Please Help-Emergency calls only screen

[fantasmic]

Hi,

I bought my Iphone 4.0.1 off ebay after my previous Iphone 3gs had been stolen. This new phone had been jailbroken and was on tmobile contract. I am with Vodafone so I got a shop to unlock the phone and I could then use it on my vodaphone contract.

I then tried to sync with itunes so I could transfer all my apps and got a message saying that my vodafone sim card was invalid. I was then told I needed to "un-jailbreak" my phone so I tried to do this by following the instructions of holding the power and start buttons down whilst connected to itunes and then followed the restore instructions.

I am sure you all know what happened next, sadly I wish I had known too!!
Yes I have ended up with an emergency calls only screen with a picture showing the usb apart from the itunes logo.

Presumably this means I have locked the phone again? I have spent all day going through various videos trying to unlock the phone or get out of the "recovery screen" if that is what it is. I have downloaded "blackrain" and other software I have never heard of and seem to just be going around in circles.

Can anybody identify my problem and give out very clear "idiot proof" instructions to help me get the phone working again please.

Thank you

 

[Gregoris]

you upgraded to 4.1 meaning you cant unlock your phone now, you have to have it jailbroken in order for you to get the unlock tool, what you have done is removed the jailbreak and with it the unlock, and at the moment there is no unlock for 4.1 so really you screwed yourself until there is a 4.1 unlock AFTER 4.2 release. you can jailbreak with pwnage tool or greenpois0n or limera1n so then you will be left with an ipod touch until there is an unlock updated for that firmware..

sorry but you screwed urself... it wont be long i dont think though maybe a few weeks probably sooner.

 

[fantasmic]

Thanks for that Paliometoxo.

I am absolutely gutted. Only bought the phone last week for £425 and it sounds like it will be of no use as a phone for quite a while. Cannot believe I have done that. All I did was go on itunes and try to "unjailbreak" it. The vodaphone tech guy suggested I do that by clicking the "restore" button. Obviously I didnt realise I was upgrading it to 4.1.

I dont suppose there is any chance that the upgrade failed and I have got the "emergency calls only" screen for any other reason? I know I am just grasping for any chink of light here!!

 

[Gregoris]

Thanks for that Paliometoxo.

I am absolutely gutted. Only bought the phone last week for £425 and it sounds like it will be of no use as a phone for quite a while. Cannot believe I have done that. All I did was go on itunes and try to "unjailbreak" it. The vodaphone tech guy suggested I do that by clicking the "restore" button. Obviously I didnt realise I was upgrading it to 4.1.

I dont suppose there is any chance that the upgrade failed and I have got the "emergency calls only" screen for any other reason? I know I am just grasping for any chink of light here!!

sorry to disappoint you, but when you hit the restore button it resets the settings, you lose the jailbreak but also it puts the latest firmware on there so what has happened is your phone has locked up, hense why your seing emergency calls only...

the tech guy knew it would upgrade firmware but you shouldent really tell carriers or apple that you jailbreak they dont like that at all... they wont help you keep your phone unlocked with tools at all.

in order to unlock to use any carrier you first have to jailbreak. then you use an app from jailbreak called ultrasn0w. now using the restore option means you have un done the unlock and jailbreak so now you have lost the unlock you will see emergency screen only because your not using a compatible sim

there is jailbreak for 4.1 but not unlock so you can use a tool and use it as a ipod touch for now...

sorry but there is no good news here. you should of stayed away from that restore button if you need to unlock it for another carrier, or you can get a sim from the carrier its locked to, unless you got it from another country

 

[fantasmic]

Thank you for your help Paliometoxo.

It appears that my only option is to purchase another iphone 4 with the correct Vodafone network lock on it. I will do that via ebay unless you know of any cheaper method.

I will be putting my current iphone 4 back on ebay. Did you say the phone would start working again if I inserted a sim card for the network it was originally locked into. If that is the case then I should be able to sell it back for a negligible loss. If the sim card does not bring it out of the emergency calls screen, could you suggest a way that I can word its description to sell it on ebay.
I have no wish to mislead any potential bidders nor do i want to suffer a huge loss on something I have only had for a few days.

