Develop Bugs

Preparing Network ongoing

So I got a Galaxy Tab 3 for free with my new Galaxy S5 yesterday. And on the notification bar there is a prompt saying preparing network. I have full bars on the signal but have no connection to the network. I tried rebooting, turning on airplane mode and trying to reboot the signal. But have no luck.
Is there anything that I can try to fix this? The Tab is stock and I haven't changed anything yet...
Any help would be great!!

Which tab 3 model?

Are you on the "right" network? Does you network have a hidden SSID? Are you using any security on the network? Check the network settings on your PC and copy them to the tab. If you are not sure, then open your network and see if the tab connects. If so, then you can close the network again.

I have the same issue but mine is working all networks. It started when I tried to connect to a new wifi at a wing place and the icon has been on ever since.

Same problem
So no one has any info or any suggestions? Nothing? Also I'm on Sprint.

I havent figured out anything , I have tried messing with sync and wifi options and nothing has changed.

I have looked at all the "Tab 3" devices since you did not indicate what model you have. With that in mind the search is very broad and data found could/could not be affecting your connectivity. But this is what I found.
All Tab 3, except Tab 3 Lite 7, use 802.11 a/b/g/n WLAN Standards. The Tab 3 Lite 7 only has 802.11 b/g/n. Why? I don't know.
So, make sure that your location has one of the three, 802.11 b/g/n working. You tab should auto acquire unless you have a setting that is specifically looking for a unique channel. Confirm all your parameters and the parameters of the WiFi source.

tab 3 prepping service solved
Ok so got 2 tab 3s from sprint today and same issue. To resolve this.......they are not activated! Run on wifi and go to settings and at the bottom left it will show a small phone icon and say activate this device. Click on that and let the live activation happen. The tab 3 will then reset and function on sprint networks!
Ok so that takes care of it initially and then it comes back on switching to and from wifi. You can get rid of the icon by going into the app manager, select all apps, and force stop samsung dm. Looks like it is a samsung software issue to me!

Man, the folks at Sprint aren't even aware of the issue yet. My Tab3 just sat there and wouldn't activate or connect at power on. So I have to skip all setup and go to activate in settings and it activated. Tried a factory restore so I could do setup again and no connection again and the preparing network problem. Switching to CDMA works. On the phone with support for like 30 minutes and they couldn't see my device on the network at all even while on LTE. Thanks for service reference. I was going to return this unit until I saw it was a software issue. It makes for a nasty setup/activation with no wifi around.
Sometimes activation fails and just gives a LTE error, sometimes it fails and sends data usage stats. When it completes it posts a backup pin and phone number. I'm guessing this happens with store pickups because they let it update on powering it up and that broken service starts messing things up.

Go to settings and then to activate this device and as soon as it starts to try and activate its self press the volume down 4 times and then you will see a screen that says IQTHiddenMenu....Scroll down to LTE mode and select it you will see a screen thatb has four boxes on it...select the one that says "enable LTE Mode" after you selct that then just hit back button a few times and let it try and activate again and this should fix your issues. You may have to do this twice. For the last 2 weeks this has been the only way we can activate anyones tablet is using this method, it has somehting to do with our Network not communicating properly with the Tablet.
Hope this helps.

megan23247 said:
Go to settings and then to activate this device and as soon as it starts to try and activate its self press the volume down 4 times and then you will see a screen that says IQTHiddenMenu....Scroll down to LTE mode and select it you will see a screen thatb has four boxes on it...select the one that says "enable LTE Mode" after you selct that then just hit back button a few times and let it try and activate again and this should fix your issues. You may have to do this twice. For the last 2 weeks this has been the only way we can activate anyones tablet is using this method, it has somehting to do with our Network not communicating properly with the Tablet.
Hope this helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hidden screens. One has to love technology. So then one also has to ask, what else is the tablet doing that we do not know about? Reporting back to the mother ship?

