Fresh out-of-box MotoE4 XT1766 worked w/new Tello GSM Sim UNTIL last in long-stream of Motorola updates - Moto E4 Questions & Answers

We were sent Tello Sims to 'upgrade' our Tello service on UNLOCKED Motorola E4 XT1766 phones Tello sold us 2 yrs ago. The new Sims HOSED our cell service and now our accounts can't use old Sims.
I understand this whole mess is the result of recent mergers & transitioning from CDMA to GSM...but Tello's on-line system erroneously approved our phones for the switch, sent us Sims & Tech Support helped guide us thru failed activation process. Tello offers no additional help & insists we need to buy new phones. Forums hint at some sorta voodoo by Sprint network (that Tello previously used) to disable the GSM radio in the phones (Seems PLENTY Unethical of Sprint).
Fortunately, I had a spare E4 that never had ANY Sim in it...put the new Tello Sim in and it provisioned without issue...GSM, VOLTE, GoogleVoice...everything was working fine. Hidden Service Testing menu confirmed it was using GSM. I hesitantly applied the seemingly endless string of Motorola 'security' updates, one every few days, and it seems the LAST one has now HOSED service on the new phone (that NEVER had Sprint Sim in it)...now saying "Invalid Sim Card" with previously working Tello GSM Sim. (Seems REALLY Unethical of Motorola)
So the MotoE4 IS technically compatible with Tello GSM (thru T-Mobile) UNTIL its disabled by Sprint Sim OR something in Motorola updates. A Hard Factory Reset doesn't remedy the issue.
These MotoE4's with all fitting accessories perfectly meet our needs & none of our crew wants larger, new phones.
I see plenty of settings & info in Hidden Service Menus...but nothing like a 'switch' or flag for enabling GSM Radio.
COULD a custom ROM overcome whatever the Motorola updates did to the new MotoE4 and/or overcome how Sprint disables the GSM radio in our Old MotoE4s?

Related

Verizon compatibility broken after update?

Hey guys, I just saw a YouTube video that was posted yesterday where the guy shows that after the update he no longer could connect with his Verizon SIM card in the axon 7. Has anybody else run into this? Mine won't be here until Monday but if this is true I'm going to be sorely disappointed. Thanks for your input.
I am on verizon with no additional problems after the update. I am still always roaming, and my signal is the same (more bars but still the same reception). LTE, MMS, SMS, Cdma all work the same.
I'm really glad to hear that. I'm not so sure the guy knew what he was doing either... Lol :silly:
CaptainElwood said:
I am on verizon with no additional problems after the update. I am still always roaming, and my signal is the same (more bars but still the same reception). LTE, MMS, SMS, Cdma all work the same.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Quick question for you bud. I currently have the Moto Z-Force, but I want an unlocked phone that I can root and mess around with and unfortunately this phone doesn't have that capability. Would you say this is a great alternative in terms of functionality and specs? Tia
CaptainElwood said:
I am on verizon with no additional problems after the update. I am still always roaming, and my signal is the same (more bars but still the same reception). LTE, MMS, SMS, Cdma all work the same.
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Click to collapse
I second this. No issues on Verizon unlimited plan after update. Always showing roaming also. Mms, sms, calls work as suppose to. All out of the box settings.
Sent from my ZTE A2017U using XDA-Developers mobile app
tolymatev said:
I second this. No issues on Verizon unlimited plan after update. Always showing roaming also. Mms, sms, calls work as suppose to. All out of the box settings.
Sent from my ZTE A2017U using XDA-Developers mobile app
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Click to collapse
I can third it lol no issues here. Mine actually has better signal after update on verizon and sms/mms everything works still no issues anywhere
My VZW situation. Just an FYI post AND how to fix it.
I'm on Verizon, have had my Axon 7 for over a month now. No issues other than not having VoLTE, and the occasional software farts (Using Nova Launcher now). When I initially set-up my phone, I imported all previous apps directly from the Play Store. I should have known not to install the VZW apps that were previously installed on my HTC One M8 (purchased directly from VZW), but in my excitement for the new phone, it skipped my mind. Anyhow, no issues through 9/19. "Verizon" displayed as my carrier, and full access to the LTE network.
