Anyone have luck flashing the S8-950U US version to another carrier? I'm trying to flash my Verizon S8 to the T-Mobile Firmware but get an error at 32% on my phone when it says system is updating. Also, when I just flash the AP and CP files, I get bloatware from Cricket, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Metro PCS with 3 different software updates and a messed up settings app.
I am on Three (UK) and I now understand that wifi calling is a carrier feature and a phone purchased direct from samsung will not have this enabled.
I have found that you can flash carrier firmware to enable this but I have a few questions:
Can i do so without the carrier bloat such as a horrible boot screen and preinstalled apps?
Will this affect my Knox / android pay / secure folder access?
Is there any way I can flash the wifi calling functionality without a complete reflash?
Thanks
Does 3 have WiFi calling? I don't think so.
Unless it's new. I left them in Feb after many years to get Volte. There was no voWifi then.
The reason I ask is voWifi worked out the box on my unlocked BTU S8 with EE.
Volte did not and required me to flash the EE firmware. This works a treat. No knox trip, no branding or bloat, no AP or secure folder issues.
If you want supervoice, you will need to flash the firmware.
Edit - seems I was speaking bollocks, yes they have WiFi calling, called "embedded wifi" now. As said, with EE this worked out the box for me. Only needed their firmware for Volte.
Three does have voWiFi aswell as voLTE/vo4G (In select areas).
Call Three and make sure WiFi Calling is enabled on your account and then you should receive a carrier update adding the WiFi Calling option.
(Source: Method I used with Vodafone UK)
I though three used an app for WiFi calling? Or at least that was the only way I could get it to work when I was with them a few years ago.
Edit: I've just read that they have built in vowifi but only on certain handsets. Perhaps the s8 isn't supported as yet?
I did a chat with them, S8 is supported for voWifi it seems.
Here in Poland, phone with non branded system works with WiFi calling. There's setting in dialer options (three dots menu). After I toggled it on wifi calling started to work.
TIM purchased s8 here, flashed the h3g firmware and volte and WiFi calling both function.
Bloat is there (boot screen and m$ office).
No call to three required to activate, it just works as soon as the correct CSC is on the device
Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk
Three's website does confirm the S8 is compatible for WiFi Calling.
Go into the Phone app, press the three dot's -> Settings and see if there is a WiFi Calling toggle, this is at the bottom of the list.
If WiFi Calling is not there, make sure you have the latest update installed.
Update via the following guide from Three themselves: (please add a :// after http and make sure there are no gaps as I am not yet allowed to post links): http support.three.co.uk/SRVS/CGI-BIN/WEBISAPI.dll/,/?New,Kb=Mobile,Ts=Mobile,T=Device,varset_pid=40031,varset_cid=40041,Case=EXT(EM114337)
I've literally just switched from BTU to H3G and WiFi calling appeared instantly during setup. I did have to use CSC rather than HOME_CSC, as the latter caused Odin to fail first time around. I have also confirmed WiFi calling and texts are working, which is a huge plus as the lab in which I work seems to block all mobile signal!
Did installing H3G also enable VoLTE?
Cheers
Thanks for the quick replies everyone! Wifi calling is enabled in my account (it worked on my iphone) but the wifi calling option is not there at all. (I've checked all guides, including the 3 dots then going into phone settings) I know there is an app but it is horrifc, calls often don't come through at all, the app requires a persistent notification and is a major battery drain. @goRt @foo25 - > did you guys follow a guide for flashing three firmware? Do you know of any way to avoid the carrier bloat / sim lock?
Thanks all!
I've just flashed the three firmware from the Samsung version. After flashing, inbuilt Wi-Fi calling just worked. Wi-Fi calling toggle also appeared in phone- 3dots- settings menu. 800mz band 20 LTE also started working after switching firmware which means an extra bar or two when band 3 LTE signal is low.
The only downside I could see is the three UK splash screen on boot. I haven't noticed any extra bloat apart from the three likes app which I uninstalled straight away.
The phone is not SIM locked by flashing the carrier firmware.
NGbod said:
I've just flashed the three firmware from the Samsung version. After flashing, inbuilt Wi-Fi calling just worked. Wi-Fi calling toggle also appeared in phone- 3dots- settings menu. 800mz band 20 LTE also started working after switching firmware which means an extra bar or two when band 3 LTE signal is low.
The only downside I could see is the three UK splash screen on boot. I haven't noticed any extra bloat apart from the three likes app which I uninstalled straight away.
The phone is not SIM locked by flashing the carrier firmware.
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Sounds good!
Did you follow a guide? If so do you have a link?
Thanks
stewartie4 said:
Sounds good!
Did you follow a guide? If so do you have a link?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't follow a guide but there are plenty around for flashing stock firmware on the S8 or S8+.
