A couple of months back, I published a guide on activating your iPhone from an unofficial carrier using legitimate activation certificates from iTunes. This is achieved by using a jailbreak package called Subscriber Artificial Module (SAM, for short) which would benefit the user in many ways, since having legitimate activations certificates for your iPhone will not only fix push notifications and YouTube issues, it also improves battery life. SAM is free and works for a lot of people.
The SIM card inserted in this iPhone does not appear to be supported
A few of our readers have since complained that iTunes refuses to recognize their SIM card since they’ve used SAM. The error they received was “The SIM card inserted in this iPhone does not appear to be supported”. Apparently, they’re not the only ones – this ‘iPhone SIM card not supported’ error has been associated with those who activated their iPhones using SAM for a while now and luckily, there is a fix available. In this article, I’ll explain how to work around iPhone SIM card not supported error when using SAM.
iPhone SIM card not supported error
Before we begin, let me give a brief recap of what the iPhone SIM card not supported error is and why. Some users receive the error “The SIM card inserted in this iPhone does not appear to be supported” while activating their iPhone 4/3GS/3G on iOS 4.x.x with SAM. This error arises because SAMPrefs depend on the original carrier on of the iPhone, and not on the ICCID or IMSI of the inserter SIM card. Hence, the user needs to follow a slightly different approach towards activation to successfully using SAM.
Getting around the ‘iPhone SIM card not supported’ error
First, you need to check the Model number of your iPhone. On Springboard, go to Settings >> General >> About and look for Model information.
Search for your Model number in Google to find out the official carrier of your iPhone, and hence the network to which the phone is locked. Note down this information.
If you haven’t installed SAM on your phone yet, do so by following the guide here. You need to select Revert Lockdown to Stock in SAM’s settings, following which you should see a Stockification Success message. A failure prompt here can result from installing an incorrect version of SAM.
Next, navigate to the main configuration panel for SAM (the first settings screen) and tap the Method menu. Select By Bundle Name in here.
Tap the SAM button in top left to go back, and tap on the Bundle option. Here, select the correct carrier and region based on your Google search of your iPhone’s model number.
In some cases, you may have a SIM ID menu as well, where you’ll be required to choose your SIM ID. Let the first option be the choice here (if it exists, at all).
Now, with lockdown reverted to stock and Method and Bundle Name correctly configured, go to More Information in SAM settings and ActivationState should say Unactivated. Connect your iPhone to your PC or Mac and run iTunes. Legitimate activation certificates will be generated for your device, so make sure your computer has an active internet connection at this point. Once the activation process is complete, ActivationState should turn Wildcard Activated.
Solving the ‘iPhone SIM card not supported error’
That’s it. The iPhone SIM card not supported error is gone, and your phone is fully activated with genuine activation packets. This means your push notifications are fixed as well as YouTube, and you can make FaceTime calls, too – all this with an improved battery life. You may check that the push notifications are working using the free iPusher app from the App Store.
Did this method fix the iPhone SIM card not supported error caused by SAM? Do you know of another method? If you found this article useful, please share it with your friends.
Jack
November 3, 2011
What is your original carrier plss tell my iphone is also model mc605b..i cant find the original carrier
Ann
November 7, 2011
I followed all the steps but iTunes still says that the iPhone SIM card is not supported.
The original carrier is Softbank from Japan.
Mr.Mark
December 30, 2011
Same here… Also on Softbank Japan. Hopefully someone has a solution for this.
JL
November 13, 2011
I followed your steps to the letter in both tutorials but it still doesn’t work; iTunes refuses to support the SIM. The original carrier is Rogers Canada. Please tell me there’s a fix for this. At the very least, how can I get my iTunes to sync again without having to re-jailbreak it?
Tim
December 11, 2011
I’m living in the UK and last week I bought an unlocked iphone 4 on ebay. the guy who I’ve bought this phone lives in the states so that I think the original phone carrier has to be from there. Anyway, I tried to insert my own sim into the phone, but it didn’t recognize my sim. after I connected my iphone to itunes I received a message regarding a new version of OS , my previous phone version was 4.2 and it was updated to 5.1 ( I’m not quite sure about the exact version). after it was updated I tried to set my iphone, but I couldn’t set it up at all. I don’t know what to do now?
Noor
January 17, 2012
i have same problem really tensed dont know what to do?
Vedant rao
December 12, 2011
My model no. Os mc605b from uk what is my orignal carrier please help me out
Dodi
January 5, 2012
My sim card is in my iphone 3 and i resive calls but i cant open my iphone i cant see anything it saying please connect to itunes and when i conect to itunes they say my sim card is not support .. Whats should i do -_-
toxicious
January 13, 2012
Worked perfectly on my Swedish, Telia locked iPhone 3G! Thx a lot!