Solution
So I had this same problem and I called sprint today and they were able to help me. THIS WILL RESET YOUR TAB AND YOU WILL LOSE EVERYTHING ON IT. Make sure to back up if you have anything important.
You have to open the calculator and type (+30012012732+ when the next screen pops up, type ##786#, the RTN menu will open, press Reset, it will ask you for your MSL, type it in and that will do it. Hope it helps.
BTW you will have to find a way to find your MSL as I never had to. I'm sure if you call your carrier they will give it to you once you tell them why you need it.

megan23247 said:
Go to settings and then to activate this device and as soon as it starts to try and activate its self press the volume down 4 times and then you will see a screen that says IQTHiddenMenu....Scroll down to LTE mode and select it you will see a screen thatb has four boxes on it...select the one that says "enable LTE Mode" after you selct that then just hit back button a few times and let it try and activate again and this should fix your issues. You may have to do this twice. For the last 2 weeks this has been the only way we can activate anyones tablet is using this method, it has somehting to do with our Network not communicating properly with the Tablet.
Hope this helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Looks like they are still having this issue. Mine was stuck on Preparing network. 3G and wifi worked, but no LTE or GPS. I did the hidden menu trick and now that all works, but I still have the "preparing network" notification. Is there any way to remove this? Could I do a ##RTN to clear network configs, then enable LTE through hidden menu, then activate?

Something to try that worked for me for the time being
I just thought I would share with anyone else having issues with the persistent Preparing Network message.
If you go to Settings>Activate Device and launch the Self Service application, there is a hidden menu accessible via the Menu Key, And you can then choose Reset Cellular Data.
Your device will then reboot, and it will go through Self Provisioning when it reboots.
I Had to do this twice, and 2nd time seems to have been the charm this time as the Preparing Network Message is gone!

Finally got rid of "Preparing Network"!
rastassjr said:
I just thought I would share with anyone else having issues with the persistent Preparing Network message.
If you go to Settings>Activate Device and launch the Self Service application, there is a hidden menu accessible via the Menu Key, And you can then choose Reset Cellular Data.
Your device will then reboot, and it will go through Self Provisioning when it reboots.
I Had to do this twice, and 2nd time seems to have been the charm this time as the Preparing Network Message is gone!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I spent 2 hours on with Sprint live chat, did a Kies reset, software hard reset, and everything else I could find...yet this solution was the simplest and the only one that actually worked!
Someone let Sprint support know how to fix their own device, please!
Thank you rastassjr, you saved me a trip to the Sprint store.

This is a common problem with an easy fix.* Long press the notification on the task manager.* A button will appear saying APP INFO.* Press that and you will see the app info page.* Clear the cache and data and more inportantly, deselect the notification checkmark.* Thats it!...*

OTA 4.4.2
Just got it on a new SG Tab3 7" and it cleared the "Preparing Network" icon. I had done a MSL reset yesterday and it had cleared it before I bricked it. I returned it, got a new one and it cleared it on its own after the 4.4.2 update.

Solved!
I solved mine after several weeks. First, oddly enough this error was preventing me from getting the 4.4.2 android update and the system said the operating system was up to date on 4.2. You need to download the samsung Kies program into your computer and perform a manual firmware update. The system will tell you that indeed you have the latest update but you'll do it any way. Once the OS is reinstalled, you will see that the PRL will be updated properly, which is the reazon for this problem. Then the system will allows you to receive the 4.4.2 upgrade which does not suffer from this problem. The key is to upgrade to android 4.4.2.

