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WK2
Premium Member
join:2006-12-28
united state

WK2 to Daemon

Premium Member

to Daemon

Re: [Hurray!] AT&T to unlock iPhones starting 4/8

What is happening over at ATT? lol

acadiel
Press fire to begin
Premium Member
join:2002-06-22
Atlanta

acadiel to h8VZW

Premium Member

to h8VZW
Called tech support on Sunday, and got my unlock this morning (mid-morning). Yay!

AlexNYC
join:2001-06-02
Edwards, CO

AlexNYC to Daemon

Member

to Daemon
I used chat on Monday and still have not received the unlock email. I was told 24 - 48 hours so I checked back today, but they just told me it could take up to a week now ... :-(
AlexNYC

AlexNYC to joshuapat

Member

to joshuapat
Did you receive your unlock yet? I also used chat on Monday, but have not received anything yet. I am now told by AT&T it could take up to a week.
tman852
join:2010-07-06
Columbus, OH

tman852 to Daemon

Member

to Daemon
I just saw where anyone in the military can get there's unlocked regardless of contract status. Here's the actual quote..

"If you are in the Military, and own an Iphone of any kind including 4s, call ATT and get it unlocked, all they do is check if you are on the DOD website..and send you the instructions..I did it 5 min ago, from afghanistan - matt"

IhatemyISP
MM1 Corbski
Premium Member
join:2003-01-27
Hampton, VA

IhatemyISP to AlexNYC

Premium Member

to AlexNYC
said by AlexNYC:

Did you receive your unlock yet? I also used chat on Monday, but have not received anything yet. I am now told by AT&T it could take up to a week.

Can't say I didn't see this coming...it does not take that long. AT&T is giving you the run around.

grendal
Mmm Donuts
Premium Member
join:2001-10-10
San Jose, CA

grendal to Daemon

Premium Member

to Daemon
i called in to get the unlock. Do you have to do backup and restore for the unlock to occur or will just simple connecting to itunes perform the unlock?

Thinkdiff
MVM,
join:2001-08-07
Bronx, NY

Thinkdiff

MVM,

You have to do a backup and restore.

grendal
Mmm Donuts
Premium Member
join:2001-10-10
San Jose, CA

grendal

Premium Member

said by Thinkdiff:

You have to do a backup and restore.

after backup/restore, how do you know if it's unlocked? will there be a message or is there some setting you can check?

Thinkdiff
MVM,
join:2001-08-07
Bronx, NY

Thinkdiff

MVM,

There will be a message in iTunes such as this one:

»www.flickr.com/photos/33 ··· 9309806/

grendal
Mmm Donuts
Premium Member
join:2001-10-10
San Jose, CA

grendal

Premium Member

said by Thinkdiff:

There will be a message in iTunes such as this one:

»www.flickr.com/photos/33 ··· 9309806/

When I called this morning, CS rep said it would take a few hours and I got the email instructions within 10 min of the call. I tried restoring a few times after 2-3 hours but I still don't see the confirmation in iTunes yet. Might have to just wait a while longer...
grendal

grendal

Premium Member

said by grendal:

said by Thinkdiff:

There will be a message in iTunes such as this one:

»www.flickr.com/photos/33 ··· 9309806/

When I called this morning, CS rep said it would take a few hours and I got the email instructions within 10 min of the call. I tried restoring a few times after 2-3 hours but I still don't see the confirmation in iTunes yet. Might have to just wait a while longer...

nevermind, got it to work. I kept on select "restore from backup" instead of doing the regular restore.

ridebud
Challenge Accepted
join:2003-12-06
usa

ridebud to Daemon

Member

to Daemon
if you are jailbroken, you can deactivate with redsn0w and reactivate with itunes and get the unlock.

no need to restore.

IhatemyISP
MM1 Corbski
Premium Member
join:2003-01-27
Hampton, VA

IhatemyISP to Thinkdiff

Premium Member

to Thinkdiff
100% Incorrect.

All you have to do is sync with iTunes when you have a active internet connection.

SurfTheSky
Flyingphotog
MVM
join:2001-08-26
Fairfax, CA

SurfTheSky to Pirate515

MVM

to Pirate515
said by Pirate515:

said by banditws6:

Jailbreaking yes, but I thought unlocking was a lot harder if your phone had a certain baseband version or newer.

