Tech

O2 iPhone Unlocking

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I spent most of yesterday trying to unlock a UK O2 iPhone so it could be used with any sim. Just for the record: it wasn’t my iPhone; admittedly I am looking for a new mobile, and I did briefly consider the iPhone, but I’m not getting one.

I thought I’d post a few tips here for anyone that needs to do the same thing. Leave a comment if you find this post useful.

The device I was unlocking had bootloader 4.6, and had been flashed with the latest 1.1.3 firmware. I’d been told it was a 1.1.1 out of the box (OTB) but I have my doubts about that - from what I’ve read you can only have bootloader 4.6 if your iPhone started life on 1.1.2.

At first I downgraded the firmware to 1.1.1, then I needed to "JailBreak" it. With that done, I could install custom applications, one of which is AnySim. This is supposed to unlock your iPhone, but I kept having it crash out on me with a "main script execution failed" error.

Eventually, I installed BBInfo, which is a handy little tool that runs on your iPhone, and tells you which bootloader is installed, and which Baseband is on there.

It turns out I was using the latest baseband (which is why the AnySim unlock failed). So I flashed back to 1.1.3, then used ZiPhone, and ZiPhone GUI (here) to unlock very, very easily. Literally plug in the phone, and click a button. All good.

Or so I thought. It turns out that YouTube stops working if you take that approach. It also turns out the the Google Maps Location functionality gets broken too. I tried installing various YouTube fixes through Installer, but nothing working. I flashed back to 1.1.3 again, tried various other angles of attack, but had no success.

So I decided to take a different approach, using the instructions here. I downgraded to 1.1.1 again, made sure I’d implemented a JailBreak on it, and checked through the Installer’s other applications in Unlocking Tools. It turns out there’s an unlock for OTB 1.1.2/1.1.3 iPhones, but you have to run it from 1.1.1.

The process then becomes: flash to 1.1.1, run the 1.1.2/1.1.3 OTB Unlock, then flash 1.1.2 using iTunes, then JailBreak 1.1.2, then do an over-the-air upgrade to 1.1.3 using Installer.

With that done, you can install a YouTube fix so that YouTube works fine. Google Maps still has an issue, but if you install LocateMe you can work around that easily.

Some tips:

• In order to downgrade from 1.1.3 to 1.1.1 you need iTunes, the firmware file for 1.1.1, and iBrickr (this assumes you’re using Windows).
• The tricky bit is putting the phone into DFU mode so you can flash. To get into DFU mode, you have to hold down the power and home buttons until the phone turns off. Then let go of the power button, and just keep holding down the home button. Windows should "bong" to say it’s detected a device, and iTunes will tell you it’s found a device in recovery mode.
• To flash back in iTunes, hold down shift while clicking Restore. Then you can pick the file you want to flash.
• If you’re struggling to get into DFU mode, kill the iTunesHelper.exe using Taskman. Also, I found that holding down power and home until the phone turns off, releasing power, and then very, very briefly tapping power again while holding home seemed to work. YMMV.
• You’ll get an error after flashing, but that’s fine. Run iBrickr, select the "boot my phone" option, and it should start up.
• To fix the YouTube problem after flashing, you can install the YouTube fix from Surreal Networks. Add http://iphone.surrealnetworks.com as an Installer source to get it. Remember to reboot your phone after installation.
• To work around Google Maps not working, get LocateMe. Don’t install it from the Senseo source, as I had problems. Instead, make sure you’ve got Community Sources installed, and get it from there. That version works fine.
• BBInfo can be had from installer.iclarified.com’s source.
• To get the sim card out, stick a paper-clip or pin into the tiny hole on the top of the iPhone. There’s a bit of resistance, but eventually a small cartridge will pop up and you can swap the sim over.

End result: a totally unlocked iPhone with (hopefully) all functionality still intact.

It’s really amazing to see what the community have done with the iPhone. I’ve never really paid much attention before (why would I?) but now I’ve had to use the tools and information that’s out there I’m slightly in awe! I particularly like the method of JailBreaking 1.1.1 - you have to circumvent the fact that the phone’s locked before activation (by making it call itself, then putting itself on hold), create a spoof contact with two web links, one of which takes you to the iPhone’s preferences and allows you to turn on Wifi, the other then lets you connect to the Internet and JailBreak the phone.

Thanks to Fredrik Grevstad at http://iphone.unlock.no - without those guides I’d never have gotten started, let alone have any success!

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