Database Info

Android rooting days are coming to an end?

Verizon and other carriers are working with Google to ban rooting phones. Data will get throttled and possibility of the phone getting banned from network coverage.
1. The way that they were able to track rooted users is based on pushing updates to phones, and then tracking which meid's did not take the update.
2. More than one major carrier besides Verizon has implemented this program and that all carriers involved had begun tracking rooted phones. All carriers involved were more than pleased with the accuracy of the program.
3. In new builds the tracking would be built into the firmware and that if a person removed the tracking from the firmware then the phone would not be verified on the network (i.e. your phone could not make phone calls or access data).
4. Google is working with carriers and manufacturers to secure phones, and although Google is not working to end hacking, it is working to secure the kernel so that no future applications can maliciously use exploits to steal end-user information. But in order to gain this level of security this may mean limited chances to root the device. (This item I've been told but not yet able to verify through multiple sources – so take it for what you want)
5. Verizon has successfully used its new programs to throttle data on test devices in accordance with the guidelines of the program.
6. The push is to lock down the devices as tight as can be, but also offer un-lockable devices (Think Nexus S).

NOOOOOO,
that sux and i wanted to buy a andriod soon because of the rooting.

I wouldn't see it as a threat the reason being :
Majority of people root they phones just to get the better version of the android software which they would have not got otherwise due to the companies not releasing the updated software so obviously the companies wont bother to send the so called update to this old phones anyway.
Secondly Google seems to trying to close the gap on fragmentation in the android as most phones were updated to the Eclair version. so I believe most of the phones of 2010 will eventually get the Gingerbread release depending on the carrier
and last of all there will always be great softwares released and some one out there will come with a hack or whatever

tfn said:
I wouldn't see it as a threat the reason being :
Majority of people root they phones just to get the better version of the android software which they would have not got otherwise due to the companies not releasing the updated software so obviously the companies wont bother to send the so called update to this old phones anyway.
Secondly Google seems to trying to close the gap on fragmentation in the android as most phones were updated to the Eclair version. so I believe most of the phones of 2010 will eventually get the Gingerbread release depending on the carrier
and last of all there will always be great softwares released and some one out there will come with a hack or whatever
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i completely agree with your first point considering I am one of those ppl! also I rooted my EVO to get better battery life....thats another reason to rooting.
i do see the carriers point of view tho.....they dont want people using the tethering workaround they gain from rooting since that is money that they are missing out on.
i should mention, tho, i am against the carriers doing this!! im just saying that i see where they are coming from

I dont think there is any blocks coming to any of the networks in the UK

This subject has already been discussed - more than once, you'll see, from the link I posted in that thread.

If this takes place, I'll be going back to Iphone.

his was an email I got from my networking team. Just wanted to inform and at the same time get a few informed views.
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App

tfn said:
I wouldn't see it as a threat the reason being :
Majority of people root they phones just to get the better version of the android software which they would have not got otherwise due to the companies not releasing the updated software so obviously the companies wont bother to send the so called update to this old phones anyway.
Secondly Google seems to trying to close the gap on fragmentation in the android as most phones were updated to the Eclair version. so I believe most of the phones of 2010 will eventually get the Gingerbread release depending on the carrier
and last of all there will always be great softwares released and some one out there will come with a hack or whatever
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know this is my first post, but this thread caught my eye.
the reason they don't want us rooting our phones is because if we do we can use out old phone longer and don't have to pay out he wazoo for a brand new phone. I have a Samsung Moment the last O/S that I could get was Android 2.1 Update 1 which basically rendered the Spring gps useless, and made calls and texts come in when ever they wanted, forcing me to think about a new phone, So i joined the SDX forums and rooted it installed 2.2 with the EB28 rom and so far every thing works as good as a Samsung epic just not 4 g,. which doesn't bother me since I don't video chat.
As far as I am concerned YOU paid for the, phone YOU pay the phone bill its YOURS, you should be able to do whatever you want to with it.

