Stock(ish) Samsung Galaxy S4, Unable to Unlock? - Verizon Samsung Galaxy S 4

Hey everyone, I've been searching for a while now and I just have no idea what's going on with this phone. My mom bought this phone off of Amazon and it was claimed to be unlocked. Upon inserting the sim card, there was no prompt for an unlock code however the phone could not find service. I tried entering in many APN's found on her carriers website and from other sources, nothing had worked. I then decided to do the same with my sim card (from a different carrier) and still, nothing.
I then tried to access the service menu, in attempt to unlock the device that way. NONE of the codes/methods worked (for anything). I couldn't even find the "carriers" folder in /efs, no apk's, nothing. I tried to install various apps that would open/prompt the menu, however none of them could. I truly don't know what to do, I cannot take it to a place to get an unlock code because there is no prompt to even unlock the device in the first place. Any help is appreciated, I'm usually fine with rooting/unlocking my devices (I did my Nexus 5 and S4 SGH-I337M without a problem) however this one truly has me stumped. Thanks
Guides referenced:
[HOWTO] Enable Hidden Menus for Verizon Galaxy S4 - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2303905
Unlock Galaxy s4 sch-i545 - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2568274
Device Info:
Samsung Galaxy S4 (SCH-I545PP)
Android 5.0.1
Rooted (why I included the "ish" part)
Stock ROM

http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/cdma-vs-gsm-differences-explained/

I tried putting it on GSM, CDMA, Global and nothing has worked! I have no idea what to do... Should I try to flash a TouchWiz-based ROM on it and see if it prompts me for an unlock code? Or maybe flashing back to the original firmware? I have no idea...

Related

A couple of questions

Hello, I just recently got an Atrix off of ebay. I want to get into playing witih android phones. I've already read numerous threads, got the android sdk, rsd lite, etc.. I've been reading about flashing, and to be careful of what you flash based on what firmware versions are already on the phone.
The problem I have is the phone is subsidy locked, but it's locked in a way that not even AT&T sims work. It always asks for the pin, and the code AT&T gave me (they stated it was the subsidy unlock code) fails. So I looked at
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1356121
However, I have no idea what's on this phone. I can't access any settings menu in the phone, as it sticks to the "Emergency Calls Only" screen. i don't know what firmware is on the phone, what radio is on it, etc.. I don't want to try to flash a radio file and have it brick my phone. I've read quite a bit this past hour, but I'm at a crossroads here and don't know what to do to figure out what is exactly on this phone. If I knew what I had exactly, I'd be a lot more confident in flashing things.
I do know the bootloader is unlocked (the phone boots saying "Unlocked"). That's all I know :\
EDIT: Disregard. It took me another 6 hours but I finally got everything figured out (had to boot it with no sim to view things, then from there I got into it all). Rooted, CWM, flashed the bell radio and my sim works for now. Thanks for the valuable info that's listed here!
Any help will be highly appreciated. Thanks!
hey,
I do have the atrix which is netwoek subsidy locked.
I even cant use at&t. I am outside us currently.
Could you tell me how did you flashed bell radio & where u got that.
Thanks

[Q] sim network unlock pin

Hello everyone, this is my first post here and I am in need of desperate help.
I have looked everywhere I could but (my bad) I am not into all this stuff at all. I am not familiar with ROMs Kernels etc. I just follow tutorials blindly.
I have a galaxy s2 bought which I bought in the UK. It was locked on 3 network. Later I moved to another country where I got it unlocked for about $35 but that still showed signs of 3 network (The 3 startup logo, 3 bookmarks in web browser etc), however the phone was unlocked now and picked up any network I used.
I noticed the phone stopped giving me any kind of updates and it was on andriod 2.0.1.
I looked up the internet on how to install latest updates for my phone.
Found out this guide and went thorough all the process: goo.gl/yJSga8
Everything went fine but when the phone booted up, it asked me to enter "sim network unlock pin" and now all networks are inaccessible.
I am pretty much stuck at this point. Found guides telling to root the phone and then installing apps like Galaxy S2 SIM Unlock by Chainfire.
I have tried it once and was near to kill my phone. (The yellow triangle appeared at startup and got stuck there. No boot.) I just re-flashed the firmware by following the first guide again and now the phone is like before asking for sim network unlock pin.
I have attached the screenshot of the info that you might need.
I am willing to pay $15 via PayPal if anyone can help me out to fix this issue. (I am a bit hesitant using the rooting method as I an afraid I might kill my phone. But if that's the only choice then I will go with it)
Please ignore if I sound really stupid as I really don't know about this stuff. Please ask me any details that I may have missed out.
Thank you very much!
Attached Info Screenshot
If you don't want to root, then you'll have to call your carrier and ask for an unlock code. Mine has that service at least, don't know about all carriers.
As far as solving your problem goes if your carrier won't help out... The thing that works for a lot of members here is to root, then use galaxsim unlock app, by xda member spocky12. Search for the thread.
That app requires root access... To do that, easy way is to flash philz kernel from recovery mode. Search up philz kernel thread here on xda and read up how to flash it
Sent from a galaxy far, far away
Hello hopper, thanks for the response.
I took your first suggestion but instead of calling the company itself I used an online service unlockliberty.com.
They charged me $20 via PayPal and almost instantly sent a code to my email address.
I entered the code on the phone but it gave me "Network unlock request unsuccessful" error.
Contacted support and they sent me a defreeze code and instructed me to restart, enter the defreeze code instead of the unlock code and then it will say "Network unlock request unsuccessful" and after that enter the unlock code. I did the steps and it worked like a charm! my phone is now unlocked.
I really recommend their services if you are in a similar situation.
Thanks alot!

