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Unlock Grace Period for iPhone Replaced Overseas

U

ustrup

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 14, 2011
11
0
Not sure if this is the right forum, but I will try: My home button on my iPhone 4 stopped working recently after I moved to China. I went to a local service center and, since the phone was still under Applecare, they replaced it with a new one. The iPhone was bought in the US and locked to AT&T. The repair guy said that the new one would be locked as well but that there might be a grace period in which I can use it with a non-AT&T SIM. I just tried with a local SIM card and it works fine but I'm now wondering if it will stop working all of a sudden. I have never heard of a grace period and wanted to check if anyone here had. Also, I have yet to hook it up with iTunes since I'm wondering if that might lock the phone as well.

Any thoughts?

Thanks!
 
The lock will probably kick in next time you sync.
Afaik in china they can't put the AT&T lock on.
 
I agree once you sync you will loose the unlock. Also AT&T has no policy about unlocking even if your out of country or permanently moved. Att unlock policy simply sucks hopefully it will change.
 
Thanks everyone. Do you think I might be able to sync the phone with iTunes as a new device? I'm still hesitating to try and sync it.
 
Applejuiced said:
Syncing will do it, if you decide to upgrade the firmware will also.
In order to setup as new you will have to restore and that will also do it.
Click to expand...

So making the iPhone talk to iTunes in any way will lock the device back to AT&T? I have it on a 3 SIM card in HK now and it works without incident.
 
Last edited:
ustrup said:
So making the iPhone talk to iTunes in any way will lock the device back to AT&T? I have it on a 3 SIM card in HK now and it works without incident.
Click to expand...

that is how an unlocked phone remains workable, say if you JB an unlocked phone and you do hacktivate, it wont work, it needs to connect with apple for it to be unlocked/worked each time you restore... works the same with locked.
 
Well, that was fun while it lasted. The iPhone now says "No Service" with the foreign SIM card inserted. I imagine that the phone might have talked to Apple servers at some point and gotten itself relocked. Bummer. Any further thoughts, ideas would be appreciated. I still can't believe, that the Apple-AT&T duo does not allow customers to unlock at any fee.
 
Sell your phone and buy a factory unlocked model.
The decision to unlock is on AT&T.
You can use a gevey to unlock, but it won't work with iOS 5.
ustrup said:
Any further thoughts, ideas would be appreciated. I still can't believe, that the Apple-AT&T duo does not allow customers to unlock at any fee.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks all. Funny thing: I decided to try to see if I could convince Apple to unlock it. The Apple customer service rep on the phone said I had two options: 1) Buy an unlocked iPhone from Apple 2) Jailbreak it (!)
 
Option 2 is possible, but most iphone 4 owners don't have the 1.59 bb. Since you just replaced your phone, I doubt you can software unlock.
Factory unlocked or gevey are your options.
ustrup said:
Thanks all. Funny thing: I decided to try to see if I could convince Apple to unlock it. The Apple customer service rep on the phone said I had two options: 1) Buy an unlocked iPhone from Apple 2) Jailbreak it (!)
Click to expand...
 
Since the phone now has a new IMEI number, do you think anything can be done with that given that the phone didn't physically come from AT&T?
 
ustrup said:
Since the phone now has a new IMEI number, do you think anything can be done with that given that the phone didn't physically come from AT&T?
Click to expand...

nope! if that were the case honestly you would be 100% unlocked now. your best bet is to either sell it or talk to ATT they should allow it to be unlocked now but I seriously doubt they will, but it's worth a try. BTW I'm even surprised they exchanged it there since it's usually only warranted in the country it came from.
 
labman said:
nope! if that were the case honestly you would be 100% unlocked now. your best bet is to either sell it or talk to ATT they should allow it to be unlocked now but I seriously doubt they will, but it's worth a try. BTW I'm even surprised they exchanged it there since it's usually only warranted in the country it came from.
Click to expand...

Applecare does wonders.
 
Yes, I have really been impressed with Applecare.

Interesting new development: the iPhone is now rejecting the AT&T sim card as well as foreign ones. Applecare support in Asia checked the IMEI number and says that it is associated with an unlocked phone. AT&T says the device is locked to them (they don't even want to check the IMEI number) but that only Apple can unlock it and Apple tells me that AT&T has to tell them to unlock it. Meanwhile, my phone does not want to talk to any SIM cards. Any thoughts on next steps?

UPDATE (Aug 3, 2011):

One more update: everyone seems to be pointing fingers at each other: Apple says I need to get a local service provider to unlock although the IMEI number shows that the phone is unlocked. The local service provider says it's an Apple or device issue. And AT&T says that there is nothing they can do since they didn't issue the phone. I might end up going back to a local service center here in Asia but I really doubt it's a hardware issue. Does anyone know what happens to the phone's ID, IMEI, etc when it's replaced overseas?
 
Last edited:
Working solution (so far)

After the iPhone replacement began to reject all SIM cards, including the original AT&T card, I went to the service center and received another replacement. I immediately jailbroke it and installed SAM and SAMPrefs and so far it works like a charm (SAM allows you to backup up the activation).

Would love to hear if anyone else has experience with using SAM to retain an unlock. I'm also wondering if I can risk updating to iOS 5 once the time comes.
 
ustrup said:
After the iPhone replacement began to reject all SIM cards, including the original AT&T card, I went to the service center and received another replacement. I immediately jailbroke it and installed SAM and SAMPrefs and so far it works like a charm (SAM allows you to backup up the activation).

Would love to hear if anyone else has experience with using SAM to retain an unlock. I'm also wondering if I can risk updating to iOS 5 once the time comes.
Click to expand...

You have to wait and be 100% sure the JB, SAM and 5.0 all play together well.
 
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