[iPhone] HowTo Make MMS Work on iPhone 2G

NOTE: This walkthrough is for iPhone OS 3.0 only!

For MMS on iPhone 2G with firmware 3.1, buy SwirlyMMS on Cydia Store

I. Abstract

Many iPhone 2G users are not very amused about Apple’s update policy. As of iPhone OS 3.0, owners can eventually use MMS on their iPhones. All owners? No, not the ones who have iPhones from the very beginning.

The MMS feature is not officially available on the iPhone 2G, although there is no technical reason for the limitation – as we’ve seen with SwirlyMMS.

This seems to be one of Apple’s ways to tell you you need to get a new iPhone at least every two years. Quite expensive you think? Right, but get used to it as this seems to be Apple’s business strategy of lifecycles with many products.

Anyway, Apple provides one of the best user experiences for their products and that’s the point why you are here reading these lines.

To make things short. There is a way to make MMS work on the iPhone 2G with firmware 3.0. Kudos fly out to Geniusan for the ActivateMMS2G patch, and to Craig_16 (this walkthrough is based on his findings!).

II. Requirements

You need to have the following configuration:

an iPhone 2G with iPhone OS 3.0 (Warning don’t try this on an iPhone 3G or 3Gs, you’d be screwed!!!)
jailbroken (find Jailbreak HowTo here)
with Cydia running

Of course you’ve done a backup of your contacts, your calendar, and your photos, didn’t you?

And you need to have your carrier settings available (!!!!). Search MMS settings here before you proceed! In the following example we’re going to use a reseller of the german T-Mobile network called Callmobile. Callmobile got these settings:

Internet / Wap	Callmobile Germany
APN	internet.t-mobile
Username	tm
Password	tm

Visual Voicemail (not available!)
APN
Username
Password

MMS settings
APN	mms.t-d1.de
Username	t-mobile
Password	mms
MMSC	http://mms.t-mobile.de/servlets/mms
Proxy	172.28.23.131:8008

blank
III. Preparations

The preparation steps are intended for user who already have tempered to make MMS running but failed. Those steps help restoring the iPhone to a status where we can eventually enable the MMS feature. Our recommendation: if you didnot try to make MMS running yet, you may want to read these steps anyway and apply most of the steps as available.

Pre.Step 1: Resetting Cellular Data Profiles

If you already tempered with the network settings to make MMS work, you first need to reset the settings. On your iPhone go to

Settings » General » Network » Cellular Data Network
If the Cellular Data Network menu is no available: that’s no problem, we’re gonna enable it later. Jump to Pre.Step 2.
Scroll down and click on Reset Settings
Confirm question with a click on the Reset button
Click the Network button to leave the settings menu and
Reboot your iPhone

Pre.Step 2: Removing Cellular Profiles

On your iPhone go to

Settings » General » Profile

Again: if this menu is not available, we’re gonna enable it later. Jump to Pre.Step 3.
Click Remove
Confirm Remove
Reboot your iPhone now

Pre.Step 3: Uninstalling ActivateMMS2G

On your iPhone go to

Cydia (available on jailbroken iPhones only! Wanna do a jailbreak now? Go here.) and
Click Manage
Click Packages
Click ActivateMMS2G
Click Modify
Click Remove
Click Confirm
Click Reboot Device

IV. The Walkthrough

After having applied all the preparations we now have the situation that all of us should have almost the same conditions with the cellular network settings. This is an important condition.

Step 1. Installing ActivateMMS2G

On your iPhone go to

Cydia (available on jailbroken iPhones only! Wanna do a jailbreak now? Go here.)
Click Search,Enter manually ActivateMMS2G, and when found:
Click ActivateMMS2G
Click Install and Confirm
Click Reboot Device

Step 2. Installing A Custom Profile

On your iPhone go to

Safari and open this website: http://help.benm.at (kudos!)
Scroll down and click Mobilconfigs create
now the fun part starts, as here many issues may occur if you don’t pay attention
In contrast to what the fields’ description show we enter in all fields the required mms settings, got it? According to our example for Callmobile we enter this:
click Enable Thethering
and click Generate
you’ll be asked if you wanna install a new profile: Click Install
Confirm with Install Now
Click Done
Now quit Safari
Don’t check the settings, but
again Reboot now

Step 3. Adding Appropriate Cellular Settings

On your iPhone go to:

Settings » General » Network » Cellular Data Network
Now you see, that the MMS settings are present in all fields, of course this is wrong.
Now remember one thing: don't touch or edit the following entries: MMS/APN, MMS/Username, and MMS/Password. Once edited manually they will be lost and missing, because they will not get saved after leaving the menu. You would then have to start over above with point III. Preparations. You got me, right?
Enter MMSC and MMS Proxy first.
For Callmobile Germany (see above)
MMSC is http://mms.t-mobile.de/servlets/mms and
MMS Proxy is 172.28.23.131:8008
The result will look like this:
Click the Network button to leave the settings menu and
do a Reboot now to make sure the iPhone has loaded the new MMS settings

Step 4. Sending two Test MMS’

What we here basically do is, we’re gonna send the MMS to us. This allows us to check if receiving works and this also auto-enables the MMS feature on many carriers worldwide (not with AT&T in the U.S., sorry). After sending the first MMS you may receive an SMS instead that tells you you can watch the MMS on the internet. This is because the carrier has not updated your MMS capability yet. Now wait about five minutes and send another MMS to your own iPhone. This time you should receive it.

This is how we do it. On your iPhone go to:

Messages
Click on New Message icon (also note that a camera icon will be left to the text field)
Enter your own iPhone cell number
Click the camera icon and take a photo
Back in the Messages app, click the Send button
Your first MMS will be send now
As already written above: you should be either receiving now a text message telling you to read the MMS on the internet or you receive the MMS. If you only get a text message wait a couple of minutes and try again.

If anything does not work: we recommend to check the internet for your carrier specific settings. In 99% of the cases it is not related to the iPhone, but due to wrong carrier settings. Or your carrier simply has deactivated the MMS feature for your subscription (i.e. AT&T)!

Step 5. Editing the EDGE/GPRS Internet Settings

Again on your iPhone ;-) go to:

Settings » General » Network » Cellular Data Network
Edit the Cellular Data fields
As written in the beginning, for Callmobile Germany take this:
APN is internet.t-mobile
Username is tm
Password is tm
Click the Network button to leave the settings menu and
Reboot your iPhone

V. Final words

You should check if your EDGE/GPRS settings work by deactivating your Wi-Fi and go online via GPRS/EDGE only. People reported it may be slower than before. We cannot confirm this. EDGE/GPRS is slow like hell anyway. If you are running a subscription that supports Visual Voicemail you can also enter the appropriate information after reboot and test if it works.

Did we tell you about our sponsors? They help us maintaining this site free. You may visit them to check their coolest offers. Thanks! If you got questions, additions or shouts, don’t hesitate…

44 thoughts on “[iPhone] HowTo Make MMS Work on iPhone 2G”

Bernard S. Jul 5th, 2009 at 23:50

Works like a charm. I was going crazy when settings were not getting saved. Thanks a lot!!!
NetDevil Jul 6th, 2009 at 09:17

Thanks man…. works 200%….

Hugs

NetDevil
AdamKr Jul 7th, 2009 at 11:05

Thanks!!!!! Eventually MMS works! You’re the heroes of may day.

I have just donated those 0.50US$. That article is definitely worth it. I was getting mad on ActivateMMS2G not working as expected.

Thanks again. Keep up the good work Berlin guys.
Jee Jul 7th, 2009 at 22:34

Hey, I followed these instructions step by step, however, because I am with Fido in Canada and do not have a data plan, i do not use the internet from my phone (unless I am using wi-fi). If i have incorrect APN settings inputed for my cellular data (to prevent accidenal usage), but the correct apn settings for mms, will the mms still work??
UNKNOWN617 Jul 8th, 2009 at 01:25

hey will i be able to send mms eventhough i dont have a data plan and just use wifi?
josh Jul 8th, 2009 at 07:45

I did everything as listed. when i go to settings – – -> general – – > network – – > I don’t have the “Cellular date network.” can’t get this to show up for the life of me. i have tried every tutorial online and still cannot get this to work. it’s driving me crazy. i have 2g iphone with 3.0 installed and have done everything exactly as i should. i have at&t. will this work with Att&t?
metapapa Post authorJul 8th, 2009 at 09:40

Hmm, it looks like your iPhone settings are kinda screwed. The profile seems not to be saved on your system otherwise you would see the “cellular” menu. I think you now got two choices:

1. follow our edge guide to enable the “cellular network” menu: http://www.incomplete-news.com/?p=29

or:

2. if the edge guide does not work you can:
2.1. restore your iPhone with a fresh 3.0
2.2. don’t re-install autobackuped settings – as this may screw up your iPhone again
2.3. re-sync calendar and addressbook and all the rest
2.4. try our guide to enable mms again

please report your experiences back for helping others!
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rastapete Jul 9th, 2009 at 03:41

This worked perfectly for me – there was one difference from the instructions though.

