Apple

[phill1133]

let me explain my situation, i am on a 24 month contract wth vodafone on an iphone 4s and in preparation for my holiday to hong kong, i went in store to ask if my phone needed unlocking if i was to buy a cheap sim card while im over there and was told i didnt need to. now i am in hong kong and find that wen i enter a new sim, i a required to activte my phone and it comes up with the message i need a compatible sm card with my carrier or to call for a replacement sim. i dont know what to do from my end as im in hong kong for 5 weeks without a phone. what can i do to use my iphone when i was mislead?

[kids · Accepted solution]

You need to complete the NUC form: http://campaigns.vodafone.co.uk/UnlockCodeRequestForm/

to request the unlocking, as long as you are the original owner of the phone the unlocking process generally takes up to seven working days dpending on how fast Apple deal with it.

You will need to be able to connect the phone to iTunes to complete the unlocking, so give it 4-5 days after you have completed the form then put in the local sim card and connect to iTunes to see if it is unlocked, you will see a message when you connect to iTunes to that effect.

[phill1133]

Thank you very much, I have completed the form as soon as possible. Out of curiosity, when I get a reply, what would the further instructions consist of? Would I be able to do it all in hong kong?

[phill1133]

Like do I get a code or something to put in my phone to unlock it?

[drey_p]

In order for the phone to be unlocked - it needs to be showing as active on the Vodafone network.

As kids has said just a few posts up - once your phone is unlocked, when you connect it to iTunes, you will get a message telling you the phone is now unlocked. There is no code to enter as it is unlocked by Apple themselves.

[phill1133]

Well all I can do at the moment is keep the coda one sim card in now, will it still work when it has automatically connected to a local network that isn't vodafone?

[kids]

To clarify: The phone will only work on your Honkers sim after you have connected the iPhone to iTunes to complete the unlock. It will not suddenly start working if you do not connect to ITunes.

[phill1133]

Sorry to be dumb and all but just to clarify, I need to be connected to iTunes on my vodafone sim so apple can unlock it?

[Simon]

Hi phill1133

Once you've received the message to let you know the iPhone is unlocked you need to plug it into iTunes with a non-Vodafone SIM in to complete the process. The settings on the phone will be updated and you'll receive a notification to let you know it's complete.

Thanks

Simon

[BennyGurung]

i would like to unlock my iphone 4s. How can i do that?

[kids]

Firstly you need to complete the unlock request form http://campaigns.vodafone.co.uk/UnlockCodeRequestForm/

Vodafone (VF) ask Apple to unlock the phone, Apple then change the phone’s details on their database to show it is unlocked. Once Apple have processed the unlock request the next time you connect the phone to iTunes you will get a message in iTunes that the phone is now unlocked. The message will also ask you to insert a sim from a different network to the one the phone was locked to which will complete the unlocking. Once this is done the phone will remain unlocked. Basically using a non-VF sim forces the phone to go to iTunes to look for new carrier updates and it then finds if the phone has been unlocked.

If the phone is PAYG there is a charge of £19.99 otherwise it is FOC

* The NUC form must be completed by the original owner of the phone, i.e the person to who the phone was suplied on a contract. This condition not not apply for PAYG phones.

[vada01]

i'm going to singapore on holiday in three days time and my iphone is still locked I was hoping to unlock it  as soon as posible. Already sent request to NUC, after 3days I only received reference number. Would you be needing my ref. number is 582810.  Please help. 

[Ben_H]

Hi vada01,

Thanks for posting. If you've sent off the NUC request and had it confirmed that we've submitted it with Apple via a reference number then it''s a matter of waiting for it to update via iTunes.

You'll get a message from Apple via email to let you know when the unlock is complete. It's worth following the instructions above to hook your iPhone up to iTunes to get the unlock performed. You can also do this abroad if Apple fail to unlock it before you go away.

Cheers, Ben

[paulwhkh]

I was advised by Vodafone UK that they had unlocked my phone and that to complete it I needed to put a new SIM card (never been used with this phone) in it and sign in to iTunes.

12 months later I got a Hong Kong PCCW SIM card; synced with iTunes and no message telling me that the phone was unlocked but was happily able to use the phone in HK for both calls and data.Did get the message when it wasn't syncing my contacts that the phone had previously been synced with another account (certainly that wasn't my doing as my account hasn't changed). hd to force sync from iTunes to the phone to update the contacts with the "new account".

Now in Australia with a Vodafone Oz card; Can use the calls features but the data doesn't work ("could not activate mobile data network"). VF Oz ask me to look at the APN settings but the cellualr data network acccess menu is missing and VF Oz say it shouldn't be. Reinsert my PCCW SIM and then check the data settings and find that the APN has been put back to vodafone UK default settings so presumably those are the active ones when I have the Oz SIM card in it!!

Is this a case of Apple can't tell that Vodafone UK and Vodafone Oz are different?

[James]

Hi paulwhkh,

I must admit that this is a strange one.

When you placed the Australian SIM in the phone, did you do a back up and restore via iTunes as it should have picked up the VF OZ settings and also allow you to amend the APN settings.

Can I ask what IOS you are running on the phone?

James

[saunit]

i have 250 imei of vodafone uk

can any one unlock with good prise and time

[paulwhkh]

Through a process of trail and elimination I actually worked it out. The problem was an App downloaded from iTunes that wrote over the APN and didn't recognise a new SIM card when it was inserted. Disabled the app and it was OK.

[kids]

You need to ask the original owner of the phone to ask for it to be unlocked.

[Galaxy_Proud]

Hi,

I was recently in London and I purchased an iPhone 4s 16 from there. I was told it was factory unlocked and the person showed me that it was working with his Vodafone chip. Once I came back to India I tried to use my own chip but it is showing that the phne is locked. i tried calling the shop but the number is dis-connected always. Can you please advice me on how to get the phone unlocked as I have spend a good 350 pounds on it.

[FelixDaHousecat]

where did you buy the phone from?

fdh