Unlock t-mobile iPhone-5

Call Customer care and send in a sim unlock request.

Below is the email I got from TMobile, after several unsuccessful attempts. I followed all the steps, and no congratulations message. I don't have another company's sim yet, and the instructions say nothing about that as a step. Also note that the Unlock Code space is blank, and the instructions do not mention an unlock code. It seems that TMobile hasn't figured this out yet. We bought this phone at a TMo store for cash in May, and we are still trying to get it unlocked. Good luck getting TMobile to help you do this.

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T-Mobile Sim Unlock Request
Sim Unlock Reference: ********
IMEI: ***********
Unlock Code:

Thank you for taking the time to contact T-Mobile. Please be advised that T-Mobile can only unlock the T-Mobile branded iphone. If your request is for a non T-Mobile iphone the below instructions will not work. You will need to contact the Carrier that the device is from for assistance.
72 hours after receiving this email please follow the below instructions for unlocking your T-Mobile iPhone device.
1. Perform a backup (we suggest backing up through iCloud backup, however iTunes backup will work if you haven't setup iCloud)
2. Connect your iPhone to iTunes
o Important: This step must be performed using the USB cable connected to your PC or Mac in order to trigger the process.
3. Within a few minutes, a screen will appear, "Congratulations, your iPhone has been unlocked".
4. The device is now unlocked. You may now insert any non T-Mobile SIM card into the iPhone.
If the above steps do not work, then the 'restore device' process must be completed and an iTunes activation completed. In the re-activation of the device, the device unlock will be pulled down once activation is complete.
Thank You,

Customer Service
T-Mobile USA, Inc.

They left out a step: when you connect your phone to your PC or Mac in iTunes you must restore the iPhone as a new device. Then you will get that message.

Thanks for the response. But if you look at the last two sentences of the instructions in the email I included, it says to Restore and Re-Activate. I did that. Still no luck. They must have left out another step.

They have them out of order. And did you Restore it as a NEW iphone or from your backup?

Actually, now that I think more about your response, I may have slipped up when, in the restore process, it asked me to choose between restoring my backup, or starting over as a new device. Not wanting to lose my backup, I chose to restore that. I guess I was too risk averse, and the instructions didn't give any guidance. So if I choose new device, I can restore again my backed up apps, music, pics, data afterwards? Or am I really back at starting over?

Thanks again for your help with this: much better than I have gotten from TMo.

As they said in their instructions, back up your iPhone. To be safe, if you are backing up to your computer make an external backup of your backup. If you are backing up to iCloud you don't need to do that.

Restore your iPhone as new. You should get the Congratulations message. Then Restore your iPhone again but this time from your backup. If you are using iCloud you will get a choice of which backup file you want to restore from.

Thank you again!

It finally worked. Problem solved.

I wish TMobile had you training their tech support staff. Would have saved me about seven hours of my life trying to communicate with them.

(Maybe this glitch was just my rookie mistake, but that's why I was trying to get help from them with the phone they sold me. Wrong place to look for help, it turned out.)

And I think I went astray because unlocking my old android phone wasn't nearly this complicated or time-consuming.

Hello,

I can confirm that all I did was change the SIM Card and connect it to iTunes.

Here is what I did:

1. Waited 72 hours as per the e-mail.

2. Local iTunes backup plus iCloud backup (To be really sure).

3. Turned OFF iPhone and changed SIM card.

4. Turned ON iPhone and received "Activation Required" on home screen.

5. Opened iTunes and connected phone via USB cable.

6. A message popped up in iTunes (Where the Apple logo is) and disappeared very quickly.

I was unable to read what it said unfortunately. (BTW is there a way to see iTunes' message history?)

7. 2 Messages came in from my new provider and I noticed that the "Activation Required" message

disappeared.

8. Set up WhatsApp with new number and works, called new number and works. So I guess the iPhone is

now unlocked.

There was never a need to restore the phone.

Regards,

Xander

"Hello!

I'm from Brazil and I've purchased an iPhone 5 Unlocked back in June through a seller from Amazon. Now that the phone has finally arrived in Brazil, I've inserted the chip from my brazilian mobile carrier (Vivo), but it doesn't work. I keep getting a message that the phone is locked and i need to contact T-mobile to unlock it. I've asked for help from the seller, but I'm having a hard time to get an answer. Could you help me to solve this? Soon it'll be one week without a cellphone - I can't wait much longer.

Please let me know if you need any further info.

You need to contact T-Mobile to unlock your iPhone.

hi since 1 day i coulnot update my software its shows erro every time

as well as my app store not loading showas blank screen.

ihave reset my all setting but problem still same

plz suggest 😟

I have the same the situation with you, How did you solve this problem?

thanks

Did you read my post to him?

1. I connect iphone with itunes.

2. click "restore" on itune. iphone as a new iphone.

3. I choice "starting over as a new device"

Finished restore, iphone as a new iphone, but I did not receive any message.

How should I do next?