Fast forward to 9/20 (post B27 update) when one of the VZW updated automatically (I don't recall which of the 2 apps I had installed), and BAMM, "123456" displayed as my carrier and no more access to the LTE network (3G only). Later that evening, my VZW account showed my number with an "unauthorized, non-VZW device", whereas, before the VZW app update it showed my HTC one M8. I removed the SIM and shut down the phone, re-installed the SIM and re-booted....nada. Tried what seemed to be every permutation of replacing the SIM card, played around with APN settings...no dice.
My feeling is they booted me off 4G LTE once the app recognized I was using an unauthorized, non-VZW device. The steps below solved the issue (Provided by "vzwcdma" via the ZTE Community Forum).
"As for losing LTE connectivity, I've had a similar problem before, both on the A7 and other devices. On other devices, like Motorola devices, I could just boot into the bootloader and clear the modem state partitions via fastboot, but ZTE seems to have disabled that function in the A7's bootloader. So, for the A7, I had to mess around a bit with the modem mode. Download "Network" or "4G LTE Switch" from the Play Store. Open it and scroll down to "Set preferred network type", where it should say "LTE/GSM/CDMA auto (PRL)". There isn't really a set guide for what you have to do, but try switching into LTE-only mode, try hitting "Turn off radio" and "Turn on radio" (not Airplane Mode), maybe try "LTE/CDMA audo (PRL)", maybe turn off radio, switch to LTE-only mode, turn on radio, etc. At some point (I'm not sure what) the phone will reset its modem state, and should re-connect to Verizon LTE (and when it does, switch the network type back to LTE/GSM/CDMA auto PRL.
My Verizon account also shows "unauthorized, non-VZW device". Shouldn't affect anything. I've been using an unauthorized/non-VZW device prior to the A7 with no issues as well."
roseykr said:
My VZW situation. Just an FYI post AND how to fix it.
I'm on Verizon, have had my Axon 7 for over a month now. No issues other than not having VoLTE, and the occasional software farts (Using Nova Launcher now). When I initially set-up my phone, I imported all previous apps directly from the Play Store. I should have known not to install the VZW apps that were previously installed on my HTC One M8 (purchased directly from VZW), but in my excitement for the new phone, it skipped my mind. Anyhow, no issues through 9/19. "Verizon" displayed as my carrier, and full access to the LTE network.
Fast forward to 9/20 (post B27 update) when one of the VZW updated automatically (I don't recall which of the 2 apps I had installed), and BAMM, "123456" displayed as my carrier and no more access to the LTE network (3G only). Later that evening, my VZW account showed my number with an "unauthorized, non-VZW device", whereas, before the VZW app update it showed my HTC one M8. I removed the SIM and shut down the phone, re-installed the SIM and re-booted....nada. Tried what seemed to be every permutation of replacing the SIM card, played around with APN settings...no dice.
My feeling is they booted me off 4G LTE once the app recognized I was using an unauthorized, non-VZW device. The steps below solved the issue (Provided by "vzwcdma" via the ZTE Community Forum).
"As for losing LTE connectivity, I've had a similar problem before, both on the A7 and other devices. On other devices, like Motorola devices, I could just boot into the bootloader and clear the modem state partitions via fastboot, but ZTE seems to have disabled that function in the A7's bootloader. So, for the A7, I had to mess around a bit with the modem mode. Download "Network" or "4G LTE Switch" from the Play Store. Open it and scroll down to "Set preferred network type", where it should say "LTE/GSM/CDMA auto (PRL)". There isn't really a set guide for what you have to do, but try switching into LTE-only mode, try hitting "Turn off radio" and "Turn on radio" (not Airplane Mode), maybe try "LTE/CDMA audo (PRL)", maybe turn off radio, switch to LTE-only mode, turn on radio, etc. At some point (I'm not sure what) the phone will reset its modem state, and should re-connect to Verizon LTE (and when it does, switch the network type back to LTE/GSM/CDMA auto PRL.
My Verizon account also shows "unauthorized, non-VZW device". Shouldn't affect anything. I've been using an unauthorized/non-VZW device prior to the A7 with no issues as well."
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good to know! I've had so many phones and this hardware looks so awesome for the price, but of course vzw isn't gonna play nice with it without some work. Looking forward to getting mine
Verizon still working fine for me.
