How does a phone get "blacklisted"? By blacklisted I mean that you can't make calls, text, can't get reception, it's like your carrier completely cut you off, your phone is basically useless at this point. The only thing you can use is WiFi.. It happened to me last year(?) when a "beta" or early access factory image of Marshmallow came out, I couldn't wait for the OTA update to come so I decided to flash it like a stupid person. And then I noticed that my phone was blacklisted, I had to buy a new phone.
Right now I'm thinking about flashing a ROM, and I don't want my phone to get blacklisted again. What are the chances? I do have like 4 nandroid backups. So if it does get blacklisted, I can recover the nandroid of when it was not blacklisted and it would still work right?
Blacklisting is based on the phone imei. Flashing or reflashing ROMs will not and should not change the imei so the phone will remain blacklisted until it is removed from the carrier blacklist.
audit13 said:
Blacklisting is based on the phone imei. Flashing or reflashing ROMs will not and should not change the imei so the phone will remain blacklisted until it is removed from the carrier blacklist.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't really understand that part in red, I understood everything before that.. And would a nandroid backup store(?) the imei?
Let's say I lose my phone. I call my carrier, report it stolen, the carrier adds the phone imei to the blacklist so it cannot be used with any carrier in North America. Let's say someone finds the phone and returns it to me. I then call my carrier, tell them I have the phone in my possession, and my carrier will remove the phone imei from the blacklist so can now use the phone in North America.
audit13 said:
Let's say I lose my phone. I call my carrier, report it stolen, the carrier adds the phone imei to the blacklist so it cannot be used with any carrier in North America. Let's say someone finds the phone and returns it to me. I then call my carrier, tell them I have the phone in my possession, and my carrier will remove the phone imei from the blacklist so can now use the phone in North America.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So if my phone ever gets blacklisted again from doing stupid things like flashing stuff without knowledge, I can call my carrier and tell them to remove my phones imei from the blacklist?
Flashing a rom to a phone does not blacklist a phone because flashing does not change the imei. The phone gets blacklisted if it is reported as lost, stolen, or possibly when a subscriber does not pay his or her cell phone bill.
The phone you flashed was a phone you purchased from a carrier or retailer?
audit13 said:
Flashing a rom to a phone does not blacklist a phone because flashing does not change the imei. The phone gets blacklisted if it is reported as lost, stolen, or possibly when a subscriber does not pay his or her cell phone bill.
The phone you flashed was a phone you purchased from a carrier or retailer?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think he formated his imei folder.
audit13 said:
Flashing a rom to a phone does not blacklist a phone because flashing does not change the imei. The phone gets blacklisted if it is reported as lost, stolen, or possibly when a subscriber does not pay his or her cell phone bill.
The phone you flashed was a phone you purchased from a carrier or retailer?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I bought the phone from a carrier.
Kzeran said:
I think he formated his imei folder.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where is it stored?
Is the imei you get by dialling *#06# the same number according to the box and back cover of the phone?
If you don't see your imei by dialing *#06# and without backup , you're ****ed
If the phone does not display the correct imei and says null or a bunch of zeros, the phone is not connecting to your carrier because the imei is wrong, not because the phone is blacklisted.
audit13 said:
Is the imei you get by dialling *#06# the same number according to the box and back cover of the phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
#06# doesn't do anything. It says "USSD running code..." and that's it, doesn't show anything after that. Sometimes it says "Connection problem or invalid MMI code"
Did you compare the phone imei to the national blacklist database?
Looks like the phone does not have a valid imei; therefore, it cannot be activated with any carrier and may have nothing to do with blacklisting.
Since you bought the phone from a carrier, you are the only one that can have it blacklisted through the carrier from whom you purchased the phone.
audit13 said:
Did you compare the phone imei to the national blacklist database?
Looks like the phone does not have a valid imei; therefore, it cannot be activated with any carrier and may have nothing to do with blacklisting.
Since you bought the phone from a carrier, you are the only one that can have it blacklisted through the carrier from whom you purchased the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So you're saying that my phone can't get blacklisted?
For this discussion, there are two reasons a phone will be barred from connecting to a carrier network:
1) The owner calls in to the carrier and reports the phone as lost or stolen and the carrier will add the phone imei to the national blacklist; or
2) the phone has a missing or invalid imei.
