Brent Kearney

iPhone: How to Disable Cellular Internet Access

Posted on: July 21st, 2008 @ 09:35

Disable EDGE on iPhone For those of you using iPhones on cellular networks that do not include unlimited data access, you probably want to disable Internet access through your service provider’s network, and use only wifi for Internet access. In the first generation iPhone, you could disable cellular Internet access by changing the APN (access point name) in the Settings utility on the phone. In the new iPhone 2.0, however, Apple gave service providers the ability to disable this setting. If the carrier chooses to do that, you will automatically connect to the Internet through their network and incur their data access fees, and there is no built-in way to turn it off. Sneaky, and evil.

Fortunately for customers of underhanded carriers that disabled the APN option in the iPhone Settings, Apple has provided the iPhone Configuration Utility, which allows one to customize the APN. For your convenience, I’ve created a basic configuration profile that does just one thing: sets the APN to “NULL”, so that your phone won’t be able to use your cellular provider’s Internet service. Here it is. Note: do not rename it to end with .txt.  It should end with “.mobileconfig”.

Use a computer to e-mail it to yourself, as an attachment. If you are using Microsoft IE (Windows), download this zipped version, since IE seems to mangle the original file. You’ll have to unzip the file before e-mailing it to yourself. Alternatively you can get a better web browser here.

To install it on your phone, simply open the email on your iPhone. When you click on the attachment in the email, it will prompt you about applying the new configuration, and warn you about no trusted signature (I didn’t pay Verisign). Once the profile is installed, it won’t be possible for your iPhone to use your carrier’s network for Internet access. If you wish to re-enable cellular data access, all you need to do is open Settings -> General -> Profile, and remove the profile. The phone might require a reboot after removing the profile.

Enjoy!

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258 Comments:

  1. paul on July 21st, 2008 @ 13:50

    Hi….

    Excellent. Thanks for doing this. It seems to work as you say.

    mmm? Now, in the future, what happens if I get a data plan from Rogers. Can I go back to my old settings where it automatically connected to rogers?

    PR

  2. Eric on July 21st, 2008 @ 14:25

    Paul,

    I believe it just makes another option under General Settings as Profiles which it would show up under. So from there you can choose to remove it at a later date.

    Brent,
    I’m just paranoid, but you’re 100% positive it isn’t sending any data when in this profile mode? Does the profile survive normal restarts and soft restarts?

  3. Brent on July 21st, 2008 @ 14:38

    Eric, you’re right. You can re-enable cellular data access by removing the profile in Settings -> General -> Profile. My iPhone required a reboot after removing the profile, before EDGE started working again. I loaded up Google mobile on EDGE; Rogers will probably ding me $5 for that.

    I re-installed my configuration profile, and EDGE no longer works. The little “E” icon still appears after the carrier name, however, attempts to access the Internet produce the message, “Could not activate cellular data network: You are not subscribed to a cellular data service.”

    Just to answer your question, I rebooted the phone, and cellular access is still disabled.

  4. Eric on July 21st, 2008 @ 14:42

    Brent,

    Sorry about the $5 incurred cost…that sucks. Thanks for answering my question. I think this is going to be solution for us Rogers users that don’t wanna get killed by Rogers data prices. Just as an adder I found this yesterday that might help out other users that don’t have access to a mac or need the sophistication of the iPhone Configuration Utility. Its a web-based APN changer.
    http://www.unlockit.co.nz/

  5. paul on July 21st, 2008 @ 14:43

    Hi Brent and Eric:
    Thanks for replies.
    Confirmed. The profile stays after reboot, and EDGE is still disabled.
    Confirmed also, that deleting the profile sets it back so that EDGE works as before. (Though for me, I didn’t have to reboot. Edge was available as soon as I deleted the profile.)

    Super cool solution! Thanks again!

  6. Randy on July 21st, 2008 @ 18:40

    Cheers mate, excellent work!

  7. Dan on July 23rd, 2008 @ 13:38

    Or, even easier, install the Boss Prefs application. :)

  8. John144 on July 23rd, 2008 @ 20:07

    Allow me to post a question that may seem obvious to some but i have not found a clear answer on the net.

    Will this work for a locked 3G iphone. i.e. if I go buy one right now from rogers and try this right out of the box will it work?

    Most posts I found include users doing this on their unlocked first gen iphone and I have not seen anyone explicitly state that it works on a virgin 3G iphone.

    Can anyone please confirm.

    Thanks

  9. Brent Kearney on July 23rd, 2008 @ 21:49

    Hi John,

    I can’t test it for you, but I’m certain that it will work. The iPhone Configuration Utility was released for enterprises to configure iPhone 2.0, which is what 3G iPhones run.

    Best,
    Brent

  10. D_rell on July 26th, 2008 @ 09:29

    Ok… this definitely works to take off Edge settings… but it doesn’t allow me to use Wifi instead of the edge network. I’d like to use wifi alone. Is there a way to do that? I’m guessing Rogers is blocking the wifi feature on the phone forcing users to use their data services. How do I get around this?

  11. john144 on July 26th, 2008 @ 17:46

    I can confirm that the profile installs correctly on a new unmodified iphone.

    I assume it works but I had already had internet access disabled on my Rogers account first so edge was essentially already disabled. i recommend doing both in case rogers resets your account or something.

    To D_rell: wifi definately still works for me. You may be having some problems with your security settings on the wifi network that you are trying . I don’t believe your carrier can affect the wifi connection unless you are trying to connect to their wifi connection at one of their stores. Any free/open wifi network should work.

  12. Brent Kearney on July 27th, 2008 @ 16:28

    D_rell: john144 is correct; the APN settings have nothing to do with wifi, and wifi has nothing to do with your carrier (Rogers).

  13. D_rell on July 27th, 2008 @ 19:03

    Thanks for the reply… I’m using a first generation iphone. With the 1.1.4 firmware I was never able to connect to the edge. As soon as I upgraded and unlocked 2.0 firmware I’ve been on the edge network alone. I can see wifi connections and connect to them, but it still uses edge when I download data. I’ll keep messing around with it until I figure out the problem. I’m sure the setting for the wifi I’m using is fine because I’ve been using it for the last 6 months with firmware 1.1.4.

  14. Miky on July 28th, 2008 @ 07:41

    Can anyone tell me what APN Iphone 3G uses on Rogers ?
    I think it doesnot use internet.com, but is anyone able to check and verify the preconfigured settings built in Rogers Iphone3G ?

    The reason I think it doesnt use the internet.com is because of visual voicemail, They cannot have two different APNS for data and visual voicemail. if you know what i mean?

    Correct me if i am wrong. Bytheway this post was very very helpful

  15. yudi on July 28th, 2008 @ 13:23

    only thing u have to do to turn off edge is instal bosspref.

  16. Ricky on July 30th, 2008 @ 08:58

    Miky:

    The preconfigured apn is:

    Rogers.core.appl1.apn

    Thanks,

  17. Brent Kearney on July 30th, 2008 @ 09:21

    yudi: The BossPrefs option disables EDGE, but also disables cellular access in general, for me. The SIM goes into locked mode, so I can’t make or receive phone calls until I unlock it, which also brings EDGE back online.

    Ricky: thanks!

  18. Graham E on July 31st, 2008 @ 01:01

    Miky: here is a list of various cell phone providers (including rogers) and their APNs… http://www.taniwha.org.uk/gprs.html. You don’t need to know the APN if you want to do this trick though, because it automatically goes back to the normal APN after you delete the “Fake APN” profile.

    I’m using Fido and this trick works wonders. However, as Miky pointed out, the downfall of this brilliant idea is that you will not get visual voicemail. If anyone can find a way around this, please help me out. Right now, I can’t access my visual voicemail account, but when someone leaves me a voice message, i get a text and i just check it by pressing and holding “1″ on the keypad. Its not as good as the visual voicemail, but it does the trick.

  19. Paul on July 31st, 2008 @ 05:33

    Brent,

    I tried to install your profile to block Edge but it wouldn’t install on my iPhone 3G right out of the box. I probably don’t know what I am doing. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.
    I selected the “here it is” and and did a save as into my downloads folder. I then emailed it to myself and when I touched the attachment on my iPhone it just opened a page that showed all the code that you had typed. Nothing else happened.
    What am I doing wrong???

    Thanks in advance,
    Paul

  20. Deepak on August 2nd, 2008 @ 09:50

    Brent, works like a charm on my Rogers 3g iPhone running 2.0. Emailed myself the file and opened the attachment at which point a confirmation box or two popped up and installed. Verified EDGE was disabled without having to reboot the phone (you are not subscribed to any cellular data networks in Safari) and re-enabled EDGE without rebooting! Thanks mate.

  21. Esco on August 2nd, 2008 @ 15:13

    I downloaded the file and loaded it in the Apple Web Config utility and it is legit.

    I put my own description and sent it to my self via email and installed.

    Thanks poster for putting this up.

    I luv technology!!!!

