Unlock

Unlocking is the removal of SIM restrictions on the modem, allowing the use of the iPhone on any carrier. The main reason to unlock your iPhone is if you want to use it with a different service provider (ie T-Mobile). An unlocked iPhone also has a better resell value.

For a deeper overview of unlocking (risks, legality, etc…), I suggest you read my article about the difference between jailbreaking and unlocking.

This page is a reference guide for anyone looking to unlock the iPhone. Simply look for your firmware version and your iPhone model, then click on the appropriate tutorial.

Unlock iPhone 3.1.2

Unlock iPhone 3GS

Unlock iPhone 3G

Unlock iPhone 2G

Unlock iPhone 3.1

Unlock iPhone 3GS

Unlock iPhone 3G

Unlock iPhone 2G

Unlocking iPhone 3.0.1

Unlock iPhone 3GS

Unlock iPhone 3G

Unlock iPhone 2G

Unlocking iPhone Firmware 3.0

Unlock iPhone 3GS

Unlock iPhone 3G

Unlock iPhone 2G

49 Comments »

  • ddogg10000 said:

    I have a company blackberry phone, when I put my sim card in the unlocked iphone and try to use the data I get this message “Could not activate cellular data network: You are not subscribed to a cellular data service”. Do I have to get a new plan?

    I figure since I have data with blackberry, it would work with the iphone?

    Thanks

    #1 July 15th, 2009 at 9:35 pm
  • kaneko said:

    no all you have to do is go into setting, general, network,cellular data network and under apn type in wap.voicestream.com p.s i know this works for t-mobile so give it a try

    #2 July 18th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
  • nene974 said:

    I NEED SOME HELP ASAP. I’M TRYING TO JAILBRAKE MY NEW IPHONE 3GS 32G OS 3.0 WITH REDSN0W 8.2 AND THEM UNLOCK WITH ULTRASN0W 9 FOLLOWING ALL THE STEPS AND INSTRUCTRUCTIONS BUT WHEN I’M FINISHED I HV A CRASH, MY IPHONE DOESN’T STAR I ONLY CAN SEE THE LOGO AND THEN A CIRCLAE APPEARS LIKE SOMETHING IS SHARGING AND RESTAR OVER AND OVER BUT NEVER STAR COMPLETWLLY. WHAT CAN I DO??????????

    TKS

    #3 July 19th, 2009 at 9:52 pm
  • Donson said:

    Have your phone unplugged from the usb. Hold the home button and connect it to the usb connector. Keep holding down the home button, it should fix the issue.

    #4 July 20th, 2009 at 6:20 am
  • john said:

    i have no survice on my iphone 3g 2.2\
    can i still do the download?

    #5 July 24th, 2009 at 5:49 am
  • john said:

    i mean the can i still do the jailbreak?

    #6 July 24th, 2009 at 5:49 am
  • Donson said:

    I believe you can still Jailbreak your phone. Actually i’m almost positive you can.

    #7 July 24th, 2009 at 6:25 am
  • kaneko said:

    the best way is to jailbreak it then get on a wifi signal so u can use cydia to download ultrasn0w then u will have service from any sim

    #8 July 24th, 2009 at 7:22 am
  • Will D said:

    I follow your tutorial for Unlock iPhone 3GS using UltraSn0w. When I follow the links (at different spots on your tutorial) to down the software ie, RedSn0w, UltraSn0w, the links just take me go around in endless circle and there is no software to be found! Am I doing something wrong? The tutorial seems simple enough. Please help!

    #9 July 24th, 2009 at 9:53 am
  • Sebastien said:

    There is no endless circle. It eventually takes you to the iPhone Downloads page where you can download RedSn0w or whatever you need.

    #10 July 24th, 2009 at 9:58 am
  • Lindsay said:

    What’s the difference between unlocking your iPhone and jailbreaking it? Please I’m new with the iPhone but have heard about some benefits of jailbreaking please someone help me to understand and how to do this thanks

    #11 July 25th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
  • Sebastien said:

    Lindsay,

    Read this</a< to learn the difference between jailbreaking and unlocking.

    And here is some info about jailbreaking.

    Sebastien

    #12 July 25th, 2009 at 6:12 pm
  • Superlady said:

    my cydia keeps closing out it wont open. help!!!!

    #13 July 31st, 2009 at 7:19 pm
  • Jon Brett said:

    I notice some people with iPhones bought from America have an issue with using the iPhone in the UK because the contacts numbering format sticks to the american format. Is this still an issue? Or is there a way to change the numbering format to UK if it is?

    Any help much appreciated as I’m thinking of getting an American iPhone.

    #14 August 1st, 2009 at 3:28 am
  • kaneko said:

    yea you have to wipe the phone clean but back up all your stuff first then re jailbreak it because normally when cydia begins doing that there’s corruption so it’s the only way goood luck

    #15 August 1st, 2009 at 7:05 am
  • Sebastien said:

    @Jon Brett – yes there is a simple way. On your iPhone, go to Settings > General > International > and set the “region format” to UK or whatever country you want. It’s that simple ;)

    #16 August 1st, 2009 at 7:38 am
  • Will D. said:

    I found out why I got into an endless circle when I tried to download RedSn0w. That’s because I tried to download from my company’s PC, and the company’s firewall has some to do with it. When I downloaded from my home PC there’s no problem at all. Thanks, Sebastien.

