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The SIM card inserted in this iPhone does not appear to be supported

yani2k8

yani2k8

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 13, 2008
101
1
UK
Hello

My friend purchased his iPhone 4 from abroad, where he was able to use it without any problems. Granted, he was using a turbo SIM and had to turn on and off airplane mode each time the phone booted but aside from that it was fine.

He's in the UK now and we've tried to upgrade the software to iOS5. It installed fine but it refuses it activate.

The following appears both on the iPhone and on iTunes:

"The SIM card inserted in this iPhone does not appear to be supported.

Only compatible SIM cards from a supported Carrier may be used to activate iPhone. Please insert the SIM card that came with your iPhone or visit a supported carrier's store to receive a replacement SIM card."

So, clearly the phone is barred and that is why it is refusing to work with various SIM cards.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Can we downgrade back to iOS4? Or is there a way to activate the device without a SIM card?

Thanks in advance!
 
D

dotme

macrumors 65816
Oct 18, 2011
1,191
251
Iowa
Phone is locked to a carrier. Unless that carrier it's locked to unlocks it, it's going to be extremely difficult to get around that message.
 
yani2k8

yani2k8

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 13, 2008
101
1
UK
dotme said:
Phone is locked to a carrier. Unless that carrier it's locked to unlocks it, it's going to be extremely difficult to get around that message.
Click to expand...

I reckon it might be barred, not just locked. Is it possible though?
 
O

outie2k

macrumors regular
Jun 20, 2010
209
53
yani2k8 said:
I reckon it might be barred, not just locked. Is it possible though?
Click to expand...
The phone is carrier-locked. You most likely have to wait for a new turbosim-like product to come out for iOS 5 with the new baseband firmware. It's too late to downgrade iOS/baseband now since Apple has stopped signing the old versions. It was still possible a week or 2 ago.
 
yani2k8

yani2k8

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 13, 2008
101
1
UK
outie2k said:
The phone is carrier-locked. You most likely have to wait for a new turbosim-like product to come out for iOS 5 with the new baseband firmware. It's too late to downgrade iOS/baseband now since Apple has stopped signing the old versions. It was still possible a week or 2 ago.
Click to expand...

So there is no way around this? The phone is bricked for now?
 
C

cass216

macrumors newbie
Oct 21, 2011
1
0
Similar problem

My friend has an Iphone 3gs that was given to her from a friend of her's that lives in the US. The original carrier was AT&T. She had it switched over to Rogers. I was updating to IOS 5 software for her last night and everything went fine until the activation screen where it gave her a message saying something about the SIM not being valid. Her phone will not work at all now. Anybody know how to fix this? It's extremly frustrating.
 
S

satchow

macrumors 6502
Jul 11, 2011
467
186
iOS 5 Beta 7 (I think) fixed whatever GeveySim or TurboSim was using to unlock the phone. Either downgrade or wait until they figure something out.
 
O

outie2k

macrumors regular
Jun 20, 2010
209
53
yani2k8 said:
So there is no way around this? The phone is bricked for now?
Click to expand...
If you know what carrier it belongs to, you can get that sim card and activate the phone so at the very least you can use the phone w/o signal. Other than that, it is indeed bricked for now.

satchow said:
iOS 5 Beta 7 (I think) fixed whatever GeveySim or TurboSim was using to unlock the phone. Either downgrade or wait until they figure something out.
Click to expand...
You can't downgrade the baseband (the cause of this issue) any more.
 
sou1 so1di3r

sou1 so1di3r

macrumors 6502a
Jun 26, 2008
779
13
Denver, CO
OP- sounds like you were using a GEVEY SIM to connect.

You upgraded to iOS5, which was a bad move because the baseband that comes with iOS 5 doesn't work with the Gevey SIM anymore.


There is a way around this, I'm not sure if it works if you already updated via apple (maybe someone can confirm this) but you could at least try it. I am using my AT&T iPhone 4 with O2 (actually giffgaff) using gevey SIM and iOS 5.. works great:cool:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1254382/


For the person with the 3GS in Canada... how did you have the phone "switched over"?