that realy sucks. I dont like that

I wouldn't sweat this too much.
I understand the tethering issue, and I also understand that the base is, and always will be, money. That's the whole point of any business.
Having said that, this community in itself is a market and there are people watching what we are doing and where we are going, because there's cash to be made. If we run into locked bootloaders, dead phones, crappy updates and new phones riddled with bloatware, you better believe that someone else will be ready to snatch all of us up and give us exactly what we want, if not close.
If I owned a company large enough to deliver wireless service, I'd be sitting silently with a squad of high-end 250 dollar unlocked smartphones ready for some good ol "we have your back" marketing. ...granted my wireless was on point and I got good reception.
I don't think us getting into our phones and tinkering with it's innards is ever gonna stop. It might change, yeah, but it won't stop.

damn that doesn't sound to good

even if this happens i'm pretty sure there will be workarounds..

So please explain me how that would work in the court room :
- defendent : I paid for a data plan, and now I am accused of using it
- provider : he has installed an upgraded OS on his phone, your honor !
That would be the same as switching phones (for example if I change my Hero for an unlocked Nexus S, I would be using the same OS as in my hacked Hero), while still having the contract.
I can not see how they can enforce such a thing.

I always buy SIM free phones, so they cant really get me with that as I dont ever get carrier updates.

jh71 said:
So please explain me how that would work in the court room :
- defendent : I paid for a data plan, and now I am accused of using it
- provider : he has installed an upgraded OS on his phone, your honor !
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try again...
Defendant: I paid for a data plan that expressly stated that tethering is not included so I fiddled with my phone so that I could do that without paying the appropriate charges.
Network: as you can see, a clear breach of contract.
Not that it would ever reach a courtroom anyway.
waz000000 said:
I always buy SIM free phones, so they cant really get me with that as I dont ever get carrier updates.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's got nothing to do with it though - I have an unlocked. unbranded Motorola Defy but the bootloader is still encrypted.
Some manufacturers can and do lock down handsets that aren't tied to any one network. Motorola do it, HTC seem to be moving in that direction - only SE are taking clear steps in the opposite direction.

Let's have a go at it one more time:
Defendant :
"Your honor, android is all about innovation, and carriers are ganging up with manufacturares cuz they want more, and more, and more, but are to lazy or incapable, or lacking inspiration. I do root, but tethering might as well not even be there, as it is part of many official out of the box releases. If i root, i do it cuz some manufacturers and some carriers are incapable of offering me the google experience im locking for, and as this is a carrier dominance, i dont have a choice but get the closest device for my budget, and that delivers the closest version to that google experience, and then root it, to get the proper battery life i paid for, and get rid of bloatware, which isnt productive for my needs, as THIS DEVICE IS MINE, I OWN IT!"
Network:
We are directly against Android!!!!
,

if this happend i think hes going to loose a lot of client so i don't think thats going to happend if no root no theme change no a lot of other things no liberty so if they do that i buy an iphone ^^

hey andy...why dont u guys start investing in you own hardware... apple is pretty good at it, google would be a hit. at least a research would be more then worthed.
my, how the tables would turn in such case....

The more I read and hear this, the more I don't believe it will ever happen.

[Completed] Root Method For Alcatel OT Pop Icon?

So I've read this phones been out for awhile now. and no one has an official root method for it. YET (omg)
And several people claim to have it rooted using:
VRoot, RootGenius, King / Kingo root
I've been doing an INSANE ammount of googling the last few days. and installing / uninstalling doezns of rooting APK's and EXE's
And so far... I've got absolutley nothing!
I need help!
They all say it cant be rooted / rooted improperly / No SU binary installed / Phones locked / locked up good, what ever.
Hell I'd even pay to send it to a company or to buy pricey software just to get it rooted.
I really need this phone rooted.
Anyone have ideas? same problems? any success?
(good working paid / free programs?)