  22. Renny on August 3rd, 2008 @ 05:56

    Awesome fix Brent. I am not with Rogers but with Optus in Australia and it works like a charm. I hate it that the mobile providers are forcing us IPhone 3G users to download data and there is no way to turn this feature off. Worked just like you said it. You saved me a packet.

    Thanks heaps.

    Cheers
    Renny

  23. Mike on August 5th, 2008 @ 16:34

    Will this still work with 2.1 update?

  24. ben on August 5th, 2008 @ 18:18

    Hey just wondering is there anyway to disable a profile instead of removing it?

    Example if i decided i want the cellular data network, remove the profile, but then decide i am done with the network. Opening up mail to install the profile again uses data, anyway to just disable the profile?

  25. 2G iPhone 2.0 on August 6th, 2008 @ 07:10

    [...] is also one of the legit Apple carriers (such as Swisscom in Switzerland). A workaround is to use a custom profile (a newly introduced technique to easily edit seetings on the iPhone, neat, indeed. Create your own [...]

  26. Doc_jdubs on August 7th, 2008 @ 01:08

    Hi all,

    So just to make sure, after you disable EDGE with one of the methods mentioned above (I get the “Could not activate cellular data network: You are not subscribed to a cellular data service.” message when I click on Safari, stocks, or weather), even if the E symbol is still present after the carrier name, no data will go in/out of the phone and thus I won’t get charged for data? (I’m on a voice plan only at Rogers, and I have already disabled 3G)

    Thanks!
    I appreciate it!

  27. kuikes on August 8th, 2008 @ 15:42

    It works fine on my 1st gen iPhone @ Vodafone Portugal.

    Just a thing, like ben said, is there a way to disable the profile instead of removing it?

  28. Ravi on August 9th, 2008 @ 08:35

    Thanks Brent.

  29. Super Dave on August 12th, 2008 @ 00:54

    Hi, i did everything has mentionned to install the app on my “brand-new-out-of-the-box-16gig” but, for a reason that is still unknown to me, it won’t download…i send it on my gmail which works well on my iphone, i can open the message, i can see the attachment but when i click on it nothing happens…like nothing…not even a download bar…is there someone who knows why this happens? thx for the answer!!

  30. Paul on August 12th, 2008 @ 11:50

    Hey Super Dave,
    I have a similar problem on my 16G (out of the box iPhone). When I touch the link in my email it just opens the attachment on a separate page where I can see the code. It does not install.
    See my question above on July 31st.
    I have not recieved a response to this and I have not figured out how to “INSTALL” the attachment.

    Please post if you get it to work. Good Luck!

    Paul

  31. Brent Kearney on August 12th, 2008 @ 12:26

    Super Dave & Paul: it could be that the mail client you are using is sending HTML or Rich Text email instead of plain text, and parsing the XML file (the APN file) to display it in-line, or something like that. Try playing around with your client settings (Composing -> Message Format in Mail.app), or using a different client altogether.

  32. skaught on August 13th, 2008 @ 18:38

    i got royally raped for sending 1.3 megs of data thorugh, i believe, push email or some bullshit. cost me 70.00. i was able to get that removed from my bill but this month ive already incurred 100+ dollars in data fees. wish i had this fix 2 weeks ago :(.

  33. skaught on August 13th, 2008 @ 18:39

    that works out to be roughly 53 cents per kilobyte.

  34. colin on August 16th, 2008 @ 19:09

    I installed the Iphone Config utility on my new Rogers G3 iPhone. I do not have a data package. It appears to be working, as I get the “you are not subscribed to a cellular data service” warning. I checked the cell network data usage and it shows that I have sent 11 KB and received 42KB of data in the day since I installed the utility. I am getting the E signal when I am out of WIFI range. Any ideas what might have caused the data usage?

    Colin

  35. Brent on August 16th, 2008 @ 20:38

    It had to have occurred before you changed the APN. Data cannot go out or come in without an access point.

  36. Rico on August 19th, 2008 @ 07:55

    Hello everyone,

    Thinking of buying a 3G from the Roger’s store. Heard horror stories about ppl going away on vacation that get dinged w/ roaming charges. I heard GPRS and EDGE are different. Would this configuration disable GPRS as well? Has anyone confirmed this yet?

    Thanks

    Rico

  37. Deryk on August 22nd, 2008 @ 08:51

    We need to find a way to disable mobile data while keeping visual voicemail. There must be a hack on the way. Has anyone heard anything??

  38. Mike on August 23rd, 2008 @ 00:33

    Ok, really troubled here. I couldn’t install your profile through your link because all I get is HTML info and I don’t know how to change it. So I went and downloaded a similar profile here:
    http://www.unlockit.co.nz/

    I thought it was working because I couldn’t get online with Safari but when I loaded One-Tap app for movie schedules, it seemed like I still sent 120 KB and received 250 KB of data!

    Someone tell me that isn’t real data usage because that would’ve just cost me about $20!

  39. chris howard on August 26th, 2008 @ 10:06

    I don’t know if anyone already said so, but I just went to Settings, General, Network, Cellular Data Network and then just added a character to the APN name. When I want cellular data access, I just remove that character.

  40. Manny on August 26th, 2008 @ 15:03

    “chris howard” this issue is with 2.0. That does not have the “Cellular Data Network” option. That is why we need the utility.

  41. chris howard on August 27th, 2008 @ 04:22

    2.0? Do you mean a first gen iPhone with 2.0 on it? Coz I’m running an iPhone 3G and it’s running 2.02.

    However, I’m in Oz, and is there a chance that the options could be different down here?

  42. Hassey on August 30th, 2008 @ 18:42

    Thank for providing an useful tool. In Japan, many people are discussing to keep fee minimum. Now, the tool is best candidate! Of course, I have installed the tool and been enjoying!

    People who would like to download ‘apn-disabler.mobileconfig’ should notice that file name adds extension like ‘.txt’ using Safari. So people could not install iPhone due to the extension. Please write down it in your sentence.

  43. Roko on August 30th, 2008 @ 18:53

    Hi,

    Does anyone know if this will also work for a brand new 3G iPhone version 2.02 in Canada on a Rogers cell plan. I do not have a data plan for my iPhone.

    Thanks.

  44. iPhoneを最低価格で使う | iPhone 3G Wiki blog on August 31st, 2008 @ 06:49

    [...] そこで興味ある記事を見つけましたので紹介します。 それは”iPhone 2.0: How to Disable Cellular Internet Access“です   この記事によるとCellular Internet AccessをDisableにする方法はthe [...]

  45. confused on August 31st, 2008 @ 12:03

    What’s the point of having an iPhone without a data plan? You can’t really do that much without accessing the data. The rates on Rogers aren’t that bad if you got in on the $35 6GB deal before the end of August. Having an iPhone, or any smart-phone for that matter, without a data plan is like having a car with no gas.

  46. chris howard on September 1st, 2008 @ 00:18

    confused, heard of WiFi? Works fine for me. I’m hardly ever away from it. So wy waste my money on data? And on the occasions I am, I can just whenever I need. Saves me money.

    Also, truckloads more you can do with an iPhone that doesn’t require data access. This is why it so kickass.

    A better comparison is it’s like having a car with a radio but never listening to it.

  47. olga on September 1st, 2008 @ 09:41

    somebody please advise

    what can I do to make wifi work? is there any settings and where?

    in the settings it shows not connected though wifi network is on

    my sell internet accsess is blocked (thanks to this site)

  48. Iderobina on September 1st, 2008 @ 10:53

    Can someone please explain to me how I am supposed to send this to my email. Weather it is in a document, or simply copy the text, in a mobileconfig format. I would appreciate it very much. If 2 or 3 simple steps can be published it would be very helpfull

  49. charles on September 1st, 2008 @ 14:23

    I will like to know how to attach the configuration file to my email, do i just copy it to a txt file and attached it.

    pls someone help

  50. iphone user on September 2nd, 2008 @ 06:40

    just click file–>save as –> desktop or anywhere else
    it will just save it as a text document, attach the saved file (text document) and send it to your gmail. it works

  51. chris howard on September 4th, 2008 @ 01:11

    ok, now I understand, I misread the original piece. I saw today how my carrier (Telstra) has allowed the access to the APN setting but looking at another friend’s phone (with Optus), I saw that she didn’t have the APN setting. (we’re both on 2.02)

    I thought the article meant all iPhones had this setting removed in v2. So, sorry if I confused anyone.

  52. Goofyb on September 5th, 2008 @ 12:37

    Hello!

    Well, there must be something I am doing wrong, cuz I just can’t get to “open” the attachment from my iPhone.

    The part “When you click on the attachment on your iPhone, it will prompt you about applying the new configuration” never happen.

    I can save the attachment as a picture tho, but I doubt this is something that can help me…

    Thanks!
    :o)

  53. Brent Kearney on September 7th, 2008 @ 23:53

    Goofyb: make sure the file name ends with .mobileconfig, and not .txt or something else.

  54. Charm on September 8th, 2008 @ 21:36

    Hi,
    Ive saved the file as “apn-disabler.mobileconfig” and sent to myself. However, when i try to open it on my iphone, i was prompted “Invalid Profile” and i can’t open the file in anyway.

