Database Users

IMEI issue on a USA T-mobile MDA

Hi,
I just bought a MDA off ebay and the phone works great!
BUT the problem is IMEI numbers dont match ANYWHERE!!
Box, Back of phone and *#06# They are 3 different #'s
I can still make and recieve calls and go on the net.. phones works properly.
Is there anyway some1 could have changed the IMEI? Or is there a Rom flash that could have done this?
OR could a Unlock have altered the IMEI?
And is there a way i can change the IMEI to the same one as the one on the back of my phone?
The Seller has agreed to refund my money, but I want to exercise all my options b4 I return it. Bc the price was actually great!
Any help will be appreciated.
Thanks in Adv!
Brit.
:thumbup:
PS i did search for this issue and did come accross some good threads, but there was alot of "THIS IS ILLEGAL" i know this so please post somthing meaningful...

Your best bet is to get your money back. At best the phone was serviced and the guts placed inside the wrong case by accident (which would explain 3 different IMEI) but at worst there could be something hinky in the phone's history that will come back to bite you as the current owner.

I wouldn't worry about it.
1) The phone works
2) You know the phone's actual IMEI
That's all there is to it. Don't worry about it.

both of you bring up a good point.
I am leaning towards keeping theh thing b/c of the price i paid for it b/c of a mislabeling of the auction. It was a super low price..
I will check to see if the guts were changed, there probably will be a sign if the casing was opened.
Can you give signs to look for tampering?
Second, I read were some1's IMEI changed b.c of a Unlock could this have happend to my MDA?
Thanks for you replies agian!

HTC (or T-Mobile Warranty) might me able to confirm if any (or all) of the IMEIs you have are from serviced phones.
As for the Unlock changing the IMEI, I know one user reported it but I seriously the validity of their story.
I've CID unlocked 5 HTC Phones (3 BlueAngels, 2 Wizards) and SIM unlocked them also with the IMEI never being changed.
Just remember though, if there is something hinky and the phone is hot you can lose the phone and never see your money.

I would imagine that if the phone was put up for sale, sold, shipped, turned on and found to work and it is hot, the heat has probably cooled considerably. Or, in other words, if it was going to be banned by the network, I would think it would have already happened. As far as unlocking changing the IMEI, I second the above. Few things are impossible but a simple unlocking changing the IMEI has to be close. If it was my phone, I'd first look for some obvious sign of tampering. Crooks aren't very smart (they are crooks, after all) so it shouldn't be hard to find. If nothing jumped out at me, I'd shrug my shoulders and call it mine.

Cool, I will call HTC.
I just called Tmobile and they said that they dont BAN phones, they just ban simcards. but I doubt they would admit the truth.
the phone working is a Positive sign to me.
But I will call HTC and confirm. ALSO I will Call Paypal and see if i have any kind of warranty to buying a stolen item.
if all else fails i will return the phone to the seller.
Brittany

the IMEI should look exactly like the IMEI on the back of the phone rite? not shorter or longer?
i will reverify if its' shorter or something. b/c i read some where about a 17 and 15 digits are needed.
ALSO say if my MDA was stock right out of the box would the phone have these 4 lines on the top left corner in red with some numbers and stuff.. possibly rom info and model info?

Usually the stickers with IMEI numbers are difficult to forge since it requires a special paper (Nokia at least) and a special kind of file.
Although the theory of mixing boards, cases and boxes is very plausible there's still the chance that the IMEI on the back of the phone is the hot one. You can always try to change back to it (but taking note of the one stored presently in ROM for future use) and see if it gets barred/blocked or you get a visit from the authorities :twisted: In any case, this forum's posts could help to prove your innocence in court (just kidding :lol: )
As for the procedures to achieve it, get back to me via PM
cheers

Well i took it to a local Tmobile store and they exchanged the phone for me. WOOT! WOOT! this was a pure sealed one. so prob solved.. now i just have to do a CID and Sim Unlock and upgrade to the latest rom.
Any recomms? i will try to do my NEWBIE duties and search and learn, if anyone wants to make it easy for me. well hooka sista up!..lol
Brit

Wow! Not bad! If the 2.26 ROM is already on it (I got a new one a couple days ago on warrantee and that was the case), you may want to think twice before changing that. I've been real happy with 2.26 and it's gotten to where the ONLY thing I bother changing in the registry is the glyphcache and menu settings and I uninstall OZ, the DAT MailTrigger thing and the Hotspot login utility. And...bonus time....you don't void the warrantee that mayb prove handy in the future.

