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Hello
I recently bought the One X on Three and unlocked it so I could use my Giffgaff sim. However I just read lots of angry posts from people saying that phones that are branded to Three won't get the latest software update.
I only bought this from Three a few days ago as it was the cheapest on PAYG around and I'm not keen on sending it back just on the off chance that I'll be lucky enough to get a debranded version. I also don't really want to root my phone as I'm not really into that; I just want a simple life with a phone that doesn't have many issues.
So is there a way to just remove the Three branding? Or as I'm on the Giffgaff network which runs off O2, will I update when that updates? Or am I doomed to no network update as I bought the phone from Three?
If it's the latter, though I understand Three may have their own firmware, how does it work that I can be on another network to tied to the Three network upgrade pattern?
I hope someone can help.
Thanks
I think what you need is SuperCID. That may require S-off. I wouldn't hold your breath.
I'm sorry but what is super Cid and S-off? I had glanced around the forums at similar topics before making this and saw that people were talking about these but I couldn't find a guide for dummies which explained the jargon.
But I'm guessing if I shouldn't hold my breath then both of these are something I'm not likely to be able to get.
Is anyone able to answer my other question as well? Whether despite being unlocked my phone will still only get its updates from Three or whether because it's using a sim that's on the O2 network, it will get updates from them?
Thanks.
What is S-OFF?
"In a nutshell, S-OFF means that the NAND portion of the device is unlocked and can be written to. The default setting for HTC’s devices is S-ON, which means that neither can you access certain areas of the system nor can you guarantee a permanent root. Furthermore, signature check for firmware images is also ensured by the S-ON flag.
How Do I Know If My Device Is S-ON Or S-OFF?
That is easy to verify. Simply boot into HBOOT on your device, and the text on top will show the flag status as either S-OFF or S-ON. A full root generally means S-OFF.
S-OFF – What And Why?
In their devices, HTC have installed a sort of security check whose level is determined by S-OFF/S-ON. Essentially, this security level is a flag stored on the device’s radio that checks signature images for any firmware before it is allowed to be written to system memory. This hinders using any custom ROMs, splash images, recovery etc., and also restricts access to the NAND flash memory. However, when security level is set to S-OFF, the signature check is bypassed, allowing a user to upload custom firmware images, unsigned boot, recovery, splash and HBOOT images, as well as official firmware that has been modified, this enabling maximum customization of your HTC Android device.
Furthermore, S-OFF also reduces restrictions on accessing the NAND flash memory on the device, allowing all partitions (including /system) to be mounted in write mode while the operating system is booted."
CID is the carrier-specific code used to indicate the origin of the phone. HTC__001 is the unbranded CID, VODAP001 is Vodafone UK, etc...If you want to debrand the phone you need to set your phone to SuperCID (11111111) but to do this you need S-OFF (which we don't have - yet)
As for updates, you won't get them from o2 as your phone is running the 3 UK software build. x.xx.771.x is 3, x.xx.401.x is the unbranded handset
I took my payg handset back to three as 'faulty' as wasnt getting signal where I used too.
Then went to carphonewarehouse bought a sim free for 479 and it updated soon as I switched it on.
Now much better signal.
Steve
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2
EddyOS said:
What is S-OFF?
[...]
As for updates, you won't get them from o2 as your phone is running the 3 UK software build. x.xx.771.x is 3, x.xx.401.x is the unbranded handset
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That was really helpful. Thank you.
So I guess either: I live with no patch for now, wait and see what Three dish out or try and return it (not sure if they'll accept it as it's been used and unlocked) and go elsewhere. Such as shame as Three is the cheapest (only £449).
Thanks again.
But now if you unlock bootloader you can flash custom ROMs. I reckon it's better than the updates because chefs always update their ROMs to the latest base release.
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium
I've heard from Three re the 1.28 patch: We're not rolling out 1.28, we're rolling out another update in May which will fix battery issues amongst other things.