    What should i do?

    I’m running on 2.0.2 btw.

  55. Brent on September 9th, 2008 @ 23:31

    Thanks to Charm, I’ve discovered that MS IE on Windows mangles the file when downloading it. I have updated the article and provided a zipped version of the file for Windows users.

  56. D on September 12th, 2008 @ 21:41

    I’ve ordered the iphone but haven’t gotten it yet so I’m just trying to understand how to proceed to block the data internet. I understand I have to visit the website you mentioned from my iphone or email the file to myself, but my question is when I go on my iphone to open my email, or access the website, won’t I be paying for the data to do this one action? Or is there something I’m missing?
    thanks a lot for any help

  57. Brent on September 13th, 2008 @ 10:40

    What will you be using after you “block the data internet”? You should use that before you block it, too.

  58. D on September 13th, 2008 @ 10:47

    nice touch.
    i don’t know if i’m able to use “it” (wifi) before i block the data like i’m able to use it after, since i don’t have the phone yet and have never used one before. just trying to understand from everything that’s been written.
    way to go for making fun of a beginner (Y)

  59. Brent on September 14th, 2008 @ 10:20

    Could be much worse:

    http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3159/2807838577_83cbed0126_o.jpg?t=1053139

    :)

  60. Scott Campagnolo on September 14th, 2008 @ 15:53

    Hey, great Tool ! do you know if it will work for 2.1 ? The new unlock came from the dev team acouple days ago.

  61. Brent on September 17th, 2008 @ 00:16

    Yes, it works with 2.1.

  62. Daniel on September 19th, 2008 @ 19:16

    It works just fine, I’ve done it to my iPhone with firmware 2.1.

    Thank you so much for the tool

  63. Jimmy on September 27th, 2008 @ 01:16

    Umm, I’m not sure how to do this.. I know I sound stupid but it’s the truth, so someone can help me with that?

    I mean how should I email it to my self?
    As a page only? Or as a text document?

    Please help.

    Thank you.

  64. joan muller on September 30th, 2008 @ 13:55

    Or you can use this website:

    http://iphonenodata.com/site/

    Basically in short:

    1. Launch Safari on your iPhone
    2. Go to iphonenodata.com
    3. Tap the “Disable EDGE/3G” button
    4. Tap “Install”
    5. Tap “Install Now” to confirm

  65. Brent on September 30th, 2008 @ 14:28

    Jimmy: email it (using a computer, not your iphone itself) as an attachment. In most email clients, the attach button is a paperclip icon. In Apple Mail, you can also choose “Attach File” from the File menu. Don’t change the file itself – it is XML, which is sensitive to formatting, and the iphone looks for file attachments that end with “.mobileconfig”.

  66. Brent on September 30th, 2008 @ 14:31

    Joan: thanks for the link! I will add a similar link to this page.

  67. Kelsay on November 12th, 2008 @ 15:58

    So you just save the link to your desktop or something, email it as an attachment to yourself, and then check your email on your iphone and open it?

  68. Kelsay on November 12th, 2008 @ 15:58

    And do you have to use wifi on your iphone to do it?

  69. helpneeded on November 14th, 2008 @ 12:04

    i did the thing but now i cannot even use wifi… help!!!

  70. Brent on November 14th, 2008 @ 13:32

    Note that the APN has nothing to do with wifi; try checking your wireless access point or calling your ISP.

  71. helpneeded on November 14th, 2008 @ 13:35

    yeah i understand that. I am not sure if before the profile change i was able to use wifi… but the wifi access point name is in the wifi settings and it accepted the password for it and a checkmark appears next to it (i assume this means it is connected to that wifi network). I am a total newbie at this, got my iphone 3g with 2.1 firmware yesterday. Thanks for your help !

  72. Joe on November 14th, 2008 @ 23:41

    Guys i went thought the emails and i still cant figure it out i downloaded the file sent it to myself opened email on iphone tapped on the attachment and nothing did not open then tried the zipped file it has two things a folder called macosx and under it APN…. can you guys help me out please by the way im running 2.0.2 version

  73. Ivana on November 15th, 2008 @ 10:44

    Hi!
    Need help please.I live in Croatia and I’ll definately disable edge,just got a nice letter from my probider T-Mobile, a fortune to pay next week,my God,prices here are throught the roof.Not to bore you,I jailbroke my new iPhone3G few days ago when I bought it and I installed SwirlyMMS,so can I still send and receive SMS and MMS if I dissable the edge?
    Please let me know, access to wi-fi is all around me for free.
    Tnx.

  74. Ivana on November 15th, 2008 @ 12:24

    Hi to all,…well I checked the Swirly site again and found the answer for sending and receiving mms,so to all that use Swirly here is what their FAQ says: Q: Can I send and receive MMS over WiFi instead of EDGE/GPRS?
    A: No. The Service Operators only allow MMSs to be sent and received through their special Access Points, only accessible over EDGE/GPRS.

  75. wei on November 18th, 2008 @ 15:24

    uhm…b4 i install this file.i called my phone company and told them to stop my internet, and the E(edge) is gone. So my question is, do i stil need to install this file? or i am already blocked from the internet access since the E sign is off

  76. Brent on November 18th, 2008 @ 17:11

    Wei, it sounds like you’re blocked from Edge access by your phone company, but the question is really for them to answer. If you trust them, then there’s no need to change the APN (by installing the file).

  77. Seeko on November 22nd, 2008 @ 00:16

    Hey Brent,

    Some very impressive work it appears to be. I googled this page and seems like this is exactly what i was looking for. Tomorrow, I am ordering the 3G 8GB phone. Fingers crossed. But it seems like most people with 8GB and 16GB are having trouble switching off the EDGE. Is there a particular reason behind that? Brent, do you think your formula should work on my new 8GB properly? I love the iphone but I don’t want to incur $40 per month for some bulshit automatic access fees. please reply. You are a ray of hope, mate.

  78. Sunny on November 26th, 2008 @ 01:32

    Hey Guys

    This sounds like a great thing, however I’m using Windows to download the file. When I download and unzip it, it leaves a MACOSX folder and the APN disabler.mobileconfig file. Inside the MACOSX folder is another ._APN disabler.mobileconfig file. I’ve tried emailing myself each of these files and when I try to download them, I recieve no prompt or anything at all. Any idea to what’s going wrong?
    Thanks a lot!

  79. sam on November 29th, 2008 @ 12:41

    Hey guys,

    I tried using this for my iPhone 3g on firmware 2.1 and it seemed like it doesnt work. anyone could help?

    Thanks!

  80. Christine on December 8th, 2008 @ 09:26

    THANK YOU!

    just got my iphone last week an already received a note from Fido that I have spent more than 15$ in internet fees, even though I was careful about the internet usage. I just installed the file and it’s blocked! It’s working! I got the no access message.

    thank you very much!

  81. Christine on December 8th, 2008 @ 12:00

    Another question… I have the “patch” applied, if I turn on the 3gb capacity using wifi connection, would that use my provider internet server and add fees to my account?

    thanks

  82. santius on December 12th, 2008 @ 23:08

    I worked for me, but it also disabled 3g, Im from Uruguay, could it be the casuse?

    After uninstalling the app everithing is ok!

    Thanks!

  83. Brent on December 13th, 2008 @ 11:22

    Santius: it’s supposed to disable 3g.

  84. inder on December 20th, 2008 @ 17:53

    nice one

  85. Juan on December 20th, 2008 @ 22:18

    I got a 3G 2.2. Your program worked beautifully. Thanks a lot

  86. Maher on December 21st, 2008 @ 14:19

    Hi,
    please help me, I have followed the steps and all went ok installed then done with no problem, but for a reason which I don’t know I am still connected, if this helps I am using first generation with 2.1 firmware and the provider is outside north america if this make any difference?

  87. Bes on December 25th, 2008 @ 11:09

    Hi, I have a iPhone 2.2 and changing the APN settings does not help — it still performs data transfer, and I get no error or warning. Do you have any suggestions?

  88. jun on December 30th, 2008 @ 21:59

    hi, im having a problem, my carrier was somehow automatically set to null and my apn settings under network dissapeared…thng is i need to configure my apn settings to epc.tmobile.com so my data services can work..i tried the file which uploads a custom apn profile but no luck…i have 2.1 version..any ideas guys?

  89. adam on January 2nd, 2009 @ 22:44

    quick question before I try this.
    does this new profile change anything other than the ability to access the internet/mail? basically, I want to be sure that 1) I can still use the phone and 2) after I delete the profile, everything gets back exactly the way it was. thanks

  90. lynh on January 3rd, 2009 @ 15:49

    Happy New year to everyone and I would like to say a BIG THANK YOU to Brent Kearney for this helpful post. I am in Australia and was charged $20 just to leave my Sim card (no data plan) in the iphone(legally unlocked by Apple – 16GB 3G version ) by Soul mobile (Optus)over a 5 days period. This fix by Brent works perfectly even on the latest iphone 2.2 firmware updates. For those that have trouble with their wifi access – iphone does not accepts CAPITALISED passwords even if the access pasword to the WIFI is originally capitalised. As Brent and others have posted, this fix does not interfer with your Wifi settings. Finally, rest assured all this fix does is to null the APN thus switching off GPRS/EDGE/3G access. All other iphone functions are still normal. Thanks again Brent, its people like you that makes the internet a great place to be and thanks for your fix.

