[iPhone] Edit Edge Settings under Firmware 1.1.4 and 2.0

40 Replies

Update 4: (November 27th, 2008): Another formerly fast way of editing has been reported to induce other issues and has thus been removed. Some links for Windows users have been updated.

Update 3: (July 21st, 2008): Pwnage 2.0 tutorial for firmware 2.0 finished (see here). The way to reenable the EDGE settings is still applicable. Please follow part II.)_T_H_E__Z_E_N__W_A_Y_ (scroll down).

I.)_T_h_e___f_a_s_t___w_a_y_

(Outdated article removed)

II.)_T_h_e__z_e_n___w_a_y

The standard iPhone EDGE settings for Germany (means for people with legit T-Mobile iPhone service plans) are:

apn: smartsites.t-mobile
username: t-mobile
password: tm

Those settings cannot be edited and will always be applied to any T-Mobile SIM card. Problem is: customers with a non-iPhone contract cannot use EDGE then since they need different EDGE settings. Most likely those:

apn: internet.t-mobile
username: t-mobile
password: tm
To be able to change these EDGE settings in a pleasant way just do the following (I assume you got OpenSSH installed already):

1. use Cyberduck (Mac), SmartFTP (Windows) or any other SFTP capable client to connect via SFTP into your iPhone

2. go to /System/Library/Carrier Bundles/T-Mobile_Germany.bundle/ and download carrier.plist to your host

3. since you can’t edit this carrier.plist you first need to convert it
3.1. on OS X you can do it by installing the plist editor contained in Apple’s Developer Tools (bundled with XCode) on your Leopard or Tiger Retail installation DVD or available via download here (site requires registration. Btw: do you know Guerrillamail yet?).

3.2. Windows (and lazy OS X) users go here: http://140.124.181.188/~khchung/cgi-bin/plutil.cgi to convert the plist online. (This address seems not to exist anymore). We recommend to give

a try (warning: we did not have the time to test this yet with either one of these tools. Your feedback is highly appreciated, thanks!).

4. Opening in one of these tools above mentioned, It should most likely look like this (click picture to enlarge):

Converted Plist

5. So we need to add those tiny lines to get back EDGE editing capabilities:

<key>AllowEDGEEditing</key>
<true/>

AllowEDGEEditing

6. You will find “EDGE settings” menu under “Settings” » “General” » “Network” » “EDGE”. Enter the approprate APN and you’re done…

BTW: you can also change the APN settings permanently inside this carrier.plist file. Just locate and replace these lines:

<key>apn</key>
<string>smartsites.t-mobile</string>
<key>password</key>
<string>tm</string>
<key>username</key>
<string>t-mobile</string>

with the appropriate APN settings of your contract…

replace standard apn settings

Kudos to Volkspost (Volxpost) for his findings and his initial 1.1.3 tutorial.

40 thoughts on “[iPhone] Edit Edge Settings under Firmware 1.1.4 and 2.0”

  1. peter

    hey,

    erstmals danke für die hilfe!
    da ich aus österreich komme und bei uns die gprs daten kein passwort haben wollt ich fragen obs besser ist einfach nur das passwort zu löschen aus der .plist oder gleich auch die zugehörigen & zeilen ?
    oder ist das komplett egal fürs system?

    wär super wenn mir jemand ne auskunft darüber geben könnte.
    thx!

  2. metapapa

    most likely you should leave the password line empty… anyway why don’t you give both ways a try?

    kd rgds.

  4. metapapa

    step 2.

    if your question means, you don’t know what sftp is better don’t try this and ask a friend who is in the know…

  5. bbiphone

    i know what sftp but do i do it from lets say cyberduck or terminal? Do i log in at ssh root@ xxx?

  7. holger

    moin,

    ich habe das problem das ich gar nicht erst auf das iphone datei system drauf komme..
    ip ist eingegeben root PW und port 22 über sftp.. nichts kommt:(
    ps: klar openSSH ist drauf :)

    vlt weiß ja hier jemand bescheid… besten dank

  8. metapapa

    kommst du im terminal

    bash$ ssh root@deine.iphone.ip

    auf das dateisystem deines iphones?

    oder kommst du überhaupt gar nicht rein?

    Btw: das erste Login dauert ohnehin etwas länger (bis zu 30Sekunden), weil da erst die Schlüsselpaare erzeugt werden müssen, wenn ich mich recht erinnere. Möglicherweise ist bei Deinem SFTP Client da schon der TimeOut eingesetzt. Probier mal im Terminal (Mac/Linux) oder mit Putty (Windows) und gib Bescheid, wie’s ausschaut…

  9. Heimi

    Sehr gute Anleitung, habe ich auch alles so verstanden, funktioniert bei mir aber leider nicht. Ich habe erst den ersten Weg gemacht, hat nicht funktioniert. Dann den zweiten Weg. Hat alles auch so geklappt wie es da stand, ich bekomme aber immer noch den Hinweis: Sie sind kein EDGE Teilnehmer. Im iPhone steckt eine Simyo Karte. Ich bin für jeden Tipp dankbar !