After the b27 update I saw improved signal strength. I'm on page plus mvno. After driving in a fringe reception area, I lost lte,and I showed as roaming. It seemed to be using boost Mobile from what the phones network menus displayed. Axon doesn't have a mobile network setting for 'system b', only auto & home only. Tried both, rebooting each time, no fix. I ended up resetting phone, fixed it all. I then switched mobile network to home only, and hoping that it's done.
PS-after b27 I had to re-enable a couple settings, pinch for screen shot, etc.
Edit: it's now been several weeks with it set to home network only. I daily drive in fringe reception areas and have better signal strength than ever, with any phone/carrier combo. All is great, no more issues. Great phone!
For reference, I'm on page plus mvno, dropped in my activated sim from my old phone into the right-side sim slot for CDMA services. Then set to home only. Done.
Sent from my Axon 7 using XDA Labs
Just wanted to see if anyone else had inputs of post update Verizon service, good and bad... hasn't been a ton of chatter in the last week. I have a phone on its way from the egg, trying to decide if it's worth starting a new sim card with Verizon and dealing with that work around... is getting the number off a display and ordering online still the easiest way to get activated?
Works great on VZW still. Love the phone.
methcat said:
Just wanted to see if anyone else had inputs of post update Verizon service, good and bad... hasn't been a ton of chatter in the last week. I have a phone on its way from the egg, trying to decide if it's worth starting a new sim card with Verizon and dealing with that work around... is getting the number off a display and ordering online still the easiest way to get activated?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd say that the Axon works just as well on Verizon as it did prior to the update, but with potentially better signal strength though I didn't really have a big issue with that prior to the update so I'm not sure (the T-Mobile SIM does seem to do a lot better post-update...but Verizon has always worked well).
I really doubt you'll have any substantive trouble with VZW on this device, especially if you're willing and able to mess a bit with some of the more advanced settings just in case a problem does arise. Here are the oddities, and I'm trying to list *all* of them!
1. No VoLTE or (I presume) HD calling
2. Voicemail appears to have to be accessed by dialing *86 as opposed to long-pressing the '1' key
3. Roaming icon is present intermittently
4. Data roaming *must* be enabled to ensure consistent and reliable data service
5. Verizon's website won't recognize the device at all in the Account Overview pages (mine still shows the last "approved" device I had with my VZW SIM - an iPhone 6S)
6. MMS *may* require a hack to get the proper APN, though I've had no trouble with this (I'm prepaid though); the hack requires a GSM SIM, so beware of this
7. 1X reception *seems* a tad weak in terms of dBm but functionally it almost seems better than my other Verizon phones (weird!)
8. Carrier label will be either '123456,' '002127' (EvDO only), or (I think?) '31000' when not using LTE (i.e., 1X or 3G). When on LTE the phone should show "Verizon Wireless" as normal
9. A SIM/modem reset may be necessary once in a great while it seems...so it's good to understand how to navigate to the "Phone Information" screen to toggle radio settings...also, I've found just SIM-cycling with a GSM SIM will often fix any connectivity problems as well...and sometimes just rebooting the phone with no SIM at all can help too (or a combo of all the above!)
If you can tolerate the above issues then the phone is great. I really enjoy it. I've found the Verizon side of things to be pretty reliable on the Axon 7, even with my endless tinkering with radio modes and other stuff, which has seemed to get me into (recoverable) trouble a few times.
Most importantly - the endless chatter on various forums that Verizon "blocks" the Axon 7 and other non-approved devices is total bunk. In every case where I've run into an issue it can be resolved on my side - Verizon is doing nothing whatsoever to inhibit the use of the Axon 7 on its network as far as I can tell (notwithstanding activation hurdles, admittedly)...many of the people making such claims seem to be speaking from a standpoint of total ignorance and it's kind of getting annoying, to be honest...it seems like the minute someone has an issue with the Axon 7, some ignoramus gets on the relevant forums/comments and claims that Verizon is "blocking" the device. Total BS IMO.
