iPhone Change iPhone 4 IMEI to unlock (please read before telling me it is not permitted)?

MPH140 · Dec 21, 2011

Hi guys,

Well I was on holiday in Spain and my factory unlocked iPhone was stolen. As I bought it there, the Spanish network had no way of blocking it. However, because of this, my insurance company still paid out and bought another from the US as they are cheaper there. However, I have realised that it had a baseband that cannot yet be unlocked by ultrasn0w. Would it be possible to swap the IMEI of the American phone for that of the Spanish one in order to get it unlocked via iTunes. As the stolen one is in Spain and I am now in the UK again, there hopefully should not be an issue with two iPhones with the same IMEI being connected at the same time to a network as they are in different countries, or would there? If possible, I would like to change the IMEI back to make everything legit, but then I would assume the next time it will sync, Apple will re-lock it as it is not on their database of unlocked phones.

Thanks!

Applejuiced · Dec 21, 2011

The imei cannot be changed.
Not Apple or any hack tool can accomplish that at the moment.
There's no even a jb yet for the 4S.

daneoni · Dec 21, 2011

IMEI is unique to each phone and not carrier or manufacturer can alter it. It can only be blocked (by carrier) and nothing else.

snowwhite007 · Dec 21, 2011

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

No way to do it on an iPhone and noone would ever attempt it as in UK you can get 4 years in prison for doing so

bushido · Dec 22, 2011

a friend of mine works at an apple store and he actually unlocked my factory locked phone. they said they do it all the time for related people they know ^^ they type your uidd into the computer and a week later your phone is unlocked

DJBBOX · Dec 22, 2011

bushido said:
a friend of mine works at an apple store and he actually unlocked my factory locked phone. they said they do it all the time for related people they know ^^ they type your uidd into the computer and a week later your phone is unlocked

a week later? lol the process of unlocking an iPhone is done in a matter of seconds all you need is a unique key generated in part with your device ID.

thewitt · Dec 22, 2011

bushido said:
a friend of mine works at an apple store and he actually unlocked my factory locked phone. they said they do it all the time for related people they know ^^ they type your uidd into the computer and a week later your phone is unlocked

I doubt very much that any Apple retail store employee would have the ability to unlock a factory locked phone.

Perhaps they can request someone at corporate to update the GSMA IMEI database, but I have a hard time believing Apple would accept any requests from a retail store employee to do this....though I guess they could say they needed to sell an unlocked phone and they were out of stock...

If the phone had already been activated however, unlocking the phone would be in violation of the contract between Apple and the carrier. Highly unlikely they would do so.

anthdci · Dec 22, 2011

MPH140 said:
insurance company still paid out and bought another from the US as they are cheaper there.

did you buy the phone in the US or the insurance company? I find it very hard to believe it is the latter, if it is then it is up to them sort it for you. If you bought it from the US to pocket the difference between the US and UK prices then it is your own fault. Best thing you can do is list it on the US ebay and hope to get the money back then buy it again in the UK, but you will be out of pocket.

bushido · Dec 22, 2011

thewitt said:
I doubt very much that any Apple retail store employee would have the ability to unlock a factory locked phone.

Perhaps they can request someone at corporate to update the GSMA IMEI database, but I have a hard time believing Apple would accept any requests from a retail store employee to do this....though I guess they could say they needed to sell an unlocked phone and they were out of stock...

If the phone had already been activated however, unlocking the phone would be in violation of the contract between Apple and the carrier. Highly unlikely they would do so.

i bought an iPhone 4 on ebay with an swedish simlock (im from germany) i went to my friend at the apple store and he was like ill see what i can do

i gave him my phone number and uidd and he typed something in on the computer and told me to check my phone around friday (it was a tuesday) its been activated ever since.

They can do it very well bc phones have to be unlocked after the contract is up here in general and u can either do it at tmobile directly or at an apple store. So he just sneaked me in on that list i guess. I dont know the details just that he unlocked it for me at the store

hackthatphone · Dec 22, 2011

Ok I've read it. It's not permitted.

Next!

Applejuiced · Dec 22, 2011

bushido said:
i bought an iPhone 4 on ebay with an swedish simlock (im from germany) i went to my friend at the apple store and he was like ill see what i can do i gave him my phone number and uidd and he typed something in on the computer and told me to check my phone around friday (it was a tuesday) its been activated ever since.

They can do it very well bc phones have to be unlocked after the contract is up here in general and u can either do it at tmobile directly or at an apple store. So he just sneaked me in on that list i guess. I dont know the details just that he unlocked it for me at the store

That's nice but he can lose his job doing that and the rest of us that dont have a friend working for Apple will not be able to do that.
Unless we travel to Germany and have him hook us all up

0dev · Dec 22, 2011

OP's story seems fishy to me. Why would the insurance company buy a UK customer a US phone?

