How to unlock iPhone?
In this article, we will answer the most common questions about unlocking an iPhone - clearly and understandably. You can go directly to the question you are interested in:
- How to understand who locked iPhone?
- How to understand that the iPhone is locked to the carrierr?
- Why did the iPhone suddenly lock up and no longer accept the sim card?
- How to check if iPhone is blacklisted?
- How much does it cost to unlock an iPhone?
- What is R-sim chip for iPhone?
Let's get to the answers.
1. How to understand to whom the iPhone is locked?
Most often, those who asked this question have one of two messages in mind. Or we are talking about a block from the carrier and then the phone shows a message that “SIM Not Supported”.
Or it means iCloud lock, which means linking to the account of the former owner of the device when the phone shows the “Activation Lock” window.
If you are interested in the first case, then you need to find out who the carrier to which the phone is attached. You can check the carrier by ordering Apple iPhone check info by IMEI [GSX].
For the second case, consult with us via support@imei-server.com
2. How to understand that the iPhone is locked to the carrier?
An iPhone locked to a carrier will not accept SIM cards from other carriers and will display the message “SIM Not Supported” (see question #1).
For individual carriers, such as AT&T or T-mobile, the carrier's logo may appear on the phone itself. But it is not always possible to find information in the phone indicating which carrier the phone is blocked by. A SIM card that the phone does not accept is a non-native SIM card. To EXACTLY determine which carrier is blocking your phone, use the Apple iPhone check info by IMEI [GSX]
This check will show a specific carrier and then it will be possible to find out if there is an opportunity to unlock from this carrier at the moment, what are the terms and cost of unlocking.
Having the results of the GSX report, please contact our support and we will help you in unlocking your device: support@imei-server.com
3. Why did the iPhone suddenly lock up and won't accept the SIM card?
If your iPhone successfully worked with various SIM-cards and then suddenly blocked, this means that this phone was previously unlocked unofficially or semi-officially, and then this unlocking “flew”. Most often, such situations occur after a complete reset of the device before selling, after restoring via iTunes, or after reinstalling the SIM card.
If you have just such a situation, it is important to understand the following - if the unlock once “flew”, then re-unlocking such a phone (if available) will also be TEMPORARY. Even if someone promises otherwise - know: "official" unlocking for such a device is impossible! Yes, it sounds unpleasant, but the bitter truth is better than the sweet lie. If you want to understand what is the difference between “official” and “unofficial” unlocking, we recommend that you read a separate article on this topic - "Official" and "Unofficial" unlock iPhone - what's the difference?
What to do now? As in the case of a regular carrier lock, the first step is to find out who the carrier is and then look to see if the required service is available, what is the price and whether it makes sense to re-unlock. It may be preferable to use an R-sim chip. (see question #6)
You can check the carrier by ordering a Apple iPhone check info by IMEI [GSX] check and consult with us via support@imei-server.com
4. How to check iPhone for blacklist?
If you have concerns that the carrier may have blacklisted your iPhone due to theft or fraud, it's easy to check with Check iPhone Blacklist Worldwide. This is a universal check that displays information regardless of the country and carrier the phone has worked with. But keep in mind two important facts!
- Checking for a black list is not the same as checking for a carrier! This means that your phone may be blacklisted by one carrier, but blocked by a completely different carrier!
- Checking for a black list is not able to detect the presence of an active contract or debts! Most often, carriers refuse to officially unblock it precisely because of debts. Thus, your phone, according to the results of the check, will be “clean”, since it was not lost / stolen, but official unlocking may be denied!
If you are interested in more information about the reasons for getting phones into blacklists and types of blacklists, then we recommend that you read the material - What does it mean - "Next Tether Activation Policy: Blacklist"?
5. How much does it cost to unlock an iPhone?
The cost of unlocking the iPhone from carriers is very different. Prices range from $5 to $200 and more. It matters who the carrier is, what country this carrier is from, and also what model you have. The cost of unlocking the latest models is usually much more than older ones. But there are services in which there is no price variation depending on the models.
To “estimate” the price range, we recommend that you open our UNLOCK IPHONE, IPAD price list.
For convenience, we recommend checking the box to hide services that are not currently available. If you have already registered, you will also be able to “collapse” the wholesale price columns. Below on the page you will see sections on country blocks and all available unlock services for each country. The first big block of services for US carriers. The fastest and cheapest unlock at the moment is this unlock from Verizon carrier. It is also effective for blacklisted devices. But the availability of services, as well as their cost and terms can change at any time. If the service is not active, we strongly recommend that you subscribe to be notified when the service resumes. To do this, you need to open the service page, click on the "Notify when available" button and specify the email address to which you want to receive a notification. If you want to know more about where the unlock services come from and why they suddenly turn off, we recommend the article - "Service is temporarily unavailable" - why the services for ulocking could be disabled?
If you want to know which of the carriers is now more profitable / easiest to unlock your iPhone - contact us via support@imei-server.com
We will advise you based on the general situation of all services, the availability of services and the chances of successful unlocking for a particular service at the current time.
If you suddenly come to the conclusion that it is easier to throw away your old iPhone than it is to unlock it, do not rush into this decision. Perhaps in your case it makes sense to pay attention to the R-sim chip. (See question #6).
And to the philosophical question of what “ceiling” prices for unlocking are taken from, we answered in the article - Principles of pricing for services for unlocking iPhone.
6. What is R-sim chip for iPhone?
R-sim chip is a special adapter that is installed in the phone in the SIM card tray along with the SIM card that your iPhone does not want to accept. After installation, this chip “distorts” data about your SIM card and the external server recognizes it as one that the phone can work with. Important facts:- R-sim does not work on the latest iPhone models.
- Phones with R-sim chips often have problems with sudden network loss.
- Apple periodically purposefully changes the settings for registering the iPhone on the network, which instantly disables all the R-sim chips in the world. In such a situation, the chip will simply stop working. It will be necessary to wait for the release of a new chip for replacement.
- R-sim is a temporary solution. But "temporarily" - it can be either a few months or a few years.
- For phones that cannot be officially unlocked, R-sim is the only solution.
We do not sell R-sim adapters and will not be able to advise you on the choice of chips. But we will always be happy to help you in our chat or through the site mail support@imei-server.com