iPhone locked to first sim and network used?

Courtney, I am having the exact same problem as you — the only difference being that I purchased my iPhone 7 from Target, instead of Walmart.

After at least a dozen phone calls to Verizon, Apple, and Straight Talk — and lots of conflicting information, and the same failed solutions you tried (e.g., factory reset, multiple SIMs) — I was finally told by a senior Apple advisor that my phone, as well, is locked to Straight Talk's network, despite the fact that I didn't purchase it from Straight Talk.

Two representatives in Straight Talk's unlocking department said that they have to send an email to Apple, to confirm that the phone is, in fact, locked to their network. Once they receive that confirmation from Apple — which could take up to 48 business hours — they can unlock the phone. I tried to have a senior Apple support representative simply tell Straight Talk, via a conference call, that the phone is, in fact, locked to their network, but the Straight Talk representative said that this is not adequate; it must be confirmed via email (whereas another Straight Talk representative insisted that it was against Straight Talk's policy to have conference calls, and therefore ended a conference call that another senior Apple support representative initiated with Straight Talk).

This is extremely frustrating, because Straight Talk cancelled my service, three days after I requested that Verizon port the number over, before I even received my Verizon SIM card in the mail. I have been without cell service for 24 hours — and since the weekend is approaching, it could be four more days, before Straight Talk unlocks my phone, at which point I can activate it with Verizon. In the meantime, I am completely without cellular service.

I asked two different representatives in Straight Talk's unlocking department to transfer me to a supervisor. For the first, I waited on hold for a few minutes, then received an automated message, saying no one was available, and the call was disconnected. For the second, the representative said a supervisor wasn't available, but would call me back. An hour has passed, and I still haven't received a call back (and at this point, I'm not holding my breath). That said, I was given the distinct impression by both representatives that there was nothing a supervisor could do to speed things up — so I'm not going to bother calling again.

Courtney (or anyone else): Did the same thing happen to you — i.e., having to wait up to 48 business hours, for Straight Talk to unlock the phone — in the end, or did you discover a faster solution?

I am having literally the same exact problem, except when I see my phones service provider, it says Verizon. I’m about to raise **** at straighttalk because I have had to pay my phone bill to Verizon regardless whether my phone is working or not and it’s all because of straighttalk

The iPhones that national retail stores (Best Buy, Target, Walmart, etc.) sell are designed to do this because they are meant to be sold on installment contracts through different carriers. I had a friend who bought an "sim free" iPhone from Target and she with her T-Mobile sim. After putting in an AT&T sim she had the same problem you encountered with the activation lock. After speaking with apple they advised her to contact T-Mobile to unlock the phone and they did. To make a long story short Straight Talk can unlock the phone they probably just aren't aware of this situation.

I have this same exact problem , bought an iPhone X out right from Best Buy put a straighttalk sim in and now it’s locked to them , I ported to Verizon now my phone will not work with any other sim

Straighttalk tells me they can’t see my IMEI but Apple has confirmed its locked to straighttalk now

Did you ever get your phone unlocked by straighttalk ? Any help on how I can get my iPhone to take my Verizon sim ?

Other than what I wrote in my last message, I afraid I don't have anything to offer, at the moment.

I'm still waiting for my friend to have the time/patience/courage to try to unlock the phone, for the umpteenth time.

Once she's up for doing so — hopefully very soon — I'll be sure to post the results (positive or negative) here.

moskovit wrote:

Other than what I wrote in my last message, I afraid I don't have anything to offer, at the moment.

I'm still waiting for my friend to have the time/patience/courage to try to unlock the phone, for the umpteenth time.

Once she's up for doing so — hopefully very soon — I'll be sure to post the results (positive or negative) here.

Bad news:

I finally tried unlocking the iPhone, with the Straight Talk SIM in the phone, and service with Straight Talk active, by restoring to factory settings, and setting up as new — after Straight Talk insisted that they submitted the unlock code — as suggested by Apple engineering, to one of the many Apple technical support senior advisors with whom I spoke.

Unfortunately, I called Apple technical support, and spoke to a senior advisor, after doing so, to check whether Apple's database shows that the phone has, indeed, been unlocked — and the senior advisor confirmed to me that it wasn't.