Since you purchased the phone from your carrier, only you should be able to have the phone blacklisted by your carrier.
audit13 said:
For this discussion, there are two reasons a phone will be barred from connecting to a carrier network:
1) The owner calls in to the carrier and reports the phone as lost or stolen and the carrier will add the phone imei to the national blacklist; or
2) the phone has a missing or invalid imei.
Since you purchased the phone from your carrier, only you should be able to have the phone blacklisted by your carrier.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh okay.
So for confirmation, I can go ahead and flash a ROM without worrying of messing up the imei? And possibly some future versions of Android since I'm rooted and can't install OTA's.
I have works with several Samsung nexus, and Motorola phones and I have never had an imei become corrupted because I flashed a stock or custom rom.
Maybe you wiped something that should not have been wiped?
audit13 said:
I have works with several Samsung nexus, and Motorola phones and I have never had an imei become corrupted because I flashed a stock or custom rom.
Maybe you wiped something that should not have been wiped?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah maybe, to be honest I was pretty careless of the flash when I did it. I just wanted to get the update fast.
Thank you for your help, extremely helpful :good: :cyclops:
Related
Hi all,
I have a SPV3000 from my work and I lost it for a while so I mentionned it to my manager who is going to state it to Orange to get it blacklisted.
The thing is, after a couple of weeks, I have just found my phone again!
I am not feeling I should mention it again to my boss as it sounds really ridiculous and he was kind enough not to argue on the loss. But well, now I have a phone fully working which IMEI code will soon be blacklisted by the 3 main operators in France running a common database on the subject (in case of phones stolen). I may send my phone to a friend abroad who will certainly be able to use it there but is there any tricky solution to be able to use it in France?
What is this IMEI code exactly and how does it work?
BE SURE I AGREE WITH THE IDEA OF BLACK LISTS TO AVOID SO COMMON AGGRESSIONS JUST FOR PHONES...
You may send me private posts in case you are reluctant to have this kind of information largely communicated.
Hi marcel06!
IMEI is kind of like a serial number which your cell company sees.
If you haven't noticed, there is a wiki link under the word for details.
There are no tricks when it comes to IMEI. There are ways of changing it, but that is illegal in most countries.
Because IMEI identifies your phone, thieves could change their phone IMEI to match yours so you would pay for calls made from other phone.
If you really want to use the phone again, you should report that it was found so they won't blacklist you.
levenum said:
Because IMEI identifies your phone, thieves could change their phone IMEI to match yours so you would pay for calls made from other phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh.. no. I'm not sure about those pre-SIM period phone. But I'm definately sure that now, for phones that are using SIM cards, you are not able to charge to others account using IMEI. The controlling mech is the SIM card, the billing information is in the card, not the phone. But the operator will have the power (as I've heard) to disable/track phone by IMEI.
Ok so I purchased a used hox on craigslist the other day. When I first put my sim card in after purchase I was unable to get a data connection using the pta apn. I had network connection and was able to make/receive calls and texts, but had no data connection. I was getting the "misconfigured apn" error in network settings. After some googling I found that I need to switch my plan to an att LTE plan (I am in a covered area). I am not the account holder, and it would be a day or two until I could get in contact with the account holder, so I just threw in the wap.cingular or phone apn and was able to get an hspa connection fine. So I rooted the phone and unlocked the bootloader (using htc dev) without a problem, flashed a few custom roms, everything is working 100%. Except for last night when I finally decided to switch my plan over with AT&T and try to connect to LTE. After about an hour on the phone with technical support, they concluded that I don't have an AT&T phone, which I am certain I do.
I am guessing that the only way they could tell that I didn't have an AT&T phone was from the IMEI which they asked for at the beginning of the call. So I checked the IMEI on the box against the IMEI on the phone and they are different. The SNs match, but the IMEIs are different. I checked out the phone IMEI online and it came back as invalid. (For the record I also checked the box IMEI against the lost and stolen phone database and it was not found)
So, basically, I am wondering if this issue can be caused by something that I did (ie rooting, bootloader unlock, rom flashing, etc) or if I was somehow sold a tampered device or if this is something to be concerned about. Its not a very big deal if its something I did, I understand the risks associated with rooting/unlocking/flashing etc.