    #17 August 1st, 2009 at 7:49 am
  • Ostraq said:

    Just like “nene974″ said – “I NEED SOME HELP ASAP. I’M TRYING TO JAILBRAKE MY NEW IPHONE 3GS 32G (In my case 16GB) OS 3.0 WITH REDSN0W 8.2 AND THEN UNLOCK WITH ULTRASN0W 9 FOLLOWING ALL THE STEPS AND INSTRUCTRUCTIONS BUT WHEN I’M FINISHED I HV A CRASH, MY IPHONE DOESN’T STAR I ONLY CAN SEE THE LOGO AND THEN A CIRCLAE APPEARS LIKE SOMETHING IS SHARGING AND RESTAR OVER AND OVER BUT NEVER STAR COMPLETWLLY. WHAT CAN I DO??????????”

    No start button + USB in/out helps, well in my case nothing helps, but restore.
    Also when I only jailbreak it, my previous applications do not work, I can’t download/install them. Any trick to make ipa’s work again? Very frustrating and annoying. PLEASE any help is welcome. Ostraq

    #18 August 1st, 2009 at 11:16 am
  • kaneko said:

    u have to unlock it wit ultrasn0w its the only way

    #19 August 4th, 2009 at 7:26 am
  • Ostraq O said:

    No it is not,
    eventually it worked out with RedSnow as well.

    #20 August 5th, 2009 at 1:09 pm
  • skwash said:

    i’ve ran jailbraik and unlock. when i enter the T-mobile info for edge internet and mms. i reboot, the apple logo comes on and then a circle bar cycles over and over until its just does it continously. i’ve restore and jailbroken and unlocked about 9 times now. anyone know if there’s a way to fix this?

    #21 August 5th, 2009 at 11:47 pm
  • Ostraq O said:

    I had the same problem, in the end I gave up unlocking it. Jailbreak + Open SSH + AppSync 3 and now it works. Well good enough for me. (by the way my provider is T-mobile)

    #22 August 6th, 2009 at 3:53 am
  • Anonymous said:

    From what I’ve been reading.. 3GS isn’t able to be jailbroken or unlocked yet. Word is, that it may not be able to be jailbroken at all.

    #23 August 14th, 2009 at 5:40 am
  • Ostraq O said:

    Hahaha, where you’ve been reading that???
    I was talking about 3G-S, and I have it now (after a bit of “fighting with it”)… Jailbroken and functioning just like it should

    #24 August 14th, 2009 at 2:45 pm
  • may said:

    who say’s u cant jailbreak the new iphone 32g 3GS i just did, i jailbroke it though redsn0w, then ultrasn0w to unlock it.

    #25 August 17th, 2009 at 5:43 am
  • big daddy said:

    Hey I just bought my iphone in germany and came to the us and my phone locked up and its like I can’t do anything I can’t slide it to unlock it and I have tmobile help help

    #26 August 20th, 2009 at 3:26 pm
  • desi said:

    I just want to mention here that i have now successfully unlocked and jailbroken the following iphones.

    2G, version 3.0
    3G, version 3.0
    3GS, version 3.0
    3GS, version 3.01

    The methods described here work 100% if you follow the instructions properly.

    In the end i ant to say a big thank you to the dev-team as welll as owner/writer of this blog for putting together the excellent tutorials.

    All the best in future.

    #27 September 11th, 2009 at 9:03 pm
  • Dwarak said:

    i have an apple i phone which my relative brought it i dont know it is 2g or 3g how to identify it…..
    and also my relative done a unlock which is not proper……. pls guide me hw to unlock it and use it in india

    #28 September 25th, 2009 at 3:12 am
  • squimesh said:

    will be there unlock for iphone 3gs 3.1?
    I really hope for that.

    #29 October 3rd, 2009 at 9:28 am
  • squimesh said:

    I can’t unlock my iphones 3GS because when i turn on it always in recovery mode..how can turn it back? please answer.

    #30 October 3rd, 2009 at 9:30 pm
  • Eddy said:

    I have an iPhone 2G with 3.0 OS, lately ive been getting some massive issues, calls wont get thru at all, maybe 1 in 20 calls comes through, people saying its like my phone is turned off. Tried it myself, its really strange, all push is off aswell ( was having a heating issue ) this all started after i updated somethign with Cydia. So my question is, i want to upgrade to 3.0.1 and unlock it, but the guide says i need 3.0.1 on my iPhone already, how do i do this, when iTunes only lets me upgrade to 3.1 ?

    thanks.

