Important Information to Help Unlocking iPhone, the Right Way

When iPhone 5 was released, US customers were tied to sign up with Apple’s exclusive carrier upon activation, which is AT&T. With AT&T, iPhone 5 users are guaranteed wide coverage because of the market they cover, as well as running with GSM network. However, there are concerns raised about using a different network provider.

Reasons range from price package with AT&T to network issues when traveling. Since Apple released iPhones, hackers and programmers alike try to come up with some tweaks and setting modifications to allow installation of apps downloaded not from App Store, as well as transfer phone service using a different network.

There are lots of tools used to jailbreak and unlock iPhones. However, before making the necessary move, you should know the right process. In this way, you’ll avoid having a bricked iPhone. There are some instances when the iPhone has not been activated with AT&T yet, so you will need to fake the activation. By doing so, just download free tools together with its instructions to help complete the fake activation.

Another important factor to take note of is the tool to use for the jailbreak and unlock process. You need to familiarize yourself with the tool you’re about to use. Review the manual instruction, get other customer’s feedback and make sure that the hardware specification and software updates matches what currently installed on your computer.

For the process, you will need a computer, your iPhone, data cables, and a strong Wi-Fi connection. Note that once you successfully unlocked your iPhone and moved away from AT&T network, certain apps will not work like Visual Voicemail and you might need to get the settings from the new service provider.

Remember to disable the iTunes helper application before jailbreaking your iPhone as this may impede the process of installation. To turn it off, open OS X’s Activity Monitor in the Utilities folder of the Applications folder, and then look for iTunes Helper. Select and choose Quit Process button.

During the jailbreak process, there are times when the phone will restart so you should not have the iPhone on Auto-Lock. Go to Settings, tap General, and then change the Auto-Lock option to Never. You might also need list down the IP address of your iPhone from your local network as some jailbreak tools need this manually entered. Go to Settings > Wi-Fi, and then click the blue arrow next to the network you are currently connected.

You might also need to replace the SIM card by yourself, so better learn how to do it the proper way. The location of SIM card depends on what generation of iPhone you do have. With the original iPhone, iPhone 3G, and iPhone 3GS, the SIM tray can be found at the top of the device. The Micro SIM tray is located in the center of the right side on iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S, the same location with the Nano SIM card tray for iPhone 5.

Using a SIM removal tool or an unfolded paper clip, push it into the hole to open the SIM card slot tray. Upon releasing the SIM tray, you can then remove the SIM card so you can replace it with a chosen network provider SIM.