Moral of the story.. get 3 old phone, inter change their IMEI (e.g. stickers and box) .. go to different local store to get 3 new phones

So last night i did
1. Sim Unlock
2. CID Unlock
3. installed AIM (wifi friendly)
4. Upgraded the rom to 2.26
5. installed Agile Msnger beta verson
phone's running like butter! Thou after i installed AIM phone RAN really sluggish! but i think it was b/c i put my orig sim card with 150 entirees.
so i rebooted charged the phone to 100% and did the rom upgrade from Tmobile's webiste..
the phone runs like a charm now.. I just need to find a good Instant Messenger software, wiht profile and away msg so my friends to hit me up with a huge txt msg bill..
I came, i read, i learned, i conquered the mda!

i337M Abrupt Signal Loss

Hi everyone,
So about five days ago I was in the middle of using my Galaxy S4 (I think I was playing a game or something) and all of the sudden my cellular signal dropped out completely—from 4 bars to zero with a little X in it. There it's remained ever since.
My first thought was that I ought to reboot the thing and see if that would solve anything. The answer was no.
My second thought was that maybe my contract was up (as that was due to happen this month), and rather than auto-renewing, they kicked me off. Weird, but possible. But that's not it: I phoned up my provider and they said that all systems are go, there are no outages, your account is active for a week still, and even past that contract expiry I'll just get bumped to month-to-month and never experience a blip in service. So that's not it.
So then I put my SIM in another unlocked phone, and lo-and-behold, it connects just fine. So clearly the problem is with my phone.
My i337M is running Liquid Smooth 2.9 and KToonSez' kernel. I decided to make a nandroid and flash back to stock ROM/kernel. Still I could not connect to the network.
I can only think of two potential problems. First, I unlocked the phone myself via FastGSM.com's tethered USB method. It was a Bell-locked phone, and I'm on Rogers. This was accomplished back in July, and since then, there haven't been any issues to speak of (i.e., the unlock worked flawlessly). I tried to see if those unlocks ever expire, and couldn't find any reason why they ought to. I personally don't think it's that, but I mention it out of interest in being thorough.
Second, I messed around with my phones NVData a few weeks back to enable the AWS network via this method. I didn't experience any signal problems after doing so. Again I mention this out of interests of being thorough. Could that have had something to do with it? I suppose I could try flashing back my original NVData, but honestly I don't see why that would suddenly kick in now since I did it weeks ago originally.
Any thoughts? This is really bizarre, and it sucks being without connection.
I was also thinking of flashing back to stock and going to a Bell shop to see what happens when I put a tester SIM in.

It sounds to me like it's hardware related. Don't see anything you've done that would have caused it. I'd flash back to stock and if it still persists I'd file a warranty claim.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using xda app-developers app

Hi, thanks for your reply.
An additional thought's occurred to me: I lost signal at or about the same day I setup Android Device Manager to allow for remote lock/wipe directly from Google. That couldn't possibly be responsible for signal loss, could it...?
Currently flashing back to stock, and I'll unroot/restore kernel/restore NVData and make it look factory, and see what the store says about it. Hopefully I don't have to pay for another unlock at some point.

Okay, this is very messed up. Nobody has any idea why my phone isn't getting signal. I can scan for networks and everything shows up, but in any case with any SIM it says "unable to connect to network". It doesn't matter what ROM I'm on. I flashed back to stock and updated to latest using KIES of all things, which found a firmware/modem/baseband update, and still no dice. I don't know what to do with this thing except take it to an unlocking store that might be able to figure something out for me, but it'll cost me. This is messed, I've never had to get someone else to look at my tech for me.