henchdiesel said:
Ok so I purchased a used hox on craigslist the other day. When I first put my sim card in after purchase I was unable to get a data connection using the pta apn. I had network connection and was able to make/receive calls and texts, but had no data connection. I was getting the "misconfigured apn" error in network settings. After some googling I found that I need to switch my plan to an att LTE plan (I am in a covered area). I am not the account holder, and it would be a day or two until I could get in contact with the account holder, so I just threw in the wap.cingular or phone apn and was able to get an hspa connection fine. So I rooted the phone and unlocked the bootloader (using htc dev) without a problem, flashed a few custom roms, everything is working 100%. Except for last night when I finally decided to switch my plan over with AT&T and try to connect to LTE. After about an hour on the phone with technical support, they concluded that I don't have an AT&T phone, which I am certain I do.
I am guessing that the only way they could tell that I didn't have an AT&T phone was from the IMEI which they asked for at the beginning of the call. So I checked the IMEI on the box against the IMEI on the phone and they are different. The SNs match, but the IMEIs are different. I checked out the phone IMEI online and it came back as invalid. (For the record I also checked the box IMEI against the lost and stolen phone database and it was not found)
So, basically, I am wondering if this issue can be caused by something that I did (ie rooting, bootloader unlock, rom flashing, etc) or if I was somehow sold a tampered device or if this is something to be concerned about. Its not a very big deal if its something I did, I understand the risks associated with rooting/unlocking/flashing etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what method did you use to unlock the bootloader? If you used the one without HTCDev found here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1734558 it changed the IMEI number. You can put it back though.
gunnyman said:
what method did you use to unlock the bootloader? If you used the one without HTCDev found here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1734558 it changed the IMEI number. You can put it back though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I actually used the method outlined here, http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1671396, which is probably a similar method under the hood I guess. How would I go about returning the IMEI to stock? Is it as simple as opening mmcblk0p4 in a hex editor and changing the 11111111 back to CWS__001?
henchdiesel said:
I actually used the method outlined here, http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1671396, which is probably a similar method under the hood I guess. How would I go about returning the IMEI to stock? Is it as simple as opening mmcblk0p4 in a hex editor and changing the 11111111 back to CWS__001?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope.
the method you used doesn't TOUCH IMEI. IMEI and CID are two different things.
did you happen to notice when you got the phone if the bootloader said locked? or was it re-locked?
I suspect if it's the latter then whoever had the phone before you did used the "without htc dev" method to unlock and didn't copy back the unaltered partition when they were done.
There are ways to rewrite the correct IMEI to the phone. I don't know how, and discussion of it is forbidden here. Maybe someone who can help you will send you a PM.
gunnyman said:
Nope.
the method you used doesn't TOUCH IMEI. IMEI and CID are two different things.
did you happen to notice when you got the phone if the bootloader said locked? or was it re-locked?
I suspect if it's the latter then whoever had the phone before you did used the "without htc dev" method to unlock and didn't copy back the unaltered partition when they were done.
There are ways to rewrite the correct IMEI to the phone. I don't know how, and discussion of it is forbidden here. Maybe someone who can help you will send you a PM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The phone did say locked when I got it. It may have been re-locked, but there is no way for me to be sure. I guess if anyone has info about repairing my IMEI and could pm me I'd really appreciate it. Otherwise I guess I'm out of luck. Thank you very much for your help.
henchdiesel said:
The phone did say locked when I got it. It may have been re-locked, but there is no way for me to be sure. I guess if anyone has info about repairing my IMEI and could pm me I'd really appreciate it. Otherwise I guess I'm out of luck. Thank you very much for your help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if it said LOCKED then IMEI got corrupted by some other means. Sorry I can't be of more help. I do have a suggestion though.
Find one of those Cell phone stores that advertises flashing phones to some other carrier. Maybe THEY have the means to fix your IMEI.
gunnyman said:
if it said LOCKED then IMEI got corrupted by some other means. Sorry I can't be of more help. I do have a suggestion though.
Find one of those Cell phone stores that advertises flashing phones to some other carrier. Maybe THEY have the means to fix your IMEI.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm just glad it was something that I screwed up as opposed to my buying a tampered/stolen device. Mods can probably close this thread, mark it as "solved" or something like that, before we get too far into the IMEI modding stuff. Hopefully I can get this figured out on my own. Thanks again for your help.
