Unlock iPhone 3G

****THIS TUTORIAL HAS BEEN UPDATED FOR THE NEW ULTRASN0W UNLOCK THAT WORKS ON THE 3.0 FIRMWARE. IF YOU ARE ON THE 2.2 FIRMWARE THIS TUTORIAL WILL STILL WORK; HOWEVER WE RECOMMEND YOU UPDATE TO 3.0 AND FOLLOW THESE INSTRUCTIONS****

These are instructions on how to software unlock the iPhone 3G for use with any GSM cellphone carrier.

Before you can follow these instructions about Unlock iPhone 3G you must have a jailbroken iPhone and you must be on the 02.28.00 baseband(modem firmware). This means that you must be running the 2.2 firmware or have used PwnageTool(NOT QUICKPWN) to install 2.2.1 without upgrading the baseband. Unlock iPhone 3G

To find your firmware and modem firmware(baseband) versions you can follow this tutorial in Unlock iPhone 3G. If you are not on baseband version 02.28.00 then you need to follow one of these tutorials before unlocking: Mac, Windows

Step One to Unlock iPhone 3G
Press to launch Cydia Installer from your SpringBoard.

Step Two to Unlock iPhone 3G
Press to select the Manage tab at the bottom of the screen.

Step Three to Unlock iPhone 3G
Press to select the large Sources button

Step Four to Unlock iPhone 3G
Press the Edit button at the top right of the screen.

Step Five to Unlock iPhone 3G
Press the Add button at the top left of the screen.

Step Six to Unlock iPhone 3G
Enter http://apt9.yellowsn0w.com/ as the source url and press the Add Source button.

Step Seven to Unlock iPhone 3G
Once the source has been added press the large Return to Cydia button.

Step Eight to Unlock iPhone 3G
Press the Done button at the top right of the screen.

Step Nine to Unlock iPhone 3G
Press to select apt9.yellowsn0w.com from the list of user entered sources.

Step Ten to Unlock iPhone 3G
Press to select yellowsn0w from the list of packages

Step Eleven to Unlock iPhone 3G
Press the Install button at the top right of the screen.

Step Twelve to Unlock iPhone 3G
Press the Confirm button at the top right of the screen.

Step Thirteen to Unlock iPhone 3G
After installation completes successfully press the large Return to Cydia button.

Step Fourteen to Unlock iPhone 3G
Now press the Home button then power off and power on the iPhone. You do this by holding down the power button for 3 seconds then moving the power slider that appears to the right. Press the power button again to turn on the phone.

Some Tips to unlock iPhone 3G if the above procedure does not work:

If the above guide did not unlock your iPhone 3G, then try some of the workarounds mentioned below as it has helped some readers to successfully unlock their iPhone 3G.

Method 1 (via Hackint0sh) to Unlock iPhone 3G :

  1. Airplane mode on.
  2. Airplane mode off,  you should see “searching” and should pick up the carrier’s signal.

Method 2 (via Hackint0sh) to Unlock iPhone 3G :

  1. Launch Moble terminal app (you can install it via Cydia).
  2. Type yellowsn0w -r wait for a moment 10 sec
  3. Type yellowsn0w -c wait for a moment 10 sec if you get NO SERVICE wait until u get 5 dot and run it again if you don’t encounter NO SERVICE just run next command
  4. Type yellowsn0w -r
  5. Type yellowsn0w -a if you get busy message in under 15 sec and don’t see NO SERVICE it’s unsucesfull and you have to do -r and -a again until it loads to NO SERVICE and wait untill it changes to 5 dots and wait for 10sec
  6. Airplane mode on (keep it in that mode for more than 10 seconds)
  7. Airplane mode off, you should see “searching” and should pick up the carrier’s signal.

If that didn’t help:

  1. Type yellowsn0w -r once and after 5 sec wait 1 min.
  2. Airplane mode on (keep it in that mode for more than 10 seconds).
  3. Airplane mode off, you should see “searching” and should pick up the carrier’s signal.

Note: Ignore the Unknown message (0xe3ff8000), the command still works even if you get it.

Method 3 to Unlock iPhone 3G:

This was suggested by Anton, one of our readers (Thanks Anton!)

  1. Install BossPrefs via Cydia.
  2. Disable all Functions with BossPrefs (don’t worry if you can’t disable EDGE)
  3. Reboot your Phone with BossPrefs (not in the normally way – important!)
  4. Wait 1.30 min when you see the Lockscreen.
  5. Take out your Sim and re-insert it.
  6. Wait a moment (30 seconds).
  7. Go on Settings and Turn on the Airplane mode (keep it in that mode for more than 10 seconds).
  8. Turn off Airplane Mode.
  9. Your iPhone 3G should pick up the carrier’s signal.

Method 4 (via YouTube, user reda92) to Unlock iPhone 3G:

  1. Reset Network Settings. 99% of your success rate will depend on this. (You can find this in settings – general and to the bottom you’ll see a “reset” menu in which you can find this)
  2. Reboot your iPhone
  3. Wait a little over a min.
  4. Remove your SIM card and re-insert it back in
  5. Wait 30 sec.
  6. Turn on Airplane mode and wait 10 sec. (This is important as well)
  7. Turn of Airplane mode, you should see “searching” and should pick up the carrier’s signal.

If these workarounds did not help unlock your iPhone 3G, then report the problem to the Dev team using

Update (Jan 7th, 2009) to Unlock iPhone 3G:

Dev Team have updated their yellowsn0w app to unlock iPhone 3G. It fixes even more problems.

Please don’t forget to drop us a line to tell us if you were able to successfully unlock your iPhone 3G using this guide or the workarounds. If you have any tips for fellow readers don’t forget to mention them in the comments as well.

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Filed under: iphone

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