Need some assistance! Newbie trying to unlock iPhone 3GS

[Shevchunko]

Hey
I just bought a iPhone 3GS off a friend of mine, he upgraded it to 4.3.5 (Which I have now found out makes this all a lot more difficult...) and it's on baseband 05.16.02 locked to O2 UK.

My main requirement is to get this phone unlocked to accept my T-Mobile UK SIM. Just tried jailbreaking but got nowhere (Couldn't get the hang of tethered booting) so now I'm restoring it back to 4.3.5.

So, in pretty easy to understand terms can someone show/tell me or link me to somewhere which will show me the easiest method to get this phone running on T-Mobile?

Thanks!

EDIT: I've read through pages of threads and tons of blogs, but still can't figure out what to do...
I was trying to downgrade to 4.3.3 which is why I tried the jailbreak but the tutorial I was following wasn't much help.

Anything is appreciated, desperately need to get this working!

 

[Crystal-RX]

Hey
I just bought a iPhone 3GS off a friend of mine, he upgraded it to 4.3.5 (Which I have now found out makes this all a lot more difficult...) and it's on baseband 05.16.02 locked to O2 UK.

My main requirement is to get this phone unlocked to accept my T-Mobile UK SIM. Just tried jailbreaking but got nowhere (Couldn't get the hang of tethered booting) so now I'm restoring it back to 4.3.5.

So, in pretty easy to understand terms can someone show/tell me or link me to somewhere which will show me the easiest method to get this phone running on T-Mobile?

Thanks!

EDIT: I've read through pages of threads and tons of blogs, but still can't figure out what to do...
I was trying to downgrade to 4.3.3 which is why I tried the jailbreak but the tutorial I was following wasn't much help.

Anything is appreciated, desperately need to get this working!

Downgrade to 4.1 (don't need SHSH blobs), jailbreak & install ipadband using redsn0w.

Once it's done, install ultrasn0w from Cydia to unlock.

****Read/research more for consequences of installing Ipadband before you do this.

 

[Shevchunko]

Well, I'm trying to do that and all I got was the 1015 error, which I then tried to fix with Fixrecovery but all it does is boot me back to the connect iPhone to iTunes screen.

It's an older iTunes logo to what I had though which shows signs of 4.1 being on there?

All it does when I try to boot is show me that screen.

If it helps, I tried a tethered jailbreak on 4.3.5 before but all I would get when I tried a tethered reboot is the pineapple for a long time then the connect to iTunes screen...

 

[seanwebb68]

You should be able to contact o2 to get it unlocked if they won't do it for you ask the friend that you brought it from to contact them and they will unlock it.... THEN YOU WON'T HAVE TO INSTALL THE IPAD BASEBAND

 

[Shevchunko]

You should be able to contact o2 to get it unlocked if they won't do it for you ask the friend that you brought it from to contact them and they will unlock it.... THEN YOU WON'T HAVE TO INSTALL THE IPAD BASEBAND

I'll give that a go tonight, thanks!

Still the small problem of being stuck on the connect to iTunes screen and not being able to boot, any ideas?

 

[rowley]

yes UK O2 customers can unlock by requesting it at

https://www.o2.co.uk/apps/help/help?qid=1&q1=2&route=unlocking&case=Handset Unlocking Form

No need to jailbreak or anything like that.

----------

you would still need to connect it to itunes regardless, sync it, and then request the unlock.
In a day or two you'll get a sms saying that it's now unlocked.

Sync again and all is good to swap out the sim to another network.
You still have to honour the contract (if you have one).

 

[Shevchunko]

I'm not an O2 customer though...

And also, I need to get my phone out of being stuck on the connect to iTunes screen. Tried Fixrecovery and that didnt work...

Since I tried to downgrade to 4.3.3 the iTunes logo has changed to the old disk w/ a blue music note. But still I'm stuck on this screen

 

[Crystal-RX]

You can't downgrade to 4.3.3 because Apple stops signing this.

Again, like I said, go to 4.1. See the following thread;

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1228704/

 

[Shevchunko]

You can't downgrade to 4.3.3 because Apple stops signing this.

Again, like I said, go to 4.1. See the following thread;

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1228704/

I meant 4.1 sorry, i'll have a look at that thread tonight after work
Thanks for all the help.

For once I get my iPhone booting properly again, it seems the only way to get it unlocked for me (since I'm not an O2 customer so can't unlock it through them) is to put the iPad baseband on right? Not so bothered about the GPS but can't understand the thing about notbeing able to update 'regularly' anymore. Does this just mean I'll have to apply a custom update to my phone once its available? I'm fine with that too really...

 

[Crystal-RX]

I meant 4.1 sorry, i'll have a look at that thread tonight after work
Thanks for all the help.

For once I get my iPhone booting properly again, it seems the only way to get it unlocked for me (since I'm not an O2 customer so can't unlock it through them) is to put the iPad baseband on right? Not so bothered about the GPS but can't understand the thing about notbeing able to update 'regularly' anymore. Does this just mean I'll have to apply a custom update to my phone once its available? I'm fine with that too really...

If O2 refuses to unlock it for you, the the only way to unlock it is to install Ipad baseband. As for customs firmware, you can create yourself using pwnage tool if you have Mac or other softwares.

 

[Shevchunko]

If O2 refuses to unlock it for you, the the only way to unlock it is to install Ipad baseband. As for customs firmware, you can create yourself using pwnage tool if you have Mac or other softwares.

Sweet, so say when iOS 5 is released ill still be able to put it on there myself even though I have the iPad baseband?

And what I gathered from that thread is to restore in DFU with TSS server running, then once I get the error hit exit recovery and that should work?

Again, thanks for the help. I know I'm asking a lot of questions and being a pain...

 

[Shevchunko]

Yes! I exited recovery with Tinyumbrella and now I'm at the emergency call screen running (I assume since I restored and it's got an old iTunes logo) 4.1

Now, since I don't have a SIM card which will bypass the emergency call lock screen where am I to go from here? Just jailbreak 4.1 and install the iPad BB so I can unlock or will this still take me to the emergency screen when I reboot?

 

[Shevchunko]

DONE!

Really happy, thanks everyone for helping.

Once I actually downgraded the rest was easy, and location stuff on Facebook etc. still actually works even with the iPad BB (Unless thats because I have WiFi on right now, havn't checked with it of )

Been checking out stuff on Cydia, Quickreply is a lifesaver because the SMS notification drove me nuts!

I'll look to upgrading to 4.3 when I can be bothered, right now 4.1 is fine

 

[Crystal-RX]

Congrats!