UNLOCKING ANSWERS - read this before posting your questions!

[HotStuff2]

I'm tired of seeing all these threads asking the same question over and over, even though they've been answered hundreds (or even thousands) of times already. To that end, here's the answers you should have found by either searching first, or common sense:

IF YOU WANT TO UNLOCK YOUR iPHONE FOR USE ON A CARRIER OTHER THAN AT&T:

1. If you have an iPhone 3G (second generation, white or black back)
   1. If you bought your iPhone DURING or BEFORE December 2008
      • Have you upgraded the firmware to the latest (2.2.1, or higher, such as the 3.0 beta) via iTunes?
        1. NO: You (most likely) have the 5.8 (aka 5.08) bootloader (BL). You can jailbreak it using QuickPwn and unlock it using yellowsn0w (available from Cydia or the Installer.)
        2. YES: Tsk tsk tsk...you should have searched and read before you did that. Your bootloader may have been upgraded to 5.9 or higher.
           • Follow the instructions (posted elsewhere, or use THIS wiki) to check your BL version (and do this: ) If, after checking, you find that you have BL 5.8, you got lucky, and the information from bullet 1.1.1 applies.
           • If you find that you have BL 5.9 (or higher), see item 1.2.1 below.
   2. If you bought your iPhone AFTER January 2009
      1. You (most likely) have the 5.9 (aka 5.09) or higher bootloader (BL). yellowsn0w will not work on this BL, as the exploit found in 5.8 was closed in 5.9 and higher. You can still jailbreak the phone using QuickPwn, but you cannot use it on another carrier UNLESS you get a SIM adapter.
2. If you have an iPhone 2G (first generation)
   • You can upgrade it to the latest firmware, use QuickPwn to jailbreak it, and unlock for use on other GSM carriers.

BOTTOM LINE:

If you have the 5.9 (aka 5.09) or higher bootloader, don't bother posting a question asking how to unlock it (free or otherwise) for use on another carrier besides AT&T! The short answer is YOU CAN'T. The slightly longer answer is that you CAN use it on another carrier IF YOU PURCHASE A SIM ADAPTER (that does NOT "unlock" the iPhone, it merely FOOLS it into thinking whatever SIM you use is a "real" AT&T SIM, even though it's not.) There are many of these available; I'm not endorsing one over the other, but it appears many people have been happy with the one available from unlockediphone.info for $37.95.

And for the people who ask (not as commonly, but I saw a thread posted just yesterday asking this question again), no you cannot use the iPhone on Sprint (CDMA), Verizon (CDMA), AllTel (CDMA), Nextel (iDEN), or MetroPCS (CDMA or in some places TDMA), PERIOD. The iPhone (2G or 3G) is a GSM phone, and thus will only work on a GSM NETWORKS (AT&T, T-Mobile, et. al) Duh.

Finally, these are links you should be looking at if you want to follow any information on 5.9 (or higher) unlocking:

• GeoHot's blog
• DevTeam
  • Twitter link
  • Dev-Team Blog

Anything from those sites will most likely be posted here (and everywhere else on the internet) minutes after it's posted there.

[hellbone]

Thanks for this very useful info.

I've been reading up on the devteam blog about quickpawn and yellowsnow. They keep talking about the baseband and how that should be preserved (02.28) in order to be able to unlock with yellowsnow.

Yet, your information talks about bootloader 5.8 instead of the baseband.

So, here's my dilemma: I have an iPhone 3G running firmware 2.2 with baseband 02.28. After checking the bootloader, it seems I have BL 6.02. Now, according to the devteam blog, I should be able to use yellowsnow, but according to you, I won't be able to unlock. So which is it?

Thanks again.

[cpjr]

Nice tut bro.

[LastSonOfKrypton]

Agreed. Great tutorial. I'm sure it still won't stop the redundant threads though

[bishopazrael]

Mods, please sticky this to the top of the threads, highlight it in red, place 5 or 6 neon signs pointing to it please

[HotStuff2]

Thanks for this very useful info.

I've been reading up on the devteam blog about quickpawn and yellowsnow. They keep talking about the baseband and how that should be preserved (02.28) in order to be able to unlock with yellowsnow.

Yet, your information talks about bootloader 5.8 instead of the baseband.

So, here's my dilemma: I have an iPhone 3G running firmware 2.2 with baseband 02.28. After checking the bootloader, it seems I have BL 6.02. Now, according to the devteam blog, I should be able to use yellowsnow, but according to you, I won't be able to unlock. So which is it?

Thanks again.

Baseband 02.28 is the one with the exploit that allows yellowsn0w to work it's magic; higher ones (such as the current 02.30.03, which I have, for example) closed the exploit, so yellowsn0w won't work.) You *should* be able to use yellowsn0w, regardless of your BL.

I couldn't cover every scenario; yours is a minority, IMO. It might still fail, so I say give it a try, and let us know. I'd expect it to be a success, however.

[hellbone]

After some more digging and asking around, apparently the bootloader plays no role in how yellowsn0w opperates. The BL matters only if you have a firmware higher than 02.28 and need to downgrade to 02.28 in order for yellowsn0w 0.98 to do its thing.

I'd give it a try to see if it works but I currently don't have a "foreign" sim to test and see if the unlocking worked.

In the light of this, maybe the above guide should be revised to focus more around the baseband instead of the BL, as it may be misleading for those with the right baseband but higher BL. FYI, this iPhone 3G was bought on April 1 2009, and it had FW 2.2, BB 02.28 and BL 6.2 from the store.

