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unlocked phone erased sim card?

I wanted to test the unlock i did on my phone yesterday, so i put my brothers tmobile sim card in my phone, but all it did was show a sim card icon at the top of the status bar, and i didn't have signal. so i just figured the unlock didn't work.
Then when my brother put his sim card back in his phone, his wasn't working. apparently the sim was reformatted or something, and now he has to get a new sim. anyone heard of this before? also should i try another sim card, or will it just destroy that one too?

drizzle67 said:
I wanted to test the unlock i did on my phone yesterday, so i put my brothers tmobile sim card in my phone, but all it did was show a sim card icon at the top of the status bar, and i didn't have signal. so i just figured the unlock didn't work.
Then when my brother put his sim card back in his phone, his wasn't working. apparently the sim was reformatted or something, and now he has to get a new sim. anyone heard of this before? also should i try another sim card, or will it just destroy that one too?
Click to expand...
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you forgot to select network operators in the wireless settings. in the wireless and network setting select mobile network then select network operators your phone will then scan available network operators and show you at&t or t-mobile after the scan. since you want t-mobile simply select it.

gorgy76 said:
you forgot to select network operators in the wireless settings. in the wireless and network setting select mobile network then select network operators your phone will then scan available network operators and show you at&t or t-mobile after the scan. since you want t-mobile simply select it.
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Click to collapse
would that have made his sim card work again if my phone recognized the network? or was that just something weird that happened. I am new to the whole unlocking deal.
Thanks for the help, I am a little nervous to try it now, as i dont want to mess up his card again! :/

you should be fine. is your contact actually stored on your sim? ,maybe your brother's sim is empty but his contacts are stored in his phone. contacts stored in sim card are not easily get deleted than contacts stored in phone simply import you phone contacts to your sim to be safe.

my contacts are fine, but his phone actually would not work when he put his sim card back in his phone. it's just a regular dumbphone, but he didn't have signal or anything. Do you know what would cause that?

there must be an option somewhere in his phone to select the wireless network he has. what phone he is using? maybe a simple reboot on his phone with his sim card already in place would do.

yea maybe, i think he was going to go to tmobile this morning.. i guess i can't really call him to have him try though!
anyway i'll see if he will be brave enough to let me try again! thanks for the help!

I may understand sim cards wrong but from what I understand the sim does not announce to the carrier hey this is eric shins phone. It instead just broad casts a number the carrier sees the number and associates it with eric shins number. That's why you can buy a prepaid att phone call the company up, give them the sim number and they can connect that with your phone.
More then likely the sim was physically damaged
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

hmm.. that does make sense. I thought i had heard of other people just popping in other people's sim cards and it wasn't a problem, but i don't know.
Just kinda strange that it was working before , and after i tried it, his phone no longer worked. Maybe it was damaged when he took it out or put it in, but from my experience they are pretty sturdy pieces of plastic!
i'll have to see what he says when he gets it fixed.

crystalhand said:
I may understand sim cards wrong but from what I understand the sim does not announce to the carrier hey this is eric shins phone. It instead just broad casts a number the carrier sees the number and associates it with eric shins number. That's why you can buy a prepaid att phone call the company up, give them the sim number and they can connect that with your phone.
More then likely the sim was physically damaged
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
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hmnn... thats what I thought because the op post that somewhere in the process when putting back in the sim he see's it was reformatted. just like putting an sd card with my other phone that is not samsung it can't read/open files unless you format it that would surely delete the data in it. in his instance without a warning it automatically formatted the sim and deleted all the data in it which would make it useless. in his case the sim card before is associated with the network but somehow reformatted and the data in it was lost.

so he went to tmobile today and got a new sim card, and everything works again.
maybe it did get damaged in the process.. who knows now!

SIM Card Swapping

I generally understand how SIM cards work in the GSM world, but I am curious as to how it works within Verizon. I know Verizon uses both SIM/4G and CDMA in one phone.
So my question is, if anyone has two Thunderbolts handy:
Can you swap the SIM cards between the two units and will the phone number and data usage STAY with the SIM? Or will the phone number STAY and the data usage MOVE with the SIM? Or some other variant? Or will you need to get a new SIM and/or call Verizon to reactivate the SIM when you move it?
AND, are you swapping between two Thunderbolts on the same account or different accounts?
Thanks.