Unflash/Service cutting in and out Razr M

I have a RAZR M that refuses to keep service on PagePlus after activating with their new sim card. I'm not sure it ever fully activated. I have no bars, no service, just a red circle. At times (usually within first 5 minutes of boot) it might show a couple bars or 4g, but I cannot make any calls. I get hopeful when I see the 4g symbol and might even receive a text but it suddenly drops to no service, red circle, as if the radio shut off.
A few months back I purchased a new Razr M XT907 on ebay. Wanted to flash it for Page Plus. I followed a guide several times, then tried following a similar guide but the settings would never "stick" long enough to be truly flashed. I got as far as activating with page plus (*228) and getting text and voice but this would last 2 minutes at a time max, and this is after my most successful of dozens of flash attempts. I then payed someone to remote flash it through my computer but it didn't fix the problem either. The hack involved flashing to stock 4.1.2, flashing to the previous radio that was 4.1.1, rooting, editing subscription value in SQLite, editing 4g value in BuildProp, and setting the phone to NV Only through DFS.
When I heard PagePlus was adopting 4G I flashed to stock 4.1.2 and waited until I could get a sim card. Went to a local dealer, got the sim card, they tried to activate it for me and my phone went through the same process it would in the past and tried to automatically dial *228. I assume when I flashed back to stock it didn't fully reset everything I had changed and was still in non-4G mode and trying to activate OTA. I've heard dialing *228 with a sim card in can damage it but I'm surprised the industry would allow that without safeguards or warnings. This is when I saw for the first time some actual GUI glitches on the phone which is lightly used and no hardware issues known. I have since reversed all the steps I remember taking to flash and manually unflash each individual setting, I have reflashed to stock multiple times. I have tried updating the PRL, I have tried flashing the 4.1.1 radio, 4.1.2 radio, and the newest radio (SM_BP_101032.021.32.80P) with no luck and minor differences. Now the only GUI glitches I get is when I turn the phone on and it tries to activate (through 4g/sim method) and says "this could take a few minutes" with an option to click "ok." This box flashes constantly and sometime makes the ok box impossible to click. One of the settings I messed with before was under ##PROGRAM under test, the service mode (CDMA/EVDO/LTE/WCDMA), (CDMA/EVDO), (CDMA/EVDO/LTE). But recently when viewing or changing this value I'll look back and it won't change, or it will arbitrarily change to just (CDMA/EVDO) and I'll set it to (CDMA/EVDO/LTE) then I come back it's set to (CDMA/EVDO/LTE/WCDMA) (default I believe). At times I cannot access the ##PROGRAM settings at all and I believe this has to do with a GSM mode or SPC issue.
Currently I'll get blue or gray 4g indicator for 30 seconds then it quickly switches to no bars with red circle. A couple times it has shown just a couple bars with no data indicator. Twice it has worked long enough to retrieve a couple texts. This seems similar to my earlier issue with trying to flash without 4g/sim. Even when the phone shows service I cannot get any phonecalls to dial out. At least once it failed and said "radio off." Indeed it's acting like the radio isn't on at all, randomly cuts in and out, and the majority of the time is no service no bars with the red circle.
I'm not sure if I corrupted a setting, never completely unflashed, or have an actual hardware issue. Interestingly my IMEI listed on the OS as well as dialing *#06# are the same, but the last digit is different (0) when reading the IMEI value in DFS. If anyone knows how to truly reset all the settings to default including those in SQLite, BuildProp, ##PROGRAM, and DFS then that would be incredible. Otherwise I may have a more difficult issue and don't know if my device is even sellable.

[Q] HELP! My Mobile Data Will Not Stay On After Opening Service Mode!

So last night, I was reading through some posts here and elsewhere about the MTP software not properly loading onto PC's and I was having the same issue. One thread said to go into Service Mode by dialing *#7284# and changing the USB options. Well, as soon as I went into Service Mode, I lost my 4GLTE signal. It would pop up as if connected and then immediately disappear. I restarted the phone several times, removed both the SIM and the SD card, and was still having the issue. I called myself from my landline and the call went through, I was able to answer it, but the icon still kept disappearing. I can also still send texts. I tried going into apps and using them with wifi off and they won't stay connected to the internet when the icon disappears.
So I chalked it up and decided to factory reset today because I've had the phone for almost 2 years now and I figured it would help with some other issues I was having. Well, after I reset it, it is still giving me the same issue, although it seems to stay connected a little longer now before cutting out. On wifi, everything works fine, but once I shut it off, I lose my connectivity. I didn't touch any other settings in Service Mode and it was as soon as it went into Service Mode that I saw the icon disappear. Then I thought it may be a SIM issue, but I don't have another mini-sim to try or a phone that I can try my SIM in. I'm running Simple Mobile on my phone currently. It isn't rooted. Now I'm mortified that I won't be able to do anything with my phone unless it's on wifi... *sigh*
Has anyone else had a similar issue??? Did you find a way to fix it? Any other suggestions that I may try? I don't want to deal with trying to root right now because If I brick it completely I'm going to scream...
Help?
P.S. - I apologize if this is posted elsewhere on here, but I wasn't able to find a similar issue when i searched. If you have a link to another post here, then please drop it on me... also, I'm fairly tech savvy. I just have no idea why this would happen without me actually making any changes.

