So I used a galaxy s9 and fell in love. I messed up tho because I bought an unlocked att one when I have tmobile and I can’t get some carrier features activated like key WiFi calling. Tmobile said it’s because it can’t recongnize the att firmware. I’m actually surprised Samsung gives the carriers that much power to infect your device.
I remember reading that the galaxy s8 had this BYOD update where it installed a carriers firmware once a sim was installed. The s9 seems to lack this somehow and I contacted Samsung about it and morons work there. Does anyone know if something like the s8 update will be added? If I get desperate I see there are tutorials on how to flash to other carriers firmwares. Can anybody tell me some well respected people in the community who post trustworthy tutorials?
Sadly to my knowledge, take this with a grain of salt Snapdragon version of the S9 have bootloader locked so that means it is harder to change carriers, if you had the international version then you could of done something but don't give up hope keep looking you might find something
I See some people flash u->u1->u to achieve their new carrier. I see some post on Reddit that said once their s9 got updates to Android Oreo it could swap carriers like the s8. Hopefully this is true
Related
Has anyone actually physically checked? I saw the Samsung chats, but nothing officially stating they are or are not locked.
Yes, FRP lock is on and no option to turn it off anywhere like on the Exynos model.
I don't see why samsung, and if not them the companies, have to be dicks about this and screw over their US clients.
Interceptor777 said:
Yes, FRP lock is on and no option to turn it off anywhere like on the Exynos model.
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It is shame. One of the reasons that I switched to Tmobile was because their Samsung phones always had unlocked bootloaders.
I learned my lesson with the s7 edge and didn't buy the phone right away this time around. My Note 7 with root was amazing, but we all know what happen with it.
aggieranch said:
It is shame. One of the reasons that I switched to Tmobile was because their Samsung phones always had unlocked bootloaders.
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I feel your pain. I switched from at&t for that very same reason and now all us models have locked bootloaders, but with all the customization you could do to these phones rooting and flashing isn't really necessary for me anymore. I just like the phone all around. It's a great phone. [emoji4]
Sent from my SM-G955U using XDA-Developers Legacy app
Cancelled my T-Mobile pre-order awhile ago for this reason! Ordered the Exynos international model so that I can continue to enjoy unlocked on XDA!
galaxys said:
Cancelled my T-Mobile pre-order awhile ago for this reason! Ordered the Exynos international model so that I can continue to enjoy unlocked on XDA!
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But you won't be getting early updates and you may suffer when the gigabit network comes although don't quote me on that.
bossei said:
But you won't be getting early updates and you may suffer when the gigabit network comes although don't quote me on that.
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Lol... its a well known fact that the international devices get faster and more frequent updates than US or Canadian devices ever will.
I was laughing at all the guys on US/ Can s7s whining about no update to nougat..i had nougat on my international S7 edge mos before they did.
Sent from my Note 7, S7 Edge or S6
I had both TMobile branded S7 edges and international models as well. I found that I actually preferred the TMobile version for volte, rcs messaging, native video calling and a few more small percs. Yeah the international models was bootloader unlockable and had faster updates but I had to do so many work arounds to get it close to how I wanted and yet it still never did. I could have rooted and got everything I wanted but I actually use Samsung Pay and that'd kill that. To each their own. I also recall the TMobile S7 edge and note 7's having a locked bootloader still eventually got root.
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S8+
Rydah805 said:
I had both TMobile branded S7 edges and international models as well. I found that I actually preferred the TMobile version for volte, rcs messaging, native video calling and a few more small percs. Yeah the international models was bootloader unlockable and had faster updates but I had to do so many work arounds to get it close to how I wanted and yet it still never did. I could have rooted and got everything I wanted but I actually use Samsung Pay and that'd kill that. To each their own. I also recall the TMobile S7 edge and note 7's having a locked bootloader still eventually got root.
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S8+
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True the international versions lack some features but depending on your use they may or may not matter..for me I could care less about any of those so no biggie but others may need them.
Id rather have root,twrp and roms etc
The root on the s7 and note 7 snaps was via leaked engineering firmware and it wasnt ideal...buggy, slow and just a general pain to deal with.
Sent from my Note 7, S7 Edge or S6
Rydah805 said:
I had both TMobile branded S7 edges and international models as well. I found that I actually preferred the TMobile version for volte, rcs messaging, native video calling and a few more small percs. Yeah the international models was bootloader unlockable and had faster updates but I had to do so many work arounds to get it close to how I wanted and yet it still never did. I could have rooted and got everything I wanted but I actually use Samsung Pay and that'd kill that. To each their own. I also recall the TMobile S7 edge and note 7's having a locked bootloader still eventually got root.
