iPhone 4s from UK

[HamzaanS]

Hi guys,

New to the forum.

Been trying to get my iPhone 4s sorted out for over a week now but no luck.

I bought a brand new sealed iPhone 4s 16gb that originally came from.

I did a check with Where is iPhone from? and according to that it was locked to the o2 network in the UK.

I did a check with checkmend.com, according to this report everything was fine and the phone was not locked to any network. How do I verify which is correct?

I then put my local sim Card, which the phone does pick up the network, but it will not activate the phone and comes with an error sating sim not valid.

Is there a way for me to unlock and activate this phone using a GEVEY Sim? or can anyone recommend how I can activate it.

Thanks in advance

[i.Annie]

Yes, the Gevey SIM should work to activate and unlock your device. Regarding that the phone was not locked to any network...I'm unsure why it isn't activating but will pick up service. At your standpoint, I would probably try and hacktivate the device by jailbreaking it rather than spending money on a Gevey SIM when the device appears to already pick up service for you.

[HamzaanS]

Yes, the Gevey SIM should work to activate and unlock your device. Regarding that the phone was not locked to any network...I'm unsure why it isn't activating but will pick up service. At your standpoint, I would probably try and hacktivate the device by jailbreaking it rather than spending money on a Gevey SIM when the device appears to already pick up service for you.

Hi annie, how do I go about hacktivating it? As far as I know there is no way to Jailbreak it cause it says the phone needs to be activated?

[i.Annie]

Jailbreak the phone. You can use Redsn0w or Absinthe. My personal preference is Redsn0w, based on reliability and stability. Absinthe is faster and easier to use, I have never had a problem using it, however others have reported issues when using it. Redsn0w is not bug-proof either, but I find it outputs more success. It's up to you.

You can get Redsn0w here
You can get Absinthe here

Edit: Jailbreaking hacktivates the device. It bypasses activation. Note the side effects include losing push notification and/or youtube app function. There are remedies to resolve these issues.

[HamzaanS]

I tried to do that...it wont jailbreak.

I tried Absinthe and Redsnow. It comes up with a message please activate iPhone or something.

Its a 4s

[i.Annie]

Have you tried restoring the phone first.

And yes I know it's a 4S.

[HamzaanS]

Nope. It wont allow me to restore. When I connect to iTunes I get a message saying "The sim card in this iPhone does not seem to be supported". Wont allow me to do anything else.

[i.Annie]

Did you try to put the phone in DFU mode first to initiate a prompt for restoring.

[HamzaanS]

Did you try to put the phone in DFU mode first to initiate a prompt for restoring.

Nope, should I restore the phone in DFU mode?

Aha, never knew u could do that. Got my phone in DFU mode now and when im in iTunes it allows me to restore?

[i.Annie]

If you're in DFU, iTunes will tell you it's in DFU and that it needs a restore.

[HamzaanS]

If you're in DFU, iTunes will tell you it's in DFU and that it needs a restore.

It comes up with the screen that says update or restore. If you click restore you have the ability to restore and update

[i.Annie]

Click restore. It shouldn't matter but restore yields better results for some reason.

[Explosive]

Hello, Annie, I was just wondering why you said Gevey Ultra S also ACTIVATES the phone and EVO said it doesn't. I'm left a bit confused x) Unless I'm totally missing the point here.

Gevey Ultra S iPhone 4S to Activate AND Unlock?

[EVO]

just so you guys are aware, you CANNOT hactivate (in order words, bypass the activation) on an iPhone 4S.

You need an AT&T sim card to activate period, the simplest way

[HamzaanS]

@EVO even with the Gevvy Sim it wont activate?

[i.Annie]

just so you guys are aware, you CANNOT hactivate (in order words, bypass the activation) on an iPhone 4S.

You need an AT&T sim card to activate period, the simplest way

Was not aware the 4S works differently. Thank you.

Also, the device is evidently locked to O2. I'm assuming then the OP should use an O2 SIM to officially activate then.

[EVO]

@EVO even with the Gevvy Sim it wont activate?

no the point of a gevey is to unlock not activate

HOWEVER, one of the other mods here, Simon, was able to successful activate a Verizon iPhone 4s using a CDMA Ultra S sim (multi-network version) without an original Verizon sim card.

BUT, as mentioned, its a CDMA network, but yours is a GSM network, so I would say no

[i.Annie]

I would too assume CDMA works differently than GSM. Verizon phones activate automatically through iTunes without SIM cards.

[HamzaanS]

Thanks @Evo. Strange thing is my iPhone 4s is picking up network constantly eith my local sim it just wont activate. No online service can tell me what carrier this phone is locked to even the paid services. I guess my phone will just need to be activated with any UK sim and it will start working.

[EVO]

Thanks @Evo. Strange thing is my iPhone 4s is picking up network constantly eith my local sim it just wont activate. No online service can tell me what carrier this phone is locked to even the paid services. I guess my phone will just need to be activated with any UK sim and it will start working.

affirmative!

you can purchase one for a couple bucks on ebay