Un-jailbreaking my iphone

griffonmark

Hi can anybody help? I have an iphone - given as a birthday present a couple of years ago - and its 'jailbroken' and 'unlocked'. TBH while I know what this means I have no idea beyond that! When it comes to techie stuff I'm a disaster. I want to update my phone and would really like to 'un-jailbreak' it so I can just carry on regardless with syncing with my itunes etc. My son bourght the phone for me from someone in the UK: no problems with it and I really love it especially the few apps I have but I'd love to 'get back to normal'. Is this possible?

Happy New Year to all and thanks in advance for any help.
K

snappieT

Chances are if it's a UK phone, then it was originally locked to a UK network. By unlocking it (which requires a jailbreak, by the sounds of your case), you can use it here. By unjailbreaking it, you will revert it to its original UK-locked condition, and you won't be able to use it here.

That is unless it was bought factory unlocked, check with your son.

guil

Go to the app cydia and then tap manage and then packages. Scroll down and if you see ultrasn0w in the list then under no circumstances should you update the phone

griffonmark

Snapie

Thanks. Yes I checked with my son who says he bought the phone from some guy on eBay and can't contact him anymore. It arrived jailbroken and unlocked.

Guil

Yes I've checked that and it's on the list of packages. Does that mean I'm knackered and have to stick with current version of software? No point in trying to reset it and then jailbreak it again as I might as well be looking at Einstein's mathematical notes!

Thanks again, K.

Dardania

I thought that if you restore the phone in itunes, it reverts to standard apple software.

and my experience with the iphone is that if you restore it to blank, apple ios software, as long as you set it up with a sim card from a network which sells the iphone oficially (vodafone, o2, emobile, meteor, three etc.) it works fine - no unlocking required. You just need wifi available to set it up. I could be wrong of course

Dardania

Dardania wrote: »

I thought that if you restore the phone in itunes, it reverts to standard apple software.

It does. But it also replaces the baseband with a version that cannot be unofficially unlocked. So if you need to unlock it this way, you must preserve the baseband while updating, using a custom IPSW file.

griffonmark

Thanks Dardania,

If only it was that simple. The phone wasn't bought here - in the UK we think but it may be a US phone - who knows. Seems to me if I restore it on itunes it will no longer work with my current (Vodafone) sim card. I would be great if Vodafone unlocked it for me - seeing as I've been a client of theirs for years - but I doubt if they would/could because of contractual arrangements with Apple. Seems a pity because all I want to do is upgrade the software and revert back to a normal phone working on a pay as you go basis on Vodaphone. Thanks again.

Unfortunately the only network that can unlock the phone is the one it is locked to.

Piliger

griffonmark wrote: »

given as a birthday present a couple of years ago

It must be off contract by now. So reset it completely in iTunes ... reverting it to it's locked state - and contact the original provider and ask for it to be unlocked.

CathalDublin

What model iphone is it?
What firmware is it on?
What baseband(modem firmware) is it on?

Piliger wrote: »

It must be off contract by now. So reset it completely in iTunes ... reverting it to it's locked state - and contact the original provider and ask for it to be unlocked.

they don't know the original provider and most providers will only unlock the phone for the original owner, also the phone may be blacklisted in the UK

Piliger

CathalDublin wrote: »

they don't know the original provider and most providers will only unlock the phone for the original owner, also the phone may be blacklisted in the UK

Hence my suggestion. Call around a few providers to identify them ... I would be confident that once identified they will do so.

Gadget.Repair

Piliger wrote: »

Hence my suggestion. Call around a few providers to identify them ... I would be confident that once identified they will do so.

If it a US phone it's prob AT&T which under no circumstances will they unlock for a second user.

There are lots of websites offering to unlock iPhones now they even will figure out what network it's on and the status of the lock/blacklisted

guil

Piliger wrote: »

Hence my suggestion. Call around a few providers to identify them ... I would be confident that once identified they will do so.

Your confidence will more than likely land the op with a fat ipod

Piliger

guil wrote: »

Your confidence will more than likely land the op with a fat ipod

Demonstrating now little you know.

guil

Piliger wrote: »

Demonstrating now little you know.

Go on.

You advised to reset it iTunes and then contact the network it's locked to. What if they say no?

OldmanMondeo

Piliger wrote: »

Hence my suggestion. Call around a few providers to identify them ... I would be confident that once identified they will do so.