Verizon told me it works just like GSM.
Sent from my Thunderbolt

From my experience yesterday with swapping my dinc and bolt numbers you can not swap cards. Had to get a new sim card to swap numbers.

SIM card is assigned to your phone number, and not to the phone itself. If you exchange your phone, but you keep your phone number, you can use the same Sim with new phone. If you put your Sim into a different phone with different phone number, even on the same account, and even it would be a TB, it would not work.

I only believe half of what comes out of a VZW CSR and about 10% that comes from a sale rep at a VZW store.
Looking for hard examples.
youneek said:
Verizon told me it works just like GSM.
Sent from my Thunderbolt
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DINC doesn't have a SIM, but interesting info.
Looking for a hard example that is two Thunderbolts on the same account or separate accounts.
ripster said:
From my experience yesterday with swapping my dinc and bolt numbers you can not swap cards. Had to get a new sim card to swap numbers.
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The TB is there first sim card phone.
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA App

I'm confused. At first you say the SIM is assigned to your phone number and not the phone. Later on you say the SIM in another phone with a different number, does not work.
"If you put your Sim into a different phone with different phone number"???
You can only have 1 SIM card in a thunderbolt at a time. Are you speaking from experience or is this what VZW told you?
fuzio1963 said:
SIM card is assigned to your phone number, and not to the phone itself. If you exchange your phone, but you keep your phone number, you can use the same Sim with new phone. If you put your Sim into a different phone with different phone number, even on the same account, and even it would be a TB, it would not work.
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Never said dinc has a Sim card. In order for me to change the number on the TBolt i had to get a new Sim card. So you can't swap cards like gsm.

ripster said:
Never said dinc has a Sim card. In order for me to change the number on the TBolt i had to get a new Sim card. So you can't swap cards like gsm.
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Why does being unable to change your number without getting a new sim mean you can't swap the sim card into a different phone.
You can move your sim into whichever phone you choose, which as of now would be from one tbolt to another tbolt, no need to call verizon or anything. You will be able to simply move your sim from tbolt to the samsung droid charge or the bionic when they come out if you wish.

Actually you can swap the sim cards between phones, I have done it. The reason you had to call was to activate your number on the sim.

bunklung said:
So my question is, if anyone has two Thunderbolts handy:
Can you swap the SIM cards between the two units and will the phone number and data usage STAY with the SIM? Or will the phone number STAY and the data usage MOVE with the SIM? Or some other variant? Or will you need to get a new SIM and/or call Verizon to reactivate the SIM when you move it?
AND, are you swapping between two Thunderbolts on the same account or different accounts?
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The phone number is tied to the SIM like GSM. I got a replacement shipped to me and swapping the SIM back and forth did all the activating.
When I got a new droid shipped to me I always had to call and tell them the MEID of my new phone before it would activate.
So, when you stick your SIM in another phone, that phone get's your phone number, data, etc. the same as a GSM phone.

bunklung said:
DINC doesn't have a SIM, but interesting info.
Looking for a hard example that is two Thunderbolts on the same account or separate accounts.
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In other words.....he has dinc, and he wants his dinc ph number on his new TB. He never said, dinc had sim.....
bunklung said:
I'm confused. At first you say the SIM is assigned to your phone number and not the phone. Later on you say the SIM in another phone with a different number, does not work.
"If you put your Sim into a different phone with different phone number"???
You can only have 1 SIM card in a thunderbolt at a time. Are you speaking from experience or is this what VZW told you?
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Click to collapse
When you change the phone, you are "taking" your phone number from old one to the new one. Then, you don't need a new sim card, cus you still have the same phone number on your new phone. But, lest say, your friend has TB as well....if you put your sim into his phone (and vice versa), your sim will not be working. (it won't recognise his ph number as yours - the one it has been assigned to).
Morkai Almandragon said:
Actually you can swap the sim cards between phones, I have done it. The reason you had to call was to activate your number on the sim.
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Yeah, true!! But you have the same phone number on you new/next handset, right?