Okay, so the situation is that it most probably is a hardware failure related to the radio.
I am a Rogers customer who bought the phone from a guy from CraigsList who apparently got it from Bell. I went into Bell and explained the situation, and they scanned the IMEI and printed me out a proof of purchase of the guy's name and told me I should take that to the Bell service centre, and it doesn't matter if I'm not the guy. I also had them check to see if he reported the phone stolen; it turns out he did not—though it should be known that if he had done so, then that could have very well been the reason I wasn't getting signal from anyone, as all providers across Canada apparently share their blacklists with one another now (including the little guys like Wind/Mobilicity).
So now I am in the process of making it look like it's never ever been hacked before: I shall restore my NVData, unroot, and update everything using KIES, and then perform a factory data reset. I'm also on the hunt to figure out what the heck the "flash counter" is and whether or not I need to reset that, but perhaps since mine is the i337M Canadian variant, I don't need to worry about that. (Any advice on restoring my phone to factory condition would be welcome, thanks.)
Edit: Figured out TriangleAway and everything associated. I'm all stock now and ready to bring it back to the factory.

MAJOR UPDATE: PROBLEM IDENTIFIED
So I got my phone back from the factory today. They reported that everything is 100% a-ok on the hardware/software side of things. The radio IC is NOT blown as was suspected.
You know what they said? The problem is on the network. I have a story to tell that I think people should hear, as I've learned something very valuable today and people need to learn this lest they get conned themselves.
Today I phoned in Rogers again, armed with new information, to ask what's up. They ran the IMEI number, and this time... it's come up on the blacklist.
It wasn't there last week. In fact, it wasn't even there an hour ago. It actually only appeared there as the clock ticked past midnight Eastern time... as that is EXACTLY 90 days from when the phone was reported missing. It took them a long time to track down this information.
To reiterate, I did not steal the phone. I bought it from a guy on Craigslist who had it brand new in box with the screen-protector sticker still on the front of it. I checked it out, tried it, and unlocked it myself and have been using it since July without issue, until a week ago.
There is the trouble of, why now? Why only now does the IMEI come up blocked? What the senior rep at Rogers thinks happened was that the guy had it delivered to his house, didn't sign for it, kept it in box, reported it as "undelivered", and flipped it to me for cash. Insurance has meanwhile hooked him up with a new phone, and the factory kept my phone in the "we're looking for it" pile for the requisite 90 days, after which they officially publish its IMEI as "blacklisted". That would explain why it worked for a while but doesn't now; and this 90-day TO THE DAY period is the same for Rogers as it is for AT&T apparently (which is where the rep used to work for 10+ years).
I am in possession of stolen property. I've little hope of recuperating my losses. I've been advised to file a police report, and I think I will actually, given that I've got a receipt with the "anonymous" guy from Craigslist's name on it which I had printed out from Bell after they scanned the IMEI number for my factory warranty receipt. This phone will officially never work in Canada, as there is no way for it to be removed from the blacklist. I've been very unfortunate in this case, and it's a real shame.
People should take note: If buying a phone, ALWAYS do it in-store and have the IMEI number run first to check and see if it's on the blacklist. Next, have the phone transferred into your name so that the IMEI and you are officially linked, and the guy can't report his gear stolen or lost. That should suffice in most cases... except in the case of insurance fraud, which is my case, where there is a 90-day delay period in the IMEI number being added to the blacklist (which is why it didn't come up on the blacklist last week when I had the Bell rep run it in-store for me). Another point of interest is that in my case, I found it was possible to lose service BEFORE the number is on the blacklist—assuming the Bell guy didn't run the number wrong last week.
So f**k me. All I can do is try to hack the number, I guess, or find a way to spoof the IMEI.
Edit: Unf***ing believeable—I somehow reenabled data and texting by messing around with QPST. Calls still not happening, though.

