"Congratulations your iPhone has been unlocked"

[FunkyMonkCP]

Well this is my receipt. Notice the part where no AT&T account information or wireless activation was done during checkout. I think I did everything right. I'll try resetting again. Aye, I knew it wouldn't be easy for me. I have literally had to explain to AT&T and Apple that certain things are possible to do.

 

[chestvrg]

Finally I got my 32GB iPhone 4S, I have a question...

when I did my old restore from like May of 2011 after restoring all of my previous applications I had on my previous iPhone4 I did not see the "unlock" message, should I be worried?

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Well this is my receipt. Notice the part where no AT&T account information or wireless activation was done during checkout. I think I did everything right. I'll try resetting again. Aye, I knew it wouldn't be easy for me. I have literally had to explain to AT&T and Apple that certain things are possible to do.

Yes mine reads the same, you should have done everything right.

 

[FunkyMonkCP]

Finally I got my 32GB iPhone 4S, I have a question...

when I did my old restore from like May of 2011 after restoring all of my previous applications I had on my previous iPhone4 I did not see the "unlock" message, should I be worried?

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Yes mine reads the same, you should have done everything right.

Cool. Try testing another sim by going to a store and asking if you can test one. I am going to try again tomorrow. The only thing I have going for me now is that t-mobile worked in this new one and didn't in my contract one. See if yours does the same.


Edit:

This is what I see when I plug in my phone to iTunes without a sim.

 

[bdzer]

Just make sure when they are ringing it up that they select "Device Only" when they get to the appropriate screen. Device only doesn't require any contact info in regards to AT&T account info. There are options such as upgrade/new, etc if my eyes serve correctly. I know they scanned it first and went through a few pages before they got to the device only step. That's what the general consensus is on what triggers the Apple servers to "unlock" it when you connect to iTunes.

Is this essential? How can I make sure they select device only?

 

[chestvrg]

Cool. Try testing another sim by going to a store and asking if you can test one. I am going to try again tomorrow. The only thing I have going for me now is that t-mobile worked in this new one and didn't in my contract one. See if yours does the same.


Edit:

This is what I see when I plug in my phone to iTunes without a sim.

Ok as soon as I'm done doing a backup I will do a restore. The iphone4S is doing some like 33 updates on apps that I had like five months ago (they all needed to be updated) LOL so it's going to take some time.

I'm very worried and until I dont see that "unlocked" message I will not feel satisfied.

 

[chestvrg]

Ok guys, finally I got the messsage. I can now confirm my iPhone 4S is fully unlocked

Thank you everyone for this thread and kudos to the OP.

 

[chen04]

Ok guys, finally I got the messsage. I can now confirm my iPhone 4S is fully unlocked

Thank you everyone for this thread and kudos to the OP.

congrats. I've never owned an iPhone before. are all iPhones activated the same way, whether its unlocked or locked?

 

[chestvrg]

congrats. I've never owned an iPhone before. are all iPhones activated the same way, whether its unlocked or locked?

I dont thinks so, as carrier phones need to be activated with the official SIM provided from the carrier, it will not activate with a non-carrier SIM. Although I have at&t, I would have never gotten this message if my iphone 4S was not factory unlocked.

Now I can rest assure that if was to travel with my family overseas I would be able to use a local carrier SIM and save big monies without having to worry about it being locked to my current carrier. I also have the freedom to switch to Tmobile or SIMPLE if I wanted to.

 

[chen04]

I dont thinks so, as carrier phones need to be activated with the official SIM provided from the carrier, it will not activate with a non-carrier SIM. Although I have at&t, I would have never gotten this message if my iphone 4S was not factory unlocked.

Now I can rest assure that if was to travel with my family overseas I would be able to use a local carrier SIM and save big monies without having to worry about it being locked to my current carrier. I also have the freedom to switch to Tmobile or SIMPLE if I wanted to.

i want to purchase this for someone overseas. is there anything special they will have to do to activate the phone vs if they to activate an 'official' unlocked iPhone 4s? it would really make them happy if i could get them one even if theres a risk of this process. thanks.

 

[chestvrg]

I dont see any problem shipping this unit overseas as it is factory unlocked directly from Apple, unless you want to wait for the one in November that the receipt will read out as unlocked.

 

[grumpleton]

What is the model number on your phone?

I never restored my phone until AFTER I tried the t-mobile stuff and had put back in my AT&T sim. Maybe that could be why I didn't get that screen; I had an AT&T sim in when I restored.

I have the same model as you: MD269LL

 

[frankhsueh]

Just FYI, I've made a table of all 4S part numbers sold in the US.

