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AT&T Unlock is not working on my iPhone 4

jmpage2

jmpage2

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Sep 14, 2007
3,224
549
Hello all. I posted in the news forum but this appears to be the more relevant place to post this.

I have an iPhone 4 that has never been jailbroken and is not under contract. It is on my wife's AT&T service as a second line.

When I found out that non contract phones would be eligible for unlock this seemed like a great opportunity for me, as we are traveling out of the country this year and I would love to buy a cheap pre-paid SIM card and use my iPhone while abroad.

I submitted the unlock request and my wife got an email indicating that my phone was approved for the unlock yesterday morning. It told me to backup/restore my phone and my unlock would be completed.

The problem is, I have now restored my phone twice and iTunes never shows the unlock message. Under settings->about->carrier it still shows AT&T 12.0 as the carrier. I have ejected and re-inserted my SIM card to no effect and I do not have a 3rd party SIM card to try with the phone.

What else can I do to sort this out? It almost seems as though the unlock was "confirmed" by AT&T but Apple never entered it into their whitelist. I checked and the IMEI number appears to match what is in my phone.

Really would love to get this done, thanks for any offered help!
 
jmpage2

jmpage2

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Sep 14, 2007
3,224
549
miles01110 said:
You could try calling AT&T to confirm that it went through, and/or have them re-submit the request.
Click to expand...

I talked to AT&T and they verified the IMEI and said they had done everything properly on their end. They said I need to contact Apple.
 
Applejuiced

Applejuiced

macrumors Westmere
Apr 16, 2008
40,672
6,533
At the iPhone hacks section.
So call Apple.
But like the poster above said before you do that why dont you try a Tmobile sim to confirm that it is still locked or its not.
Not everyone gets that itunes message but their phone is still unlocked.
 
jmpage2

jmpage2

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Sep 14, 2007
3,224
549
Applejuiced said:
So call Apple.
But like the poster above said before you do that why dont you try a Tmobile sim to confirm that it is still locked or its not.
Not everyone gets that itunes message but their phone is still unlocked.
Click to expand...

That would be great advice if I had access to a T-Mobile SIM card. I don't have access to one.
 
jmpage2

jmpage2

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Sep 14, 2007
3,224
549
ericrwalker said:
So getting it unlock isn't that important to you then?
Click to expand...

Getting it unlocked is important to me because I will be out of the country later this year.

However, if your implication is that I don't really give a ***** since I'm not willing to run out, clobber someone over the head, and try their T-Mo sim card, or waste gasoline driving out to a t-mobile store so I can plead with them to put a SIM card in my iPhone so I can test if it's unlocked then I guess you're right.

Here's an idea, with all this demand for unlocking and inevitable questions and problems why doesn't Apple create a simple tool that tells you if the damn thing is unlocked or not or have a firmware setting that can be checked from the about menu to tell users this? Am I making too much sense? Ya, I thought so. :apple:

----------
Applejuiced said:
Or you can punch in your IMEI on this site.
It will tell you if its unlocked or not.
http://www.imei.info/
Click to expand...

Thanks, I tried this, but after quite a while all it says about my IMEI is "waiting".
 
S

Satnam1989

macrumors 65816
Nov 16, 2011
1,200
0
Illinois
You may be able to call apple and ask them to check the "Lock" state of your iPhone 4....I called in to apple to verify that the iPhone 4S that I was going to buy was Unlocked well before I went out to meet the seller on a local sale....They will be able to tell you...but if you are patient why don't you buy a T-mobile sim card from eBay? you can activate it most likely and add funds later....and with no funds it should let you get signal and that will be enough to confirm that its unlocked.
 
jmpage2

jmpage2

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Sep 14, 2007
3,224
549
Satnam1989 said:
You may be able to call apple and ask them to check the "Lock" state of your iPhone 4....I called in to apple to verify that the iPhone 4S that I was going to buy was Unlocked well before I went out to meet the seller on a local sale....They will be able to tell you...but if you are patient why don't you buy a T-mobile sim card from eBay? you can activate it most likely and add funds later....and with no funds it should let you get signal and that will be enough to confirm that its unlocked.
Click to expand...