[HotStuff2]

After some more digging and asking around, apparently the bootloader plays no role in how yellowsn0w opperates. The BL matters only if you have a firmware higher than 02.28 and need to downgrade to 02.28 in order for yellowsn0w 0.98 to do its thing.

I'd give it a try to see if it works but I currently don't have a "foreign" sim to test and see if the unlocking worked.

In the light of this, maybe the above guide should be revised to focus more around the baseband instead of the BL, as it may be misleading for those with the right baseband but higher BL. FYI, this iPhone 3G was bought on April 1 2009, and it had FW 2.2, BB 02.28 and BL 6.2 from the store.

You received a rarity. Seriously, run out and buy some lotto tickets.

[fletch33]

nice work. you should update this though with the latest downgrade when you get a chance.

here is the link.

[Mactime]

this should be stickied as the same questions will pop up again even with this thread around since we are going to loose it in page 2 or 3 and so on.

[whynotubabe]

very very helpful info... thanks!

[crashzilla00]

As far as everything I've heard, the bootloader does not get upgraded when going to a newer firmware.

EDIT: Still reading everywhere that the bootloader does not get upgraded. Ever.

Just wanted to add that in all I've read there were phones sold with a 5.09/6.02 bootloader that still had the 2.28 baseband, which would still be able to be software unlocked, but not if you upgraded changing the bb version to 2.30 in which now the bootloader would be an issue since the 5.9/6.2 does not allow for bb downgrading. Hope that helps a little more in clearing things up here.

Just wanted to add that in all I've read there were phones sold with a 5.09/6.02 bootloader that still had the 2.28 baseband, which would still be able to be software unlocked, but not if you upgraded changing the bb version to 2.30 in which now the bootloader would be an issue since the 5.9/6.2 does not allow for bb downgrading. Hope that helps a little more in clearing things up here.

[confucious]

I believe the OP is mistaken.
The BL cannot be changed (even, it appears by Apple)
Phones manufactured up to sometime in week 29 of 2008 have BL 5.8 phones manufactured after this time have BL 5.09 or 6.0x
If you are unsure of your BL Download and run FuzzyBB downgrader from Cydia.
YellowSn0w only works with BB 2.28.00 which came with FW 2.20
If your phone has ever been upgraded to a FW later than this without preserving the BB then your BB will have been upgraded to 2.30.03 (FW 2.2.1) or 4.2x (beta FW3.0)
For the vast majority of 3G iPhones the BB can not be downgraded but the early ones with BL 5.8 can be downgraded with FuzzyBB downgrader which works with all newer BB and will downgrade to 2.28.00 which enables YellowSn0w to be used.
Downgrading FW does not downgrade the BB.
BB 2.28.00 does not work with FW 3.0 so if a phone has a beta FW3.0 it has to be downgraded to 2.2.1 and then the BB downgraded from 4.2x to 2.28 for yellowSn0w to work.
It is far better to not upgrade beyond FW 2.0 unless you are very sure about what you are doing.
The BL versions 5.8 and 5.9 are also referred to as 5.08 and 5.09 - 5.8 is the same as 5.08 and 5.9 is the same as 5.09
As a rough guide to your BL version without downloading FuzzyBB the 3rd 4th and 5th digits of the serial number are normally the year and week number of manufacture so if your numbers are higher than 829 you will not have BL 5.8 UNLESS the first 2 digits are 5K in which case your phone may have 5.8 as the phone is a refurb and Apple do not change the BL.

As per usual this is only what I believe. I could be wrong.

[Xenn]

I'm following the iclarified tutorial here iClarified - iPhone - How to Unlock/Jailbreak Your 2.x.x 2G iPhone Using QuickPwn (Windows) and I have an unlocked 2.2(5g77) and want to update it the newest version but when I follow the instructions to restore it says restore and update which is going to update the newest software from apple. I don't know if this will brick anything but Iclarified says to restore the the the downloaded software that it provides. So any help would be great on how to update my software.

[confucious]

On a 2G it is not a problem to have the latest version, it is only on the 3G that it stops YellowSn0w working.

Go ahead and follow the instructions at iClarified, you'll be fine

[Xenn]

Should then I just restore and update automatically then run the pwnage because with iclarified says to restore it to their file but it wont let me do that. It only gives an option to restore and update even if I press shift with it which will then update to the locked version after restoring. I'm kind of a newb with these type of things and just want to be clear so I wont jailbreak my iphone.

[confucious]

If you follow the steps at iClarified exactly it should work. What step are you having problems with and what exactly is the problem?

[Xenn]

When selecting shift and restore it doesnt give an option to restore it to iclarified file that it had me download, only allows to restore and automatically update to new mac locked software for at&t. I've done this before and worked but it allowed me to restore to iclarified update file via itunes last time but wont this time which may be that I updated itunes. Just want to know by restoring software and updating to locked software wouldnt jailbreak my phone. I know the steps afterwards just wanted to know this. Thanks.

[confucious]

If you are using Windows and hold down Shift when you click restore it asks you to select the ipsw file - are you saying this is not happening or just that you can't find the file?

[pawan.bishnoi]

3rd, 4th and 5th digits of my iphone serial number are 531 and the
phone is being restored to 2.2.1 and modem firmware is 2.30.03

As i have read in forum that if we preserved the bootloader, which means that while restoring it asks for it ? whereas the usual procedure i know of is just select the .ipsw and ur phone get upgraded.

I am trying to explore if my BL is still preserved to 5.8 so that i can downgraded my BB to 2.28 back to unlock the phone.

thanks !