  10. metapapa

    Verwenden Sie diese E-Plus Einstellungen für Simyo?
    # Access Point Name/APN: Internet.eplus.de
    # Benutzername/User: eplus
    # Passwort: (leer)
    E-Plus (Simyo) unterstützt kein EDGE, sondern nur GPRS. Mit den genannten Einstellungen sollte es funktionieren.
    Andere Möglichkeit ist: eine andere Simkarte auszuprobieren, die ein anderes Netz verwendet (z.B. eine T-Mobil bzw. callmobile Karte). Sowas ist zum Testen immer recht praktisch.

  11. metapapa

    if you got a problem with BossPrefs. You simply don’t need it. Follow the HowTo’s above to enable EDGE settings menu and solve your problems by just doing that:

    1. enter the EDGE Menu
    2.1. change the APN to something that really does not work.
    2.2. means: for me in germany I need as APN “internet.t-mobile”, now if I change this string to “internet.t-mobileNO” EDGE cannot connect.

    btw: no matter if your EDGE settings are configured properly or not. If you are in an area where your carrier has EDGE support the E symbol will show up – this symbol does not indicate that you are now EDGE connected…

    kd rgds

  12. Dodibear

    Hi,

    I’ve made some errors trying to perform the fix and now I need the original code for what should be in the following two folders:

    System/Library/Carrier Bundles

    carrier.plist

    Can somebody please type them up here for me? And if anybody has the APN settings for O2 IRL I’d very much appreciate it.

    Thanks.

  13. Dodibear

    Think I’ll be needing the code for these two folders aswell:

    unknown.bundle

    O2_ie.bundle

    If somebody can just copy & paste them here for me, thanks a million.

  14. Uli

    hi,
    everything worked fine, but now the touchscreen doesn’t react. that means i cant use it. does anyone has an idea how to fix the problem?
    thanx

  15. yowsup

    hey i did the zen method on 1.1.4 unlocked, at&t. i added characters to the wap address and now everytime i use the phone i get a popup: “could not activate EDGE. you are not subscribed to EDGE”.. not very zen. i also tried changing the login/pw and that didn’t matter, it connected me to EDGE ($$). bossprefs does not have this problem, but i don’t like the bossprefs icon on my zen springboard. le sigh. safari browser is unusably slow on this phone too.

  16. vilmos

    Ich habe das Problem, dass nach dem Ausprobieren diverser Tools, die den Zweck haben sollen, Edge/GPRS aus- und einschalten zu können, mein iPhone 1.1.4 inzwischen überhaupt keine Anstalten mehr macht, sich über GPRS mit dem Internet zu verbinden. APN etc. sind korrekt eingestellt. Wo kann ich suchen, was verstellt ist? Gibt es andere Analysemöglichkeiten?

  17. metapapa

    “Nach dem Ausprobieren diverser Tools”…
    sowas klingt schon mal schlecht. Jedes Tools macht irgendwas anderes und am Ende ist alles komplett verschlimmbessert. Ich würde so ein Telefon nicht mehr weiter zerspielen, sondern die Firmware neu einspielen und dann unsere Anleitung befolgen. Gruß vom metapapa

  19. metapapa

    Uns liegen keine Erfahrungen mit den genannten Programmen vor. Support für die Programme sollten Sie bei deren Entwicklern versuchen, in Anspruch zu nehmen.

    Wir sind jedoch solchen One-Click Lösungen recht skeptisch gegenüber, weshalb wir auch die oben stehenden Anleitungen verfasst haben…

    Gruß vom metapapa

  20. Wyre

    Hey does anyone have a link to a good tutorial for how to get your iphone working fully with tmobile in the us? this seems a little hard to understand and it is talking about tmobile germany, and also how to undo the settings. I have my iphone unlocked with winpwn and i have stuck a tmobile sim card in it and can dial out but have no edge. I would like to be able to use email and youtube. Any ideas?

  23. fx61803

    got it for TMobile_SK on fw 2.0, thanks
    not exactly as expected, but the setting for cellular data showed up in network settings at last :)
    the connection data for edge are stored in /private/var/preferences/SystemConfiguration/preferences.plist
    just for the record ;)
    (not sure if they were they before since I didn’t look, but after adding the AllowEDGEEditing key into carrier bundle, it’s there
    so thanks for the pointer! )

  25. Pingback: No edge settings on iphone 2.0 1st G Help - iPhone Forums at ModMyiFone.com - iPhone | iPod Touch, news, apps, themes.