I bought a 16GB device only from the Stanford Shopping Center Apple Store yesterday. I was reading the AT&T terms/conditions that I had to "agree" to be able to be rung up, the sales told me to just tap on accept as those terms do not apply to device only purchases. I've then tested the phone to work with T-Mobile SIM card.

 

[PLin]

Does this mean it's unlocked even though I did not get that iTunes message? You can see the screenshot below from the off contract phone; it has signal and says the network is t-mobile.

From my experience, some factory unlocked iPhones never show the "Congratulations your iPhone has been unlocked" message.

I bought my factory unlocked iPhone 4 in Canada last year, and I have never been able to get that message to show up even after many restores. Regardless, I've successfully used it with about 5 different carriers so far while traveling.

 

[grumpleton]

Has anyone restored their 4S with the backup of their locked 4 and maintained the lock?

I haven't tried this yet and want to make sure all will be kosher.

 

[Ziron3]

Has anyone restored their 4S with the backup of their locked 4 and maintained the lock?

I haven't tried this yet and want to make sure all will be kosher.

Yes. worked for me.

 

[chen04]

i shouldnt have waited so long, now the only thing i can find within 3 apple stores is the 64gb.

 

[Shanpdx]

Just FYI, I've made a table of all 4S part numbers sold in the US.

I bought a 16GB device only from the Stanford Shopping Center Apple Store yesterday. I was reading the AT&T terms/conditions that I had to "agree" to be able to be rung up, the sales told me to just tap on accept as those terms do not apply to device only purchases. I've then tested the phone to work with T-Mobile SIM card.

thank you ...

 

[karma13612]

Net 10 Pay-as-you-go

If I purchase an unlocked iPhone 4S from Apple online (no store near us locally), when they become available in November, will I be able to pop in the SIM card from my Net 10 Pay as you go phone I currently use here in the United States?

Just curious.

If not, I will still be happy that I can buy a factory unlocked iPhone so I get the latest updates (A5 chip, 512 RAM,etc). I was going to get the iPod Touch but since there is only a color upgrade, I don't feel that is the best choice.

thanks for any info!

 

[Shanpdx]

From my experience, some factory unlocked iPhones never show the "Congratulations your iPhone has been unlocked" message.

I bought my factory unlocked iPhone 4 in Canada last year, and I have never been able to get that message to show up even after many restores. Regardless, I've successfully used it with about 5 different carriers so far while traveling.

Do you need to connect to iTunes EVERY TIME when you changed SIM Cards? (aka providers)?

 

[Joell]

Ok guys, finally I got the messsage. I can now confirm my iPhone 4S is fully unlocked

Thank you everyone for this thread and kudos to the OP.

congrats
did you get yours at dade?

 

[FunkyMonkCP]

Either the activation servers or down or I screwed something up. I have three iPhone's to test this with. I FINALLY got the unlocked message after using my work issued iphone in my off contract one. I reset and tried another one, success again. Now, I can't put any sim chip in there. It gives me a message saying the activation servers are down. ARGHGHH. I got it but now something happened. I truly hope its just the servers going down.

 

[AttilaTheHun]

Either the activation servers or down or I screwed something up. I have three iPhone's to test this with. I FINALLY got the unlocked message after using my work issued iphone in my off contract one. I reset and tried another one, success again. Now, I can't put any sim chip in there. It gives me a message saying the activation servers are down. ARGHGHH. I got it but now something happened. I truly hope its just the servers going down.

happened to me too

your phone is not unlocked,
reset it and start with the microsim that come with the iphone it will take 3 minute until it will go ok.

 

[FunkyMonkCP]

happened to me too

your phone is not unlocked,
reset it and start with the microsim that come with the iphone it will take 3 minute until it will go ok.

I did put the sim that came with it in it. Nothing is working. I can't reset it since I cannot even get to the main menu. I need to find a way to restore this thing.

 

[SirStrumalot]

Has anybody tried to switch from the iPhone 4 data to iPhone 4S data? Apparently this requires calling in and registering your IMEI with AT&T. I'm wondering what this means for people with unlocked phones?

 

[inferno10]

Add me to the confirmed list. Bought a 64GB 4S off-contract at the Apple Store. The person helping me didn't ask for any of my AT&T info when he heard I wanted to buy off-contract, and rung me straight up.

Inserted my old micro-SIM into my new 4S, plugged it into my computer, and the first thing iTunes told me was that my phone was unlocked! No restore needed.

Thanks for saving me a month of waiting, folks!