Getting through registration on an unlocked G1

Purchased an unlocked T-Mobile Google Android HTC G1 phone over the counter in Singapore. It worked when I put my roaming Telstra SIM into it, great.

But, silly me, I did a factory reset on it to start fresh - it was cluttered with all sorts of junk from whoever unlocked it.

After a factory reset it reverted to just knowing about T-Mobile APNs and demanding that I authenticate with a Google account. Wifi is off and inaccessible, and of course it can't get to the network using T-Mobile APNs.

So I was stuck.

After much research (mostly incorrectly searching for how to bypass registration), here's the trick that worked for me.

• Turn off the phone (hold the hangup button)


• Hold down, and keep holding the Menu button while powering on


• After the Android splash screen, you can let go of Menu when you see you're in SAFE MODE


• Press Menu and you'll see an APN button, press that


• When the list of T-Mobile APNs shows up, press Menu again and you'll get the option to add your carrier's APN


• Make sure you get the MCC and MNC numbers right, that's how it decides which APN to use. Mine came up automatically but I've seen another phone that had the wrong ones.


• Turn off the phone. Turn on the phone as normal (no Menu hold down).


• Go through the intro and register a Google account, or make one if need be.

After all that I'm happily doing 3G data on a Maxis SIM in Malaysia. I notice that automatic setting of the time didn't work but that is no drama. Great toy.