Cant use iPhone 3Gs. Wont accept my sim

[ZacNicholson]

I bought this dude's iPhone and i restored it and updated the firmware to whatever is the newest. but when i put my At&t sim card in it, it won't do anything it tells me to connect too iTunes and when i do it does nothing. So my question is how can i unlock it with out it being jailbroken? I just want to use this iPhone

 

[Tech Elementz]

It seems like you got the iPhone from another country. In this case, the only way to unlock is to ask a carrier to unlock, which I do not think any would do in the U.S.... I think when you buy an iPhone, you buy it locked to AT&T...

 

[hackthatphone]

I bought this dude's iPhone and i restored it and updated the firmware to whatever is the newest. but when i put my At&t sim card in it, it won't do anything it tells me to connect too iTunes and when i do it does nothing. So my question is how can i unlock it with out it being jailbroken? I just want to use this iPhone

So determine what os and modem firmware are on it then jailbreak and unlock. There's only like a million guides out there on how to do this. Your second mistake was blindly restoring it to who knows what, possibly killing your unlock.

For everyone else out there, when buying an iPhone from a private party bring your sim with you to make sure the damn thing even works before buying it.

 

[ZacNicholson]

It seems like you got the iPhone from another country. In this case, the only way to unlock is to ask a carrier to unlock, which I do not think any would do in the U.S.... I think when you buy an iPhone, you buy it locked to AT&T...

no its from the usa.. it was my friends . he just got iPhone 4 so he sold me this. but it won't accept my sim

 

[Tech Elementz]

no its from the usa.. it was my friends . he just got iPhone 4 so he sold me this. but it won't accept my sim

Then it should work though? It should be locked to AT&T? Perhaps you need to reactivate it with his AT&T SIM perhaps?

 

[eastercat]

Unless your sim or the phone is damaged, you should be able to activate in iTunes.
Make sure the sim isn't damaged. My sim has gone wonky on me and I had to get a replacement from AT&T.
If the sim is fine, the phone may be damaged.