Good luck! As far as activation is concerned...I'd say it might be best to just go to Wal-Mart and buy a cheap prepaid phone or something (looks like the HTC Desire 526 has a nano-SIM and is only $37.49 on their website)...or maybe a cheap nano-SIM'd Verizon phone off of Swappa or eBay? That's probably what I'd do...But I know neither of those solutions are particularly helpful...VZW definitely makes it a bit of a pain.
flyer_andy said:
I'd say that the Axon works just as well on Verizon as it did prior to the update, but with potentially better signal strength though I didn't really have a big issue with that prior to the update so I'm not sure (the T-Mobile SIM does seem to do a lot better post-update...but Verizon has always worked well).
I really doubt you'll have any substantive trouble with VZW on this device, especially if you're willing and able to mess a bit with some of the more advanced settings just in case a problem does arise. Here are the oddities, and I'm trying to list *all* of them!
1. No VoLTE or (I presume) HD calling
2. Voicemail appears to have to be accessed by dialing *86 as opposed to long-pressing the '1' key
3. Roaming icon is present intermittently
4. Data roaming *must* be enabled to ensure consistent and reliable data service
5. Verizon's website won't recognize the device at all in the Account Overview pages (mine still shows the last "approved" device I had with my VZW SIM - an iPhone 6S)
6. MMS *may* require a hack to get the proper APN, though I've had no trouble with this (I'm prepaid though); the hack requires a GSM SIM, so beware of this
7. 1X reception *seems* a tad weak in terms of dBm but functionally it almost seems better than my other Verizon phones (weird!)
8. Carrier label will be either '123456,' '002127' (EvDO only), or (I think?) '31000' when not using LTE (i.e., 1X or 3G). When on LTE the phone should show "Verizon Wireless" as normal
9. A SIM/modem reset may be necessary once in a great while it seems...so it's good to understand how to navigate to the "Phone Information" screen to toggle radio settings...also, I've found just SIM-cycling with a GSM SIM will often fix any connectivity problems as well...and sometimes just rebooting the phone with no SIM at all can help too (or a combo of all the above!)
If you can tolerate the above issues then the phone is great. I really enjoy it. I've found the Verizon side of things to be pretty reliable on the Axon 7, even with my endless tinkering with radio modes and other stuff, which has seemed to get me into (recoverable) trouble a few times.
Most importantly - the endless chatter on various forums that Verizon "blocks" the Axon 7 and other non-approved devices is total bunk. In every case where I've run into an issue it can be resolved on my side - Verizon is doing nothing whatsoever to inhibit the use of the Axon 7 on its network as far as I can tell (notwithstanding activation hurdles, admittedly)...many of the people making such claims seem to be speaking from a standpoint of total ignorance and it's kind of getting annoying, to be honest...it seems like the minute someone has an issue with the Axon 7, some ignoramus gets on the relevant forums/comments and claims that Verizon is "blocking" the device. Total BS IMO.
Good luck! As far as activation is concerned...I'd say it might be best to just go to Wal-Mart and buy a cheap prepaid phone or something (looks like the HTC Desire 526 has a nano-SIM and is only $37.49 on their website)...or maybe a cheap nano-SIM'd Verizon phone off of Swappa or eBay? That's probably what I'd do...But I know neither of those solutions are particularly helpful...VZW definitely makes it a bit of a pain.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
#6 might not need the GSM SIM workaround anymore after the B27 update. The + sign shows up for me all the time now, even if I only have a Verizon SIM inserted.
thanks for the list guys, i think i'll give it a shot. i'm going to try to add it as a second line to my wifes plan online. is borrowing a friends imei from a nano phone still the best way to get a new activated sim for this phone?
that 526 is a predaid, will verizon just switch that sim to plan if i call in? or are they different?
---------- Post added at 03:42 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:18 PM ----------
methcat said:
that 526 is a predaid, will verizon just switch that sim to plan if i call in? or are they different?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
found this, not sure if this is still the rule...
http://www.prepaidphonenews.com/2016/02/new-policy-may-require-verizon-prepaid.html
"It turns out that Verizon made a policy change effective 1/17/16 that requires Verizon Prepaid Phones to be activated on Verizon Prepaid and have at least $30 in airtime applied to them before they cam be used on Verizon postpaid. A Reddit user posted a copy of an internal Verizon document detailing the new rule:
Effective 1/17/2016, customers who purchase a Prepaid 4G device must activate on a $30, $45, or $60 Prepaid plan and make at least 1 monthly service payment before they are eligible to move the device to a new or active Postpay account .
