Originally Posted by Spinstorm

You have to factory activate if you want to use ANY OTHER SIM!

If you let iTunes activate your phone it will NOT work with a different SIM even if it is unlocked.

So you have to click on "Activate" when you jailbreak as well.

If you don't believe me then try it yourself with any other SIM.

So you're saying that if you have first activated with ATT using iTunes, then just jailbreak and unlock that the unlock will not work? Why is this? And what is the solution?

Dfu restore then hacktivate jailbreak and unlock?
Or just leave it already activated with iTunes and make sure to click activate on iliberty?

When the iPhone is turned on - it checks to see if the SIM is activated and if it is not it comes up with the "connect to iTunes" logo.

It doesn't matter if the phone is unlocked - it simply won't accept the SIM.

I have to be honest I have not experimented with every different scenario and being in the UK it is hard for me to be sure with US phones.

But I guarentee you that if you ever turn the phone off it will not accept the SIM. And there is a high chance that any other SIM you put in the phone even an AT&T SIM will not work even if you do not turn the phone off.

Either way you don't want to be in a situation where a crashed phone stops working because the phone was not factory activated for every SIM.

And if you try an activate on top of an AT&T official activation there is a high chance that the activations will conflict and either the other SIM will not work and/or youtube will no longer work.

What is the solution?

Restore using iTunes but disconnect iTunes from the internet during the restore (either by unplugging/ disconnecting your router/wireless connection).

When iTunes has finished restoring it will try and connect to the internet to activate the phone but it will fail as there is no connection.

Then simply unlock/activate etc using iLiberty and then you will be fine.

The official settings will be put back on the phone if you do a settings reset so that visual voicemail works etc, but now there will be no activation conflicts and any SIM will work.

Rememeber if you restore and let iTunes activate automatically then you WILL have a conflict if you also factory activate so don't let itunes activate for you!

Originally Posted by Spinstorm

When the iPhone is turned on - it checks to see if the SIM is activated and if it is not it comes up with the "connect to iTunes" logo.

It doesn't matter if the phone is unlocked - it simply won't accept the SIM.

I have to be honest I have not experimented with every different scenario and being in the UK it is hard for me to be sure with US phones.

But I guarentee you that if you ever turn the phone off it will not accept the SIM. And there is a high chance that any other SIM you put in the phone even an AT&T SIM will not work even if you do not turn the phone off.

Either way you don't want to be in a situation where a crashed phone stops working because the phone was not factory activated for every SIM.

And if you try an activate on top of an AT&T official activation there is a high chance that the activations will conflict and either the other SIM will not work and/or youtube will no longer work.

What is the solution?

Restore using iTunes but disconnect iTunes from the internet during the restore (either by unplugging/ disconnecting your router/wireless connection).

When iTunes has finished restoring it will try and connect to the internet to activate the phone but it will fail as there is no connection.

Then simply unlock/activate etc using iLiberty and then you will be fine.

The official settings will be put back on the phone if you do a settings reset so that visual voicemail works etc, but now there will be no activation conflicts and any SIM will work.

Rememeber if you restore and let iTunes activate automatically then you WILL have a conflict if you also factory activate so don't let itunes activate for you!

Why would you have to unplug the computer? iTunes will not activate your phone until you confirm your ATT phone number, or go through the steps to sign up, couldn't you just stop there?

So you're saying that with itunes activation, the phone checks to see if the sim is activated, and if not you will get a connect to itunes message, it won't even let you get to the springboard? I gotta test this.

I see your point about double activation, but am still confused about why you cannot just go ahead and jailbreak and unlock after being activated with itunes ?

What if I am using bootneuter to unlock, does that make a difference?

Are you saying that the factory activation keeps the phone checking to see if the sim is activated, and the fake activation makes it so the phone doesn't care?

sorry for jumping in late ...
This is what I know.
if you have an legit at&t phone#/account and you want to unlock and jailbreak then you have to do this:

- activate your phone with AT&T just like a legit user.
- jailbreak and unlock only if you are using iLiberty. OR jailbreak and add bootneuter payload so you can manage bootloader, neutering and unlock manually.

- If you use iLiberty and select jailbreak+activation. Your phone will still work (calls) but your youtube will break (not sure about weather, stock, maps but I can check again).

When you restore your phone - itunes automatically activates it if you were already officially activated.

It only asks for your number when you update it to verify if your using an official contract.

However - that is what happened on my UK iPhone - it may work slightly differently in other countries.

But if your iPhone does automatically activate when it finished restoring because you did not disconnect the internet connection you will have to restore again to avoid the conflict and disconnect it this time.

As far as activation goes your have hit it on the head - iTunes activation is a "soft" activation - it checks the SIM to make sure its activated with iTunes everytime you swap the SIM card. The hacktivated activation - which is called factory activation- removes the activation checks when you swap SIMs so that any SIM will work.

Remember unlocking is the process by which the phone can use any other SIM but activation is the EXTRA security that apple added on top of unlocking to stop the phone working properly or at all if a non-activated SIM is in the phone whether the phone is unlocked or not.

If your on an official AT&T contract and Jailbreak and unlock ONLY then youtube will still work BUT no other SIM card other than the AT&T SIM will work as the phone checks if the SIM is activated before accepting it.