iMessage woes and iPhone unlocking

iMessage woes and iPhone unlocking

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Jimmy Recard

Original Poster:

17,540 posts

178 months

Sunday 23rd April 2017
quotequote all
I hope someone has some ideas because the Apple 'Genius' reckons I'm doing it wrong somehow and none of the tips and guides online work!

iPhone SE 64GB on 3. iOS 10.3.1.

A few weeks ago, iMessage started to be unreliable. I seemed to miss the odd message and sometimes get them hours later. Other people said it often took hours to get my messages. That's on 3G, 4G and wifi, so I think the connections there are ok.

I've got unlimited texts so decided to turn off iMessage. I understand this can take a few hours for friends with iPhones to be able to contact you. However this was last week and I still can't text most of my friends with iPhones.

I've turned iMessage on and off loads of times this weekend to try to prompt it as well as turning the phone on and off and unregistering on the Apple website by getting them to send me a text with a special code. According to Apple the number is no longer registered but it still doesn't work.


And my second question - next month I'm switching to O2. I bought the phone brand new from Carphone Warehouse and popped my 3 SIM card in. Some people on the internet think that this means it will be locked to 3 - does anyone know if that's the case? The man on the phone at 3 just repeated that 3 only provides unlocked phones.

Thanks!

Jimmy Recard

Original Poster:

17,540 posts

178 months

Sunday 23rd April 2017
quotequote all
Just to add, with imessage off this is what I get when I try to text a friend with an iPhone:



With iMessage on, it says 'waiting for activation' forever in the iMessage settings but seems to work anyway. I don't know if this helps or not

Edited by Jimmy Recard on Sunday 23 April 11:27


Edited by Jimmy Recard on Sunday 23 April 11:29

anonymous-user

53 months

Sunday 23rd April 2017
quotequote all
Yes absolutely it will be locked
I am 100% sure I am right as researched this at the time. 2 years back this September I was interested in either the Samsung S6 Edge Or Edge Plus or the I phone 6 s or 6s plus. I was in Lancashire at the time and went into Preston

I went into an Apple stockist who was so open and straight with me he let me try the devices I was at that point coming off the back of a 5S
I asked him about sim locking and he told me that whilst I could get it SIM FREE from Carphone Warehouse it would SIM LOCK on 1st sim card. As I wanted to flip between 2 sims he explained that it would make it unuseable to do so. Buying from them meant that the phone was unlocked and would stay unlocked and was also sim free.
I then went to the CPW branch who stocked both. Again I explained I was buying Sim free and didn't want a contract he explained that the Samsungs and I phones were sim free but that the I phone would sim lock on 1st sim entry
He allowed me to have a play with a Samsung S6 edge and Edge plus and I left and ummed and arrd
I went back and bought the S6 Edge

I can honestly say that both the shops gave me superb service so much so that I went back to Western Computers (the Apple stockist) and gave them £20 towards their lunch I also made sure that when we bought the daughter a new mac book we got it from there

So to answer the question a sim free I phone will lock to 1st sim installed unless its bought directly from an apple store or apple premium seller or apple mail order bought from CPW it will lock
No idea about I messages apart from I had some issue with it interfering with texts back in the days of the 5S

Jimmy Recard

Original Poster:

17,540 posts

178 months

Sunday 23rd April 2017
quotequote all
Thanks, I'll find out how to unlock it then. Presumably Apple can do that?

Right, according to 3 I just need to restore/reset it from iTunes when I want to put the new SIM in. That's not a problem. So just the iMessage issue to go. If I haven't worked it out by this evening, I'll try backing it up to my laptop and doing a factory reset

Edited by Jimmy Recard on Sunday 23 April 11:40

Troubleatmill

10,210 posts

158 months

Sunday 23rd April 2017
quotequote all
Jimmy Recard said:
Thanks, I'll find out how to unlock it then. Presumably Apple can do that?

Right, according to 3 I just need to restore/reset it from iTunes when I want to put the new SIM in. That's not a problem. So just the iMessage issue to go. If I haven't worked it out by this evening, I'll try backing it up to my laptop and doing a factory reset

Edited by Jimmy Recard on Sunday 23 April 11:40
The phone network provider has to unlock it.
Was the phone on O2, Vodaphone, EE, 3 etc.

They need to unlock it for you.
Once that is done - you can put any SIM in it from any network provider.

anonymous-user

53 months

Sunday 23rd April 2017
quotequote all
Jimmy Recard said:
Thanks, I'll find out how to unlock it then. Presumably Apple can do that?
To be fair Jimmy I'm not sure I gave my I phone 5S to a friend who was on the same network as me and made sure that I had contacted Virgin to say I wasn';t going to be using it anymore
I know that on o2 you can request an unlock via an online form and it looks like "3" have something similar:


https://www.three.co.uk/Support/Device_Unlock

But I also found this

http://support.three.co.uk/SRVS/CGI-BIN/WEBISAPI.D...