The senior advisor is going to do some more research, to see whether there's anything else he can do/suggest — but based on my conversations with at least three other senior advisors with whom I've already discussed this issue, it seems there's nothing else that Apple can do, on their end.

And as I explained in my previous message (above), Straight Talk insisted, in literally dozens of calls to their unlocking department, that either (a) the phone was already unlocked, or (b) they had already sent the unlock code, so all I needed to do was restore my phone to factory settings, in order to complete the unlock process.

The best that this senior advisor was able to offer, is that he's going to see whether he can swap the phone for a new one, at no charge, even though it's ~150 days out of warranty. He'll get back to me on Thursday. I'll post here again, once I hear from him, to let you all know what happened.

After 5days of my phone being locked to straighttalk and many many many calls I finely got my iPhone X that I bought from Best Buy unlocked from straight talk and now on Verizon

Call the post Dept and tell them u need it escalated

You have really been through the mill on this! Unfortunately, the only source for a truly unlocked phone is direct from Apple. Which doesn't stop Best Buy from lying when you go to buy a phone from them.

Straight Talk is an MVNO - that is, a reseller of someone else's network. To further complicate matters, they don't actually have a technical support department, so when you call their support number you actually get a CSR at Tracfone, who is their servicer. Having worked with Tracfone, in my experience their reps are not rocket scientists, plus, the system is incredibly complicated, because the unlock request must first go to the carrier they are reselling, who frequently don't know what to do to process it, and even if it does, it can add weeks' delay into the process. I hope the senior tech can work this deal for you, as it is probably the best of the options.

kennyJ83 wrote:

After 5days of my phone being locked to straighttalk and many many many calls I finely got my iPhone X that I bought from Best Buy unlocked from straight talk and now on Verizon

Call the post Dept and tell them u need it escalated

I'm glad you finally got it to work, Kenny.

What's the "post department"? You mean the postpaid department?

Lawrence Finch wrote:

You have really been through the mill on this! Unfortunately, the only source for a truly unlocked phone is direct from Apple. Which doesn't stop Best Buy from lying when you go to buy a phone from them.

Straight Talk is an MVNO - that is, a reseller of someone else's network. To further complicate matters, they don't actually have a technical support department, so when you call their support number you actually get a CSR at Tracfone, who is their servicer. Having worked with Tracfone, in my experience their reps are not rocket scientists, plus, the system is incredibly complicated, because the unlock request must first go to the carrier they are reselling, who frequently don't know what to do to process it, and even if it does, it can add weeks' delay into the process. I hope the senior tech can work this deal for you, as it is probably the best of the options.

Thanks, Lawrence, for your sympathy and information. Fingers crossed! I'll keep you posted!

moskovit wrote:

moskovit wrote:

Other than what I wrote in my last message, I afraid I don't have anything to offer, at the moment.

I'm still waiting for my friend to have the time/patience/courage to try to unlock the phone, for the umpteenth time.

Once she's up for doing so — hopefully very soon — I'll be sure to post the results (positive or negative) here.

Bad news:

I finally tried unlocking the iPhone, with the Straight Talk SIM in the phone, and service with Straight Talk active, by restoring to factory settings, and setting up as new — after Straight Talk insisted that they submitted the unlock code — as suggested by Apple engineering, to one of the many Apple technical support senior advisors with whom I spoke.

Unfortunately, I called Apple technical support, and spoke to a senior advisor, after doing so, to check whether Apple's database shows that the phone has, indeed, been unlocked — and the senior advisor confirmed to me that it wasn't.

The senior advisor is going to do some more research, to see whether there's anything else he can do/suggest — but based on my conversations with at least three other senior advisors with whom I've already discussed this issue, it seems there's nothing else that Apple can do, on their end.

And as I explained in my previous message (above), Straight Talk insisted, in literally dozens of calls to their unlocking department, that either (a) the phone was already unlocked, or (b) they had already sent the unlock code, so all I needed to do was restore my phone to factory settings, in order to complete the unlock process.

The best that this senior advisor was able to offer, is that he's going to see whether he can swap the phone for a new one, at no charge, even though it's ~150 days out of warranty. He'll get back to me on Thursday. I'll post here again, once I hear from him, to let you all know what happened.

