Hello,
I post this thread, helpless finding a solution..I hope it is not a duplicate..
My uncle bought me a SM-N900 Unlocked Note 3 from Bestbuy Florida, USA. He did not touch the phone till he brings it here, Turkey. When he deliver me the phone i could not use it with my Turkish sim card and i was shocked of course.. I searched for solutions on the net and found some answers about it. Here is (actually are) what i did to overcome;
1) Firstly i rooted the phone and tried the Region Lock Away app from Chainfire, unluckily the app doesnt support my model, i found out from the forums (or it was what i understood)
2) Next i communicated with Samsung Turkey and deliver the phone to Technical Support. After 10 days they gave me the phone back telling that they tried a code to unlock it, but it didn't work so they gave back the phone unfixed.
3) I searched for reliable unlocking sites, tried 4 of them but no result. Now i am also coping with refunds..
4) I take the risk and tried custom ROMs hoping that it would help but it also did not solve my problem as i found out that region lock is not a security system that is bound with the firmware..(as my understanding it is a whitelist that is embedded with the baseband (?) (bios?))
5) The last thing i tried was changing the firmware, i removed the TTT (Trinidad&Tobago) firmware and installed Saudi Arabia Firmware.. But no solution..
Now i have a 800$ phone (not even including the extra fees to register the phone in Turkey…) and not working as a phone...HOW NICE!!
Regards,
P.S. HELP MEEEEE!!!! (((
Gosh it should be working.
Sent from Samsung Galaxy Note 3.
If you like my post hit thanks .
deadlyheart4u said:
Gosh it should be working.
Sent from Samsung Galaxy Note 3.
If you like my post hit thanks .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i've the same problem
Related
Dear all,
I've been trying to solve the following problem for three weeks on my own and have made no progress, and have probably made things worse. So, I figured it was time to get some help at long last.
I bought my S4 I9500 in Bangkok, and I was not aware that Samsung was region locking their phones now, as I had an S2 that I used in Thailand, China and Cambodia without any problems.
So, I bought the S4 and loved it. However, I moved back to China last month, and upon arrival I bought a SIM card. It didn't work... At this point, my firmware was 4.3, as it had auto-updated from 4.2 while I was in Thailand.
The folks at China mobile couldn't figure out the problem, so I did some research and found out that my phone was region locked. I went to 3 Samsung stores here, and none of them knew what to do, nor would bother to figure it out.
So, I had to try to fix it on my own. I read about entering service mode and tried it, but it didn't work. From what I read, it would have worked in 4.2.2, but not 4.3. I tried finding a place to download 4.2.2 to flash it back, but Hotfile is dead, so I got 4.4. I figured it couldn't hurt, right?
Well, it didn't help.
So, basically, my I9500 is at firmware version 4.4, and my phone is still locked. I am in desperate need of some help. I do not care about the warranty, as I am pretty sure I screwed that up already.
BTW: I did try some sites for the unlock codes, but either they didn't have what I needed, the IMEI code was not accepted, only accepted Paypal, or would not accept a UnionPay credit card. -_-
Thanks for your time.
In order to fully understand your case, you said " I bought the S4 and loved it" and "it had auto-updated from 4.2 while I was in Thailand.".
do you say you were using it there and you connected thai phone network with a local sim card for some time?
if yes the phone was to be normaly unlocked for any other region network....
lolo9393 said:
In order to fully understand your case, you said " I bought the S4 and loved it" and "it had auto-updated from 4.2 while I was in Thailand.".
do you say you were using it there and you connected thai phone network with a local sim card for some time?
if yes the phone was to be normaly unlocked for any other region network....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep. I used a Thai SIM card for about 4 months. When I inserted a Chinese SIM card, it once asked me for an unlock key.
Amarach said:
Yep. I used a Thai SIM card for about 4 months. When I inserted a Chinese SIM card, it once asked me for an unlock key.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
sim lock is different from region lock,
since you have used your s4 in thai your phone probably is region unlocked by now. (as far as i know)
it seems like your phone is locked to mobile provider in Thailand,
try to use any website that provides sim-unlock code using imei of your phone.
Hey guys. I just bought a brand new note 3 from Italy. the phone is region locked. without knowing about that i bought the phone to sri lanka. connected to wifi and now updated it to 4.4.2 running on latest firmware. to remove the regional lock via chainfire's app. we have to be in 4.3 now im basically unable to use my note 3 until i back in italy and take a call for 5 minutes is there a way to downgrade to 4.3?? i tried installing OMEGA rom but it doesnt have any effect. samsung agents were like they cant unlock the phone the only method is bring the phone back to italy and use it for at least five minutes. please help me guys :crying::crying::crying:
I read this thread and there is no statement that says it only works on 4.3?
vndnguyen said:
I read this thread and there is no statement that says it only works on 4.3?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Compatible devices
- Galaxy Note 3 SM-N9005 (MI7, MJ1, MJ3 firmwares)
its upgraded to kitkat.
