Solution: Error "iTunes cannot copy the iPhone because it cannot sign in"

by bygp / November 9, 2010 12:00 AM EST

Hello iPhone users, I'm bringing you the solution to the problem we were having with custom firmware created with Snowbreeze. After syncing, iTunes displayed an error message saying, "iTunes cannot copy the iPhone because it cannot sign in to it." As I explained in the post where I uploaded my custom firmware for the iPhone 3G, this error was due to a problem with Snowbreeze itself, specifically its activation within our firmware.

WITH THIS TUTORIAL YOU CAN ALSO ACTIVATE IPHONE 3G & 3GS WITHOUT AN ORIGINAL SIM.

To solve this problem, we'll have to create our custom firmware without activating it. That is, we'll uncheck the Activation option. Our firmware won't be activated, so if we have an illegal device, after synchronization it will only allow emergency calls. But don't worry, we'll activate it another way.

Once we have created our unactivated custom firmware, we will proceed to activation, for which we will need the following:

Once we have it, we're going to unzip it and put it in a place that's easy to access; I personally recommend the root of the C drive.

We go into our Pack folder and install SetupiPhoneBrowser.1.93

Now we're going to close iTunes and with our iPhone turned on and connected in emergency call-only mode, we're going to open iPhone Browser and go to the /usr/libexec folder and copy the file named lockdownd by right-clicking and selecting Save As… and we're going to save it inside our Pack folder and inside that folder in Patch, that is, we save it in Pack/Patch.

Once we have this, we're going to go to our Pack folder and enter 3G or 3Gs depending on our device model, and we're going to copy the lockdownd.patch file and paste it into the other Patch folder where we previously saved the file from the iPhone Browser.

Now we are going to open the Windows CMD console (start/run and type CMD and press enter, or start/accessories/command prompt only) and we are going to navigate to the Patch folder path.

If we have placed our Pack folder inside the C drive, we will do it as follows:

cd.. (enter)
cd.. (enter)
cd.. (enter)
CD pack (enter)
cd patch (enter)

And once we do this, we're going to put this command in the CMD:

bspatch lockdownd lockdownd_patched lockdownd.patch (enter)

Once we have entered the command and pressed enter, we will close the CMD window.

We open iPhoneBrowser again and go to the same file we had previously saved, that is, the lockdownd file located in /usr/libexec. Now we are going to right-click on it, but this time instead of choosing Save As… we are going to choose Replace File and look inside the Pack/Patch folder for the file named lockdownd_patched (note: not lockdownd_patch, but patched) and open it.

This will replace the lockdownd file with the new, patched activation file. Disconnect the USB cable, turn the computer off and on, and it will be activated without the old problem of iTunes not being able to copy the iPhone because it cannot log in.