Hit me on gtalk. Ill get u fixed up seriously tho. Pmed
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda premium
It's likely not an IMEI issue....but more likely you don't have an LTE SIM. Symptoms are just that.
Op said the Imei numbers between phone and box don't match up
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium
18th.abn said:
Hit me on gtalk. Ill get u fixed up seriously tho. Pmed
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
best person to contact for your issue...
not a big deal...if you have the stick on the back on the phone or the box
imei, sn, mb....you good...
Hello,
A friend of mine has a new S6 which is unlocked to work with any network/sim. The phone was working perfectly for a few months.
Now for some reason, it gives the message that no sim detected. Signal bars show up. But no connectivity.
The option in settings Select Network Operator is gone, and no longer there.
I have tried re-flashing stock 5.1.1 ROM and still the same problem. Tried flashing previous 2 modems and got the same error, so flashed back to current one.
Current Baseband: G920FXXU3QOKN
Kernel Version: 3.10.61-5896496 [email protected]#1
Another thing to note is that the phone shows signal bars perfectly, even though there is the no sim message. Also, on removing and re-inserting the sim, it reads the sim and asks to reboot, after which it comes to the same situation.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
I have same issue, and would gladly fix it. :/
Link to topic:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s6/help/g920f-network-issues-t3291903
brenner650 said:
I have same issue, and would gladly fix it. :/
Link to topic:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s6/help/g920f-network-issues-t3291903
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Check to see if your imei is intact still in settings
Hears a link to help http://www.technobezz.com/how-to-fix-galaxy-s6-not-registered-on-network/
xstokerx said:
Check to see if your imei is intact still in settings
Hears a link to help http://www.technobezz.com/how-to-fix-galaxy-s6-not-registered-on-network/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
IMEI was reset to 350000000006, then some Russian guy fixed it with Z3X box, SIM was able to register, but reception was awfull (lots of missed incoming calls, etc.). then I flashed some more fw and modem to check wheter it would fix dropping signal issues, and then it started not to recognize SIM.
So to sumarize, IMEI (with my EFS, not @tazaga one) is fine in the IMEI info, in SIM info everything is unknown, and mobile networks menu is missing from settings.
I changed SIM for a new one, just to be sure, and is detected only when inserted/removed, then phone wants to restart to enable mobile networks, but after restart, nothing changes.
Serial number was changed, but I corrected it in a file in EFS folder.
brenner650 said:
IMEI was reset to 350000000006, then some Russian guy fixed it with Z3X box, SIM was able to register, but reception was awfull (lots of missed incoming calls, etc.). then I flashed some more fw and modem to check wheter it would fix dropping signal issues, and then it started not to recognize SIM.
So to sumarize, IMEI (with my EFS, not @tazaga one) in fine in the IMEI info, in SIM info everything is unknown, and mobile networks menu is missing from settings.
I changed SIM for a new one, just to be sure, and is detedted only when inserted/removed, then phone wants to restart to enable mobile networks, but after restart, nothing changes.
Serial number was changed, but I corrected it in a file in EFS folder.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ya by the sounds of it something is still funky in your efs folder
As far as my problem is concerned, the IMEI and the SERIAL number both match the inside and outside. So its not that.
Any other suggestions as to what it could be? Or how to fix?
Flash stock with smart switch but before that make efs backup ( in case things goes down )
Already tried smart switch and also Odin to flash stock. Neither worked.
Would flashing an EFS backup from another phone with the exact same model work?
KMAT said:
Already tried smart switch and also Odin to flash stock. Neither worked.
Would flashing an EFS backup from another phone with the exact same model work?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well I tried to flash @tazaga efs, IMEI gets unknown right after that, but managed to boot up without custom kernel after Smart Switch initialization.
Beside that nothing changed, still no SIM and no mobile networks menu, and sadly couple hours later, phone went to a boot loop.
I took it to some 3dr party repair shop, without restoring original efs and bootable fw/kernel, they said they cannot repair it, but will give phone to some "software specialist" who may be (I seriously doubt it, according to my prevoius experience with 3rd party sw specialists (last time it took me half a day to reach the state phone was in when I deliverd it to them)) able to fix it with a 50-50% chance of fixing it.
brenner650 said:
well I tried to flash @tazaga efs, IMEI gets unknown right after that, but managed to boot up without custom kernel after Smart Switch initialization.
