How to SIM unlock the OnePlus 9 & 9 Pro

Earlier this year, OnePlus announced their brand new flagship phones in the form of the OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro series. These are the latest smartphones from the company and they pack some pretty amazing hardware – don’t believe us? Check out our reviews.

That being said, given that these are relatively new devices, if you bought them from either T-Mobile or MetroPCS, chances are the SIM cards on the phones might be locked to the carrier. This means that if you plan to use the phone with another SIM card, like if you plan to travel, for example, this can cause some issues.

This is where SIM unlocking can come in handy where through third-party services like Android SIM Unlock, you can actually get your SIM cards unlocked and usable with other SIM cards and carriers. If you don’t relish the idea of paying for it, don’t worry we’ve listed a free alternative that you can try first.

Unlocking The OnePlus 9 And 9 Pro SIM For Free

We get it, you don’t want to spend more money than necessary. The good news is that carriers are usually more than happy to unlock the SIM on your phone for free, however there are certain requirements you’ll have to meet first in order to get the free unlock. This includes:

• A full paid off phone. Carriers usually sell phones on installment plans so if you are still paying for it, you’ll need to pay it off first.
• The second requirement is that you’ll need to have used the phone for at least 60-90 days. Presumably this is because carriers don’t necessarily want to encourage people to buy phones just to resell them the next day.
• Last but not least, you also need to ensure that whatever outstanding bills you have with your carrier have been paid off. This means that if you have a bill from the previous month (or months) that haven’t been paid, you’ll have to clear those first.

Now, if you have met those requirements, you should be able to get your carrier to unlock the SIM for you for free, and here’s what you need to do:

1. On your OnePlus 9 or 9 Pro handset, launch the Phone app and dial *#06# to display your phone’s IMEI number
2. Write the IMEI number down somewhere where you can refer to it easily
3. Call your carrier’s customer service hotline and request for your SIM unlock code
4. You will then be asked to provide the service rep with your device’s IMEI number
5. If you meet all the requirements that we mentioned above, the SIM unlock code will be sent to the email address you provided in the next 2-5 days.
6. Once you’ve received your code, you can now swap out the SIM card for another one
7. You might be prompted to enter the SIM unlock code, so enter the code that was sent to your email address and you’re all set

We should mention that at the point of this article’s publishing date, the OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro are still relatively new and aren’t even a year old. This means that there is a good chance T-Mobile or MetroPCS could reject your request, but it doesn’t hurt to try your luck anyway. At worst they’ll say no, or maybe for whatever reason, they might grant your request.

If they do turn you down, don’t worry because below we’ve listed the steps you need to unlock the phone using a third-party service.

Getting the unlock code from a paid third-party service

Like we said, the OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro are, at this time of writing, still very new handsets. This means that there is a fairly good chance your request to unlock the SIM will be rejected by T-Mobile or MetroPCS, but there are third-party services like Android SIM Unlock that will get the job done if you don’t mind paying a small fee, which is a fair price to pay for the convenience.

1. On your 9 handset, launch the Phone app and dial *#06# to display your phone’s IMEI number
2. Write the IMEI number down somewhere where you can refer to it easily
3. Go to Android SIM Unlock’s website
4. Enter the device’s IMEI number
5. Complete the checkout process with your payment and contact information
6. Once that’s all settled and done, you should then receive the 9’s unlock code either through SMS or email
7. The moment you’ve received your code, you can then swap out the SIM on your phone with a SIM from another carrier
8. You should be prompted to enter the SIM unlock code that you received in your email, and once you’ve done that, you should be good to go

Once you’ve completed all the steps mentioned above, your OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro should now be unlocked and you will not have any issues with swapping between carriers or SIM cards, such as when you’re traveling overseas and need to use a local SIM with your phone.

We would like to remind you that unlocking your phone’s SIM does not release you from your contract with your carrier and you’ll still need to make payments to them, but at the very least it does give you some freedom if you need to use the phone with another carrier or SIM card.