  91. Brent on January 6th, 2009 @ 10:02

    Thanks Lynh; very kind of you.

  92. toto on January 6th, 2009 @ 16:00

    Bravo Brent,
    really useful. Nice shot & muchas gracias.

    toto

  93. toto on January 6th, 2009 @ 16:16

    I translate your trick on a french forum, because no one got it … stupid frenchies ;)

  94. Kaye on January 10th, 2009 @ 05:58

    Hello just a question if i change the APN number does that then mean that my iphone will not access internet at all?
    somebody talled me the iphone automatically connects via internet to apple.
    I got the iphone as a present but my mobile contract charges me way to much for internet so i wont to stop it.
    so with changing APN this will not happen??
    thanks

  95. Kaye on January 10th, 2009 @ 05:59

    Hello just a question if i change the APN number does that then mean that my iphone will not access internet at all?
    somebody talled me the iphone automatically connects via internet to apple.
    I got the iphone as a present but my mobile contract charges me way to much for internet so i wont to stop it.
    so with changing APN this will not happen??
    thanks

  96. einos on January 11th, 2009 @ 18:48

    Thanks allot for this application. I don’t know the source of my trouble, but i received a lot of message in my iPhone said the last transaction cost 0.03 usd and that make me crazy ( i get att”t pay as you go). I have remarked that my iPhone when it was in sleep(Auto-Lock)it’s turn to (E) i mean the iPhone use service provider’s network instead to use my local Internet with wifi. But right now when i use your application every thing turn going good.

    Thanks dude

  97. Mickael on January 20th, 2009 @ 07:55

    Simple/Efficient : Good Job, Thanks a million Brent!

  98. Jon on January 21st, 2009 @ 21:18

    Will the maps function still work (GPS) if I change the APN to null?

    Thanks so much

  99. Brent on January 21st, 2009 @ 21:32

    Hi Jon; I’m pretty sure that the GPS antenna communicates with GPS satellites, and not your phone company. So yes, GPS will still work when you kill the EDGE/G3 connection to your telco. Although, some applications combine GPS data with data from the Internet, and that probably includes mapping applications. So you’ll need a wifi connection for those applications to work.

  100. Jon on January 22nd, 2009 @ 18:16

    Great, thanks Brent. Very useful site. In relation to the above, how well can I get around using the gps on the iphone with the APN disabled? Is it useable, accurate, to get to around (assuming there is no wifi?)

    Thanks

  101. Bob on January 30th, 2009 @ 15:28

    I want an iPhone but have no need of the expensive monthly cost. I just want it for all the features, camera, ipod, GPS, etc.

    If I bought an iPhone off of ebay.com, will it still work even though I won’t have a carrier for it?

    Thanks!

  102. Brent on January 30th, 2009 @ 16:04

    Hi Bob,

    Are there people who have need of an expensive monthly cost?

    All of the features of iPhone work fine without a cellular carrier. You can use an iPhone with any SIM card to get cellular access if you “jailbreak” it. It is easy to do using software from the iPhone Dev Team: http://blog.iphone-dev.org/

  103. andy on February 3rd, 2009 @ 22:44

    Hi,

    Im on NZ vodafone and found out that when im overseas if I use roaming data its $30/mb so im trying to turn off the connection so I dont inadvertently use it. I installed the profile provided but safari still connected to a web page (3G turned off)

  104. Usman on February 8th, 2009 @ 03:10

    Hi, I istalled the file and now if i check my settings its says “APN Disabler” on profile. I just want to confirm that i am ok and not going to be charged by rogers for using the data. Thanks

  105. ivars on February 11th, 2009 @ 20:14

    Many thanks, works great with Telstra (Australia). Hate being ripped off and really appreciate your help to thwart an evil telco. Well done!

  106. Ebenezer on February 12th, 2009 @ 03:16

    Works great.
    Thanks for sharing. Just imagine how much this tool would help people save.

    Well done

  107. RobH on February 13th, 2009 @ 15:07

    Excellent! Just what I needed till I can assess typical monthly usage and costs! Thanks Brent!

  108. flexaH on February 13th, 2009 @ 19:43

    Awesome! Thanks a ton!

  109. jerome on February 16th, 2009 @ 03:05

    It works very well however is it possible to disable this null profile rather than delete it and have to install it each time I want to turn off all data.

  110. olaf on February 24th, 2009 @ 22:32

    How many of you,guys can confirm this is blocking you completely from EDGE/GPRS/3G in Canada (Fido)? I requested Fido to put complete data block on my iPhone 3G account and they said they do not guarantee it will always work.They also said that if any data charges occur after putting the blocks I will be fully responsible for them.
    Anybody faced similar situation with them?

  111. olaf on February 27th, 2009 @ 09:25

    So, nobody knows if this is really working?

  112. Staffo on February 27th, 2009 @ 15:21

    I just want to say thank you! I have a AT&T GoPhone and I get charged by the byte for using the netwrok’s data service and I was constantly getting ripped off. Now everything’s perfect! Thank you so much!

  113. Brittany on March 10th, 2009 @ 13:44

    I was just wondering if there is anyway to tell if this is working or not. I emailed it to myself and it says APN disabler under Profile but I’m still worried that Rogers is somehow going to charge me for using wifi.

  114. mike on March 10th, 2009 @ 20:57

    Please,help.I followed the instructions.I emailed the file to me using Mozilla but when I tried to download the attachment a message appears “Safari cannot download this file”.
    What to do?
    Thanks in advance.

  115. mike on March 11th, 2009 @ 16:36

    Brittany,
    wi-fi has nothing to do with the cell carrier.You can use wifi without sim.How are they gonna charge then?

  116. sebasong on March 14th, 2009 @ 22:39

    This is great. Thank you!

  117. Uli on March 16th, 2009 @ 15:29

    Hi Brent,

    thanks for creating the profile. I have a unlocked 2G iphone (US version) using it with a pre-paid card from T-Mobile in Germany. Got royally screwed over the weekend when traveling to Berlin and did not realize the phone was constantly connecting to the data network. Cost me €40 for 2.5 days in Berlin. I made 2 national calls only (less than a minute each). The rest was for data in the background. Your profile should be made available from the get go in all iPhones worldwide.

    Thanks again for a great job.
    Uli

  118. Micro Logic on March 16th, 2009 @ 20:08

    Works perfectly with an iPhone 3G jailbraked with FIDO (in canada). I was using boss prefs before. I’ve used the link http://www.unlockit.co.nz, to remove the APN. So i’ve carefully activate 3G and Edge from BossPrefs and looked carefully (did I say carefully twice ?) at it to see if it was trying to connect to both network. Tried to go on the web and i’ve got the “connection problem bla bla” message. Reactivated the wi-fi and it’s working good.Thank you very much !!!!

  119. C on March 19th, 2009 @ 03:06

    Fantastic. Been getting hit for a few kb per day which racks up by the end of the month. APN settings were blank and ouldn’t figure out how it could connect over GPRS. Many thanks for this :-)

  120. K on March 22nd, 2009 @ 20:20

    I can’t thank you enough. I installed your app via email on a NEW and UN-BROKEN 16GB 3G and it works awesome. I can’t thank you enough — really.

  121. Amc on March 28th, 2009 @ 06:55

    Ok, but why does my carrier usage stays show 7mb of data? I thought this should be 0 since I put this in. Help !!

  122. Micah on March 29th, 2009 @ 11:32

    I’m from China and I bought an iPhone 3g from New Zealand. Umm, the carrier here is China Mobile. This whole thing is just driving me crazy, my iPhone firmware is 2.21, it just won’t work, I mean I strictly followed the steps and everything went on well, after the profile installed, yet the edge could still run…..HELP!

  123. Brent on March 31st, 2009 @ 08:00

    @Amc, @Micah: I don’t know. When you go to Settings -> General -> Profile on your phone, do you see “APN disabler”, and a Remove button? If so, you should call your cellular service provider to confirm whether EDGE/G3 is still being used. If it is being used despite the installation of the profile, you should call Apple and ask them why setting your APN to “NULL” appears not to stop the data flowing over 3G.

    I’m interested to know what you discover.

    Thanks!

  124. Jimmy on April 3rd, 2009 @ 09:07

    I’m just tried this on my iPhone on the Rogers network and it worked great!!
    I’m using 2.2.1 and both the install and uninstall were easy.
    However, I’m using Safari 4 and I need to download the .zip version, unzip and then email the file to myself. When I tried downloading the .mobileconfig file, Safari 4 changed it to a .txt file. But, like I said, the “zipped” version worked great.

