Hi all-
History of issue - wife & I upgraded phones, but we kept our old Samsung S6 phones for kids to use in school. These are SM-G920V (Verizon phones), but we had switched to T-mobile network. Son's S6 went fritzy - started freezing, randomly reloading, black screen w/flashing blue light until battery ran out, etc. It could boot, but wouldn't stay up. I think some update corrupted memory or something. I tried to factory reset it to get it back to beginning state, but was NOT aware I needed to remove the Samsung account associated with the phone. I'm not even sure I could have, it wouldn't stay up long enough w/o freezing or black screen. Regardless, factory reset didn't work, as when it booted, it eventually had the dead android show up. So I went online, found info about how to flash the phone with the correct Verizon file using Odin to download it, and now it boots android 7.0. However, then I hit the Samsung reactivation lock. It asks for an account/password, which I have, but it won't validate or go to the next step.
I talked to T-mobile tech support, and according to them, it's due to it being originally a Verizon phone on an account that is now deactivated since we switched to T-mobile. They can't do anything, but gave me contacts to 3rd party vendors that could fix/flash it if I could prove I originally bought it. As I used to be w/Verizon, I should be able to find the activation docs of the phone and provide proof, but the "fix" will probably cost upwards of 70+ (maybe closer to $100) for an old S6, which may or may not have as much life left to it. If I'm spending that much $$, I might as well get a cheaper new phone.
However, I'd rather not spend the $$ if I can help it, so am trying to figure out how to fix/flash this and remove the Samsung reactivation lock myself. My understanding is I need some sort of combo file that I can download using Odin, and that there's a process by which you can remove it that way. However, I can't seem to find the combo file for SM-G920V, and am not entirely sure of the steps. I've tried the emergency call method I saw online, but besides having a nice conversation with the 911 folks, I didn't see any of the buttons that the videos specified, maybe because it's android 7.0.
Does anyone have a good tutorial on how to get rid of this, so I can salvage the phone for son's use? I've read some of the XDA forums, but haven't been able to figure out the right steps. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
ET
Related
So I got one for $34, delivered today. Looks perfect other than a couple scuffs on the bottom corners. The seller said it was working fine (despite listing saying it was for parts/not working). I don't have any usable cell service where I live without getting a booster and antenna of some sort, so I don't care about activating it. I plan on using it basically as an internet tablet to check email, etc.
I do not have an sd card, charger, or data cable yet, they should come tomorrow. Since the battery is close to dead, I can't find out much. It turns on fine, gets to the home screen and has that "too many pattern attempts" screen (screen looks perfect, not a single scratch by the way) with the google login. I know not to try a full hard reset with the battery being about dead, but I have tried to bring up the menu option so I know how to get there when I do get it charged. I have tried every key combination method I can find with no luck, keys ~seem to all be working from what I can tell, read in the comments that a few people had no luck. One time I got that screen with the android and shovel, waiting for download. I was wondering if that is from the factory, or if that means it's been rooted?
Basically, all I really want to do is restore it to stock for right now. Maybe something better down the line, I'd just like to use it for now since I've never even really seen a smartphone before, because nobody has one with the poor cell service here. I have the EE19 build downloaded, and I see the restoring to stock thread. I want to do it the right way. So, if it has lagfix installed, I see I need to disable that. Any other things I should know about? I was just wondering if it sounds rooted, if I need to do something else if it is. I don't have a lot of time on my hands to do research, although I did a little already, and I have a very limited internet connection so I can't download a lot of things, I wasn't expecting to need to do this when I communicated with the seller.
Thanks for any advice or tips.
Edit: I was also wondering the best way to go about checking the ESN, or if I should try. Like I said, I don't care to activate it on US Cellular, but if I'd resell it or something. I know I could use PagePlus, but the Verizon tower is 30 miles away, so not much chance of that working well either. I don't think it should be stolen or anything, but was thinking if the account ever got settled or anything....
Well I got it, posting from it now. Only problem is unsuccessful download errors in app market, after download is almost complete. On wifi. I tried every solution I found for that with no success. Other than that, no problems.
Tried every fix for the market, deleting cache, changing permissions on vendor.apk, etc. Seeing it was a common problem with few solutions that work, I flashed CM7. That worked great, apps installed fine, but of course wireless cut out constantly, not usable for long. Saw that was common, tried everything with no luck. Went back to stock, then airplane mode, now market works fine. It fails whenever not in airplane mode. So I'm sticking with this for now.
Can't activate anyway, but best I saw was -104db, but mostly no service. My LG tracfone does a little better with reception.
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App
Guten tag alles!
Since my 128gig iPhone 6 is bricked due to a momentary lapse in brain power and changing the day back to Jan 1, 1970 (even though I knew it would crash) I didn't actually expect apple's OS to not have the proper safeguards in place and figured it wouldn't actually crash it but regardless that's a moot point. Let's just establish I'm an android noob. Entirely 100%. In the meantime I've been using an unlocked verizon galaxy s6 that my dad had laying around and I actually really like it. I've got all of the childish feeling GUI changed. Google Now launcher, arrow lock screen, etc. And it's actually making me debate going back to my iPhone. Only problem is that this particular galaxy has some network issues..