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S8+
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Yep, I had the s7 edge and rooted it but it wasn't the same as when I had the T-Mobile version of the phone. It was a pain. These phones are great and I rather use it to its fullest. I also use android pay and want to use samsung pay so for me I'm good without unlocked billiards for now. I have a bunch of phones I have rooted that I can get my flashaholic tendency out. Lol. My pixel gives me that pure android feel so having a vendor feel is ok with me. I will be going back and fourth. I also don't know how having an international version will affect the gigabit network update when it comes out.
Rydah805 said:
I had both TMobile branded S7 edges and international models as well. I found that I actually preferred the TMobile version for volte, rcs messaging, native video calling and a few more small percs. Yeah the international models was bootloader unlockable and had faster updates but I had to do so many work arounds to get it close to how I wanted and yet it still never did. I could have rooted and got everything I wanted but I actually use Samsung Pay and that'd kill that. To each their own. I also recall the TMobile S7 edge and note 7's having a locked bootloader still eventually got root.
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S8+
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I got the international s7 edge and volte, WiFi calling work great with csc utility 2.3.5 for it
Sent from my SM-G935F using XDA-Developers Legacy app
king3opobn said:
I got the international s7 edge and volte, WiFi calling work great with csc utility 2.3.5 for it
Sent from my SM-G935F using XDA-Developers Legacy app
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same here
not sure what he's talking about
skipping the T mobile one again
waiting on swappa price to go down a bit
someone sold one for 700 new and i misssed that
force70 said:
Lol... its a well known fact that the international devices get faster and more frequent updates than US or Canadian devices ever will.
I was laughing at all the guys on US/ Can s7s whining about no update to nougat..i had nougat on my international S7 edge mos before they did.
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You get what you choose. I chose a carrier model because it is superior in network quality. I can't root my primary phone anymore because my work policies flag rooted phones automatically and I stop syncing. For my playground, I have Pixel XL. Fastest updates, unlocked everything. For a reliable phone I have TMobile S8+. Like i said, you get what you pay for and pick up.
I mean hey sure the bootloader is locked, but once the right person gets one of these in their hands Im sure there will be an exploit. Just gotta wait patiently good things come to those who wait!
jakobkay said:
I mean hey sure the bootloader is locked, but once the right person gets one of these in their hands Im sure there will be an exploit. Just gotta wait patiently good things come to those who wait!
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While it is software written by humans and anything is possible. S7 never got an unlocked bootloader. We got root with the eng_boot.imgs, but never an unlocked bl.
But I'm holding hope. The community is full of extremely clever people.
Really sucks, I recall the heyday of the Galaxy Note II and SIII, man back then there were like 200 ROM's out, Touchwiz, AOSP, CyanogenMod, etc... Root and Recovery available the first week the phones released.
And I'm talking the U.S. carrier phones too. Not just the international.
And then they all stopped after the Galaxy S4 came out. They released a firmware and locked the **** down like a Navy sub going deep. Note 3 too LOCKED. And forever the good days long gone.
Except the T-Mobile Note 5 was rooted and ROM. But that was a freak rarity.
Now root and recovery are things of dreams for Galaxy phones.
---------- Post added at 01:17 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:16 PM ----------
Whole reason I moved to T-Mobile two years ago, was for the unlocked bootloaders that T-Mo was famous for, even when Verizon and ATT didn't allow that anymore. The Galaxy Note 5 was their last unlocked phone, since then, the S7, and Note7 were LOCKED, and looks like the S8 is too.
Glory days are gone.
Almost like the Jailbreak scene, which has faded bad, and there's only a stable JB released maybe once a year or every 18 months.
Man, I've been having a bad week. First, I break my phone. Then, I search around for a replacement that LineageOS supports. LineageOS has Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ listed on their "Supported Devices" page. Great! So, I run off to T-Mobile and get an S9 for a replacement.
Unfortunately, now I find out that the T-Mobile S9 cannot be rooted! There goes the main reason I was buying it. What is fortunate, though, is that apparently T-Mobile will allow you to return phones within 14 days. (Although there might be a restocking fee. Boo.)
From all I've been able to find on XDA and other places on the web, as far as anybody knows, the T-Mobile S9 is unrootable, and it will remain unrootable for the foreseeable future. My next question is this: Which phone should I get to replace it? I'd like to get something with similar specs. Does the T-Mobile S10 have the same problems with rooting? What's the most root-friendly, modern phone?