Personally I would rather that they kept to the official HTC fixes...
Guess I'll wait and see what bone they give out, fingers crossed I won't expect to wait to Three to make their own version for each patch.
Sorry, me again!
I needed to re-lock and ‘stockify’ my HTC M8 today for a few reasons. It ended up taking me 4 hours, and I still have no idea if it’s ‘back’ to the way it was before I rooted it. Before you carry on reading, please know I’m fully aware any lack of understanding is my fault, and perhaps I should have realised that compared to the N4s blissfully easy steps, the HTC was a massive can of worms. However, I’m going to ask the below anyway, so hopefully someone is friendly and helpful enough to aid me in my quest for enlightenment of android stuff without me having to spend more hours searching than actually reading useful stuff…
So coming from a Nexus 4, where the guide is super simple:
http://forums.androidcentral.com/ne...3923-guide-nexus-4-factory-image-restore.html
It turned out to be SERIOUSLY complicated. I’ve put down a ‘typical’ guide below, and put my questions about each step in bold. Sorry if it seems like I’m just complaining and being trite, but I’d like to know if A) I’ve missed a far easier way of doing this and if not B) is it just me that seems to have a massive amount of issues?
1. Made sure your device is S-Off. If not, download firewater and S-Off your device.
Assume this is just a thing that some phones have and some don’t?
2. Restore a nandroid of the stock Sense ROM, or find a stock ROM to flash. You'll have to dig around; I used a nandroid.
WHY? Is there no such thing as downloadable factory images for HTC One M8s? Also, where’s the step that says ‘run the commands fast boot erase user data, fast boot erase cache’ etc.?
3. Flash SuperSU.zip in recovery on top of the stock Sense ROM. You can find the SuperSU.zip here: http://download.chainfire.eu/396/SuperSU
Fair enough… still an another extra step compared to N4.
4. Use fast boot to flash the stock firmware zip to your device based on CID (this includes the stock recovery)
-This took SO MUCH EFFORT. Turns out I had to Super CID so that one of the recovery zips worked, because I was getting “FAILED (remote: 42 custom id check fail)” - and I’m now paranoid because I have no idea how important it is to get the correct CID-numbered ‘stock firmware’ etc. The ‘stock firmware’ zips seem to contain boot, radios, recovery .imgs, and with about 4 billion versions of the M8 apparently existing, could I have flashed a wrong boot or radio or something? ARE they even different per CID? Then I changed the CID back to O2___001 in case I need to take it in for warranty repairs, but is that trackable? Would someone know that I’ve messed around with the CID? Could someone going to look at my Nexus and be like “Oh this radio seems to be the one we’d expect on a HTC_001, NOT an O2___001 CID device, they must have tampered with it”.
—OH, and I had to boot into RUU mode as well, which apparently no one felt like explaining what the hell that’s for. So I’ve got and HBoot, a Fastboot, and RUU mode, which no clear way of knowing what to flash where…??
—-ALSO there was a HELL of a lot of faffing by people throwing around CID, MID, Verizon, Sprint, and comments like this doesn’t work on this AT&T model but will only work on non branded eu models with a flag attached to the speaker with an SSID of “600TZL” and a it MUST have a holographic projector otherwise your CID must equal the square root of the MID so that the factory image will know which ID your phone carrier provides through an inter web”.
5. Boot back up into sense, and follow this guide to remove the tampered banner in recovery. http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=2708565
-Is this just removing a banner? or is it ‘you’ve removed the banner from a visual point of view only, but if they actually look into it it will still appeared ‘tampered’.
6. Follow this guide to lock your boot loader and make it say **LOCKED** instead of **RELOCKED**. http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=2708571
-So ‘fast boot OEM lock’ doesn’t work on HTCs then- is that an N4 thing? Why all that complicated cmd line stuff? And on a side note, why is it that when referring to re-locking a N4 people call it just that- locking. But with an HTC people on XDA seem to say ‘to make the banner say locked’ as if its not actually locking it, just changing a bit of writing on the boot loader.