I switched from T-Mobile and a Nexus S to a TB hoping that the SIM card swapping works the same. A couple year ago Verizon had a press release about being more open to devices so I hope that it means the same deal as I used to be able to pop my SIM card to any upcoming LTE phone
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA Premium App

jinvox said:
I switched from T-Mobile and a Nexus S to a TB hoping that the SIM card swapping works the same. A couple year ago Verizon had a press release about being more open to devices so I hope that it means the same deal as I used to be able to pop my SIM card to any upcoming LTE phone
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA Premium App
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No, T-Mo is a GSM, and VZW is CDMA. Verizon SIM is only for DATA.

Darn oh well
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA Premium App

Have you tried this between two Thunderbolts or are you just assuming this works?
I assume it to work too, but I want to know if someone has actually tried this.
shaddix2 said:
Why does being unable to change your number without getting a new sim mean you can't swap the sim card into a different phone.
You can move your sim into whichever phone you choose, which as of now would be from one tbolt to another tbolt, no need to call verizon or anything. You will be able to simply move your sim from tbolt to the samsung droid charge or the bionic when they come out if you wish.
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Between two Thunderbolts?
Morkai Almandragon said:
Actually you can swap the sim cards between phones, I have done it. The reason you had to call was to activate your number on the sim.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Yesterday i called *611 CS and tried to swap numbers between my dinc and tbolt. He did in fact switch numbers but the sim in the tbolt was deactivated. He might have screwed up something but told me he could send me a new one or i can take it to a verizon store. I was still able to make calls with the tbold but didnt have any data until they program a new sim card.

Missed this one. Thanks for responding directly to my question.
My last question is, can you swap it between different accounts? The phone sent to you was to be activated on your account. Can you take any strangers phone and SIM swap?
ERIFNOMI said:
The phone number is tied to the SIM like GSM. I got a replacement shipped to me and swapping the SIM back and forth did all the activating.
When I got a new droid shipped to me I always had to call and tell them the MEID of my new phone before it would activate.
So, when you stick your SIM in another phone, that phone get's your phone number, data, etc. the same as a GSM phone.
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Is it possible on Verizon to own 2 phones on one line?

With AT&T you can simply throw a sim card in and away you go with any phone you want. What do you do on AT&T namely if you have an iPhone and TBolt?

You wont be able to do it without going through Verizon to have your TB Sim card reset everytime you want to use your TB after using your iPhone.

Normally you just have to do a simple ESN swap (can do online). Unfortunately with the Thunderbolt and it's LTE SIM, things might be more complicated. I'd check with a Verizon rep to see what would be involved.

Sadly its a complete pain in the butt. One of the guys I work with had to deactivate it and reactivate it a couple of days later. The guy in the store couldn't figure out how to do it, and it took him about 3 hours on the phone with various techs to finally get it working. They ended up having to swap out the SIM card in the store.
Not sure if its the process that is tough, or if they just don't know what they are doing. Either way, I wouldn't recommend it if you can avoid it. If you really need to do it, it is possible, but its not as simple as just swapping out a SIM card like on AT&T.

Once there are more phones utilizing LTE wouldn't you just be able to swap out your sim card and put it in any LTE phone?

dirtyfingers said:
Once there are more phones utilizing LTE wouldn't you just be able to swap out your sim card and put it in any LTE phone?
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Yes, this is correct. I can go buy the Droid Charge, and put in the SIM from my Thunderbolt, and I'll be good to go.

Thats pretty sweet, I wish I had the cash to drop on some more LTE phones when they come out.

WilliamStern said:
Yes, this is correct. I can go buy the Droid Charge, and put in the SIM from my Thunderbolt, and I'll be good to go.
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Are you sure about that? I thought we were still using CDMA for calls and there is no voice over 4G/LTE on VZW just yet.

WilliamStern said:
Yes, this is correct. I can go buy the Droid Charge, and put in the SIM from my Thunderbolt, and I'll be good to go.
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Pretty sure this is wrong.
When setting up my phone the rep had to set up the sim card and phone separately.
Razorz is right, we still utilize cdma for voice, so it may be possible to get data on a new phone but no voice?