After installing the profile & rebooting (Step 2), the settings were not showing in the Cellular Data Network screen. But I went ahead and entered the MMSC and MMS Proxy settings and rebooted again, and all the settings were there.

Oh, and Tethering isn’t available, although I did set it up in the Profile Configuration.
fire17 Jul 9th, 2009 at 04:49

I keep getting a stupid red explanation point next to the photo and text i send…
I’m in Israel, using Orange. i went to the site: http://swirlyspace.com/mmssettings/
(thats what it says at the top) and i scrolled down for Israel/Orange… ive tryed a few different combos of APN, usrns and passes and rebooting the iphone after each one, but nothing changes! still getting that stupid red explanation point!

PLEASE ANYONE HELP!!!!!!!

meanwhile ill try to go down the list changing different settings but so far no luck…
metapapa Post authorJul 9th, 2009 at 09:59

I had the exclamation mark aswell, when trying to send Group MMS’. Group MMS seem to have issues still.

Anyway: in general the exclamation mark indicates that your network settings are wrong. Means: altough you entered the info from the Swirly site, it might just be that the info is wrong OR your carrier knows you are using first gen iPhone and therefore does not allow you to use MMS (like in the U.S. with AT&T).

Can you send MMS using other phones?
mulek Jul 9th, 2009 at 20:47

THIS ABSOLUTELY WORKS!!!
Kathy Monk Jul 10th, 2009 at 08:25

fabulous, after doing several resets on my iphone your guide was a godsend! Thank you very much!!!
Ryan Jul 10th, 2009 at 18:52

Sweet this worked! Thank you so much!
Got it working with Cincinnati bell perfectly.
AndyD Jul 12th, 2009 at 00:07

This all worked on o2 in the uk untill i tried to enter my visual voice mail settings and i lost my mms settings again , HELP!!!!!!
Tim Jul 12th, 2009 at 23:01

I did all of this even switched phones (because I am with At&t) and activated my medianet stuff. I sent one pic without a problem then when I tried to send another it fails and continues to fail. Any suggestions? Also my apn settings and such did not disappear.
Stan Jul 13th, 2009 at 08:20

My pictures when i receive them come out blurry. Does anyone know why?
Stephen Smith Jul 14th, 2009 at 19:25

Finally got mms working thanks to your excellent, clear instructions. Thanks very much for your hard work.
Jane Jul 14th, 2009 at 19:47

Worked but can only send. receiving is still via an O2 internet page… any suggestion on how I can fix this?

I suppose this is the same issue as with legit AT$T customers. They block it. Try this: insert SIM into different phone and send an MMS. Does it work?
Angelus Jul 14th, 2009 at 20:48

I did everything this guide told me to do, and tried other guides too, but no luck… the celular data network menu doesn’t show up, nor the little camera icon… please HELP!!!!

Restore your iPhone and try again. MP
Cheap iPhones Jul 14th, 2009 at 22:39

This worked..however the quality of the received photo is complete shit. Is this happening for everyone? Is there a way to fix the quality? Curious.
Adam Jul 15th, 2009 at 09:00

I finally sent a picture message to myself and it was really slow and bad quality. It had that red exclamation point by the sent message saying unable to send, but it sent anyways. I have t-mobile in the us.
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Sebastian Jul 20th, 2009 at 20:35

For Personal Argentina

General –> Network –> Cellular Data Network –>

APN mms
Username mms
Password mms
MMSC http://mms.personal.com
MMS Proxy 172.25.7.31:9201

Reiniciar y listo
Justin Jul 21st, 2009 at 07:19

Man, this worked like a charm. I was skeptical. My cellular data option was not available when I first tried this, so I reset my network settings and it appeared. The rest of this was to a T. Thank you so much.
hasy Jul 26th, 2009 at 06:00

yea, i tried all the steps but my Cellular Data Network icon doesn’t show up at all. dunno why!
Sparblaze Jul 27th, 2009 at 06:00