Possible radio issue?
DivaB said:
So last night, I was reading through some posts here and elsewhere about the MTP software not properly loading onto PC's and I was having the same issue. One thread said to go into Service Mode by dialing *#7284# and changing the USB options. Well, as soon as I went into Service Mode, I lost my 4GLTE signal. It would pop up as if connected and then immediately disappear. I restarted the phone several times, removed both the SIM and the SD card, and was still having the issue. I called myself from my landline and the call went through, I was able to answer it, but the icon still kept disappearing. I can also still send texts. I tried going into apps and using them with wifi off and they won't stay connected to the internet when the icon disappears.
So I chalked it up and decided to factory reset today because I've had the phone for almost 2 years now and I figured it would help with some other issues I was having. Well, after I reset it, it is still giving me the same issue, although it seems to stay connected a little longer now before cutting out. On wifi, everything works fine, but once I shut it off, I lose my connectivity. I didn't touch any other settings in Service Mode and it was as soon as it went into Service Mode that I saw the icon disappear. Then I thought it may be a SIM issue, but I don't have another mini-sim to try or a phone that I can try my SIM in. I'm running Simple Mobile on my phone currently. It isn't rooted. Now I'm mortified that I won't be able to do anything with my phone unless it's on wifi... *sigh*
Has anyone else had a similar issue??? Did you find a way to fix it? Any other suggestions that I may try? I don't want to deal with trying to root right now because If I brick it completely I'm going to scream...
Help?
P.S. - I apologize if this is posted elsewhere on here, but I wasn't able to find a similar issue when i searched. If you have a link to another post here, then please drop it on me... also, I'm fairly tech savvy. I just have no idea why this would happen without me actually making any changes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After doing some digging, I'm thinking there's an issue with my radio? Is there a way to easily flash the radio? I'm thinking that may fix whatever is keeping it from staying connected. I have noticed that in the last few hours it has been staying on longer, and when I connected it to my laptop, it stayed on for the most-part while connected. This is a weird issue, I am really wondering if anyone has had it. I will keep updating and if I find a solution it will be here, just in case this happens to anyone else. I'm hoping one of you helps me though. :victory:
Either way, i have uninstalled (and now reinstalled Kies and the USB drivers). Going to install ADB and Odin as well and keep reading up... back to work I go!

**FIXED**
I have no idea how, but the issue has fixed itself. I had my provider (Simple Mobile) cycle my SIM card and that seems to have fixed the problem. I will never know what actually happened I guess... but should this happen to you, I would suggest having your provider do the same thing.

Note 4 Verizon no 4g and now lost 3g - in a strong 4g / 3g area

SOLVED! - see post #7
This SM-N910V is rooted and had 3g but apparently I lost that when mucking around with things trying to get 4g. I've got other phones like a Galaxy S5 and Galaxy Note 5 both Verizon models that get 4g or 3g fine in this same location.
First odd thing I noticed on the Note 4 was a setting that popped up seemingly by itself while in 'More Networks' and 'Mobile Networks' that showed VZWInternet with a circle by that which was not yet checked so I tapped that and it turned green in the circle. I have never been able to see that option again. I don't think this caused the problem though. I've looked at apns-conf.xml in the /system/etc folder and can't see a problem there. I also tried replacing that with another one that is supposed to fix LTE mode. No luck so I put back the original. I wiped cache and reflashed a backup with TWRP which had been working on 3G but that didn't help - no 3g even. I did not wipe Dalvik/ART cache. I had been messing around in the 'Service Mode' menu with a bunch of different settings in an attempt to get 4g working but I'm fairly certain I got everything set back the way it was before I started. I noticed that one setting I had left different in the Service menu did not change back after flashing a restore with TWRP (full restore - all boxes checked). The one setting I left changed was the under the 'AS' protocol menu where I changed the Release version control to "LTE 3GPP REL 9" from LTE 3GPP REL 10". I know enough to be dangerous
Open to any suggestions - am wondering at the moment if I should have wiped the Dalvik/ART cache before the whole TWRP restore? At this point I'd be happy just to get 3g working again.

