.txt

[nikias]

That is strange, according to your log output, the server actually gives you an activation record back... seems like something is wrong with the device entirely. Did you update it to latest firmware already? I know, stupid question, but if the firmware restore works, then the device can't be that broken.

[TheRealOne78]

Well.. I've restored the device many times with iTunes. Today I also hooked it up to my windows VM and hooked it up to iTunes as well, and it did indeed ask me for an update.. which was expected since I haven't updated this tablet (through iTunes) for maybe one or two years. But I refused to update it with the idea to not make things worse, but rather restore it again and try to activate it with libideviceactivation with a fresh restore.

I'll try to update the fw right now, but I don't see how that will help the situation given that I've already updated it a few times during these past three years.

Edit: Also wow, that was a way faster reply than I expected

[nikias]

Ok then if you already updated it in the past in connection with this problem, I don't see how this will make it work :-/

[TheRealOne78]

Well.. I've restored the device many times with iTunes. Today I also hooked it up to my windows VM and hooked it up to iTunes as well, and it did indeed ask me for an update.. which was expected since I haven't updated this tablet (through iTunes) for maybe one or two years. But I refused to update it with the idea to not make things worse, but rather restore it again and try to activate it with libideviceactivation with a fresh restore.

I'll try to update the fw right now, but I don't see how that will help the situation given that I've already updated it a few times during these past three years.

Nah, turns out when i restored it, I also upgraded it unintentionally (rather apple upgraded it without my accept)