XDA Visitor said:
So I've read this phones been out for awhile now. and no one has an official root method for it. YET (omg)
And several people claim to have it rooted using:
VRoot, RootGenius, King / Kingo root
I've been doing an INSANE ammount of googling the last few days. and installing / uninstalling doezns of rooting APK's and EXE's
And so far... I've got absolutley nothing!
I need help!
They all say it cant be rooted / rooted improperly / No SU binary installed / Phones locked / locked up good, what ever.
Hell I'd even pay to send it to a company or to buy pricey software just to get it rooted.
I really need this phone rooted.
Anyone have ideas? same problems? any success?
(good working paid / free programs?)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello, and welcome to XDA!
Unfortunately, I don't have much in the way of good news.
There are a couple threads out there who have the same problem as you:
> Android Development and Hacking > Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting > Alcatel One Touch Pop Icon (Straight Talk ) root, or where to start to build a root
> Android Development and Hacking > Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting > [Q] Root request: Alcatel Onetouch Pop Icon A564C
Please create an account, so you can post in other forums (otherwise have the benefits of being a member), and then subscribe to those two threads, so you can check on progress.
Sorry, that's probably the best I can offer, since you have probably already seen the root directory.
Hope this helps,and good luck!

This is useful. But not quick enough. There was a forum i saw once.. where you could request / pay for devs to root something idk if it was here or another website. But i need a solution sooner. Anyone got ideas? :C:crying:

Fluttershy_plays said:
This is useful. But not quick enough. There was a forum i saw once.. where you could request / pay for devs to root something idk if it was here or another website. But i need a solution sooner. Anyone got ideas? :C:crying:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
The monetary exchange (unless potentially a root service with a suggested donation) would go against policy here, so it sounds like a different forum site. I came across for-pay root services before, so they are around. Unfortunately I have no experience with these services, so I am unable to weed out the good from the bad and the skeezy.
The only suggestion I have at this point (and it's part question), is if rooting is that important, you may try an exchange (if is still possible) for a phone model that can be rooted. Can save a lot of headaches. I know, sounds like bad advice, but I was not able to intervene at the right time (and suggest a device that works for you), so now I need to backpedal.
I do hope you find what you are looking for though.

joel.maxuel said:
Hi,
The monetary exchange (unless potentially a root service with a suggested donation) would go against policy here, so it sounds like a different forum site. I came across for-pay root services before, so they are around. Unfortunately I have no experience with these services, so I am unable to weed out the good from the bad and the skeezy.
The only suggestion I have at this point (and it's part question), is if rooting is that important, you may try an exchange (if is still possible) for a phone model that can be rooted. Can save a lot of headaches. I know, sounds like bad advice, but I was not able to intervene at the right time (and suggest a device that works for you), so now I need to backpedal.
I do hope you find what you are looking for though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was considering this. But the company i just started with.. (TotalWireless) shared with a family member 60$ for unlimited c&t 5gb shared.data down from $90 straighttalk, was a really good deal. And the alcatel is the only phone with the newer android, 4.4.2 and screen size 5.0 screen and quad core. Im used to 3.5s and 4's I wany this phone for the screen size and the quadcore.
My old phone with straight talk was the samsung galaxy ace style. Which took me forever to root.. i finally found out about towel root, and hitting the version till numbers popup and changing the 4 to a 0 and it rooted.
But i use black market app. And cpu speed boosyers things like that so i need root.
+ limited storage. I had this phone out of the box for an hour and i already used up all the room, need my sd card.

