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iPhone 3G 2.2 Unlock Tutorial: How to Unlock your iPhone 3G with yellowsn0w

January 2, 2009

Apple News

iphone unlock 207x300 iPhone 3G 2.2 Unlock Tutorial: How to Unlock your iPhone 3G with yellowsn0w
UPDATE: If you are looking for the more recent unlock tutorial for the iPhone 3GS running on firmware 3.0 check out the iPhone 3GS unlock tutorial. Have a nice day! =)
The iPhone 3G has been successfully unlocked! It’s a great way to kick off the new year thanks to the iPhone-dev team who have slaved for months over a hot computer to bring you the first successful software unlock of the iPhone 3G with firmware 2.2. That’s right, this unlock requires firmware 2.2 to be installed on the iPhone 3G.  With that said, let us get to the meat and potatoes of this tutorial. If you are iPhone 3G literate, you can skip down to the overall summary at the end of this post or watch the video on Youtube from iPhonespies. We hope you subscribe so we can bring you more iPhone 3G news and tutorials in the future.



iPhone 3G Unlock Prerequisites:

Before you set off to unlock your iPhone 3G with the yellowsn0w app, you must make sure your iPhone 3G meets the following requirements.

-You must install firmware version 2.2 onto your iPhone 3G!! You can update your firmware through iTunes.

-You must jailbreak your iPhone 3G!!

-The 3G on your iPhone 3G must be disabled. (settings->general->network)

iphone 3g unlock 3g off 200x300 iPhone 3G 2.2 Unlock Tutorial: How to Unlock your iPhone 3G with yellowsn0w

-Location Services (the GPS on your iPhone 3G) turned OFF (settings->general)

iphone 3g unlock location off 200x300 iPhone 3G 2.2 Unlock Tutorial: How to Unlock your iPhone 3G with yellowsn0w

iPhone 3G Unlock Step 1:

-Connect to a Wi-Fi network and take out your primary SIM card (AT&T for us here in the U.S)

-Insert your third party SIM card (The SIM card that you wish to unlock the iPhone 3G for)

iphone sim 225x300 iPhone 3G 2.2 Unlock Tutorial: How to Unlock your iPhone 3G with yellowsn0w

iPhone 3G Unlock Step 2:

-If you jailbreak your iPhone 3G, it should have the Cydia App, go ahead and open up that App

-Go to Cydia -> manage -> Sources -> edit -> Add

-Type in the following address “http://apt9.yellowsn0w.com” and hit add. MAKE SURE THE “0″ in sn0w is a ZERO not the letter “O”

iphone 3g unlock cydia add 200x300 iPhone 3G 2.2 Unlock Tutorial: How to Unlock your iPhone 3G with yellowsn0w

-Then go to search and type in “yellow”

-Scroll to the very bottom and you should find the yellowsn0w app in the “Y” section. Install this app

iphone 3g unlock yellowsn0w 200x300 iPhone 3G 2.2 Unlock Tutorial: How to Unlock your iPhone 3G with yellowsn0wiphone 3g unlock yellowsn0w install 200x300 iPhone 3G 2.2 Unlock Tutorial: How to Unlock your iPhone 3G with yellowsn0w

-Once yellowsn0w is done installing onto your iPhone 3G, return to Cydia and exit out of it.

iPhone 3G Unlock Step 3:

-Go to Settings -> General -> Reset -> Reset Network Settings. Wait for it to go to the home screen once more.

-Do a reset of your iPhone 3G by holding the home and sleep-wake buttons at the same time until the Apple logo appears.

-Let the iPhone 3G boot up (this process may take a few minutes so be patient). Once you are at the unlock screen again, wait another 90 seconds and check your iPhone 3G. It should have been successfully unlocked at this point and displaying the signal of your new SIM card!

iphone 3g unlock t mobile 200x300 iPhone 3G 2.2 Unlock Tutorial: How to Unlock your iPhone 3G with yellowsn0w

iPhone yellowsn0w Unlock Didn’t Work?

Yellowsn0w is a beta software so it didn’t work for everybody. Some users have reported successful unlocks of their iPhone 3G with firmware 2.2 by following a few additional steps.

-Upon completion of the last step I mentioned, pop out and re-insert the SIM card and wait for about 30 seconds.

-Go to Settings and turn Airplane mode on for 10 seconds then turn it off again. You should now see the SIM card being searched for! =)

iphone 3g unlock airplane mode 200x300 iPhone 3G 2.2 Unlock Tutorial: How to Unlock your iPhone 3G with yellowsn0w

-Still didn’t work? Wait for an updated release. The iPhone-dev team will take in feedback and work diligently to give you a successful iPhone 3G unlock!

Overall Summary

-Make sure you have firmware 2.2 on a jailbroken iPhone 3G. 3G should be turned off as well as location services.

-connect to wi-fi and put in your new SIM card

-Install yellowsn0w from Cydia

-reset network settings

-reset iPhone 3G and wait for 90 seconds

-If that didn’t work, re-insert SIM card and wait for 30 seconds

-turn airplane mode on for 10 seconds then turn it off again.

