O2 official unlocking and using another SIM card

Question

Level 1

11 points

O2 official unlocking and using another SIM card

here's a little story for you...

i got a text message from O2 this evening to say that my phone has now been unlocked and telling me to connect to iTunes. I connected to iTunes, which said the unlocking had been successful and asking me to update the carrier settings. However, clicking update produced an error in iTunes ("could not update the carrier settings"). I tried a different SIM card anyway (which happened to be an unused orange PAYG card which I had lying around. The phone said unknown SIM and demanded I connect to itunes. iTunes again said please download carrier settings; again, an error. Meanwhile, I got a few text messages saying welcome to orange despite the "connect to iTunes" image on screen and the iPhone still saying unknown sim. I turned the phone off and on; when iTunes next said to update carrier settings, I tried cancelling it; iPhone still said to connect to itunes. All this time, putting my old O2 SIM in worked fine.

I unplugged and plugged back in a few times... after about 10 mins, suddenly the phone's happy again and doesn't mind being on orange.

I then tried a third sim card, which was an old work card which i never gave back so: (1) i don't know if it's still active; and (2) it was locked so i can only call certain numbers. The phone told me to connect to itunes but and also said to insert an unlocked sim card. So I don't know if it would have worked if it hadn't been locked.

During this saga, i phoned apple tech support for advice, who could see i'd put in an orange sim card (he thought it was an orange phone) - now i'm bothered it'll only work on O2 and orange.

The moral of the story: (1) the carrier settings may not work; don't worry about it
(2) the phone takes a while to realise it's been dragged kicking and screaming from O2
(3) it's possible (I don't know this for a fact) that you have to connect to itunes every time you insert a card it's not used before

It's also possible that the carrier settings which didn't work would resolve number 3. I don't know. But this is a heads-up that it may not work properly the first time you put in a shiny new non-O2 sim card.

imac, iPhone OS 3.1.2, intel duo, 2ghz, 4 gb memory

Posted on Nov 13, 2009 12:14 PM

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Answer 1

Nov 13, 2009 12:25 PM in response to els76uk

Since my unlock was done a couple of hours ago, I've tried SIMs from Virgin, 3 and Orange and all worked fine.

I also tried one from Bulgarian operator M-Tel but that just stayed "Searching..." forever. As I'm in the UK I don't know whether that SIM has got roaming activated - probably not. I'll find out if it works next time I'm there, but I'm not expecting any problems.

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Answer 2

musicvan

Level 1

140 points

Nov 13, 2009 3:11 PM in response to Julian Wright

O2 contract coming to its end soon and want to go the unlock route to allow some choice on where I go next plus have the ability to use non-O2 SIMs when travelling in areas with poor O2 3G coverage.

Wondered how this works with itunes, when you sync itunes shows your phone number on the main sync screen, assume this is picked up from the phone not an online database, just wondered if you itunes account can cope with several phone numbers if different SIM cards are used?

All my previous O2 phones were unlocked out of the box and never had this "back to the mothership" online link so the phone did not care which SIM was being used. Assume I just need to keep the data connection settings for each network to manually change when the relevant SIM is inserted?

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Answer 3

Nov 13, 2009 3:39 PM in response to musicvan

Wondered how this works with itunes, when you sync itunes shows your phone number on the main sync screen, assume this is picked up from the phone not an online database,

It picks it up from the SIM.

just wondered if you itunes account can cope with several phone numbers if different SIM cards are used?

I don't think your iTunes account cares about the phone number. Your iTunes account is tied to the device itself by its unique ID, not to the phone number.

this "back to the mothership" online link so the phone did not care which SIM was being used.

Once unlocked by iTunes the iPhone doesn't care which SIM is being used either. The unlock is done via iTunes, but once its done you're free to swap SIMs as much as you want.

During the unlocking, iTunes did download a "carrier update" which I presume is the file it installs to tell the phone it is unlocked, rather than locked.

Assume I just need to keep the data connection settings for each network to manually change when the relevant SIM is inserted?

I think that's correct. I'm not sure whether the iPhone supports the receiving of data settings via SMS that most networks are able to do. If not, you can just enter them on the phone itself, as you would any other phone.