It still has verizon bloatware, it gets data very spottily and sometimes you have to reset the phone to get data functionality back, and the most annoying out of them all is that sometimes sending calls will do a +8something number even if I'm calling from contacts or dialing them. The country code is usually the one from the phillipines. I understand hardware limitations with the antennae and certain bands being unable to be received but I've been getting ATT LTE in my area no problem.
My questions are really, how do I remove the bloatware, or root it. I'd really like to root it.
How do I change the network settings if possible (it's android so I should be able to change whatever right?)
And just any general tips to help MW get the most out of this phone.
I could disassemble my iPhone and remove the battery to get the date fixed but I really don't want to start tinkering with it because that's always what I end up doing with my iphones and I'd like to keep this one within warranty. Plus I wanna give this galaxy a solid try (it's impressing me so far, amoled ftw)
Thank you all for the help and forgive my noob-ery.
(To clarify I have experience in Ubuntu and some other distros of Linux but not with android so my Unix isn't completely beginner level)
Also I forgot to add that MMS messages rarely send. I can receive them but almost never send them.
Found an iPhone 8 Plus on the road side. Can't figure out an easy way to contact the owner because the phone has no sim card and there is no carrier logo. The phone seems to have been reset though, because it's currently on a "welcome screen" where it asks for the preferred language. The phone is in pristine condition and has no scratch marks. The case (which is broken) may have protected it when it fell. I'm currently thinking of pasting posters around the neighbourhood it was found in.
Are there better ways to get in contact with the owner of the phone?
By the way, can you guys give me an idea on why the owner did not put a simcard in it? I did something similar on an Xperia phone but I did it for evaluation purpose (switching from an older phone). Is there a way to remotely reset a phone without sim card?
TIA
sp_1st_timer said:
Found an iPhone 8 Plus on the road side. Can't figure out an easy way to contact the owner because the phone has no sim card and there is no carrier logo. The phone seems to have been reset though, because it's currently on a "welcome screen" where it asks for the preferred language. The phone is in pristine condition and has no scratch marks. The case (which is broken) may have protected it when it fell. I'm currently thinking of pasting posters around the neighbourhood it was found in.
Are there better ways to get in contact with the owner of the phone?
By the way, can you guys give me an idea on why the owner did not put a simcard in it? I did something similar on an Xperia phone but I did it for evaluation purpose (switching from an older phone). Is there a way to remotely reset a phone without sim card?
TIA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think the best way to help the owner is to give the phone to the police.
You can always ask to Siri who's this phone belongs to but I don't think it will work .
Just go to the police station , when the owner will realize, he will go to the police station and ask if someone bring his phone here.
We tried bringing it to the police station, but the officer present there did not accept it and told us to dial a number instead. But the number only lead to dead-end. It's an automated number that quickly disconnects after getting to a certain point. We tried a few days thinking it may work the next days but still got the same results.
After waiting almost 2 months for the owner to get in touch (via the posters) we thought we should try using the phone and see how it works. As I tried to go through the setup process, I learned the phone had been locked to a certain email address (masked) and can only be set up by the person who knows the email. This now gives me an idea the phone may have been stolen from the owner. The person who got it may have removed the sim card to avoid getting traced and decided to reset the phone. But the phone requires the valid email address to proceed, so the person decided to throw it away.
Considering the above, I believe Apple may have something in place to facilitate the return of the phone to the owner. Can you guys point me to the right direction?
Since the day after I traded in my Galaxy A50 to upgrade to my brand new out of the box Galaxy S21 Plus, I've been dealing with multiple issues beginning with inability to connect to Wi-Fi public Hotspot which I use for everything in my place for past nine years and no check issues even if I have several devices connected. the s21+ wouldn't even see the xfinitywifi broadcast like my other devices do, then it would see it and attempt connection only to get authentication errors. everyone I've ever talked to about wifi issues are robots that all say reboot your modem. I DON'T HAVE A MODEM because I use public Hotspot. sorry for yelling, my blood pressure rises thinking about this. anyway tech says factory data reset (I knew better), but I did it anyway, then it gets worse, lost contacts, important apps from my employer, important vm's, because my ringer refused to operate even, volume was erratically adjusting itself hi low hi low anytime I attempt blue tooth connection, then my messaging app would race my pandora app upon blue tooth connecting as well I would win that by fighting both apps but still my messaging app would stay on simultaneously with pandora. my s21+ I got brand new unopened $1k on payment plan. Verizon said too late for warranty is only good for 14 days after purchase. keep telling these people my issues began on day one and on day three I finally had time to call support the first time. the store I bought it from (go wireless), tried very hard to help fix it but they only knew what settings to check but they were all correctly set. magically they were able to get my ringer to work and called me a couple times while I was there to test. after I get home, my ringer magically would not work once again. since Verizon was trying to rip me off by telling me they can only replace the s21+ under their 14 day warranty with a certified pre-owned s21+ but at that time, it was beyond the 14 day warranty period. I so I got high blood pressure and said NOPE I will be receiving a brand new phone because that's what I am paying for, I did not purchase a pre-owned anything, so let me talk to whoever is in charge of making that happen. team leader put me on hold until his management went home for the day, he checked couple times to see if I was still holding (better believe I was), last time he asked I told him I'm calling Samsung direct then he tried arguing with me as I hung up. Samsung warranty is good for up to one year as is typical for anything aside from landscaping. well they want me to send my phone away with me paying postage and having no other phone, but they will fix it when it arrives in Texas?? why can I not just get a replacement from the store I purchased it from?? Samsung answer because it's most likely a software issue, if it is then it has to go to Google because they are the one's who developed the software. WTF can I do?? anybody have any clue how to fix this?? I'm thinking a 20lb. sledge, torch maybe, brick and the river?? but then I'm out $1k for a phone that never worked right out of the box.
