How can I tell if my iphone is unlocked?

Hey guys, I live in France currently and I purchased my iPhone 4 here through Virgin Mobile locked. After 6 months with the company if you call them to unlock it they will unlock the phone for free within 2-3 days. I used some of the advice on here along with mine. This is what I did at it worked flawlessly:

1. Call your mobile provider and ask them to unlock it after 6 months of continous contract. (they will tell you to wait about 2-3 days if you live in Europe and if you live in the States, it's right away)

2. Back-up iPhone on Itunes

3. Settings > General > Reset > Erase All Content and Settings

***** VERY IMPORTANT > DO NOT RESTORE FROM BACK-UP, if you do it won't work.

4. Restore > iPhone. Don't choose the last backup, but the first thing of the list which says iPhone. This will set it up as new.

5. After set-up is complete, take out YOUR Sim Card and try it with another one from Another phone company.

In my case I used Free (Phone company in France) and after 30 seconds of Searching... it worked.

6. Last step is to insert your current card if you still plan on using the same one till you travel over-seas or switch companies, AND

7. Back-up from last Back-up and everything will be back safe and sound.

For some people "Congratulations your iPhone is Unlocked" it shows, for me it didn't and it still doesn't. Not to worry, the best way to check is with another Sim Card

Once you restore your phone

THIS RESTORE:

You will get this message:

that helped me thank you! i was so frustrated

Yeah I'm in Germany here and I had T-Mobile. They put in the unlock order yesterday then handed me the paper that said that the unlock will take place in Approx 48 hours. I just did the restore process today and didn't get the unlock message. However, the paper they gave me said that since I have a T-Mobile sim card, that I needed to take it out before I do the restore. That presents a problem because the iPhone won't activate without a Sim card in it. I didn't get the message, but idk if I'm supposed to get the message on the phone with it being activated or not. Kinda screwed unless someone can give me an answer about this.

Ok well I just left the Sim card in and did the erase all content. As I did this on my iTunes I got the message saying that my iPhone was unlocked. I went ahead and just restored from my last backup because if I obviously got the message saying that it was unlocked then it should stay unlocked. Guess I will find out tomorrow when I go to the phone company and they put in a test sim. If it isn't, I'm sure we can repeat the process there since I will still eventually do a restore here at home.

Hi,

Download the latest Itunes. Then connect your iphone to your computer and select the iphone TAB on the upper right hand side, Then on the same page you should see " CHECK FOR UPDATES " & " RESTORE iPHONE "

Click on the " RESTORE iPHONE " just follow the instructions also backup up your iphone and after everything is done you will see a message in Itunes that your iphone has been unlocked. Just make sure that you RESTORE your phone by clicking the RESTORE IPHONE button next to CHECK FOR UPDATES.

Hope this helps. Let me know.

loveyoualways wrote:

Hope this helps. Let me know.

Actually, it doesn't help at all, because the same advice has already been given several times in this thread, and the OP said it didn't work. And that was 6 months ago, so it's either resolved or the OP has given up.

Actually that's the exact way it worked for me last night.

I tried different ways before but was not getting the unlock complete message in iTunes. Then when I tried the method I mentioned above after the process it immediately gave me a confirmation in iTunes that the phone has been unlocked.

Again I used the method last night and was successful.

One more thing if its not working for you, I would suggest that take a full backup of your phone in iTunes. Then disconnect your phone for the computer, go in settings and reset your phone ( delete everything from the phone). After that when you try to setup the phone connect it to iTunes and restore from the last backup you created.

After that try the method I mentioned previously. That's what exactly worked for me.

I had attempted 2 different Backup / Restore iPhone / Restore Backup cycles before trying this suggestion, since I had not received the unlocked message in iTunes. Took a backup in iTunes, disconnected the iPhone from the computer, did a Erase All on the phone, then connected to iTunes. Got the unlocked message immediately, then proceeded to restore the backup.

I am Glad was able to help somebody and that it worked for you.

I wonder if anyone would be able to help me. I recently unlocked my AT&T iPhone 5 over eBay and came to the UK. I purchased a Three network SIM card and put it in the phone. I have definitely seen the "Congratulations! Your iPhone is unlocked." message. In fact, I've seen it several times since I've restored my phone repeatedly trying to get the SIM to work. Unfortunately, I receive no service.

I know that the phone is unlocked a) because of the confirmation message and b) because my phone briefly - for about 2 seconds - located the O2, a non-AT&T network. However, I have tried my family member's O2 card and the Three card and received a "No Service" error every time.

If anyone has any insight, I would be much obliged as I'd prefer to use my own phone rather than a lame PAYG phone!

The SIM must be provisioned in the carrier's network specifically for the iPhone. A generic SIM won't work. You need to contact the carrier and have them verify that your account is for an iPhone.

AT&T unlocks their iPhones through eBay? That is news to me.

If you saw the unlock message several times there is a problem and you've been scammed. Some of the sketchy unlock sites (which would be most of them) have an inside person at either AT&T or Apple that they pay to do the unlock but both companies do periodic audits which can undo this method. Sounds like what happened to you.

You need to officially unlock your iPhone through AT&T.

Hi Lawrence,

Thank you for your respone and willingness to help. When I spoke with them on the phone previously, the service rep was aware I was using an iPhone but thought the problem was that my iPhone was not unlocked. Thus, he was aware I was using an iPhone. However, he did not think that was the problem; he thought it was because it wasn't unlocked. Turns out, it wasn't - I hadn't yet seen the confirmation message. Now that I have, I suppose I will give them another call and see what they have to say..Thanks!