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AppleFan22

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 3, 2014
282
31
As part of a cleaning process for my iPhone 6, I like to do an Erase all content and settings reset, and start from scratch from time to time. However, since I activated this phone for the first time, I've switched carriers (and therefore SIM cards) twice, (from EE, to giffgaff, to Three). I've done a full reset on my iPhone 4 (activated on the same SIM, the EE one) and tried to activate it with the giffgaff one, and it didn't work. I'm assuming the same thing will happen with the iPhone 6? I'm running iOS 9.3.2, and everything else is up to date. If the same thing would happen, what can I do to make it activate on the Three SIM? Would I have to take it to EE and get them to unlock it? (I've tried jail breaking before, it's never worked for me )-: )
 
Erase all content has nothing to do with unlocking an iPhone.
If the phone is locked to a specific carrier it will not work with any other sim. You will have to contact the carrier to unlock it.
If the phone is unlocked it will activate with any GSM sim you put in.

This is very good news haha! Any ideas why it didn't work on the iPhone 4 then?
 
I should probably mention that both phones were bought unlocked... if that makes any difference...
 
Are you sure they are unlocked?

Yes, neither of them were bought with contracts
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It could also be blacklisted.

Is there anything I'd be able to do about that?
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If a phone is really unlocked it will work and activate with any sim.
If it doesn't then there might be other issues or the particular iPhone is locked.

I hope you're right, as I'm outside of my free warranty period now!!
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Have to say, I really don't understand why you do this.
Just because I find it helps the iPhone run faster, and gives it a new look
 
Where did you buy your phones from ? Iphones from places like carphone warehouse claim to be sim free, but will lock to the first sim put in them.
 
Where did you buy your phones from ? Iphones from places like carphone warehouse claim to be sim free, but will lock to the first sim put in them.

This could make sense... the iPhone 4 was a brand new/hand-me-down/pay some of the money for it kind of gift, so I have no idea where it came from. However, the iPhone 6 was bought directly from Apple
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You mean like a 4 morphs into a 6s Plus new look

-_- No, I mean on screen-wise.
 
If anyone cares, I did the erase today (technically I used restore in iTunes but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯) and it's worked perfectly; reinstalling data now. Thanks for the help everyone!
 
Erase all content on the phone and a full itunes iphone restore are very different.
A full itunes restore is a better way to restore the current iOS and get rid of any software bugs or issues you might be experiencing.
 
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