If I remember it correctly, basebands on everything up to i3GS sold on or close to launch date were pretty easy to unlock. Then several months after 3GS was released, Apple made some tweaks to baseband that made unlocking next to impossible. Obviously, this trend continued with i4 and i4S.
said by banditws6:

At some point I thought the only way to unlock a phone in that state was to use an iPad baseband, but that this would render the GPS inoperable. Has this changed?

Never heard of flashing iPad baseband onto iPhones, but logically speaking, wouldn't doing so break the phone functionality since iPads don't have it, before breaking anything else?

No, flashing the iPad baseband was standard protocol in the repair/unlocking shop I worked in. It worked well and did not disable the GPS to my knowledge.

Thinkdiff
MVM,
join:2001-08-07
Bronx, NY

Thinkdiff to IhatemyISP

MVM,

to IhatemyISP
said by IhatemyISP:

100% Incorrect.

All you have to do is sync with iTunes when you have a active internet connection.

I guess AT&T and Apple are 100% incorrect, too?

»www.appleinsider.com/art ··· nes.html
Daemon
Premium Member
join:2003-06-29
Washington, DC

Daemon

Premium Member

said by Thinkdiff:

I guess AT&T and Apple are 100% incorrect, too?

No, just AT&T (nothing new there): »support.apple.com/kb/TS3 ··· le=en_US

grendal
Mmm Donuts
Premium Member
join:2001-10-10
San Jose, CA

grendal

Premium Member

said by Daemon:

said by Thinkdiff:

I guess AT&T and Apple are 100% incorrect, too?

No, just AT&T (nothing new there): »support.apple.com/kb/TS3 ··· le=en_US

The key thing for the unlock to occur is to have the iphone back into a state where it registers the device. This occurs after you restore an iphone or could work with the jailbroken steps indicated above. syncing by itself won't work (i've tried it).

IhatemyISP
MM1 Corbski
Premium Member
join:2003-01-27
Hampton, VA

IhatemyISP to Thinkdiff

Premium Member

to Thinkdiff
As stated above me, all you have to do is swap out the SIM card with another one.

I put in my Softbank sim card after my unlock was processed and got the unlocked screen in iTunes in around 30 seconds.

grendal
Mmm Donuts
Premium Member
join:2001-10-10
San Jose, CA

1 edit

grendal

Premium Member

said by IhatemyISP:

As stated above me, all you have to do is swap out the SIM card with another one.

I put in my Softbank sim card after my unlock was processed and got the unlocked screen in iTunes in around 30 seconds.

That is correct assuming you have a non-ATT sim card, which I don't. To summarize there's 3 ways,

1) If you have it jailbroken, you can deactivate and reactivate with itunes sync, no restore required.
2) If you have a non-ATT sim card, swap out the ATT card and reactivate with itunes sync, no restore required.
3) If you only have ATT sim card and not jailbroken, backup and restore is the only way to get into reactivate state. I fall into this category. If you don't care about your data, you can reset from iphone using "erase all content and settings" assuming you have ios 5.0 or higher which allows activating a iphone without having to sync to a computer.
Daemon
Premium Member
join:2003-06-29
Washington, DC

Daemon to grendal

Premium Member

to grendal
bump. Thought I'd update this thread with my own experience.

First, AT&T has the process pretty streamlined now. I used the online chat support system. If you do too, make sure you use technical support and not data support or warranty support. After giving them my IMEI number, I was good to go.

I later did a backup and restore that same evening, and no unlock screen happened. I was annoyed I had to erase everything for no reason.

This morning, 48 hours after making the request with AT&T, I put in the prepaid T-Mobile SIM I got for $1, the phone switched to showing an Apple logo with a lens flare for a few seconds, and I was up and running on T-mobile. No iTunes required, and no unlock screen seen. I may not have required iTunes since I was on WiFi at the time-- maybe it processed the request via that.

If I ever do this again or have a friend that does, I am going to tell them to
1. Wait 24 hours before trying
2. Stick a non-AT&T SIM in the slot and let it unlock that way. It's much easier than backup/restore, especially if the request hasn't been processed yet.

Since T-mobile will give you a pre-paid SIM for $1, it's worth buying one even if you only unlocked to use the phone abroad. The $1 saves you a few hours with iTunes and will verify the phone truly is unlocked.