Noone can UNLOCK AT&T phones as far as I know without jail breaking. If you device was jailbroken and you updated the OS, then you are out of luck.

Maybe you just need to put in an AT&T SIM to get past the setup part? Idk, sounds like you are screwed.

Besides, 3GS is a little dated now anyway, treat yourself to a 4 or 4S:D:apple:
 
yani2k8

yani2k8

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 13, 2008
101
1
UK
sou1 so1di3r said:
OP- sounds like you were using a GEVEY SIM to connect.

You upgraded to iOS5, which was a bad move because the baseband that comes with iOS 5 doesn't work with the Gevey SIM anymore.


There is a way around this, I'm not sure if it works if you already updated via apple (maybe someone can confirm this) but you could at least try it. I am using my AT&T iPhone 4 with O2 (actually giffgaff) using gevey SIM and iOS 5.. works great:cool:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1254382/

For the person with the 3GS in Canada... how did you have the phone "switched over"?

Noone can UNLOCK AT&T phones as far as I know without jail breaking. If you device was jailbroken and you updated the OS, then you are out of luck.

Maybe you just need to put in an AT&T SIM to get past the setup part? Idk, sounds like you are screwed.

Besides, 3GS is a little dated now anyway, treat yourself to a 4 or 4S:D:apple:
Click to expand...


Thanks soul soldier. Yes, it is indeed a Gevey sim.

I will try this as soon as the ispw downloads (slow internet).

Also, do you reckon this will work for my situation?

http://www.iphone4jailbreak.org/forum/activate-iphone-on-ios-5.html

----------

Also, how can I find out what network the phone is locked to?
 
sou1 so1di3r

sou1 so1di3r

macrumors 6502a
Jun 26, 2008
779
13
Denver, CO
yani2k8 said:
Thanks soul soldier. Yes, it is indeed a Gevey sim.

I will try this as soon as the ispw downloads (slow internet).

Also, do you reckon this will work for my situation?

http://www.iphone4jailbreak.org/forum/activate-iphone-on-ios-5.html

----------

Also, how can I find out what network the phone is locked to?
Click to expand...

I don't know if that will work. You could try. If you are going to try my method posted however make sure you follow the steps exactly.


As for finding out what network your phone is locked too... I literally have no idea if you don't know where it was originally purchased. For the method I posted to work I believe you have to have the original carriers SIM for initial activation as well.:cool:
 
D

dirgardare

macrumors newbie
Feb 2, 2010
4
0
Frustrating

I have an iPhone 3GS bought in Sweden late 2009. I've been updating it with new software every time something new was released and I've had no problems (except that it became extremely slow after iOS5).

But after I made a complete reset using iTunes I get the message: "The SIM card inserted in this iPhone does not appear to be supported."

I'm using the same SIM-card I had before the reset.

After reading on a lot of forums and sites it seems that I need a SIM-card from AT&T (in the f*c*ing US). How come Apple can do something this stupid?

I've also read that I can jailbreak my phone, but a lot of hacktivation pages states that iPhones bought it late 2009 most likely have a newer rom or whatever it's called, and cannot be jailbroken.

All I wanted was a clean fresh start with my iPhone and I got this...

Any suggestions?
 
B

Bilalo

macrumors 6502
Aug 17, 2012
402
2
Oxford, England
yani2k8 said:
Hello

My friend purchased his iPhone 4 from abroad, where he was able to use it without any problems. Granted, he was using a turbo SIM and had to turn on and off airplane mode each time the phone booted but aside from that it was fine.

He's in the UK now and we've tried to upgrade the software to iOS5. It installed fine but it refuses it activate.

The following appears both on the iPhone and on iTunes:

"The SIM card inserted in this iPhone does not appear to be supported.

Only compatible SIM cards from a supported Carrier may be used to activate iPhone. Please insert the SIM card that came with your iPhone or visit a supported carrier's store to receive a replacement SIM card."

So, clearly the phone is barred and that is why it is refusing to work with various SIM cards.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Can we downgrade back to iOS4? Or is there a way to activate the device without a SIM card?

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...

Jailbreak the phone to remove carrier locks :) then restore it back to normal, if im not wrong that works :)
 
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