Manual way of unlocking your iphone
Update: There is a new program available that automatically unlocks your phone for you in less than 3 minutes. Check it out here.
We have searched all over the internet for free ways to unlock your iPhone and have come up with this tutorial from a few different websites. This has been tested and it seems it works just fine but we don’t guarantee anything so use at your own risk. It can always be undone by re-flashing your iPhone to the original files.
The best tutorials and information I have found come from unlock.no
Follow the simple steps below to unlock your iPhone for free today! To start the unlocking process, you will want to first downgrade your firmware to 1.1.1 as it seems most stable for the unlocking.
STEP 1: Install Firmware version 1.1.1
To install firmware version 1.1.1 , you will need to enter the iPhone’s recovery mode.
- Connect the iPhone to your computer and press and hold the power button (on top) and the home button (on bottom front) simultaneously.
- After about 15 seconds, the iPhone will appear to turn off, release the power button but keep holding the home button.
- After about 15 seconds your computer and iTunes will detect the iPhone in recovery mode.
- Download the following two files to your computer: 1.1.1 firmware and 1.1.2 firmware
- Hold down SHIFT key (Windows) or Option/ALT-key (Mac) when clicking the Restore button in iTunes, and it will let you choose the firmware file. Select the 1.1.1 firmware file you downloaded in previous step.
- iTunes will give give a 1015 error, and you iPhone will get stuck in recovery mode.
- To get it into normal mode, Windows user can run AppTapInstaller.exe (select 1.0.2 firmware), or iBrickr, while Mac users can use iNdependence. In all cases, close/eject iPhone from iTunes before running these applications, and as soon as your iPhone have rebooted in normal mode you can close the applications and ignore any errors. If you are downgrading from 1.1.3 you might have problems getting it started in normal mode. The solution is simple, just restore your iPhone to 1.1.1 again, and this time it will work
- Now your iPhone should be at the activation screen.
Step 2: Jailbreak and activate
- Make sure you have a SIM-card with the PIN turned off (the supplied AT&T card works fine).
- On the activation screen, slide for emergency and dial: *#301# to make the iPhone call itself. (If the incoming call dialog quickly disappears but it keeps ringing, just dial 0 (remove *#301# first), and it will call itself)
- Answer the call, and tap on Hold
- iPhone will call it self again, tap Decline. You will now be returned to the normal dialer.
- Tap on contacts, and tap the + icon to add a new. The only info you are going to add to this contact are two URL’s. To add a URL, tap Add new URL. The first URL is prefs followed by a colon: prefs: and the second is i.unlock.no. Tap Save.
- Your contact now has two “web pages” - tap on the first one (prefs:). This will take you to the settings dialog. The reason you want this, is because you need to connect to a Wi-Fi network, so tap on Wi-Fi, and get connected to a network, and make sure the icon on top of the screen is indicating that you are connected. While you are in the settings dialog, you should also set: General → Auto-Lock → Never.
- Now, press the home button, and again, slide for emergency dial 0, Answer the call, Hold and Decline the new call so that you get to the contacts. Tap on your contact (No Name), and this time tap on the other home page, i.unlock.no
- Safari will launch and show you a web page. Tap on Tap here to jailbreak your iPhone
- iPhone will return to activation screen and after a few seconds the iPhone should restart.
- If the iPhone does not restart after waiting a full minute, please make sure that you have your iPhone connected to your computer and try again.
- When the iPhone starts again, it should no longer say slide for emergency, but rather Slide to unlock It means it was successful! Activation is now bypassed, and phone prepared for software installation! (If you are going to use an AT&T SIM, you won’t need to do the next step.)
Step 3: Performing the unlock
Add http://i.unlock.no/ to Installer sources if you didn’t follow this tutorial.
- Tap on the Installer icon, and wait for it to refresh the sources
- Tap on Install at the bottom
- Scroll down to Unlocking Tools and install 1.1.2/1.1.3 OTB Unlock
- The process will take a few minutes, before you get a message that it completed successfully
Step 4: Upgrade to 1.1.2
Even though the phone is already unlocked, it will not get a signal. To fix this upgrade to 1.1.2:
- Open iTunes again and hold down the SHIFT key (Windows) or Option/ALT-key (Mac) on your keyboard while clicking on the Upgrade button (not the restore button!). A file browsing dialog should appear, and you must select the 1.1.2 firmware file you downloaded previously.
- While the iPhone is upgrading, download the 1.1.2 jailbreak archive and extract the files to your computer.
- If you don’t already have Java on your computer, you need to download and install Java runtime first. If you are unsure, check the jailbreak.jar file in the archive you extracted previously - it should have an icon with a coffee cup
- If you previously had 1.1.3 on the iPhone, iTunes will fail again with error 1015 and the iPhone only shows a picture of a cable. If not, the iPhone will boot to the activation screen with “slide for emergency” text.
- Now you need to launch the jailbreak java application on your computer. Windows users double click on the windows.bat file, while Mac users can double click on jailbreak.jar file.
- An application window should appear, with “Boot from recovery” and “Jailbreak” buttons. If you got an error in iTunes like explained above you need to click the “Boot from recovery” button first. When the iPhone shows the picture of a cable and “Slide for emergency” text, click on the “Jailbreak” button and wait while it’s jailbreaking. This will take a few minutes, and your iPhone will restart a few times at the end.
- Your iPhone should now show “Slide to unlock” instead of emergency. If it does, everything was successfull.
Step 5: Finishing the unlock
Now your iPhone will accept any SIM-card and you will get signal. Congratulations!
But if you are using your iPhone in a foreign country, the Phone/SMS application will just crash.
Open Installer and install iWorld found in the Tweaks 1.1.2 category. Start iWorld and select your country and it will fix the crashing problem.
If you want to upgrade to 1.1.3, there’s a package called Official 1.1.3 Upgrader located in the System category. Installing it will upgrade your phone to a jailbroken 1.1.3. Be aware that it will take some time (25-40 minutes).
If you have any questions, the Hackint0sh forum is a great resource and has many contributing members.