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tydco

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 13, 2017
1
0
A friend of mine gave me a iphone 5c without a sim card that he told was unlocked. It was already unlocked and i used it well until now without a simcard. I forgot my password after changing it and it locked me out completely (iphone disabled connect to itunes). I reset it and now it requires me to put in a sim card. I borrowed my moms bell sim card from her iphone 6 and it tells its not the same carrier. I check to see what carrier the phone is using copytrans contacts and it tells N/A. If it worked before he gave me it without a sim card, why is it not working now? I can't seem to find the carrier if its even still locked with a carrier. I want to see if there a solution before I spend money to unlock the phone.
 
A friend of mine gave me a iphone 5c without a sim card that he told was unlocked. It was already unlocked and i used it well until now without a simcard. I forgot my password after changing it and it locked me out completely (iphone disabled connect to itunes). I reset it and now it requires me to put in a sim card. I borrowed my moms bell sim card from her iphone 6 and it tells its not the same carrier. I check to see what carrier the phone is using copytrans contacts and it tells N/A. If it worked before he gave me it without a sim card, why is it not working now? I can't seem to find the carrier if its even still locked with a carrier. I want to see if there a solution before I spend money to unlock the phone.
The device is locked to a carrier. It was activated with that carrier's SIM and then the SIM was eventually removed before it was given to you.

You restored the device. When a device that is locked to a carrier is restored you need a SIM of that carrier to activate the device. An unlocked device will activate with a SIM from any carrier.

You need to figure out which carrier it's locked to and then get a SIM for that carrier. Otherwise, if you have the IMEI already you can try and pay to get it unlocked.

There are plenty of carrier SIMs on eBay that sell for less than $1 specifically for activation purposes however.
 
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