I think gnardog45 comment is only for Android devices. If you have an iPhone, it’s easiest if your family member contacts T-Mobile directly to have the iPhone unlocked. I think that’s the only way for an iPhone, as it’s not T-Mobile that actually does it, the submit the request to Apple.

Just download the T-Mobile unlock app. Couldn't get any simpler than that. It reads your IMEI number to make sure the phone is paid off. Boom, that's it. Just kind of scans your phone for a few seconds. And tells you if it's eligible or not.

That's how I made sure the phone was paid off, mistakenly by a T-Mobile rep. Haha

voice call the carrier you believe the phone is currently assigned to. they can send you an unlock email and they can unlock their phone. remember that its not an android or apple manufacturer issue to unlock a phone, its the actual service provider.

so if that phone is on T-Mobile, call those guys, if it's on Verizon, call those guys.

they'll usually send you an email within a day and the phone will unlock the next time you use it. I suggest you "erase all" and clear all settings so you can start fresh. Hope that helps. I just did it with T-Mobile myself

What kind of phone is it?

I paid 3 off online - within minutes I was able to unlock through phone settings.

I don't think the pay'd off clause is necessary anymore. I got two phones recently still on EIP and both are unlocked. I think it's just the 40 days on network that's concrete

Why not just buy the phone unlocked from the manufacturer?

I can unlock it for you

Paid off and on the network for 40 days.

If it’s a phone sold by T-Mobile, and it’s fully paid there should be an app (device unlock) for that. At least that’s what I have on my Samsung.

I know I’m late to the party but I just had this happen to me. I called T-Mobile and they tried to tell me my like needed to be active to unlock even though I was a customer for 10 years, my phone was fully paid off, and there was no balance on my account.

After talking to COUNTLESS representatives I asked for a supervisor and asked them how I could invoke the arbitration clause, considering my account checked all the boxes and they still weren’t unlocking and LET ME TELL YOU they were VERY happy to help after that. They sent a request to unlock, told me it would be 24 hours, I called back 48 hours later and they said it could take 72 hours, and on the third day my phone was unlocked.

We shouldn’t even have to go through all that to unlock a device, but here we are.

Contact t-force on Twitter.

They're likely the best option to get this resolved.

Yeah, my Galaxy Tab S4 has been paid off for like 3 years, and I still can't get a working unlock code for it.

They gave me the same code 3 times which didn't work and now I need an MCK code, which nobody can (or will) give me.

Adding what worked for me here from switching to T-Mobile to Verizon. T-Mobile Unlocked the phone, verizon kept saying it's locked and couldn't get esim working. Basically anyone you talk to with on these phone companies don't know what they are talking about and will just make shit up - it seems like the esim is supper buggy and sucks.

I reset network settings, deteled esims, and factory reset my phone (didn't fix the problem) - which by the way make sure your email 2 factor authentication is turned OFF before doing this or you could permanently lose access to your email!

What did work was downloading the My Verizon App on my phone I was trying to activate, and went through the esim activation steps on there and it worked immediatley. There must be some kind of carrier firmware that the people on the phone or in store can't put on your phone, but the app was able to switch the esim from t-mobile to verizon.

Hope this helps someone!

Ok adding some comments to this thread since my unlock was finally complete. After many calls to T-mobile, Spectrum (carrier that I was being transferred) and Apple here is what you need to know.

1. Before unlock you IPhone and going to another carrier be sure you paid the Phone off, pay any remaining balance in you T-mobile account .

2. Request the transfer PIN, this will be needed to transfer your lines/number to another carrier. (After generated this is good for a few days like 5 days I think).

3. If your IPhone after those steps is still shown as Block (check General —> About —> Carrier Lock: No Sim restrictions, if show something else is still locked) probably was because your received a replacement by Apple for your Apple Care or some other warranty and when T-Mobile tried to unlock your IPhone the request was sent but using your original IMEI and not the one you receive the replacement. So T-mobile must submit a case to Apple support indicating that your new IMEI needs to be unlocked since the balance was paid off and you met all the criteria.

After 3 days that case was created my IPhone was finally unlocked and was able to activate my number with the new carrier 😤📲📱

Does anyone know the policy on Windows phones ? Do you have to call care, is there any other way to unlock? Thanks.

It's a pre-android phone that I got with contract back in 2009. Can I really just call them and have it unlocked even if I'm no longer a customer? Thanks

call em up and see if they can unlock it.

If it's Android, you should be able to do it through the T-Mobile device unlock app (will need an active T-Mobile sim card to do this). If that doesn't work, or it's an iPhone, you'll have to call care to request an unlock

I paid off my phone last month. Here is the web page that explains the Unlock Policy and how to manually unlock if the automatic unlock didn't happen or isn't available for your phone.

https://www.t-mobile.com/responsibility/consumer-info/policies/sim-unlock-policy

my pixel 6 unlocked itself after 40 days of service. edit: iirc

Most Androids either have a Device Unlock app or network unlock setting under network connections. Apple devices require you to contact care to unlock.

Usually, but still has to be on the T-Mobile network for 40 days.

You shouldn't need to unlock the phone for it to work on mint as they use T-Mobile towers. But only calling customer service will get them to push the unlock through.

Despite the overwhelming abundance of information available online about this, have you actually tried contact T-Mobile about this first rather than strangers who can’t do it for you?

Is it paid in full? Try the t-mobile app

Just for future reference, for questions like this, you really need to put it more information. Like if the phone was yours originally or if it was paid off completely.

this

Since it's a T-Mobile Motorola phone, does the phone have the T-Mobile unlock app? If it came with the app, some 3rd party unlockers sell a service that allows you to use that app to unlock.

What phone is it?

It's almost certainly stolen. Unlocking will be pointless because the ESN will also have been banned.

No

Did you go into Settings and see if Network Unlock is an option?

I paid off my flip 5 and I was able to use settings and network unlock option literally within two minutes. Can you verify if you did paid payment towards device eip?

Contact t force via Twitter they have unlocked tmo locked phones not even purchased by me no issue as long as it was paid off they just opened up a case and in like 3 days they automatically unlock them I did it with a S22 Ultra and a iphone 13.

Have you tried turning the phone off for a bit? That did the trick on one of my phones.

Typically policy is to have device paid off AND on an active TMobile sim for 40+ days in order to unlock.

But support can override the latter as long as there's an active T-Mobile Sim in the phone for at least a day.