Second hand iPhone 5S - SIM Not Valid (Sorted)

DubTony

Never mind. Got it sorted. Thanks.

My brother gave me an iPhone 5S he had. This phone was a replacement after an insurance claim and my brother was told it wasn't network locked. He used it for a few months on O2, then did a factory reset and gave it to an employee to use on Meteor while the employee's phone was in for a repair. There was no issue. The employee's phone was returned yesterday, so the guy did a factory reset on this phone and passed it to me. I'm on TescoMobile and got the nano Sim registered 2 hours before putting it in the phone.

This is what iTunes tells me when I connect.

"The SIM card inserted in this iPhone does not appear to be supported.
The SIM card that you currently have installed in this iPhone is from a carrier that is not supported under the activation policy that is currently assigned by the activation server. This is not a hardware issue with the iPhone. Please insert another SIM card from a supported carrier or request that this iPhone be unlocked by your carrier. Please contact Apple for more information.

I get the same message on the phone itself during setup. I can select Language, Country, Wi-FI and then that message (except the title simply says "SIM Not Valid")

I've looked on the apple support forum and it seems this has happened to quite a few people after either a factory reset and/or an update to ios8.

If anyone's got a solution I'd appreciate it.

DubTony

FYI. JUst in case anyone has the same problem, here's what happened.

I got on to Apple and they told me it was locked to Meteor. I questioned him about this as the phone had never been on a Meteor contract, but he was at a loss.

So I got on to Meteor. Heres what the Meteor guy told me in online chat.

"Ok so if that was unlock by O2 at any point and then the person who had it with meteor synched with itunes that would lock it in to meteor then"

So, according to him, when you sync an unlocked iphone with iTunes the phone will lock to whatever network the sim comes from. In this case it locked to Meteor.

I've seen this problem on the Apple support forums, and nobody came up with this solution. Apple didn't tell me that this can happen. The Apple guy said that if a replacement phone is sent out it will be locked to the network it was originally on, but he never mentioned that it can happen automatically, and so end up on an "incorrect" network.

Don't know how much of this is BS, but it might be a solution for anyone it might happen to.

guil

How did you get it sorted then? I've unlocked a good few iPhones and used them on different networks but they never lock again, I'm nearly sure there was a similar thread on here before.

whiterebel

guil wrote: »

How did you get it sorted then? I've unlocked a good few iPhones and used them on different networks but they never lock again, I'm nearly sure there was a similar thread on here before.

Plenty of threads around the place. It always seems to be eMobile and Meteor that have problems.

DubTony

guil wrote: »

How did you get it sorted then? I've unlocked a good few iPhones and used them on different networks but they never lock again, I'm nearly sure there was a similar thread on here before.

Called Apple who told me it was locked to meteor. Called Meteor who told me to get the account holder to call them. He did and they're unlocking it after the code comes from Apple.

jay93

Seen this happen on Meteor before if you use one of their sims in an unlocked iPhone.

Aquos76

I've had a few iPhones, 4s, 5, and 5s all unlocked from Emobile and never had any bother putting in both 48 months sim and a three UK sims into them after they were unlocked.

jay93

I got my 5c unlocked from them before and now my 5s unlocked from them too , I have used a 3, Vodafone, 48 sim in them both and they never locked I just never put another Meteor sim back into them after the unlock I'm sure it shouldn't lock. Some people have said it did for them though not sure why that would happen.

DubTony

Here's the email from Meteor sent after the unlock request was received by them.

1. Place the SIM card of the new operator you wish to move to into the iPhone.
2. The iPhone will then 'Brick' (a security feature) and will require a connection to iTunes to perform a 'Customer Restore'.
3. iTunes will detect the IMEI of the device and search for updates (this normal and is performed every time the iPhone is connected to iTunes).
4. iTunes will detected the new SIM and that the 'Unlock Key' is available. It will then deploy the Unlock Key to the device.
5. From here, the iPhone (still connected to iTunes) will perform the standard un-brick process which includes:

i. Check for latest Software update
ii. Perform a customer restore (SYNC)


During this process, your iPhone will detect the SIM of a new network operator and iTunes will deploy the necessary 'Carrier Bundle' to the phone. This contains the correct settings for the new network operator, which also includes the operators' 'Network Lock'.

This means that your iPhone will then become locked to the new network.

Once the syncing is complete your phone is now ready for use with another network operator.

If you need to unlock your iPhone again you will need to contact the network operator the phone is now locked to. You can find this information by going to settings > General > About and beside 'Carrier' the network operator will be displayed.

I don't know if the phone has locked, as I haven't used a SIM card from another operator since putting the new one in.

whiterebel

DubTony wrote: »

Here's the email from Meteor sent after the unlock request was received by them.

1. Place the SIM card of the new operator you wish to move to into the iPhone.
2. The iPhone will then 'Brick' (a security feature) and will require a connection to iTunes to perform a 'Customer Restore'.
3. iTunes will detect the IMEI of the device and search for updates (this normal and is performed every time the iPhone is connected to iTunes).
4. iTunes will detected the new SIM and that the 'Unlock Key' is available. It will then deploy the Unlock Key to the device.
5. From here, the iPhone (still connected to iTunes) will perform the standard un-brick process which includes:

i. Check for latest Software update
ii. Perform a customer restore (SYNC)


During this process, your iPhone will detect the SIM of a new network operator and iTunes will deploy the necessary 'Carrier Bundle' to the phone. This contains the correct settings for the new network operator, which also includes the operators' 'Network Lock'.

This means that your iPhone will then become locked to the new network.

Once the syncing is complete your phone is now ready for use with another network operator.

If you need to unlock your iPhone again you will need to contact the network operator the phone is now locked to. You can find this information by going to settings > General > About and beside 'Carrier' the network operator will be displayed.

I don't know if the phone has locked, as I haven't used a SIM card from another operator since putting the new one in.

Almost everything about that is wrong. No matter how many times eMobile and Keteor are told,they insist on telling people that shyte.

JarFinnegan

Did you ever find a solution to this problem?