Deeshana2912 said:
Compatible devices
- Galaxy Note 3 SM-N9005 (MI7, MJ1, MJ3 firmwares)
its upgraded to kitkat.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Then you need to read this thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-note-3/help/region-unlock-code-samsung-t2852653
TLDR - you need to contact Samsung and they can provide you an unlock code; in my experience not all Samsung representatives in all countries are equally knowledgeable or helpful - I do not know precisely about those in Italy but I can say that most will try to bull**** you parallel explanations. The absolute best guys are those from Germany, and if the Samsung representatives from Italy (which SHOULD be responsible for fixing your problem since you are THEIR customer) fail you, then you should:
a) complain about the guys from Italy to Samsung home directly
b) in parallel try again to write to Samsung Germany; ideally for minimum waiting time you should try to write in German (using Google Translate if you do not have a better way) and they very likely will provide you an unlock code.
Hello dear PRO
Because i am newbie with root flash etc i dont know how to change imei and if i am find some trick o no understand what i must do.
I am buy samsung galaxy note 3 N9005 phone in germany (from second hand) before 2 yers back ,but now in my country (Czech republic ) this imei is blocked, maybe you know how i can easy repair my phone. thanks you for your time.
Here is info about phone
When i am start i see Samsung galaxy note 3 SM-N9005 and after i see logo T-mobile
In option
Version Android 4.4.2
Version Baseband N9005XXUENA2
Core version 3.4.4.0-348029
The build number KOT49H.N9005XXUENA7
Status SE for android Enforcing SEPF_SM_9005_4.4.2_0032
Version security SW MDF v1.0 Release 1
I am read a lot of instruction, but i rly dont know what i must do,because everybody say different trick.
(replace efs,flash,root and more)
Because on this forum is a lot of special people with a lot of expiriencesi think only you can help me.
Sorry for my bad english and thanks for your help and your time
just root your phone and put imei remover it will unlock it and you can use your simcard in it, you can find the remover in this website. this happen to me and I did this and my phone is working the only problem is you will need to do this each 4 or 6 monthes. Hope this will help you. Note if you search it in youtube there is a vid will teach you how to do this if you are new about it.
I no need unlock simcard, i need change IMEI because my imei is blocked in my country by all operators,if i amcheck my imei,i found This imei is blaklisted in Czech republic
nobody can help ?
Go and check on to the Samsung store
Cause u can't actually change IMEI no. Of any phone.
Sent from my SM-N900 using Tapatalk
I think you bought a stolen one...
@phablet
Greetings,
In most countries, it is unlawful to change IMEI. In XDA land, it is forbidden to discuss this process.
Thread closed.
I bought an unlocked G950FD which turns out to be CSC THR (part of OXM) so should mean it's from Iran. I have found it generic enough in almost every way to be used internationally (in English) with two noticeable exceptions that i'm trying to solve.
1) there is pre-installed Persian Calendar in the OS which appears after the Gregorian date on the AOS and lock screen. I also noticed this extra date appearing on the Samsung Calendar app under the western date, but i don't use this app at all so can easily ignore. The AOS and lock screen is seen all the time and would displays: "MON, JUNE 5 (KHOR 15)". I looked through every settings on the phone and many forums online, and there is no software way to turn this off.
I thought a potential solution would be to replace this stock ROM with another region since any of the multi-CSC OXM firmwares should be compatible with the phone. So I tried to flash another region using Odin. I tried Singapore (SIN and STH) and completely reset/wiped the phone two separate times. However, despite flashing a large (almost 6GB) file onto the phone it still remains in THR when i looked in settings. I guess I misunderstood the purpose of different firmware regions, I thought i would be changing my phone's existing firmware to another region and get a different set of default apps and localization behavior. But the Persian date is still there on all the same screens.
Am I flashing the rom incorrectly? Is there some setting that i omitted that would give me the desired result of a Singapore OS? Any other ways to change CSC and get rid of unwanted parts of a regional firmware?
2) Another problem is when i receive calls on my local sim card, the phone number shows up without the country code, but if i store my numbers (on Google contacts) in "+<country code> <phone number>" format then the contact is not linked to the incoming call.
Apparently this is fairly common with international phones being used in another market. There is a workaround where i can edit my numbers on google to not have any numerical country codes but instead use the flag drop-down menu on google to indicate country associated with the number. I'm ok with that solution but is there another way? Would flashing a regional firmware that is my location solve this? The region that i intend to use the phone is not part of the OXM multi-CSC list of countries since they only sell the snapdragon variant here.
I would like to find solutions that would avoid root and custom roms, but if that is the only option here, i am not against going down that route.
Thanks a lot in advance.
My eventual solution and what i've learned.