    #31 October 7th, 2009 at 7:40 am
  • salman said:

    unlock for iphone 3gs 3.1.2
    where can i find it help

    #32 October 14th, 2009 at 4:22 am
  • narquatic said:

    hi, i am trying to unlock my iphone 3gs 3.1 on ultrasn0w, after i install and add the source it says NO SERVICE on the network….can anyone help??

    #33 October 15th, 2009 at 3:38 pm
  • momo said:

    plz help me.i connect my iphone 2g to i tunes for my first time,and it was asking me to update my iphone .now it locks.what can i do,i tried 100 times.no way

    #34 October 17th, 2009 at 2:21 am
  • LuCruz said:

    accidently updated my 2g to 3.1 on itunes wondering when jailbreak/unlock will be available for windows
    thanks

    #35 October 17th, 2009 at 12:28 pm
  • ZEKATE said:

    i was trying to jailbreak my 3GS 3.01,but my phone keeps asking me no service i.e password,i do not have sms card of AT&T,still can i do jailbreak and unlock?how?

    #36 October 23rd, 2009 at 7:28 am
  • val said:

    i have an iphone 3g can i use it for sprint service and how would i do this

    #37 November 3rd, 2009 at 8:02 pm
  • big papa said:

    I have a LG 8300 cell phone from verizon. No more contract,ready to spread my wings. Could get unlocked/jailbroke iphone from ?, but before I do that, I was wondering if THIS particular phone that i already have would work with Tmobile?

    #38 November 9th, 2009 at 6:59 pm
  • Michelle said:

    So I have a dumb question…. I unlocked the phone and it continued searching, regardless of what I did… though I am still using an at@t sim card. My dad wants to change to T-Mobile tomorrow, but I will be at work and wanted to have it unlocked to make a smooth transition to my new number without having to first unlock it after my number is shut off… So after jailbreaking it a couple weeks ago with blackrain, I just unlocked it and it says SEARCHING endlessly. Is that I guess because I am not able to use an at&t sim card on the unlocked phone? I thought you should be able to… since it is unlocked, it should work on any carrier… including at&t… for the short time I am still with them.. If possible, I would greatly appreciate an email response to clearopacity@gmail.com as I will be working Black Friday at Best Buy at 4:30 am, and will not be able to check the computer… ;) just my gmail on iPhone that I reunlocked until I get a response….
    I did follow the directions… d/l ultrasn0w and install, reboot…. nothing happened. I am on 3.1.2, but I know you guys figured that one out… so I dunno the problem. :(

    #39 November 26th, 2009 at 11:16 pm
  • Michelle said:

    I think I know the problem, but I am unaware of a fix…. besides restoring my phone and re-doing everything. I jailbroke with blackra1n and have deleted the app from the phone….

    #40 November 27th, 2009 at 5:54 pm
  • Dylan said:

    @val nd big papa.

    YES.

    #41 December 11th, 2009 at 10:14 am
  • laura said:

    i have this unlocked iphone and when i get pix mssgs it says gprs not subscribe n i have pix mssgin also when i tried pluggin in my headphones n usb it turns offn it didnt do dat before y is dat happenin

    #42 December 11th, 2009 at 4:44 pm
  • bernard said:

    thxx a lot, i have updated,unlocked and jailbreak my iphone 3g 3.1.2 by myself. i never think that it will work. this blog is amazing !!! :)

    #43 December 17th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
  • Leanne said:

    I have a iphone 3g with 3gs software on it. I bought the phone without a sim and have put in my o2 (rolling 30 day contract simcard). I keep getting the following message when trying to use youtube and certain websites: “Could not activate cellular data network: You are not subscribed to a cellular data service”.

    My settings are put to mobile.o2.co.uk, do i need to change any settings etc or need a new sim card?

    Thanks

    #44 January 4th, 2010 at 9:05 am
  • Neil said:

    Can you help jailbreak my Chinese iphone (fake)?

    #45 January 11th, 2010 at 6:13 am
  • mak said:

    hi plz can u tell me how to unlock iphone 1g ro 2g with 3.1.2 firmware on windows waiting for ur reply a big thnx MAK

    #46 January 30th, 2010 at 8:02 pm
  • JOEL BROTONEL said:

    MAK, WHAT DID YOU SEE ON THE SCREEN WHEN YOU TURN YOUR IPHONE’s ON? IS IT USB WITH ITUNES? LET ME KNOW…

    #47 February 5th, 2010 at 4:28 pm
  • Matt Sellars said:

    will there ever be a unlocking program for the 3g with 5.12.01? my phone is useless without being unlocked, and just wondering how long im going to have to wait.

    #48 February 8th, 2010 at 11:48 pm
  • Lore said:

    Hey guys,

    I’ve been stupid, just got my new iphone 3GS, and attached it to itunes and updated it. After this I started searching for “how to unlock my iphone”, and than I found out that I shouldn’t have updated my iphone to 3.1.3…. :-( !! Does anyone know how long it will take (approximately) for an unlock to come out for the 3.1.3 software?

    Thanks

    #49 February 9th, 2010 at 8:53 am

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