Database Info

Restore *not change* my IMEI

I know this is a touchy subject due to the potentially illegal uses of IMEI numbers. Let me be very clear, I want to restore MY original IMEI number. Here is my situation:
Through various ROM flashes I have changed my IMEI number. Kies says my device in unregistered because I have the wrong IMEI. I wanted to try going back to stock since GB is now available without using a custom ROM. I have my device's original IMEI number saved in a document (in case it was ever stolen). I do not have a backup of my original EFS folder, only the IMEI number itself saved in a text document.
Is there any way for me to manually input my devices IMEI number and save it back into my phone?

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=881162
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

Thanks for the suggestion. I had already seen this, but since it was talking about setting the values to a "generic" setting I was trying to avoid it. I tried it anyway and it didn't fix the problem. I unrooted the phone and took it to AT&T. The problem ended up being that the APN setting couldn't be accessed and they weren't configured. The rep was able to do a hard reset. Not sure what kind of reset it was though. Not factory. It didn't revert back to Froyo, but it did remove all the apps (to include all google apps) I had to reinstall the market and restart the phone before it would work. Anyway, everything seems to be working fine now. I just wish I could have seen what the rep was doing so I could describe the solution better, but he was on the other side of the counter and didn't seem to want me to see.

IMei Problems in turkey and registration rules
Hi there
I know this will probably yield me a "no its illegal" reply but please hear me out on this. Im a good person!
I moved to turkey 6 months ago to work here as an IT teacher in an international school. I brought with me my lovely HTC HD2 which i had hacked using XDA software to now run andoid (was very pleased with my phone). registered my phone here with my passport. The phone then broke and while trying to fix it I snapped some of the internal data cables...
I have my old HTC wildfire here but cant use it on the GSM network as im only allowed to register 1 phone to my passport every two years!
I know its not technically allowed but i was thinking of changing the imei on my wildfire to that of my broken (but registered) HTC HD2 and was figuring if i got caught for it that they would see that the imei number is in fact registered to me anyway.
I have searched high and low for solutions for this. I found the Iwizard but I think that this was released in 2007 and my phone was released in 2010 so i am presuming that this will not work. also had some problems and questions about using activesync on my windows 7 computer along with presuming that I cant connect an android phone to activesync.
As I said before. Im not tying to commit a crime here but just trying not to go out and spend lots of money (and phones do cost lots of money here) on buying a turkish phone.
if anyone can help then please let me know
my email is [email protected]
cheers..

Thats called cloning. Will not be discussed here as it is illegal in the states and many other places. Check Turkish law, they may not have any laws against it, however you would still be on your own as its not discussed here.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

just because something is illegal doesnt mean it is illegal to discuss it. it is called freedom of speech. this guy stated he wish he knew how to clone a phone. if you preface your response with the fact the information is not intended for illegal use, you are not aiding anyone. he is responsible for his own actions. a good example of this is when a group attempted to ban "the anarchists cookbook" , a judge ruled that even though the book detailed how to construct illegal devices it could not be baned. the judge cited the first amendment.
i would never advise anyone to break a law but i would not look down on anyone who seeks information. my point is this: it is illegal to make TNT in your basement but it is not illegal to speak or write about how TNT is made. the op should seek his information on the web elsewhere since xda is not for q and a for phone cloning. there are many web sites that explain cloning and it is not illegal to read or write about this matter.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

Uh ya, and in short, its not discussed on XDA. I never trounced on anyone's freedom of speech.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

georgiajad said:
just because something is illegal doesnt mean it is illegal to discuss it. it is called freedom of speech. this guy stated he wish he knew how to clone a phone. if you preface your response with the fact the information is not intended for illegal use, you are not aiding anyone. he is responsible for his own actions. a good example of this is when a group attempted to ban "the anarchists cookbook" , a judge ruled that even though the book detailed how to construct illegal devices it could not be baned. the judge cited the first amendment.
i would never advise anyone to break a law but i would not look down on anyone who seeks information. my point is this: it is illegal to make TNT in your basement but it is not illegal to speak or write about how TNT is made. the op should seek his information on the web elsewhere since xda is not for q and a for phone cloning. there are many web sites that explain cloning and it is not illegal to read or write about this matter.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
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It's not about whether or not it is illegal for the topic to be discussed. If you allow potentially illegal information to be placed on the forum freely then you open the community up to unnecessary scrutiny. There are a lot of people out there that do not like developers helping people alter there mobile devices. Yes it's legal, but it also pisses a lot of companies off. So one way the community protects itself is through self-censorship.

that's right

reply
ConeyKiller said:
Thats called cloning. Will not be discussed here as it is illegal in the states and many other places. Check Turkish law, they may not have any laws against it, however you would still be on your own as its not discussed here.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
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cheers for taking the time to at least explain this. I was under the impression that someone from XDA had previously posted software on here for the very purpose i am describing in my last post (re turkey). I saw a screen capture of the software (iwizard) and it has a picture of a turkish cup of tea on it. I was guessing that XDA had decided to help people in turkey with the the registration issues we have. But after about 1 week of free time spent searching the internet for solutions I am ready to give in and just go out and buy a turkish mobile phone (can sell me blocked one in england next time i go home) .
Cheers and thanks for all the great software I have previously had from the site for my HTC HD2
f

