Unlocking an older, unused Visible phone

[DavePinMinn]

I have an older Visible phone that I was previously using with Visible, but it's been replaced by a newer, theoretically more capable Visible phone.

I want to UNLOCK the old phone so I can use it with a different SIM from a different provider as needed. 

HOW do I tell if this older phone is unlocked?  And if it's NOT unlocked HOW do I get it UNLOCKED?

As far as I know, the old phone (Blade A7) does NOT use e-sim and I will HAVE to be able to use a regular SIM in this phone.

My CURRENT cell is from T-Mobile, and if necessary I could switch the SIM from the T-Mobile phone to the Visible phone and see if it works.  BUT, I don't want to do ANYTHING that will screw up the T-Mobile phone as it works fine, OR do anything st*pid that will screw up my normal T-Mobile service.

How to I ENSURE that when I need this old Visible phone to work with a Sim from someone else, it WON'T be locked?

[DeanKevin64]

Not sure on a Blade phone but you should be able to find it in the settings, check under about phone, some phones will show network status. My Motorola phone don't show this but some phones will.

There should be no reason moving a card to another phone would mess up the SIM. If you move the card either the phone will connect to service meaning it is unlocked or if it doesn't connect to service it would be locked.

Not sure, but you could also check T-Mobile's site and see if the phone shows compatible, T-Mo must have an IMEI checker. If it passes the phone should work with the card.

If the phone was used for 60 days continuous on the account you bought it from on Visible they should have unlocked it automatically. I know my 2021 G Power I bought from Visible I can take to Verizon and it shows compatible so I would assume it is unlocked, Visible just blacklisted it when they upgraded the system in 2022 and I have activated it on the new system and have moved the Visible SIM to it a few times when I thought my newer phone crapped out on me.

[DavePinMinn]

Thanks for the information.  Yes, the old Blade was in use for well over a year, so I presume it's unlocked...  Of course, I've also learned NEVER to trust that anything will actually work as expected with Visible, so I want to make SURE this phone will work when needed when traveling later this year.

I'll switch the SIM card and see what happens.

[DavePinMinn]

Well, THAT was quick...  It APPEARS NOT to work.

Sim goes in the phone, phone starts.  Attempted a call and got "Server unreachable".

In Settings it says "Network" with "T-Mobile", BUT the T-Mobile looks greyed out.

I did an IMEI check at imei.info and it shows up, but I have NO idea what on that page should be telling me if the phone is locked or not.

SO, presuming this thing IS locked, HOW do I get it UNLOCKED.

I can put the SIM from the "new" Visible phone in the ZTE phone and it'll work - I've already had to do that because of a previous problem, so I COULD (probably) make the ZTE phone show up on Visible, but HOW do I get this thing guaranteed to be unlocked?

[DeanKevin64]

Have you tried a BYOD on T-Mo or AT&T and see if it passes the checker. It sounds like it is locked if you stuck the card in and it doesn't connect to T-Mo. I don't know exactly how to find out on the phone itself to tell if it is unlocked, some phone will show it under SIM status or somewhere under about phone. Only thing I do know is Motorola does not show this information so I can't tell if my old 2021 or current 2022 models are unlocked. I did buy the 2022 used on eBay and it was a Visible sold phone so I was compliant with the new system. As far as if either is actually unlocked I don't know. I have taken the IMEI before and ran it through on Verizon and I think AT&T and it shows compatible their whether it means it is unlocked I am not sure. I thought I read other carriers can tell by the IMEI if it is unlocked or not but I may be wrong.

Only way I know of to get it unlocked is if it was used on the account it was purchased on for 60 days, if you did that it should have unlocked. If you ordered it on one account and used it on another account from my understanding it won't ever unlock on Visible no matter how long it was used for.

It may be more hassle than the phone is worth but you could contact Visible and ask them to unlock it and explain it had been used previously on their service they just never unlocked it. Probably a waste of time though.