Beside that nothing changed, still no SIM and no mobile networks menu, and sadly couple hours later, phone went to a boot loop.
I took it to some 3dr party repair shop, without restoring original efs and bootable fw/kernel, they said they cannot repair it, but will give phone to some "software specialist" who may be (I seriously doubt it, according to my prevoius experience with 3rd party sw specialists (last time it took me half a day to reach the state phone was in when I deliverd it to them)) able to fix it with a 50-50% chance of fixing it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dude it it can be fixed its just you need octoplus box or z3x box
tazaga said:
Dude it it can be fixed its just you need octoplus box or z3x box
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I understand that, but I kinda doubt that no SIM issue is somehow tied to IMEI
Because with my efs backup (which was made after Z3X repair) IMEI is fine, but still no SIM.
I was kinda hoping that it could be something else in the EFS folder that made SIM undetectable, but even with your efs backup (thank you once again for it) SIM is not detected, so I guess that no SIM issue is tied to something else that is corrupted, or accidentally switched off.
I just dont know what could it be, because I was messing with service mode and codes unknown to me to try fix poor reception, so god knows what I did to put the phone in state in which is now.
Perhaps I am just trying to provide every information possible, and exchange it with others who have same issue, or more experience than me, so we can together figure out what has caused this and how to fix it, and help others who will have same issue in the future (and obviously I am not the only one with such issue).
And as I pointed out 3rd party repair shops didnt proove quite usefull (perhaps their services are just flashing/rooting/unlocking, but I can do that by myself without paying someone else to do it)
We will see next week, what will guys from repair shop say, but I am not very optimistic about that.
If nothing else I can still give some money to that Russian guy with Z3X, who fixed IMEI in the first place, I guess he won`t mind
And sorry for the OT.
This problem still going on with exact answer..
I also have same issue on customer's phone.
I've tried backup cert and efs then repair efs (on octoplus).
after repairing efs, it changed IMEI to 3500...006 but still no sim card.
Seems like I can't fix even with Octoplus.
Hopefully someone finds way to fix this asap ;(
So apparently EFS and stock firmware has been ruled out. I already tried different modems using Odin.
Anyone have any other ideas? I mean other than the Sim Not Found thing, I can't even see the network selection option in settings, and using *#*#4636#*#* only gives an error that not registered on network.
well @ariza27 made similar fix for S3...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s3/help/solved-siii-network-problem-update-sn-t1918601
I guess there is nothing to do but wait for developers to create something for S6.
If I am understanding that problem correctly, the SIM/Network problem in the S3 came from the SN or IMEI changing due to upgrade or flashing.
This phone has the same SN/IMEI inside and outside. And its not just refusing to register the SIM, the network options have disappeared as well. I had hoped flashing stock would help, but no cigar.
One thing though, would completely erasing the data partition, and wiping the entire firmware, and then installing stock or even another ROM help? Because even when flashing through odin, it preserved the data for some reason.
Can someone send me their EFS backup for G920F on v.5.1.1 Stock with baseband/modem G920FXXU3QOKN?
I don;t know if those things affect EFS or not, just want to be on the safe side. I want to try comparing the backup from my phone and one other and then try and restore using the 2nd one.
As far as the IMEI and SN changing goes, I am looking into how to prevent that in the first place on in the even that it happens to restore it.
Any help is appreciated.
Bump! Anyone?
Your imei number has been blocked/blacklisted because of a reason like lost or stolen phone, reported by previous owner, the only way to fix it is to replace the motherboard of the same model from a supplier on aliexpress website, there price is about $350.00 Australian dollars thats including EMS express postage,you get it around 4 or 5 working days, dont waste your money or time on anything else it won't work, I had same problem, now after new motherboard my galaxy s6 edge is working fine, expensive though.
Any luck with this issue?
wilksy1 said:
Your imei number has been blocked/blacklisted because of a reason like lost or stolen phone, reported by previous owner, the only way to fix it is to replace the motherboard of the same model from a supplier on aliexpress website, there price is about $350.00 Australian dollars thats including EMS express postage,you get it around 4 or 5 working days, dont waste your money or time on anything else it won't work, I had same problem, now after new motherboard my galaxy s6 edge is working fine, expensive though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The phone was purchased new. And Already spoken with both Samsung and Vodaphone regarding this and they say the IMEI and the phone are clear. The phone is in another country from that of purchase, but since there is no country lock or phone lock, this is not the problem.