Cracked imei change ;) it is 100% done

can a developer PLEASE contact me as i have SUCESSFULY changed a IMEI number on a blocked phone( it was mine i just never paid my bill lol ) this is 100% possible on ANY android phone

Lol
I heard this will get you in prison in the uk regardless if its your own phone or not....
Sent from my MZ604 using Tapatalk 2

Why would someone want to change there IMEI?
Sent from my HTC Sensation using xda premium

In the UK the fact that the phone is yours is NOT relevent. Quotes as follows
1 Re-programming mobile telephone etc.
(1) A person commits an offence if—
(a) he changes a unique device identifier, or
(b) he interferes with the operation of a unique device identifier
AND
2 Possession or supply of anything for re-programming purposes
(1) A person commits an offence if—
(a) he has in his custody or under his control anything which may be used for the purpose of changing or interfering with the operation of a unique device identifier, and
(b) he intends to use the thing unlawfully for that purpose or to allow it to be used unlawfully for that purpose.
The fact that the phone is yours is no defence and the penalty can be up to five years imprisonment. The only way round this is to 'obtain the written consent of the manufacturer'. Good luck with that!
The rationalle of this is that although you own the phone, the manner in which the phone presents itself to the network belongs to the manufacturer.
Land of the free!!!

Trust me, I wouldn't go here. In the UK you will end up in serious trouble not only legal but the network could kick you off for breach of terms. Suspect this is multi country too.

Changing IMEIs is not supported on XDA.
Please understand that we are a multi-national community which needs to balance between a lot of different national laws.
However, changing IMEIs is illegal in most countries and/or forbidden by the carriers.
That's why this thread gets closed here.

it *is* legal to change IMEI - please stop censoring legit threads

I was quite disgusted to see how the mods failed to interpret the law, and how they reacted in this thread.
Someone cited a proposed Senate bill, not an actual law that's on the books, and the mod reacted as if it were law. And worse, the proposed legislation actually exempted XDA participants anyway:
(d) Exception- Subsection (b) shall not apply to the manufacturer of a
mobile device or a person who repairs or refurbishes a mobile
device unless the manufacturer or person knows that the mobile
device or part involved is stolen.'.
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This is the thread that emerges in search results. What an embarrassment to xda. Is xda not interested in creating a forum for those who repair mobile devices?? Some of whom actually seek to alter their IMEI back to its original number after bricking wiped it out are being denied support. How foolish is that?
I propose the lock be removed from that thread, and zelendel apologize for the error.

Great to see someone hitting the books and citing real published sources rather then spreading paranoia based on hearsay. Always seek a published source to back up anything you spread or specify that it is not confirmed true and is speculative.
I did ++ your post bro, I ranted about MEID repair stuff in cricket users I should probably rant about it here too, I'm sick and tired of everyone assuming that one who is attempting to repair an MEID is a thief/fence. Likewise there are legal ways to discuss that topic (this is speculative because I'm too lazy to pull up legislation right now, I have a headache and I was nodding out in the middle of reading up on AT commands) like I'm pretty sure (but I don't have the law to cite so someone else should do find it) that zeroing out and changing and MEID to the one that was originally registered to the device (the one under the battery) is legal to do and doesn't violate any FCC or other federal regulations. I'm pretty sure I have read that and did cite it in my rant on the subject at cricket-users. But some people just decide to demonize an activity and do witchunts. I will say right out that I regularly repair MEID numbers and any phone I beleive to be stolen that I ever run across I go through the phone book and find the ICE or obvious family contacts and arrange to return the stolen property, even if is a handset I purchased and then found to be stolen I will willingly loose that money to get someone their **** back. I've had many phones stolen from me and it's messed up and I wouldn't do that to someone else.
When phones are stolen their MEID normally only remains on the blacklist for the duration of the phone being on that account, once the person replaces the phone and activates it, this releases the stolen phone's MEID from the database and allows it to be activated again (this practice is verified to be Sprint policy by a high-tier CSR I spoke with during a support call, I had a phone stolen from me by the police, not making this up, and I was trying to permanently prevent it from being activatable. It is not easy.)
So if you have a problem with MEID repairing be real about it, don't act like anyone who mentions it is a thief and start lodging accusations. It is against this site's current policy and any such comments discussing how to do these things should be taken down, but stop flaming people that post about it, thiefs don't even need to go through all that trouble they just have to wait for the phone they stole to be replaced on the account. The only way a phone gets meid blacklisted on a long term or permanent basis (besides submitting an override form to sprint that basically says yeah my stuff was jacked and I want to make sure no one can ever activate this phone again) is from broken service contracts. The phones that were subsidized by agreeing to a annual service contract will be blacklisted by that carrier until the account is repaid.
That is the truth about the MEID repair bullies, they are really just supporting the carriers' ability to shake down bad customers for money, they really don't give a **** if a device is stolen, that just means they get to sell another device at full unsubsidized price.

