Restore a Factory Unlocked iPhone 4 (AT&T)

Question

Level 1

24 points

Restore a Factory Unlocked iPhone 4 (AT&T)

Hello everyone!

First off i want to say that i am living currently in the Palestinian Territories/ Israel and have been using a unlocked windows phone 😢 ever since. I have a Locked AT&T iPhone 4 and have went ahead and taken it to a cell phone shop here that claimes that they can Factory Unlock any iPhone you bring them. The shop here didn't seem fishy or anything because their were about 50+ iPhones waiting for the Factory unlock prosess with many customers leaving happily with a unlocked iphone.

So i went ahead and dropped of my iphone with the owner telling me that I dont pay him anything untill the iPhone has been successfully factory unlocked. Waiting the 3 days that he told me it takes i come back the 4th day and have been welcomed back with my iPhone being factory unlocked. I grabbed a IL ORANGE sim card and popped it in my iPhone , it said "Searching" then showed my carrier with full bars and a EDGE connection. I Took out the IL ORANGE sim and inserted a JAWWAL-PALESTINE sim and have been also succesful with aquiring a signal and a working EDGE conection.

My question to yall is that my iPhone is running iOS 5.0.1 and i want to update it to 5.1.1, I need to do a restore on the iPhone to remove some exchange accounts as well as all the data on it and wipe it clean. So if i do a restore then update it to iOS 5.1.1 will the iphone ask to be activated on AT&T or can i activate it on any carrier because its factory unlocked?

Their ISNT any AT&T coverage here in Palestine/Israel so will this be a problem?

Posted on Jun 25, 2012 7:03 AM

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Answer 1

mithcd

Level 1

50 points

Jun 25, 2012 7:19 AM in response to haiel

I think your phone was unlocked by hacking. It will be restored to it's factory default including being locked at ATT.

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Answer 2

imobl

Level 7

20,304 points

Jun 25, 2012 7:19 AM in response to haiel

It sounds as if your iPhone was hacked by the cell phone shop and most

likely will be re-locked to AT&T when you update. Per Terms of Use to

which you agreed when you logged into this forum, there is no support

available here for hacked iPhones. Return to that shop for any support

issues you may have.

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Answer 3

haiel Author

Level 1

24 points

Jun 25, 2012 8:03 AM in response to imobl

Many customers have confirmed that this is a factory unlock. So considering that this is a factory unlocked iPhone, will I need to have the AT&T sim for activation? Or can I activate it on the unsupported carriers here?

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Answer 4

haiel Author

Level 1

24 points

Jun 25, 2012 8:04 AM in response to haiel

And the iPhone isn't jailbroken or anything

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Answer 5

KiltedTim

Level 10

195,435 points

Jun 25, 2012 8:16 AM in response to haiel

haiel wrote:

And the iPhone isn't jailbroken or anything

It was hacked to unlock it.

There is no such thing as a "factory unlock".

ONLY the carrier the phone is locked to can authorize unlocking it. Anything else is a hack.

You can not get support here or from Apple for your phone.

Talk to the shop that "unlocked" it.

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Answer 6

Jun 25, 2012 10:11 PM in response to haiel

restort

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Answer 7

Torkit

Level 1

5 points

Jun 26, 2012 1:47 AM in response to haiel

Hi haiel,

If it's not jailbroken then probably it's really has been unlocked through at&t. Double check if there is no cydia on your phone and sim card slot is a regular slot, with out any electronic things in it like gevey then probably you can give it a try and update your phone. Good luck!

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Answer 8

haiel Author

Level 1

24 points

Jun 29, 2012 4:19 AM in response to Torkit

Torkit, I appreciate your help very much,

This iPhone has been officially factory unlocked because I have done an update to 5.0.1 to 5.1.1 without loosing the unlock, and I have confirmed this with many others as well as the owner of the store who did a restore in front of me with one of the iPhones he has unlocked, and surely enough, he was greeted with "congratulations your iPhone is unlocked".

So we can both now confirm that it is indeed a factory unlock.

Now what my question is is that lets say I do a restore to the iPhone and set up the iPhone, part of ios 5 is that you can now set up the iPhone from the device itself, so part of the setup is activation, without activating the iPhone you cannot proceed with the rest of the setup. Will I need to use my AT&T sim to activate my iPhone? Or can I use the local sim I have been using it with (PS,Wataniya Mobile) a Palestinian carrier.

Keep in mind that this is an "unofficial" carrier because of the fact that this carrier does not support iMessage as well as FaceTime, but I wouldn't see this as a problem , because none of the carriers here in Palestine or Israel are official except for IL ORANGE (Israeli carrier).

And let's say I do need to use the AT&T sim card, (I have it in hand and everything), and use it to activate the iPhone, can this be done? Reason why I ask is because their is no coverage here for AT&T.

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Answer 9

Torkit

Level 1

5 points

Jul 2, 2012 3:18 AM in response to haiel

Hi haiel,

I'm not a guru at all those unlocking things, so I'm not sure about sim cards and how it should be done, but I do believe that as soon as your phone gets officially unlocked you can use any sim of any provider.

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Answer 10

KiltedTim

Level 10

195,435 points

Jul 2, 2012 4:01 AM in response to haiel

haiel wrote:

Torkit, I appreciate your help very much,

This iPhone has been officially factory unlocked because I have done an update to 5.0.1 to 5.1.1 without loosing the unlock, and I have confirmed this with many others as well as the owner of the store who did a restore in front of me with one of the iPhones he has unlocked, and surely enough, he was greeted with "congratulations your iPhone is unlocked".

So we can both now confirm that it is indeed a factory unlock.

No. You can not.

Why? Because "the owner of the store" does not have the legal authority to authorize unlocking an iPhone. Especially an AT&T iPhone. ONLY the carier the phone is locked to can authorize unlocking it. There are NO expecptions.

Any phone he "unlocks" is hacked, or illegally unlocked and can not be discussed here at all.

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Answer 11

Torkit

Level 1

5 points

Jul 2, 2012 4:48 AM in response to KiltedTim

Hi KiltedTim,

Why don't you read posts? The man wrote that he updated to a new version of software and everything was fine. May be the owner of the store ulocked the phone before AT&T changed their policy on which phones they unlock and which don't? If haiel says that phone is unlocked then it means it is unlocked.

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Answer 12

KiltedTim

Level 10

195,435 points

Jul 2, 2012 5:04 AM in response to Torkit

No. That's not what it means. If it was an AT&T phone, the owner of the store either hacked it or unlocked it illegally.

ONLY AT&T has the legal authority to authorize unlocking an AT&T iPhone.

There have been a number of cases where less than honest individuals working at the carriers (including AT&T) have taken payments to illegitimately place an iPhone into the "unlocking database". This does result in an unlocked phone.

However... if that's what was done, it will be found out sooner or later and the phone will re-lock.

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Answer 13

Jul 26, 2012 11:25 AM in response to KiltedTim

Actually, Apple recently since June 25, 2012 have issued factory unlocks. It is legit. It is not hacked. They send the ICCID to apple to see if it is clean of a contract legally and if it is then they can unlock it. If it is not, they can't. It's permenent and won't be re-locked. Even if you restore, update, turn off, turn on. etc. It doesn't use Cydia (which by the way IS a way to hack an iPhone). It is legitly from Apple themselves.

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