iPhone IMEI Check is a simple 3 step procedure.
- 1 - Get your IMEI number
Just dial *#06# with your phone app
- 2 - Enter your IMEI number in the checker
Just dial *#06# with your phone app
- 3 - Get results
Wait a few seconds for the full IMEI Check results (through email with a link to the online results)
WHAT YOU’LL GET:
With an iPhone IMEI Check you will get a full IMEI report of your iPhone and find out:
- If it is SIM locked by a network
- If it is reported as clean, lost, stolen, or fraud
- If it is currently activated with an iCloud account
- If it has unpaid bills, is under contract, or active on another account
- All available unlocking services that can fix it
Benefits of iPhone IMEI Check service
An iPhone IMEI Check is a service that can identify whether an iPhone has a lock. It will check the Carrier, Blacklist & iCloud lock status and generate a full history IMEI report.
For these IMEI services to be 100% accurate access is required to certain databases that Apple & all mobile networks use, GSX & GSMA.
These databases contain all IMEI numbers with their lock status, repair information, activation status, warranty status, and much more. All the updates from Apple or mobile networks are real-time, which means that if a lock status of an iPhone changes, those databases are updated instantly.
An IMEI Check report is ideal for two situations:
- Before buying a used iPhone
- Before unlocking or un-blacklisting your iPhone
In both cases, an IMEI report will save you a lot of money.
Get an IMEI Check report before buying a used iPhone
When buying a used iPhone, you need to be certain that it will work without any restrictions. Used iPhones normally have low prices, but their history is unclear.
It is not recommended to blindly trust what the seller has to say unless it is an official iPhone reseller.
To avoid buying a used iPhone that you cannot fully use, an IMEI check is required. It will reveal any possible issues and identify its current Carrier, Blacklist & iCloud lock status.
Check the iPhone’s IMEI before buying an Unlock/Unblacklist service
There are many iPhone Unlocking and Unblacklisting services and each of them only supports specific cases. The companies that offer such services are very strict about their refund policies. If you order an unlock service that does not support your iPhone’s status, you will not be eligible for a refund.
To be 100% sure that you picked the right unlocking or un-blacklist service, you will need an IMEI Check report, which includes all the information to help you pick the right service.
How to properly read an iPhone IMEI Check report
The IMEI check report gets its information from the GSX and GSMA databases and generates a full report.
Basically, it copies everything that is available in these databases and returns them as a report.
If you have never seen a full iPhone report (and why should you??) then it might be tricky to fully understand it.
Below we will analyze the most important parts of an IMEI check report, so you can quickly identify the overall status of an iPhone.
To be 100% sure that you picked the right unlocking or un-blacklist service, you will need an IMEI Check report, which includes all the information to help you pick the right service.
1. SIM-Lock Check
There are two available values for the SIM-Lock status, Locked or Unlocked.
Locked means that the IMEI number is locked to a carrier, and Unlocked that it is not.
The desired value is UNLOCKED.
2. Carrier Check
When the SIM-Lock status is Locked, it is important to know which carrier is locking it.
The value you should expect here (if the iPhone is SIM-Locked) is the name of a carrier and the country.
In rare cases, you might not see carrier names, but phrases that include the “Policy” word. Those are unique cases and an iPhone expert is required for proper guidance.
If the SIM-Lock status of an iPhone is Unlocked, then the carrier field should also be “Unlocked”.
One rare occasion is when the SIM-Lock status is UNLOCKED and the Carrier is “Chimaera/Blacklist”. This means that the IMEI has a worldwide lock/blacklist, and it cannot be fixed.
3. Blacklist Check
The blacklist status check will identify if the IMEI number is reported as Lost, Stolen, Fraud or if it has outstanding financial balances.
The value can be CLEAN, BLACKLISTED, LOST, STOLEN, LOST or STOLEN, FRAUD, BLOCKED BY APPLE, or UNPAID BILLS.
In most cases, it will also provide you with the reason that the IMEI number was blacklisted.
Except for the above values, it will inform you of the carrier that blacklisted it and the date.
Blacklisted iPhones cannot operate inside the country where they were blacklisted.
In rare cases, the blacklist status might be CLEAN, but the Carrier could be “Chimaera/Blacklist”. This is why it is very important to do a FULL iPhone IMEI Check and not individual ones.
4. Financial Check
Unpaid contract bills or device installments do not automatically mean that the iPhone is blacklisted since most of the time it is simply blocked.
This requires a special check, even though the Blacklist check might be able to identify it.
The Financial Check will find if the device has Unpaid Bills or other outstanding financial balances, and this is exactly what the values can be.
5. Contract Check
There is no specific contract check service. However, it is easy to determine if an iPhone is under contract or not.