It's interesting how a proposed bill gets interpretted as law. Anyone can write a bill. Some average joe can write a bill, and submit it to Congress for signing. Then they can post the bill publicly, reference it in an XDA thread, and get mods to close a thread.
I did an "alert" on the mods post in that other thread. It will be interesting to see if XDA can correct the error. Hopefully the alert doesn't go to the mod who acted irrationally.

Here are the results of the attempt to get the thread closure overturned:
"the mod is a senior mod so his decision cannot be overturned. but google this question that will provide more updated info status on this"
How can a senior mod be so reckless?
And since when is "google" a higher source than the Cornell law publications? Google is what created the mess in the first place. Someone googled, read a proposed law that was long past dead, and interpreted it as law.

[Q] Network unlocking is now legal ?

Hello i came across this article :
h t t p : / /
lifehacker.com/you-can-now-legally-unlock-your-cellphone-heres-what-i-
1614787933
sorry i'm not allowed to put external links yet but this is the only way, just put it all together without spaces
and it says that now network unlocking a phone is LEGAL
for some reason it was illegal before and i made a topic asking for help to unlock SE X8 on this forum and it was deleted because its against xda rules, which in this case xda is against "illegal" things
So can anyone confirm this information and tell me if its actually legal now or it still isn't ?
thanks

wanthelp said:
Hello i came across this article :
h t t p : / /
lifehacker.com/you-can-now-legally-unlock-your-cellphone-heres-what-i-
1614787933
sorry i'm not allowed to put external links yet but this is the only way, just put it all together without spaces
and it says that now network unlocking a phone is LEGAL
for some reason it was illegal before and i made a topic asking for help to unlock SE X8 on this forum and it was deleted because its against xda rules, which in this case xda is against "illegal" things
So can anyone confirm this information and tell me if its actually legal now or it still isn't ?
thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
President Obama signed it into law. In 2012 it was made illegal because they didn't renew an exemption in the DMCA, basically saying that unlocking a phone was a violation of copyright owned by the carrier that implemented the code to make it locked to their network. While the exemption was in effect, the law said basically "cell phone unlocking doesn't count" as breaking digital media copyright.
Of course, your phone still has to be compatible on the network you plan on bringing it to.

Planterz said:
President Obama signed it into law. In 2012 it was made illegal because they didn't renew an exemption in the DMCA, basically saying that unlocking a phone was a violation of copyright owned by the carrier that implemented the code to make it locked to their network. While the exemption was in effect, the law said basically "cell phone unlocking doesn't count" as breaking digital media copyright.
Of course, your phone still has to be compatible on the network you plan on bringing it to.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
so network unlocking is legal or not ?

wanthelp said:
so network unlocking is legal or not ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
President Obama signed it into law. What do you think that means? That flaming hot Cheetos are pink elephants' favorite food? That Iron Maiden is releasing a country album? That Michael Bay is the greatest filmmaker of all time?
Yes, it's now legal!

Planterz said:
President Obama signed it into law. What do you think that means? That flaming hot Cheetos are pink elephants' favorite food? That Iron Maiden is releasing a country album? That Michael Bay is the greatest filmmaker of all time?
Yes, it's now legal!
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Click to collapse
well the fact that it's now legal i knew already
i asked for the confirmation rather that topic was truthful or not
i can myself create a forum or site and say many things even know their not true
so basically now that its legal i can post here on xda asking for help to network unlock my phones ?

Reply directly
man why don't u just tell that u have a locked phone n u want to unlock it.
give your device name, model, country, android version.

[email protected] D€\/¡! said:
man why don't u just tell that u have a locked phone n u want to unlock it.
give your device name, model, country, android version.
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Click to collapse
i created 2 topics saying i spent all day searching how to network unlock my SE w595i and SE XPERIA X8 and didn't found anything for free
and those topics were deleted cuz network unlocking for some reason is illegal
now its not how do i unlock them ?

so nobody can help me with network unlocking my sony's ?

anyway to get free internet ??

i can only buy 750mb per month but it won't last a week i need a way to get free data

go to Starbucks or McDonalds.

IIIIkoolaidIIII said:
go to Starbucks or McDonalds.
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looool i wish i could

In all seriousness, what country are you living in? I know in UK and US there are several networks that offer partial or full free access.

IIIIkoolaidIIII said:
In all seriousness, what country are you living in? I know in UK and US there are several networks that offer partial or full free access.
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Click to collapse
unfortunately i don't live in UK or US i live in country full of thiefs
welcome to tunisia welcome to HELL

sotty I'm out of options if you've already looked around for deals with the operators in your area

1) Wrong section.
2) 9. Don't get us into trouble.
Don't post copyrighted materials or do other things which will obviously lead to legal trouble. If you wouldn't do it on your own homepage, you probably shouldn't do it here either. This does not mean that we agree with everything that the software piracy lobby try to impose on us. It simply means that you cannot break any laws here, since we'll end up dealing with the legal hassle caused by you. Please use common sense: respect the forum, its users and those that write great code.