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[Q] [HELP!] Error: SIM card has locked

A few key details:
I purchased my device via Google Play.
I'm using a SIM card provided by Sprint.
I'm not rooted. This device is completely stock.
I've tried reseating the SIM card as well as Factory Data Resets.
That said, here's my issue.
Every time I boot my device, even after a Factory Reset, a while after it's been connected to 3G (it also won't connect to LTE unless auto-activation is in progress, that's a whole separate issue), it displays an empty alert box with a SIM card icon at the top. After closing that box, it displays another one that reads some error about my SIM card being locked and that I need to power cycle the device.
I've tried everything and this error is still popping up. I'll be contacting Sprint later today about the issue but I figured I'd come here first to see if anybody knows about this issue.
Pretty frustrating, Sprint sucks, yada yada... the basics. Can anybody help?

Have you tried unlocking it yourself online under your account's page?
There should be a link next to where your device is listed.
"Get my PIN1/PUK1 unlock code" should give you the required codes to unlock it.

Might also be a bad sim card.
sent from my beantastic almost retired Bionic

Does that Sim card was already activated on another device? Or did they gave you a new one?
There is a similar problem when people try to use a sim card from a current device, that will trigger that same message like yours.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

SIM hacked/infected - reflashing does not remove it

Hello XDA.
Over the last three months, my phone has been regularly sending SMS's to a number in Singapore. Of course this is not something I have had anything to do with.
I have an LG G3 (D855) phone running Android 6.0_EU. My phone has been rebooting itself numerous times a day with the message that the SIM card was removed. It starts back up and usually works without a hitch. Checking my carriers log, I see that every reboot correlates to a sent text to Singapore at the exact time the phone was booting up again.
There is absolutely no evidence as far as I can tell that these messages are sent from my phone.
As I only just recently discovered this, I started investigating. I flashed my phone with a 6.0 KDZ from a thread on this forum, but it still rebooted afterwards and sends texts. I placed my SIM into my wifes D855, and it started experiencing the same issue. When we placed her SIM back into her phone, we could see that her phone number had ALSO started sending texts to Singapore.
We flashed her phone, put in a completely fresh SIM with an unused phone number, and that number started sending texts as well.
This leads me to thinking that there was a virus or malware on my own SIM and phone which then was tranferred to my wifes phone via my SIM and then from her phone onto the fresh SIM.
My question is this:
Has anyone ever heard of a malware/virus capable of replicating itself in such a degree that it exists on SIM cards and on the phone while it survives reflashing a stock ROM?
Also, is there any way to competely, and i mean completely wipe a phone so a bootkit is removed as well?
I hope there are some wise heads out there who has any idea regarding this.
According to Google there aren't really an precidences of what we are experiencing.

Infection has now been removed
Persistent memory can be a nuisance.
Confirmed infection has been removed by two days of inactivity on a fresh SIM-card by doing the following:
Rooted the phone using KingRoot and a guide here on XDA
Installed the custom Recovery TWRP
Installed the Lineage OS 7.1.1 custom Firmware
Through this, we can with a 95% certainty determine that the virus/malware resided in the recovery partition and the reflash of stock ROM did not flash the recovery partition.
In fear of being reinfected, I have not inserted an infected SIM into the new environment test test, whether or not it would be reinfected.
I hope this helps anyone who may experience this gnarly situation.

How to get the 8.0 verizon update

I have been looking and asking questions I finally found out how to force my phone to take the update. I had to pull the straight talk SIM card from my phone and put in a Verizon SIM card. Went to setting, applications, show system apps and uninstalled google play service updates. Also delete the data for google services framework. Checked for a update twice and it finally came through it took 1BA then updated to 1CA then found the Oreo update. I turned off my phone then put my straight talk SIM card in and turned it back on now ita downloading the update.

How did you get a verizon sim to work and download those updates, I was reading about how to take a sim from a verizon phone and you cant just put it in another phone and work, you have to change the phone on verizon site to get it to work under an acct. I have total wireless witch is similar to straight talk on verizon, (it is also through walmart) and when I try to upgrade my phone using the LG upgrade assistant tool that I installed on a windows pc it gets a message "device authentication failed" make sure your meid is valid. I dont know what to do. thanks.

dtdave said:
How did you get a verizon sim to work and download those updates, I was reading about how to take a sim from a verizon phone and you cant just put it in another phone and work, you have to change the phone on verizon site to get it to work under an acct. I have total wireless witch is similar to straight talk on verizon, (it is also through walmart) and when I try to upgrade my phone using the LG upgrade assistant tool that I installed on a windows pc it gets a message "device authentication failed" make sure your meid is valid. I dont know what to do. thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
all i did was take the Veizon sim card out of a working verizon phone and put it in my Lg V20. i did not change a phone from a verizon site i did not call anyone. what i typed out on my post is literally all i had to do. i did not use a LG ugrade tool i did not need a PC.