And no such luck yet.
I have a SM-G920I, stock rom. When I dial *#06# an imei appears, it looks totally normal and its not blacklisted, but it doesnt match my imei on the back of the phone. It has not had a housing replacement or anything like that. In addition I cannot connect to my network, it says not registeres on network when I try to make a call and on my notification panel it says selected network not available. My sim does work on other phones.
I have thought that it might be a modem problem, but the imeis would still be different.
Plus, Ive thought of flashing xtrestolite and then exposed framework, then install exposed imei change.
Please help.
lukesvw said:
I have a SM-G920I, stock rom. When I dial *#06# an imei appears, it looks totally normal and its not blacklisted, but it doesnt match my imei on the back of the phone. It has not had a housing replacement or anything like that. In addition I cannot connect to my network, it says not registeres on network when I try to make a call and on my notification panel it says selected network not available. My sim does work on other phones.
I have thought that it might be a modem problem, but the imeis would still be different.
Plus, Ive thought of flashing xtrestolite and then exposed framework, then install exposed imei change.
Please help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
when you first bought the phone is this how it was?
Yes, dumb of me. But I thought I could fix it.
Although the first day I had my network and 4G. But I wanted stock rom so I flashed the stock rom and after that I never had back my network
VIVAS700 said:
when you first bought the phone is this how it was?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, any advice you could give me?
Does anyone have a definite solution to this problem? I've read many opinions but haven't run across a solution. I have a Samsung unlocked S9+ running official AT&T firmware and userdata but the carrier specific apps and features still don't work. The best infomation I've found is that the IMEI numbers of the unlocked devices are not in AT&T system so the features/apps won't work.
If this is the case, has anyone had any luck getting AT&T to register their IMEI and get the features working?
What worked for me and others (see the at&t fw thread) is to call or chat with AT&T and give them a imei from a carrier branded phone(with your sim in, though this might not be required). Tell them you are trying to get wifi calling to activate and it is failing at the provisioning step and they will input your imei and it will reprovision. Then pull your sim and put it into your s9/+ running at&t fw and it will allow volte, wifi calling and call protect to work (these are the only ones I use).
Good luck
I talked with someone in AT&T technical support and they remoted directly into my phone, reset all app defaults and network settings.. This of course didn't fix anything so they opened a trouble ticket. They told me my IMEI was in their system and was OK. Haven't heard back yet.
why not just flash ATT U firmware?
I'm running AT&T official U firmware G965USQS2ARF4. What just occurred to me was that I didn't do a factory reset before or after applying it via ODIN.
Stuart R said:
I'm running AT&T official U firmware G965USQS2ARF4. What just occurred to me was that I didn't do a factory reset before or after applying it via ODIN.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just did that... Didn't help.
Stuart R said:
Does anyone have a definite solution to this problem? I've read many opinions but haven't run across a solution. I have a Samsung unlocked S9+ running official AT&T firmware and userdata but the carrier specific apps and features still don't work. The best infomation I've found is that the IMEI numbers of the unlocked devices are not in AT&T system so the features/apps won't work.
If this is the case, has anyone had any luck getting AT&T to register their IMEI and get the features working?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Stuart R said:
I talked with someone in AT&T technical support and they remoted directly into my phone, reset all app defaults and network settings.. This of course didn't fix anything so they opened a trouble ticket. They told me my IMEI was in their system and was OK. Haven't heard back yet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes your IMEI is in their system. But it's not an IMEI from a branded ATT phone. You have to have the IMEI from an ATT phone like others have said, and like i had to do or you will not get the features, no matter what firmware you flash. This has been discussed in many threads. You have to have ATT change your IMEI in their system.
elliwigy said:
why not just flash ATT U firmware?
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Wont help unless you have a 965U or the IMEI from an ATT phone . ATT Features will not work on 965U1 IMEI. AT&T told me theses features wouldn't work on an unlocked phone and asked if i had the unlocked version. I told them no, it was an ATT phone i bought from Best Buy and it has an ATT logo (not the truth, got it from Samsung) and that i read in the forums that there were some issues with the S9 and that changing the IMEI fixed everyone's problems. I said i had my s8 here that everything works on and she said it's worth a shot to try and she changed mine in their system to the IMEI from my AT&T Branded S8 that i provided them. 965U1 has worked flawless ever since. All features work.
nugzo said:
Yes your IMEI is in their system. But it's not an IMEI from a branded ATT phone. You have to have the IMEI from an ATT phone like others have said, and like i had to do or you will not get the features, no matter what firmware you flash. This has been discussed in many threads. You have to have ATT change your IMEI in their system.