Conclusion

Have a happy New Years from all of us at iPhonespies. If you guys are interested, check out some iPhone 3G accessories.  It didn’t work for me the first time so don’t be afraid to try it again! Also feel free to leave some comments about whether or not this worked for you!

-Derek

[Source: iPhone-Dev team]

About Derek Yang

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  • http://yours mike

    my unlock did not work and i can get incomeing but no outgoing

  • Derek.Yang

    The iPhone Dev Team is aware of the problem. Apparently it has to do with the T-mobile SIM card. They are working on the issue right now. As stated, this is the Beta version so it won’t have all the kinks worked out yet. =(

  • http://www.aldrin.me drin

    hey, i’m kinda new to this jailbreaking/unlockung stuff. i’m from the philippines. is there a good chance that the unlock will work? it can i sync the iphone after unlocking? thanks!

  • heleine

    omg you guys are genius’ ive been waiting to try and unlock this phone for ages. thats Dev team. you really are awesome. ive been trying all day to unlock the phone, have watched many a tutorial, and this one by far was the easiest to understand and has finally helped to unlock my phone!! good luck guys!!

  • Hermine

    wow. you fixed mine! i couldn’t get it to work until i followed your steps! thanks!

  • Imran

    Initially it works…after a reboot it stops working …

  • Ant Ez

    thanks I get everything to work perfectly! btw whats the name of the theme you have on your springboard?

  • Gerard

    Everything working OK with Vodafone in the Netherlands

  • Derek.Yang

    Glad to know its working for some people! I have my custom wallpaper on my phone and I downloaded “Christmas Lights” Also, if it doesn’t work, simply try again. If it doesn’t work just wait for the next release of the software and remove the current yellowsn0w from your iPhone!

  • sirsunsco

    thank you for this initially iy work but after i reboot the phone it stops working what can i do ?

  • Derek.Yang

    did you try re-inserting your SIM card and turning airplane mode on and off?

  • Nick

    Thank you verry much, nice explaination!

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  • agata

    YES, YES, YES i’s working after upgrading yellowsn0w to 0.9.6 . I’m using now Poland operator PLUS. Thanks a lot.

  • steel

    i have followed all the steps and all i get is an “waiting for activation” “this may take a while” message and “NO SERVICE” in the carrier section. any ideas? im with o2 network but bought the phone 2nd hand… my last 2g iphone worked fine but this one doesn’t.

    thanks

  • http://google paul biswas

    thank you verry much.i am verry happy

  • Ian

    Thanks for this, it worked a treat. I am using Orange here in the UK with no problems. Only question I have is does anyone know how to get the 3G working??

  • hijz

    it doesn’t work for me.. : (

  • Matt

    Is there anyway to unlock the Iphone 3h without jailbreaking it? Also if you do use this method can you still install apples regular firmware updates?

  • HP

    awesome tutorial. thank you SO much for being so clear!!! :)

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  • Rose

    wow…I can finally use my iphone like i should. Having the iphone 3G 2nd generation I’ve been on the internet every two days to find out what to do. First I had someone helping me with it. But after it was jailbroken for two weeks it just stopped workin. And now…thanxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx devteam..u made my day or should I say…my new year…took me some days but finally figured it out myself. ;-)
    BTW: am all the way in South America (Suriname).

  • JD

    Having some issues with yellowsn0w. It cant seem to unlock the iphone 3g. It was brought from the States (AT&T) and want to get it on the T Mobile network over here in the UK… Have been trying for 2 days straight and have no joy whats so ever… Keep getting “No Service”, canjt make or recieve calls… HELP!!!!

    I do all the i asked on QwkPwen and follow the steps from Cydar/Installer for yellowsn0w, but no joy. The weird thing is is you go in to settings -> general -> about, it does display the carrier as 2.9 when a T Mobile sim is in and o2 2.9 when an o2 sim is in… It seems to pick up the voicemails i have on my sim too, but just keep getting the “No Service” where the carrier logo should be…

    Im going crazy… Help Dev Team…

  • ace

    great stuff, worked like a charm the first time i tried it. easy and cimple to follow. thanks guys

  • Derek.Yang

    JD you’re probably better off just waiting for the non-beta release of the unlock. It shouldn’t be very far off. Be patient! And HP no you MUST JAILBREAK before you can unlock.

  • microwilly

    the unlock work very good but i found another important thing is that the maps doesn’t work good it doesn’t make the accurecy anymore it get the area only not the point that i’m staying in………. anybody help meeee

  • One good, one bad.

    Two iPhones, one is working on T-Mobile, the other isn’t. I can take the SIM from the one that isn’t working and put it in the working phone and it works.

    So the phones must be set up differently. I checked all the settings. Both are the same. Under ‘About’, all is the same.

    It appears that there is some issue with the searching for service. The working phone will search for several seconds after the Airplane mode is turned off. It doesn’t do that on the non-working phone.

    Any thoughts??

  • Roger

    I got my iphone unlock and jailbreaked but it keeps telling me that my sim is not supported. I tried to restore the phone and now I cannot get to the springboard. It’s showing me a picture of Steve Jobs ( a charicature) . Cydia and Installer were on the springboard but how do I get back there to run yellowsn0w?