Device remains locked until first month’s payment is made on their Prepaid plan.
Device is unlocked automatically upon successful first month’s payment and can be used on Postpaid plan (new SIM or SIM swap).
Attempting to use an active Postpay SIM Card with a new 4G LTE Prepaid PIB smartphone prior to making the required monthly payment, hotlines the Postpay MDN (SFO 83643) . The hotline remains until first month’s payment is made.
Customers who activate on the $45 or $60 Prepaid plans and enroll in Auto Pay, receive bonus 1GB data per month.
If account is hotlined:
Data access, outgoing calls, and text messaging do not work.
Text message is sent to smartphone.
*VZW FREE MSG: Phone must be activated on Verizon Wireless Prepaid service and first monthly payment must be made before it can be used with any other service. *
Auto-remark is placed on the customer's account.
*SIM Swap attempted: MDN Hotlined. Phone must be activated on VZW Prepaid service and first month paid before it can be activated as postpaid. *"
methcat said:
thanks for the list guys, i think i'll give it a shot. i'm going to try to add it as a second line to my wifes plan online. is borrowing a friends imei from a nano phone still the best way to get a new activated sim for this phone?
that 526 is a predaid, will verizon just switch that sim to plan if i call in? or are they different?
---------- Post added at 03:42 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:18 PM ----------
found this, not sure if this is still the rule...
http://www.prepaidphonenews.com/2016/02/new-policy-may-require-verizon-prepaid.html
"It turns out that Verizon made a policy change effective 1/17/16 that requires Verizon Prepaid Phones to be activated on Verizon Prepaid and have at least $30 in airtime applied to them before they cam be used on Verizon postpaid. A Reddit user posted a copy of an internal Verizon document detailing the new rule:
Effective 1/17/2016, customers who purchase a Prepaid 4G device must activate on a $30, $45, or $60 Prepaid plan and make at least 1 monthly service payment before they are eligible to move the device to a new or active Postpay account .
Device remains locked until first month’s payment is made on their Prepaid plan.
Device is unlocked automatically upon successful first month’s payment and can be used on Postpaid plan (new SIM or SIM swap).
Attempting to use an active Postpay SIM Card with a new 4G LTE Prepaid PIB smartphone prior to making the required monthly payment, hotlines the Postpay MDN (SFO 83643) . The hotline remains until first month’s payment is made.
Customers who activate on the $45 or $60 Prepaid plans and enroll in Auto Pay, receive bonus 1GB data per month.
If account is hotlined:
Data access, outgoing calls, and text messaging do not work.
Text message is sent to smartphone.
*VZW FREE MSG: Phone must be activated on Verizon Wireless Prepaid service and first monthly payment must be made before it can be used with any other service. *
Auto-remark is placed on the customer's account.
*SIM Swap attempted: MDN Hotlined. Phone must be activated on VZW Prepaid service and first month paid before it can be activated as postpaid. *"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dang...yeah I think you're right about this. My mistake...ugh I wish they'd just make it easy! In that case I'd say Swappa would be the best route...I've bought a few phones off of there and it's always been a great experience.
What are your APN settings? I'm having issues getting my data to work on Verizon.
Salmonella lolz said:
What are your APN settings? I'm having issues getting my data to work on Verizon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mine: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=68263623&postcount=61
So frustrating. Before update used today Verizon in upper left corner. Switched to 123456 after update. Rebooted and it went back. After another reboot it only says 123456 and nothing I do will change it back. And now when I get an MMS hangouts tells me it needs to download it but nothing happens. I never get LTE anymore either.
Edit: not sure what I did but it's back now. Might have something to do with bearer in apn settings being lte.
KyJelly69 said:
So frustrating. Before update used today Verizon in upper left corner. Switched to 123456 after update. Rebooted and it went back. After another reboot it only says 123456 and nothing I do will change it back. And now when I get an MMS hangouts tells me it needs to download it but nothing happens. I never get LTE anymore either.