Sim unlock code not working

HI,
I purchased an unlock from a local shop. After many attempts the code was not going through.
The vendor then provided an "unfreeze code" after which I was supposed to enter the original code again. Many attempts were made, all unsuccessful. The vendor told me its an unusual situation as the codes always work and was unsure what further steps to take. (Before anyone says its a scam, I highly doubt it, as its a reputable store and they happily gave my money back)
So back to the problem, is this an issue anyone has faced before, is there a way around it? I really needed my phone as I'm going abroad tomorrow and it would've been extremely handy to have net access.
I've read in a few places people recommending going back to stock and trying, but I don't wanna risk it right now if there's no truth to it

Bought a google locked LG VS995 Need help

So I bought this phone off of OfferUp for a really good price because it is google locked. I've had success unlocking a few phones so I jumped on it. I cant figure out how to unlock this thing for the life of me. I have been searching the net for a program or backdoor for a couple days now and haven't found anything that works. I also found out that the IMEi has been blacklisted, but I have heard that its possible to assign the phone a new one. If anyone can steer me in the right direction to get this phone up and running I would really appreciate it! :fingers-crossed:

OnePlus 8 T-Mobile Repair Nightmare

Figured I share my repair experience here as OnePlus has set a new low in my book for customer service. Started when I sent my device (unlocked by T-Mobile) for repair last month. I was given the option of repair or replacement but chose repair so I wouldn't have to unlock again. I received it back about a week later but with no documentation as what the repair was (found out through my calles it was a motherboard replacement. I did notice the SN was the same but the IMEI was different. Used it for 3 days and called T-Mobile to have it unlocked but their system now sees my device as a non-T-Mobile phone and they can't unlock it (and they have tried 4 times since Sept 25th). Over the past few weeks I have conferenced on T-Mobile support with OnePlus support in an attempt to get it unlocked and every time I call it's like starting from scratch with OnePlus. Four times now I've been told to wait 24-48 hours so they can hear back from there repair facility, I've made 14 total calls to check status (they have never called me back once). T-Mobile has been absolutely great and were on the phone with OnePlus with me for over an hour. So for know unless a miracle happens I'm stuck with a phone that can't be network unlocked by any carrier. Looks like the repair facility perhaps used a standard motherboard and flashed the T-Mobile firmware on it from what I can determine. If you need service for a T-Mobile device ALWAYS choose a replacement if you have the option)

Rule #1: Never ever choose repair when replace is an option. XDA is rife with people complaining about repair issues with every phone manufacturer. But I think you know that now. Also, I would hardly fault OnePlus in this situation. Its a simple issue of the IMEI not being in the T-Mobile database. Thats not OnePlus' fault. Thats a T-Mobile issue. IT can be added to there database. Verizon does this but for a completely different reason. But ultimately fault is in the eye of the beholder.
Also, to further support my claim think of it this way... T-Mobile (and Verizon) request the bootloader / SIM lock. If you buy the non carrier version from One Plus this would be a mute point. Again, a T-Mobile issue, not OnePlus. If you really want to get technical fault the US Congress for allowing them to lock in the first place. Ok Ok... Way off on a tangent...
Now... Some questions for you...
Have you ran the IMEI against an IMEI check database to see what kind of device it returns as? I would be curious to see. Another way to find out if its a T-Mobile device is to check the IMEI against your last phone. If the first few digits are the same or different will support your claim of the device being different.
Have you tried to tried to toggle the bootloader unlock switch or is it gray'ed out?
Have you tried popping in another carriers SIM just for giggles?
Lastly, have you tried to unlock it yourself by using the built in unlock program in network settings?
If that fails you may want to consider sending it back to OnePlus again for replacement. I can only assume that you do not have insurance? If you do then you may want to check with them about replacement faulting the IMEI as the issue. Might be a hard sell but I'm sure it could be done.