    I’m going to Vegas next week and now I won’t have to worry about extra data charges and I’ll have more $$ for the Blackjack table ;)

    Cheers!!

    P.S. I hope it still works when they release 3.0!!

  125. Brent on April 3rd, 2009 @ 13:14

    Hopefully in iPhone 3.0, Apple brings back easy APN settings or creates a simple switch to turn off 3G/EDGE data, so that this hack won’t be necessary!

    Cheers,
    Brent

  126. George on April 4th, 2009 @ 10:06

    I installed it today and it works great so far. Hope it remains this way. These data charges in Canada are outrageous.

  127. D'Tanga on April 13th, 2009 @ 21:42

    Not to sound dumb but just to clarify:

    I’m buying an unlocked iPhone soon. If I apply this file, then sign up to Fido, I wouldn’t get charged for data access but I would still be able to call people normally, text message and use Wifi internet?

    Thank you. :)

  128. Mike on April 14th, 2009 @ 13:39

    I bought my Iphone two weeks ago and not knowing GPS needs to talk to tower to get the data incurred US$150.00. Thanks to this website I found another software at iphonenodata.com which is very easy to install and took less than a minute , I have no worry of data charges, it works perfectly. Only thing as someone also asked, if the GPS will work wihtout Edge/G3, the answer is NO.
    My software version is 2.2.1, 16G, I live in USA.

    Once again, than you very much.

    Mike

  129. TJ on April 15th, 2009 @ 10:01

    @Mike – You could have turned off “Location services” from the menu

  130. Mike on April 17th, 2009 @ 12:13

    @TJ – Location services in “ON”. What I meant was with no Data available through G3 you can not access GPS but with wifi there is no problem.

  131. Chotu on April 20th, 2009 @ 11:47

    Thx B for this profile.. its working great :)
    awesom work brother:)
    thx for it again :)

  132. Victor Lee on May 4th, 2009 @ 07:46

    I have send the file to my own email but I just cant open the file from my email. Is there any proper solution for it ?

    Or, did I did the process wrongly ?
    thanks

  133. kevin on May 26th, 2009 @ 00:46

    It worked just fine, thanks bro, im glad there are canadians looking out for us. One love ayh.

  134. Sarvo on June 18th, 2009 @ 19:42

    Great tool and thanks for making it available for all to use. I am an Optus (Australian) customer.

    I applied your patch to the newly released OS 3.0 on an iPhone 3G (8Gb) model and it worked like a charm.

  135. isz on June 20th, 2009 @ 12:09

    thanks, this works for me on iphone 3g with os 3.0.

    i found another way to install it into the iphone, without going through an email.

    connect you iphone to our pc. download and install iphone configuration utility 2.0 from apple’s website onto your pc. it is a pretty neat s/w to have. your iphone will show up in the iphone config util s/w, just like the way it does in itunes. drag and drop the ASN_DISABLER file into iphone config util’s CONFIGURATION PROFILE node. it will show up in the CONFIGURATION node, with a little button called INSTALL. click on INSTALL. follow prompts on iphone. you are all set. i have tested on E, but not on 3G. wifi works fine.

  136. Shv on June 20th, 2009 @ 18:56

    Is it possible to enable mms with apn disabler? And how?
    Some is trying to solve it in japan but not yet succeeded.

  137. CS on June 20th, 2009 @ 20:49

    I’m new to this…

    I saw above that this profile works on 3.0 but has anyone tested it on the iPhone 3gs ???

    cheers

  138. Andre K. on June 28th, 2009 @ 04:42

    Tested on iphone 3GS, it disables 3G, edge, gprs and gsm connection but the phone get unregistered from the cellular network.
    So you’ll get no more sms or call until you send a sms or call anybody.
    I explain:
    when the screen of the iphone go off, all incoming calls are rejected and sms delayed.
    when I hear my mailbox or send a sms, I’ll get the sended sms and the rejected call as I had turned the phone off.
    By deleting the profile, everything go as expected but data too.
    If someone has a solution please tell it me.
    Sorry for my english, I’m french.

  139. hiroyuki on June 29th, 2009 @ 09:15

    thank you

  140. majic on June 30th, 2009 @ 21:00

    Very nice, good job,
    Work’s fine with 3g OS 3.0

  141. CS on July 1st, 2009 @ 07:47

    “…it disables 3G, edge, gprs and gsm connection but the phone get unregistered from the cellular network.So you’ll get no more sms or call until you send a sms or call anybody.” Andre K.

    If anyone has had any success on the iphone 3GS please let me know…

    Sounds like there could be some problems??

  142. Chris on July 4th, 2009 @ 15:24

    Just installed on it my Iphone 3G (8GB) with 3.0 which I just managed to jailbreak and unlock – but data is still coming in – very slowly I admit (3G is off) – what have I done wrong? I installed it through the Iphone configuration utility 2.0 and went thro without any probs and in PROFILE, have APN disabler and its verified, but still data coming in…

  143. iphone on July 4th, 2009 @ 20:37

    @Chris
    Why don’t you go to http://unlockit.co.nz and load that profile. Both profiles work. Also why are you loading the profile from here using iphone config utility?

  144. net on July 4th, 2009 @ 23:50

    try h t t p : / / u n l o c k i t . c o . n z

  145. net on July 4th, 2009 @ 23:52

    @Chris: Install Sbsettings. it has 3g/edge on/off buttons

  146. Arbaz on July 5th, 2009 @ 05:03

    Thanks for this. Bcz i lost so much due to this but now its working very well.

  147. Lars on July 5th, 2009 @ 13:39

    I’ll get my 3GS tomorrow but I have one more week with my old contract (without unlimited data). So I can use this trick to block all data, but then I can’t call or txt anymore? That would be okay because it’s just one week.

  148. kaissya on July 17th, 2009 @ 13:50

    Great job saved me (2G 3.0 OS Jailbreak :-))

  149. luke on July 20th, 2009 @ 12:28

    hi, this worked great until i recently updated the firmware to 3.0 and the profile no longer does its job. help i am racking up data useage and i don’t even want to

    L

  150. luke on July 20th, 2009 @ 12:33

    http://www.k-director.com/blog/5-steps-to-disable-iphone-3gs-os-3-0-gprs-or-edge-connection/

    this worked for me

    L

  151. Christophe Smith on July 28th, 2009 @ 13:58

    Dear Sir,

    Your Disable Cellular Internet Access works on 3G iPhone as well.

    Thank you,
    Christophe Smith

  152. Gary on July 31st, 2009 @ 08:15

    Just a clarification. Going to Europe and I asked Fido to block my Internet access. The phone and text still operate. Question: Will Wifi work and is there anything else I should diable to ensure no $ surprises.

  153. net on July 31st, 2009 @ 12:58

    @Gary – I am pretty sure once you return to Canada they will re-enable it.

  154. Ido Riza on August 4th, 2009 @ 04:03

    Dear All,
    I already tried the way Briant tell us to install the APN Disabler, it works and already installed in my profile. But the problem is, my data still Run and still. I also try from http://www.unlockit.co.nz/, same things it wont works.

    Can u guyz help me to disabling the Data Edge in my I-phone Classic 2.2 Version

    Best Regards

  155. Rob on August 9th, 2009 @ 23:08

    Fantastic, I’ve been looking for this for ages and stopping Singtel raping me on GPRS web acces.
    Great, thanks

  156. matt on August 26th, 2009 @ 12:43

    Thanks Brent.

    This works on my original iPhone, jail-broken and unlocked using a t-mobile sim card. I am using their pay-as-you-go plan which does not include Edge data. since I’m wary of data charges I used your profile to be certain I wouldn’t incur extra charges. The phone is running much hotter than it was before jail-breaking it and adding this profile. Is this normal for it to run hotter?

    Matt

  157. Sekar on September 18th, 2009 @ 10:27

    Thanks. A problem is solved. However, another raised.

    Mine is iPhone 3G v3.1. The problem is that even it is connected to WiFi, it just cannot go to internet at all. Therefore, it means that using this setting blocks both way of internet access, WiFi and Mobile Internet. Do I have solution to it at all?

    Cheers

  158. Raj on September 28th, 2009 @ 07:24

    Thanks, it worked on Softbank Iphone 3GS in Japan also. The only problem I have seen is that after enabling profile “messages” neither sent the SMTP mails (non SMS) nor receives with even wifi connectivity. To check if it is because of profile or something else I removed the APN profile and my iphone got flooded with all messages piled up on various messaging servers. I wonder if APN disable profile is disabling something else also. To clarify internet on my phone works fine with APN Disabler profile and WIFI connectivity

    But anyhow thanks a heap for providing profile.

  159. Rob on September 28th, 2009 @ 16:00

    Well, here’s my findings. I got my wife a 2G phone on August 23rd. I flashed it with firmware 3.0 and then unlocked and jailbroke it using resno0w 0.8. I installed SBSettings. I turned off EDGE. I verified that Safari, Mail, Yahoo apps cannot connect. OK. Seems logical.

    My bill just came and between the 24th of August and the 23rd of September the phone transferred about 48MB via EDGE. And my bill is hundreds of dollars.

