How to Unlock from your Carrier Locked Phone

As some of you may know I don't have my phone with me so, above that I have never had a locked phone. So I will try my best here.

The Reason for this How To is the instructions have some people confused.

What I will try to do in this Post is clear some of the things up.

This guide is written assuming the phone is completely Stock, this does not mean it won't help you. Please Read Everything Before Attempting

Please Note that you carry out this procedure at your own Risk, I am not to blame. Continue at your own Peril.

Requirements:
Root
BusyBox
Internet
Unlock app written by helroz on XDA.

Skip to the Requirement you need.


First Requirement: Root
You need to Root your device. There are many ways to do this, I will be going through the most dependable one.

SuperOneClick.
Please download the Newest Version there.

Put your phone on USB Debug Mode (Settings -> Applications -> Development -> Check USB Debug).
Close Kies and Kies Toolbar App (Kies is necessary for the Drivers).
Open The Application SuperOneClick.exe
Now Plug the Phone in.
DO NOT mount your SD card.
Click Root.
Wait a few minutes as it does what it does it can take 2 or 3 tries.  

You may need to Restart if doesn't work. (Both Phone and Computer).


Second Requirment: BusyBox
The Easiest Way to do this is Download Titanium Backup.

Open it, it will tell you you need BusyBox and it will tell you to click on the bottom Middle Button. (I think It was called Problem or Fix Problem. I don't Remember).

Once you click that let it do it's magic. it will give you some instructions Like enable the USB Debug do that.

Once it loads up without complaining BusyBox is Installed.

Third Requirement: Internet

Ok this is Obvious I won't go into it.


Fourth Requirement: The Unlock App
Visit this link, and Download Galaxy_S_Unlock.Zip

Extract this file where ever you want but remember where you extract it.

Plug your phone in Mass Storage Mode.
In Froyo
Settings -> Wireless and Network -> USB -> Ask on Connect
In Eclairs
Settings -> About - > USB -> Ask on Connect

If you are on USB Debug Mode then it doesn't matter.

Select Mount Storage ("I forgot the wordings").

It will either be in the Notification bar (Drag it down) or It will come up after selecting the Mass Storage Mode Option.

Now Copy the Galaxy_S Unlock.apk to the Main Drive of your phone not the External, the internal one.

It doesn't matter which one you go for, it's just easier to find if you put it in the Internal one.

Now safely Remove the drive and Press Turn off on the Phone before removing the phone.

On your phone Look for My Files App and open it.

Look for Galaxy_S Unlock.apk it should be at the bottom of the list.

Click it and Install it.


Instructions

After All the requirements are complete Open the newly Installed APP.

(Instructions are copied Directly from the Thread, as I have no way to test it, if someone is willing to add more concise instruction regarding this part please don't hesitate, you will be given Credit).

Click Step 1 save your /efs folder

Click relevant Step 2 Unlock your phone in 60 seconds, black screen is normal

Step 3 Built .nv_data.bak (after restart)

Click Step 4 if you have a problem it will restore /efs folder saved on step 1.

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Let me know if I missed something


If it worked please do 2 Jumping Jacks and accept my Congratulations  

Peace.
IronSingh

right... thanks for this. Downloaded titanuim backup - it says...

"sorry, I could not aquire root previliges. this application wil *not* work! Please verify that your ROM is rooted and includes busybox, and try again."

this is telling me that super1click has not rooted my phone.  I rebooted the phone and i get the same message. Yet I have superuser on my phone and if I go and look through my files I see a copy of busybox. (busybox details: last modified -29/01/2011 @ 6.55pm when I was trying to unlock my sim the first time around. Not sure if this means anything but I thought i would provide the info just in case it shines a light on anything.

So, not sure what to do now.And i cannot get the unlock app as i cant download the barcode reader from the market to do this.

any suggestions?

I'm just curious if I have to root the phone again, after installing Darky? It should have been rooted already. These  things should already be on the phone, right?

I cant seem to unlock my orange sim using this method. It unlcoks and shows unlocked if I type in the code but the signal just drops away. before and after creating the BAK file. So from full service to none - up to 1 bar, back to zero, up to 2 bars back to zero.
edited...
Just rebooted...
on reboot a similar issue of dropping signal, but a little better; seems to have stabilized and my phone still says unlocked after trying the code.

1hr later....
No signal at all.  Had to restore folder from step 1...now I'm back to full signal. I guess it will stay unlocked long enough for me to flash the phone anyhow.

lol...maybe I should do just that!

I did read about the script thingy on xda wihc is a possibility. I know I can live with it being locked for now as I can unlock for long enough to do firmware upgrade. so long as the firmware upgrade doesn't delete my etc file I should be ok and able to replace the file by running galaxy unlock and going to step 4.

Does installing v2.2.1 erase everything?
Does installing darky gingerbread v9.1 erase everything?
                     If it does I can not get my sim unlocked.

I know that I can run a script on windows with Keies (v1.?? and not v 2 which I have just upgraded to) which shouyld unlock the phone according to xda.

Hi,

My first question on here, so please be gentle with me!

I have just been advised by lisa "Do make sure that your phone is unlocked before attempting any flashing of Roms." which is fine, but I  don't quite understand the term 'unlocking' here.

I am currently awaiting delivery of a new Galaxy S directly from Vodafone UK into which I will be putting an existing Vodafone contract SIM.

One of the first things I want to do is to 'root' it, and then to install a custom Gingerbread ROM (possibly Darky's on perhaps just the default one initially), and I have read many articles on here explaining these processes.

However I am still not quite sure whether or not I will still have to carry out this initial 'unlocking' step, and if so how exactly to go about it?

Do I just run something like 'SuperOneClick' first or is there a bit more to it than that?

Thanks!  

First of all, hello to everyone here, as this is my first post.
My Galaxy S will arrive very soon and from what I heard it will have version 2.2 installed. If I follow the steps here and then upgrade to gingerbread, will the unlocking still remain? And if not, can someone point to a 2.3 unlocking tutorial? I have searched hi and low and couldn't find one.

thanks!

I read superoneclick doesn't work with GB 2.3.3 (found here - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=16277317&postcount=4563)