How to restore without iOS updating?

*cough* wrong , check your my reply on page 3 ;-)

This absolutely helped me and worked for exactly what I needed.

I had Telus unlock my phone today and I activated my iPhone 4 with a new company.

Everything on both my old network and new network was completed but my phone wasn't connecting to the new network. It kept saying NO NETWORK

So following what most people and forums were saying online, I needed to restore my phone.

Except I didn't want to restore my phone and download the newest iOS 7 on my iPhone 4.

I followed what you said and it worked excellent!

Thank you, I truly thought I was going to be forced to update my firmware.

Amazing!

A mix of following what you have posted and what PVA-92 posted, I had success!

You absolutely helped me.

And I got exactly what I needed!

I had Telus unlock my phone today and I activated my iPhone 4 with a new company.

Everything on both my old network and new network was completed but my phone wasn't connecting to the new network. It kept saying NO NETWORK

So following what most people and forums were saying online, I needed to restore my phone.

Except I didn't want to restore my phone and download the newest iOS 7 on my iPhone 4.

I followed what you said and it worked excellent!

Thank you, I truly thought I was going to be forced to update my firmware.

Amazing!

Hi guys... Quick question... After the "settings reset", and you plug back into itunes, is there a way to prevent iOS 7 from self-downloading onto your devices.... Iv heard stories of that little sucker self downloading and effectively eating up 3 gigs of your storage without without your consent, whether or not you want to install it ir not, you cannot ever delete the file....

The only way to prevent it from downloading to the phone is to make sure there isn't enough space available on the phone for it to do so.

Reading the thread and having an iPhone4S with IOS6 on it, and wanting to keep IOS6 so the news owner can decide for themselves if they want to upgrade to IOS7 or not, I followed this process:

0) Used the AT&T website form to submit a request to unlock my out-of-contract iPhone4S. After 3-4 days I got a reply email saying my unlock was approved and I was supposed to use the backup and then 'restore iphone' process in iTunes. That, of course, would restore the phone to IOS7, which I do not want to do... so I didn't follow that process, but I had gotten the AT&T unlock approved email.

1) iTunes: Backed up my iphone with iTunes (unencrypted)

2) On iPhone : Settings App -> General -> Reset -> Reset all settings and erase all data

3) Unplugged the iPhone from the computer as the reset was proceeding. Left iTunes running.

4) Went away for a while... so I'm not sure how long the entire reset process took

5) iPhone: shows grey intro screen with a swipe bar at the bottom -what you have with a new iPhone

6) Plugged the iPhone back into the computer (iTunes was still running )

7) iTunes dialog box asking me to upgrade to the newest version of iOS for the device. Options offered: [cancel] [download and update] [download only]. I indicated [cancel]

8) iTunes dialog box indicateing "An update to the carrier settings for your iPhone is available. Would you like to download it now?" I selected [Download and Update]

9) iTunes showed a top level screen saying "Congratulations, your iPhone has been unlocked."

10) as I was not quite ready to sell the phone yet, I now restored the phone from the backup. Which restarts the iPhone after the restore is complete.

11) on reboot of the iPhone, still being plugged into the computer and thus connected to iTunes, iTunes again asked "A new iPhone software version (7.0.4) is available for the iPhone..... Would you like to download it and update your iPhone now?" Again, I chose [cancel]

12) the iPhone then began to sync (apps, music, etc) - this took a LOT longer than the 'restore from backup' part.

13) I got a dialog about some apps not being able to be installed as they are not compatible (presumably iOS7 only versions of apps I had) - clicked OK - the phone was semi-functional as the restore of the additional content was proceeding (had to set the lock code again, for example).

14) Everything seemed restored, including my game states (Tiny Tower for example) and I was still rocking iOS6

I too seem to still be rocking iOS6 on a 4S with no ill effects after following these instructions. Thanks Minok and all who've contributed to this thread. Freedom feels good.

Hi,

Have been trying to follow the advice in the thread but to no avail. Speeking to AT&T costumer service, they've insisted that the unlock will work only if I restore to factory settings through iTunes. I'm almost at the point of giving up and following their instructions. Hopefully the phone's perfoemance wont be affected as badly as I've been reading.

Do you try the "reset all content and settings" with or without a sim card? Try resetting with no sim in, then put one in post reset and plug into iTunes to activate. I've had some be finicky in that way (old iPhones 3G)

Have you gotten the email from AT&T that your unlock has been approved?

How long have you waited, after getting that email before tryign to restore the phone? I don't know if it matters, but in my case, I did not try to do my restore until several days (3-4) after I'd recieved the email saying my unlock was approved. Since iTunes (ie Apple) configures the firmware locked state via iTunes, the request has to filter down from AT&T to Apple and be ready for you to use.

For the entire unlock and restore process, I never removed my AT&T SIMcard from the 4S.

1) Backup in iTunes

2) Use the phone's config menu to 'Reset -> Erase All Contents and Settings"

3) (I had unplugged my phone from iTunes after this time, until the iPhone 4S had rebooted with the clean initialization intro screens,when I plugged it back in (never having shut down iTunes) ). I don't know whether that matters in any way to the success/failure.

Hey,

I recieved the unlock approval from AT&T 3 days ago. I've I've tried with/without simcard, with the new carrier's simcard, plugged in/unplugged, old versions of iTunes standing on my head wearing my lucky underpants. But alas, the thing remains loyal to AT&T.

It might be that I'm doing this from abroad, or that I'm not the original owner of this phone. I'll wait another couple of days before giving in and doing it the conventional way. In the meanwhile I'll be glad to hear if anyone has one last trick up their sleeve,

Thanks!

I'd certainly make sure the AT&T SIM that the phone is locked to presently, is inserted in the phone.

It could indeed be that you are doing this without access to the actual AT&T network in north america but using an overseas carrier.

I think the instructions work for US Based AT&T phones, when unlocked while in the US, with the AT&T SIM inside of it and the phone seeing the AT&T network.

If any of those things are not in effect, I"m not sure about what could be going on, as the phone companies have all sorts of crazy rules, Apple has its own system, etc.

Good luck.

Well, ironically, after all the research that led to my successfully unlocking my phone and while remaining on iOS6 after being scared off from all the backlash of iOS7 performance, I actually ended up deciding to brave the upgrade to iOS7.

I've been wanting to cut down on the cell service bill and looking to switch to a pay-as-you-go plan. Learning about iOS7's ability to disable cellular data usage by app became extremely attractive and after reading more on recommendations for how to configure iOS7 so that it'll perform fine on a 4S (turn off lots of bells and whistles that I didn't really care about anyway and delete unused apps ensuring enough free space exists which also wasn't a departure from my normal usage), I decided to take the plunge.

2-3 days later, so far, so good - no noticeable pain points. I'm now ready to switch my unlocked phone over to a PAYG service which is likely to reduce my bill by more than 70%.

Not exactly on topic, I know, but in response to your feeling like you have no alternative but to upgrade... it hasn't been that bad of an experience for me thus far 😉

Best of luck to all.

Try standing on your head WITHOUT lucky underpants. Did you try lucky underpants but no headstand?

In all seriousness, it does seem like this process is really finicky. Makes sense since unlock without upgrade is not officially supported. I can say that I've put in a non-US SIM when doing this process, and it did unlock. However, I was in the US when I did it.

I have to appologize I didn't read all the posts. If you are trying to unlock your device, you just need to pull in the new activation policy. You can back your phone up to iCloud. Go to general, reset, erase all content and settings. Walk through the initial set-up. This should pull in the next activation policy. You then can restore from that iCloud back-up. The whole time you have not updated to the new iOS software.