    So…anyone?

  160. Jeff on October 4th, 2009 @ 11:46

    Rob: Edge is just a faster data network – GPRS is the standard version for GSM phones. So turning Edge off might just mean you’re phone is using the slower GPRS instead.

  161. Stephen on October 13th, 2009 @ 05:40

    Hi just wondering here, is this what apple would call a third party software? I’m kinda paranoid about things like jailbreaking and stuff and how apple voids your warrenti well I would like to know if this would void it too? You know what I mean?

  162. STEPHAN/FRANCE on October 13th, 2009 @ 09:57

    hello… On new 3GS in FRANCE.
    I would like to block internet / EDGE and leave it by WIFI avoiding huge extra cost connections.
    How is it possible and sure ?
    Thanks
    Stéphan

  163. Brent on October 13th, 2009 @ 10:14

    Stephen: as mentioned in the article, the iPhone Configuration Utility is provided by Apple – it is not 3rd party software.

    Stephen/France: disable 3G in Settings -> General -> Network, and install the APN as described on this page. There have been conflicting reports about whether changing the APN setting actually works in iPhone OS 3.

    Another, and probably better way to disable Edge is to jailbreak the phone (see http://brent.kearneys.ca/2009/10/02/how-to-unlock-an-iphone-3gs/ ), and install SBsettings. It comes with a toggle button for 3G and Edge, which is much more convenient than messing with the APN settings.

  164. 0aq on October 19th, 2009 @ 21:57

    SBsettings’ toggle for EDGE does NOT actually disable it. So far there is no reliable working solution of this issue.

  165. APN-DisablerでiPhoneの3Gパケット通信をシャットアウト - iPhone for life on November 9th, 2009 @ 03:53

    [...] ※参照・感謝 iPhone: How to Disable Cellular Internet Access [...]

  166. KARIM on November 16th, 2009 @ 00:54

    zilliiion thanks, works great with Etisalat(UAE). Well done!

  167. Belaslav on November 30th, 2009 @ 09:29

    Thanks so much. TAKE THAT ROGERS!!

  168. khufo on December 25th, 2009 @ 10:51

    Works fine, thank you

  169. Richard on December 31st, 2009 @ 07:22

    How the hell do you open the file?!
    Am i supposed to open the file as a text document or what?!
    I have the iPhone Configuration Utility installed, but how do i save this file as “.mobileconfig”?!
    Confused.
    Please help; need to turn off EDGE :|

  170. Ray on January 1st, 2010 @ 03:24

    Very nice. Thank you very much.

  171. Syak on January 3rd, 2010 @ 07:19

    Hey,

    Thanks for this. My phone bill has been really high since I got my iPhone 3G because everytime I use the wifi, without me knowing, it switches to the cellular internet. I understand this is the solution to turn the cellular network off right? Well I did everything and tested it by switching off my wifi and connecting my phone to google.com via safari. And the page loaded. Does this mean my cellular internet is still working? How do I turn it compeletly off?

  172. Jocelyn on January 3rd, 2010 @ 09:06

    thank u!!! this works on my 3GS (i’m using a Japan one)!

  173. iPhone 3GS on Softbank « tech and japan on January 4th, 2010 @ 03:15

    [...] Disable Cellular Access [...]

  174. BOSS on January 16th, 2010 @ 04:46

    for all of those not being able to open the attch.
    use this

    http://iphonenodata.com/site/

    worked for me!!!!!!!

    100%

    not trying to take people away from here, just trying to help.

  175. nalz on February 4th, 2010 @ 09:20

    1. Will this work for original model (2G) of iphone but with 3.0 Firmware? I am in USA on AT&T carrier.
    2. Currently, there is no “Profile” option within Settings->General->. Will the “profile” option spring up after using this application? At sometime in future, i would need to get the data plan back and so checking whether i could go back or not?

    Thanks very much.

  176. Susan David on February 8th, 2010 @ 09:53

    I just got hit by $700 in data access fees by T-Mobile in Germany where I live. I didn’t know the dratted iPhone 2G would access the internet without my khowledge. I downloaded the file, and the APN profile is installed. How can I be sure that access to any cellular network is blocked? What do I look for – whether EDGE, GPRS (which is what I think is in use here), or any other? Thanks very much.

  177. evil.clay on February 11th, 2010 @ 18:57

    Hi,

    Disable you wi-fi (tur it off) open safari and try access any website… http://www.google.com for example… the phone should inform you with a popup that you do not have access to the internet… then youre shure… I’m in australia now, and have tried this config for Virgin Mobile and it works. Thanks a lot.

  178. Marais on February 14th, 2010 @ 01:00

    This is a GREAT script! Thanks, it saved me hours of fidgeting with the Iphone Configuration utility.

  179. Marais on February 14th, 2010 @ 02:00

    one last thing, sometimes after deleting the file from the profile, and even rebooting (Iphone 3G latest firmware in 2/2010) the phone still won’t connect the carrier.
    So just reinstall the file again, uninstall and all works again perfectly!
    Genious!

  180. desQEDo on February 24th, 2010 @ 00:59

    Unless I’m missing something, if you just want to use Wi-Fi: in Settings turn Airplane Mode ON and Wi-Fi ON.
    Anyway, for me that does the trick on my iPhone 3GS (& my old 3G in Japan) without installing anything.

  181. evil.clay on February 24th, 2010 @ 01:24

    You’re missing the fact that in airplane mode, no-one can call you nor you can call anybody. This just for diabling celluar data without affection voice data (calls)

  182. desQEDo on February 24th, 2010 @ 02:55

    Thanx evil.clay. Of course! Though from all the writing on this blog it just looked as if the cell functionality was not needed in many cases. ‘Course if you want to separate phone and Internet connection functionalities …hack away.

  183. evil.clay on February 24th, 2010 @ 03:03

    oh, this is not a hack, is an iPhone feature called Profiles.

  184. Aaron on February 26th, 2010 @ 07:52

    This is really good. it saves me lots of money. i was unnoticingly robbbed by Optus. omg…lucky i found this. highly recommended 4 all iphone users!!

  185. Roy on March 6th, 2010 @ 19:05

    I’m in Japan so my iPhone is provided by Softbank. There’s things on the web in Japanese saying that Softbank has gone the route of having iPhones always use 3G when accessing the web even when WiFi is available and the WiFi icon shows. Is there any way to check if that’s the case – ie when both 3G and WiFi are enabled, can you check some way to see which is being used? I actually use my iPhone mostly as a phone when away from home and then it (theoretically!) connects to the WiFi network at home, but of course, my data plan still somehow maxes out every month – so I guess it’s right, but wanted to check.

    Slightly different thing, but the main provider of WiFi hotspots here is NTT Docomo, partially government run competitor to Softbank. The iPhone can’t access the NTT network. NTT says it’s because iPhone is incapable of running PPPoE — people on the web say it’s because NTT doesn’t sell iPhone. Is this the same anywhere else? Can iPhone run PPPoE?

  186. evil.clay on March 6th, 2010 @ 22:36

    Go to your settings -> General -> Usage

    There you can see Cellular Data network which is a counter for your cellurar data transfers. At the bottom, there is a reset button… where you can reset the counters to zero, and try acces the internet from your WIFI.

    iPhone connect to internet any time (to check your mail) or when you use maps..and wifi is not avialble, then it uses the cellurar data network…maybe you can isable it by set null and null as the user name and password setting in -> General->Network->Cellular Data network…

    This article provides a way to disable the cellular data transfers if you have no General->Network->Cellular Data network settings visible…

  187. Roy on March 7th, 2010 @ 00:30

    @Evil.clay: thanks for the reply. I’ve installed the config file and, yep, the Cellular Data transfer stats are remaining at zero. There’s not a lot of things I use the iPhone’s ability to access the internet through 3G for – occasionally updating email on the phone, but that was about it. I plan to try without 3G access entirely and see how it goes.

    It is a pity though that Japan seems a long way behind easy, free access WiFi spots compared to many places, eg Singapore where I was just recently. Even at Starbucks, it’s not free and hosted by NTT, so iPhones can’t use it! Then at McDonalds, it’s free, but again, hosted by the monopolist NTT. Oh well.

  188. evil.clay on March 7th, 2010 @ 00:48

    Don’t know about Singapore nor Japan, but in Australia – Gold Coast, I didn’t find many free wifi spots, and back in Slovak Republic (Europe) where i’m from, there isn’t that many free spots either… so i guess, we all have to wait few more years ..or maybe just two more..till 2012 where our society corrupted with capitalism will find a resting place :)

  189. deepan on March 8th, 2010 @ 15:12

    can i still send mms with this feature enabled?

  190. evil.clay on March 8th, 2010 @ 15:35

    Well, i can’t but i didnt try send a MMS before i have installed this profile. So you shoud try on you own. You can install this and uninstall like you want.

  191. tri on March 22nd, 2010 @ 05:40

    sorry, i cannot meet APN in my iPhone.
    maybe iPhone in japan, is it VPN?
    my main purpose is to disable internet access service from Softbank.
    thank you.

