Q: sim card not valid after update to ios 5

Ok I was at the apple store today with my second bricked iPhone 4 in 1 week and after calls to AT&T and the G bar's best efforts they gave me my 3rd iPhone 4 with an updated iOS 5.  How they did it was after bricking 2 more behind the counter they activated my newest phone then removed the sim card before updating the os.  It worked as I am using it now.    So Apple please fix this issue,  until then I would remove your sim card right before updating to ios 5 then install card! Works! 

Well Good news is my new operator sim is working.. I'm enjoying ios5 on 3GS. What i suggest is if it is factory unlock  there wont be any prob.. After or b4 ios5

Hey Vicky so I have an apple iphone 4 and installed ios 5 and it is locked and says "sim not valid". Before my phone was working fine. I re-inserted my current carrier sim which was working well before the update but now it doesn't. Guys can you please help me, it's been 9 days I haven't used my iphone. Please, please, please tell me a a solution and Apple for goodness sakes please wake up and help all of us who have this issue. You must have an "undo-restore" button or something when somebody updates which can give them the chance to take the phone back to its normal state or something. Please help guys, I will appreciate it a ton......!!! I'm waiting for some good news soon.......!!!! Thanks

Hey guys so I have an apple iphone 4 and installed ios 5 and it is locked and says "sim not valid". Before my phone was working fine. I re-inserted my current carrier sim which was working well before the update but now it doesn't. Guys can you please help me, it's been 9 days I haven't used my iphone. Please, please, please tell me a a solution and Apple for goodness sakes please wake up and help all of us who have this issue. You must have an "undo-restore" button or something when somebody updates which can give them the chance to take the phone back to its normal state or something. Please help guys, I will appreciate it a ton......!!! I'm waiting for some good news soon.......!!!! Thanks

Naveen, if you have an officially unlocked iPhone it stays unlocked after going to iOS5, if you have an unofficially unlocked iPhone, normally the unlock disappears after update of the iOS....

officially unlocked means, that the provider where you bought it must give the unlock request to Apple, who then unlocks it during the next sync in iTunes...

unofficially unlocked means someone has messed in the iPhone iOS, and the iPhone will not be unlocked after the iOS update... even if it was working before under the iOS in which it wa "unlocked".

If you read carefully through the last pages of this thread you would have found the answer yourself.

Hi Lex, Well my phone is not from the same country or service provider im using. I bought my phone from back home and was using the sim of the current country im in and was working fine till I updated it to IOS 5. Now my iphone is locked. So what is the solution now? Please do tell me. I even tried the restore but it didn't work....!!!

Naveen11, I have the impression that your iPhone was unofficially unlocked (maybe even jailbroken). I do not have enough experience with that. Yous could try reversing the iOS back (it can be done), or you could bring the iPhone back to "factory settings", but I expect that in that case you then have a locked iPhone and can use only the original provider's sim. I can not help you with this.

The reason why providers lock the phones is, that they sell you the phone way cheaper than they pay to Apple, and have to earn this back through the telephone contract.

i am in pakistan n i got an factory unlocked iphone 4 for about 950 $. the same thing happened with me after updating to ios 5. i previouly updated my phone 2 time and it have no issues but with ios 5 the local sim isnt working. why............................??????????? my iphone 4 is from uk i think orange o2. what is the solution. please help me. adding i have no backup is it possible to roll back to the previous ios if yes how.

Message was edited by: pk_81

There is no such thing as "factory unlocked": Apple sells unlocked phones, the providers sell locked phones, and only the provider can arrange the unlock. So much for defintion.

pk, again O2 in UK: they have created many problems a lot, please read this thread and other threads about O2 "unlocked" phones. I have not enough experience here.

Naveen,  if you are close to an Apple store bring in your iPhone 4 brick as you will have no success in fixing this Apple firmware issue.  The IOS 5 update is effecting certain replacement units as far as I have seen.  If yours was not a replacement phone then it's a wider spread issue.  I work near an Apple store and have lived there over the past week with 3 bricked phones (1 bricked at the Genius Bar) when they tried to update the to iOS 5.  As I posted from the store yesterday while waiting for them to try everything else before giving me a new iPhone 4, Apple will replace your phone as it is their issue!  AT&T was involved in the 4 hour episode and I now have a new iPhone 4 with iOS 5 which was updated as follows by the Apple Sr. Tech guy:

1. Get new replacement phone (for free) insert your AT&T sim card activate phone.

2. Remove the AT&T sim card and update to iOS 5. 

3. Reinstall AT&T sim card and run! 

The G bar at Apple said this is very rare but I spoke to two others in the store with the same issue.  They also called AT&T to make sure the ID number transferred but I'm not sure if that helped.  Verber 

mrg5117 wrote:

 

SOLUTION - READ THE ENTIRE POST!

