How can I tell if my iphone is unlocked?

Have you actually bothered trying to activate it with another carrier's SIM? Until you do, it's still going to show the carrier as AT&T... Really.

That's REALLY a different answer to your previous one!

"If you have an AT&T SIM in it, of course it will tell you that's what your carrier is..."

And to top it off, since you failed with your first answer, you came out with that unfounded derogatory question, as if one is a lazy:

"Have you actually bothered trying to activate it with another carrier's SIM?"

Be more curtious, humble and responsible.

Nothing to thank here

You know what, figure it out yourself.

I was in the same boat as you... I did the restore n backup but it did not work and I know so because I did not get the "Congratulations" message. So I called At&T (my carrier) and asked for help. They suggested I back up my phone ---> go to settings--> General--->Reset--->"Erase all content and settings" and then "Restore" from itunes and Voila.. I got the congratulations message in itunes... I think the key was erase all content and settings.. Hope this helps!

What should I do if I lost my backup password? I cannot unlock my phone if I cannot finish the restore process.

You seem to be very knowledgable about this process. My Aunt gave me an iphone 4 my Uncle no longer uses. It was supposed to be unlocked... but no one is sure that this was taken care of. The phone is still on AT&T service because his contract isn't up yet. I called AT&T... but the guy I talked to said he could not verify if it was unlocked on not over the phone... that I would have to do an online request. If it was unlocked, I would get a message that said it was already unlocked.

In order to do that email, I have to have a lot of personal info from my Aunt. I am trying not to bug her with all this.

I put in my SIM card from StraightTalk into my Uncle's phone... and it worked. I could call from the phone. It didn't ask for a code or anything. The guy from AT&T said that IF the SIM card from StraightTalk worked, then the phone was "probably" unlocked.

How can I know for sure? We want to take this phone overseas to use it there. I don't want to arrive over there only to discover it doesn't work.

Thanks for your help!

I did the "restore" and did not get the congrats your phone is unlocked message. It just asks if I want to restore it or set it up as a new phone. I did all this with the original AT&T SIM card installed.

Thanks again!

How can I know for sure? We want to take this phone overseas to use it there. I don't want to arrive over there only to discover it doesn't work.

Call AppleCare and if you ask nicely they may tell you the status ie if the iPhone is locked and if so to whom OR that it is not carrier locked

Have the serial number and the IMEI ready for the call

My husband and I just unlocked our phones this evening. We had to do it via the AT&T website. It said it would take two days, but it took two minutes to get the confirmation email. Once you get it, you backup and restore your phone. Once the restore is done, you get a congratulations that your phone is unlocked. So easy.

Your post was spot-on, even 3 years on. My phone was not unlocked until restoring (NOT restore from backup). Having said that, I am not restoring from backup after the restore which gave me the unlocked message, and hoping that doesn't mess anything up.

Thank you this helped me!!!

🙂

When you use itunes to "restore and update:" your phone, this is your confirmation that it worked! Also, like others say, you get an email from At&t confirming when you device unlock request is successful. (From my experience with the online unlock request.)

Thanks Lawrence. This eased me. It took AT & T only about 5 minutes to tell me what to do to unlock my phone. I was still uneasy... so I followed you advice and restored my iphone. Once that was done, I got "Congratulations your Iphone has been unlocked."

I am at peace now.

Happy New Year!!!!

Maybe I'm confused...for my iPhone 5, I got instructions from AT&T to 1) back up to iTunes, 2) erase and 3) restore from iTunes backup...this all seemed to work fine, but...I did not get any "congratulations" message. Was I supposed to "restore as new" and then "restore from backup"?

Thanks in advance...