I am in the same boat as the OP and I rang all providers. My phone was Irish purchased but none of the networks have it registered to them. The only thing I can do is update the phone via itunes and try the different network sim cards. I have a Vodafone, O2 and Meteor. Before I do this would anyone advise otherwise.

guil

OldmanMondeo wrote: »

I am in the same boat as the OP and I rang all providers. My phone was Irish purchased but none of the networks have it registered to them. The only thing I can do is update the phone via itunes and try the different network sim cards. I have a Vodafone, O2 and Meteor. Before I do this would anyone advise otherwise.

Ring apple and ask them what network it is locked to. I'd say what probably happened was apple replaced the phone under warranty for a previous owner and none of the networks know of the new imei.

Happened my brother in law not too long ago and he had to get a letter from apple confirming the replacement before meteor would even acknowledge the phone was locked to their network and then request an unlock

OldmanMondeo

guil wrote: »

Ring apple and ask them what network it is locked to. I'd say what probably happened was apple replaced the phone under warranty for a previous owner and none of the networks know of the new imei.

Happened my brother in law not too long ago and he had to get a letter from apple confirming the replacement before meteor would even acknowledge the phone was locked to their network and then request an unlock

That would be nice, but it wasn't replaced. bought it from a friend who can't remember what network they got it on. However, do you have the contact for where you got you network from, I have tried apple but got nowhere.

biko

OP, as CathalDublin asked - can you clarify what phone it is, what ios version it's on now and why you want to upgrade?

guil

OldmanMondeo wrote: »

That would be nice, but it wasn't replaced. bought it from a friend who can't remember what network they got it on. However, do you have the contact for where you got you network from, I have tried apple but got nowhere.

Oh yeah i remember your thread now. Apple should of told you no problem who it was locked to. I've asked them in the past but I used a website to check before. Think it cost about 2 euro. I'll check on PayPal and post it here

guil

Gsmcenter.pl was the website and it was 2.99 USD

Sorry te actual website was http://www.imei.info/check-warranty-unlock/ but the payment went to above through paypal

OldmanMondeo

guil wrote: »

Oh yeah i remember your thread now. Apple should of told you no problem who it was locked to. I've asked them in the past but I used a website to check before. Think it cost about 2 euro. I'll check on PayPal and post it here

This thread made my try again. Found out phone is on Vodafone. Will update and swap once all meteor credit is gone. Now to get the home button unstuck...

OP ring Apple care, to get to a real person and not the automated system, don't speak clearly when giving the serial number.

guil

Have you tried calibrating the home button. Open one of the stock apps, ie, AppStore, weather etc. press and hold the sleep button until slide to power off appears and then press and hold the home button until the app quits. I used to put pressure in the button and make circular motions and it worked in the past

kjl

griffonmark wrote: »

Snapie

Thanks. Yes I checked with my son who says he bought the phone from some guy on eBay and can't contact him anymore. It arrived jailbroken and unlocked.

Guil

Yes I've checked that and it's on the list of packages. Does that mean I'm knackered and have to stick with current version of software? No point in trying to reset it and then jailbreak it again as I might as well be looking at Einstein's mathematical notes!

Thanks again, K.

You can still be jailbroken and update to a new firmware and keep your unlock, but it is a complicated set of steps. Firstly you would need to check if cydia has the shsh blobs for your firmware 5.1.1 if it does you are in luck. This can be checked by going into cydia and checking the top row of the cydia tab.

ios 5 has the ability to do cloud storage and in my opinion is better than ios 6 as long as you set the browser to chrome.

Lavibot

you can update it then go to a shop and get it unlocked again, am I wrong. or you can hacktivate it again with redsnow and firmware, (youtube) although i have had no luck with my friends iphone 3gs (nearly had it fixed, it went back to at&t.

CathalDublin

Warning before you update in iTunes
If your baseband has been updated to 06.15.00 it's not as simple as updating in iTunes, a lot of iPhone 3GS iPhones were updated to this without the owners being warned of the consequences were by small phone shops and people looking to make a quick buck.
Update in iTunes and you'll have a nice new doorstop.

OldmanMondeo

I am planning on un-jail breaking her phone tomorrow. I know what network it is on. So here's hopping it works. I was going to do the following,

Set up an Itunes account by plugging the phone into my laptop and going on line.
Then getting itunes to update the phone
I was then going to back up to icloud.
Stick my Vodafone card in and hope it works..

Is there any steps I am missing?

OldmanMondeo

Done and works...

Dardania

OldmanMondeo wrote: »

Done and works...

Just to check - what netwrok was her iphone on, and was the SIM from the same network?