[Q] Reooting and flashing

Hi there.
Total newbie when it comes to this and abit confused as there are so many different instructions on how to root, flash and unlock phones - to the point it got me growling at the laptop...
Anyhow I have a Samsung Galaxy 2 GT9100 that is/was locked "Three". I think I have managed to root it as I am able to run Galaxy 2 SIM Unlock - but alas it doesn't seemed to find a SIM unlock code.
I'm hoping someone can give me clear guidance on unlocking the handset (so I can use my giffgaff (o2) SIM in it), install a stock Samsung Galaxy 2 ROM (Not fussed about customisation) and finally suggest a Kernel that is secure and will get rid of the yellow triangle.
As you can appreciate after a whole day at "trying" yesterday I would appreciate some clear help instead of trawling 1001 youtube videos :laugh:
Leeds1975 said:
Hi there.
Total newbie when it comes to this and abit confused as there are so many different instructions on how to root, flash and unlock phones - to the point it got me growling at the laptop...
Anyhow I have a Samsung Galaxy 2 GT9100 that is/was locked "Three". I think I have managed to root it as I am able to run Galaxy 2 SIM Unlock - but alas it doesn't seemed to find a SIM unlock code.
I'm hoping someone can give me clear guidance on unlocking the handset (so I can use my giffgaff (o2) SIM in it), install a stock Samsung Galaxy 2 ROM (Not fussed about customisation) and finally suggest a Kernel that is secure and will get rid of the yellow triangle.
As you can appreciate after a whole day at "trying" yesterday I would appreciate some clear help instead of trawling 1001 youtube videos :laugh:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've managed to get I9100XXLPQ_I9100OXALPQ_I9100XXLPQ_HOME.tar on - I'm not sure if that's the right one for the UK but its the only Generic one I can find and all seems fine, however the GPS is shockingly bad. Any ideas?
Thanks

Need help removing SIM-Lock, possibly reinstalling Stock Android ROM

Hello,
I got an old Galaxy SIII (GT-I9300, Dutch Version) for free. However it appears to be SIM-Locked. I cannot get an unlock code from the prior owner, so I'm looking for a workaround. I heard that you can unlock the phone manually in Android 4+ (at least with European carriers).
Unfortunately, I immediately installed LineageOS 14 over the stock OS and only found out afterwards that apparently (jira.lineageos.org/browse/BUGBASH-397) LOS cannot unlock the SIM they way the Stock Android can. Is this correct?
If I need to install an original OS image (I have a Dutch one at hand already that seems to match the phone), could you point me to directions on how to accomplish this? I use Linux, so the Odin tool for Window isn't available to me. Can I do this using adb, heimdall or something similar?
Thanks in advance!
Update
I managed to flash the old Android image using heimdall. However it appears I cannot use the *#197328640# method to get to the unlock menu; I get something like "Not registered on network", which is obviously true since I'm trying to SIM unlock the phone with a new SIM card (from my current phone). I also read that Android 4.3 might not support this manual unlocking anymore the way 4.1 did.
It's free phone for me, but I might have to accept that I cannot get it to work (for free).
Nvdata unlock doesn't work after 4.1.2 as it was patched. If you want sim unlock then you must pay for it. Downgrading will not help.

Chinese Verizon s6e+(sm-g928v) with different firmware(of (sm-g928f))?

I know this phone is very old at this point. But my mom has been using this Verizon s6e+ that was bought from china (not from a official retail store) and it works on other operators! In fact, the phone itself doesn't recognize that it is a Verizon model. The about phone section says that the model number is SM-G928F, so I believed it had a ported firmware(!) and didn't give much thought into it. I didn't know Verizon phones are extra secured until 2 days ago. She upgraded to a s9+ and so I started searching for roms for this phone. I found a TWRP for the sm-928f, and tried to flash it with Odin, but that's when I git confused - the phone still has a locked bootloader. In Odin Download mode, it even says the phone model is SM-G928V.
As far as my understanding goes, it means that the Chinese folks have managed to bypass the Verizon lock, kept the bootloader intact, and installed a unlocked international firmware?
I came here to find someone more experienced on these to work on this case, i can confirm the following:
- Factory reset from phone settings reverts the phone to a new g928f; haven't tried wiping from recovery.
- most of Samsung/Verizon bloats are uninstallable just normally, but they appear again after a factory reset.
- the phone is stuck at Android 6.0.1 with TouchWiz and tapping software update from settings does nothing
Any devs interested in this case? Can this device potentially give us the solution to rooting Verizon phones?
Screenshots and photos: gdrive/folderview?id=1CaGu0NWwyz4AeR_XecaxlMTmtGVfX6Q0

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