I just downloaded the latest version of Odin, and then the latest three.uk firmware from Samobile. I unzipped the firmware then loaded each of the components into the relevant Odin section ie. CP into CP section AP into AP section etc. I made the mistake of loading the 'CP Home' firmware into the CP section of Odin which caused the flash to fail which required use of Samsung emergency recovery procedure. I did that three times before trying loading 'CP' part of firmware into CP part of Odin which worked fine.
stewartie4 said:
Sounds good!
Did you follow a guide? If so do you have a link?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
*Download latest odin
*download desired firmware. (samobile) and extract it.
*go to settings>about device>software info>tap build number 7 times until developer options enabled.
*go to developer options and enable USB debugging and OEM unlock.
*plug phone into pc and let it install the drivers.
*turn off phone and boot to download mode.
*open odin and click AP. Insert the firmware you just downloaded.
*odin options should be: auto reboot checked, F reset time checked, repartition UNCHECKED.
*connect phone to odin and it will say added. COM box will turn blue. Just click start and let it do it's thing.
The first boot up can take a short while.
Thanks to everyone for the detailed replies.
One more question: I use secure folder and plan to use android pay. My colleague told me that flashing a new firmware will trip knox which will render these features unusable.
Will flashing the official 3 firmware do this? I'm only flashing to get a feature as advertised (there's a lot to be said for iPhone's just "working" )
Thanks
stewartie4 said:
Thanks to everyone for the detailed replies.
One more question: I use secure folder and plan to use android pay. My colleague told me that flashing a new firmware will trip knox which will render these features unusable.
Will flashing the official 3 firmware do this? I'm only flashing to get a feature as advertised (there's a lot to be said for iPhone's just "working" )
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Aslong as you flash official samsung firmware then knox will not be triped as its signed by samsung. Knox only trips when flashing twrp, root or any custom roms.
Before you start, do you have the option for wifi calling in phone>settings right at the bottom?
Like this
Hi all i have flashed my btu s8 to h3g and i also have the wifi option in the menu and it works great, however i can't find the volte option anywhere and i have never yet seen the symbols for it on my status bar.
When i had my old btu s4 i also flashed that to h3g and i remember the volte symbols showed up in the status bar.
So do i need to do anthing to activate volte?
CapricornDog said:
Hi all i have flashed my btu s8 to h3g and i also have the wifi option in the menu and it works great, however i can't find the volte option anywhere and i have never yet seen the symbols for it on my status bar.
When i had my old btu s4 i also flashed that to h3g and i remember the volte symbols showed up in the status bar.
So do i need to do anthing to activate volte?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi there,
There is no option for volte, if your network supports it then it will automatically be on where ever you have 4G signal. There is no option in settings but the icon looks like in the screenshot
I have a G950U from VZW, flashed with G950U1 firmware, I am switching to Cricket and wonder if there is a way to enable volte, wifi calling and visual voicemail from samsung dialer, would it do installing ATT user data? I don't wanna install complete ATT firmware as I don't want bloatware
up
Yea, Install the user data and that'll work. Volte will be working but Wi-Fi calling isn't. Visual voicemail is also working.
Will I get OTA updates flashing ATT user data?
Also where would I put user data in Odin, in the CSC field?
underground9 said:
Will I get OTA updates flashing ATT user data?
Also where would I put user data in Odin, in the CSC field?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's a user data file, there is a thread about switching carriers that tells where to put the userdata file. And no you won't get ota updates. Only downside.
Somewhere over the years I apparently lost the carrier directory in /efs, as well as the CSC data - is there any way of getting this back? I'm hoping it's at least possible by flashing back to stock but only as a last resort - I've tried a bunch of different things without success so far.
The phone started as a Rogers N900W8 and was immediately unlocked and rooted. Sometime soon thereafter a Bell 4.3 firmware was flashed (via Heimdall). I then switched from Rogers to Wind (now Freedom) - I believe this is where the hidden menu disappeared if I remember correctly - and the phone functioned just fine through all of this.
I then moved from that Bell BMC 4.3 to the Wind GLW PG1 5.0 firmware (grabbed from sammobile and flashed via Odin) thinking that the presence of the Wind SIM would trigger the firmware to switch from BMC to GLW but it doesn't seem to have worked out like that. I'm now running the LineageOS nightlies and the phone works just fine except for a lack of LTE which is what I'd like to sort out with the secret codes. Also, since switching to Wind I believe my mobile network has always been displayed as HOME.
Samsung Phone Info doesn't list any CSCs except BMC under original. In the firmware tab, it's not listing PDA or CSC version. There is no carrier directory in /efs nor are there any CSC files in the file system. Entering almost any secret code fails "Connection problem or invalid MMI code" - *#06# will display IMEI but all others I've tried don't work.
