One of my friends tried the online form and his was unlocked within 48 hours IIRC. (He was done with his contract though).
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At&t Now has a website to request an unlock
- Thread starter ahfu25
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One of my friends tried the online form and his was unlocked within 48 hours IIRC. (He was done with his contract though).
I just used the ATT online chat and the guy unlocked an old iPhone 4 for me. Not sure how to verify it's unlocked though.
after being denied using AT&T online form, I called into customer care and the lady was able to unlock it in 5 mins.
I called in and while the guy was friendly and helpful, he really seemed to be clueless. Not a "I'm a temp newbie" kind of clueless, but more of a "they don't let us do that anymore" clueless.
In the end he had me resubmit my request on the web. When he noticed my request didn't update in the notes he got permission from his supervisor to treat my case as an escalation and manually entered my IMEI into the system.
In the end he had me resubmit my request on the web. When he noticed my request didn't update in the notes he got permission from his supervisor to treat my case as an escalation and manually entered my IMEI into the system.
Submitted two requests on the 18th and never heard anything.
Called after hours and got the India call center. After 25 mins all he said was resubmit the form. I told him i had already submitted it but he kept repeating the url w w w period a t t period c o m slash device unlock slash. Told me to submit the form while he was on the phone.
Called early today and got the normal call center... Much better experience !!
He looked it up and saw that the resubmitted request had reset the submission so it would have been another 5 days. Put me on hold while checking with his manager as he didnt think the bad information the idian csr told me.... unlocked the phone in 10 mins.
Called after hours and got the India call center. After 25 mins all he said was resubmit the form. I told him i had already submitted it but he kept repeating the url w w w period a t t period c o m slash device unlock slash. Told me to submit the form while he was on the phone.
Called early today and got the normal call center... Much better experience !!
He looked it up and saw that the resubmitted request had reset the submission so it would have been another 5 days. Put me on hold while checking with his manager as he didnt think the bad information the idian csr told me.... unlocked the phone in 10 mins.
I was turned down. AND I've been an AT&T iPhone customer since 2007 (first iPhone, 3Gs, 4S). It took less than 24 hours to be turned down. I got the usual "under contract" language and when I responded arguing that Sprint & Verizon iPhones were unlocked (Verizon for International and Sprint after 3 months), AT&T responded that they weren't allowed to under their contract with Apple.
So I forwarded their email to Apple asking if these facts were accurate (before I write the FCC - which we know how effective that will be).
Yes, I know their are many sites on E-Bay where people have had good experiences and virtually immediate results - but it's the principle of the restriction I find galling.
hmm. I had my iPhone 4 unlocked via AT&T. Although I have iOS 6 on it, I tapped the reset and erase iPhone button. Upon plugging into iTunes, it said 'congratulation, your iPhone has been unlocked.' I''m sure you can keep your current iOS on it.
yep!
i followed the instructions in this thread:
https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/12545637/
as soon as i hit the last step (while still connected to iTunes) the phone rebooted and i got the "congratulations, your iPhone is now unlocked" message.
iTunes then asks you if you want to set up as a new phone or from back-up. i clicked on new phone, unplugged, powered off, removed SIM card, and it is now packed up ready for shipping out to the new owner tomorrow.
i followed the instructions in this thread:
https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/12545637/
as soon as i hit the last step (while still connected to iTunes) the phone rebooted and i got the "congratulations, your iPhone is now unlocked" message.
iTunes then asks you if you want to set up as a new phone or from back-up. i clicked on new phone, unplugged, powered off, removed SIM card, and it is now packed up ready for shipping out to the new owner tomorrow.
Thanks! I'll give that a try.
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Thanks! Copying pictures off now....didn't realize how many I had on there!! I'll be ready to sell soon.