7. Boot your device back up, and open SuperSU. Go into settings and find the "full unroot" option and run that. Reboot your device like it suggests.
Does running the unroot zip (can’t find the thread) work? So I can make it appear like the HTC is brand new out of the box? Rather than having to go through the ‘first setup’ screen?
Other question: people seem to keep yammering on about modded RUUs, is there one? is there a couple? (i.e. should I view it a bit like TWRP and CWM- there’s others but there’s one everyone really uses). And if I ‘flash’ a modded RUU, again, is there an easily accessible stock one?
It's really not that complicated! I think the problem is comparing it to a Nexus 4 which is designed to be easily unlocked and locked, due to being a more developer orientated device.
An RUU is a stock image (like the Nexus images) and a modded one would just have the CID/MID requirement removed or something so it can be used on more phones. It would still be the stock, untampered image.
Also, the whole CID/MID thing is only applicable to American devices which vary between GSM and CDMA radios. ANY international modem will work in Europe and you will never find the wrong one.
S-Off is like unlocking the bootloader on a Nexus device except that in this case, its an extra step after unlocking the bootloader in order to be able to modify every partition and flash unsupported firmware in OEM mode. Every consumer phone is initially shipped S-On.
Thanks very much Veryone's v. helpful around here. Just a few more questions based on what you've said:
Matt said:
Also, the whole CID/MID thing is only applicable to American devices which vary between GSM and CDMA radios. ANY international modem will work in Europe and you will never find the wrong one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why did I have to Super-CID to install the stock recovery? And did I do the right thing by going back to my carrier CID afterwards?
Matt said:
S-Off is like unlocking the bootloader on a Nexus device except that in this case, its an extra step after unlocking the bootloader in order to be able to modify every partition and flash unsupported firmware in OEM mode. Every consumer phone is initially shipped S-On.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Although I've read in quite a few places I shouldn't have to S-On to take it in for a warranty repair, because some arrive to people S-off and they can't prove that you did it? Is that right?
Thank you for the step-by-step list. I am in the process of restoring my phone and all the guides say to look for "version-main", but that line is empty for me. What other information can I use to determine what recovery image to flash. Also the reason I want to go back to unrooted is so I can recieve OTA updates.
legolator said:
Thank you for the step-by-step list. I am in the process of restoring my phone and all the guides say to look for "version-main", but that line is empty for me. What other information can I use to determine what recovery image to flash. Also the reason I want to go back to unrooted is so I can recieve OTA updates.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this also happened to me- just another thing to confuse....
Can you not receive OTA updates if you're rooted? I thought it was just if you were running a different ROM?
tmorterlaing said:
this also happened to me- just another thing to confuse....
Can you not receive OTA updates if you're rooted? I thought it was just if you were running a different ROM?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was under the impression that flashing a custom recovery removes the ability for the phone to install OTA updates. But I could of course be wrong about that.
Hello fellow xda people!
I know,I know, the title isn't very accurate. Give me suggestions if you have something more accurate.
I'd like to buy that phone, but after reading some threads here, I still have some questions :
-If I want to send my phone back to htc, let's say for a battery problem, should I go back to full stock? Because apparently to go back to stock we need to use a RUU, which needs S-OFF. But S-Off is a hint for them to understand we rooted, installed custom roms no? So if I need to send them back, am I screwed?
-Then, speaking about the customer service, how did you find it if you had to deal with it? And especially in Europe and France...
-If I don't want to go back to stock, should I go S-Off? Saw somewhere we had to pay for it :/, so is it worth it? What are the advantages?
-if I order it now, will I receive a quickcharge 2.0 charger or will I have to order it apart?
-How do you think will be the development for this phone in a few years? I'm new to HTC, so will they push updates for android N or was MM the last official update pushed?
