Database Users

[Q] totally frustrated unlocking this mobile

Hello all
This is my first post here, but I have been reading a lot for some days now
So this is the issue
Some days ago I bought on ebay from a reputable seller the sgs2 stated as unlocked for all networks. This is a UK phone but I am located in portugal, and I use a vodafone sim card
Much to my surprise I was greeted with the O2 logo when turning it on.. oh well.. no big issue on that but...! right after entering my sim card pin code it asked for a network lock control key.!
Trying to avoid too much assle for being a newbie in android I bought an unlock code from mobileunlocked, and well, it didn´t work! says "requesting network unlock" over a fraction of a second and then right afterwards "network unlock request unsucessfull"
Ok, so I went the hard way and read all about firmware and rooting at the android development part of the forum
Was able to flash the XWKE7 / baseband XXKE4 with odin, was able to root it with intratech´s thourough instructions, no more O2 startups or logos, even installed the galaxy S2 sim unlock (it finds the same unlock code I got before, and it is probably right)
but.... the dam unlock code question does not go away, so I have no mobile network at all!
Seems it tries to communicate with O2 for the unlocking but of course I am nowhere near the UK..
So I have a fantastic up to date piece of brick in my hands!
Could someone please help, how can I get over this network unlock code ?
I am running out of options, please help!
best rgds

Buy a code from somewhere online instead. They're more reliable then the app unlock.

Samsung phones can be locked by 4 methods methods but generally the first three are what you are interested in .
1. [NCK] Network lock
2. [SCK] Subset lock
3. [SPCK] SP lock
4. [MCK]
o2 generally only lock down NCK
1 ensure you have down the correct IMEI number , when you got your network unlock code was it just the unlock code they gave you or did they supply the above too.
2. you do not need to have an O2 sim to unlock as the procedure means you need to put a different sim in to enable the codes .
3 mobileunlocked.co.uk are very good and if you contact them they will be able to help you . Send them an email .
Hope this helps but just make sure you entered the correct IMEI number *#06# from the start .

good morning
indeed they do, I bought from them. I had to enter the MCK and then the NCK
how could I know ? lolol
also thank you guys for your prompt help
turning on the little devil as I write... ta nan!

[Q] No SIM card - Region Locked?

So after 2 years of problem free usage, my S4 all of a sudden told me that there is no sim card. Reboot fixed it for a bit, but the message returned later. Now I can't get rid of it.
Bit of a back story:
-I bought this phone (I9505) in EU (Germany). I live in Canada now.
-Was running Slimkat ROM for a really long time, starting with 4.4.2, and upgrading it to 4.4.4.
-When this issue came up, I tried:
Wiping cache
Flashing a lollipop rom
Flashing another baseband
Flashing stock samsung rom
Other sim cards
New sim tray
RegionLockAway
At this point, the device is on stock 4.4.2 from Samsung. It recognizes my EU sim cards, but not the Canadian one (Rogers).
Is the device region locked? I'm just about ready to smash it with a baseball bat, in all honesty. Would any of the unlocks from fastgsm.com work for me? Anyone got any ideas?

Custom ROMs such as SlimKat don't have the region lock included in them, so RegionLock Away is useless on them. Your initial comment of the reboot fixing the problem led me to think the motherboard was the problem. However, your comment about the S4 recognizing your European SIM cards disproves that line of thought.
Going through the list of things you tried, the first four wouldn't correct the issue, and in fact could reintroduce the region lock if it's a stock ROM. Option 6 worked, again based on your comment about the SIM cards, but it didn't fix the problem. RegionLock Away would remove any region locks present in the S4 firmware, as that is what it is supposed to do. However, this did not resolve your problem, which leads us to number 5.
When you mention trying other SIM cards, did you try only the SIM cards you had available? When your Rogers SIM is inserted, do you get an icon like in the attached image? The objective here is to eliminate your Rogers SIM as the source of the problem. Based upon what you've provided in your post however, the SIM card itself is the likely culprit here. If the SIM card tray had gone bad, NONE of your SIM cards would have worked. If you had a region lock active you would have received a notification that the SIM was invalid, and not the circle with slash in the image. To test, you need to do either of the following.
1. Try your Rogers SIM in another device.
2. Head to the nearest Bell or Telus store and use one of their SIMs to test.
If the Bell or Telus SIM works in your S4, then you don't have an active region lock and the Rogers SIM is bad. If the Rogers SIM doesn't work when inserted in a different phone, then the Rogers SIM is bad.