I also tried Dr. Ketan's LTE Enable. That didn't fix anything. Although I see MNC and MCC numbers in the apns-conf.xml file when I look at the SIM with a SIM info App I just see blanks in those spots on the SIM. Not sure if that's relevant - just giving as much info as I can here.

Did another restore with TWRP after wiping Dalvik/ART cache but that didn't fix it either. Strong cell signal but no 3G or 4G.

More info - I put the SIM card in another phone and it sees 3G at least.

It seems the "lost 3g or 4g" problem is very common and it seems I've looked through dozens of message threads here but I'm not finding any solutions. I'm looking at flashing the 'ltefix.zip' from this thread but it seemed to be for a custom ROM and I've just got the stock - more or less - 5.1.1.

Hmmm.... Been at this all day reading here, searching, trying everything but still no Mobile Data. Is this as elusive as rooting a Verizon Note 5? LOL - it was working at least on 3G. I'll take hints or even wild guesses at this point.

Okay - it finally flashed on me to do a restore of my EFS. Oddly I had done a full restore with TWRP which include EFS but that didn't fix the problem. That TWRP backup was done the same day I did an EFS backup using Dr. Ketan's IMEI tool for the Note 4. When I used the IMEI tool to restore the EFS backup I then had the 3G come back on. This is a 4G SIM so I still don't know why I'm not getting 4G but at least I got 3G back. I did have a hiccup using this IMEI tool which initially caused the phone to repeatedly shutdown after a minute or so and could not be restarted without pulling the battery. I believe it had to do with the 'Restore' button needing to be held down a certain amount of time instead of just a tap. I probably held, released too soon then held longer which I suspect caused a partial or damaged EFS restore. Be careful in how you use this tool or you may end up in that situation. I had to work very fast after a bootup to get it properly restored. After that it was stable again and had 3G.
Now if only I could figure out what it takes to get 4G.

..

I wasn't getting 4G for the longest time, checked the PRL in settings on my GFs phone and noticed my PRL ver was like 50 thousand something while hers was 15518. Got a new Sim card and all my issues went away, PSA do not use *228 programming...EVER.

..