-Are there different versions of the phone, making it incompatible with some ROMs? And if yes, which one should I choose? What is the name of the international version?
-I think that's all, If I need something else, I'll post back here
Thank you everyone!
My responses below, in red font:
WoBble12 said:
I know,I know, the title isn't very accurate. Give me suggestions if you have something more accurate.
I think the title is great. It describes what you are trying to do, and what you are asking.
-If I want to send my phone back to htc, let's say for a battery problem, should I go back to full stock? Because apparently to go back to stock we need to use a RUU, which needs S-OFF. But S-Off is a hint for them to understand we rooted, installed custom roms no? So if I need to send them back, am I screwed? If returning to HTC for warranty, going back to full stock is recommended (stock software, LOCKED bootloader, and possibly s-on). You do not need s-off to RUU (as long as its the proper RUU for your M8 version and proper RUU number - no downgrading with s-on). But you do need s-off to make the bootloader say LOCKED (which after UNLOCKED, only RELOCKED is possible with s-on). If you have s-off, you can change it back to say s-on. Although it is possible (although uncommon) for devices to come from the factory with s-off, so requirement to make it s-on (for warranty) is debatable.
-Then, speaking about the customer service, how did you find it if you had to deal with it? And especially in Europe and France... I don't live in Europe, nor have I dealt with HTC very much. Honestly, I've owned 6 HTC devices, and almost zero problems with any of them.
-If I don't want to go back to stock, should I go S-Off? Saw somewhere we had to pay for it :/, so is it worth it? What are the advantages? You don't need s-off to root of flash custom ROMs. s-off is needed to flash modified hboots, manually flash radios, and a few other things. S-off is useful, but not mandatory for many people.
-if I order it now, will I receive a quickcharge 2.0 charger or will I have to order it apart? You will get a standard charger. If you want QC 2.0, you'll need to put it separately, but there are 3rd party versions that are good quality, and inexpensive.
-How do you think will be the development for this phone in a few years? I'm new to HTC, so will they push updates for android N or was MM the last official update pushed? I don't think HTC has stated it officially, but most of us are suspecting that MM is the last major update. So you may be relying to ports (from newer HTC devices), AOSP ROMs, etc. if you want Android N. ROM development is still decent; although certainly slowing. But I expect and hope some devs will keep supporting the M8 for some time to come.
-Are there different versions of the phone, making it incompatible with some ROMs? And if yes, which one should I choose? What is the name of the international version? CDMA version (Sprint and Verizon), the dual SIM M8, and M8 Eye all need specific ROMs (or at least specific kernels, in the case of the CDMA versions). Otherwise, the other M8 version are all virtually the same, and share ROMs. So for the purpose of custom ROMs, I would definitely recommend the "international" otherwise known as the "GSM" M8 (so any version except CDMA, dual SIM, or Eye).
You should also be careful where you buy from, and what version you are buying. I've seen some folks on here that thought they were buying a international/GSM M8, but it was a Sprint or Verizon that was debranded (software modified, back plate changed) to make it seem like a it was the international version.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, Thank you very much @redpoint73 for this precise answer! So I was still browsing around for more info about that phone, and a guy said we have to extract the kernel of every ROM (except for stock based Roms) and flash it separately if we are s-on. It was a HTC forum, but the topic was very global, so is this specific phone part of them, or can I flash complete ROM packages directly without extracting the kernel?
And, another one, how can I be sure my phone is a GSM version? They have a different name under "about phone" section of the settings, but this can be faked I think. And I could also verify the MID in the boot loader?
WoBble12 said:
! So I was still browsing around for more info about that phone, and a guy said we have to extract the kernel of every ROM (except for stock based Roms) and flash it separately if we are s-on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is totally false. This was true on some older HTC devices (maybe they mean the One M7?) but was never the case on the M8. You just wipe and flash the desired ROM. Kernel flashes with the ROM automatically.