Jimmy Recard

Original Poster:

17,540 posts

178 months

Sunday 23rd April 2017
quotequote all
Troubleatmill said:
The phone network provider has to unlock it.
Was the phone on O2, Vodaphone, EE, 3 etc.

They need to unlock it for you.
Once that is done - you can put any SIM in it from any network provider.
The phone is on 3 and I found the instructions after I posted the question, so I'm hoping that'll work smile

The imessage issue is more annoying because it's now failing to complete one of the two basic functions that my Ericsson T18 could manage in 1998

anonymous-user

53 months

Sunday 23rd April 2017
quotequote all
Jimmy Recard said:
The phone is on 3 and I found the instructions after I posted the question, so I'm hoping that'll work smile

The imessage issue is more annoying because it's now failing to complete one of the two basic functions that my Ericsson T18 could manage in 1998
Its not pending an update by chance is it ? as in its downloaded it but not installed
I confess I don't know if that happens with I phones but I recently had an issue with my Sammy that was resolved when I restarted it completeing the update
I must also apologise it is never my intention to mislead in this section but I genuinely categorily believed all I phones were locked as per what I was told yet the very links I sent you suggest that 3 don't unless I misread the link

Jimmy Recard

Original Poster:

17,540 posts

178 months

Sunday 23rd April 2017
quotequote all
As far as I can tell the latest is installed. I'm going to try using my laptop to reset it to original settings and see if that does anything.

My last phone was an Xperia Z5 Compact - I liked it a lot and at least I could send an SMS whenever and to whomever I wanted

Jimmy Recard

Original Poster:

17,540 posts

178 months

Sunday 23rd April 2017
quotequote all
techiedave said:
I must also apologise it is never my intention to mislead in this section but I genuinely categorily believed all I phones were locked as per what I was told yet the very links I sent you suggest that 3 don't unless I misread the link
I think I'll just put the O2 SIM card in when I'm ready to use it and see if it works. If not, I'll call 3 smile

A900ss

3,245 posts

151 months

Sunday 23rd April 2017
quotequote all
Maybe irrelevant but why move from Three to O2?

Backward step in my opinion regards data and voice.

Good luck with the issues though.

Jimmy Recard

Original Poster:

17,540 posts

178 months

Sunday 23rd April 2017
quotequote all
A900ss said:
Maybe irrelevant but why move from Three to O2?

Backward step in my opinion regards data and voice.

Good luck with the issues though.
At the moment I've got a company SIM (with O2) and a personal one with 3. Rather than pay for 3 I'm just going to use the company one when the 3 contract (SIM only) runs out. It's not any strong feeling about either network, just I'd rather carry one phone

ETA: This isn't why I'm changing and it could be the handsets rather than the networks, but I find the voice quality much, much better on my O2 BlackBerry and it seems generally more reliable (at least around where I live and work)

Edited by Jimmy Recard on Sunday 23 April 14:48

Jimmy Recard

Original Poster:

17,540 posts

178 months

Sunday 23rd April 2017
quotequote all
Whatever the problem, after backing it up and restoring it, nothing changed.

So I restored it completely to factory settings and it seems to work. Brilliant.


I'd better spend the evening setting it up how it was yikes


I also hadn't realised how much it was lagging. It's about a million times sharper and quicker now

Edited by Jimmy Recard on Sunday 23 April 15:53

Jimmy Recard

Original Poster:

17,540 posts

178 months

Monday 8th May 2017
quotequote all
Hi all, just a small update.

You were right, I had to get the phone unlocked. I followed Three's procedure, it didn't work. I phoned Three and a very polite Indian girl talked me through Three's procedure again, which didn't work. And then again.

Then she was really stumped and her supervisor was stumped too. They thought I had done something wrong.
Then eventually they found someone who knew the score - as I hadn't bought the phone from Three, Three didn't have the IMEI. So I had to email the IMEI with proof of purchase (showing the IMEI on it), and my ID. This I did on Friday.

Three texted today saying just to plug my phone into iTunes with a new SIM in and it would activate and work. Now it's working happily on O2 smile



Separate point - I restored the phone because of Three's instructions and put the back up from when iMessage didn't work. Lo and behold, suddenly iMessage didn't work and neither did texts. Then I put a more recent backup on it, and iMessage and texts work perfectly. I guess something is corrupted or screwed up on that backup. So I've deleted it smile