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acslam said:
Update/more info - I've continued to try and figure this out to no avail, although I got fed up with stock unrooted 5.1 and am now running modestrom v9 with a CQI2 base. And all of that install went fine, except for 4g of course.
I think this is worth mentioning as it might have something to do with the situation:
Way back in the beginning, I had gone through the entire unlock/root process, and everything actually worked fine the first time. This was right about the time the unlock became available, I bought the phone based specifically on that being possible, and got a brand new one at that time. Well, it was awesome for about 2 weeks, fully functional 4g and everything.
I had a very particular goal - I wanted this phone totally unlocked, but I was also very interested in the advanced/wifi calling that was supposedly coming out at that time - I was planning to move to a place with no vzw service and would be reliant on wifi for calls at home. Verizon wasn't clear about the fact that the wifi calling feature wasn't coming until MM, and this was before MM was released, so I was running a completely functional, 5.1.1 rom. I believe it was jasmine. So, under the impression that "advanced calling" would have given me wifi calling, I tried to enable it.
I cant recall if it was immediately, or a few hours after, but this is when the phone lost 4g for the first time. I immediately tried to deactivate the advanced calling feature on my line, but it didn't help. And nothing I could do would bring back 4g. I tried everything possible, and ultimately gave up and threw the phone in a drawer and went back to my note 3.
Fast forward several months, and my note 3 began to have issues with call audio, forcing me to use the 3g-only note 4 in order to actually handle day to day business. Again, I went through the processes of trying to fix 4g, with no success. Now by this time, MM had been released, I believe PD1 was the current firmware. I figured at this point it was time to just odin back to 5.1.1 and start everything over.
So I odin flashed the phone, and it booted into 5.1.1......with no 4g. Again I went through all the things I found here, no improvement. Finally, one day when the phone was bugging me about an OTA, I figured "what can it hurt at this point, its nearly useless without 4g anyhow."
And low and behold, the OTA update from verizon booted up and immediately jumped to 4g.
Now I felt I had a chance, a method that I'd finally proven could fix the problem. I left the phone in that state for a couple weeks, just to prove that it was holding. No problems during this time.
But I got sick of no root, and so I figured it was time to try and go through the steps again. And again, I lost the 4g connection. No big deal, just odin back to 5.1.1 and let it OTA like last time......
Except this time it didn't work. So I odin flashed back to 5.1 again, and let it try to OTA, again. I let the phone continually try to OTA all the way up to current, and flashed back to 5.1 at least 3 times to repeat the process in hopes it might fix something. No change at all. At this point I actually began to try and see if possibly Kies could help me here - maybe there was something related to the phones EFS? Which I don't understand very well btw - it was only through reading this thread that I began to research EFS and its significance. I also attempted to use some of the checkboxes in odin - the ones to erase all NAND and to clear EFS and rebuild it. Neither option made any difference. So I figured next logical step was to start playing around in service mode, which would require unlocking/rooting again......
And thats how I landed here. About an hour ago I got sick of the stock 5.1.1 and went through the whole root/unlock process and I'm currently running modestrom on CQI2 or whatever was just most recently posted. Every other part of the phone seems normal, but still no 4g. I can actually see the radio making an attempt to connect in the service mode - but I don't understand service mode menus well enough to interpret where the actual problem is. Upon boot the phone tries about 3 or 4 times to get an lte signal, during this time there is simply bars of signal, NO data indicator of any kind. Eventually, it gets frustrated and gives up, connecting to 3g and staying there. I realize now that when 3g drops, which is roughly every 10 minutes or so, its actually the phone attempting to establish LTE again. But still, I cannot make any sense of this.
Apologies for the giant post - I'm trying to put anything that could possibly be relevant info into one place here.
So........ anyone got any suggestions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
PM sent. Just to share a little of that here I think the first thing I would do is tell VZ you suspect your SIM card is bad and have them put in another one. Tell them it fell out when changing a battery, the dog ate it and by the time it came out you suspect it wasn't quite right anymore - LOL. I do think SIM's flake out sometimes and I know a bad one can prevent 4G from working. If you ever had an EFS backup from anything try restoring ONLY the EFS (if you use TWRP). No guarantees that will fix it but my best guesses at this point. Good luck.

..