(BTW, I am aware that not all S9s have this limitation, but I can't afford to pay full price for a phone right now.)
Your first mistake was running to a carrier for one of their phones.
Pretty much any US carrier branded phone is unrootable. That's one of their requirements from an OEM... a locked bootloader, to prevent someone from doing what you're trying to do.
They feel that if they are supporting it, they should control what's on it.
Your only real option is to buy a factory unlocked model. Meaning, not a carrier branded model.
fajrero said:
Man, I've been having a bad week. First, I break my phone. Then, I search around for a replacement that LineageOS supports. LineageOS has Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ listed on their "Supported Devices" page. Great! So, I run off to T-Mobile and get an S9 for a replacement.
Unfortunately, now I find out that the T-Mobile S9 cannot be rooted! There goes the main reason I was buying it. What is fortunate, though, is that apparently T-Mobile will allow you to return phones within 14 days. (Although there might be a restocking fee. Boo.)
From all I've been able to find on XDA and other places on the web, as far as anybody knows, the T-Mobile S9 is unrootable, and it will remain unrootable for the foreseeable future. My next question is this: Which phone should I get to replace it? I'd like to get something with similar specs. Does the T-Mobile S10 have the same problems with rooting? What's the most root-friendly, modern phone?
(BTW, I am aware that not all S9s have this limitation, but I can't afford to pay full price for a phone right now.)
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even if it is unrootable, cant you just flash another carriers firmware that is rootable and go from there? The hardware revisions arent vast and as long as youre flashing a version thats built for your processor type and if its for the regular one or the + model, you should be ok
No US carrier phone after the Samsung Galaxy S6 the bootloaders are locked so flashing another carrier wont do you any good. The only samsung phones that can be root are the international variants so you would want the 960f which will still work on tmobile i believe last i was aware of or the SM-G9650/SM-G9600 variant if you want snapdragon hardware.
But i dont think the SM-G9650/SM-G9600 has LOS though.
I was planning on getting new phones for myself and my wife. I was planning on buying a note 10+ and possibly a note 9 have seen a few posts about people getting unlocked phones like this on places like amazon and ebay having issues with Tmobile specific stuff like WiFi calling and Visual Voicemail. I have also seen conflicting info about being able to fix this with a firmware flash.
I know this thread is for the Note 10+, and I don't know if the info would be the same for the note 10+ and the note 9, but I read that the US model was basically the same hardware and you could flash it for whichever carrier you are using to get the version of Android tailored to that carrier. I was wondering if anyone could confirm if this is true or not. Also, I'm guessing that the unlocked version might have a slightly less bloated version of Android, so I'm wondering if it's possible to just keep it as-is and add in the features like Visual Voicemail.
When I get the phone, if any type of flashing is recommended, should I do it or anything else before putting my SIM card in and firing the phone up, or should I just do that first and see if the t-mobile specific stuff works before wasting time going any further? Any info is appreciated.
I have a Note 10 Plus N975U1 that was sold as a Consumer Cellular device through Target. The phone came with the N975U1 unlocked ROM installed on the phone and there is no carrier apps or Consumer Cellular identification anywhere. The only reason I know it's Consumer Cellular is because of a message that popped up for something, can't recall what now.
Anyway, the phone acts just like an unlocked model. Put in various sim cards and the phone reboots through the blue recovery screen to update carrier software for the sim you are using. APN settings are available and can be edited. Everything is just like an unlocked model.
Except, it connects to the network for a couple minutes or so and then stops working. It acts like the Verizon versions do before they are unlocked by Verizon. Except the Verizon versions give you a little pop up stating the phone can't be used on another network. This model has no message.
I am guessing that they are locked using the same mechanism that Verizon uses for locking their devices now except they just are not showing anything to let you know.
Is anybody aware of exactly how this is done and any third party who can unlock it? I have tried a couple different unlocked ROM s as well as an AT&T and Verizon just to see what happens. Same problem.
Thanks
Have a link from the target site to the phone you bought?
I have a feeling that the phone is not actually unlocked or it may not be as what it appears exactly. You can run the IMEI number using swappa and see if the phone is indeed an U1 variant or just the normal carrier N975U.
It maybe possible (not sure how exactly) that your using an international variant that was flashed and configured to look like a N975U1. For example the phone listed here is an international variant that is compatible with US LTE, but I have some serious doubts with how compatible it really is. From past experiences with a local store that sells unlocked Note 10+ units for Net10, I discovered they are not actually US models and are really international models. They were flashed and configured in a weird way (best I can describe it) that it would work for the most part, work with Net10, but it would not work with the other providers here locally. It would at first appear to work but then fail all together.. It wasn't until I started digging into the IMEI number and what it belonged too that I discovered the truth of what the model actually is, and I then promptly returned the phone to the store I bought it from.