It does sound like software but doing a reset didn't fix it which is odd?
My suggestion would be to download the correct firmware from sammobile and flash it to your phone with Odin.
At the very least you will be ruling out software if there is still issues.
DrDee said:
It does sound like software but doing a reset didn't fix it which is odd?
My suggestion would be to download the correct firmware from sammobile and flash it to your phone with Odin.
At the very least you will be ruling out software if there is still issues.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree. Try reinstall the OS back onto your device from scratch and see if that works. Or if it is still within the 14 day warranty, take it back to the store for a replacement unit.
Camelpuppet said:
that all say reboot your modem. I DON'T HAVE A MODEM
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Click to collapse
you do have a modem in your phone. and its likely the culprit. do yourself the favor and get samfirm or frija, theyre firmware downloaders, and enter the info the tool needs to D/L your firmware and flash it on the phone with Odin just as stated above. There are 5 files that come inside the zip of firmware you end up with once frija has finished. the 2 files to pay the most attention to are CSC and HOME_CSC. CSC will factory reset it, and HOME_CSC will not, otherwise theyre the same thing
iceepyon said:
I agree. Try reinstall the OS back onto your device from scratch and see if that works. Or if it is still within the 14 day warranty, take it back to the store for a replacement unit.
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Thank you for your replies, I was able to take it back to the store for a complete exchange after a lot of trouble.
Hey all. New to the XDA forums, so don't tear into me too deeply.
I work at a tech repair store. CPR Cell Phone repair. Occasionally we get phones that people recycle, throw 'em into 'graveyard' so new employees can practice on a phone without worrying about ****ing up a potentially expensive piece of technology. Now we usually assume these phones are garbage, worth their weight in paper, but with a little free time and the battery from an S22 Ultra that had been ran over by a truck (twice), I managed to get a functioning S22 Ultra from the ashes of 3 different throwaways. A few purchased aftermarket parts from our supplier, and this thing is almost up and running like new.
Now here's the issue. The thing has an FRP lock, and despite my scouring of the internet I have had no success with a solution. The previous owner didn't take the lock off likely because they assumed it was never going to work again and abandoned it as such. If I had contact with the person I would message them in a heartbeat. Anyways, this phone is practically an 1100$ paperweight at this point, and I've lost both hair and sleep trying to get my dream phone functioning as it should. Samsung forums was ultimately unhelpful (said it's more of a 'google thing', which may have boiled down to something the agent just hasn't encountered before) google forums is effectively abandoned (my post is a week or two old, not even so much as an emoticon in the comment section.) And both reddit and my own repair store don't have a solution. Google searches itself are so littered with buyware and garbage (allegedly from the same company) that finding your site with a potential solution was a nightmare.
So my conclusion is either consider the project impossible for an amateur such as myself, or get help from the most useful people so far in the process.
I've tried an ODIN firmware and OS install. Guide did not clarify if I should erase the NAND or not, so I kept the option off.
Any advice or solutions on where to go moving forward is greatly appreciated. I can only lose so much hair.
Have you tried SamFW FRP tool?
Even name of this useful Windows programs pretty self explanatory
draskome said:
Have you tried SamFW FRP tool?
Even name of this useful Windows programs pretty self explanatory
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Excellent help! Beauty of a program worked first time.
Now all I need to do is get the IMEI unlocked and I will be set! Thank you, swell fellow!
Quick question - I have a screen lock on my S22 ultra that I appear to have maxed out my tries to get into my phone and it says 'Try again in 24 hours' but as my phone is prone to restart, means the 24 clock restarts too.
Would this tool remove the lock and allow me access to my data or will it involve a factory reset??
vinoboxer said:
Quick question - I have a screen lock on my S22 ultra that I appear to have maxed out my tries to get into my phone and it says 'Try again in 24 hours' but as my phone is prone to restart, means the 24 clock restarts too.
Would this tool remove the lock and allow me access to my data or will it involve a factory reset??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From my experience it seems like it would involve a factory reset. The FRP unlocker removes the google lock, not the lock screen lock.
Hopefully you don't have anything you're gonna miss on your phone, friend.
draskome said:
Have you tried SamFW FRP tool?
Even name of this useful Windows programs pretty self explanatory
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks man, this actually works (SM-A536B/DS). Windows flags it ofc, but if you run it anyway it's pretty sweet!
Anyway to to get blacklist off? This has been my EXACT same issue. It's KILLING me!