So as i described above, i tried to flash many different versions of G950FD or G950F firware with multi-CSC OXM, but never saw my CSC change from THR. Nothing changed on my phone despite installing large files through odin which was always confusing to me. For the record, i tried BTU (UK), STH (Singapore), and SIN (Singapore) which are all part of the OXM.
I learned from another forum that the sim-card installed matters, so i was just trying different non-middle-east regions by picking UK or Singapore but my actual home region does not support this model/cpu variant. I don't have a sim-card from any OXM regions, only Hong Kong and US ones.
Then i found an old Australian (Optus) sim card from a trip and found a G950F firmware version with CSC OPS on Updato. Not part of CSC OXM but same PDA/Phone version and was told it's safe to flash. When i flashed that firmware with the AU sim card installed, i got the AU OS and all the old regional apps were gone. I got some Australian ones but nothing i can't uninstall. My caller ID problem also seem to be fixed. So i consider the problem fixed.
In all of this, the PDA version numbers were always the same (AQDG), so i'm still a bit unclear as to what the CSC file is specifying and doing.
Am i correct to assume that multi-CSC OXM firmware contained regional apps/settings for all the various regions but without a sim card installed to tell it which one to pick, it kept selecting the factory region of THR? And when i flashed the Optus firmware, did i really need the sim-card installed? Would it have changed the firmware to OPS because it's outside the multi-CSC OXM group?
You live in Hong Kong, right ?
I do too, and have a UAE S8, and Samsung Pay doesn't work.
Does your working around things allow you to use Pay, or you get stuck on the splash screen as well ?
tarkil said:
You live in Hong Kong, right ?
I do too, and have a UAE S8, and Samsung Pay doesn't work.
Does your working around things allow you to use Pay, or you get stuck on the splash screen as well ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes i live in HK, so with the AU Optus Firmware I got a AU version of Samsung Pay with all AU ads and suggested businesses. I can get past the splash and login using my normal Samsung Account, which shouldn't have a region. BUT so far i haven't had any success adding any of my HK credit cards, i assume it's a version compatibility issue. There is no way to pick which regional version of Samsung Pay on the Play Store, so i guess it looks at your phone's origin to determine that part of the app.
I am not that keen to use Samsung Pay, but of course interested to know if it is possible. It says to call the banks to get my credit cards added, so maybe there is still a chance and i will post if i do succeed.
Do you think Samsung Pay is particularly good for HK? Would using Android Pay be comparable here? I'm not that experienced with mobile payment apps in the past. Seems like the membership card storage function will still work on my Samsung Pay so at least i have that and can slim down the wallet a bit.
Hey there buddy,
Finally found a thread that represents my problem also, in my case i have a s8 G950FD that shows the same thing on my lockscreen, by me it shows (KHOR18)!
Is there any way around it, i mean a fix?? I would greatly appreciate any help
Yes that's the Iranian calendar date so the day will increment everyday. Khor is abbrev for the current month.
Yes I have a solution (read my second post in thread) but involves flashing with a sim card and 950f or 950fd firmware of the same region as the sim card. You will need to reset and erase phone data.
If you need help flashing stock firmware there is a long thread on this forum and where I found the answer about how the sim card installed might make difference.
What region/sim are you currently trying to use your s8?
derf574 said:
Yes that's the Iranian calendar date so the day will increment everyday. Khor is abbrev for the current month.
Yes I have a solution (read my second post in thread) but involves flashing with a sim card and 950f or 950fd firmware of the same region as the sim card. You will need to reset and erase phone data.
If you need help flashing stock firmware there is a long thread on this forum and where I found the answer about how the sim card installed might make difference.
What region/sim are you currently trying to use your s8?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey there again,
Thank you very much for the time. I am in SE Europe, to be more precise Republic of Kosovo. My SIM is from Kosovo ( we are considered i believe to be in Europe carrier wise)
I do need help flashing the phone as i have no experience whatsoever i just recently switched from Iphone to Samsung, this being said i must also mention the fact that i would definitely need help. I dont want to mess up the phone i just got it like 2 days ago
Things to consider:
- You can flash both 950F and 950FD firmware on your 950FD.
- You need to find your desired firmware. And that region needs to match your sim card, use Updato or SamMobile but the firmware package is a >3GB file and takes a while to download. Make sure you only look for versions for model 950F or FD.
- You will need to download Odin and Samsung usb drivers to flash the firmware onto your phone. Follow the thread "OFFICIAL STOCK Firmware-update (Odin) thread Samsung GALAXY S8 SM-G950F" for the guide.
