Restore a Factory Unlocked iPhone 4 (AT&T)

Hello everyone!
     First off i want to say that i am living currently in the Palestinian Territories/ Israel and have been using a unlocked windows phone ever since. I have a Locked AT&T iPhone 4 and have went ahead and taken it to a cell phone shop here that claimes that they can Factory Unlock any iPhone you bring them. The shop here didn't seem fishy or anything because their were about 50+ iPhones waiting for the Factory unlock prosess with many customers leaving happily with a unlocked iphone.
     So i went ahead and dropped of my iphone with the owner telling me that I dont pay him anything untill the iPhone has been successfully factory unlocked. Waiting the 3 days that he told me it takes i come back the 4th day and have been welcomed back with my iPhone being factory unlocked. I grabbed a IL ORANGE sim card and popped it in my iPhone , it said "Searching" then showed my carrier with full bars and a EDGE connection. I Took out the IL ORANGE sim and inserted a JAWWAL-PALESTINE sim and have been also succesful with aquiring a signal and a working EDGE conection.
     My question to yall is that my iPhone is running iOS 5.0.1 and i want to update it to 5.1.1, I need to do a restore on the iPhone to remove some exchange accounts as well as all the data on it and wipe it clean. So if i do a restore then update it to iOS 5.1.1 will the iphone ask to be activated on AT&T or can i activate it on any carrier because its factory unlocked?
     Their ISNT any AT&T coverage here in Palestine/Israel so will this be a problem?

Torkit, I appreciate your help very much,
This iPhone has been officially factory unlocked because I have done an update to 5.0.1 to 5.1.1 without loosing the unlock, and I have confirmed this with many others as well as the owner of the store who did a restore in front of me with one of the iPhones he has unlocked, and surely enough, he was greeted with "congratulations your iPhone is unlocked".
So we can both now confirm that it is indeed a factory unlock.
Now what my question is is that lets say I do a restore to the iPhone and set up the iPhone, part of ios 5 is that you can now set up the iPhone from the device itself, so part of the setup is activation, without activating the iPhone you cannot proceed with the rest of the setup. Will I need to use my AT&T sim to activate my iPhone? Or can I use the local sim I have been using it with (PS,Wataniya Mobile) a Palestinian carrier.
Keep in mind that this is an "unofficial" carrier because of the fact that this carrier does not support iMessage as well as FaceTime, but I wouldn't see this as a problem , because none of the carriers here in Palestine or Israel are official except for IL ORANGE (Israeli carrier).
And let's say I do need to use the AT&T sim card, (I have it in hand and everything), and use it to activate the iPhone, can this be done? Reason why I ask is because their is no coverage here for AT&T.

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The term "factory unlocked" has no meaning. Your phone was not legitimately unlocked. Contact the carrier it is locked to and find out if you can get it unlocked.

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hii there, i have bought iphone 5 it is factory unlocked from usa i purchased it second hand in india i am not able to software update my phone (currently ios6).. it is also jailbroken (cydia).. and also i am not able to reset my phone it just hangs for 40 odd minutes then i have to hard restart...
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1.if i update to ios7 through itunes will it cause some problems as it is jailbreak.(as said by everyone)
2.if i restore to factory settings will it get locked again (as i am not sure whether this phone is carrier unlocked or unlocked by my local retailer).
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I have iPhone 4, factory unlocked and I tested with BSNL, AirTel, AirCell, Idea, Docomo and Vodafone. All are working, I have done factory restore many times. Still it working. only thing you have to do is backup ur data before restore.
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Free Missed Call Alert
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GPRS
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If i restore my factory unlocked iphone 4s/5, will it become locked? or is it that way for good?

title says it all

A phone that is truly unlocked will not re-lock when you restore it. Which computer you restore it on doesn't matter. But be warned: many phones sold on eBay where the seller claims they're "unlocked" ... turn out not to be. And buyers don't find out until they try to update or restore. So you should restore ASAP, find out if it's really unlocked, and get your money back if not.

HT1414 hello..i have purchaes iphone 5 from u.s it's a factory unlocked iphone 5 ..on may14th..it has warranty till may14th of 2014..and i came undia on july and after using the phone for imonth in india whaen i;m restoring th iphone 5 it doesn't restore

hello..i have purchaes iphone 5 from u.s it's a factory unlocked iphone 5 ..on may14th..it has warranty till may14th of 2014..and i came idia on july and after using the phone for 1moh in india ,when i'm trying to restore it doesn't shows apple iphone menu..it displays the screen image of connect usb cable to restore itunes .and i tried times and it shows the error (-1)..when i have contacted apple the said bring the phone to us we will replace it with new one....now i can't go to u.s so please kindly help me..as soon as possible...please

EDIT 2: It cannot be restored via iTunes 'cause I get a screen message saying that there's no SIM card in the iPhone I'm attempting to activate. The friend who sold me the phone showed me a method for restoring it on the phone itself, without having to send the command through iTunes (connect the phone to computer, turn it off, hold both Home and Power buttons until the Apple logo disappears, release the Power button without releasing Home button, iTunes shows a message about an iPhone in restoring mode, restore, etc.). Thing is, I tried this two or three times on the iPhone 5 but the device still doesn't recognize the stupid SIM…
Please, help

HT1267 I have a factory unlocked Iphone 4S, it worked fine but it was lossing the signal and going into search, I decided to restore, but now can not activate it, a message can not be activated because the server is temporary unavailable try again later??