Good luck!

[DavePinMinn]

Have you tried a BYOD on T-Mo or AT&T and see if it passes the checker. It sounds like it is locked if you stuck the card in and it doesn't connect to T-Mo.

If by BYOD you mean bring my own device, yes.  I took the SIM from the functional T-Mobile Galaxy S22 and put it in the several-year-old Blade A7, and it Showed T-Mobile but wouldn't connect.

I have no information beyond that, and don't SEE any obvious way to tell if the Blade is locked or not. 

It sounds like I need someone with some specific knowledge about HOW to tell if a specific phone is locked or not, and IF SO, HOW to get Visible to UNLOCK IT.

It was used for WAY longer than 60 days, so as you've said, IT SHOULD BE UNLOCKED.  It does NOT appear to be so.

It may be more hassle than the phone is worth but you could contact Visible and ask them to unlock it and explain it had been used previously on their service they just never unlocked it. Probably a waste of time though.

Unfortunately, that describes A HUGE AMOUNT of Visible.  Doing the simplest, most trivial thing becomes a massive pain in the behind.

OK, CAN ANYBODY AT VISIBLE SUPPORT TELL ME HOW TO GET THIS TO WORK AS AN UNLOCKED PHONE?

[DeanKevin64]

What I meant was did you check the phone on one of the other carriers by running it through their BYOD or IMEI checker to see if it even passes on one of those carriers, even T-Mo. The Blade A7 was released in 2019 and maybe being a basic phone that old maybe it won't even work on T-Mo as a back up since it likely hasn't had updates in probably 4 years. I am just guessing about that.

If you are asking for support here good luck with that, I don't think they ever visit the community forums. The manager does to post plan information once in a blue moon but that is it.

[DavePinMinn]

I checked at imei.com as I recall.  The Blade was last updated in January, 2023, so not that old.  I HAVEN'T tried to find the official T-Mobile IMEI checker to see if THAT thinks the phone is unlocked.  I'll have to see if I can even FIND anything on T-Mobile that does that.

By d*mb luck, I actually MAY have gotten someone at Visible support  with a clue, and in THEORY, they unlocked the phone.  It wasn't working at the end of today, but the person at Visible SAID it could take 48 hours for the phone to start working on T-Mobile after unlocking.

So, spent 2+ hours on the world's slowest chat, to get the phone unlocked, which MAY or may NOT work, BUT, I'll check in a couple days and HOPE the thing actually unlocks...

As for support here - I always figure with Visible, you're pretty much completely on your own at the best of times, so HERE has usually been better than trying to get one of the phone answerers to help!  SO, thanks for the help - I'm farther than I was, and with luck this ancient thing will now be useful.

Next I'll TRY to get the new phone unlocked - I do NOT believe it will automatically unlock after 60 days, so I"ll try to get the new, fer-real, official Moto unlocked.

It won't necessarily be pretty, but if I have ENOUGH phones from different companies with me when I'm in Canada, HOPEFULLY, the Bell Canada Sim I'll be using will work on ONE of them.

[DavePinMinn]

I just ran the IMEI check at T-Mobile.  It looks EXACTLY like the one I ran at IMEI.com, and I can't find anything in EITHER of them that explicitly tells me the phone WILL work on T-Mobile or any OTHER system.  I'm not sure WHAT on the page would say yes or no.

[DeanKevin64]

4 years of updates, I can't believe ZTE has a better update policy than Motorola and that is 1 OS upgrade and 2 years of security updates. My 2021 stop getting security updates in 2023 and my 2022 model I don't think will get anymore this year but security updates are different than system upgrades. That is why this will be my last Motorola phone when it breaks or quits working. 

I had a hard time finding T-Mo's IMEI checker and ran my 2021 through and it shows compatible, I remember it did on Verizon also when Visible decided to blacklist it. I tried a couple of those IMEI checkers from a Google search and they don't tell you anything other than the specs of the phone. 