You see, stupidity can cost you money!!!

 

[Gregoris]

Thank you for your help Paliometoxo.

It appears that my only option is to purchase another iphone 4 with the correct Vodafone network lock on it. I will do that via ebay unless you know of any cheaper method.

I will be putting my current iphone 4 back on ebay. Did you say the phone would start working again if I inserted a sim card for the network it was originally locked into. If that is the case then I should be able to sell it back for a negligible loss. If the sim card does not bring it out of the emergency calls screen, could you suggest a way that I can word its description to sell it on ebay.
I have no wish to mislead any potential bidders nor do i want to suffer a huge loss on something I have only had for a few days.

You see, stupidity can cost you money!!!

no worries, sorry to bring bad news.

but yes if you insert a sim that the phone was originally locked to you can then activate it with itunes, and btw just so you know if the upgrade failed it would not have gone through the whole procedure of upgrading and your jailbreak and unlock would of remained..

i dont know how much vodafone charges for iphone 4's but if you plan to never change sim then go for it, get a voda contract or pay as you go if they offer it. imo getting one factory unlocked and then using your own sim is the best way for it, but costs way more then carriers will charge but then you have to sign up to a contract i think pay as you go is pretty expensive also.

if you plan to sell it on ebay my suggestion would be to make a note of the firmware baseband version also and make a note letting potential buyers what network its locked to. also you might be better off waiting for a 4.1 unlock and possibly 4.2 so then you can do the jailbreak/unlock process and sell it as unlocked with ultrasn0w because atm no one is going to want to buy an iphone they can only use as an ipod touch only. unless you have buyers who use the carrier its locked to. but a much smaller market of sellers that way. thats just my opinion.

4.2 official release is maybe two weeks probably more like 9 days now and then give a few more days for jailbreak tool and unlock to be released according to muscle nerd since they never relased the 4.1 unlock it will probably then work on 4.2 so you can upgrade it to 4.2 and unlock it.

but if you dont want to do any of that just make sure they know what i said at the start about what carrier its locked to and fw..etc

hope that helps

 

[fantasmic]

Thanks again Paliometoxo, will do what you said and sell it on but explain what you put on here earlier.

 

[Gregoris]

no worries. good luck selling it and getting a working ip4

 

[m109rider]

What happened to you is exactly what happened to me originally. I had an unlocked iPhone that was jail broken and I didn't like the problems jailbraking did so I did a restore and lost my unlock. After that I sold the phone an bought a factory unlocked device, never have to worry about unlocking again. It's worth the money.

 

[Gregoris]

What happened to you is exactly what happened to me originally. I had an unlocked iPhone that was jail broken and I didn't like the problems jailbraking did so I did a restore and lost my unlock. After that I sold the phone an bought a factory unlocked device, never have to worry about unlocking again. It's worth the money.

agree 100% about the factory unlocked phone, well worth the money not having to worry about updating firmware or waiting for unlock tools just to upgrade

never again will i buy a locked iphone to any carrier

 

[iGaz]

Thanks again Paliometoxo, will do what you said and sell it on but explain what you put on here earlier.

If I were you I would hold of until the unlock comes out if you can. It should only be another 2weeks or so. Selling an unlocked phone will get you more than a locked one. Also opens you up to more potential buyers as paliometoxo already pointed out.

 

[Gregoris]

Thanks again Paliometoxo, will do what you said and sell it on but explain what you put on here earlier.

i said a lot of things, what part did you not understand and i will explain it as best as i can

 

[iGaz]

I think he ment he will explain what you said in his eBay ad...

 

[Gregoris]

a ok ty for pointing that out gaz.. i thought maybe he did not understand something i said maybe i explained it badly

 

[iGaz]

No probs...

I think that's what he ment. That's how I read it anyway.