 

1. Call Apple customer support. (NOT YOUR CARRIER).

 

 

2. State your phone has a "Sim Not Supported issue.

 

 

3. Once you talk to an actual person tell them there is a "profile activation issue" with your account.

If they ask you to pay tell them this is an exception since this is a profile issue.

(YOUR WARRANTY STATUS DOES NOT MATTER).

 

 

4. They will edit your device profile and your phone will work in itunes within 24-48 hours.

(THE PROFILE IS ON APPLE'S SERVERS, ONLY APPLE CAN MODIFY THEM!)

 

5. DONE. HIT LIKE!

 

 

It doesn't matter if your device is an original or a replacement this is a solution for all "Sim Not Supported" errors. If you don't understand this guide, you should enroll in a local elementary school to cover some serious educational gaps.

So I called Apple and they told me the Profile Activation Issue was on my carriers end.  The senior advisor then told me that I need to uninstall iTunes and then reinstall and then cal her back!!!  Has anyone confirmed this or not??? Or even this method:

Naveen,  if you are close to an Apple store bring in your iPhone 4 brick as you will have no success in fixing this Apple firmware issue.  The IOS 5 update is effecting certain replacement units as far as I have seen.  If yours was not a replacement phone then it's a wider spread issue.  I work near an Apple store and have lived there over the past week with 3 bricked phones (1 bricked at the Genius Bar) when they tried to update the to iOS 5.  As I posted from the store yesterday while waiting for them to try everything else before giving me a new iPhone 4, Apple will replace your phone as it is their issue!  AT&T was involved in the 4 hour episode and I now have a new iPhone 4 with iOS 5 which was updated as follows by the Apple Sr. Tech guy:

1. Get new replacement phone (for free) insert your AT&T sim card activate phone.

2. Remove the AT&T sim card and update to iOS 5. 

3. Reinstall AT&T sim card and run! 

The G bar at Apple said this is very rare but I spoke to two others in the store with the same issue.  They also called AT&T to make sure the ID number transferred but I'm not sure if that helped.  Verber 

Naveen, have you tried another carrier's sim?  I had to use the sim from the carrier the phone was bought from even though it was confirmed by that carrier and Apple that the phone was unlocked.

I used an unactivated prepaid sim from the original carrier to set up the phone and then put my carrier's sim in and it works fine.

Hi Saraya,

I haven't tried another carrier's sim. But do you think it will work? Also, Is it a good idea to downgrade to 4.3.5? will my fone work then or is it risky? And as you mentioned, if i use another carrier's sim and reinsert my carrier's sim will i be able to unlock my fone? Please let me know. Thanks a lot.

Well my iPhone3Gs is eventually working again as of this morning.  My problem was not directly that it was a replacement phone -- the new serial number had been correctly linked to an old number when I replaced it at a Genius bar.

The problem was that the old number was not correct -- the phone had suffered sudden complete power failure and so the "genius" (I use that term lightly) had to copy the serial number off the SIM card carrier.  The numbers are very small and he copied one digit incorrectly.  Obviously Apple to not carry any check digits in their serial numbers as the number he wrote was accepted as valid and matched an iPhone locked to a UK carrier -- so the replacement iPhone was also registered as locked to the UK carrier.

This didn't cause any problems till the iOS5 update came along, at which point Aplle seems to have begun enforcing carrier locks at phone registration time, and the iOS5 update is obviously regarded by some part of their system as a phone re-registration.

And as described elsewhere in this thread the issue and the fix were entirely within Apple's computer systems -- my carrier did not know anything about any of this.

My real complaint was the time it took to sort this out in the Apple registration records -- the second-leven advisor knew the problem and solution by last Friday and had put in a work order; he escalated it on Tuesday and it is only today (Thursday) that my phone is again working -- almost a week to correct a seemingly-simple phone registration mistake within Apple!

I can see that happening as these profile locks / unlocks are only supposed to take when a restore occurs..

When I rang up O2 to have my old iPhone unlocked; it was only when the phone was wiped and set up as new many months later that the settings were pushed to the phone...

I guess this is to protect the phone in some way; but can see how annoying it is to happen now.

Did you have to restore the phone to get it working again or is it pushed via itunes on sync now?