Wont help unless you have a 965U or the IMEI from an ATT phone . ATT Features will not work on 965U1 IMEI. AT&T told me theses features wouldn't work on an unlocked phone and asked if i had the unlocked version. I told them no, it was an ATT phone i bought from Best Buy and it has an ATT logo (not the truth, got it from Samsung) and that i read in the forums that there were some issues with the S9 and that changing the IMEI fixed everyone's problems. I said i had my s8 here that everything works on and she said it's worth a shot to try and she changed mine in their system to the IMEI from my AT&T Branded S8 that i provided them. 965U1 has worked flawless ever since. All features work.
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sounds about right.. i mean you can switch csc while on U1 depending on the sim card inserted but U1 isnt meznt to have all the carrier crap they need for the special features to work so u get the bare minimum..
while on U firmware, it seems the csc doesnt fully switch like they did on the S8 devices.. i tested this on my sim unlocked vzw s9+ with an att sim and a sprint sim and although data and calls worked,it stsyed on verizon bootani and bloat etc etc no matter what i did.. before on s8 devices after a reset it would have changed the boot ani,bloat and woulda had all the carrier features..
im also surprised they changed your imei lol.. i thought that was illegal lol.. i guess if the carrier does it then its fine haha
nugzo said:
Yes your IMEI is in their system. But it's not an IMEI from a branded ATT phone. You have to have the IMEI from an ATT phone like others have said, and like i had to do or you will not get the features, no matter what firmware you flash. This has been discussed in many threads. You have to have ATT change your IMEI in their system.
Hard to believe that they would just accept another IMEI and register it to your phone. I thought these were all unique numbers that couldn't be used on more than one device. How did that change affect the phone that originally had the branded IMEI?
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Stuart R said:
nugzo said:
Yes your IMEI is in their system. But it's not an IMEI from a branded ATT phone. You have to have the IMEI from an ATT phone like others have said, and like i had to do or you will not get the features, no matter what firmware you flash. This has been discussed in many threads. You have to have ATT change your IMEI in their system.
Hard to believe that they would just accept another IMEI and register it to your phone. I thought these were all unique numbers that couldn't be used on more than one device. How did that change affect the phone that originally had the branded IMEI?
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Didnt affect original s8 i used at all. or the s9. I replaced the s8 with the s9 when it came out so i just used the sim out of the s8 when the s9 arrived. s8 is just a spare phone now. I asked the operator if this would disable the other phone that the IMEI came from and she said no. I put sim from s9 in s8 afterwards just to test and it worked fine. They arent changing the IMEI of your actual s9, it still shows your original IMEI in your phone settings. They are just using the IMEI you provided on their end. What is actually going on behind the scenes i dont know. Maybe somebody that works in carrier support or may just have knowledge on how this actually works could chime in. I'm guessing they just use the IMEI to activate the features, since the unlocked one isn't eligible. I saw a better explanation in one of the firmware threads, if i run across it i'll post the link.
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I will reiterate what is said above and clarify my post. You aren't asking the support team to change your phones imei. I think as stated previously that is a forbidden/illegal maneuver. The support request is to change the imei which is active in the at&t system as only carrier branded phones are able to use certain at&t features.
If you have an old AT&T phone its imei can be used to "trick" at&t into activation/provisioning. Then you can put your sim into a U1 phone using at&t firmware and use carrier specific features.
Hopefully, this is easier to understand and clears up some of the confusion I may have introduced in my original reply.
jay2o01 said:
I will reiterate what is said above and clarify my post. You aren't asking the support team to change your phones imei. I think as stated previously that is a forbidden/illegal maneuver. The support request is to change the imei which is active in the at&t system as only carrier branded phones are able to use certain at&t features.
If you have an old AT&T phone its imei can be used to "trick" at&t into activation/provisioning. Then you can put your sim into a U1 phone using at&t firmware and use carrier specific features.