If the phone is just network locked and a genuine N975U1 model it would just seem that you only have to use the phone with the service for a certain period of time before they will unlock it. Consumer Cellular would be the best place to go to get (and ask about getting) the phone unlocked.
https://www.consumercellular.com/Help/phones-and-services/5
I resell used phones and specifically phones from Consumer Cellular. All the previous Samsung models used to come unlocked, but about the time the S10 was released, all their Samsung phones came with this unusual lock. I've tried working with countless unlockers and no one has been able to remove it. Once it connects to the internet, it downloads some google update and the phone loses voice/data service. I've wondered how they do this too. A few other models I have that have the same lock are the A10e A20 J7 S10/+ S20/+ Note 10/+. Really really frustrating as I've been searching for a long time now. If anyone knows anything, please let me know. I have hundreds of these that need to be unlocked. Also to clarify, yes they are all the U1 factory unlocked models.
Edit: Apparently when a carrier locked device is flashed to U1 firmware BEFORE unlocking, there is no software prompt to unlock the device. It probably was a carrier locked N975U originally. Maybe on Consumer Cellular firmware, there would be a prompt to unlock it?
These are the guys but they only do commercial work. I am pretty sure they never fail unlock.
https://www.swiftunlocks.us/
Guyinlaca said:
Edit: Apparently when a carrier locked device is flashed to U1 firmware BEFORE unlocking, there is no software prompt to unlock the device. It probably was a carrier locked N975U originally. Maybe on Consumer Cellular firmware, there would be a prompt to unlock it?
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These are not the U versions. I've sold CC phones for years and they are and have always been U1 models. Not only does it say it in the software, but even on the back glass. They are locking these things with an update somehow.
I'll reach out to swiftunlocks, but I would put a big bet up that they can't unlock it either. I'm connected with some of the top unlockers in the world as this is my business and no one has any idea. If anyone is reading this and wants a phone to test, I'll even send you one if you think you can unlock it. It's worth a lot of money to me to find a solution. The worst part is that these phones are all paid off and eligible to unlock through the carrier, but since "I'm not the original owner" they won't help me.
Shatter65 said:
These are not the U versions. I've sold CC phones for years and they are and have always been U1 models. Not only does it say it in the software, but even on the back glass. They are locking these things with an update somehow.
I'll reach out to swiftunlocks, but I would put a big bet up that they can't unlock it either. I'm connected with some of the top unlockers in the world as this is my business and no one has any idea. If anyone is reading this and wants a phone to test, I'll even send you one if you think you can unlock it. It's worth a lot of money to me to find a solution. The worst part is that these phones are all paid off and eligible to unlock through the carrier, but since "I'm not the original owner" they won't help me.
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My friend, did you finally find a solution to unlock samsung phones locked to consumer cellular, i have a few phones locked to them and i would like to know if theres a way to unlock them
seth81 said:
My friend, did you finally find a solution to unlock samsung phones locked to consumer cellular, i have a few phones locked to them and i would like to know if theres a way to unlock them
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I personally use samkey.org
Hi everyone.
TLDR: Is it currently possible to root a Canadian (W) variant of the S22? I find the new XDA search hard to operate, but from what I see here and elsewhere US versions are a no-go, but I don't see the W version mentioned, so I want to clarify.
Long version: I've used Samsung devices for a long time, and mostly had Exynos variants. Problem is I live in Canada where the version is the Snapdragon one since the S8. This meant my S9 Exynos had horrible reception and compatibility with local carriers. When came time to update, I went for a Pixel 6 but there are things on there related to dual SIM usage that really bother me. I'm thinking of maybe going back to Samsung since we can now do DSDS with an eSIM and a physical one!
But... there's the question of root. I really want to keep root; don't really care about custom ROMs or tripping Knox for that matter, but I use root a lot in automation and backup, and that's something Samsung is horrible for, at least with stupid locked BL in North America. I want to weigh what's more important to me before I switch devices.
Edit: the reason why I don't want another Exynos is because of compatibility issues I've had in the past with carriers. On paper the phone should have been 100% compatible, but in reality it wasn't and had very weak signal. Carriers in Canada only support whatever phones they sell, even if you can use any device you want, so I'm trying to ere on the side of caution. That's why I'm weary of using an international version of SD as well, in the event those are also problematic...
Thanks!