UPDATE #1:
Have been able to get the Canadian CSCs onto the device and recognizable as being present by Phone Info.
Ripped out cache.img.ext4 from the PG1 firmware and used Cache Ripper (found on XDA somewhere) via Wine on linux to create a TWRP flashable zip. Had to mount system in TWRP before flashing.
Changing CSC with Phone Info apparently does a Factory Reset and not quite ready to do that yet as more research seems to point to reverting to stock for the hidden menu.
UPDATE #2:
Flashed stock PG1 via Odin. Went into a bootloop after building Dalvik on first boot and had to reboot into the stock recovery and wipe data and system, then it booted fine. The back button stopped working (LOL Samsung) and I had to flash a random 5.0 custom kernel (idlekernel) to get it back. Flashed TWRP and SuperSU.
There is now an empty carrier directory in root but there still isn't one in /efs. Lots of information on XDA pointing to this being a prerequisite for the secret codes - turns out it's all bunk.
Secret codes work. Had some difficulties with Phone Info not letting me into the root menus to change CSC - was spitting out output from some failed scripts - and when I was just about to give up it started working. Changed CSC to GLW which prompted another factory reset, and now it shows GLW / BMC as the active CSCs. APNs were Bell's originally, which is not what I wanted, but after following the *#272*IMEI directions from this thread and another factory reset they are now Wind's. No LTE yet. Would like to get rid of the BMC CSCs altogether since this was never a Bell device.
Some more stuff changed in Phone Info: Product Name is now hltevl, Firmware's CSC Code is now BMC and CSC Country is Canada/CA. PDA and CSC version has also been populated. CSC Changer still defaults to having BMC selected and I'm still getting the Bell bloatware.
UPDATE #3:
Active CSC reverted to BMC after a couple reboots...they're all BMC now.
Attaching (the initial) Samsung Phone Info screenshots (don't see how to edit them into OP via mobile app) .
I recommend to flash a stock firmware instead of this custom rom.
vndnguyen said:
I recommend to flash a stock firmware instead of this custom rom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for stopping by.
I flashed the stock PG1 firmware for the GLW CSC. But the device still thinks it's BMC - this probably has something to do with all the Canadian devices sharing identical hardware and firmware.
Then I used your tool to change the CSC to GLW. All of the CSCs remained BMC except for Active CSC which was BMC/GLW. After a couple reboots even that was gone and Active CSC reverted to BMC.
Do I maybe need the stock recovery for the CSC changes to stick ? I flashed TWRP 3.1.1 for root.
perosredo said:
Thanks for stopping by.
I flashed the stock PG1 firmware for the GLW CSC. But the device still thinks it's BMC - this probably has something to do with all the Canadian devices sharing identical hardware and firmware.
Then I used your tool to change the CSC to GLW. All of the CSCs remained BMC except for Active CSC which was BMC/GLW. After a couple reboots even that was gone and Active CSC reverted to BMC.
Do I maybe need the stock recovery for the CSC changes to stick ? I flashed TWRP 3.1.1 for root.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So your problem is to get LTE back, or get rid of BMC?
vndnguyen said:
So your problem is to get LTE back, or get rid of BMC?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd like to do both if possible but I'm not going to sweat over the CSC if it's purely cosmetic - mainly concerned about the LTE.
I wouldn't be surprised if they are linked however since the carriers here operate LTE on different bands to the best of my knowledge.
So firstly try to install the stock BMC firmware to see if the LTE works?
Long story short, LTE isn't yet available in this location on this carrier on a Note3-supported band yet.
So that's that.
Currently on Snapdragon latest official Oreo with XAS (unbranded Sprint)
My phone was an originally Verizon branded, it now has XAS U1 firmware (model shows as U1 in settings)
I want to flash either U1 or U of ROM with csc of SPR. The reason I want to do this is because I want to fix/enable Calling Plus/Wi-fi settings.
I really do not care if my csc says XPR or SPR afterwards, I'm just thinking that flashing a rom designated as SPR might fix my Calling Plus/Wi-fi issues.
Is it possible when using Odin to flash, to use Home CSC and not wipe data.? I still feel with unrooted phone backup and restore still requires a lot of manual setup and I hate constantly doing this every time I flash.
Note: I've already tried to get wifi calling working using both Nova activities and in the phone settings without success , have been following the other thread about enabling Calling Plus on unbranded rom
After throwing in a T-Mobile sim and then going back to Sprint sim, I was converted to SPR csc. Sprint always seems to do this. So now I don't need to change CSC b ut I still am struggling to get wifi calling
The firmware for SPR and XAS appear to be identical so I am wondering if I should try to flash the U version of the rom . And of course attempting to keep data