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Answer 4

Nov 13, 2009 4:28 PM in response to Julian Wright

I haven't tried to work this scientifically, but it seemed that when I swapped back to my O2 SIM and then again put in my other SIM the phone asked to be unlocked on iTunes again. Is there a knack to getting the unlock to stick so that I can swap SIMs readily when I get to the UK and travel out again? Is there perhaps any signficance to the fact that I am roaming when I do this? I would have thought not....

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Answer 5

Nov 13, 2009 4:40 PM in response to gordiasUK

I just tried swapping from O2 > Virgin > O2 and it all worked fine without having to connect to iTunes. I just powered off the phone, switched SIMs and powered on again and the phone just worked on whichever network the SIM was for.

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Answer 6

Nov 13, 2009 4:52 PM in response to Julian Wright

Very curious. I tried powering off each time and the result is the same - I am using PAYG on Airtel-Vodafone (Jersey) and it comes up asking for iTunes. Annoying, but not a show-stopper.

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Answer 7

xor76

Level 1

8 points

Nov 18, 2009 12:07 PM in response to gordiasUK

Hi,
I have exactly the same problem and I think it is quite annoying.
My phone has been j@ilbr0ken and unl0cked in the past. I think that the baseband is still unl0cked but not sure if it is causing the problem.

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Answer 8

Nov 18, 2009 2:48 PM in response to xor76

I have no idea if that makes a difference, but in my case nothing has ever been done to the phone. Back in the UK, and the results are still exactly the same: replace O2 with Airtel-Vodafone, it needs iTunes. Reboot using Airtel-Vodafone it needs iTunes. I've posed the question to O2 but have not heard back yet.

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Answer 9

els76uk Author

Level 1

11 points

Nov 20, 2009 6:11 AM in response to gordiasUK

i resolved the issue by doing a full restore. now works fine whatever sim I put in. shouldn't have to have done that, obviously, but it worked.

i did try calling apple tech support, who couldn't help because all the level 2 tech support people were busy. but then, there isn't much they can do that a restore wouldn't.

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Answer 10

Nov 21, 2009 12:49 AM in response to els76uk

Amazing! Despite our problems probably being from different causes restoring my iPhone has cured the problem and I can now change SIMs without any difficulty. I don't know if there is a recommendation from Apple about powering off each time, but so far that is what I have done.

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Answer 11

els76uk Author

Level 1

11 points

Nov 21, 2009 3:19 PM in response to gordiasUK

{quote:title=gordiasUK wrote:}I don't know if there is a recommendation from Apple about powering off each time{quote}

i don't know either, but so far i've not been turning the phone off in order to change SIMs, and the phone doesn't seem to mind. the 3G works fine without changing settings, and because the voicemail number seems to be set by the SIM card, it knows what to do when you touch the voicemail button.

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Answer 12

Nov 22, 2009 10:10 AM in response to els76uk

For what it's worth Apple appear to recommend powering off, according to the manual http://manuals.info.apple.com/enUS/iPhone_UserGuide.pdf, but I agree that it probably doesn't actually matter and they certainly do not labour the point. I would normally expect to change SIMs only after a flight and not on a daily basis, so for me it isn't a big deal to power off.

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Answer 13

Judda

Level 1

45 points

Dec 14, 2009 8:46 AM in response to els76uk

I too have an O2 2G iphone that has recently been unlocked by O2. I have had the problem with switching sims and it asking me to connect to itunes again, which is worrying as I'm about to sell it because I upgraded to the 3Gs. I have just done a restore and connected it to unlock again and since swapped from the original O2 sim, to a Virgin one and back etc and it seems ok. I'll try my wifes t-mobile later to see what happens. What happens though if the new owner does a restore? Does anyone know if the 2G iphone can be unlocked on someone else's itunes if this happens again? It could well land me in hot water as selling the phone as unlocked but it's actually not! Also, I noticed the terms and conditions in itunes were missing when unlocking the phone, even the link to a printable version does nothing. How am I supposed to know what I'm agreeing to!

Cheers.

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Answer 14

Jan 11, 2010 11:20 AM in response to gordiasUK

I can confirm that restoring the phone with the new SIM in it works, well it did for me!

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