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+--- Thread: How to check if my 5s is really unlocked? (/showthread.php?tid=185296)
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How to check if my 5s is really unlocked? - graylocks - 11-22-2015
i'm preparing my 5s for resale. AT&T ok'd unlocking it and sent me the instructions which were to back-up, erase, and then restore. i did that and from postings here i expected to see a Congratulations you're unlocked message but i didn't. i'm thinking maybe i should have just chosen restore rather than restore from back-up. yes? no? i've already taken its sim card out and put it in my new 6s. if i erase and restore the 5s again does the sim card need to be in for the unlock procedure to work?
i'm staying with AT&T so i don't have another providers sim card to put in to see if the 5s is unlocked.
Re: How to check if my 5s is really unlocked? - Speedy - 11-22-2015
A few months ago I unlocked my wife's and my iPhone 5 and got the congrats. Two nights ago we unlocked my son's 5, got the email approval with instructions about how to unlock and we followed the steps - no congrats that I again expected. AT$T provides a link where you can check to see the status of your approval process which did tell us we had successfully unlocked. Yesterday we went to a local cell service provider and bought a prepaid SIM which came with minutes (the SIM was essentially 'free'.) Popped it in and it was immediately active (and tested so, voice and text) so I knew the unlock worked just as stated on the status page.
We had backed up to iTunes and restored from the backup. We swapped the SIMs at the provider so it remained in the phone until after it was unlocked but I don't know that that matters. We did this out of the USA and will just pop our AT$T SIMs back into all of our phones when we return in a few weeks.
Re: How to check if my 5s is really unlocked? - space-time - 11-22-2015
I unlocked my ATT iPhone 5 about 2 months ago.
first time, I chose to restore from backup, and I DID NOT get the congratulations, Blah blah blah message. I check if iPhone was unloed by putting a T-Mobile in it and it worked.
A few days ago I was fooling around and I did a reset, and I could not remember the password, so I set it up as a new iPhone, and I DID get the congratulations message in iTunes.
Then I was able to find the password and I was able to restore from the backup. Most my data (sans some Apps) is back as it should be.
Re: How to check if my 5s is really unlocked? - graylocks - 11-22-2015
space-time wrote:
I unlocked my ATT iPhone 5 about 2 months ago.
first time, I chose to restore from backup, and I DID NOT get the congratulations, Blah blah blah message. I check if iPhone was unloed by putting a T-Mobile in it and it worked.
A few days ago I was fooling around and I did a reset, and I could not remember the password, so I set it up as a new iPhone, and I DID get the congratulations message in iTunes.
Then I was able to find the password and I was able to restore from the backup. Most my data (sans some Apps) is back as it should be.
was the sim in when you did all this?
Re: How to check if my 5s is really unlocked? - space-time - 11-22-2015
graylocks wrote:
[quote=space-time]
I unlocked my ATT iPhone 5 about 2 months ago.
first time, I chose to restore from backup, and I DID NOT get the congratulations, Blah blah blah message. I check if iPhone was unloed by putting a T-Mobile in it and it worked.
A few days ago I was fooling around and I did a reset, and I could not remember the password, so I set it up as a new iPhone, and I DID get the congratulations message in iTunes.
Then I was able to find the password and I was able to restore from the backup. Most my data (sans some Apps) is back as it should be.
was the sim in when you did all this?
yes. The ATT SIM.
Re: How to check if my 5s is really unlocked? - graylocks - 11-22-2015
well, i just tried it again but without the sim card and iTunes wants a sim card. tomorrow i'll stop by the AT&T store to get the new sim for my 6s and i'll put the old one back in the 5s and try again.
Re: How to check if my 5s is really unlocked? - sekker - 11-22-2015
I unlocked my wife's 5S for this Japanese trip. I erased and restored twice without seeing the congrats screen.
Is definitely unlocked however. It's using a Japanese SIM from Ducomo.
Re: How to check if my 5s is really unlocked? - Microman - 11-22-2015
I restored two ATT iphone 5s last week, and everytime you do a restore to factory I got the CONGRATS YOUR UNLOCKED message
Re: How to check if my 5s is really unlocked? - space-time - 11-22-2015
the "Congratulations your device is now unlocked" message sounds like such an achievement, which is, since the carriers for you to use their SIM and try to keep you in chains as long as possible.
If I were the programmer of iTunes, I would have replaced the Congratulations with "Note that your device is now unlocked"
Re: How to check if my 5s is really unlocked? - Onamuji - 11-22-2015
You can't count on seeing the Congrats popup.
The Congrats popup can be hidden behind the message that your phone has been successfully restored and can flash briefly on the screen instead of sticking around. If you aren't looking at precisely the right moment (and with an erase and restore process that could potentially last hours, that's likely), you can easily miss it.
So, the best way to test is to have a spare SIM card. IMHO, it's worth the $5 bucks or so to buy one from Amazon.