Hopefully, this is easier to understand and clears up some of the confusion I may have introduced in my original reply.
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I presume I can use the IMEI from another brand of working AT&T phone such as an iPhone 6S (in this case, my wife's)?
Stuart R said:
I presume I can use the IMEI from another brand of working AT&T phone such as an iPhone 6S (in this case, my wife's)?
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Another thought... Say I get an old Galaxy S6 which uses the same size Nano SIM as my S9+. I move my S9+ SIM to the S6, update it to the latest AT&T firmware and enable WIFI calling. If I then move my SIM back to my S9+, will the carrier features now work?
Stuart R said:
Another thought... Say I get an old Galaxy S6 which uses the same size Nano SIM as my S9+. I move my S9+ SIM to the S6, update it to the latest AT&T firmware and enable WIFI calling. If I then move my SIM back to my S9+, will the carrier features now work?
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This is exactly what I'm doing. I use an older LG phone and the sim/IMEI then swap it to my u1 with AT&T fw after the device is provisioned.
jay2o01 said:
This is exactly what I'm doing. I use an older LG phone and the sim/IMEI then swap it to my u1 with AT&T fw after the device is provisioned.
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Glad to know that works. I can pick up an old AT&T S6 pretty cheaply on ebay. Guess I'll give that a try. Thanks
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jay2o01 said:
This is exactly what I'm doing. I use an older LG phone and the sim/IMEI then swap it to my u1 with AT&T fw after the device is provisioned.
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I previously had an AT&T branded S8+ with the same SIM that I'm using in the unbranded S9+ but I guess I never provisioned (enabled) WIFI calling. Dunno.
The "trick" of giving them an IMEI from an ATT branded phone doesn't usually work any more, maybe it used to, years ago.
This is why I won't buy OnePlus phones any more. I love their devices, best bang for the buck on the market, but no amount of my fiddling would get ATT to recognize it and provision VoLTE... so no wifi calling, no HD calling... when you make a call, your data drops to 3G, etc...
My Essential, somehow was on their "BYOD" plan and so it would give me VoLTE and HD calling, but no wifi calling. No wifi calling is stupid, because you aren't using their network at that point, so why should they even care?
SquireSCA said:
The "trick" of giving them an IMEI from an ATT branded phone doesn't usually work any more, maybe it used to, years ago.
This is why I won't buy OnePlus phones any more. I love their devices, best bang for the buck on the market, but no amount of my fiddling would get ATT to recognize it and provision VoLTE... so no wifi calling, no HD calling... when you make a call, your data drops to 3G, etc...
My Essential, somehow was on their "BYOD" plan and so it would give me VoLTE and HD calling, but no wifi calling. No wifi calling is stupid, because you aren't using their network at that point, so why should they even care?
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"maybe it used to, years ago"... That doesn't apply in this context does it as carrier features VOLTE and Wi-Fi calling weren't even in existence years ago. And I'm not sure you have to give them anything. The claim by some is that just provisioning the features with your SIM on a branded device is enough.
Stuart R said:
"maybe it used to, years ago"... That doesn't apply in this context does it as carrier features VOLTE and Wi-Fi calling weren't even in existence years ago. And I'm not sure you have to give them anything. The claim by some is that just provisioning the features with your SIM on a branded device is enough.
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And as someone who has repeatedly tried it, it doesn't seem to work. You can give them an IMEI from another phone, but it usually doesn't work. Either the IMEI is "on their list", or from a phone that is on the BYOD list, or it isn't. It's not the phone's fault, it is that AT&T is kinda being dicks about this... They want you to buy their phones, because most people sign a contract to get the cheaper price, or use their NEXT financing to spread the costs out. That creates a barrier to exit for most customers and protects AT&T's revenue stream from monthly invoices.
While bringing your own device makes them just as much money from the monthly bill, it doesn't help them "retain customers by locking them into a contract", so they usually don't give you full functionality...
I have had a working SIM from an ATT branded phone that was properly provisioned, popped it into my other device, and VoLTE went away. I would call them up and give them the IMEI from the phone, or one that I know worked, and still no go. The one exception was the Essential, and that was because for whatever reason, Essential went to the effort to get it on their BYOD list.
Trust me, if it was easy, I would be doing it and buying OnePlus phones exclusively every 6 months and that would be the end of it. LOL