How can I unlock iphone without losing contacts and messages?

Search for tutorials to jail-breaking an iPhone on Lifehacker and other techie sites.

If it is non-American, eg European, you may likely have your best shot by contacting your telephone company.

If the phone company will not unlock it, then go the tech-site way.

In the uk, if O2 is your carrier they can unlock it remotely for free. Check with your carrier.

You have to make a backup first thrue iTunes. Then call your network carrier, and ask them to unlock your phone now. They will ask your IMEI number, so make it ready before you call. In half an hour you can connect your iPhone to iTunes with the USB cable, and make a factory reset. That will delete EVERYTHING from your phone, and automatically download a “new” update to it, which will unlock your device. That’s it.

Uhmmm, what is it with you and your questions on how to do illegal stuff? I’m beginning to wonder if you are a thief whos looking for how too instructions.
If thats the case, I hope you get caught. :D

@Pandora It’s not illegal to jailbreak a phone, it’s just something Steve Jobs doesn’t want you to do.

@Pandora Some phones are sold unlocked, some are locked to keep you as a costumer. But if the phone company unlocks your phone when you ask for it, then I don’t think it’s illegal. Do you?

I don’t think AT&T will unlock the iphone for free. Because if they would, many customers would have unlocked this way. And why do people jailbreak iphones? I guess if they had the choice to have the iphone unlocked by the carrier /AT&T/, they would have done it coz it’s much easier.

@Otto_King @whitenoise @Meltd @papayalily I don’t think AT&T will unlock the iphone for free. Because if they would, many customers would have unlocked this way. And why do people jailbreak iphones? I guess if they had the choice to have the iphone unlocked by the carrier /AT&T/, they would have done it coz it’s much easier.

US phones under ATT will indeed not be unlocked by them….

you should consider emigration ;-)

Jailbreaking can also unlock the phone to other software than just the software through itunes appstore.

@steve22 Ok, so unlocking a phone to go on a different carrier is different from jailbreaking it. Unlocking it is getting it to work on different carriers, and you need AT&T to do that for – I have no idea if it’s free, and you should remember that in the US, no other carriers are equiped for the iPhone, so you may not be able to use data (or maybe even voice, I don’t know). Jailbreaking the iPhone is about removing Steve Jobs’s death grip on your user experience so that you can add your own ringtones, download 3rd party apps, and strip DRM from your media. There are various tutorials on jailbreaking the iPhone, if you need help finding one pm me. To unlock it, call AT&T – however, because the iPhone is not just a random dumbphone they carry so much as Steve Jobs’s child, it may not be able to be done, or it may render it partially or completely useless. Lifehacker.com’s open thread (every Friday, starting in the morning) is a great place to ask all the various questions you may have without the AT&T customer service telling you all the different ways they own your ass.

@papayalily Nice speech, talk from my heart…

@papayalily Being my husband had his Iphone stolen, I’m not crazy about any of this. The only thing that I hope for is that they won’t be able to use it because they have to go through ATT to get it to work.
If someone wants a company phone to do something that other phones do, than they should just buy their own.

@Pandora I don’t think he said it’s a company phone; I think it’s just his own personal phone. I think there are apps to find your phone if it’s stolen and wipe all the data from it. And did you really just wish that he would render the phone inoperable by going against your wishes? That seems a little harsh.

@papayalily I am using an unlocked Iphone on Locus/H20, that has not been jail-broken.
I can use it on any carrier. Once a data plan has been added, I can use most all functions, except for visual voice mail.

ATT seems to have a policy, however to never unlock an iphone.