WoBble12 said:
And, another one, how can I be sure my phone is a GSM version? They have a different name under "about phone" section of the settings, but this can be faked I think. And I could also verify the MID in the boot loader?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You need to look at not only the CID and MID in bootloader (getvar all) but also the product name (such as m8_ul, etc.). CID and MID can be easily hacked with s-off, but as far as I've seen, the product name is never modified.
Good list of MIDs and product names (column labelled "Variant" on the table) here: http://droider.eu/2014/09/20/htc-one-m8-models/
Until you have the phone in hard, I'm not sure how much of this you can tell for sure. So buy from a reputable source, with a guaranteed method of refund of exchange, in case the device is not as advertised (and we're seeing more and more of that lately).
Recently, I used Sunshine and my phone now is S-OFF, the main reason is to change CID and MID.
After I turned to S-OFF, I flashed with RUU WWE. At this point, all seems to be ok, but I advised than Phone Encryption (normally shown when phone is booting), is not anymore. This is normal? When I enter to security settings, Phone Encryption is locked for change that setting, Im not sure if my phone is encrypted, or not.
Can I change to S-ON again? if yea, how is possible?
Exactly, what changes between S-ON and S-OFF?
Thanks,
sloaxleak said:
Recently, I used Sunshine and my phone now is S-OFF, the main reason is to change CID and MID.
After I turned to S-OFF, I flashed with RUU WWE. At this point, all seems to be ok, but I advised than Phone Encryption (normally shown when phone is booting), is not anymore. This is normal? When I enter to security settings, Phone Encryption is locked for change that setting, Im not sure if my phone is encrypted, or not.
Can I change to S-ON again? if yea, how is possible?
Exactly, what changes between S-ON and S-OFF?
Thanks,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
S-on can be achieved via fastboot command once the phone has been returned to stock (un-rooted w/stock recovery).
As far as the difference between the two, S-off simply means that bootloader security is off. For more info, read the thread linked below:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1680928
Sent from my HTC 10
Magnum_Enforcer said:
S-on can be achieved via fastboot command once the phone has been returned to stock (un-rooted w/stock recovery).
As far as the difference between the two, S-off simply means that bootloader security is off. For more info, read the thread linked below:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1680928
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you. Which command I need to use? Actually I have a RUU, but I changed CID and MID. If I convert to S-ON, I need to use original CID/MID?
What are the main disadvantages if I'm S-OFF?
No real disadvantage to being S-off. You just need to keep in mind that bootloader security is off so care should be taken when flashing things like firmware to your phone, because there is no security in place to prevent you from flashing something to your phone (wrong firmware, for example).
Sent from my HTC 10
From the horse's mouth: http://www.htcdev.com/bootloader/about_unlock_process (last few paragraphs explain the difference)
Any permanent side effect of unlocking HTC 10's bootloader?
I'm a newbie HTC 10 user. I have in mind to unlock my phone's bootloader. But coming from Xperia user, I'm currently afraid that there will be any specific DRM related features that will be gone forever once I unlock the HTC 10's bootloader (in Xperia, you will at least lose forever your X-Reality/Bravia Engine, send current location in messaging app, lose algorithm of the phone camera, etc).
Please advice whether there are same issues in HTC 10 or not.
Lucaviola said:
I'm a newbie HTC 10 user. I have in mind to unlock my phone's bootloader. But coming from Xperia user, I'm currently afraid that there will be any specific DRM related features that will be gone forever once I unlock the HTC 10's bootloader (in Xperia, you will at least lose forever your X-Reality/Bravia Engine, send current location in messaging app, lose algorithm of the phone camera, etc).
Please advice whether there are same issues in HTC 10 or not.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As far as I know, the only potential ill effect of unlocking your bootloader is loosing Android Pay, and even there I think there is a work around. None of the types of issues that you mentioned though.