SIM card with malware?

I bought a brand new Note 20 with ATT (locked) and was trying to set up all my accounts on the phone. Here is some background and issue:
My old device was S7 with a valid SIM and still active.
On the new device, I installed all of the apps manually. One of the apps is also Youtube Vanced (which is also on my old phone)
I felt I installed everything and then went to activate the SIM after a while. Once I inserted the brand new SIM card into the device, it gave me a warning that the SIM is not provisioned (as I haven't activated it yet). Then I started noticing random apps getting installed. These are the apps that I have never installed over the years.
I felt maybe the Vanced app was compromised, as it was the only one out of the app store. I kept uninstalling apps but new ones kept appearing.
I was in a bit of a panic mode and did a factory reset. Then repeated the steps. This time I did not install the Vanced. Everything was clean, except the apps starting appearing almost a minute after I put the SIM card. Then I performed a reset again thinking this is not the Vanced app issue (is this the right assumption?)
Then after the reset, I did not install any new apps at all, did not even provide my Gmail or Samsung accounts. I waited a few minutes to see if apps were installing. Nothing happened. I went ahead and inserted the SIM again and well, the apps started again. At this point I have reached a conclusion that this was due to the SIM card.
I did another reset and now haven't inserted the SIM (been few hours now and no apps installed).
Question 1- Is it possible that there is a problem with the SIM? If not, what could be the problem.
Question 2 - Does the factory-reset resolve the issues with any malware/virus or do we need additional procedures to make sure the device is "clean"

weirdissue said:
I bought a brand new Note 20 with ATT (locked) and was trying to set up all my accounts on the phone. Here is some background and issue:
My old device was S7 with a valid SIM and still active.
On the new device, I installed all of the apps manually. One of the apps is also Youtube Vanced (which is also on my old phone)
I felt I installed everything and then went to activate the SIM after a while. Once I inserted the brand new SIM card into the device, it gave me a warning that the SIM is not provisioned (as I haven't activated it yet). Then I started noticing random apps getting installed. These are the apps that I have never installed over the years.
I felt maybe the Vanced app was compromised, as it was the only one out of the app store. I kept uninstalling apps but new ones kept appearing.
I was in a bit of a panic mode and did a factory reset. Then repeated the steps. This time I did not install the Vanced. Everything was clean, except the apps starting appearing almost a minute after I put the SIM card. Then I performed a reset again thinking this is not the Vanced app issue (is this the right assumption?)
Then after the reset, I did not install any new apps at all, did not even provide my Gmail or Samsung accounts. I waited a few minutes to see if apps were installing. Nothing happened. I went ahead and inserted the SIM again and well, the apps started again. At this point I have reached a conclusion that this was due to the SIM card.
I did another reset and now haven't inserted the SIM (been few hours now and no apps installed).
Question 1- Is it possible that there is a problem with the SIM? If not, what could be the problem.
Question 2 - Does the factory-reset resolve the issues with any malware/virus or do we need additional procedures to make sure the device is "clean"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
heard of it.. u well get a locked phone with security code,, and cannot access it.. always watch out for such SIMS.. because i dont know how its codded

Tekodrink said:
heard of it.. u well get a locked phone with security code,, and cannot access it.. always watch out for such SIMS.. because i dont know how its codded
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its about license

weirdissue said:
I bought a brand new Note 20 with ATT (locked) and was trying to set up all my accounts on the phone. Here is some background and issue:
My old device was S7 with a valid SIM and still active.
On the new device, I installed all of the apps manually. One of the apps is also Youtube Vanced (which is also on my old phone)
I felt I installed everything and then went to activate the SIM after a while. Once I inserted the brand new SIM card into the device, it gave me a warning that the SIM is not provisioned (as I haven't activated it yet). Then I started noticing random apps getting installed. These are the apps that I have never installed over the years.
I felt maybe the Vanced app was compromised, as it was the only one out of the app store. I kept uninstalling apps but new ones kept appearing.
I was in a bit of a panic mode and did a factory reset. Then repeated the steps. This time I did not install the Vanced. Everything was clean, except the apps starting appearing almost a minute after I put the SIM card. Then I performed a reset again thinking this is not the Vanced app issue (is this the right assumption?)
Then after the reset, I did not install any new apps at all, did not even provide my Gmail or Samsung accounts. I waited a few minutes to see if apps were installing. Nothing happened. I went ahead and inserted the SIM again and well, the apps started again. At this point I have reached a conclusion that this was due to the SIM card.
I did another reset and now haven't inserted the SIM (been few hours now and no apps installed).
Question 1- Is it possible that there is a problem with the SIM? If not, what could be the problem.
Question 2 - Does the factory-reset resolve the issues with any malware/virus or do we need additional procedures to make sure the device is "clean"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi!
Not malware , adware .
A carrier branded version will come with some preinstalled apps and even some games like candy crush or bubble something (verizon is specially terrible with this kind of sutff) so those weird apps that got installed after you put in the sim card is just ATT loading it their bloat.
Also if you downloaded vanced from the trusted sources , github or the xda links , theres nothing to worry about. Cheers