  192. RL on March 22nd, 2010 @ 05:44

    The script worked for me — blocking 3G access to Softbank here, but I found, like others, that it also blocked SNS, so I disabled it. In addition, as I’m on the Softbank plan that gives unlimited data downloads for a set amount, it didn’t seem really worth it — although I’m still unhappy that the iPhone always searches for Wi-Fi and makes me choose whether or not to turn it on even tho’, in reality, it only accesses the internet thru 3G!

  193. tri on March 23rd, 2010 @ 05:14

    thank you RL.
    after installing the script, can we jailbreak without conflict? also, can we remove the script from profile menu to access the internet provided by 3G (for sending/receiving MMS) without conflict with third party software?
    your sharing please……

  194. evil.clay on March 23rd, 2010 @ 14:48

    At least, read the article to the end, in the last sentence, you will find your answers.

  195. tri on March 24th, 2010 @ 02:49

    thank you evil clay.
    but, i am still worried if there is conflict with third party softwares (after jailbroken) during several install/unistall the script.
    i fell worried about this regard!
    …again your sharing please.

  196. evil.clay on March 24th, 2010 @ 03:15

    well sorry, don’t know anything about jailbraking… i’m pleased with the supplied version of the software…

  197. tri on March 24th, 2010 @ 20:20

    thanks again evil clay.

    to Brent: how to combine your apn disabler and ‘jailbreak’ (for unlocking, also getting third party s/w) without conflict. are you still sure that your profile can be removed/installed safely for several times after jailbroken? your suggestion to do both safely, please…..
    with apn dislaber and jailbreak, our iphone will become [almost] perfect!

  198. Brent on March 25th, 2010 @ 08:41

    Hi Tri,

    Jailbreaking does not affect the APN settings, nor vice versa. You have no reason to be concerned with conflicts.

    Best,
    Brent

  199. Roberto on March 25th, 2010 @ 18:01

    For some days now, none of the “tradicional” methods are working for me anymore. The thing that worked for me is changing the Data IP using “ifconfig pdp_ip0 127.0.0.1 broadcast 127.0.0.1″ so no communication can be made to the cellular company.

  200. tri on March 26th, 2010 @ 02:24

    to Brent: thanks you. using this profile makes the OS go crazy trying to enable the internet access, so how to overcome the battery drain?

    to Roberto: please explain clearly the merits what you did and how to change the data IP using ifconfig pdp_ip0 127.0.0.1 broadcast 127.0.0.1. thank you.

  201. Roberto on March 26th, 2010 @ 08:14

    Well, I don’t really know everything needed, but here’s what I have. First of all my iPhone is jailbroken. Through Cydia I have installed some apps that are relevant such as BossPrefs, OpenSSH and Terminal.

    In BossPrefs, there is a switch to turn EDGE on/off, but doesn’t quite work anymore. Nevertheless, there is the Data IP information on the top, which tells me I have connection to the cellular network.

    To change that, I downloaded OpenSSH, so I can access the iPhone through the PC. The default password for root (which you’ll need later) is “alpine”, and is recommended to change it typing “passwd” on the first time you log in. Type “ifconfig” and you’ll see the interfaces that the iPhone have (wireless is “en0″ and the cellular connection is “pdp_ip0″).

    As root, typing “ifconfig pdp_ip0 127.0.0.1 broadcast 127.0.0.1″ sets that connection to try and send any information back to yourself, therefore not going to the cellular network and chargind us precious Kbs out of nowhere.

    Instead of OpenSSH, you may install “Terminal”, which opens a prompt where you should do the same thing as I said before. Log in as root default password “alpine, change it. Type the ifconfig command and there you go. Acutally this seems much easier than OpenSSH, I guess.

    To check if the data was going out at all, I go to Settings > General > Use, and see my network cellular data on the bottom of the screen.

    Well, sorry if I got confused somewhere in the text, I’ve been trying to fix this for the past 3 days… going on multiple forums, calling my cellular provider (TIM, in Brazil), and I’ve been going mad about it!

    Even after all that, I’m still not 100% sure that things works, but I’m givinf it a try!

    I’m glad if I could help at least someone!

  202. iPhone 3G のパケット通信を無効にし、WiFi のみを利用する方法 | Bowz::Notebook on April 3rd, 2010 @ 07:13

    [...] iPhone 2.0: How to Disable Cellular Internet Access | Brent Kearney から [ apn-disabler.mobileconfig ] と言うファイルをダウンロードする。 [...]

  203. Frederico on April 11th, 2010 @ 03:24

    Thanks for the profile!

    worked perfectly. For those of you using Windows and willing to do this without connecting to the internet with the phone, one option is to install the iPhone Configuration Utility on your pc, the just double-clinking on the saved profile, it will open automatically. then apply the settings to your iPhone.

    No more Edge raping!

  204. wajahat on April 14th, 2010 @ 12:07

    Thanks for the help, i am from pakistan using 2g os 3.1.2, i want to enable mms, i installed enable mms for 2g 3.1.2 from cydia and when i change the cellular data settings, all work nice but in mms section the APN, User Name and Password did not save, i tried millions of time, anyone can help me in enabling MMS, please brent or anyone please help!

  205. Gerhard on April 16th, 2010 @ 00:03

    I have not used the method described in the previous posts. I have and still use APN Changer. This has worked flawlessly to date. Just type in “unlockit.co.nz” into your iPhone browser and follow the prompts. I have found that several steps can be saved if you create a web clipping. This web clipping remains as a direct means of quickly reinstalling the false profile. As stated I have shut down and restarted internet access many times with this without any issues whatsoever. It works for me with not a single kb of data getting through once switched on. We will see in iPhone OS4 if the data on/of switching announced for the update is allowed by some evil carriers (Telstra Australia..probably the worlds worst).

  206. tra26 Blog» ブログアーカイブ » iPhoneパケット通信料節約 on April 18th, 2010 @ 14:12

    [...] http://brent.kearneys.ca/2008/07/21/iphone-20-how-to-disable-cellular-internet-access/ [...]

  207. Loewe on May 1st, 2010 @ 06:44

    my bill last month was 522€ and the one this month for 10 days (when i discovered it…) was already 700€… This was with O2 in germany. fortunatelly I reached an agreement with them and I have to pay “only” 150€… for doing nothing… ://///

  208. Andrew on May 26th, 2010 @ 01:29

    In Japan the iPhone carrier crow so and so gave me the tip but I am sure he will be fired because they record conversations with foreigners in English some Japanese are also fed up with being screwed because they do not want to screw us.
    I have experienced being Financially screwed in Japan up to the hilt and here Apple care Japan say batsu no no no we will get you for breech of contract if you try the APN disabler but I called my carrier and they said it is impossible to disable but I did it and could not get internet with 3G but they know this so if I were a shark carrier I would find ways to prevent my customers from shopping around and chain them to the shop.
    Last year I was downloading and my 3G was disabled and using wifi when I found a massive bill the 3G in stealth =without showing took over and cost me in Data pac download fees

    In 2006 I was in England and they charged me roaming fee I could not use a local carrier TMobile carried my calls from Sheffield to Japan and back to Sheffield so I also can screw you back too you know

    We are paying for Machines that are over rated prices and on top being screwed again.

    However we are creating work and paying someone a lively hood like we would want so lets not do something to hurt the people not a penny more not a penny less and if you do not want to pay then do not use and how many of us would try to increase our earnings by tricks and tips do we look at our own sneaky ways.

    Yes I think we will see more of this because they are always thinking how to screw us and we are always thinking how to block our holes just think of us being women who face this in a physical way Sorry about the words but lets face it most people want to screw but do not want to be screwed

    Here in Japan the Phone people have ball because Japanese they support being screwed for money and Gaijin come here and are shocked by the way they charge for everything

    And the Banks do not pay interest and charge us for withdrawing our money it is an insult to vultures sharks bloodsuckers to call Japanese banks these names and under rated to call them ultra facists

  209. Lisa on June 4th, 2010 @ 06:00

    I tried it, it installed as it should but i could still go out on the internet with wifi disabled so i don’t think it works.

  210. SophiieD on June 7th, 2010 @ 02:54

    Bonjour a tous,
    Je vous explique mon cas. Je voudrais acheter l’iphone 3GS blanc 16Go, probleme j’ai un forfait simple sans internet illimité que je ne peux pas changer (budget trop élevé) et j’ai peur qu’ils se connecte tout seul, en effectuant votre manipulation je n’aurai pas se soucis ? Je pourrai me servir de mon téléphone normalement joué au jeux qui n’ont pas besoin de connexion internet et je pourrai me connecter a la wifi chez moi ?. Je souhaite le jailbraker avec cydia . Cele fonctionnera ensemble ?? En attente de vos réponse ..