Lucaviola said:
I'm a newbie HTC 10 user. I have in mind to unlock my phone's bootloader. But coming from Xperia user, I'm currently afraid that there will be any specific DRM related features that will be gone forever once I unlock the HTC 10's bootloader (in Xperia, you will at least lose forever your X-Reality/Bravia Engine, send current location in messaging app, lose algorithm of the phone camera, etc).
Please advice whether there are same issues in HTC 10 or not.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That sounds horrible. No, nothing like that with the phone itself. How third-party apps handle it (like the aforementioned Android Pay) is on them.
You can always relock the bootloader with fastboot or restore it to locked with a utility.
So I bought this 'new' phone with the intention of rooting it and got to the point of updating to the latest firmware before root. turns out the phone is already 'modified'. contacted htc support looking for a means to restore factory specs but they say it has been rooted and it'll take another 2-3 days before i can further pursue the issue.
wondering if someone here can enlighten me as to how i'd restore stock before i re-root (there's no telling what mischief the rooter was up to). it was pretty easy on my old samsung with odin but this is my first htc so i'm in unknown territory here. the phone is in an otherwise impeccable state so i'm not really bothered about returning it since i can't imagine anything that might survive a factory reflash.
a little guidance would be much appreciated!
Take a look at the ReadMe thread. The RUU section most likely contains everything you need. I personally recommend the SD card method. It's the easiest and most fail-safe one.
Sent from my HTC One M9 using XDA Labs
Been poring through it but frankly it is overwhelming. Wonder if you could answer a few noob questions.
1. the ruu section says not to re-lock the bootloader. will flashing an ruu re-lock the bootloader?
2. found my ruu which seems to be a sprint cdma version (sku:651). however the cid (SPCS_001) does not match with mine (11111111). not sure where to find the MID. where does this mismatch leave me?
3. will flashing the sprint cdma fw lock my carrier (ie prevent me from using other sim cards)
4. does the ruu rewrite/restore all of the partitions e.g. including recovery? (considering an unknown person has rooted and tinkered with the phone).
jbonetwo said:
Been poring through it but frankly it is overwhelming. Wonder if you could answer a few noob questions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, you can. Follow-up questions are always welcome. (In contrast to questions that obviously show that people were too lazy to read anything. )
jbonetwo said:
the ruu section says not to re-lock the bootloader. will flashing an ruu re-lock the bootloader?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No. Re-locking the bootloader requires the usage of a certain fastboot command.
jbonetwo said:
found my ruu which seems to be a sprint cdma version (sku:651). however the cid (SPCS_001) does not match with mine (11111111). not sure where to find the MID. where does this mismatch leave me?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your phone currently uses the SuperCID. That CID had a whole bunch of benefits on older HTC devices. It lost most of them on the M9, though. Changing the CID is only possible with S-OFF. I highly recommend you to use the conversion guide for restoring your phones original CID. (CDMA versions of the M9 can't get converted to different variants without breaking them. If you're able to get mobile reception with that phone then it didn't get converted and you definetely own a Sprint M9. You don't have to look for the MID in this case.)
jbonetwo said:
will flashing the sprint cdma fw lock my carrier (ie prevent me from using other sim cards)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can't answer that question since sim locks don't exist in the European firmware versions of this phone and I therefore don't have much experiences with them.
jbonetwo said:
does the ruu rewrite/restore all of the partitions e.g. including recovery? (considering an unknown person has rooted and tinkered with the phone).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, it does. RUUs overwrite everything on your phone with their files.
thank you for taking the time!
Flippy498 said:
If you're able to get mobile reception with that phone then it didn't get converted and you definetely own a Sprint M9. You don't have to look for the MID in this case.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
definitely a sprint m9 then. i wonder if they're rooting/unlocking sim-locked sprints and reselling them as unlocked phones.
will have to confirm the sim lock detail with htc support either way. but it's starting to look like i may have to return the phone. disappointing but at least rooting and flashing a genuine one is gonna be a breeze now