Comments on: iPhone Hand-Me-Down

By: Carlos

Carlos — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 21:55:11 +0000

Thanks! Will try that tonight at home. Love the site!

By: systemsboy

systemsboy — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 21:40:44 +0000

Doesn’t seem dumb at all. I was confused about all this as well, which is why I wrote the article. There seems to be no place where all this is clearly documented.

The answer is that, yes, you can in fact use the iPhone as an iPod even without the SIM card. But you will need a SIM to use the phone functionality. I have now sold mine to my colleague, and he’s using it just fine, sans SIM card. Even has WiFi.

-systemsboy

By: Carlos

Carlos — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 21:11:53 +0000

Sorry my above comment may seem really dumb since I neglected to say I only want to use the iPhone as an iPod. I don’t have or want AT&T phone service.

By: Carlos

Carlos — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 20:14:10 +0000

Can you even use an iPhone without a SIM card? I just bought an old 3g phone from a friend and he reset everything but kept the SIM card in it. He asked that I just replace his old one with a new one and he is under the impression that the phone won’t work without the card.

By: systemsboy

systemsboy — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 16:18:44 +0000

Thanks, Sam. Hope it works out for you.

-systemsboy

By: systemsboy

systemsboy — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 16:17:46 +0000

Toni,

Arg! That’s bad news. A fairly quick Google search reveals someone who had a similar problem:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1706643

Their problem apparently cleared up on its own by unplugging and replugging the phone a few times. If that doesn’t work I’d suggest first trying removal of the SIM card. Then see if you can activate using iTunes. If not, I’d probably recommend doing a force restore of your original data, then removing the passcode, and then repeating the erasure process.

It’s a drag, I know, but what you’re describing shouldn’t happen. I would think that erasing the phone using this method would also erase any passcode locks. But honestly, I don’t know for sure. This is an area where we could really use some more documentation from Apple, which is why I posted my article. But there’s still a lot that’s unclear, and no easy way to get a solid answer.

As a last resort, you could always call Apple or AT&T.

Please let me know if you discover a resolution to the problem.

-systemsboy

By: Toni

Toni — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 22:37:25 +0000

I tried what you said but when I plugged the Iphone in to iTunes it says that it is locked with a passcode. When I try to enter a passcode on the iPhone, it is in emergency call mode and there is no way to unlock the passcode. Is there any way around the catch 22.

Thanks.

By: Sam

Sam — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 04:34:39 +0000

Well written article. Thanks for posting it. I had the same concerns.
Your technique of using another account was smart.
I will log in to my computer using a “guest” account (a feature of 10.5) and go from there.
Thanks again.