I supect Verizon's doing this ...
acslam said:
I got a used stock note 4 to try and compare and see what I could be missing here....
Tried new sim card at least twice, unfortunately no dice, and the same card pops right into the spare note 4 and it wakes up on 4g just fine.......
EFS is something I probably should have been quick enough to dig in deeper on before this, as I don't have any backup of it....... however, I'm not seeing any other symptoms, I can see my imei fine, and every other function works. Is it possible that corrupted EFS can cause the loss of just one type of connection like that?
For giggles I tried a friends att sim, and no lte on that either.
Playing with the app LTE discovery, I can tell that the phone sees 4 different LTE towers just fine, showing db numbers exactly in line with the stock note 4 sitting right next to it, theres just something there under the surface thats stopping them from hooking up...... it stops trying after a couple minutes, rejects them all and connects to 3g.
I'm convinced its some kind of software thing, but I can't tell exactly where the failure is happening.....
I also odin flashed it back to stock bpa1, and still no dice. Is there a means to make an EFS backup without root? I want to see what happens if I try unlocking the other note 4 as well, but this time I want to have the backups......
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've been running on Emotion 7.1.1 for months with NO issues (well, some minor stuff, you know....)
Suddenly, two weeks ago I got a notice from Google that I had to sign in on my phone. Verrrryyy odd. At first I suspected some hack attempt, but my Account checked out fine. Having changed my password recently, I had to wait until I got home to login.
After I logged in, all ~appeared~ to be OK. Then I opened my Calendar. B L A N K. All ten years of appointments gone. I freaked out. I have two calendars, one for personal stuff, birthdays and the like, and another with my business appointments, INCLUDING FINANCIAL STATUS of the account. Gone.
Went online on my PC, signed into Gmail and switched to my calendar. Empty. Looked in Trash. Nothing. Vanished. Nada. Niet. There's a long story here about recovery efforts, troubleshooting, Googling, etc, suffice to say that TWO separate, redundant, backups had quietly failed, without the notifications they were supposed to send. I did manage to get from the first week in April back 10 years, but lost the whole summer. Thank YOU-KNOW-WHO that I'm good friends with all my clients.
Fast forward to last week. Suddenly I get 3G only from my Verizon account. Like you, I spent days on the boards, downloading ROMS, wiping, re-wiping, trying everything short of smoke signals to get it back. No joy. I did NOT go back to stock, I must thank you greatly, as that was my next road. Now i see it's a dead end. I will NOT give up my Nougat root just to get 4G.
Perhaps this is a bit conspiracy theory sounding, but I've become convinced that Verizon is playing some game, perhaps to force us to upgrade to a new phone. I learned long ago that corporations have no soul, and will do anything they like to increase profits. They exist for two reasons; to make money for their officers and to make money for their stockholders. Any other semblance of a "Product" or "Service" exist ONLY and SOLELY for that reason. Anyone who is a Yahoo or AOL member knows the level of intrusive ads and attempts to trick people into putting spyware in their machines under the guise of "protection" or "cleanup" programs has jumped to a new level of absurdity since Verizon sucked them up. "Oath" indeed. It's what is coming out of existing customer's mouths! M O N E Y H U N G R Y.
When I chatted at length with a Verizon Tech, she made it clear that she knew the answer was to upgrade to the latest stock (I never admitted to rooting, but she knew, we spoke "between the lines" a lot). She sent me a SIM card, but it., of course, didn't fix the problem, in fact it would not even initialize properly! I had to go back to the original SIM.
Now that we've found a way (after YEARS of trying) around their stupid block on rooting, they change the game. What person who is so into their phone as to root it, will put up with 3G? This is something Verizon is playing at, Sprint too from what I gather.
My only consolation is that I've got so many WiFi's nearly everywhere I go, and when I'm not near one, my Wife's Note 4 (not rooted, on latest update) works fine. I'm glad I decided not to root hers too.
Frankly, this really ticks me off. I have better things to do than spend days copying files, flashing and reloading data. Verizon knows that, and let me tell you, it won't be THEM who sees my money when I finally do upgrade.
Thanks again for saving me from the Stock route, you saved me hours of grief.
Peace out!
PuterPro

I have run into 4g issues with this as well and almost came to conclusion is a modem issue. I want to say but can not confirm that modems that are flashed are relative to bootloader on the device. Just something I've been pondering on as I had a unlocked bootloader device and flashed for wife to use with no root and recently unlocked again.
Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk

SIM card recognized but no service

TL;DR
Moto Z2 Play - XT1710-07
The phone recognizes the SIM card but there is no signal (no service). Tried several things, including flashing a custom ROM. I'm considering buying a new motherboard and changing it myself, but first want to know if anyone knows more about this issue or has an idea/suggestion.
Edit: As an added bonus, something that only now I realized. Now when I charge it, it gets EXTREMELY hot. Like I-can't-even-use-it hot. I used to use the phone while charging all the time, but now I can't even hold it. Seems like the problem is when it tries go past 80% charge. It gets super slow, keeps trying and gets hot. Now I don't know if it's a software problem caused by the various flashings or if it's something that would remain even after swapping the motherboard.
Edit 2: I did a full discharge of the phone and recharged it while turned off. It seems to have normalized the battery problem
Edit 3: RIP. I tried to remove the screen before deciding about buying a new board. In the process, I ended up tearing the digitizer flat cable apart. Now I don't think it's worth it buying both a new screen and a motherboard.
The full story and things I've tried
My phone was working all nice and dandy until it stopped having signal/service. Wifi works normally, but anything related to the SIM card doesn't, like phone calls or mobile data.
A list of things I've tried somewhat in order (both of time and of complexity):
* My SIM in another phone: it works normally, so the problem is not the SIM itself
* Another SIM in my phone: it doesn't work, so the problem is definitely the phone
* Using the second SIM slot
* Changing "Preferred Network Type" between the available ones (4G, 3G, 2G, including Enhanced 4G LTE Mode on and off): this one and the next two items don't really make sense to me, since these options seem to be only related to mobile data (4G/3G internet) connection, not to phone calls which is also not working, but I tried them anyway
* Manually selecting the network: Errors with "Selected network unavailable" and, after trying to register for a while, toasts another error saying "Can't connect to the network, try again later"
* Manually selecting the APN: Tried both selecting between the two options available and manually adding an APN by googling the correct info for my carrier
* Simply booting into fastboot and restarting bootloader: a video on YouTube claimed that it was a temporary solution and that I'd need to do it every time it lost signal. But it didn't even work the first time
* Disabling CQATest and then restarting bootloader (and also clearing its data/cache and removing its permissions): a lot of videos on YouTube claimed this was a solution, including for other Motorola phones. Apparently CQATest prevents the phone from working properly in some scenarios. But I think only when you de-google your phone? Not sure. All I know is that it didn't work either
* Using the phone connected to the wall charger: I think this was another YouTube suggestion, and it actually worked for a few minutes. But I guess it was just a coincidence, as it never worked again
Now for some more... "forceful" attempts:
* Factory Reset: Not sure where I saw this suggestion, but it was pretty much the next logical step. Gathered courage, backed up all my data, etc, aaand... nothing again
* Flashing another ROM: Guess it was here at XDA that I read that it was a problem with Motorola's stock ROM. That, paired with my belief that it could still be related to CQATest being installed, I again gathered more courage to flash a custom ROM. I chose LineageOS and found out that it was no longer supported, but decided to install the last official release. I also read that the problem was the Pie modem firmware, so it all seemed to be going fine since the last official release is Oreo 8.1. I flashed it and BAM it worked! ... for a few minutes and never again. I messed around with LineageOS, tried some of the previous things again, but nothing.
Then, I tried to restore my TWRP backup but it didn't work. So I searched a bit more and downloaded the Stock Pie ROM, flashed it, and closed the bootloader. And then I realized the restore probably didn't work since my backup was made using Pie and my phone was on Oreo. Maybe some files/partitions were missing? Also, when I was creating my TWRP backups, I tried creating a full system image backup but it kept erroring. Only later I realized the problem was that the USB Drive was FAT32 and the full system image was bigger than 4GB. Oh, well, now I know.
So now that I'm with my phone pretty much back on square one, I take it to an authorized repair shop. The clerk said that it was a common problem, and that sometimes it could be solved "by software" and that they'd try that. The other option was to change the whole motherboard, which they didn't do because it was "not worth it" and "almost the full price of a new phone". After two days, my suspicions were confirmed: they didn't fix it with their "by software" attempt. At least I didn't have to pay anything.
When I got the phone back, I put the SIM in again and it showed the icon as if there was signal. But when I tried to call someone, the signal disappeared again. I tried searching a bit more, went through all pages of Q&A here at XDA forums and there were like 3 posts regarding loss of signal. All without any response. On YouTube, I found some videos offering a suspicious .bat file. Upon inspection, it merely erased the modemst1 and modemst2 partitions and then wiped user data and cache. I tried it, nothing to lose. Also didn't work.
Now I'm contemplating a few options:
By watching some disassembly videos, I saw that, when opened, the phone has some parts that act like antennas. I thought that maybe those were not properly connected to the board? Maybe they got dislodged during a fall? Seems unlikely tho, since they are screwed in. I searched for a new motherboard to buy and it's a reasonable price. But I'm afraid it'll have the same problem (or develop it in a short time) since I can't find anywhere what the true cause of the problem is.
Another option is to just give up, buy a new phone and use this one as if it was a "small tablet" lol
So, do you guys have any other suggestions or ideas as to what might be the problem? Maybe a tip like "solder a wire to this spot to create a make-do antenna"? I don't really know where else to search.
If not, thanks anyway for those who read it all