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My friend unlocked an iPhone 4 on iOS 4.1. How?!

jent

jent

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 31, 2010
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I'm living in Peru right now and a friend was given a factory locked (to AT&T) iPhone 4 on iOS 4.1. She insisted that she could take it to a local store and have it unlocked, but I explained that while it could be jailbroken, it couldn't be unlocked, as per the Can I Unlock? website.

Lo and behold, I just checked out her phone a week after telling her it was impossible, and she showed me her iPhone 4 working on a local carrier perfectly (voice, data, FaceTime, everything worked like my factory unlocked iPhone 4). I should mention that the phone had the normal baseband version (02.10.04) for iOS version 4.1, so it wasn't a case of unlocking an older, vulnerable baseband.

How could this have been done? Thanks for any insight!
 
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just curious why not ask your friend. I know I would have done it. However they might know something else. Best way to learn about is iclarfied a link below. If they preserved it 1.59 baseband you can keep unlocking to even 5.0 however it need go be preserved from the 4.0 to 4.01 firmware using pwnage tools or sn0wbreeze.


http://www.iclarified.com/unlock/
 
Hi labman, of course I asked her but she has no idea about tech. I'm curious from a technical point of view, but I have a factory unlocked iPhone 4 so I have no need to get it done myself. I just look like an idiot for insisting that she couldn't get her iPhone 4 unlocked on 4.1 (with the 02.10.04 baseband), and she just went to some cell phone store and they unlocked it for her. I'd love to understand how it was done.
 
Gevey SIM. It's the only way to unlock a 4 with a baseband above 1.59, and some of them come close to matching the stock silver of the antenna band. She's probably never noticed--I'll bet it's the one that requires a jailbreak and handles the "programming" automatically. They'd just have to install the Gevey, JB the phone, install FuriousMod, hide Cydia, and warn her not to update in iTunes (if they were kind enough to even go that far).
 
Applejuiced said:
Your friend is full of s....
Click to expand...
Not at all. She knows nothing about phones and has no reason to lie. I inspected the phone before and after. No change in iOS or baseband version. Before it was definitely factory locked (I tried multiple foreign and domestic micro-SIMs), and now it takes anything.

I think IrishVixen is right. I want to pop out her micro-SIM tray to see if it's the Gevey SIM, but I've heard that every time you take it out and reinsert it (not to mention, on some versions, turn off your phone) you need to redo the whole process. Is this the case? I don't want to accidentally cause any trouble.
 
jent said:
Not at all. She knows nothing about phones and has no reason to lie. I inspected the phone before and after. No change in iOS or baseband version. Before it was definitely factory locked (I tried multiple foreign and domestic micro-SIMs), and now it takes anything.

I think IrishVixen is right. I want to pop out her micro-SIM tray to see if it's the Gevey SIM, but I've heard that every time you take it out and reinsert it (not to mention, on some versions, turn off your phone) you need to redo the whole process. Is this the case? I don't want to accidentally cause any trouble.
Click to expand...

Gevey Ultra which uses furiousmod.com does not need to go through set up process. So, pop out the micro sim and see there is Gevey Sim inside.
 
you can plug it into Itunes where you see

official_iphone_3g_unlock.png



if it's factory unlocked!
 
Hey all, I feel like some people are replying as if I don't know what I'm talking about or my friend is lying to me. I would think the same thing if I were reading a topic someone posted on the internet, but imagine the same thing happened to you.

I know that the iPhone 4 is factory locked to AT&T in the U.S. I know that the iOS and baseband versions were at 4.1 and 02.10.04 and remain so after the unofficial unlock. If people who know about the Gevey SIM can confirm to me that popping out the SIM tray to check will absolutely not interfere with my friend's unlock, then I'll do it.

By the way, how does it work? Is it a thin chip put between the actual micro-SIM and the SIM tray? I'd love to know the basics.
 
jent said:
Hey all, I feel like some people are replying as if I don't know what I'm talking about or my friend is lying to me. I would think the same thing if I were reading a topic someone posted on the internet, but imagine the same thing happened to you.

I know that the iPhone 4 is factory locked to AT&T in the U.S. I know that the iOS and baseband versions were at 4.1 and 02.10.04 and remain so after the unofficial unlock. If people who know about the Gevey SIM can confirm to me that popping out the SIM tray to check will absolutely not interfere with my friend's unlock, then I'll do it.

By the way, how does it work? Is it a thin chip put between the actual micro-SIM and the SIM tray? I'd love to know the basics.
Click to expand...

There are so many version of Gevey sims available now. I am not sure how it works but actually, they all work. My family currently have 2 Iphone 4 using Gevey sim (1 with 4.1, 2.10 baseband and 1 with 4.3.5, 04.10 baseband).