Natalia
January 28, 2012
hey guys!
i have this model MC605B as well and i couldn’t find a certain information about the carrier, i only knew that it’s UK mobile company. So in Method i chose By Country and Carrier, and checked EVERY British carrier and SIM ID manually. SIM ID matters as well, i chose Vodafone and then second SIM ID and it worked.
Good luck!
Leonard
January 28, 2012
I just upgraded my mummy’s iphone from 2.2 to 4.2 and after upgrading the phone it wasn’t recognizing SIM again and now am in a big trouble, please help me out.
fandumac
February 2, 2012
I had the problem that the new French provider FreeMobile isn’t in your list. So I chose automatic. Now my iPhone 4 starts up, shows briefly “SIM card locked”, and I dont have the time to enter anything before the phone restarts with the apple logo.
I can’t even switch off the phone any more. This is very ennoying! Please help
fandumac
February 2, 2012
I got the telephone on again by using a sort of DFU sequence. The olders of my applications have disappeared, though. But of course, the SIM isn’t recognised.
babsontop4eva
February 9, 2012
yeah, i had this stuff done after i followed the steps here but i changed several SIM ID before itunes accepted my phone. Now this is the issue, i don’t have “wildcardactivated” when i check on more information, all i have is “activated”. What do i do next please?
suruze
March 27, 2012
Is this possible for a iPhone 4 using in India on gevey SIM…I was using iPhone 4 on gevey SIM and post i upgraded to version 5.1 it gives me the above error, Is there any way out for my phone to start working
TIRANA
April 14, 2012
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TIRANA
April 14, 2012
Hi i have a 3g jailbreak model MB497DA.I have done all the procedure above and i tryed all the 3 Tmobile provider ( DE,AT,NL )that have this model number but i tunes still sayes that doesent recognizet my sim .Can some one help me
MartinGuy
April 19, 2012
Hi everyone the process works, I went through the process and also had trouble with “sim not recognized by itunes” Read this article and it helps. What I found is that your original carrier must be selected either by means of Bundle name or country and carrier. EG i was o2 in the uk, and now in south africa. the method was by bundle but didn’t work, I switched the method to country and carrier (UK & o2) and then switched between the different sim id’s. eventually it recognised the sim id and now i’m wildcardactivated. Thank you!
MartinGuy
April 20, 2012
Push still dont work even when wildcardactivated
Irena
April 22, 2012
Yeah I’ve followed all the steps and still get the ‘Sim not recognised’. I have a 3g jailbreak model MB496X, which is supposed to be Australia (either Opus, Telstra or Vodaphone) or New Zealand (Vodaphone). I’ve tried all the different options with different Sim IDs with no result (tried multiple times!)… Any advice?
Irena
April 26, 2012
Just for you info I couldn’t find a solution to the ‘sim not recognised’ as above, so I downloaded the pushfix app on cydia (had to pay about $6) and then had to unlock my phone again with redsnow, but everything works fine now and I’m getting my push notifications. So for the small price it was worth it to pay instead of spending ages trying to sort out the SAM problem I was having!
insha
April 25, 2012
thank you so much!!!!!
my iphone 4 were nearly “dead” more then a month, since we upgraded it to 5.1, bb 04.12.01
and now its working!!! it is really unlocked!!!!!!!!
i’m shaking from excitement
Guille
April 29, 2012
I am having same issue. I reset all settings and now I can not activate the iphone 4S due to the same error. I still have original sim (Verizon) but is not recognized. I have tried several options to activate my iPhone (redsnow, snowbreeze) but is asking me to activate it. How can I activate my iPhone 4S 5.0.1 ?
Guille
April 29, 2012
Just to let you know, I have no access to my iphone and I am unable to use it. It is stock as brand new. Please help me.
Guille
April 29, 2012
I am located in Dominican Republic. I followed all the steps and tried to do it on WIFI and iPhone is showing me another message: COULD NOT ACTIVATE IPHONE. Your iPhone could not be activated because the activation server cannot be reached. What can I do?
Justin
May 10, 2012
After using sam Prefs the first time and trying to restart I got this message and I can’t even get to springboard anymore. So there is no way for me to even attempt to use this method
chathuri karunarathna
May 18, 2012
hi guys
i alsso faced the same prob. but second i did MartinGuy
April 19, 2012 said.but it didn’t work yet. then i sent a message through my phone and it really worked. guess phone needed sometime to rest!
Raymond
May 20, 2012
It worked for me I am in Nigeria. So how do I get my sim to work now because is showing NO SERVICE SO WHAT DO I DO NOW?