A rep told me you could, never tried I don't have another Verizon phone to swap it out with. Also ATT charges activation when you swap sims "if the sim is in a different phone for a lengthy time". Also ATT will add a data plan to your account if the phone you put it in requires one.

the id number for the sim card and the ESN for the phone both must be in the verizon system associated with your phone number or the device will not work.

stuckhere4ever said:
Sadly its a complete pain in the butt. One of the guys I work with had to deactivate it and reactivate it a couple of days later. The guy in the store couldn't figure out how to do it, and it took him about 3 hours on the phone with various techs to finally get it working. They ended up having to swap out the SIM card in the store.
Not sure if its the process that is tough, or if they just don't know what they are doing. Either way, I wouldn't recommend it if you can avoid it. If you really need to do it, it is possible, but its not as simple as just swapping out a SIM card like on AT&T.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
they didn't know what they were doing.
When I had data problems with my TB, I switched to my INC via the activate phone link on the "my account" web page. An hour later when I tried to return to the TB, I got a prompt for the phone's IMEI, then prompted for the SIM card's number.. It error-ed. After calling CS, the rep couldn't help, got TS on the line, they manually entered the SIM number to make it work...
So it appears switching away from the TB deactivated the SIM, to switch back, VZW's TS had to re-add or re-activate the SIM.
And as thetwiztidfreak said, they did need BOTH the IMEI and SIM numbers to re-activate the TB.

thetwiztidfreak said:
the id number for the sim card and the ESN for the phone both must be in the verizon system associated with your phone number or the device will not work.
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Correct but when you put the registered SIM in another LTE device it registers that handsets IMEI with your account. You can infact do a SIM swap with LTE, since your phone number is tied to the SIM putting the sim in another device effectively activates the phone on your account.
I should know, it's my job ;-)
It works the same way as GSM, but going from an LTE phone to a CDMA phone is a bit different, the SIM gets decactivated and becomes useless and if you want to switch back you need to go the a Verizon store for them to sell you out a new SIM for $0(some times old SIMs can be reactivated however there may b e issues with this). It's a PITA so I don't reccomend switching back and forth between CDMA and LTE devices unless you absolutely HAVE to.

chaoscentral said:
Correct but when you put the registered SIM in another LTE device it registers that handsets IMEI with your account. You can infact do a SIM swap with LTE, since your phone number is tied to the SIM putting the sim in another device effectively activates the phone on your account.
I should know, it's my job ;-)
It works the same way as GSM, but going from an LTE phone to a CDMA phone is a bit different, the SIM gets decactivated and becomes useless and if you want to switch back you need to go the a Verizon store for them to sell you out a new SIM for $0(some times old SIMs can be reactivated however there may b e issues with this). It's a PITA so I don't reccomend switching back and forth between CDMA and LTE devices unless you absolutely HAVE to.
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I can confirm that it is a royal pain in the ass to go to the vzw store to get a new sim...

I just got a replacement for my tbolt. I had 5 days to return the "defective" one. I bounced the SIM card back and forth between the two phones a dozen times trying to see which one got better 3G/4G reception. The rep told me to decide which one works better and send the other phone back. It didn't matter.

[Q] Anyone able to activate an N5 on Sprint AND Tmo/ATT at the same time?

Has anyone been able to do this? Activate on Sprint with just the MEID and no sim card (so you won't have LTE) and also activate on Tmo/Att/MVNO with a sim card. Is there anything in the software that allows the switching between the two - like a typical "world phone" has?

eyeballer said:
Has anyone been able to do this? Activate on Sprint with just the MEID and no sim card (so you won't have LTE) and also activate on Tmo/Att/MVNO with a sim card. Is there anything in the software that allows the switching between the two - like a typical "world phone" has?
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Registered here just to say I'm interested in the answer to this. Please post in here again if you find an answer somewhere else. Thanks!

