Updated on 6/19/18. Another Blackberry KB was recently modified that addresses the same issue:

Unable to activate iOS 11.3 devices on BlackBerry UEM or BES12

Despite countless issues (and headaches for IT admins) whenever a new iOS version is released, most users will jump in and update their devices anyway as if a day later is already too late. So the activation issue with Blackberry UEM on iOS 11.3 is not much of a surprise to me anymore.

For AirWatch admins, I’ve shared the steps to stop iOS update on its track. And if you are lucky enough to be running Blackberry UEM 12.8, you are not affected by this issue either. If, however, you are running Blackberry UEM 12.7 and below, you definitely want to apply the quick fix from Blackberry at your soonest.

While the process is not as painful as one may think, calling it a quick fix is definitely an understatement given the time it takes to implement depending on the size of your environment.

First of all, the quick fix is about 2.4 GB in size. This already tells me the process is no different from a fresh install or a version upgrade. In fact, if you are planning to upgrade to Blackberry UEM 12.8 soon, you might as well skip the quick fix and upgrade instead. But if you can’t due to whatever reason (I generally prefer not to upgrade until at least one minor revision is released), read on so you can get an idea of what to expect with this quick fix.

Before applying the fix, make sure to:

• take a full backup of your Blackberry UEM database
• take a snapshot of your virtual machines (who still use physical server nowadays?)
• stop all Blackberry services on one or all of your UEM servers

Per the installation instruction, the first time running this quick fix will also update the database. Subsequently, you can install the fix on remaining UEM servers in parallel as the database would have been updated.

After extracting the zip file to the very last one, save the folder to each of your UEM servers.

Then, right click on UEM-12.7.2-Extractor.exe and run as administrator.

Follow the remaining prompts to unzip the file.

At the installer, click Install. Then follow the remaining screens to continue.

If you click Close on the prompt above, you will then get the prompt below.

If you click No, you will get the prompt below. Click Close will return to the prompt above again. Bottom line, you must restart your UEM host after the fix is installed.

For comparison purpose, let’s take a look at the before and after version.

Before installing quick fix:

After installing quick fix:

From start to finish on the first UEM host alone, it took me roughly 30 to 40 minutes. With multiple hosts to fix, altogether it took maybe 2 to 3 hours. I guess this is still considered a quick fix as no additional configuration is required.

Enjoy!