Unlocking a Sprint iPhone 5 to use on T-Mobile network

If Sprint has done their job correctly (which would be rare, unfortunately) it should only be necessary to insert the new SIM and reboot the phone. If that fails you should restore iOS using iTunes with the Sprint SIM (it doesn't have to be active when you do this) and you should see a message when the restore finishes that says "Congrations. Your phone is unlocked." If neither of these work then you need to get Sprint to fix the problem. It's also best to wait several days after Sprint says it's done before you do this, as it takes up to 48 hours for Apple to process the unlock request.

if sprint legitimately unlocked your phone, which i doubt. your supposed to connect your iPhone to iTunes. you back up your iPhone . you erase your phone and then you restore it from your backup. once you do this, if it really is unlocked, it will say its been unlocked.. it will say congratulations! or something like that

if a carrier grants you an unlock. be it through iTunes or an unlock code. you only have a limited time to complete the process or the unlock will not go through. it is very important you do a back up - erase - and restore very promptly or the window will close and you will have to ask for another unlock

i heard sprint is now releasing those msl unlocks. but i also heard they can't unlock apple products. maybe feb 2015 - march 2015 we will hear back from sprint about iPhones..

sprint could of just unlocked the sim card for international use. they are known to do that also. and if they did that you can't use it on t-mobile or any domestic carrier

trolling secton

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make sure you "transfer pruchases" when you back up so all your iphone apps get updated to the latest versions and make sure you backup your photos and videos using iTunes / iPhoto before you erase the phone

the reason that u back up , erase and restore is that is when iTunes contacts apple with your iPhone and gets the authorization from the carrier to unlock the phone and activate the phone and apple / iTunes gives permission to the iPhone to run

until a sim card is inserted and until that iPhone contacts apple for the very first time , it is a brick and it will not function. and its that process that also unlocks the phone. back in the old days the genius had to insert a gizmo into its dock port to tell the iPhone it is okay to be used. this is basically the same process that authorizes the phone and unlocks the phone at the same time.

the carrier sends the permission to apple and then apple unlocks your phone only if you backup , erase and restore.

the carrier cannot directly unlock your iPhone. apple is the only company that can.

if this msl code is a legitimate unlock from sprint, then the phone will unlock when you backup , erase, and restore

if it does not unlock. then the msl code is bogus like you claim.

I've unlocked iphones and backup erase and restore is the only way to do it

I'm highly skeptical of your unlock and i am waiting patiently for you to tell us it worked or it did not

with regular phones and android phones you dial some crap on the phone and it unlocks your phone

with iPhones , the carrier sends permission to apple, and your serial numbers get put on the unlock list. and once you backup erase and restore

apple unlocks your phone

I'm very skeptical of this deal. what about the special firmware that sprint iPhones have???

how to backup everything.

by rigor

1) make sure iCloud is turned on for everything. calendar, contacts (especially contacts) notes, . everything.

2) back up your iPhone to iTunes. you can back up your iPhone to any computer running iTunes, but you can only sync to one computer.

3) make sure backup / sync photos (and videos) is checked. iCloud won't back up every single picture. unless you pay money. if your only copy

of a photo is on your phone and you erase it , it is gone forever. photo stream only keeps 1000 pictures. it is VERY IMPORTANT you back up all your photos

4) right click on the iPhone and click on transfer purchase . its their somewhere. this makes sure that your apps in your library are updated to the latest versions, and this also transfers anything you bought on the iPhone to itunes

5) remember. anything that is "synced" is not backed up, because its already in the library.

6) anything u bought is in iCloud (like apps) so if the worse case scenario happens you can redownload them for free. even banned apps

7) consider encrypting your backup. this lets iTunes restore your iPhones secure keychain onto a different iPhone.

8) the computer running iTunes must use the same iTunes account as the iPhone.

9) I've heard stories that books are not able to redownload. so make sure you backup your books to iTunes as well .

once you do this, it is safe to to erase your iphone

unplug the iphone

click on erase all content and settings.

enter your iCloud password and lock code

it will say welcome! and all that stuff. sometime it will say connect to iTunes.

connect to itunes

restore from the backup you just made

and then that phone should unlock and iTunes should tell you that the iPhone is now unlocked.

if it does not then maybe you can use DFU restore to rule that out. but its likely that your unlock code is BS and sprint is lying

are you still there?? did this work??

i recently found out that iOS 8 changed the unlocking process.

if you receive an unlock all you need to do is insert a new sim card and the phone will unlock itself

if you do not have a sim card, then you have to do the back up to iTunes, erase phone, restore from backup

emturner23 wrote:

Hello All,

Sprint provided me with a MSL code to unlock my device, what do I do with it? they keep insisting they do not unlock phones, and as per Apple the only party or carrier that can unlock you iphone is the original network provider from whom you purchased the phone.

Open up the flood gates...

iPhones are not unlocked with a MSL code. That's not how it works. So someone is pulling your leg or is really incompetent.

Do I have to leave the sprint sim card in the phone while I reset and restore the phone for this to work or can I put my T-Mobile sim and do the reset?