How can I use a iphone 4s without a sim card as a ipod?

November 5, 2013 9:11 PM

I was given a iphone 4s from a relative as a gift. I already have a nice android and thought it would be cool to just use the iphone as a ipod instead of just selling the gift and risk offending them. It came factory reset and stays on a activation screen awaiting a sim card. I can not figure out how to get past this screen and just use it as a device which is fairly easy to do with any android phone. Do I need to "unlock" or "jailbreak" the phone to bypass the sim card need or do I need to buy a sim card just to use it as a ipod with no carrier or phone functionality? Please help and recommend any useful software.
posted by isopropyl to Technology (17 answers total)

Can you borrow a sim card to see how far you can get past that screen? You could even try your Android's SIM if it has one.

As for getting a cheap SIM, depending on which carrier it wants to marry to, you could get a GoPhone (AT&T) or a Verizon prepaid phone, cheapest available. Activate it once. The minutes that come with it will probably expire before long, because that's usually the model for that sort of thing, but most likely the mere presence of a SIM will reassure the phone that you haven't somehow defeated Apple's product plan to keep iPhones and iPods Touch just separate enough.

After that, donate the prepaid, or keep it as an emergency backup, since it'll dial 911 without a SIM.
posted by Sunburnt at 9:19 PM on November 5, 2013

You just need a SIM, not a plan. No need to activate.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 9:24 PM on November 5, 2013

Response by poster: I know verizon my current carrier gives out 4g sim cards for free and i do have one in my broken thunderbolt. I'm waiting for my new phone to come in the mail as we type. That said I found out the phone was at&t prior and therefore unusable with verizon. If I was to take the sim card out of my broken thunderbolt I would have to to cut it down to size as described in this link. I'd hate to go through all the effort if anyone knows if would work for sure or not... just to bypass the activation screen not to use it as a phone. Will it work with all the verizon info still on the card?
posted by isopropyl at 9:24 PM on November 5, 2013

It's hard to say without knowing what firmware your iphone is running, or whether it's locked to AT&T (probably). But the dumbest, probably easiest way is just try to borrow a AT&T SIM card and use it to activate (you don't really need to even activate the SIM. It will work fine after activating even if you remove the SIM. If it's unlocked, it will work fine with either a T-Mobile or AT&T SIM.

Alternately, depending on what version of iOS you're running, you might be able to jailbreak it, or hacktivate (activate without normal carrier SIM), but this is probably overkill. Just get a SIM.

If you don't have a proper SIM, try buying one on eBay, you can probably get something for $2-3. As long as it's AT&T or a AT&T reseller (e.g. StraightTalk, Red Pocket, GoPhone) it should work.
posted by skewed at 9:27 PM on November 5, 2013

Response by poster: it is running the latest iOS update i believe it's 7 as far as the firmware i am unsure
posted by isopropyl at 9:29 PM on November 5, 2013

you can put any random AT&T sim in there and it will activate. it doesn't even need to be an active AT&T sim, it can be a random dead one lying around in some ancient old phone at goodwill. As soon as you finish the "setup" you can pop it out and never be bothered again.

There's no way to "hacktivate" iOS 7 phones, and that always caused odd issues in the past anyways here and there.

protip is to leave it in airplane mode all the time after that. you can still use wifi, and it completely shuts down the radio hardware and will save battery life and make the annoying "no sim" messages that will randomly pop up go away.
posted by emptythought at 9:35 PM on November 5, 2013

You can walk into an AT&T store with a phone like this and tell them what you want to do and they'll lend you a pre-paid SIM card for five minutes to activate the phone for free. I've done it before.
posted by tylerkaraszewski at 9:35 PM on November 5, 2013

Can you ask the relative to visit the AT&T site with their account particulars and your device's IMEI number to unlock the phone? Then all this SIM nonsense goes away.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 9:42 PM on November 5, 2013

I thought you could activate a SIM-less iPhone by tethering it to a computer and using iTunes for the activation step (though of course that means you need iTunes installed somewhere).
posted by russm at 10:43 PM on November 5, 2013

I know absolutely nothing about this subject, but if you're not near an AT&T store (per tylerk's comment), I have an old AT&T go phone sim card that I could mail to you.
posted by she's not there at 10:46 PM on November 5, 2013

Response by poster: It states in itunes that you still need a sim card to get by the activation screen. I think I will try cutting down an old sim card to fit the micro slot. THANKS everyone
posted by isopropyl at 12:22 AM on November 6, 2013

Best answer: "Hacktivation" (using a jailbreak to allow you to bypass activation without a SIM card) can only be done to iPhone 4 and earlier iPhones; it's not possible on iPhone 4S or later iPhones.
posted by dreamyshade at 1:19 AM on November 6, 2013

I know this is not what you asked, but I would consider selling the phone and just buying an iPod.
posted by anthropomorphic at 9:57 AM on November 6, 2013

Or your relative could contact AT&T to request an unlock.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 10:23 AM on November 6, 2013

Just to add to the chorus: you need to pop in a SIM card - any SIM card - to get past the iTunes activation screen. After that you can pop it back out. You don't need to get service or put money on the account or anything like that.

I had to do that last week with my ancient iPhone 3G which I've been using as a docked iPod at home - it suffered a cosmic ray hit (?) and reset itself, and needed a SIM card to come back to life. It works fine.
posted by RedOrGreen at 2:23 PM on November 6, 2013

Response by poster: I used a verizion sim card and it stated it was the incorrect carrier and would not activate. I believe this is futile
posted by isopropyl at 6:06 PM on November 6, 2013

If it's locked (and it probably is) you need an AT&T SIM, not a Verizon one.
posted by skewed at 7:48 PM on November 6, 2013