Like you said, it is a thin chip put between the actual micro-sim and the sim tray. You can pop it out to see if it there, it will not interfere with your friend unlock. All you need to do is to put it back in.
 
jent said:
Not at all. She knows nothing about phones and has no reason to lie. I inspected the phone before and after. No change in iOS or baseband version. Before it was definitely factory locked (I tried multiple foreign and domestic micro-SIMs), and now it takes anything.
Click to expand...

hmmmm now it takes anything........ I thought you were afraid to take the sim out so you didnt cause problems.

what your saying to us is not possible unless you are in a country other than the US and you took it and they factory unlocked it for you or if she is using the geevey sim.

just saying!:rolleyes:
 
chargit said:
hmmmm now it takes anything........ I thought you were afraid to take the sim out so you didnt cause problems.
Click to expand...
Yes, I am/was afraid to take the micro-SIM out now that she's unlocked it, since I've heard that the Gevey SIM (maybe an old one that was less sophisticated?) would need to be re-configured if taken out of the SIM slot and/or the phone rebooted. Some posters are saying that's not the case. Was it ever the case with older versions of the Gevey SIM?

chargit said:
what your saying to us is not possible unless you are in a country other than the US and you took it and they factory unlocked it for you or if she is using the geevey sim.
Click to expand...
You're right about the Gevey SIM, but it's definitely not a factory unlocked phone. It was bought for $199 on-contract with AT&T in the U.S. In fact, it still had the AT&T micro-SIM in it, and various other micro-SIMs that I tried didn't work.

Now she has service that works just fine with the exact same micro-SIM card that wouldn't work before.
 
only options are factory unlocked or Gevey as you said if it's AT&T factory unlocked is very very unlikely. So a Gevey sim of some sort is the only option. Or possibly a handful of similar sims to the gevey but they copy cats and do the same job. there simply is no software unlock for that baseband. if there was somebody would be talking about it.
 
My iPhone 4 is running 04.10.01 and is technically locked to AT&T. However, I traded it into Apple while in Singapore under Apple Care and they gave back an unlocked phone. I assumed it was unlocked from the previous user (Singapore law is no phone can be locked to a carrier). So though I can never update the iOS, I now have an unlocked phone without a givey sim.
 
If it's really factory unlocked, then you can update without consequence.
chuckd83 said:
My iPhone 4 is running 04.10.01 and is technically locked to AT&T. However, I traded it into Apple while in Singapore under Apple Care and they gave back an unlocked phone. I assumed it was unlocked from the previous user (Singapore law is no phone can be locked to a carrier). So though I can never update the iOS, I now have an unlocked phone without a givey sim.
Click to expand...
 
Crystal-RX said:
This is impossible. When & where did you buy your phone?
Click to expand...

I bought the phone off of craigslist in the U.S. I used it with AT&T for maybe 6 months, then moved to Singapore. Since it was locked to AT&T, I could not use it with Singapore's carriers. However, I swapped the phone at the Apple authorized repair place and they gave me an unlocked phone. I used it for a month then wanted to update the iOS. iTunes paired the phone with my AT&T profile and locked it. I again swapped the phone at the repair place and they again gave me an unlocked phone. I have not restored it since it will relock it.

Apparently the phones they were giving me were unlocked because they still had the previous owners profile. Since 99/100 the previous owner will be a Singaporean and Singapore law prohibits phones being locked to a carrier, I would receive an unlocked phone. However, once I restore, iTunes will match the IMEI to my AT&T profile and lock it.
 
chuckd83 said:
I bought the phone off of craigslist in the U.S. I used it with AT&T for maybe 6 months, then moved to Singapore. Since it was locked to AT&T, I could not use it with Singapore's carriers. However, I swapped the phone at the Apple authorized repair place and they gave me an unlocked phone. I used it for a month then wanted to update the iOS. iTunes paired the phone with my AT&T profile and locked it. I again swapped the phone at the repair place and they again gave me an unlocked phone. I have not restored it since it will relock it.

Apparently the phones they were giving me were unlocked because they still had the previous owners profile. Since 99/100 the previous owner will be a Singaporean and Singapore law prohibits phones being locked to a carrier, I would receive an unlocked phone. However, once I restore, iTunes will match the IMEI to my AT&T profile and lock it.
Click to expand...

Again, this is impossible. Your profile does not have IMEI. Do you know what the IMEI stands for? It is International Mobile Equipment Identity which means each Iphone has its own unique ID#s. If that Iphone is factory unlocked via IMEI, then it will not locked when update. Unless it is unlocked by software.
 
Crystal-RX said:
Again, this is impossible. Your profile does not have IMEI. Do you know what the IMEI stands for? It is International Mobile Equipment Identity which means each Iphone has its own unique ID#s. If that Iphone is factory unlocked via IMEI, then it will not locked when update. Unless it is unlocked by software.
Click to expand...

I never said my profile has an IMEI. I said once I restore this phone, iTunes will match the IMEI of the phone to my AT&T profile and lock it. I don't understand why you have to have such as confrontational tone. I will give you the facts and you tell me what happened:
1. Bought phone in U.S. off craigslist and used with AT&T.
2. Moved to Singapore and bought prepaid Starhub SIM.
3. The Starhub SIM did not work, iTunes reports SIM is not compatible.
4. Call Apple and they confirm the phone is locked to AT&T.
5. Go to authorized Apple repair place and complain wifi doesn't work.
6. They return an iPhone. I put in Starhub SIM and the phone works.
7. One month later, I restore the phone. Repeat steps 3-6.

This is where I am now. No jailbreak. No software unlock. No givey. BUT I know if I repeat step 7 I will have a paperweight again.
 
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