  211. Kevin Conway on June 8th, 2010 @ 14:43

    does this work on the iphone 3G…Aslo how do i email the long list of numbers and letter to my iphone…do i save them as a file and email them to my email account as a attachemnt

  212. ken92 on July 14th, 2010 @ 09:10

    Escuser moi vous dite qu’il fau changer le “apn ” chez moi qan je rentre dan reseau j’ai 3g ,donnees a l’etranger , partage de conexion , vpn , et wi-fi . qess donc le apn ?

  213. Jagjit on July 17th, 2010 @ 05:13

    Thanks a lot, it really works – GREAT

  214. Martin Bartlett on July 22nd, 2010 @ 03:05

    Does this work with iPhone 3? iPhone 4?

  215. evil.clay on July 22nd, 2010 @ 03:14

    the new iOS 4 has a switch for turning off cellular data right in Settings -> General -> Network. So there is no need for this profile. Anyway, i’m sure this profile still works in iOS 4, no matter what HW device you have. It just became redundant, because now you have a setting for that

  216. miki on August 4th, 2010 @ 18:40

    Hi,

    Thx, u have been a gr8 help! Now i can actually use the iPhone for what it was intended not only cool apps!

    Kind regards,
    Miki

  217. kim on August 20th, 2010 @ 04:09

    bonjour il y a un probleme avec le lien qui est donné pour telecharger le fichier zip car une fois le telechargement terminé le dossier zip est vide je possede un iphone 4 est ce que se programme fonctionnera avec mon iphone perci

  218. Brent on August 20th, 2010 @ 11:05

    Kim,

    On iPhone 4, go to:
    Settings -> General -> Network -> Disable Cellular Data.

  219. iPhone: disable mobile Data by default on August 26th, 2010 @ 08:10

    [...] Originally Posted by melllvar Thannks, but unfortunatley there's no toggle on my 2G.. I think its 3G only. Uncool. Here's what I've found : iPhone 2.0: How to Disable Cellular Internet Access | Brent Kearney [...]

  220. Justin on September 5th, 2010 @ 22:08

    hi, i was completely happy with this profile when i installed it around 4 months ago.. now i have a new plan with heaps of data and i wanted to re-activate my celular data.. so i deleted the profile but it still wont connect to the internet. my carrier has no problems on their end, all my settings are correct but it just wont let me, same as when the profile was installed.

    any help is GREATLY appreciated. thanks guys

  221. RK on September 18th, 2010 @ 02:21

    This APN DISABLER and post have worked wonders for me. Firstly iPhone is not officially launched in this part of the world. Then again we even dont have 3G tech here as well. So using iPhone in the beginning was a real pain in the neck. I cudnt stop it from accessing internet all the time and the battery use to be consumed in matter of few hours and my iPhone use to get heat up.
    Read the post and install the disabler. Bingo..!!
    The most surprising element, although i am having the APN disabler installed as per instructions but i can still use my internet (Edge) when and if i require, the automatic attempts by the iPhone is no longer there.
    thanks for everything

  222. Darshan on October 1st, 2010 @ 22:13

    wow.. it does work well mate .. i tried so many softwares before this , never came upto this trick . thank u so much

  223. souma tou on October 5th, 2010 @ 00:34

    n

  224. omar on October 20th, 2010 @ 16:30

    thank u very very much really
    you rescued me

  225. philippe on December 7th, 2010 @ 00:00

    you are the best !!!! thanks a lot.

  226. ROD on January 9th, 2011 @ 22:08

    Works really great, thanx!!!

  227. JohnnyBeGood on February 14th, 2011 @ 14:28

    I tried following the steps but got the same problem as paul in one of the earlier comments, when I e-mailed it and tried opening it in my e-mail just plain text came up. I’ve just connected my iphone to the computer using a usb connector (the wire you use to move songs onto ur iphone from itunes and all that) and transferred the program manually using the iphone configuration utility. appears to have downloaded correctly and be installed on the iphone but yet to see whether it works. I’ll post an update once I’ve recharged my phone credit and I’ll let you know if anything happens

  228. miura on February 16th, 2011 @ 13:28

    Bb

  229. miura on February 16th, 2011 @ 13:31

    あほはははは
    は

  230. Mario Peter on February 17th, 2011 @ 08:04

    Thanks I was beeing ripped off in an average 50 dollars a month by my service provider (TMN Portugal) Again and again Thank You

  231. Ivan on February 17th, 2011 @ 12:44

    I’m so grateful for your help. Really thank you so much!

  232. Ben on March 3rd, 2011 @ 09:08

    Awesome, works perfectly well.
    Thanks!
    b.

  233. Sajid on May 9th, 2011 @ 05:37

    Great! Thanks Buddy! Its works & you rocks!!!!

  234. ayumi on May 15th, 2011 @ 08:53

    はいりたいです！！

  235. Tristan on May 25th, 2011 @ 16:55

    Will it help if I have version4.3

  236. Brent on May 25th, 2011 @ 18:13

    @Tristan: Settings -> General -> Network -> Cellular Data

  237. Tristan on May 25th, 2011 @ 20:48

    No look the version 4.2.1

  238. Tristan on May 28th, 2011 @ 13:14

    Will it work with v 4.2.1 that’s the next update I have and I already have the APN disabler and I want to know if it still works please check I really appreciate it 

  239. よういち on June 18th, 2011 @ 21:24

    mailの送受信ができなくなってしまいました。

  240. Turning off the Cellular Data connection on your iPhone. | The `i` Technology Projects on June 26th, 2011 @ 20:28

    [...] iOS 3 or older, I used APN disabler  to turn off cellular data. While on iOS 4 lets you turn off the Cellular Data connection on your [...]

  241. Messi on July 7th, 2011 @ 13:43

    Hi,
    how to reboot iphone?

  242. Guest on August 22nd, 2011 @ 10:35

    http://lmgtfy.com/?q=how+to+reboot+iphone

  243. Sarah on August 31st, 2011 @ 09:30

    Bonjour à tous :) Merci beaucoup pour l’astuce ! Mais j’aimerais savoir (désolée si la question a déjà été posée) est ce que ça fonctionne sur l’iPhone 3GS ? 

  244. Sarah on August 31st, 2011 @ 10:20

    Hello everyone:) Thanks for the tip! But my question (sorry if the question has been asked before) is that it works on the iPhone 3G?

  245. Brent on August 31st, 2011 @ 18:08

    Yes, it works on the iPhone 3G.

  246. Alxgonz13 on October 21st, 2011 @ 21:41

    i tryed this rightnow and it didnt work

  247. Alxgonz13 on October 21st, 2011 @ 21:42

    i tryed this but the internet still works even if the apn says null

  248. Lisa on October 30th, 2011 @ 12:42

    Will this work or an iPhone on the t-mobile network, I know you guys said Rogers, but I’d like to avoid the same problem on t-mobile’s plan.

  249. anonymous on November 8th, 2011 @ 00:59

    epic FAIL

  250. Goatlips on November 26th, 2011 @ 12:52

    I have iPhone 3gs on O2 pay and go and it won’t send MMS picture/photo messages! I have “mobile data” off. Does ‘mobile data’ need to be turned on to send picture message mms? If I turn it on and lose my free Wifi connection the apps on the iphone will use the O2 network’s internet without me even knowing and I’ll have zero credit in a matter of seconds! My n95 on Orange doesn’t need internet to send MMS photo messages! If I deliberately break the network’s internet access point I’ll never be able to send MMS (if ‘mobile data’ needs to be turned on).

  251. reba on December 9th, 2011 @ 14:51

    thank you for your hard work, you saved me lots of time and money trying to figure out how to change my settings, tyvm

  252. Iain allan on December 21st, 2011 @ 16:47

    Many thanks friend, i could not believe the shrewdness of the apple empire to set up this deal with network providers to rip us off even more. Thank you very much for your consideration in setting up this post, greatly appreciated

  253. Jaxxx251 on December 28th, 2011 @ 04:01

    Hi..Does this work on Iphone 4? I tried to install it but it said that the Iphone 4 does not require a fake APN cert and that i can just turn off the cellular data service

  254. Irvynrivera on March 17th, 2012 @ 22:23

    is this illegal?

  255. Irvynrivera on March 17th, 2012 @ 22:34

    And does it work for iOS 5.1

  256. Jay A on April 19th, 2012 @ 05:29

    dear brent, thanks for this. it works. being a back up phone, i just use a prepaid account here and it’s like pouring water directly down into the drain pipe with all the account balance. sneaky is the perfect term for the user’s inability to disable the Edge connection. thanks!

  257. Betobala on July 6th, 2012 @ 12:45

    Thanks for the tips; I sucessfully unstalled the profile, but I tested, with Wi-fi off, 3G off, opened an application that needs internet (iphone weather icon) and got charged by the carrier….(3G 3.0)

    Also, my wife’s iphone 3G 3.0 with the sim card (Brazilian carrier, TIM) doesn’t have the Wi-Fi icon; remove it and its there; do you know how to go around?

    Thank you, best regards from Brazil.

  258. Jacinto on May 9th, 2013 @ 09:32

    Superb post however I was wanting to know if you could write a litte more on this topic?
    I’d be very thankful if you could elaborate a little bit more. Bless you!




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