I have a factory unlocked Iphone 4S, it worked fine but it was often lossing signal and going into search, I decided to restore, but now can not activate it, a message can not be activated because the server is temporary unavailable try again later, I have tried this for 3 days, any suggestions?

yes did you buy it of somebody or a well known company such as apple or carphone warehouse?
and i mean the phone would have been activated in the first place with the sim card you get given when you first get the phone.
trying to activate the phone with another sim card that you did not get when you brought the phone may result in you not being able to activate it
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Good morning friends, I have a problem with my iphone 4s since I get a screen that just light it says "Activation Required" restored it and not corrected, I bought my factory unlocked iphone, how I can fix this, I had installed the version 6.0 as develope

Good morning friends, I have a problem with my iphone 4s since I get a screen that just light it says "Activation Required" restored it and not corrected, I bought my factory unlocked iphone, how I can fix this, I had installed the version 6.0 as developer to

If you have a beta copy of iOS6
1. You are a developer and will know how to transition from beta
to release version and to use the Develpoer forum
2. You have a pirate copy of the beta and no-one on this Apple hosted Forum can help you
try Google

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Please define "factory unlocked". The term is basically meaningless. iPhones are sold either carrier locked or unlocked. Some carriers will unlock them after a period of time upon meeting certain requirements and paying a fee.
There are lots of places that will "factory unlock" an iPhone. This basically translates to "hack". This can cause permanent damage to the phone. Best case scenario is these phones will re-lock to the original carrier on an update or restore. Worst case it they become expensive bricks.
ICCID unknown indicates a critical failure. There is no way to resolve this other than taking it in to Apple and getting the phone replaced. It's very possible that the phone was hacked and attempting to update has now killed it.
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Was it purchased from an official Apple Store, not a reseller? Only Apple Stores sell official factory unlocked phones. The others sell hacked to unlock phones, and the unlocking is unstable.
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2. Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings.
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Can not update 5.1.1 to 6.0 on factory unlocked iPhone 4S - An unknown error occurred (-1) (21)

HI all,
for the first time, one of my Apple products is making me mad.
1.) I have an factory unlocked iPhone 4S running 5.1.1
2.) When I try to update, it (MacBook Pro running 10.8.1) extracts the software and then after a few seconds it shows me (An unknown error occurred (-1))
3.) When I put the phone in DFU Mode and try to update it shows me (An unkown error occurred (21)) - The iPhone freezes at the Apple Logo
I have downloaded the IPSW again (Yes I am sure I have the one for iPhone 4S), have downloaded and installed iTunes 10.7. Further I have installed iTunes fresh on a another Laptop (iTunes 10.7 on Windows 7) - Same behavior there.
The funny thing is, when I restore the iPhone to 5.1.1 it restores it without any problem. I have also tried to first make a restore on 5.1.1 and directly on 6.0. Same problem.
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You might try using RedsNow to put it in DFU mode.
Where did you get the .ispw file?
http://appldnld.apple.com/iOS6/Restore/041-7181.20120919.lEuOK/iPhone4,1_6.0_10A 403_Restore.ipsw
Basic troubleshooting steps
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CDiiva wrote:
The iPhone cannot be restored. An unknown error occurred (1).
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My understanding is that UK carriers will only authorize unlocking if you are a current customer.
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Hello,
I'm planning on buying a factory unlocked iphone 3GS directly from the Apple Store in Hong Kong.
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What I meant to say is that technically, hardware-wise, almost all iphones 3GS are the same (I believe the models in mainland China don't have GPS?).
It's no WiFi in China. GPS used to be illegal in Egypt, but they changed the law recently.
Correct me if I'm wrong but I suppose that the carrier lock is a software lock, which can be removed (we've all heard about it), but gets reversed once you update to a new OS version.
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I know it is the way it is, but I believe most of you would agree that if you buy a telephone, you shouldn't be forced to go with one carrier or another. That is why when I pay for an unlocked phone, I pay much more, go get the freedom (without hacks) to choose the carrier I want (where in contrast I pay much less for calls and internet than with the exclusive iphone carrier).
It would be much easier for Apple if all iPhones were unlocked, and the same in all countries, but the carriers make a fortune from their exorbitant roaming charges, so where the country's laws allow, insist that Apple not make any unlocked iPhones available in their countries.
By the way, MMS is not something most people use. There are some statistics on the internet about the ratio of SMS to MMS and it was something like 10 to 1.
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Restore a Factory Unlocked iPhone 4 (AT&T)

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