I purchased my iPhone 16 Pro Max directly from Apple in November. This morning, I woke up to find it stuck in SOS mode. After trying DFU mode and every troubleshooting step I knew, I decided to visit the Apple Store. The technician there confirmed that the phone was working perfectly.

Next, I went to Bell, my current carrier, where I was told that my phone had been blacklisted on February 13 for no apparent reason. Since I had bought it directly from Apple, this made no sense. To troubleshoot, Bell had me switch from a physical SIM to an eSIM and attempted to deactivate and reactivate the SIM, but nothing worked. They ultimately informed me that they couldn’t remove the phone from the blacklist because Rogers, my previous carrier, was responsible for the block.

I then contacted Rogers technical support. After some time, they confirmed that my phone was indeed blacklisted in their system, but they had not requested the ban. They assured me that they had now submitted a request to have it removed, though it could take some time. Interestingly, they also mentioned that I wasn’t the only person experiencing this issue apparently, they had been receiving multiple calls about iPhones purchased directly from Apple being mysteriously blacklisted without cause.

Apple Support acknowledged that this is an ongoing issue, waiting for a call tomorrow morning.

https://preview.redd.it/o98h9k07gmje1.png?width=529&format=png&auto=webp&s=ca92e38a8e6f2b7390e59f5b2174ce0274a28a80

TLDR: My iPhone 16 Pro Max, bought from Apple, was mysteriously blacklisted. Bell blamed Rogers, but Rogers denied requesting it. They’re working on removing it, and Apple confirmed it’s an ongoing issue. Waiting for a follow-up call tomorrow.