Colonel_Kosova said:
Hey there again,
Thank you very much for the time. I am in SE Europe, to be more precise Republic of Kosovo. My SIM is from Kosovo ( we are considered i believe to be in Europe carrier wise)
I do need help flashing the phone as i have no experience whatsoever i just recently switched from Iphone to Samsung, this being said i must also mention the fact that i would definitely need help. I dont want to mess up the phone i just got it like 2 days ago
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you decided to go the "SIM card CSC" method then follow this step by step:
https://www.sammobile.com/forum/showthread.php?t=37711
But I personally think you should do it through flashing a firmware with odin but properly and pay attention to step 6:
https://www.sammobile.com/forum/showthread.php?t=37508
Hope they help you resolve your issues.
Good luck.
samteeee said:
If you decided to go the "SIM card CSC" method then follow this step by step:
https://www.sammobile.com/forum/showthread.php?t=37711
But I personally think you should do it through flashing a firmware with odin but properly and pay attention to step 6:
https://www.sammobile.com/forum/showthread.php?t=37508
Hope they help you resolve your issues.
Good luck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Again thank you very much for everything i do have one last question please. Regarding the step 6 should i do it or not i am not sure
Colonel_Kosova said:
Again thank you very much for everything i do have one last question please. Regarding the step 6 should i do it or not i am not sure
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, if you are changing country/code of CSC, then the system needs to recalculate the partitions.
And don't forget no short cuts! Every step should be done.
Good luck.
ooo man this things is killing me now the problem i have after i have rooted the phone is that the computer wont recognize my phone in download mode ??????????
Hey Peeps,
Small update on how things are for the time being. I have been following all steps as described with odin. Last night i had issues with my laptop not recognizing my phone in download mode, got rid of this issue by changing laptops. Once the procedure was finished i ended up with the same thing on my phone???
I have flashed a european software ( from france) but still no go on removing or changing the region!!!
To be honest dont really know what to do again help is appreciated since that date thing is really annoying
Any other way to get rid of khor on aod/aos
Went through the whole thread. Def not keen to flash or run csc. Any other way to turn off khor date from aod? Help !!!
Hey there all, again just a quick thank you for the tips and tricks. To be honest i dont really know what i did exactely but it worked for me.
What did the change by me was the first step, namely: https://www.sammobile.com/forum/showthread.php?t=37711
i really cant tell how but it worked ( used a sim card i have from Slovenia)
till the next one thank you again
hello everyone i just want to ask if any way can i retrive my efs.? i bought the note 3
(sm-n9005) international version from uae (qatar) and went back at the phillines by the way i'm filipino, last june 2,2017 i did upgrade my software to 5.0 from 4.4.2 and finish download the firmware then install.. while installing my note 3 didnt finish the installing got empty battery.. and try to swith on everything work but the IMEI unknown and no network i've try to change my sim card didnt work.. so went to samsung service center they said they cant repair this EFS issue... anyone can help me with this issue please.. thanks a lot in advance..
Samsung said not repairable and you have no backed up EFS folder .
You can search the forum for thousands of identical post see if you can work out a fix .
Rohychie said:
hello everyone i just want to ask if any way can i retrive my efs.? i bought the note 3
(sm-n9005) international version from uae (qatar) and went back at the phillines by the way i'm filipino, last june 2,2017 i did upgrade my software to 5.0 from 4.4.2 and finish download the firmware then install.. while installing my note 3 didnt finish the installing got empty battery.. and try to swith on everything work but the IMEI unknown and no network i've try to change my sim card didnt work.. so went to samsung service center they said they cant repair this EFS issue... anyone can help me with this issue please.. thanks a lot in advance..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well first of all, WHY DID YOU TRY TO UPDATE WITH LOW BATTERY?!?! I'm pretty sure you get warned EVERYWHERE to have AT LEAST 70-80% in every update ever to avoid problems like this. I'd honestly take it to a non-official repair center. I once had this problem on a Note 1, tried searching everywhere on the net but no luck. Just took it to this one person that specialized on repairing phones and he did it for about $5 dollars. Every fix I found on the web involved having a backup of you /EFS which I didn't have. Mistakes are for you to learn, hopefully you know better in the future.
okey.. thank you for respond
JJEgan said:
Samsung said not repairable and you have no backed up EFS folder .
You can search the forum for thousands of identical post see if you can work out a fix .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
samsung technician suggest that easy way to repair about my issue for note 3 is to changing the board.. but its to expensive to replace new board for note 3
ShaDisNX255 said:
Well first of all, WHY DID YOU TRY TO UPDATE WITH LOW BATTERY?!?! I'm pretty sure you get warned EVERYWHERE to have AT LEAST 70-80% in every update ever to avoid problems like this. I'd honestly take it to a non-official repair center. I once had this problem on a Note 1, tried searching everywhere on the net but no luck. Just took it to this one person that specialized on repairing phones and he did it for about $5 dollars. Every fix I found on the web involved having a backup of you /EFS which I didn't have. Mistakes are for you to learn, hopefully you know better in the future.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
okey.. thank you for respond