Update: I have more bad news, but also a bit of good news.

First, the bad news:

I heard back from the (fourth) Apple technical support senior advisor with whom I had been working.

As promised, he checked whether he could swap the phone for a new one, for me, even though it's out of warranty.

Unfortunately, he learned that swapping the phone wouldn't solve the problem, because when Apple phone support swaps a phone for a new one, the new one is sent with the same carrier lock status as the old phone. He said there's no way he can override this, and there's no one above him in his department.

Ok, now for the good news:

There seems to be a relatively simple solution, for people who wish to take advantage of features that Straight Talk doesn't offer to Bring Your Own Phone (BYOP) customers, such as Voice over LTE (VOLTE), wifi calling, high-definition voice (HD Voice), and wifi hotspot. I found the solution at https://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php/1902335-Straight-talk-Verizon-VoLTE? p=16935714#post16935714:

Got it working finally after years.

1st of all. Whatever phone you are activating the IMEI/ESN. Must be correct. Can’t be an imei u are just activating the line with and not actually using. I was using an imei for an old device I was not using, because sometimes there system says imei not compatible when it clearly is.

2nd. Get a total wireless sim card. I don’t know if these sim cards have volte by default enabled but this is how I got it to work.

3rd. Chat with straight talk via their website and informed the rep you want to transfer your service to this new sim card and like I said previously make sure the imei/esn is correct on the device u are going to use. Process is the same for new activations just that u don’t say you want to transfer. They’ll ask for sim card number.. you give them the total wireless sim card. (They work fine on straight talk). They will also ask for imei/esn. Volte now should be working.

Conclusion.. My banner said verizon for a long time and when I did this process it switched to TFW I am guessing that in order to get volte it must say TFW.

Good luck guys

For those who might be interested, here are the plans Total Wireless offers: Activate Service Plan | Total Wireless

Of course, this doesn't solve the unlocking problem, or allow us to switch to whatever service provider we desire, but it at least could help us get the features that some of us desire.

I might try it myself.

After literally 40+ hours of Walmart straight talk employees, Apple themselves, Verizon, At&t, and even t-mobile... here is the sequence to fix your phone.....

You phone can not be a locked phone from a discounted buy option (i.e. an actual straight talk phone) it must be purchased as an unlocked phone.

No one tells you this, but the fact is the very first SIM card you place in this new 'unlocked' phone actually locks it to that carrier. Now normally this isn't a big deal, but the people that work for straight talk are complete idiots and absolutely the rudest people on the planet.... now then...

What is needed:

1. Your IMEI to the phone locked

2. The SIM card number inside the phone that was used when it was first activated

3. The phone number that was attached to that SIM card (for verification I guess)

(The SIM card does not have to be active with phone service to complete the unlock)

Steps:

1. BACKUP your phone. While your at it, install the newest version of iTunes on a MAC or PC (you will need this)

2. Remove the SIM card

3. Call 888-442-5102 between 10am-6pm EST, they will immediately ask for your imei

4. After you give them that they will say obviously its not in their system (roll eyes)

5. Tell the person you want to unlock your phone from their network.

6. They will ask for the SIM card number and the phone number attached to it.

7. There will be a brief (4 min) hold while they have a "third party" unlock the phone.

8. The operator will now say your phone is unlocked you need to do a factory restore through I tunes

Restore:

1. HOPE YOU BACKED UP YOUR PHONE AND YOUR SIM CARD IS NOT IN THE PHONE

2. Attach your iPhone via usb to your Mac/pc and open iTunes.

3. Hold down your home/lock buttons for 30 seconds (your apple logo will come up keep holding the buttons until an iTunes logo with a lightning cable appears)

4. Your MAC/PC will ask if you want to update or restore the phone

5. Select restore, it will tell you the phone will lose all data.

6. Your iTunes might download the newest update for the phone, you'll see the icon in top right corner if so

7. After the firmware downloads, it will show it extracting the files into your phone in top middle of screen

8. Your phone will restart as if it were new with the hello screen. Your MAC/pc will display no sim inside phone.

9. Disconnect the phone from the MAC/pc and take it to your new provider.

10. If you already have a new provider, place the NEW SIM card inside the phone while its on the hello screen.

11. After selecting your language it may still say activation lock, use your Apple ID to get past this screen.

12. If the activation lock loops like it has been, straight talk did not unlock the phone and now you have to start over.