Edit: not sure what I did but it's back now. Might have something to do with bearer in apn settings being lte.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's #9 in the above list that was posted. Need to cycle the modem state of the device.
so, can someone help me with a little clarification? did ZTE ever actually disable anything regarding Verizon on this phone? i know when people quote the webinar, it sounded like they were going to. i understand that the functionality is basically all still working, but i'm wondering if maybe i'm confused on the terminology.
in this post on reddit, i heard the same thing that has been repeated by some, and i am wondering if i have my band terminology confused. is the cdma part different from the 4g lte part(and that's why it's still working)?, or is sarah just incorrect?
SarahSchmera 3 points 9 hours ago
Axon 7
Doesn't work on Verizon yet. It supposedly has CDMA radios but the radio firmware has them disabled. ZTE can't by law enable the CDMA radios because they didn't get FCC approval for the CDMA radios. They would have to pay for the testing and then resubmit the device to the FCC to get approval before they turned on the CDMA radios through a software update.
And the device doesn't have the firmware for VoLTE, HD calling or WiFi calling on Verizon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Moto G4 Play XT1607 usage on all 4 US carriers? real world experience.

The Unlocked Moto G4 Play, XT1607, is suppose to work out the box on all 4 US carriers. Which means it should also work on all MVNO's too. So, what's the experience out there for those that are using it? any troubles getting it to activate? In particular, with verizon or sprint or their MVNO's? Is it passing Sprints FEC? whitelisted?
Personally, I've tested a CC XT1607. I had to get a SIM unlock code since it was locked to CC. It wont work on Sprint because its CC branded and therfore, not on sprints whitelist. It appears to work on GSM- I've tested with a freedompop global SIM and after putting in the APN, and it seems to work ok. However, I haven't been able to get it to connect to Verzion. I'm testing with an activated BOOM mobile "V" SIM, and haven't been able to get it to connect, even after calling BOOM support...
I'm on H2O Wireless using this phone, works fine. They are an MVNO of AT&T. I have an older Verizon SIM card laying around that I want to see if it will work in the XT1607 here soon
Tracfone BYOP here (GSM-ATT) on XT1607. Before CM, was a little finicky with APN settings. Though the real issue I had was when I lost my number (it ported back to my old phone and TF had to ship FOUR sim cards to fix). After putting CM in, I've noticed the cell antenna is more sensitive. It will show reception even when IP is unavailable (denoted by a black X on the signal icon; this happened during a recent power failure and the cell towers were at capacity). When there are multiple towers in area, it swaps between them constantly (2 bars -> 0 bars -> 2 bars -> etc.) but my LTE is still rock solid at about 10Mbit.
No issues w/Verizon on unlocked, rooted XT1607 with stock ROM. Dropped in SIM from Droid Mini (required adapter) and was off to the races. Only minor glitch was healthy spamming of com.phone.android has stopped FCs which was quickly rectified by clearing cached data. Voice and data operate with expected clarity and speed.
smithbobbyjoe said:
The Unlocked Moto G4 Play, XT1607, is suppose to work out the box on all 4 US carriers. Which means it should also work on all MVNO's too. So, what's the experience out there for those that are using it? any troubles getting it to activate? In particular, with verizon or sprint or their MVNO's? Is it passing Sprints FEC? whitelisted?
Personally, I've tested a CC XT1607. I had to get a SIM unlock code since it was locked to CC. It wont work on Sprint because its CC branded and therfore, not on sprints whitelist. It appears to work on GSM- I've tested with a freedompop global SIM and after putting in the APN, and it seems to work ok. However, I haven't been able to get it to connect to Verzion. I'm testing with an activated BOOM mobile "V" SIM, and haven't been able to get it to connect, even after calling BOOM support...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My xt1607 is working fine on Ting MVNO using their GSM side that is on the T-Mobile network. I've seen band 12 (700 MHz extended range) occasionally and VoLTE seems to be used.
I've used my XT1607 on T-mobile (briefly), AT&T MVNO (FreedomPOP), and Sprint. Also roamed in about 8 other countries in Europe and Asia via Sprint Global Roaming, and used prepaid SIMs to access 2 non-USA GSM/LTE networks.
Works great on all GSM/LTE networks.
