Contract Free IPAD 3 now locked to SIM due to Configuration Utility

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Contract Free IPAD 3 now locked to SIM due to Configuration Utility

I have an Ipad 3GSM version (Wifi+Cellular) Contract Free, which was not locked to any carrier while trying to setup a profile I accidentally entered the phone number of the sim that I was using at the time of configuring the profile. Now my Ipad is locked to the sim and I cant use any other data sim.

The IPAD is on 6.1.2 IOS and definitely not jailbroken.

This is pretty annoying as I had a contract free Ipad and I dont want it to be locked to one provider. BTW I used defaults to generate the confiuration profile.

Any help will be highly appreciated.

iPad (3rd gen) Wi-Fi + Cellular, iOS 6.1.2

Posted on Mar 8, 2013 9:04 AM

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Answer 1

deggie

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167,177 points

Mar 8, 2013 10:11 AM in response to rehanabid

It isn't locked to any particular carrier, it is looking for the phone number you put in when you messed up using the configuration utility (any particular reason why you are using it?). Put the iPad in Recovery mode and Restore it in iTunes.

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Answer 2

rehanabid Author

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Mar 8, 2013 10:39 AM in response to deggie

deggie thanks for the reply.

Your suggestion doesnt solve my problem, basically I have two sim cards from the same carrier (obviously with different number), One has an unlimited data package along phone calls (post paid connection) I use this one in the Iphone day time, the other has a limited data package (2GB per month pre paid connection) I used it day time in Ipad, once I was off duty I sued to swap the sim cards in order to get benefit of unlimited data package and get some time off from phone call, till about 10 days ago when I did run the configuration utility.

Above suggestion doesnt work, if any one can help or direct to a solution by using which I could get rid of the phone number from the configuration utility and be able to swap the sim cards at will. I did restore my ipad as suggested above but it still reject other sim by "No Service" icon, while if I put the one back (whose number was in configuration utility) it works.

BTW: its completely legal in my country to do so (swap the sim cards)

Message was edited by: rehanabid

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Answer 3

deggie

Level 10

167,177 points

Mar 8, 2013 10:39 AM in response to rehanabid

Not questioning the legality at all but the iPad is not designed to do what you are attempting to do. I believe you can use the configuartion utility to remove the entire cellular account/settings and then enter the new one. But there is no easy way for you to do this.

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Answer 4

Mar 8, 2013 8:08 PM in response to rehanabid

Have you tried to remove the profile that you added with the configurator, like this: Go into Settings, General, find Profile, click into the one you added, and press the red Remove button. If you are successful in finding and removing a Profile you should be fine.

Protip, if you need to change the APN between which sim you have, just create yourself a .mobileconfig ("Profile") in configurator to store only APN settings (make a separate .mobileconfig for each SIM). You don't need phone numbers or anything else in there. Then email them to yourself and keep the email(s) handy. You can then add the necessary profile via going into your email and opening it, and remove it when done as I described.

Anyway if that doesn't work you may have done too much restricting with the configurator. You'll have to Restore it then.

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Answer 5

rehanabid Author

Level 1

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Mar 9, 2013 8:30 AM in response to Daniel Pritchard

Daniel / Deggie:

Guys thanks your suggestions have given me some food for thought, though it didnt resolve the problem.

First of all both sims are from the same carrier and here in my part of the world there are no APN setting, just put in the SIM and start using data services.

I couldn't locate "Settings, General, find Profile, click into the one you added, and press the red Remove button" I cant find it in config utility, nor on ipad or even in itunes I am using v 3.6.2 of config utility for Windows.

BTW: eversince I messed up with the profile thingy I was getting a strange issue whenever I tried to use the maps, GPS instead of pointing to my location it used to point to some place in china, today I used my MAC's Config utility and found some interesting thing I Grabbed the screen and am posting the link, it'd be kind if experts out here could advise some remedy otherwise I think I'll have to wait two years for this profile to expire.

http://imageshack.us/a/img228/1076/ipadconfigproblem.jpg

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Answer 6

Mar 9, 2013 10:17 AM in response to rehanabid

Hey,

So on your iPad you have no "Profile" when you go into the Settings app and hit General?

Good screenshot. Go to the other tabs there "Configuration profiles" and "Provisioning profiles" and post those screenshots too.

And also if we can't figure this out don't forget, a restore will clear this up. After you restore it, I'm not sure if you can "Restore from backup" or if you'll need to "Set Up As A New iPad."

Cheers,

-D.

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Answer 7

Mar 9, 2013 10:19 AM in response to Daniel Pritchard

PS The tabs I'm talking about are in the main window section, not the ones in the sidebar with the same names.

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Answer 8

rehanabid Author

Level 1

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Mar 10, 2013 6:08 AM in response to Daniel Pritchard

Daniel:

Thanks a lot for your inputs, problem solved. What I did was to give up on my Win7 laptop. Used my MAC laptop, launched toolchain utility on the laptop removed any key that had a "china central time" footprints.

Removed Iphone Configuration Utility.

Restarted the laptop, checked toolchain again.

Updated OSX, Itunes.

Restored Ipad with MAC Laptop and thank goodnes things are back to normal, I could now swap the SIMs whenever I want.

Lesson learned, "Don't mess with Configuration Utility, unless you really know what you are doing"

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