This disables my Edge on AT&T, so I can’t send messages. If I remove the profile my edge comes back, but I get an error when sending the message.
hasy Jul 27th, 2009 at 18:18

so i finally installed the whole thing but does it work on att with the right settings?

as already written: It will not work on AT&T with legal iPhone 2G subscriptions. You need to change your default cell phone in the AT&T administration. You may need support from AT&T callcenter guys for this step. We’ve read: just unplug your SIM from your iPhone and plug it into another cell phone. Then call the AT&T supportand tell them your iPhone is dead anyway and you wanna use MMS with your new Nokia, Siemens, Ericson, whatever-cell-fon-you-got. AT&T blocks MMS as default for regular iPhone 2G subscribers because they know it does not work with an iPhone 2G and jailbreaking might be in violation of your contract with AT&T…
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Lesarrazin Aug 5th, 2009 at 19:45

Everything works up to step 5: I change the edge APN and after reboot MMS APN retruns to blank. How to fix it?
Chucky Aug 7th, 2009 at 02:42

Weeeeee….got it workin……who da man…you da man! Thanx!!!
Jeff Chandler Aug 12th, 2009 at 23:17

Hell i did all the steps about and and it saved the apn with that profile it saved it under Cellular data apn and not mms apn anyone know why e-mail me at jeffchandler513@yahoo.com thx
Mitch Aug 16th, 2009 at 09:21

For people who dont have the cellular data menu youtube supremepref 3.0. has anyone elso gotten mms working on rogers?
iPhone Tips Aug 19th, 2009 at 01:49

FIXED USA AT&T MMS Enabling 100% Easy working: http://htxt.it/eEK4
Rion Sep 11th, 2009 at 00:12

It worked with GrameenPhone Bangladesh!!!! Thanks Thanks Thanks….
Dax Sep 29th, 2009 at 04:57

Downloaded the app into a jailbroken- unlocked 3.0 3G iPhone. Yes, the app said ActivateMMS2G…..yes 2G… but I went ahead anyways and installed it with Cydia. After rebooting in just shows the apple logo…..after 2 days of doing so…..it does not connect to the my computer nor toiTunes. Doing some searching found your web site…and yes …you say it….I got screwed!!!! big time. Any hopes on getting the iPhone out of this mode and useful again…Thanks.
Kenny Goers Sep 29th, 2009 at 15:24

NOTE: Does NOT work with iPhone 3.1 software!!!
Felix Oct 18th, 2009 at 19:04

In my cidya the Application ActivationMMS2g can not be found. Do I need a special source for it?

thx
Felix Oct 18th, 2009 at 19:06

in my Cydia the application activatemms2g can not be found? do i need a special source for it.

thx
M.K.S Talal Dec 2nd, 2009 at 22:45

Thank you, it really worked for me on my iphone 2g which i recently updated to firmwire 3.1.2 and also did jailbreak and unlocked with blackra1n, The method described here for enabling mms worked fully functional.

P.S: previously my mms apn used to get removed automatically as my mms apn and internet apn is different, but now it works, both the apn is there though they are different.
loronet Jan 8th, 2010 at 01:15

Finally worked with ver 3.1.2. Great, Great, Great!
Installing a profile with http://help.benm.at was the missing link I had been waiting for the whole day
Thanks a zillion.
Maxxgold Mar 6th, 2010 at 17:49

http://+++.mach+ckpc.c+m/iphone/2g/enable-mms-on-iphone-2g-os-3-1-2/

this guide actually works

Maybe the guide is working. Maybe not. We did not perform tests on 3.1.2 yet.
Anyway the main prob with your link is: the target address hosts illegally modified files. As we are running under laws of the European Union here, those links ain’t allowed here on INCOMPLETE-NEWS.COM. Thanks for your understanding.
swooshmac May 17th, 2010 at 16:56

finally got mms to work on FW3.1.2. thank you so much. i have been trying and trying for 1 month and with your help, it finally works!! thanks :)
gary Jul 9th, 2010 at 12:32

why do you do so much work on just for the mms to show on the text msg ? i just did
on 3g iphone 3.1.3
apn: wap.voicestream.com
mmsc 216.155.174.84/servlets/mms
proxy 216.155.165.050:8080
mms max msg size 1048576
mms ua prof url: http://www.apple.com/mms/uaprof.rdf
and reboot your iphone and go back to text msg application you will see the camera for mms msg too