At least you got a hold of someone at Visible just hope they come through and actually unlock the phone.

[DavePinMinn]

What on the IMEI checker shows that it's compatible?  There's a bunch of stuff, but I don't see anything that specifically says it's compatible. 

[DeanKevin64]

I couldn't find it on the site so I Googled T-Mobile compatibility check and click the check phone compatibility and I entered the IMEI number from the 2021 G Power and it tells me this:

You’re all set.

Your device is compatible with the T‑Mobile network and can take advantage of our most powerful signal, Extended Range LTE.

Motorola moto g power

IMEI: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

• This device is fully compatible with T-Mobile’s network technology. Tell me more
• This device is not blocked from use on our network.
• Your phone may not be eSIM-compatible. What is eSIM compatibility?

[DeanKevin64]

It doesn't tell me it's unlocked though but does say it is compatible. T-Mo website is not fun to navigate and tried running a plan through to get to the BYOD part but it just states an error at the top of the page. I couldn't actually find the checker so I just Googled it, https://www.t-mobile.com/resources/bring-your-own-phone

[DavePinMinn]

Thanks for the info.

[DavePinMinn]

It's now been a week...

I have a Visible ZTE Blade 7 that started life with Visible.  And if I put a Visible Sim in it, it works.  So the PHONE appears to be OK.

A week ago Visible, IN THEORY, unlocked the phone.  And ASSURED me it would be fer-real unlocked in 2 days, and it would absolutely work on whatever network I put it on...

Gave it a week.  Put the sim from my current T-Mobile Galaxy IN the Visible Blade and it STILL doesn't appear to work.  It SAYS "No service Selected network (T-mobile 4G) unavailable."

I went to T-Mobile and looked at their IMEI check.  That says:

ZTE Blade A7 Prime

IMEI: 869419040195101

• Your device is partially compatible with T-Mobile’s network technology. (it's mad because it's not a 5g phone, but that's the only complaint.)
  

• This device is not blocked.
• Your phone uses a physical SIM card

Am I correct that T-Mobile does not think there's a problem?

When I go into "Network" on the phone there's Network section.  On there I have the option of "Automatically select network".  I can turn it on and "Network" and the network name (T-mobile) get greyed out.

It doesn't appear to be in Airplane mode.

I can turn OFF the automatically select network, and a pair of options show up ("T-Mobile 4G and Roaming 4G).  Neither is selected.  Neither CAN be selected.  I can click on "T-Mobile" but the Network (T-Mobile) stays greyed out.

I ALSO looked at IMEI.com to see what that said, but unfortunately I'm unable to figure out how to do something as trivial as taking a jpeg screen grab and getting it onto the screen in here.  I have NO idea what the bizarre "camera" symbol is supposed to be doing.

Can somebody tell from the information above whether OR not this thing is unlocked...

And if so, ANY idea HOW to get this thing to work - PREFERABLY WITHOUT another PAINFUL, multiple hour cluster trying to get Visible support to do ANYTHING? 

[userA55]

Had similar experience with Miserable. They won’t unlock the phone I paid them full retail for plus two months of service. After they finally admitted it was locked, they played confused over chat that they couldn’t find it on their network. I think it is their business model to be dishonest. 

[userA55]

Good luck. This is the worst customer service experience of my life. 

[DavePinMinn]

Yeah, I know.  Been here a while, dumped all 3 regular phones, only keep one data-only phone for traveling, and when the season ends this year I'll shut that down until next year. 

When Visible works, as long as you don't actually NEED it to work reliably, it's marginally OK.  But ANY situation that requires even the most minimal of support quickly becomes a nightmare.  And their determination to cling to using messaging for support instead of communicating verbally is a large part of the problem.  My presumption is there are enough people around who use $25/mo bottom-of-the-barrel-data that Visible is making enough money not to care about the customers who fall by the wayside because the service is so execrable.