  26. No Fear Man

    I have upgraded to 2.0. No edge. PDP authentication error. Copied off carrier.plist. Converted it. Added lines. Cannot convert back. Cannot save as a file type that iphone recognises. Have tried opening in notepad. Saved as carrier.xml (ascii) and as carrier.txt. Uploaded these to iphone but will still not work on edge. Still pdp error. In New Zealand. HELP!!!!!

  27. No Fear Man

    It is as though version 2.0 totally disables EDGE network and renames it ‘Cellular Data Network’. Also I should have mentioned that I saved it as an ANSI. NOT Ascii. Even though I have added allowEDGEEditing etc. the phone refuses to bring up the edge tab under Settings – General – Network. I try browsing through Safari but still get PDP authentication failure. It is incredibly frustrating! Any help would be SO appreciated.

  28. Paul

    Hi all,

    I had ‘Cellular Data Network as an option’, but it wasn’t working.

    So I used BossPrefs and turned off the Edge settings and then back on again then it started working.
    :-)

  29. No Fear Man

    All good now. Found the answer on an NZ website. http://www.unlockit.co.nz
    Browse through wi-fi on iPhone Gen 1 or 3G and site creates a certificate which downloads to the iPhone and gets GPRS/EDGE working like a dream. You can even choose your apn, username and password.

  30. sebse

    Im afraid to admit this, but in my /Library/ folder doesnt exist a /Carrier Bundles/ folder.
    Im at Rogers (SIM card) so I have a canadian Iphone.
    Im using Fetch as SFTP client can this be the problem?

    Ich habe keinen /Carrier Bundles/ Ordner in meinem Library Ordner.
    Ich bin bei Rogers (kanadisches Iphone)
    und benutze Fetch als SFTP Klient, kann es daran liegen?

  31. metapapa

    Your Ftp client may fool you. Login via SSH terminal and enter:

    cd /
    cd System
    cd Library
    ls -la

    And post the output here…

    Using FTP clients: make sure you are in / folder, not in /root or anything else…

  32. sebse

    Yeah my FTP client just switched to /var/root/ instead just staying at the main folder.

  33. Bisy

    Hi all,
    I had 1.1.4 firmware and since i was using my O2 sim after unlocking therefore the EDGE settings were gone under General-Network. Therefore, editing the carrier.plist file under /System/Library/Carrier Bundles/O2_UK.bundle and adding the tag – AllowEDGEEditing to true did the wonder.
    I got back the EGDE settings under General-Network and therefore I was able to manipulate it and stop the EDGE being always used. Now I think I can use my WIFI without any fear…
    cheers for this tutorial man…

  34. Richard

    Hi guys, I’m trying to edit my carrier list, but from a PC. The only advice anyone has is to use the automated binary to ascii converter link;

    http://140.124.181.188/~khchung/cgi-bin/plutil.cgi

    The problem is, it’s currently returning a 0kb file, still in binary format. If I click on the other link to the website where the actual conversion is done;

    http://homer.informatics.indiana.edu…il/plutil.cgi/

    I get this;

    The requested URL /cgi-bin/plutil/plutil.cgi/ was not found on this server

    If anyone could suggest either where the converter has been moved to or how to convert a binary file to an ascii file on a PC, I would be incredibly grateful.

    Thanks in advance

    Rich

  35. Yarre Macedonia

    Easiest way is to delete yourprovider.bundle folder and restart your iphone.
    Everything is back to normal.

  36. Vineet

    Had the same problem of missing EDGE preferences. Tried ‘The Zen Way’ for carriers AIRTEL & VODAFONE in India on jailbroken & unlocked iPhone 1st Generation running Version 2.2. Works perfect.

    Thanks a ton !

  37. Pingback: iPhone Jailbreak and Unlock | GreenwaysRoad Blog

  38. Charlie

    OMG, I tried this for ages, unable to accurately view the plist file, tried ultraedit and N++ Then I read post 35, and thought bugger it, will give it a go…worked! Edge back in the menu, online in 10 secs. Thank you very much! I have FW 1.1.4, all I did was had a T-Mob sim, swapped to 02 PAYG, and Edge menu disappeared. Thanks again for fix

  39. Maz

    Hi, please HELP. !! I have tried the above, but i am on orange so the concept seems different, when i browse i see… Orange_li.bundle, and many others (replacing li), but don’t see any UK or anything UK related for me to go into and edit.

    Please advise.
    Could someone browse there phone for it and send me the plist file.

    Kind Regards

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