From my activation experience you need to active the sim on sprint. And of there is no sim in the phone I couldn't make a call.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

I don't think this is possible out of the box. We'll have to dig in and see what we can find for settings.

eyeballer said:
Has anyone been able to do this? Activate on Sprint with just the MEID and no sim card (so you won't have LTE) and also activate on Tmo/Att/MVNO with a sim card. Is there anything in the software that allows the switching between the two - like a typical "world phone" has?
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Click to collapse
You must have a Sim in order to activate on Sprint. I tried over the phone, chat, and self service and was unable to activate without a SIM.

hammester said:
You must have a Sim in order to activate on Sprint. I tried over the phone, chat, and self service and was unable to activate without a SIM.
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Can you remove the sim after activation? I read somewhere that someone just had 3g on Sprint with no sim, but can't find where.

eyeballer said:
Can you remove the sim after activation? I read somewhere that someone just had 3g on Sprint with no sim, but can't find where.
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Click to collapse
I would think once you activate it you could remove the SIM and just get 3g service but I can't say that with 100% accuracy. You could give it a try using the T-mobile $3 a day plan to make sure it works that way your not out a whole month of service.

There is no "activating" on T-mobile and AT&T. The activation lies with the SIM card. I can swap out a T-mobile SIM or an AT&T SIM anytime I want.

T-Mobile not working with OPO

Hey everyone thanks for your help in advance... I just bought my phone and went to T-Mobile to get a new micro Sims card. After putting it in, the phone didn't recognize it. I put in the APN settings and it doesn't save it. This really sucks right now because I don't know what else to do. Any help will be greatly appreciated. And my phone isnt rooted yet, just want the stock for now. Thanks again

Is the sim activated? Sometimes on a new sim it takes a few hours to start working.
I was already on Tmo with an N5. I just moved the sim over and all was good.

NaterTots said:
Is the sim activated? Sometimes on a new sim it takes a few hours to start working.
I was already on Tmo with an N5. I just moved the sim over and all was good.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What he said. If OP has another phone that uses a MicroSIM, put the sim in that phone and see if it works.
Also did u insert the sim properly into its slot?

zephiK said:
What he said. If OP has another phone that uses a MicroSIM, put the sim in that phone and see if it works.
Also did u insert the sim properly into its slot?
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You Quoted the wrong post.

NaterTots said:
You Quoted the wrong post.
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I actually didn't. I agreeing with what you said and added onto your point.
I didn't mean the u to be directed to NaterTots but to the OP. Sorry for the confusion.

I screwed up and instead of using my old Sim card and cutting I went into T-Mobile and had them activate a new micro Sim card and put it straight in. The old one is deactivated.

The new micro Sim does work in my old gslaxy S2 phone which used an older big Sim card. Its now using a Sim adapter.

suaverc118 said:
I screwed up and instead of using my old Sim card and cutting I went into T-Mobile and had them activate a new micro Sim card and put it straight in. The old one is deactivated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you insert the SIM card in the right direction and not upside down? I know thats silly to ask.

to be honest its simple man and actually nothing you needed to make a thread about. Simple go to TMobile store and try an already active sim card. Go to AT&T and see if they can put an active sim card to help you out. Basically go to anywhere that works with a TMobile or AT&T derivative and try it out. Nothing really else we can do to help you on this.
Not try to be rude or anything but its the truth. If none of that works then you may have to RMA. Also maybe find a friend or family member and try their sim . Good luck :good:

Should work. Using my one plus with Solavei (t-mobile based company) and having no issues.
Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk

zephiK said:
Did you insert the SIM card in the right direction and not upside down? I know thats silly to ask.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First time i've also put the tray wrong. True story

Just had this problem after coming from using the phone overseas and no signal whatsoever on the phone despite numerous restarts, SIM cleaning, and chats with T mobile. After verifying the APN was correct I went to Settings-->About Phone-->Status-->SIM Status and checked to see if the SIM was connected(it showed my phone number, but was disconnected). So from here went to Settings-->Mobile Networks-->Network Operators and let the phone find carriers automatically. Mine showed T-mobile(with a little SIM icon to the right of it), Verizon, and ATT. I clicked on T-Mobile and it registered and is now working.
Probably saved me $15 at the T-Mobile store. Hope this helps even just one of you.