Activating your iPhone without SIM card

How to activate your iPhone without the carrier's officially required SIM card

 

While it was possible to use phonebook cards to activate the iPhone some time ago, it is not currently an option. Apple has patched the bug that would allow you to do that. Luckily, the Redsn0w jailbreaking tool is here to help us.

 

Preparations

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As you might have guessed, we need to first download the Redsn0w jailbreaking tool, so go ahead and get it. Besides that, we will need a firmware package for your iPhone that Redsn0w will use to jailbreak it.

 

You may find firmware for the iPhone on different sites. Among other sites, you may try this one: http://www.felixbruns.de/iPod/firmware/. But what exact firmware do you need? To check the firmware version, download the TinyUmbrella application. When you launch it and connect the iPhone to the computer, TinyUmbrella will recognize your device's firmware version.

 

Actual activation

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To activate/jailbreak an iPhone, you will need to do the following:

1.   Connect the device to a computer

2.   Launch Redsn0w

3.   Choose the firmware that you have downloaded (click the "Browse" button on the first screen of Redsn0w)

4.   Wait until Redsn0w tells you that the firmware was successfully identified

5.   As Redsnow starts patching the kernel of iOS on the iPhone, shut down the device completely (hold down the "Power" button and then slide to power down)

6.   After the first part of patching is done make sure that on the next screen You select "Install Cydia", then click "Next"

7.    The next screen will ask you to check if the iPhone is connected and powered down. If you did not do that before, do it now, and then click "Next".

8.   Redsn0w will ask you to put the device into DFU (Device Firmware Upgrade) mode. To do that, hold the "Power" and "Home" buttons pressed simultaneously for 10 seconds and then release the "Power" button but keep holding "Home." The next screen will confirm that you have successfully entered DFU mode

9.   After this, text messages will start running through your iPhone's screen. This will take less than a minute, and then your iPhone will reboot

10. After rebooting, you can use your activated and jailbroken iPhone.

Thank you so much for posting this and helping people like me, man.

Nick Luna,

You're welcome. Do not hesitate to ask questions in the future.