Fluttershy_plays said:
I was considering this. But the company i just started with.. (TotalWireless) shared with a family member 60$ for unlimited c&t 5gb shared.data down from $90 straighttalk, was a really good deal. And the alcatel is the only phone with the newer android, 4.4.2 and screen size 5.0 screen and quad core. Im used to 3.5s and 4's I wany this phone for the screen size and the quadcore.
My old phone with straight talk was the samsung galaxy ace style. Which took me forever to root.. i finally found out about towel root, and hitting the version till numbers popup and changing the 4 to a 0 and it rooted.
But i use black market app. And cpu speed boosyers things like that so i need root.
+ limited storage. I had this phone out of the box for an hour and i already used up all the room, need my sd card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I looked at the selection, and I see what you mean. I forgot that the S3 (to me, the best of the bunch) didn't make it to KitKat officially (only to 4.3) and that it's a dual-core device. The Alcatel looks to be the most advanced, except for having the 4GB storage (thus I see the need for root to leverage to MicroSD for apps).
Unfortunately, there's not much I can say. I now see only two options (well three, but different carrier is out of the cards):
Find a responsible rooting service
Take advantage of Total's BYOD program
You can do one or the other, but not both. That is, if the service tries to root, and is unsuccessful, Total may see the attempted modification and withdraw the return process. Also, Bring-your-own-device may not work for the device you pick, since they seem to be a Verizon MVNO.
Hope this helps.

joel.maxuel said:
I looked at the selection, and I see what you mean. I forgot that the S3 (to me, the best of the bunch) didn't make it to KitKat officially (only to 4.3) and that it's a dual-core device. The Alcatel looks to be the most advanced, except for having the 4GB storage (thus I see the need for root to leverage to MicroSD for apps).
Unfortunately, there's not much I can say. I now see only two options (well three, but different carrier is out of the cards):
Find a responsible rooting service
Take advantage of Total's BYOD program
You can do one or the other, but not both. That is, if the service tries to root, and is unsuccessful, Total may see the attempted modification and withdraw the return process. Also, Bring-your-own-device may not work for the device you pick, since they seem to be a Verizon MVNO.
Hope this helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Know anywheres i can find unlocked CDMA phones?, with similar or better hardware to the alcatel? I heard it was possible?

Fluttershy_plays said:
Know anywheres i can find unlocked CDMA phones?, with similar or better hardware to the alcatel? I heard it was possible?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
CDMA is really unchartered territory for me (I only ever used GSM personally), but you may want to check with Total to see if they are indeed a CDMA-only shop. From what I understand, once you unlock a CDMA phone, you have to rely on a SIM/RUIM card for subscription info (probably explains why I have seen "SIM cards" in slots on CDMA phones before).
So if CDMA-only indeed, you may need to go this far (found an example using an LG G3 from Sprint):
> Sprint LG G3 > Sprint G3 General > Unlock Sprint LS990 for any CDMA carrier!!!
If you go with a different phone, be sure there is an equivalent howto for that device before buying (I used the search terms "CDMA unlock").
Hope this helps, and good luck!

Root dying?

It seems like every year it becomes harder and harder to root and now with lots of apps detecting root. Like Snapchat and super Mario run , and now Netflix can't be downloaded​ of Google play store if you're phone is rooted what are your thoughts do you believe root is dying?

carldw said:
It seems like every year it becomes harder and harder to root and now with lots of apps detecting root. Like Snapchat and super Mario run , and now Netflix can't be downloaded​ of Google play store if you're phone is rooted what are your thoughts do you believe root is dying?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nah it's not dead. Just use magisk.

What you say is true about it becoming increasingly hard to root your device as time goes by (and in some cases less need for root) but if root is "dying" it wouldn't necessarily be for the reason you listed.
All of those apps are still easily usable with a rooted device provided you know what you're doing.
I'm on a rooted Galaxy s8+ and Netflix is still in the play store, I can use Snapchat just fine and I'm sure Mario wouldn't be an issue either.
Its my perception too that root is becoming less popular though which is unfortunate because its such a powerful tool to fine tune every minute detail of your device to your liking. It gives you a level of control like no other so I'd hate to lose the option completely.

carldw said:
It seems like every year it becomes harder and harder to root and now with lots of apps detecting root. Like Snapchat and super Mario run , and now Netflix can't be downloaded​ of Google play store if you're phone is rooted what are your thoughts do you believe root is dying?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It seems like Everyone who has paid apps especially frown on it...so many people exploiting their work...so I understand to that extent only
I loved having absolute control over my device that I spent more than I could afford to have.
Problem is, well in my case it feels like service providers (carriers) stick it to the paying customer...who not only got #WalletRaped , we also have to follow their lousy ToS...so we are pissed and go find a way to save money by hacking paid apps...which really is stealing from someone...and they cry to Google who turns to the carriers and thus completes the cycle
sent from brand spanking new LG Stylo 3 (T-Mobile)

xXxNobodyxXx said:
Nah it's not dead. Just use magisk.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can't I have locked bootloader​

