How to unlock your iPhone

Yes a giffgaff SIM works in a SIM locked iPhone but giffgaff doesn't offer data roaming at the moment so if your travelling and still want to have data connectivity you need to unlock your iPhone to use a local SIM or any other SIM.

Official method:

If you are a O2 Pay Monthly customer you can be unlocked for free here (it's 15£ for Pay as you Go)

This can take up to 14 days. All the details on how this is done are there.

Unofficial method:

If your not on O2 or simply can't wait you can use the unofficial method. This involves jailbreaking your phone. This is very easy to do but it potentially voids your warranty and their is a risk of killing your phone. Therefore you are solely responsible for taking this risk. Updating your iPhone to the latest firmware will lose the unlock potentially for ever. Now, this is still pretty unlickely but the disclaimers are needed.

IOS4 / 4.0.1 - no method available yet for 4.0.2 or 4.1

head over to www.jailbreakme.com - just swipe to the right "slide to jailbreak"

then let it do it's thing - takes about 30 seconds - depends on the speed of your internet connection

then open the new app called Cydia, install the updates, then search for ultrasn0w and install , then search for PDF Patch and install.

There you go your phone is unlocked

OS 3.1.2 /3.1.3

This method is for iPhone OS 3.1.2 for earlier versions either update your iPhone to 3.1.2 or visit http://blog.iphone-dev.org/

First of all download blackra1n from www.blackra1n.com

Launch blackra1n and click on "make it rain"

This will install an app called blackra1n on your iPhone (do make sure you haven't reached the maximum of visible apps in all the screens otherwise you'll have to search for it. Your iPhone will reboot in the process and you will see an image on your iPhone's screen.

Once your iPhone has rebooted launch the blackra1n app and click on "sn0w" and then "Install"

There you are your iPhone is unlocked.

There is a nice video about the jailbreaking process made by revision 3 here which you might like. This is focused on general jailbreaking but it goes through the blackra1n process starting at 3:50 , just have to do the sn0w installatin after that.

P.S: I will think about putting pictures and stuff later on

Bigfatbball2
Don't forget to check out the giffgaffer top tips section before posting
iPhone 6 / OnePlus One
http://twitter.com/bigfatbball2

Message 1 of 9

by: clairekav
on: 14/12/2009 | 14:02

Thanks for this great top tip!

Before you unlock your phone, please check out the 'things to consider before unlocking a phone' giffgaff answer for some more info.

Just quickly - so you know:

1) Unlocking a phone does not get you out of any obligations with the network operator you may have signed up for - so if you're half way through an 18 month contract with O2 unlocking your phone won't stop you having to pay for the remaining 9 months.

2) Unlocking your phone will invalidate your phone's warranty - most phones only ship with a 12 month manufacturer warranty so if your phone's older than this then you'll be no worse off.

3) With some phones (especially new, complicated ones) unlocking can have unforeseen consequences that can lead to data loss. So make sure you can afford to loose the data on your phone, or back it up. giffgaff can't be responsible for the loss of data (or consequences thereof) either.

Cheers! And good luck

Note: If someone has answered your question in 'Ask the community', please mark it as 'accepted solution’, then we know you're sorted

Message 2 of 9

by: alistairleckie
on: 02/01/2010 | 00:18

I put a giffgaff sim into an iphone 2g and it worked perfectly. The phone was locked to o2 but worked without unlocking. Data settings are available on the giffgaff support, and the (free) data works perfectly. I personally found the data rate very quick on giffgaff.

So basically to sum up - you don't need to unlock an o2 iphone and the 2g iphone works perfectly with giffgaff

(giffgaff works on the back of o2)

Message 3 of 9

by: danielclo1il
on: 19/01/2010 | 13:45

it is now actually £15 to unlock on pay&go, because of the VAT increase

Thanks
Dann

Message 4 of 9

by: bretwalker
on: 25/11/2010 | 21:17

You can unlock all UK networks iphone 4 including lifetime software updates here: www.imeicodes.co.uk it is a bit pricey but its an official apple unlock done through itunes with your imei registered in apples unlock database.

Looking for a free GiffGaff Sim with £5 credit on, then apply here @ www.giffgaff-freesim.co.uk or for micro sim please email microsim@giffgaff-freesim.co.uk quoting name and address to send to.

Message 5 of 9

by: nachristian
on: 05/10/2011 | 21:16

I have an iphone 3gs that i got from o2 which I am using on giffgaff at the moment, I am looking to sell it and get a 4s to use with my giffgaff sim but want to unlock my current phone to sell.

Will it still be locked to o2 even though i finished and cancelled my monthly contract before porting my number to giffgaff and if so will it be free as it was a pay monthly phone?

Thanks

Message 6 of 9

by: terrunt
on: 09/11/2011 | 17:18

Your iPhone carrier lock will not break when you leave a network, and you must do it by using the method described above.

Message 7 of 9

by: jerry_p
on: 09/11/2011 | 23:18

Just a note to add that Vodafone (and most other networks) unlock for free within a few days of request.

Really no need these days for anyone to be paying for it methinks.

Message 8 of 9

by: sevy
on: 05/02/2012 | 15:47

Hi Claire, sorry to go direct to you but I've had problems with my phone since I received it at Christmas.

I still can't make calls or send text messages.

I have an Iphone 4S on O2 giffgaff.

Following advice from the community I've amended my phone settings, took the sim out to clean it, did the 'reset all settings' but nothing is working. I spend days trying to get it work without any luck.

My goodybag balace is 219 minutes. my giffgaff balance is £59.63.

Could you point me in the right direction.

Many thanks,

Sevy

Message 9 of 9