Iphone 4s stuck on searching!Think Sim is locked.Please help!

[missjess]

Hi,

My ancient 4s has a mind of it's won. Normally the battery only lasts a few hours. Anytime it dies and I charge it then switch it back on, a message pops up saying 'SIM LOCKED'. You press ok and you have the option to enter your 4 digit pin and then it works fine again.

However it died a few days ago, I turned it back on and that SIM LOCKED pop up message hasn't appeared since. I have tried turning the phone on and off many, many times. I have tried attempting to make a call to 'trigger' the message but it stays stuck on the call. The phone says Searching in the top left.

I've taken the SIM card out but it didn't do anything. The phone works with the SIM out, still says searching of course. I called Telstra my provider and they can't see anything wrong their end.

Nowhere online can I find any info that tells me how or where to input the sim code. I have looked through all of the setting. It is driving me nuts.

Can anyone help please?? Thanks in advance.

 

[J. A.]

Welcome to iPhoneForums, missjess!

In Settings - Phone - SIM PIN, you have the option to disable or change your iPhone's PIN code. If the feature is disabled there, turn it on again.

Maybe time and/or date are not right. You can check that in Settings - General - Date & Time. If the entries there are wrong, correct them manually, put your iPhone into Airplane Mode and back again. Hopefully that will fix your problem.

If it doesn't, remove the SIM card, go to Settings - General - Reset, and select "Reset Network Settings". This will remove every information of your Wi-Fi and cellular connection from your device, which means you'll have to set these up again. Enter the SIM card after resetting.

If nothing else works, connect your iPhone to iTunes on a computer, and restore it. Make sure there's a most recent backup.

Hope that helps.

 

[missjess]

Welcome to iPhoneForums, missjess!

In Settings - Phone - SIM PIN, you have the option to disable or change your iPhone's PIN code. If the feature is disabled there, turn it on again.

Maybe time and/or date are not right. You can check that in Settings - General - Date & Time. If the entries there are wrong, correct them manually, put your iPhone into Airplane Mode and back again. Hopefully that will fix your problem.

If it doesn't, remove the SIM card, go to Settings - General - Reset, and select "Reset Network Settings". This will remove every information of your Wi-Fi and cellular connection from your device, which means you'll have to set these up again. Enter the SIM card after resetting.

If nothing else works, connect your iPhone to iTunes on a computer, and restore it. Make sure there's a most recent backup.

Hope that helps.

Thank you for your suggestions.

I tried Settings-Phone-SIM PIN but SIM PIN is greyed out so I can't change it
I fixed the time and date settings as they were wrong and then turned aeroplane mode on and off but it didn't fix it
I took the sim out and did restore network settings but it didn't fix it

If I connect to ITunes and do a restore can I first remove all the photos from my phone and put them onto my computer?

 

[J. A.]

Make sure iTunes doesn't start syncing automatically when you connect your iPhone to it, or you'll lose the images on your iPhone.

There are a few methods to get your photos from your device to the computer. Here's one of them: Import photos and videos from your iPhone iPad or iPod touch to your Mac or Windows PC - Apple Support

If you use online storage, load the images to the app on your iPhone. When you look at the online storage (Dropbox, Box, OneDrive, Google Drive, ...) on your computer, you'll find the pictures afterwards, and you're able to save them to the computer from there.

A backup to iTunes will save the photos, if they are not saved to iCloud, btw.

Hope that helps.

 

[missjess]

Thankyou. How do I stop ITunes syncing automatically?
I have a google drive but I assume that I cant put google drive onto my phone now as I cant find any signal, or will I be able to add the google drive App if I am connected to wifi?

 

[J. A.]

You can download the Google Drive app when you're connected to Wi-Fi. It's possible to load the photos that are in your Photos app to Google Drive automatically, to save them there.

To prevent iTunes from syncing automatically, open iTunes before connecting your iPhone to it.
In the Menu, select iTunes - Preferences - Devices. There, checkmark the box next to "Prevent iPods, iPhones and iPads from syncing automatically". To confirm this, select OK.