Scott said:
Rule #1: Never ever choose repair when replace is an option. XDA is rife with people complaining about repair issues with every phone manufacturer. But I think you know that now. Also, I would hardly fault OnePlus in this situation. Its a simple issue of the IMEI not being in the T-Mobile database. Thats not OnePlus' fault. Thats a T-Mobile issue. IT can be added to there database. Verizon does this but for a completely different reason. But ultimately fault is in the eye of the beholder.
Also, to further support my claim think of it this way... T-Mobile (and Verizon) request the bootloader / SIM lock. If you buy the non carrier version from One Plus this would be a mute point. Again, a T-Mobile issue, not OnePlus. If you really want to get technical fault the US Congress for allowing them to lock in the first place. Ok Ok... Way off on a tangent...
Now... Some questions for you...
Have you ran the IMEI against an IMEI check database to see what kind of device it returns as? I would be curious to see. Another way to find out if its a T-Mobile device is to check the IMEI against your last phone. If the first few digits are the same or different will support your claim of the device being different.
Have you tried to tried to toggle the bootloader unlock switch or is it gray'ed out?
Have you tried popping in another carriers SIM just for giggles?
Lastly, have you tried to unlock it yourself by using the built in unlock program in network settings?
If that fails you may want to consider sending it back to OnePlus again for replacement. I can only assume that you do not have insurance? If you do then you may want to check with them about replacement faulting the IMEI as the issue. Might be a hard sell but I'm sure it could be done.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same situation here, mine was unlocked did a replacement and it was locked and T-Mobile has no record of it. It took me 17 days to get the replacement and every day I checked the status I get told wait 24-48 hours. Now after I got it I'm told every day to wait 3-5 days for an update. Really one plus?

One plus sucks at anything customer service. Can you not do a warranty through tmobile?

Hi, i have the same problem. I was able to unlock my OP8 the moment I bought it. But after sending my OP8 for repair, it was locked when sent back. I got the error "server 255" when I tried to do a permanent unlock.
I contacted Tmobile and they said I need a valid tmobile account, which I don't:
"One of our mobile device unlock requirements is an active T-Mobile account. Since you don't have one you're going to need the get the unlock via a 3rd party company. Our apologies for this."
I have contacted OP 4 times now. They say they'll escalate my problem to the relevant team.
So how did u ppl solve it? Anyone tried the mtd below:
https://www.reddit.com/r/oneplus/comments/qn8dez
Thanks.

zonexo said:
Hi, i have the same problem. I was able to unlock my OP8 the moment I bought it. But after sending my OP8 for repair, it was locked when sent back. I got the error "server 255" when I tried to do a permanent unlock.
I contacted Tmobile and they said I need a valid tmobile account, which I don't:
"One of our mobile device unlock requirements is an active T-Mobile account. Since you don't have one you're going to need the get the unlock via a 3rd party company. Our apologies for this."
I have contacted OP 4 times now. They say they'll escalate my problem to the relevant team.
So how did u ppl solve it? Anyone tried the mtd below:
https://www.reddit.com/r/oneplus/comments/qn8dez
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hate oneplus with a passion I'm 8 months and still going with an issue they keep BS'n me on

Hi, I would like to post an update. After contacting OP support a few times thru chat, they agree to help me talk to Tmobile directly. I told them I can't use the phone, I'm overseas (really, no joke), and I contacted Tmobile but they refused to help.
After waiting for a few days, my IMEI is whitelisted and I was able to unlock the phone. So I guess if you are persistent enough and tell them tt you've exhausted your options, they will help. So I guess they're still nice ppl (kudos to Sophia!)
Hope someone with similar problem can try what I did.

Just wanted to fan the flames that OnePlus is still up to their BS. I sent my phone to repair the back glass after I recovered from unbricking my phone rooting after the Android 13 OTA. When I get it back, after all these warnings signs something was off I realized when I tried to put my unlock_code.bin and it kept failing that they gave me a new motherboard. Luckily I AM a Tmobile customer, but holy heck, what if I was not? Luckily somehow I was able to get in to get the info to request another code to unlock my bootloader even though I'm still carrier locked.

fgjruiz said:
Just wanted to fan the flames that OnePlus is still up to their BS. I sent my phone to repair the back glass after I recovered from unbricking my phone rooting after the Android 13 OTA. When I get it back, after all these warnings signs something was off I realized when I tried to put my unlock_code.bin and it kept failing that they gave me a new motherboard. Luckily I AM a Tmobile customer, but holy heck, what if I was not? Luckily somehow I was able to get in to get the info to request another code to unlock my bootloader even though I'm still carrier locked.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just had my op8 repaired back with a motherboard replacement so that it can't unlock the sim as I am not a T mobile customer. I used online chat several times and complained about sim-unlock. Finally, after I gave them both old and new imei and strong complain, they unlocked my sim card. Not a good experience, but the result turned out to be good.