Network can lock iphones bought from Apple??

I'm afraid you're wrong.

In my experience, all the iPhones I have ever bought (4, 5 & 6) direct from the Apple store in the UK become locked to the network I use - EE.

It's a real pain in the backside when I want to hand the phones down to someone on another carrier as it costs me £8.99 each time - and I have to wait 10 days for the unlock too! I've logged three requests in the last week so I can move three phones in the household from EE to another network but it gripes when you think you're getting an 'unlocked' phone from Apple!

How can this be allowed as EE hasn't subsided my phone one iota!!

so if you are so upset why did you not return each iPhone to the Apple store and complain at the time

Over an hour away from my nearest apple store!

Struggle to get genius bar appointments!

Don't want to wait around in store in the hope of getting a slot (1hr last time)!

Assumption that Apple will blame EE (EE state is a 'feature' of iPhones)!

More important things to do with my time!

That should be enough for starters 🙂

The point I was making is the statement that iPhones bought from Apple CAN be locked to a network - as I have much experience of it with EE. I don't know about other carriers in the UK as I haven't used them with iPhones.

I'll continue to buy from Apple stores as I don't want to be tied to a carrier and think its the most cost effective way of getting the phone. I just don't want people thinking their phone definitely wont need unlocking if they change carriers in the UK.

Hey, i have the same problem. But mine goes even further.

I Bought my iPhone on eBay. The guy said, it was a company phone and they bought it originally from Apple and it only works with EE. So I bought an EE SIM card and topped up with £8.99 and completed the online process for the unlocking twice. i was unsuccessful both times and got a message to contact customer services at EE. Which I did, and told me to go to the store, which I did... And they told me to phone customer services.... I was quite angry at this time.... So phoned Customer services again, and she basically told me that they can only unlock the phone if it has been bought from an EE shop directly. I know now that the phone has been bought from Apple, what shall I do?

What does it say when you look at Settings>General>About>Carrier?

You may have to scroll to see the entry for Carrier.

If the iPhone is locked to EE, only EE can unlock it. Go back to an EE

corporate store - not an kiosk run by some affiliate - and escalate the

problem until you get a resolution.

Hmm. I have experienced this. An unlocked iPhone, bought from giffgaff, the same as purchasing from Apple - completely unlocked. The phone had been on EE for a year or so and then travelled to Australia. Inserted an Oz SIM and discovered the phone had become locked to EE. EE tells me it can happen when iOS is updated.

Ergates wrote:

Hmm. I have experienced this. An unlocked iPhone, bought from giffgaff, the same as purchasing from Apple - completely unlocked. The phone had been on EE for a year or so and then travelled to Australia. Inserted an Oz SIM and discovered the phone had become locked to EE. EE tells me it can happen when iOS is updated.

Purchasing from giffgaff is NOT the same as purchasing from Apple.

Hi Lawrence,

That was a rather curt reply! :-) In what respect is it NOT like purchasing from Apple? I appreciate that there are significant differences, but in terms of the phone itself, I believe the phone in the box is fully unlocked and will not lock itself to a network when first used nor is it limited to UK networks. I believe the issue of a phone becoming locked when iOS is updated is not limited to phones NOT purchased from Apple.

I'd quite like to get to the bottom of this as the issue will cost me money in purchasing an Oz SIM that can't be used for 10 days while the unlock process takes its course.

Cheers,

Andy

The only phones that are sold completely unlocked from day of purchase are phones sold directly by Apple. There is no other source for truly unlocked phones. The lock status has nothing to do with the phone; the lock status of a phone is in its record in Apple's activation database. When you activate a phone iOS sends a query to the activation database and either locks the phone to a carrier or unlocks the phone based on the results. Before that query happens the phone is locked for all carriers.

When a carrier sells a phone that phone is always locked to the carrier that purchased it from Apple. That is, when Apple ships a phone to Giffgaff for resale it is marked in the activation database as locked to Giffgaff. Giffgaff may chose to unlock it, but that is up to them, not Apple.

There is a third process for non-carrier dealers that resell iPhones, such as Carphone Warehouse in the UK or Best Buy in the US. These phones are region locked initially, but they lock automatically to the first carrier they are activated with. So a Carphone Warehouse phone will activate with any UK carrier, but will become locked to that carrier as soon as a SIM is inserted. It will not work with a carrier outside of the UK, however.

For a carrier-locked phone if the carrier agrees to unlock it they send a request to Apple to change the lock status in the activation database to "unlocked." This usually takes a couple of days to process. Once it has been unlocked a new activation is required by the phone. This can be done either by restoring iOS using iTunes, or inserting a different SIM in the phone. Either will send a new request to the activation database.

Lawrence

Things have changed in UK and today it is possible to buy totally unlocked iPhones from specifically Apple Authorised resellers, such as John Lewis Partnership group of Department stores where the complete range of iPhone 7 and Plus are available (when in supply )

My 7 came from my local JLP store and is is totally unlocked ,my local Authorised Apple Premium Reseller authorised for iPhone also now sells unlocked iPhones all are priced at Apple Store prices

An interesting change which happened IIRC late last year

ps

My iPhone has not locked to my Carrier ( as in first sim )

Ergates wrote:

Hi Lawrence,

That was a rather curt reply! :-) In what respect is it NOT like purchasing from Apple?

Cheers,

Andy

GiffGaff are not Apple.

Thanks, Lawrence, for the useful information.

EE advised me that the lock would have happened on updating iOS, perhaps because that acted like an activation which would have checked back with Apple and then locked to EE? Am I right in thinking that wouldn't have happened if the phone was bought from Apple? It seems to me that there is something wrong with the update process if it can cause this?

Anyway, it's something that shouldn't have happened as the phone was bought outright and only ever used with the EE (SIM-only) SIM so EE have no interest in the phone as they did not subsidize my purchase.

Having contacted EE to ensure that all was in order for the phone to be used in Oz (and discussing with them the process of transferring to their PAYG infrastructure and using an Australian SIM in the phone), I should not now be in a position of having to wait 10 days for the unlock to happen whilst paying for an Australian SIM-only contract. At least EE are not charging me for the unlock, but I can't help feeling I'm owed a credit for those 10 days of down time.

Ergates wrote:

Thanks, Lawrence, for the useful information.

EE advised me that the lock would have happened on updating iOS, perhaps because that acted like an activation which would have checked back with Apple and then locked to EE? Am I right in thinking that wouldn't have happened if the phone was bought from Apple? It seems to me that there is something wrong with the update process if it can cause this?

If a phone is bought from Apple and specifically purchased as "unlocked" it will not lock when updated, re-activated or restored. However, not all phones purchased from Apple are unlocked; only those that are not purchased for use with a specific carrier.*

Once a phone is unlocked updating it will not cause it to be locked. However, some people (and some unscrupulous resellers) hack phones to unlock them. A hacked phone will re-lock to the carrier if it is updated.

*There are several exceptions to this general rule; iPhone 7's that are purchased at full price from Apple will be unlocked regardless of carrier, and all US Verizon iPhones are unlocked regardless of how they are financed.

iPhones that lock to the first used carrier are common.

Really didn't know th