Strephon Alkhalikoi said:
Custom ROMs such as SlimKat don't have the region lock included in them, so RegionLock Away is useless on them. Your initial comment of the reboot fixing the problem led me to think the motherboard was the problem. However, your comment about the S4 recognizing your European SIM cards disproves that line of thought.
Going through the list of things you tried, the first four wouldn't correct the issue, and in fact could reintroduce the region lock if it's a stock ROM. Option 6 worked, again based on your comment about the SIM cards, but it didn't fix the problem. RegionLock Away would remove any region locks present in the S4 firmware, as that is what it is supposed to do. However, this did not resolve your problem, which leads us to number 5.
When you mention trying other SIM cards, did you try only the SIM cards you had available? When your Rogers SIM is inserted, do you get an icon like in the attached image? The objective here is to eliminate your Rogers SIM as the source of the problem. Based upon what you've provided in your post however, the SIM card itself is the likely culprit here. If the SIM card tray had gone bad, NONE of your SIM cards would have worked. If you had a region lock active you would have received a notification that the SIM was invalid, and not the circle with slash in the image. To test, you need to do either of the following.
1. Try your Rogers SIM in another device.
2. Head to the nearest Bell or Telus store and use one of their SIMs to test.
If the Bell or Telus SIM works in your S4, then you don't have an active region lock and the Rogers SIM is bad. If the Rogers SIM doesn't work when inserted in a different phone, then the Rogers SIM is bad.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So I restored my backup of the Lollipop ROM, which doesn't detect any sim card. The backup has a different baseband that I had flashed before.
To answer your question, I don't see that icon. I've been to the Rogers store and my sim worked in their device, but their working sim did not get recognized in mine. That's when I tried replacing the sim tray (to no avail).
So this is what I'm thinking:
Flash the open european 4.4.2 rom from here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2265477
Figure out what baseband it's running and get the latest one
Flash lollipop and flash updated baseband (would be nice to be on 5.0.1, but I guess I can skip this step if it doesn't fix my issue)
Root, unlock
BTW Is RegionLockAway actually compatible with 4.4.2 and i9505?
Thanks for your feedback so far!

RegionLock Away should work on Android 4.4.2. It requires root, as I'm sure you know, because it rewrites a system file. In simple language, it wipes out the region lock table in one of the files. When I used it on my I9505 however, I had downgraded to 4.2.2 to take advantage of RegionLock Away's unintended side effect of fully unlocking the S4. So I personally would downgrade the modem to a 4.2.2 version, run RegionLock Away and take advantage of that unintended side effect, then upgrade the modem to 4.4.2 at least.
There is a possibility that your SIM lock is back on the phone, thus why I recommend the downgrade. Without going into details, I was getting that circle with slash icon, downgraded, and found out that not only was my SIM tray toast, but the SIM lock had returned. I replaced the tray. RegionLock Away got rid of the SIM lock and region lock.

Strephon Alkhalikoi said:
RegionLock Away should work on Android 4.4.2. It requires root, as I'm sure you know, because it rewrites a system file. In simple language, it wipes out the region lock table in one of the files. When I used it on my I9505 however, I had downgraded to 4.2.2 to take advantage of RegionLock Away's unintended side effect of fully unlocking the S4. So I personally would downgrade the modem to a 4.2.2 version, run RegionLock Away and take advantage of that unintended side effect, then upgrade the modem to 4.4.2 at least.
There is a possibility that your SIM lock is back on the phone, thus why I recommend the downgrade. Without going into details, I was getting that circle with slash icon, downgraded, and found out that not only was my SIM tray toast, but the SIM lock had returned. I replaced the tray. RegionLock Away got rid of the SIM lock and region lock.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried what you suggested. When I run RegionLockAway I get this message: http://dl-1.va.us.xda-developers.co....jpg?key=-d8VgjHV1_MaPeiioYPGfA&ts=1427415458
Side note:
After wiping everything and flashing stock, my sim card was recognized for a few seconds. I received some messages and got some coverage. Then I got the sim card undetected error again.

Your attachment didn't work so I don't know what it said.

Strephon Alkhalikoi said:
Your attachment didn't work so I don't know what it said.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I reattached it.
I also can't seem to downgrade anymore. Download mode gives me an error something fuse 2 : binary 1, whenever I try to flash a lower version ROM
Any idea if I can sim unlock with an unlock code? I'd rather pay than waste any more time on this :\

That's a new one. Perhaps you should bring that up in the RegionLock Away thread and see if Chainfire knows what's going on. That could very easily be some added security that was added by Samsung in Android 5.0.1. Or it could simply be Knox objecting, in which case you have to disable Knox.
While I've recommended RegionLock Away to unlock phones, it doesn't have a 100% success rate, and it's not guaranteed the unlock will stick after an upgrade. Purchasing an unlock code is usually a better choice, even though you're paying for it.