Rooting is Dead ?. And the intent of rooting was and is not to steal apps it was for personal sercurity. To know who and what apps we're collecting information on you ?. Now any and all apps apps can do that with the blessings ? of Google and sad ? to say xda and other sites like them. They have all been bought. The way of the world. Now, open to attacks, but please start the conversation. We all know it's true ?. Money talks and BS walks!!!!!!!!

Now correct me if I'm wrong and I have been known to be wrong a few times but root is not completely dead yes they are finding more and more ways tree shrink that area and the programming that root hides so it makes it more and more difficult to be able to root a device. But I cannot remember where what thread I read it in so if anybody knows please share it for me but a certain somebody has found and is working on a way to hide root and part of our devices kernals once that is fully achieved it will be hard and a long time before they are able to find a way to stop the phones and certain apps detecting roor

Root is not dying. Right now, @topjohnwu the creator of Magisk, has found a way to root Android Q. Root will live on and new and new android versions will have vulnerability that users can root their devices. The difficulties will increase of course but not necessary impossible. Just need more time to find the perfect moment.

Hope everyone is well I've been away for so long I feel as though toot is dying myself. I joined this for I'm back in 2012 I believe in fact I had a Sprint Galaxy S3 and the minute I unlocked it I was an XDA just... It became my biggest hobby after a couple years I switch to Verizon and got in on the Nexus 6 and Nexus 6p game. I became very involved in me arise sound mod and met so many awesome people the amount of information I learned from 6 years rooting building ROMs and all sorts of things is priceless to me. I must have bricked seven brand new phones over the course of 5 years! The lately I cannot seem to get a phone where I can unlock the bootloader. I cannot get a Sprint phone devil allow me to unlock let alone root... I brought my pixel from Verizon to Sprint had it unlocked and rooted but could not get LTE over voice and it was just a mess. I still have my Nexus 6 and 6p in my opinion they're the most amazing phones ever. It seems now Verizon's even locking everything up.
I'm about to bail on Sprint can anybody else there give me advice on what carrier is still allowing unlocked bootloaders and has a large XDA following. I'm so sick of being a slave to my locked up phones!! I would love to hear as many opinions as I can possibly get I have a big purchaser on swappa, I would love a few of you skip please shoot me some phones that are unlockable and rootable and which carrier is the best for cooperation in this matter.
I've been thinking of T-Mobile but then again do I have to purchase a non-carrier phone? Any help would be much appreciated to get back in the game before I throw any more phones across the room and frustration. I'm finished with Sprint at this point at this time I believe... I get better reception and service with two soup cans and a string! Thank you in advance I'm sorry if this is not the right thread! I just never understood why companies have such a fit with developers here allowing us to customize our phones other than the fact the talent that belongs to this forum blows away the hacks that work for providers!

galaxy sm-s327vl

Has anyone been able to get a working root for the luna pro on straight talk yet. I dont know much about programming but it would be nice to get root to remove knox and other crapware that samsung throws on these phones.

krak1nthor said:
Has anyone been able to get a working root for the luna pro on straight talk yet. I dont know much about programming but it would be nice to get root to remove knox and other crapware that samsung throws on these phones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No root at all. Apparently Samsung isn't a fan of root anymore. Or, carriers aren't. No progress at all so you'll be better off buying a new phone. This one is junk. A major downgrade from the original J3, which had 2 gigs of RAM and an AMOLED display. Oh, and it had NFC.

