SAM Unlock No Longer Working. Apple Has Fixed Their Servers.

It looks like the new software unlock for the iPhone, SAM, has been blocked by Apple’s server. The folks over a iDB are reporting that they have been trying the unlock today, and it is just not working anymore.

The SAM unlock was only available for jailbroken iPhones, but there are millions of iPhone users the jailbreak. This unlock was a pretty big deal for a lot of folks, as unlocking your iPhone allows use to use your iPhone how you want, and not be tied to a contract if you don’t want to be.

If you did try this unlock, and were proactive enough to backup your activation ticket, you can still unlock your iPhone. You still need to jailbreak to do the unlock, but once your iPhone is unlocked, it’s unlocked for good, for that one SIM. If you switch carriers or restore your iPhone, you do have to unlock again. This is where your activation ticket will come in handy.

iDB has posted a tutorial on how to restore you activation ticket, from a backup. Here’s the steps:

Note: This tutorial assumes your have your backed up Lockdown folder available on DropBox. If not, you can do so by other means, but DropBox is one of the easiest methods for accomplishing this.

Step 1: Insert the unofficial SIM card for which you created a backup activation ticket.

Step 2: Open iFile and navigate to /var/root/Library. Tap edit in the upper right-hand corner, and select Lockdown, and tap the zip button to create a backup of the current Lockdown folder. Name it something unique and distinguishable. Scroll to the bottom to ensure that a backup zip file was created. Now delete the Lockdown folder using the trash can icon.

Step 3: Open DropBox, find your backed up Lockdown folder with the valid activation ticket from your unofficial SIM card. Open the zip file with iFile, and select Unarchiver. This will unzip the Lockdown folder to your default landing directory which is usually the Documents folder.

Step 4: Tap edit in the upper right-hand corner, select LockDown and tap the clipboard icon below to copy the LockDown folder. Tap done.

Step 5: Navigate to /var/root/Library, and tap edit in the upper right-hand corner, tap the clipboard icon, and select paste. Tap done.

Step 6: If you still have SAMPrefs installed, Navigate to /User/Library/Preferences and search for SAM. Delete the com.bingner.sam.plist file if it exists. This will ensure that no SAM settings you have enabled will cause any unnecessary conflicts.

Step 7: Power down your iPhone completely.

Step 8: Power up the iPhone, and wait for a minute once it arrives at the Home screen. Your carrier should now reflect the carrier of the unofficial SIM card that you have inserted in your iPhone.

You should only need to do this, if you’re restoring your iPhone, or switching carriers. It is not clear if SAM is completely dead. We may see an update to get it working again, but we have not heard from the iPhone Dev Team or the creators of the unlock. We’ll keep you posted.