Apple's automated system refused to transfer me to customer service since I don't have an apple care agreement. I guess purchase of $10K worth of Apple products in the last three years alone doesn't get a person much slack these days.

Anyways, I appreciate all of the helpful advice. I give up. I will deal with this later, when I happen to be in vicinity of a t-mobile store perhaps.

//update. IMEI.info finally processed my request, according to the results "SIM locked: no" so I guess I'm all set.
 
ericrwalker

ericrwalker

macrumors 68030
Oct 8, 2008
2,812
4
Albany, NY
Same for me, as well. I couldn't talk AT&T into unlocking mine so I had to do the SAM unlock.

I just checked that site that was posted here and it shows mine locked. What an awesome site that I never knew existed.


jmpage2 said:
Getting it unlocked is important to me because I will be out of the country later this year.

However, if your implication is that I don't really give a ***** since I'm not willing to run out, clobber someone over the head, and try their T-Mo sim card, or waste gasoline driving out to a t-mobile store so I can plead with them to put a SIM card in my iPhone so I can test if it's unlocked then I guess you're right.

Here's an idea, with all this demand for unlocking and inevitable questions and problems why doesn't Apple create a simple tool that tells you if the damn thing is unlocked or not or have a firmware setting that can be checked from the about menu to tell users this? Am I making too much sense? Ya, I thought so. :apple:

----------



Thanks, I tried this, but after quite a while all it says about my IMEI is "waiting".
Click to expand...
 
S

Satnam1989

macrumors 65816
Nov 16, 2011
1,200
0
Illinois
jmpage2 said:
Apple's automated system refused to transfer me to customer service since I don't have an apple care agreement. I guess purchase of $10K worth of Apple products in the last three years alone doesn't get a person much slack these days.

Anyways, I appreciate all of the helpful advice. I give up. I will deal with this later, when I happen to be in vicinity of a t-mobile store perhaps.

//update. IMEI.info finally processed my request, according to the results "SIM locked: no" so I guess I'm all set.
Click to expand...

don't give up solder! come on, u jus gotta be smart about it:) you can put in the IMEI of another iPhone you may have or the keep pressing 0 or saying customer service may help....I always manage to get my self to a CS regardless of what happens.....also eBay a T-mo sim for $0.99....best bet

ps i wouldn't trust the website 100% n u don't want to be at ur out of US country only to find out ur iPhone 4 is locked...dont worry its little stress but with tiny bit of effort it will be forever gone Also most of the time I have see the "Congratulations your iPhone is now unlocked" message on iTunes when you restore and activate iPhone with a SIM other than your original Carriers....
 
Applejuiced

Applejuiced

macrumors Westmere
Apr 16, 2008
40,672
6,533
At the iPhone hacks section.
Satnam1989 said:
i Put in my IMEI and it says my 4S is 32GB....when its 64GB....I don't think this site is that correct....
Click to expand...

Weird, I havent tried it yet but heard many people say its good cause it tells you if its locked on unlocked and if it is locked to what carrier its locked to.
Now abotu the storage I dont think that would be as important.

jmpage2 said:
//update. IMEI.info finally processed my request, according to the results "SIM locked: no" so I guess I'm all set.
Click to expand...

Nice, congrats dude.
 
jmpage2

jmpage2

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Sep 14, 2007
3,224
549
Stopped by a T-Mobile corporate store and asked them if we could pop an activated SIM in just to test it, they said they didn't have any activated micro SIM cards in the store and, as it wasn't a T-Mobile phone they could not help.

I ordered a pre-paid micro SD blank off of eBay for .99. Not sure if I can activate it or not, but I will get it next week.
 
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