Well honestly imho this phone is worlds better than the core prime i was using. And it is fast especially how i got it set up. Carriers are what ruin the devices we buy as they want things locked to their spec list, i know this personally as i used to work for radioshack and was able to compare the same devices for different brands. Each had slight mods done to the setups but mostly the hardware was close to baseline over the big three, att, sprint and verizon. And essentially most straight talk stuff is either verizon or att anymore so if a root works for that device it should take for ours one would think.

Also its nkt that samsung wont allow root, its a deal thing with certain providers. My wife has a phone from life wireless and we asked around if it could be ported to another carrier and life wireless said it could not as the refurb stuff they provide for people is software locked to their system. But we ended up getting another device and was able to use the life sim for the new phone and kept her number and service. We just recently in the U.S. pass a law in federal court saying its illegal for any carrier to deny service or warrenty for any rooted device. But of course apple isnt a part of that. Only androids as far as i know.

Literally just took this out of the package for my sons first phone. I figured all these cheaper smart phones would be easily rooted. Im bummed out now

And still no one has tried to get this model rooted. I have lost faith with xda on this phone

Here is a qeustion for you. Since I know that the unlocked variant j3 firmware can be used to flash on to att he and be able to root, is there any way being they come from the same hardware and all that the Verizon j3 7.0 firmware would work on our Luna pro straight talk model. I know that all of the hardware is the same between the Verizon and my S.T. models from all the spec sheets I have came across. At this point I don't care for root, I just want the update to 7.0.

By the by I'm currently pulling the firmware off Google drive right now.

well i have searched and dug and so far have found that these phones use the very same logic board: sprint , verizon , tracfone/straight talk and a smj327r4(u.s cell?). and i managed to get the verizon firmware downloaded for the smj327vl, but really need an extra device to test if it works to install on the st/tracfone variant. if it works then we would have a valid android 7.0 on the luna pro model.

i have test phone
krak1nthor said:
well i have searched and dug and so far have found that these phones use the very same logic board: sprint , verizon , tracfone/straight talk and a smj327r4(u.s cell?). and i managed to get the verizon firmware downloaded for the smj327vl, but really need an extra device to test if it works to install on the st/tracfone variant. if it works then we would have a valid android 7.0 on the luna pro model.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have a spare sm-s327vl to try the firmware flash what is the google drive link???

I'm not sure on how to add the drive link. am adding it to my Dropbox so I'll post it here in a couple minutes hopefully
Found a way...lol
https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/mobile/my-drive
It's labeled j327vl. And thanks for being a guinea pig for testing it. Let me know if it works!

What I do know is that it is in multiple parts..... For flashing in Odin. So I guess that's how the newer phones get their files now thru Odin for a stock flash. The last phone I odin'd was a galaxy core prime and it was a single file flash.

Any news on how it went with flashing the Verizon firmware?

Im going to purchase a spare Luna pro on payday and test this out myself to see if it works.

Joker do you have any news? Did you get it flashed. Anything it would be nice to have some input.

Nobody can download it because it redirects back to their own Drive. That's not the link to share. You have to go to that file & allow link sharing. Then copy/paste that link here

Sm-s327vl
Any luck with this?

krak1nthor said:
Im going to purchase a spare Luna pro on payday and test this out myself to see if it works.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've searched and searched, but haven't found where anyone has made any headway toward rooting this device. Have there been any new devolpments?

Gotcha give me a couple

Alright I'm downloading it to my phone and then I'll try to upload where you can pick it up. Any recommendations to a site other than drive that would be easy to get thru

