As we all know, after releasing the jailbreak software for iPhone 3GS, Geohot also released his unlock method for iPhone 3GS.
Purplesn0w developed by Geohot is an alternative to ultrasn0w developed by the iPhone Dev Team to unlock iPhone 3GS. Geohot claims that his unlocking software actually improves on some of the common issues faced by using the ultrasn0w developed by the iPhone Dev team.
Update:
iPhone 3GS Users can't restore to iPhone OS 3.0 as Apple has stopped signing iPhone OS 3.0 and iPhone 3.0.1 firmware files after releasing iPhone OS 3.1 so you can no longer use this guide to jailbreak your iPhone 3GS.
Use this guide instead:
Step By Step Guide to Upgrade Jailbroken iPhone 3GS to iPhone OS 3.1 Using PwnageTool 3.1.3
The improvements mentioned by Geohot are as follows:
- Corrects the Wi-Fi connectivity bar that does not show full signal strength
- Reduces the rapid battery drain
- Fixes some miscellaneous unlock related issues
Please note that Dev Team has also released an updated version of UltraSn0w (0.9) which also resolves most of the issues mentioned above.
Some important points before we start:
- This guide is only for iPhone 3GS users, if you are an iPhone 3G user, please check out our step-by-step guide to unlock iPhone 3G running iPhone OS 3.0 using UltraSn0w.
- To use this guide, you must have a jailbroken iPhone 3GS and the iPhone OS 3.0 installed. Please checkout our guide to jailbreak iPhone 3GS on Windows. Alternatively, you can check our guide to jailbreak iPhone 3GS using Redsn0w for Windows users or this one Mac users.
- If you are on a T-mobile network or any carrier without 3G support then, please disable the 3G service before proceeding.
Tap Settings icon > Go to General > Go to Network > Turn OFF the Enable 3G option.
Here is the step-by-step guide to unlocking your iPhone 3GS using purplesn0w:
Step 1: Launch Cydia on your iPhone
Step 2: Press the Manage tab at the bottom of the Cydia Home Screen.
Step 3: On the Manage section of Cydia, click on the second option named Sources.
Step 4: Now press the Edit button displayed on the top right corner of the screen.
Step 5: Press the Add button displayed on the top left corner of the screen.
Step 6: The screen will display a text box where you have to enter apt.geohot.com as the URL and press the Add Source button.
Step 7: Install com.geohot.purplesn0w
Step 8: As a final step, press the Home button and power OFF and then power ON your iPhone. You can do this by following the sequence:
i. Press the Home button for about 3 seconds
ii. Press the Power button on your iPhone
iii. Move the slider to the right. This will power OFF your iPhone
iv. While keeping the Home button pressed - press the Power button again to power ON your iPhone.
Step 9: You should now be able to insert any SIM card you want in your newly unlocked iPhone 3GS!
If you hit any issues with purplesn0w then you can try UltraSn0w by the Dev Team which also unlocks iPhone 3GS. You can checkout our step-by-step guide to unlock iPhone 3GS running iPhone OS 3.0 using UltraSn0w
Please let us know if you found this guide helpful in or Comments section below.
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Thanks a lot. Nice tutorial
The new itunes updated (8.2.1) July 19, disables resn0w do not install…if you want to jailbreak and unlock your phone.
nice tut
great blog! I am glad that I visited him
omg does it disable the iphone showing up in itunes???
did jailbreak using redsn0w, tried the unlock as stated, the console at the cydia says that wait for signal and then the return to the cydia button appears, still i am unable to get the new network carrier signal.
had this at&t sim,no network signal showing for my sawa sim (saudi arabia). Any suggestions!
can this also unlock iphone 3g version 2.2.1 firmware 02.30.03 using this software? looking forward on your answers… thank you very much…
Why are still trying to unlock iPhone 3G running firmware 2.2.1? As it has been a month since firmware 3.0 is out and dev team have released tools to jailbreak and unlock it.
Ok people – I messed around with this for days, tried to unlock one 3GS and two 3G phones and I kept on getting the 'No Service' message – essentially not taking any cards other than AT&T. I've read about people telling others to get newer sim cards, etc. Bad hypothesis.
I repeated the unlock process over and over again – and no luck.
After trying it countless times, I've figured out what the problem is. The issue occurs in the last suggested step of unlocking. I pre-maturely pressed Home and Power to restart. After you try to install purplesn0w or ultrasn0w (what I used), press the screen button that says something like 'reboot' – do NOT do the hard power+home button reset. Let the software completely finish installing the unlock software, and you'll be good to go.
thanx