Either way, you cannot change the IMEI on an iPhone. Some other phones, yes, but even then it's illegal.

You may, however, be able to get it unlocked by Apple. Go to a store and ask them. They may very well charge you for this though.

----------

BTW, even if you could change the IMEI, that would still have no effect on the SIM lock. The two are not related.

MPH140 · Dec 25, 2011

I bought the phone from the US when I got back to the UK because they were not in stock at the Apple Store. Ok, I will give it a try but I doubt they will be able to do anything =/

Applejuiced · Dec 25, 2011

MPH140 said:
I bought the phone from the US when I got back to the UK because they were not in stock at the Apple Store. Ok, I will give it a try but I doubt they will be able to do anything =/

Bad idea. You should have bought a factory unlocked one.
Now you're stuck. You can sell it used and put the money towards an unlocked iPhone.

localboy28 · Dec 26, 2011

MPH140 said:
I bought the phone from the US when I got back to the UK because they were not in stock at the Apple Store. Ok, I will give it a try but I doubt they will be able to do anything =/

sell it on and learn from your mistakes
ive no idea why you bought a usa iphone when you live in the uk

fat jez · Dec 26, 2011

The reason this won't work is not for the reasons others have given (which are perfectly valid) but is for the reason of the International Equipement Identity Register. Once a network reports a phone stolen, the IMEI is added to this International EIR and the handset becomes blocked throughout Europe (and anywhere else that takes updates from the International EIR). If you could change your phones IMEI to one which has been previously reported stolen, your new phone would also become blocked.

localboy28 · Dec 26, 2011

If a phone gets blocked here (uk) it'll only be blocked on all uk
Networks, it'll still work fine anywhere else in the world.

Was reading last week tho that pretty soon blocked phones will now be banned worldwide not just the country they were stolen.

0dev · Dec 26, 2011

localboy28 said:
If a phone gets blocked here (uk) it'll only be blocked on all uk
Networks, it'll still work fine anywhere else in the world.

Was reading last week tho that pretty soon blocked phones will now be banned worldwide not just the country they were stolen.

Yep, in fact I sometimes buy faulty phones off eBay and often see people selling handsets with "signal faults" because they're blocked in the UK but work everywhere else. Of course, what this actually means is the phone was reported stolen in the UK. Same deal with any other phone that doesn't work in a certain country - it means it was reported stolen in that country.

TBH the worldwide block should have been done in the beginning. I bet stolen phones will still work in some countries, though. For example, as far as I know, even phones with no IMEI will work in India.

fat jez · Dec 26, 2011

localboy28 said:
If a phone gets blocked here (uk) it'll only be blocked on all uk
Networks, it'll still work fine anywhere else in the world.

Was reading last week tho that pretty soon blocked phones will now be banned worldwide not just the country they were stolen.

Sorry, but I've been working on mobile networks in the UK for 13 years now. Once it's blocked on any UK network, it becomes blocked on any other network that takes a feed from the Centralised EIR.

0000757 · Dec 26, 2011

Isn't changing the IMEI illegal?

0dev · Dec 26, 2011

fat jez said:
Sorry, but I've been working on mobile networks in the UK for 13 years now. Once it's blocked on any UK network, it becomes blocked on any other network that takes a feed from the Centralised EIR.

I took a phone blacklisted in the UK on holiday and it worked fine (it's a phone that wasn't ever actually stolen, BTW, it's a long story how it got blocked but I know the person who bought it originally and I know it's all legit).

fat jez · Dec 26, 2011

0dev said:
I took a phone blacklisted in the UK on holiday and it worked fine (it's a phone that wasn't ever actually stolen, BTW, it's a long story how it got blocked but I know the person who bought it originally and I know it's all legit).

Where did you go though? Not every network takes that feed, but the UK ones certainly do and as far as I know, the major European ones do as well. Outside of Europe is a different matter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Equipment_Identity_Register
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_switching_subsystem#Equipment_identity_register_.28EIR.29

0dev · Dec 26, 2011

I believe I took the phone to Spain, but this was quite some time ago now so I can't be sure. I am, however, fairly sure it was somewhere in Europe.

fat jez · Dec 26, 2011

0dev said:
I believe I took the phone to Spain, but this was quite some time ago now so I can't be sure. I am, however, fairly sure it was somewhere in Europe.

Depending on the size of the network, they may not have an EIR, so don't blacklist phones. Also, not every location update performs a checkimei, as it's a network overhead.

0dev · Dec 26, 2011

Interesting info.

iPhone Change iPhone 4 IMEI to unlock (please read before telling me it is not permitted)?

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