Strephon Alkhalikoi said:
That's a new one. Perhaps you should bring that up in the RegionLock Away thread and see if Chainfire knows what's going on. That could very easily be some added security that was added by Samsung in Android 5.0.1. Or it could simply be Knox objecting, in which case you have to disable Knox.
While I've recommended RegionLock Away to unlock phones, it doesn't have a 100% success rate, and it's not guaranteed the unlock will stick after an upgrade. Purchasing an unlock code is usually a better choice, even though you're paying for it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
SuperSU tries to disable Knox though, and it says it accomplishes it. So just to get this straight, Knox is introduced in one of the newer stock Samsung roms. Once it makes it on the device, it's not going away no matter what rom I flash or which backup I restore, right? And if I do try to fiddle around, it will go 0x1 on me and void the warranty (not that I have one at this point). Is it supposed to prevent me from downgrading as well? Or is that a side effect of something else?
BTW, every time I boot up now I get a message in the top left corner saying something like "Kernel is not seandroid enforcing" in red, followed by "set warranty bit: kernel" in yellow.
I ordered an unlock code from fastgsm yesterday. Let's hope that works. Though I gotta admit, after owning an S3 and the 2 years that I got out of this S4 I think I'm officially done with Samsung. I paid $600 bucks for this phone, I should be able to mod it however I want. Especially if they push their stupid bloat and TouchWiz on me.

Knox is part of the bootloader, so it's not going away. You can however remove the Knox apps from the ROM. The Knox flag will trip if you attempt to install a custom recovery, but whether you lose any remaining warranty or not is subject to debate. It's not supposed to prevent you from downgrading, because the stock ROM my S4 came with had a Knox-enabled bootloader, and the Knox flag was already tripped, yet I was still able to downgrade long enough to solve my issues.
"Kernel is not SEAndroid enforcing" on the splash screen is harmless. The bootloader detects the old ROM's kernel and notices that it doesn't have secure Android coding, so it warns you of this when you boot. If you can get the phone back to Android 4.4.2 or Android 5.0.1 the warning will go away.

Thanks for the clarification.
So I got the unlock code. However, I am not sure how to properly enter it. I'm following these instructions (Invalid SIM card screen, as nothing else seems to apply). Nothing happens when I enter the instructed codes. It's a manufacturer unlock code... surely it's not useless, is it?

Shouldn't be useless. Watch this YouTube video.
EDIT: If you repeatedly get a message that the unlock is unsuccessful, check out this YouTube video.

Strephon Alkhalikoi said:
Shouldn't be useless. Watch this YouTube video.
EDIT: If you repeatedly get a message that the unlock is unsuccessful, check out this YouTube video.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I never got a prompt like the one in the video.
I tried the procedure from the second video before, but I can't get into the UMTS main menu.

Then you have a different problem. The moment you put in the Bell or Telus SIM cards you should have gotten that prompt. Hate to say this, but I would have the phone serviced. Keep the unlock code however. You may as well use it when you get the S4 back.

Strephon Alkhalikoi said:
Then you have a different problem. The moment you put in the Bell or Telus SIM cards you should have gotten that prompt. Hate to say this, but I would have the phone serviced. Keep the unlock code however. You may as well use it when you get the S4 back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK thanks for all your help, man.

[Q] Galaxy S4 unlock issues

Hi,
I have a Galaxy S4 i9505 lte that was locked to three Ireland, I unlocked it using the guide http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2282683.
I put my meteor ireland sim card in the phone and it was not recognised, no pin request, nothing. I put my wife's meteor sim card in and it worked no problem, i put another meteor sim in and it worked no problem, both times asking for pin number.
I put my meteor sim in another phone and it worked no problem, even asking for a pin number.
I went to the meteor shop and exchanged my sim card in the hope it was the card and not the phone. I put the new sim card into the phone and it asked for a pin number but would not work, it worked in three different phones but not my phone and three different meteor sims worked in my phone no problem.
I tried different roms both times, stock-cyanogen-others, none worked with mine and all worked with the other sims, so I guess the phone is unlocked.
Am I missing something, maybe in *#0011# settings that my number is locked out of the phone even though it worked on Three Ireland.
I hope someone can help me.
Whytie

You need to downgrade your modem. Read the last pages of that thread. There is all you need.