Apple keeps a database of IMEI numbers and whether that IMEI is locked or not. Your phone will check against the Apple database whenever it attempts to activate, which happens when:
1. You restore it
2. You put another carriers SIM into a locked phone.
AT&T specifies option 1 on the website, because it doesn't require another SIM, but it actually isn't necessary. I bought a Tmobile SIM while waiting for my iPhone 4 to be unlocked. One day I put it in and it wouldn't work. The next day I tried again, launchpad restarted a couple times and then I got a message on the phone saying it was unlocked, and I was good to go (I presume you need WiFi for this to work, to dial up apple since you won't have cell service temporarily)
If you got the unlocked message in iTunes, I wouldn't worry, though there really is no way to truly test it without another SIM. Fortunately tmobile will give you a PAYG SIM for free if you do it online.
The phone will remain unlocked even after a software restore because the software doesn't overwrite that very basic part of the baseband. The only way for it to be locked again would be for apple to relock your IMEI and then for you to reactivation the phone again. I have not seen a single instance where Apple has relocked a phone.
AT&T submits the IMEI to apple. Those eBay services either submit IMEIs directly, or have access to AT&T's form. Regardless it's unlikely that a phone would get relocked even if you unlocked when you weren't eligible, because AT&T would have to cross reference every iPhone IMEI they've ever sold against the contract status of every iPhone customer, which would cost too much in labor relative to the revenue they'd get by locking a couple thousand phones again. Plus, they'd be liable for damages to anyone whose phone was inappropriately locked again, making AT&T have to be extremely accurate. If I pay some eBay guy $15 to unlock my phone, I still have a contract with AT&T, so they are still going to get my money every month or all at once via ETF, so they don't lose much anyway.
Guess I'm one of those unlucky people with the 4S. I tried the web site twice, and both times, I got a confusing response:
"We cannot complete your request because we found no valid current or former mobile or account number for this request."
Of course, that's wrong. I do have an account with them. I did it again just to make sure I typed my IMEI right. Got the same response.
So I contacted AT&T support, and the rep said my 4S cannot be unlocked because it's still under contract until 10/2013.
Sucks to be me.
"We cannot complete your request because we found no valid current or former mobile or account number for this request."
Of course, that's wrong. I do have an account with them. I did it again just to make sure I typed my IMEI right. Got the same response.
So I contacted AT&T support, and the rep said my 4S cannot be unlocked because it's still under contract until 10/2013.
Sucks to be me.
I requested my unlock Friday(Sept28) got the email today for the steps to take to unlock it.
I didn't freaking know I'd have to restore my phone. I don't want to go to iOS6 or lose my jailbreak
You don't have to restore it. That is only for you to see the message that it is unlocked. It is unlocked already, you don't have to read the message saying so.
Really? I won't be selling or traveling over seas with it so no real need to unlock but hey it's free so why not. I plan to give it to my son and replace his straighttalk phone with it once I get the Note2. I know ST uses AT&T so still no need for the unlock. I may get a tmobile prepay sim just to play with though
This is how I see why getting the "Congrats..unlocked" message is important:
1.) iPhone is originally locked
2.) iPhone is unlocked in Apple's database (but iPhone does not know this yet)
3.) iPhone has to *connect* to Apple to know it is unlocked (and this only happens when you put in foreign SIM or restore), and when it does, it shows the Congrats message. Now iPhone knows itself is unlocked.
Normally this isn't an issue if you have Internet access. However, imagine you took the iPhone (w/o ever connecting to iTunes for activation/getting Congrats message after it's unlocked) overseas and you put in a foreign SIM in it. Because iPhone itself does not know it has been unlocked, it rejects the SIM and asks you to put in valid SIM to activate. Now the issue is you are overseas and you have NO Internet access at the moment. Would this make the iPhone unusable with foreign SIM?
I just submitted my AT&T 4S for unlock. I'm out of contract so lets see if it actually works.
I submitted my request in September. I just received the confirmation this Monday! 10/29. I completely forgot about it. It seems like AT&T is just taking so many orders, there's a huge delay. But I actually got the unlock email.
It works.