How do a fix a false "activation incomplete" message?
greg_ferrari
Enthusiast - Level 2

On August 15, 2017, my Galaxy S6 received an OS update (G920VVRU4DQF3).  Ever since then, I frequently get an "activation incomplete" message when I restart my phone.  The strange thing is that, even with the error, the phone seems to work just fine.  I can still make and receive calls, receive text messages, and access the internet.  I've had this phone for around two years and this is the first time I'm seeing this message, so I know it has something to do with the update.  I've tried restarting my phone, powering down the phone and rebooting, and clearing the cache partition.  I even went to a local Verizon Wireless store to see if they could fix the problem.  They gave me a new SIM card, but the problem persists.  Since then I have noticed that the message does not always occur, but when it does, the message appears any where from immediately after a restart to several hours later.  Sometimes I can clear the message by powering off the phone and rebooting.  Other times I have to power off the phone, remove the SIM, reinsert the SIM, and boot the phone again.  I always make sure my wi-fi is turned off before rebooting as suggested by others experiencing the same problem last year, but that has no affect.  Clearly, a problem was introduced with the last OS update pushed to my phone.  Verizon, please fix.

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Re: How do a fix a false "activation incomplete" message?
vzw_customer_support
Customer Service Rep

greg.ferrari,

I would be irritated by this message as well. Does it only appear when you are rebooting? Do you ever receive any other error messages?

JosephT_VZW

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Re: How do a fix a false "activation incomplete" message?
vzw_customer_support
Customer Service Rep

We want to ensure you are able to get the most from your device, Greg.ferrari! I appreciate the information and insight about the situation at hand. To ensure that we are on the same page, when the activation message shows up, does it look like a normal system message or possibly a message from a specific application? Is there any error code associated with the message?

ChrisM_VZW

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Re: How do a fix a false "activation incomplete" message?
greg_ferrari
Enthusiast - Level 2

The error is coming from the Verizon setup wizard, only after a boot.  Sometimes it happens within a minute or two of me unlocking my phone, sometimes it takes a couple hours, or anything in between.  Sometimes I never get the error, but in those cases I also don't get an "activation complete" message.  There is no additional information other than "your phone will try again when you restart" appearing as the second line of text in the "activation incomplete" message.  The error message has an icon in the notification bar that looks like a sheet of paper with the top right corner clipped and a question mark in the center.

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Re: How do a fix a false "activation incomplete" message?
greg_ferrari
Enthusiast - Level 2

Verizon?  Hello?  You were doing pretty good responding to this issue, but now you've gone quiet.  Do you have any idea what's causing this error?  More importantly, do you know how to get rid of it?

Re: How do a fix a false "activation incomplete" message?
vzw_customer_support
Customer Service Rep

I do apologize for the delay, Greg.Ferrari. I do appreciate all that you have done so far. It does seem like you have done everything to try correct this issue. I do not see any product issues in our forums. When you rebooted your phone did you factory http://spr.ly/658980c3Z reset the device? Did you install all your information back on your phone?

AmberF_VZW

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If my response answered your question please click the �Correct Answer� button under my response. This ensures others can benefit from our conversation. Thanks in advance for your help with this!!

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Re: How do a fix a false "activation incomplete" message?
greg_ferrari
Enthusiast - Level 2

No, I did not do a factory reset bwcause I have little hope tht it will fix the problem and I dont want to go through all the pain of setting my phone up again unless I absolutely have to.  By the way, there were a few days this past week where I rebootes my phone and immediately got an "activation complete" message like I am supposed to.  I thought Verizon he fixed the problem, but then it started happening again a few days ago.  I don't see how a factory reset will fix this problem given that my phone works properly sometimes and not others.

Re: How do a fix a false "activation incomplete" message?
PHILP06
Enthusiast - Level 1

I do not have a solution. Just providing a little additional info in the hopes that this will help lead to a solution.

For me, the activation incomplete notification only happens when airplane mode is off. If I turn airplane mode on (as when I'm away from home & don't want to use data,) then the notification goes away. I'm not suggesting that this is a solution. Just providing a little additional info in the hopes that this will help lead to a solution.

Re: How do a fix a false "activation incomplete" message?
kathy65793
Master - Level 1

Are you still having this problem? If you are I would suggest that you use smart switch and do a full backup of your phone. This will backup your settings and all the hard work that you did to setup your phone and then do the factory reset. If you still don't want to do the factory reset which I don't blame you I would try going here first and see if this can fix the problem. Either way can you let us know if you got this resolved and how you did it.

Repair Assistant - Software Upgrade Assistant (Samsung) | Verizon Wireless

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Re: How do a fix a false "activation incomplete" message?
greg_ferrari
Enthusiast - Level 2

So I've been experimenting over the past couple months.  First, I have my SIM locked with a pin.  I have determined that if i do not enter my pin immediately after a reboot, and instead, wait for at least ten minutes before entering the pin, the activation always completes successfully.  It seems as if the phone needs to settle down for a bit before t reaches out to the network.  I'm a professional software engineer with 30 years experience and it looks just lime a typical race condition.  I suspect this is th he same behavior or of the other posters experienced by placing the phone into airplane mode, thus preventing the phone from connecting to the network for a while.  I can't tell if this is a Verizon or a Google problem.  I do know that preventing the phone from connecting to the network for at least ten minutes seems to do the trick.  It has worked every single time over the past couple months and over 100 restarts.