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iTunes weird message! "Congratulations, your iPhone has been unlocked."

L

Longey Nowze

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 18, 2001
222
0
I am having a bit of trouble with my iPhone and I had to force it into recovery mode after iTunes finished restoring i got this message "Congratulations, your iPhone has been unlocked." now my iPhone is unlocked I bought it that way without any jailbraking, I was one of the lucky few that got these unlocked iPhones from Mobily.

did anyone else get this message? is it possible that you can officially unlock the iPhone? maybe after the contract ends?
 

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My iPhone is an officially unlocked one and it shows that message when I restore.
 
Couple things you need to clarify to make this useful:

Which country are you in, where did you buy it, and what carrier do you use?

If it's a locked phone in the US, it looks like the message you might receive when you forget your passcode and "unlock" the phone via iTunes.
 
mrkgoo said:
My iPhone is an officially unlocked one and it shows that message when I restore.
Click to expand...

Same here. I have a factory-unlocked one from New Zealand. From what I understand, factory-unlocked iPhones are permanently registered on Apple's servers somehow and you'll see this message after you restore or upgrade the firmware once the servers acknowledge your iPhone and realize that it is supposed to be unlocked.
 
mrkgoo said:
My iPhone is an officially unlocked one and it shows that message when I restore.
Click to expand...

Mine is officially unlocked too, Mobily's in Saudi first batch was unlocked, where did you get yours? cuz all their other batches are locked, I have yet to confirm this though. where can you get officially unlocked iPhone's? From what countries? I want a plan B incase I have to change mine or if I want to buy a new one.

Thank you
MaT
 
slpdLoad said:
Couple things you need to clarify to make this useful:

Which country are you in, where did you buy it, and what carrier do you use?

If it's a locked phone in the US, it looks like the message you might receive when you forget your passcode and "unlock" the phone via iTunes.
Click to expand...

I got it from Mobily in Saudi, and according to them the first batch is unlocked, and I am using my STC SIM on it.

What other countries sell unlocked iPhones?
 
cellocello said:
There's a handful - Italy, Australia (I think), France ... a quick search should bring up a whole list.
Click to expand...

really? interesting... maybe when the next iPhone comes out in year or so I'll get it from there.

I couldn't find the list though, I only found Hong Kong and a friend of mine told me you can find them in New Zealand.
 
If you buy an unlocked phone that means you can put in ANY sim card right? does that include the ATT sim cards?
 
I'm in Australia and can help.

Yes this is the message you get when you request your carrier to send you the unlock. Some of our carriers have a web site you can go to, pay $25, enter your IMEI and you can get the unlock sent to your phone. Other phone companies will send it down if you call them free of charge.

You also get this out of the box when you purchase an iPhone that is not locked to any network. (e.g. the Apple Store / Apple Store Online)

I think the Congratulations is a subtle joke because unlocked iPhones are so highly sought after.

All 5 carriers have the iPhone here. All lock them initially, because they are free on a 24 month contract. Although you can get them unlocked on request, or purchase one that has never been locked from Apple directly at an outright price.
 
w3cum said:
If you buy an unlocked phone that means you can put in ANY sim card right? does that include the ATT sim cards?
Click to expand...

Yes, any SIM card from any of the 860 GSM networks in all 220 countries/areas will work in an unlocked iPhone.
 
Longey Nowze said:
I am having a bit of trouble with my iPhone and I had to force it into recovery mode after iTunes finished restoring i got this message "Congratulations, your iPhone has been unlocked." now my iPhone is unlocked I bought it that way without any jailbraking, I was one of the lucky few that got these unlocked iPhones from Mobily.

did anyone else get this message? is it possible that you can officially unlock the iPhone? maybe after the contract ends?
Click to expand...

There are numerous regions large and small worldwide where it's a legal requirement of a carrier to offer unlocking of devices at the end of contracts. I assure you it's definitely possible to get your phone unlocked. That said, it's most likely something that iTunes does in response to some signed indicator on a special site related to a given provider, not something you'd easily trigger yourself. It could be more secure than that, I wouldn't know.

But yes, I would be surprised if unlocking with iTunes involved wasn't a possibility.
 
bobsentell said:
Anticipation of a meddling federal government requiring them to unlock it.
Click to expand...

Don't worry cowboy, there's plenty of boisterously fat, angry republicans and confused hippies who are out shouting as loud as possible to prevent the gov't from enacting consumer protections.
 
zacheryjensen said:
Don't worry cowboy, there's plenty of boisterously fat, angry republicans and confused hippies who are out shouting as loud as possible to prevent the gov't from enacting consumer protections.
Click to expand...

Don't you mean chubby liberal rednecks? They tend to be pretty angry to, ya know? Just more arrogant
 
actorkid said:
I don't understand why Apple would congratulate you for your phone being unlocked?
Click to expand...

This is an interesting comment for them to say. Are they admitting that "locked" iPhones are a pain in the rear and people are better off once they iPhones are "unlocked"?
 
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