The whole unlocking process is different between the iPhone and Android devices. Obviously. I've always understood that once you get your iPhone unlocked and if you plug it into iTunes it'll inform you that your phone is unlocked. Now for Android devices such as the S4, how does the whole unlocking deal work? If I'm currently on CM10.2, can I put any SIM card into my phone and it'll work or do I still have to get an unlock code?
Carrier unlock is not related to the firmware you flash. You can change all the ROMs you want, if your phone is carrier-lock, it will remain lock unless you carrier-unlock it. You can look-up the forums for unlocking methods. I am not sure if anyone of them still works after the latest updates.
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.
I just got an LS997 V20 and so far I'm really liking it.
However, since I'm using it in the UK, I needed to network unlock it. after doing this, I hoped that I could use my simcard, however (as you can see in the added image) it still shows a simcard error. the simcard works, however since in my other phone its being recognised.
I think I read somewhere that the sprint ROM blocks simcards that aren't Sprint. I tried to unlock the bootloader and fastboot, but haven't been able since I accidentally installed the latest updates. is there any solution available or so that can fix it without needing root or the bootloader unlocked? I really want to use this V20 as a phone and not as just a camera and mp3 player
Is there any way to fix it?
katsuowota said:
I just got an LS997 V20 and so far I'm really liking it.
However, since I'm using it in the UK, I needed to network unlock it. after doing this, I hoped that I could use my simcard, however (as you can see in the added image) it still shows a simcard error. the simcard works, however since in my other phone its being recognised.
I think I read somewhere that the sprint ROM blocks simcards that aren't Sprint. I tried to unlock the bootloader and fastboot, but haven't been able since I accidentally installed the latest updates. is there any solution available or so that can fix it without needing root or the bootloader unlocked? I really want to use this V20 as a phone and not as just a camera and mp3 player
Is there any way to fix it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you have updated your phone to August OTA. Then you will be left with no other option than to purchase a sim unlock.
datrmon said:
If you have updated your phone to August OTA. Then you will be left with no other option than to purchase a sim unlock.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I already bought a network unlock that went via an app. I bought it from lgsimunlock.com . Any other ideas? I'm not even sure if that network unlock worked...
katsuowota said:
I already bought a network unlock that went via an app. I bought it from lgsimunlock.com . Any other ideas? I'm not even sure if that network unlocks worked...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm in the same shoes as you..Got my phone updated till August bought a remote unlock but didn't work.
I don't know whether phone unlocks no longer works on LG LS997.
Has antoje found a solution to this? I also have the same issue
i know I posted earlier about a different issue, sorry for spamming the board.
I have a T-Mobile 1+6t with 9.0.15, i have been searching and tinkering all day and am still very confused about how to do this. From what I've seen, it is definitely possible, and every guide i've looked at is very simply laid out but i keep running into issues. Firstly, I have successfully converted to international version using the MSM tool. I thought this would be enough for my sim card to work but it is still not working. Now I am reading a bunch of other things about sim unlock and bootloader unlocking. Sorry but I am a noob at all of this. Can anyone point me in the exact direction in order for me to get my AT&T sim card working in my T-MOBILE 1+6t?
So my information is : TMOBILE 1+6t converted to International, running 9.0.15, and need to get AT&T sim card working.
What Ive done so far: converted to international.
What am I missing?
Before the conversion, you needed to get the carrier unlock code from TMo.
If you have not done that, you need to convert back to TMo firmware, get it unlocked from TMo, use the unlock app to unlock. After that you can flash the international firmware.
67BGTEV said:
Before the conversion, you needed to get the carrier unlock code from TMo.
If you have not done that, you need to convert back to TMo firmware, get it unlocked from TMo, use the unlock app to unlock. After that you can flash the international firmware.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
is there a way around that? before i converted, i did see the unlock app and tried to use it but it said the device is not eligible. I called t-mobile and they said they'd send me instructions to unlock. But i am not totally sure if the phone is paid off, it was my gf's ex's phone who i don't know and she doesn't want to talk to
Right now i am trying something else - from the guides i've gathered, you need to be on 9.0.11 to unlock the bootloader and need the bootloader unlocked to unlock the sim, so:
I am downloading the files to downgrade to 9.0.11 international, unlocking the bootloader after that, then using this guide to unlock the sim. will this work?
There's no workaround.
If someone stole my TMo op6t and tried to use it in another network, he or she can't unlock it, as I own it and it may not have paid off.
Actually you can follow this guide ( https://forum.xda-developers.com/oneplus-6t/how-to/guide-sim-unlock-t-mobile-version-type-t3915269 ) to remove the Sim lock. In essence you'll convert it to international, erase the two modem files containing the Sim lock info, revert it back to the TMO version. Apply to OnePlus for your unlock token, wait a week to get it, then unlock bootloader. End result is a fully bootloader and Sim unlocked phone. Or if you're not interested in unlocking the bootloader you can skip the last part. You'll still have an unlocked phone.
jestyr8 said:
Actually you can follow this guide ( https://forum.xda-developers.com/oneplus-6t/how-to/guide-sim-unlock-t-mobile-version-type-t3915269 ) to remove the Sim lock. In essence you'll convert it to international, erase the two modem files containing the Sim lock info, revert it back to the TMO version. Apply to OnePlus for your unlock token, wait a week to get it, then unlock bootloader. End result is a fully bootloader and Sim unlocked phone. Or if you're not interested in unlocking the bootloader you can skip the last part. You'll still have an unlocked phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey I actually successfully followed this guide last night and am now typing on my 1+6t international w/ unlocked bootloader + sim unlock. I unlocked the bootloader using a different guide. One question: will updating my phone affect this sim unlock? Because I know you need 9.0.11 to unlock the bootloader, and you need an unlocked bootloader to use this sim unlock guide. I know there is an update available, Is it safe to update?
TrippyAzN said:
Hey I actually successfully followed this guide last night and am now typing on my 1+6t international w/ unlocked bootloader + sim unlock. I unlocked the bootloader using a different guide. One question: will updating my phone affect this sim unlock? Because I know you need 9.0.11 to unlock the bootloader, and you need an unlocked bootloader to use this sim unlock guide. I know there is an update available, Is it safe to update?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Sim unlock sticks permanently, I've updated several times after doing the SIM unlock both on the TMO version and the international version and have had no issues at all. I flipped back and forth between the two trying to decide which I wanted to run. Stuck with the international just for the more consistent updates.
jestyr8 said:
The Sim unlock sticks permanently, I've updated several times after doing the SIM unlock both on the TMO version and the international version and have had no issues at all. I flipped back and forth between the two trying to decide which I wanted to run. Stuck with the international just for the more consistent updates.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the info brotha!