Possible try the setting in the hidden menu. I have the E300K I put a different Sim card and it would not register. I went into the hidden menus and changed some of the settings and forced it to read the card and change carriers. I can't tell you exactly what they were I don't have the phone in front of me right now, I'm at work.....if you use *#0011#, you will need to hit back, then key enter, type Q0 and enter or Q000 and enter, wait about 10 seconds or so it will put you in the hidden menu, or you could type the main code and password. Not sure what it would be for your phone.

@2ndcarpenter: Misread the post? The OP had already tried the service menu unlock and found it didn't work. The reason? He didn't downgrade his modem, as mentioned about a half dozen times by me in that thread.

Hi,
Thanks for the replies, but I guess you did misread the post.
I done the guide, which I couldn't have done if I didn't have an older modem.
The unlock actually works with the other meteor sims, just not with my meteor sim, and the sim definitely works in other phones. The pin request I was talking about was the 4 digit sim security one, not the network unlock pin.
So I am still at a loss as to what is wrong.

We all likely misread your post. Now that you explained things however, it's become much more clear. Did you use the service menu method to unlock the S4, or did you use RegionLock Away? The possibility exists that the service menu method may have triggered the SIM pin. If that is the case, then you need to go back into the service menu and set Perso SHA 256 to its original setting. From there, root and run RegionLock Away. If you ran RegionLock Away and it did this, you may be stuck. RegionLock Away's ability to completely unlock the phone is an unintended side effect of its real function, which is to remove Samsung's regional lock list. Chainfire doesn't provide support for the unintended side effect.

Hi,
I used the service menu method to unlock, I will try regionlockaway and see if that maybe will make a difference.
I am already rooted on lollipop but do you think I should downgrade modem again and then run regionlockaway.
Thanks.

Downgrading is required for either unlock method to work.

Strephon Alkhalikoi said:
@2ndcarpenter: Misread the post? The OP had already tried the service menu unlock and found it didn't work. The reason? He didn't downgrade his modem, as mentioned about a half dozen times by me in that thread.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did I misread the post? No, I saw a link which I did not check, and I saw that he 'tried' *#0011#, but I didn't see that he was able to get to the hidden menu. *#0011# does not get you to the hidden menu, it gets you to a debug screen. But I'm sure an expert like yourself already knows that. So without a better explanation I wasn't sure exactly what he tried. I am only trying to offer advice to someone on a device that I don't even use anymore. I still own it and test various firmwares and kernels, but do not use for my daily driver. But between work and my CCNA certification class, I have very little time, so I will stick to what is more important.......me and my education.

samsung galaxy S4 unlocked asking for SIM network unlock pin

Hi guys
I recently purchased an S4 from an on-line professional seller, the guy apparently owns a physical store but sells some phones on-line
when the phone arrived, I turned it on without the SIM, insert my home's wi-fi connection password, and the phone started to update both apps, and the OS to lollipop
I installed the backup I previously got from my old s3 mini, installed all my apps from playstore, and once I installed whatsapp, I turned the phone off, and than on again, this with my SIM since whatsapp has to confirm my number
The phone accepted my PIN code, whatsapp accepted my number and restored it's backup, but the phone also asked for this SIM network unlock pin
I told the guy what's happening, he told me he would send me a new phone, but I suspect this can go wrong
If that's the case, can anyone here tell me how can I overcome this SIM network unlock pin issue ?
thanks in advance
Regards
Antonio

If the phone were unlocked for use on any carrier, you would never see the SIM unlock pin request screen. Since you are seeing that screen, the phone is not unlocked.
To resolve this, root your phone and downgrade the phone's modem to an Android 4.2.2 version. Find a copy of RegionLock Away on XDA or through Google, copy it to your S4 and install it. Run it. Afterward, upgrade the modem to a more current version, and enjoy.
That's roughly what I had to do when the SIM unlock screen popped up on me.

Which s4 do you have? If it is the i337, region lock away may not work as you may not be able to downgrade the modem.

[Help] Changing CSC code to the original one

At some point after an update I noticed I couldn't use region specific apps like Galaxy Apps, Bixby Voice etc. (SM-G950U1 unlocked phone purchased and used in USA) I have been trying to find a solution for a long time now to no avail. However, I believe I managed to narrow down the problem to my csc code being gcf instead of xaa. I have been trying to revert my csc code to XAA several times now (recovery reset, Odin, using a Sprint sim etc.) Any tips?
Changing CSC code to the original one
UPDATE: I managed to solve the problem on my own despite being on call with Sprint support for hours on end to no avail. Basically, my problem was the following: I was using FreedomPop (VoIP number on a sim card). When I did a software update, my phone's CSC changed to GCF (which stands as unknown). I got a new sim card eventually (one from Sprint). However, I couldn't get it to activate and work on my phone. For others, the phone was rebooting after inserting the sim card and switching to SPR CSC whereas mine wasn't doing anything. I ended up using the Carrier Switch for Snapdragon guide (do a lot of reading beforehand). It ended up working out beautifully. I inserted the sim card, phone got activated and I was able to use all the apps I mentioned in the OP and get updates.