13. If the phone is unlocked (finally) everything will work and the phone will setup as it should.

I really hope this information helps someone... I've literally spent way too much time on this. My kids phones we thought were basically bricks but somehow I persisted and finally figured out the steps with some help from this site and a US apple agent via phone.

Thanks for taking the time to explain all of that, RatedZ.

Unfortunately, I've done exactly what you suggest, multiple times, to no avail.

Ironically, Apple engineering (the highest level of Apple technical support) told me (through one of their senior technical support advisors) that the Straight Talk SIM has to be in the phone, while the factory reset occurs, in order for the phone to unlock.

I say, "ironically," because you say the exact opposite.

Regardless, I've tried it both ways, to no avail.

If you feel motivated to read through my various messages, in this thread, and see whether I missed anything, I'd be grateful — but I certainly don't expect you to, especially given how much time you've already devoted to this vexatious problem.

At the moment, I'm still planning to try the Total Wireless workaround I explained in the message just above yours, if my friend (who actually owns the phone) will let me (she's getting very tired of dealing with this).

By the way, for anyone who wants to try your method, and verify whether it successfully unlocks the phone, before dealing with a new service provider, I explained how one can do so, in one of my previous messages:

To confirm whether the phone is unlocked, without signing up for new service, all you need to do is call Apple (or, more accurately, ask them to call you, through their support site), ask to speak to a senior advisor, and ask them to look up in their system whether your phone is unlocked.

Moskovit, Ive read through your posts....

The few small details you may have missed, one of which I didn't think matters are these:

1. The SIM most definitely must be out of the phone when you connect to iTunes to do the restore, even straight talk guy said that because say you missed the phone rebooting, the first sim in the phone will immediately lock it again. Just as a extra step, I took my SIM card out of the phone before I called the 800 number just in case it transmits a code before you actually get it hooked up to iTunes.

2. I myself called the unlock 800 number (after successfully unlocking one of my three phones, phone #2 here if you will) after 6pm on Friday and was told the "third party" dept was now closed and the person took my information (imei, sim #, phone #, email) and said it would be put in a 'escalated state' and unlocked in 8 business hours... well the following Tuesday rolled around and it still not unlocked. So basically I had to start over. Point here is make sure they unlock it while you're on the phone so make the call between 10-6pm EST Mon-Fri.

3. While my phone restored through I tunes, I didn't have any sim in it the whole process. When my phone would boot up for the first time to the hello screen... I placed the NEW SIM card in and did NOT connect to a wifi, I used the cellular connect option. Not sure if that makes a difference... I did however after going through half the setup I connected to wifi when I selected the 'restore iPhone from cloud' option. (fyi - At the point of connecting to wifi, my phone displayed the correct carrier information in the top left of screen of the new carrier)

My phones were all unlocked cdma phones bought via Walmart and Best Buy during the holiday season... the receipts had no carrier information on them and even apple confirmed they are unlocked phones, but were software locked to straight talk during my conversations with their support. Apple did say if Id bought a carrier based phone (any of them) the phone would be technically owned by the carrier I bought it from for at least a year before they would consider releasing it to an unlocked state. They do this because some carriers do the 'sign up and we'll give you an iPhone' deal... they wouldn't want to give you a phone then you disconnect service in 6 months and get a free phone kinda thing, which makes sense....

So to sum up, I think your problem still lies in the phone call to straight talk. As hard as it is, be sure to be nice on the phone and just let them know you have the 3 pieces of information they need and to get that 'third party' involved in the process of unlocking the phone. Again I had no sim in either of the 3 phones I successfully unlocked last week using this exact process.

I hope this helps.... I honestly thought I was gonna have to trash 2 grand worth of iPhones and I persisted as you have to finally figuring this out. For the record the phones I unlocked were 1 iPhone 6+, and 2 iPhone 7. I also did one phone at a time because I didn't want to confuse straight talk (and that is an easy thing to do (roll eyes)).