Question S22 Ultra: SIM card required to start setup (T-Mobile version from Samsung.com)

Hi. I received my Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra 5G smartphone, which I ordered from Samsung.com (I chose the T-Mobile version when ordering). After turning on the phone for the first time, at the Welcome screen, when I click the Start button, I get the message, "Insert SIM card from your service provider for network service."
I can't find a way to bypass this message. I was initially thinking if I could connect to my WiFi, it'd go away, but there's absolutely no way to connect to WiFi or access any settings.
I upgrade my smartphones every 15 months and have had T-Mobile for nearly a decade, and this is the first time I've seen such a thing during setup. I like to keep my SIM card in my current smartphone until the new one is fully set up, at which point I would transfer the SIM card over. I have a lot of services I use that rely on SIM card (i.e., not fully cloud-based and are tied to the SIM card), and not having that service during setup may be an issue. Also, I have received brand new phones that have had issues in the past (e.g., poor battery life, screen problems), so I'd rather fully test the new phone before transferring my SIM over.
The workaround I thought of: Put in a temporary T-Mobile SIM card, just to complete the setup process. Once setup has completed, I'll put my actual SIM card into the phone, or have T-Mobile transfer my phone number to the new SIM card. Thoughts?
Thank you.

It's because you got the T-Mobile phone so it wants you to connect to the network first before using it or continuing with setup. A way to get around that is to install the u1 firmware.

IIRC you can hold the volume down button for 5 seconds at the sim required screen to bypass the requirement. There's a help article somewhere that documents this.

As far as I know, Samsung requiring a SIM card during initial setup has been around for a long time. Nothing to do with your carrier. Even my unlocked phone from Samsung required a SIM card on first boot before continuing. There are of course ways around that, but beware. I bypassed the SIM card requirement setting up my S21 Ultra and spent a day configuring it to my liking. Then I popped the SIM card in from my old phone and it caused a factory reset erasing all my hard work. Probably because my carrier wanted to install all their software and settings. Not saying the same thing will happen to you, but just something to be aware of.

Here is the link to the eSIM setup (bypass SIM requirement)
Samsung eSIM to eSIM first time use
Visit T-Mobile Support for help with phones & internet devices, plans & services, billing, and more!
www.t-mobile.com
Sticking a SIM from another carrier after eSIM set up should not cause a hard reset under normal circumstances, it does cause a reboot into bootloader to deploy the new carrier specific customizations from cache, but this is supposed to be transparent to user data. It broke if it caused a hard reset ;\

Da_G said:
IIRC you can hold the volume down button for 5 seconds at the sim required screen to bypass the requirement. There's a help article somewhere that documents this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Technically, this worked, but this burned me badly. I appreciate the workaround, but I highly recommend against it. See below.
SloPoke23 said:
I bypassed the SIM card requirement setting up my S21 Ultra and spent a day configuring it to my liking. Then I popped the SIM card in from my old phone and it caused a factory reset erasing all my hard work. Probably because my carrier wanted to install all their software and settings. Not saying the same thing will happen to you, but just something to be aware of.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is exactly what happened to me on the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra. This is literally the most annoyed I have ever been at an electronic consumer device.
I spent over 21 hours over the span of 6 days setting up the phone. I put in the SIM card and was presented with a message stating, "SIM card detected. Restart your phone to start using your new SIM card." I could not use the phone at all, so my only option was to restart. After I hit the Restart button, the phone restarted. For less than 3 seconds, it showed a black screen with a small Android logo, with the small text "Erasing." Then the phone started up and everything is as if it's a brand new phone. Everything I've spent time working on is all gone.

Hello Team, important information, when it is asking for the carrier sim card, you need press volumen up + volumen down + power button at the same time for few seconds, then it will say a message like "Unlocked" then proceed with the first configuration.
This is for people who is going to use with a different provided, please let me know if you heard or read this info in another link (because i did not find that)