Berchtwald said:
At some point after an update I noticed I couldn't use region specific apps like Galaxy Apps, Bixby Voice etc. (SM-G950U1 unlocked phone purchased and used in USA) I have been trying to find a solution for a long time now to no avail. However, I believe I managed to narrow down the problem to my csc code being gcf instead of xaa. I have been trying to revert my csc code to XAA several times now (recovery reset, Odin, using a Sprint sim etc.) Any tips?
Changing CSC code to the original one
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I need urgent help with this exact problem also...

maxi1773 said:
I need urgent help with this exact problem also...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I managed to solve the problem on my own despite being on call with Sprint support for hours on end to no avail. Basically, my problem was the following: I was using FreedomPop (VoIP number on a sim card). When I did a software update, my phone's CSC changed to GCF (which stands as unknown). I got a new sim card eventually (one from Sprint). However, I couldn't get it to activate and work on my phone. For others, the phone was rebooting after inserting the sim card and switching to SPR CSC whereas mine wasn't doing anything. I ended up using the Carrier Switch for Snapdragon guide (do a lot of reading beforehand). It ended up working out beautifully. I inserted the sim card, phone got activated and I was able to use all the apps I mentioned in the OP and get updates.

Hey peeps,
I myself am a newbie on Samsung but i found this on the web, use google translate. Hope it works
http://forum.android.com.pl/topic/317974-debranding-samsung-galaxy-s8/

I have the same problem and i've been looking all around for a way to make my phone update via OTA, but no chance, the last updat was from april 2017!
No i believe it's the same problem : region locking.
Is there a was to resolve this ?
The closest thing i found is that polonais link you published but it is a little outdated by now

Berchtwald said:
I managed to solve the problem on my own despite being on call with Sprint support for hours on end to no avail. Basically, my problem was the following: I was using FreedomPop (VoIP number on a sim card). When I did a software update, my phone's CSC changed to GCF (which stands as unknown). I got a new sim card eventually (one from Sprint). However, I couldn't get it to activate and work on my phone. For others, the phone was rebooting after inserting the sim card and switching to SPR CSC whereas mine wasn't doing anything. I ended up using the Carrier Switch for Snapdragon guide (do a lot of reading beforehand). It ended up working out beautifully. I inserted the sim card, phone got activated and I was able to use all the apps I mentioned in the OP and get updates.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ok I'm ready to try this but my concern is that (G950U1UE1AQDC_XAA). Where the "UE1" on my phone is UES2 which means i am on bootloader ver-2 . Is Any way i can find a download containing bootloader ver-2 files?

Berchtwald said:
At some point after an update I noticed I couldn't use region specific apps like Galaxy Apps, Bixby Voice etc. (SM-G950U1 unlocked phone purchased and used in USA) I have been trying to find a solution for a long time now to no avail. However, I believe I managed to narrow down the problem to my csc code being gcf instead of xaa. I have been trying to revert my csc code to XAA several times now (recovery reset, Odin, using a Sprint sim etc.) Any tips?
Changing CSC code to the original one
UPDATE: I managed to solve the problem on my own despite being on call with Sprint support for hours on end to no avail. Basically, my problem was the following: I was using FreedomPop (VoIP number on a sim card). When I did a software update, my phone's CSC changed to GCF (which stands as unknown). I got a new sim card eventually (one from Sprint). However, I couldn't get it to activate and work on my phone. For others, the phone was rebooting after inserting the sim card and switching to SPR CSC whereas mine wasn't doing anything. I ended up using the Carrier Switch for Snapdragon guide (do a lot of reading beforehand). It ended up working out beautifully. I inserted the sim card, phone got activated and I was able to use all the apps I mentioned in the OP and get updates.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So i finally got through. What i did was root my phone then use the Samsung phone info app to change the csc (must be rooted to do this). after changing the csc i flashed back to stock rom and all is well.

maxi1773 said:
So i finally got through. What i did was root my phone then use the Samsung phone info app to change the csc (must be rooted to do this). after changing the csc i flashed back to stock rom and all is well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, been super busy this week. I was also on bootloader ver. 2. I'm glad you solved it though!