  • http://- kiwi

    Just tried it in Istanbul, Turkey for Turkcell, so far so good. (Haven’t rebooted yet though). I’m assuming 3G won’t work yet?

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  • dil

    can’t go online anymore

  • albert

    it worked for me thanks but i have a letter E next to my tmobile and my signal is not that great

  • William

    Hey, I’ve had my iphone 3g (version 2.2, firmware 02.28.00) since christmas and still haven’t got it unlocked…so annoying! i jailbroke my phone using quickpwn and installed yellowsn0w 0.9.6 through cydia but unfortunately this did not unlock my phone for some reason (even after trying to reboot, toogleairplane mode on and off etc)…so i then i decided to maybe re-install yellowsn0w and try again. ive now installed yellowsn0w 0.9.8 but iphone is still not picking up coverage (still displaying no service!) this is annoying me so much and i really want to get my iphone up and running…any ideas of what i could do to fix this? any help would be greatful.

  • iphone 3G

    Worked on my first try!!!

    Thanks DEV TEAM you guys are the BEST!!!

  • pazo

    work this in all countries AND can this block my iphone or not working please someone help me because i need to unlock it

  • http://j jerrod

    So I got it jail broken, and used yellowsn0w. Seems to be working but all I get is the low service bars. Doesn’t say Tmobile or no service. just one bar of service which are followed by …. (l….)

  • fauzi

    thx for the video,man. i followed your advice to be persistent and finally ,after like 50 tries, full bar phone reception.What happened was that i was curious how come u didn’t need to enter your sim unlock password everytime u reboot your phone. then it hit me that i must disable ” SIM PIN” inside the Phone Setting. After that, I reset my network setting and voila , it worked.

    I think you should remind them to set the SIM PIN in the phone setting to OFF., then reset network setting. By the way, I’m from Malaysia and Iphone is officially here about a week ago. IT WORKED so far at least.

    so happy

  • http://www.iphoneunlockhq.com Unlock iPhone 3G

    Great guide, thanks!

  • Steven P

    Hi
    im currently on a 3g iphone running 2.2 FW and my baseband is 02.28.00 and want my phone to work on T-Mobile UK (contract), for love nore money i cant get it to work for me , ive followed all the steps to the max , once ive done all the steps i get a signal and allso i get the T-Mobile logo and i allso get the GPRS icon but when i try and call out, instead of a ringing tone i get 3 bleeps then the call ends so i scratch my head and look in settings/general/about and notice my Network says T Mobile and Carrier 2.9, ive tryed turning Airplane mode on and off, ive tryed resetting network settings, man ive tryed everything, any help is much appreciated as i really cant see where im going wrong as i followed the tut.

  • xxxx

    hi i m from india using 3g iphone 2.2. 16gb unlocked all my sim works accept my new sim bsnl 3g . it works for half an hour after that it shows no service plz tell whether my phone is fine or its ruined

  • fauzi

    its not the matter of ur iphone may b u using old method to unlock that 3g doest support contact technition

  • SHOWMAN

    Hi i´m happy it worked for me, but if i take out the sim card and put it again it goes the same before unlocking, the same happens when i unlock and then try to put a different sim card, please help!

  • Joe

    Every time I put in my sim card it says invalid sim. what can I do to fix this?

  • http://www.iphonespies.com fawaz

    hi
    i want to ask wate abawte 2.2.1

  • migdoel hernandez

    it does not work for me at tried every thing

  • sara

    can you update your iphone. like to picture texting, and copy paste stuff while having your phone unlocked?

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  • SBay

    Thankyou, i have managed to unlock the phone and it is working for calls and texts but for some reason even though it is showing the 3G symbol at the top i’m unable to get online or receive/send mail!!! Can you help me pls???

  • Derek.Yang

    You shouldn’t have 3G enabled if you unlock.

  • paulus

    i don’t have cidya in my iphone. where i can install cidya? my version is 2.2.1 3g 8gb. can i use my iphone at indonesia? thanks…

  • paulus

    i just update my iphone from 2.2.1 to 3.1 but now when its done, i must call the emergency call. and when i connect my iphone to itunes, i have a message on my pc ” THE SIMCARD INSERTED IN THIS IPHONE DOES NOT APPEAR TO BE SUPPORTED”. what should i do? please help me…
    i live at indonesia right now…

    thanks a lot

  • http://blabla fail

    it was a fail …
    it doesnt even work for me…

  • Mike

    will this work if the carrier on the iphone says null null?

  • cena

    great tutorial mate… but not much help there for me.. :( can you post a good article for V3.1 . I own a 3GS Iphone and I find it hard to unlock it… help plz

  • john

    are there any disadvantages for switching tmobile to your iphone? i have tmobile and i want an iphone and im curious about the disadvantages for switching to tmobile

  • http://bit.ly/aG8nlX Angila Summey

    heya,

    hmm …., thanks for the cool post. I have usually had trouble with it, though I finally was able to read it on my iPhone. So thanks for that.

  • http://www.facebook.com/big.bad.jordan Jordan Nichol

    Can you unlock an iPhone from 02 to Vodafone???