Hoping for suggestions on cracking a T-Mobile lock off my S8+

I swore-off androids (ADHD makes smartphones a very bad distraction for some, especially me) but my friend got a "buy one, get one" deal on the S8+ and, after putting a small edge-crack in the first one, just put it aside - she ended up giving it to me.
With her pins I removed the samsung/google accounts and did a hard-reset, then updated the system- my understanding was that, after doing this, that the phone would be 'open' for switching providers, so expect this is a different level of 'lock' (after hard-resetting, there was an App called 'device unlock', I had to connect to my wifi to get an answer and it said 'no', to contact customer service)
Am unsure if she can get them to unlock it, but even that is a major PITA (we don't see each other often nor do we live nearby), and I half-expect they're going to say 'no' to her anyways if she's trying to get them to let a 3rd party use it on a different carrier. So, I want/may-have-to crack it to get around this and while I'm guessing that a custom ROM will bypass this, I've read enough about there being something on the chip that'll be irrevocably 'tripped' when rooting the phone before flashing ROM's, and that once tripped it can't be undone and causes issues....so am wary!
There's also the idea of just flashing the regular G955U1 firmware but even w/ that I'm unsure if it'll 'trip' whatever the chip's protection from rooting is, I'd really like to get my service (Tracfone) onto it before doing more aggressive 'minimalization' of the system as I'd like to mess-around w/ a new android OS for a bit just to check it out (last time I used android, towelroot was the premiere go-to...that should give an idea how long it's been!)
Any/all ideas or tips or just keywords to get me pointed in the right direction would be incredibly appreciated, have spent many hours this week trying to get this thing working w/ my service, am awaiting my 2nd SIM card (my old phone, via Tracfone, was using verizon towers- so if I want to keep my #, I have to use the Verizon SIM they've mailed me that should be here any day) and, after that re-set, I'm expecting that even the new SIM will not be enough to get it working properly :/
(Something I think is important to point out, though it could be a fluke- during one of my tech-support sessions w/ the people at my carrier(Tracfone), the first one actually, we ended the call *thinking* it was fixed - the tech had finished on his end, asked me to make a call w/ the S8+, I called my landline and sure enough my phone# was calling my landline (via the S8+), however the tech said there were still issues and that he'd work on them, to call back in 24hrs. After hanging-up, I started testing and the first thing I did was to *call* my cell# from the landline and, sure enough, the old phone started ringing (the old phone is CDMA so it wasn't like I'd pulled its SIM), am unsure if I should take this to mean that it just let me dial-out as a fluke (I hadn't hard-reset the handset yet) or if it went wrong another way, but I *was* able to make a single outgoing call from the S8+ with my # so am getting the impression the lock isn't *that* unbeatable!)

Do a google search for UnlockUnit(.)com and check if your S8 qualifies to be unlocked.

Thank you!!
RossTeagan said:
Do a google search for UnlockUnit(.)com and check if your S8 qualifies to be unlocked.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
TBH that seems sketchy to me but it's a fail-safe/last-ditch effort I'll do if/when the time comes....
I just got a 30d temp-unlock from t-mobile (after a conference call w/ them & my friend the prior owner & myself), so right now am thinking *maybe* I can do things as far as cracking that lock that i couldn't have before....I don't care if I hobble the phone, I only care if the cracked unit can do talk/text, if it loses data I'm fine with that (honestly I'd be looking for the most minimalist ROM if/when I get my non-t-mobile service onto this thing, am a linux person and hoping they've got linux-esque rom's at this point!)((yes, I know android is based off linux I just mean putting a super-minimalist 'basic mode' *nix setup, that'd be my ideal!!))
I know there's a 'trip' on the logic-board on the CPU but my understanding is that tripping it only ruins the ability to get samsung updates and things of that nature, but that it *does not* ruin the ability of the handset to call/text, or use wifi....am still just thinking there *has* to be a way to crack this thing if I'm willing to lose-out on every feature besides talk/text, honestly I've been considering going to this t-mobile location that I suspect is a franchise in a 'ghetto' area near me and trying to just slip their tech $50 or something to unlock it! Though I'd much rather just crack it at-home so I can have higher assurance it's not merely this 'temporary unlock' feature and that I actually get it truly carrier-unlocked....hate that they went so far to lock it out but am having trouble thinking it's unbeatable!
(regarding the pay-for-unlock-code types of operations like you linked, do you know of others' experiences like how reliable a service it is, something more like 50/50 or 95% reliable? Have read an anecdote of someone unlocking one that way, only for the handset to be locked again a month later.....presumably they paid for a temp-unlock, thinking it was a permanent one- but permanent is all that these services seem to imply they do!)