As usual, Sprint's crappy network technology gets the short end of the stick. On stock ROM, PRL/profile updating usually works, but **non-stock ROMs cannot update it**.
If you are going to run a non-stock ROM on Sprint, **back up your EFS partitions** before flashing to a non-stock ROM; restoring them will help you fix network connectivity issues without the hassle of flashing back to stock.

Someone with a little more experience tell me what I'm doing wrong here please.

This is probably something silly and small but I'm pulling my hair out trying to fix this. I bought a G4 play XT1607 unlocked from Best Buy the other week. I also purchased a tracfone SIM activation kit. The kit had 2 sim cards, one GSM and one CDMA. Since I used Verizon service previous to my foray into prepaid plans, I activated the phone with the CDMA SIM card and registered the IMEI with Tracfone. Then I was able to successfully unlock the bootloader following the motorola official procedures, put on TWRP and flashed a LineageOS ROM w/ SU and OpenGAPPS. It worked fine for a couple of days and then *poof* my internet data would no longer connect at all. I rebooted several times and got nothing.
I then saw that there is some LTE/wifi handoff bug and I figured, no biggie, I'll swap my tracfone service to the GSM SIM and pop it in and it'll be good to go. Not so. At first, in fastboot, the screen was saying <Baseband not found> and I couldn't even place a phone call. The phone still doesn't seem to recognize the SIM card and doesn't show any cellular connectivity. I've tried flashing AOKP, LineageOS (both 7.1) and the stock 6.0.1 deodexed several times. I've tried this thread here and using it's 2.35-1 Radio file with the above ROMs which I installed using TWRP as well. None of this is seeming to work so I called Tracfone and they said it should be working and must be on my end. So following this I decided to go fully to flash fully back to stock. I used this file:
https://mirrors.lolinet.com/firmware/moto/harpia/official/RETUS/
and followed these directions
https://forum.xda-developers.com/g4-play/how-to/guide-return-to-stock-firmware-recovery-t3551797
Phone seems to be working fine other than not getting any kind of cellular signal. Even though it should be "factory fresh now" When I called tracfone they didn't seem to sure of themselves and told me it would activate within 2 hours and to call back if I had issues. It's been 4 hours now an dNo sign of signal. Did I mess something up here? Does tracfone need to do something on their send since this phone/IMEI was used previously on their service as CDMA? Or can I just "pop the new SD card and go" Or do I just need to add something like APN settings or similar to get what I have working? I don't want to call tracfone again if I don't have to because they didn't seem to know what to do when I explained it to them and sounded incredulous that one phone did both CDMA and GSM to begin with.
Can anyone help me? I'd like to use this GSM SIM card in my unlocked XT1607 (RETUS). This phone was previously on the same tracfone account with the same phone number but on their CDMA network. What gives? Is this something I messed up or tracfone needs to deal with?
I did some more research and I'm pretty sure this is on Tracfones end. I believe they still have it registered as a CDMA device and it's ignoring my GSM SIM when I turn it on.
Truculent said:
I did some more research and I'm pretty sure this is on Tracfones end. I believe they still have it registered as a CDMA device and it's ignoring my GSM SIM when I turn it on.
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I don't think that's the issue. Did you set an APN for Tracfone? With the GSM SIM, you have to configure the APN.
Tracfone's site says to go to apn.tracfone.com but that site gives an error. I did find this: http://apn-settings.com/tracfone-apn-settings-step-by-step-configuration-guide/
Or you can check on Howardforums or Turks.
Also G4 Play, also Tracfone BYOP. I, however, did GSM from the getgo to avoid something like this. On my phone, when I installed Lineage, my MEID disappeared entirely (it only shows my IMEI in settings). SIM card reads just fine and APN settings are fine. I do think the initial ROM you installed inhibited the device's ability to read its own MEID (everything hints at these ROMs being made specifically for dual-SIM GSM phones). However, switching to the GSM SIM should have worked, provided you actually transferred your number and didn't just pop the other SIM in (the MEID on the Red "BYOP" card would have needed to be decommissioned).