By checking the purchase date, the warranty status, the carrier field, and the most common contract packages of that carrier, it is possible to determine the contract status.
It is important to know the contract (and warranty) status of an iPhone as a very common scam can exploit it.
Example: Let’s assume that person A sells an under contract iPhone to person B. Since the contract is still active, person A has the authority to report that iPhone as Lost or Stolen and claim a new device for as long as the contract is active (a proper Apple Care warranty is required). Now, person B has not only paid for a Blacklisted iPhone but person A gets person B’s money and a new iPhone.
This is why it is very important to have a full IMEI report and check every little aspect of the iPhone.
6. iCloud Lock Check
The iCloud Check service includes two individual checks, the Find My iPhone (or iPad) and the iCloud.
The values of the Find My iPhone check can be ON or OFF.
The values of the iCloud check can be OFF, CLEAN, LOST, or ERASED.
The desired values for Find My iPhone and iCloud status to be OFF.
If the Find My iPhone is ON, then the IMEI number is activated with an iCloud account. This means that you will have to ask the original owner to remove it (unlink the iCloud account from that device).
If the above is not possible, then an iPhone expert must suggest a service for removing it.
What do free iPhone IMEI Checks provide?
To have accurate and up to date IMEI results, you need to have access to GSX & GSMA databases.
However, accessing those databases is not for free. You either need to pay a monthly fee and gain access or you need to pay a fee every time you request information about an IMEI number.
This means that FREE iPhone IMEI Checks are unable to provide you with accurate results because it makes no financial sense to offer something for free and get charged at the same time.
These free IMEI Check services do not offer SIM-Lock and Carrier checks. Only iPhone model, capacity, color, and warranty results. Some companies also offer blacklist checks, but they use private databases that are out of date so that most of the time the results are wrong. They will only state if an IMEI is Clean or Blacklisted, without providing carrier or date information.
It is not recommended to take into consideration free IMEI check reports when you want to purchase a used iPhone or an unlock / un-blacklist service. Their incorrect results might cost you a lot of money.
On the other hand, there are some free IMEI Check apps such as AMTA in Australia and devicecheck in Canada that are official government websites but are limited to detecting if an iPhone was stolen or lost.
Can an IMEI Check unlock my iPhone?
An IMEI Check on its own will not unlock your iPhone, its purpose is to help you identify what is wrong with your iPhone. But, knowing what is wrong with your iPhone (what is locking it) will show you the road for picking the right unlocking service.
Εvery IMEI Unlock service has its own prerequisites and they are not always the same. The iPhone model as well as the SIM-Lock, Blacklist, Financial, Contract, and iCloud status make up all the pieces of the puzzle and if even one of them is missing then it is most likely that we will not be able to unlock the iPhone.
The combination of the right IMEI information with the help of iPhone Unlock experts is the key to success.
16 comments
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hello Makis,
I have an icloud locked iphone XR, service with Verizon, IMEI number is 35733509824752. can it be icloud unlocked?
thanks
Hello Andrew,
Please read our iCloud Activation Lock article or click to the “moving text” that we have to each article on the top of the page.
Hello, my name is Reuben in Malawi, my iphone is blocked and I don’t know what to do please, help me what to do to unblock my iphone.
An IMEI Check will determine the problem and show you if it can be unblocked and how to unblock it. Do you know more about your iPhone?
I have two iPhones that I bought under StraightTalk. Can I unlock them without activating them with StraightTalk first?
If you have used an IMEI Carrier Check it would show you that both of them are under contract but not activated yet.
StraighTalk SIM Unlocking policy clearly states that at least 12 months under contract should be spent before you can unlock the iPhones with Carriers SIM Lock Deactivation Services.
You can read more about StraightTalk SIM Lock Removal Request here.
iPhone 5s iCloud activation Unlock
Eeeeeeeeee, yes. iPhone Carrier Check will show if an iPhone 5s is iCloud Locked if this is what you mean. Right?
But if iCloud Activation Lock is your issue, skip to this iCloud Lock Removal Guide.
Hello, is there any way I can enable a disabled iPhone 4?
Hey Kimberly
Yes, there is but without an iPhone Carrier Check you will never know the exact problems of your disabled iPhone 4… and trust me it is not only iCloud Locked for sure.
Send me an IMEI Carrier Check Report to help you further.
Take care
Hi, is there a way I can unlock my iPhone for free?
If not, how do they do it?
Do they send an email to Apple?
Thanks
Dear Naz
1. This article is for iPhone Carrier Check
2. Maybe you can unlock your iPhone for free after the IMEI Carrier Check
3. No they don’t email Apple
4. Apple doesn’t SIM Lock iPhones. Cellular Networks, do that.
Take care