Here's a thought: Try dialing *22890 on the phone. If it says the phone is programmed for CDMA service, then that could be part of the issue. Also check Settings to see if you have both an MEID and IMEI, or just an IMEI. If your IMEI is 0, then the SIM Card is not being read and they need to ship you a new one.
bw 1 said:
I don't think that's the issue. Did you set an APN for Tracfone? With the GSM SIM, you have to configure the APN.
Tracfone's site says to go to apn.tracfone.com but that site gives an error. I did find this: http://apn-settings.com/tracfone-apn-settings-step-by-step-configuration-guide/
Or you can check on Howardforums or Turks.
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Click to collapse
Just to follow up, I did find the correct web page for Tracfone APN: https://www.tracfone.com/apn
Posting for reference. APN is RESELLER/reseller.

SIM unlock Verizon VS995 for different carrier

I have a LG V20 (model VS995) that was previously from Verizon. I switched to google Fi and my phone has never worked correctly. After months of delaying doing a full data reset as per their suggestion, I finally did it and rebuilt all of my apps but now when I go through the Google Fi activation process, it says the SIM card can not be read. I even ordered a second card just in case but I get the same error. I have tried multiple times. According to Fi support, they are saying my VS995 was never fully SIM unlocked from Verizon. Before I left Verizon, they told me their phones aren't really locked so there was nothing to do. Can anyone verify that I really don't need to unlock my phone? I have been having issues for months and now my phone has zero phone functionality. It can't send or receive calls at all. I will gladly go to a local Verizon store if needs to be SIM unlocked. I am hoping one of you has an answer as googling "VS995 unlock" beings up countless web sites with zero valuable information that actually works.
FWIW, my phone is not hacked at all.
All VS995 models come SIM-unlocked out of the box because Verizon at that time was required by law to do so (they started SIM-locking their phones again around June 2019), so there is nothing needed to do on Verizon's end to unlock the phone, and I'm not sure why the SIM card can't be read unless Google Fi gave you a Sprint SIM card, which is totally different and only works on the LS997 model. As far as I know, Google Fi's main networks are T-Mobile and Sprint. The VS995 is rather bad in reception for Fi since it has none of Sprint's LTE bands and only has LTE bands 2 and 4 for T-Mobile (lacking bands 12, 66, and 71).

Can LS997 be forced to work on T mobile or other carriers?

I've got an old LS997 which was my daily driver a few years ago on Sprint. Not anymore and now our new plan is under T mobile. I flashed the LS997 version of /e/OS to it (a de-googled version of LineageOS) and it seems to work fine, except poor reception compared to my newer Pixel 4A (which has newer LTE and NR-NSA modem and maybe better SNR? not sure...)
Importantly, call and SMS do not work. It would be cool if these could be made to work so this phone could be used as a backup. T-mobile does not give their blessing, they claim it is not supported. Why is it so? LTE is GSM technology, and LTE data works as well as it did when it was sprint years ago, shouldn't SMS and calling work over VoLTE? and hell if T mobile adopted Sprint's network, they should have kept support for CDMA in addition to GSM phones to maximize the number of supported devices and minimize barriers to Sprint customers when said customers transition over from team yellow to magenta.
I played with the following settings:
* configuring the APN as per the official guide.
* tried a few random selections under "preferred network type" currently have the most inclusive option selected. (NR/LTE/TDSCDMA/CDMA/EvDo/GSM/WCDMA
* CDMA Subscription selection, tried both RUIM/SIM and NV
I suspect it simply will not work because it is in fact an LS997, and does not support the bands and technology the T-Mobile network uses. Since they are GSM and Sprint was CDMA, and my vague non-technical understanding is that Sprint used some bodgy CMDA bull**** for voice and SMS and GSM technology for data. though that would explain why mobile network state is disconnected and mobile voice network type is unknown, while mobile data network type is LTE and works fine.
Dumb question, what would happen if I were to do the forbidden thing: flash US996 bootloader and ROM to this device? or deliberately overwrite the radio.img? Something about there not being KYZ files for the LS997 variant means no going back but hey Sprint doesn't exist anymore so who cares. Worst case my almost useless phone would be bricked, though I do sometimes use it on the side as a sort of tablet and to record videos so it would be ashame to completely destroy it, but seeing the phone can be had well under $100... meh.
Is it possible to do this acknologing there is probably no turning back and also there is a good chance of hard bricking?

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