Database Develop

How do you change phone ids (ESN, MEID, IMEI, etc) ?

I got the Sprint HTC One M8 (HK) with the intent on bringing it over to Ting which accepts Sprint devices. Issue is, the One is carrier locked via the IMEI until April, one year after the release date. So that was a bust. In the meantime I have a Fascinate with Verizon, that I can use as a donor phone for all its info. Thing I am having issues with is understanding what else needs to be changed to use the phone with Verizon. I read something about the radios need to be flashed and then while I can find the IMEI and MEID, and I can use fastboot to write my own, I cannot find anything for ESN or the MIN(MSIN). That plus the activation number, I assume will dial to Sprint not Verizon, so I'm trying to figure out what else this would entail. I will back up everything, since once April comes around, i'll switch to Ting, but until then, I'd like to enjoy my new toy.

I think XDA have a rule about giving you information about this... This is the same as bad ESN and changed it to make it work again and that is fraud..

gypsy214 said:
I think XDA have a rule about giving you information about this... This is the same as bad ESN and changed it to make it work again and that is fraud..
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This ^^^^^
Thread closed.

Empty Data Triangle

Help!
I have a Nexus 6 that my son bought off of Swappa, and it worked fine for about six weeks. It has an AT&T sim card in it. One day he looks down at his phone, and has no data connection. The data indicator in the status bar just shows an empty triangle. He was running Chroma 6.01 at the time.
Things I've tried and the results: (I have tried fixing APN settings along each step of the way, the phone won't pull them in automatically. I've also tried locking it down to 2g/3g/LTE only)
1. Wiped and reinstalled Chroma - no change
2. Completely wiped and factory reset using Wug's - no change
3. Took to AT&T, had sim card replaced. New sim card works fine in another phone, but no change on Nexus.
4. Completely wiped, updated radio, and installed PureNexus - still empty triangle, but got a couple emergency broadcasts...very odd, tells me it has some kind of connection.
5. Tried all versions available for radio, tried rolling back to factory lollipop using Wug's, no go.
6. Wiped and install OctoOS - no change
7. Had sim card replaced one more time for good measure - no change
8. Took Verizon sim card and installed, now it has bars in the triangle, APN is automatically located, but no actual data...I'm guessing because the phone isn't actually activated for the Verizon account?
Edit: 9: I did check the IMEI through both Swappa and AT&T, and it came up clean both places.
Edit: 10: I did factory reset using Wug's to 5.1.1, 5.01, and 7. Full data wipes each time, including SD card.
Observations: The phone is reading the sim card, at least partially. It pulls the phone number from the sim card properly, shows the proper carrier, and almost works with Verizon (well, different results from AT&T anyway.) That to me indicates that it might not be hardware related, but I don't know what else it could be after doing everything I've done.
I'm hoping somebody here may have some other suggestions to try?

When I read your trials ... Did you try the official stock rom?

The N6 sounds like it's blocked on AT&T's network. Follow @NLBeev's advice first. If that doesn't work, I'd double-check the IMEI using Swappa's tool. The original owner might have had the thing financed and stopped making payments once he got his money.

I did actually, sorry, I should have included it in my original post. I'll modify to include it. I actually tried 5.1.1, 6.01, and 7.

Excellent suggestion, and I did actually try that. I forgot I did that, thank you for reminding me. I'll add that to my original post. I checked the IMEI both in Swappa and through AT&T, and it came up clean both places. Is it possible they could have blocked it a different way, not using the IMEI?

Granted I don't have even a sliver of the technical knowledge of the other members who commented, but, reading through your post and the thread...
It seems to me that the Nexus 6 might still be Carrier Locked to Verizon...
https://www.gazelle.com/thehorn/...locked-phone-and-why-do-carriers-lock-them/
Which is possible even if the phone has payed off and has both a clean IMEI and clean ESN.
Just my thoughts.

KCT1975 said:
Granted I don't have even a sliver of the technical knowledge of the other members who commented, but, reading through your post and the thread...
It seems to me that the Nexus 6 might still be Carrier Locked to Verizon...
https://www.gazelle.com/thehorn/...locked-phone-and-why-do-carriers-lock-them/
Which is possible even if the phone has payed off and has both a clean IMEI and clean ESN.
Just my thoughts.
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Very good thought, and I will look into it. I suspect it's most likely not the case though, since it worked on AT&T for about six weeks prior to it failing. The seller sold it as an unlocked phone, previously used on the AT&T network, but you know how that goes. Can't take anything on faith when it comes to used equipment :/

KCT1975 said:
Granted I don't have even a sliver of the technical knowledge of the other members who commented, but, reading through your post and the thread...
It seems to me that the Nexus 6 might still be Carrier Locked to Verizon...
https://www.gazelle.com/thehorn/2014/01/29/what-is-a-locked-phone-and-why-do-carriers-lock-them/
Which is possible even if the phone has payed off and has both a clean IMEI and clean ESN.
Just my thoughts.
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Click to collapse
Typically Verizon phones are unlocked. I bought the N6 off eBay and the seller had Verizon at the time and it was a Verizon branded 6. I did not unlock it and used it on ATT/Cricket for 6 months before coming to Verizon.....
Have you checked to see if you have an IMEI number under settings? Maybe your EFS partition got screwed up.

By law (FCC) verizon LTE capable phones are sold unlocked, don't think it's a carrier lock issue

Have you verified with att (or who the use for insurance claims) that phone wasn't reported stolen after you may have bought it? I know a guy who bought a HTC 10 on Craigslist and it worked great for 3 weeks then was killed. When it was reported lost/stolen.
Sent from my Nexus 6 using XDA Free mobile app

31ken31 said:
Have you verified with att (or who the use for insurance claims) that phone wasn't reported stolen after you may have bought it? I know a guy who bought a HTC 10 on Craigslist and it worked great for 3 weeks then was killed. When it was reported lost/stolen.
Sent from my Nexus 6 using XDA Free mobile app
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I did verify with AT&T that there was no report of it being stolen. The IMEI does show up in settings, as does the phone number. It shows "Carrier Unknown" in the carrier field though, but only when on AT&T. When I try Verizon, it actually reads Verizon as the carrier.
When I boot into the bootloader, it shows Device Unlocked, Status Code 3, so I think it's unlocked properly.
Is it possible, as chapelfreak suggests, that the EFS partition is corrupt? If so, is there a method to fix it?

jeromekobriger said:
I did verify with AT&T that there was no report of it being stolen. The IMEI does show up in settings, as does the phone number. It shows "Carrier Unknown" in the carrier field though, but only when on AT&T. When I try Verizon, it actually reads Verizon as the carrier.
When I boot into the bootloader, it shows Device Unlocked, Status Code 3, so I think it's unlocked properly.
Is it possible, as chapelfreak suggests, that the EFS partition is corrupt? If so, is there a method to fix it?
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If it's efs usually it needs to be backed up before restoring. If you are able to flash it be cognizant of which twrp you use.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-6p/help/announcement-twrp-3-0-2-1-fatal-bug-t3453119

mikeprius said:
If it's efs usually it needs to be backed up before restoring. If you are able to flash it be cognizant of which twrp you use.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-6p/help/announcement-twrp-3-0-2-1-fatal-bug-t3453119
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Darn. So if there's no EFS backup, chances are this thing is now just a very small WiFi tablet? I didn't make a backup of EFS, didn't even bother to make any backup at all, just flashed Chroma and let it run for a month and half before the deathstroke happened.

jeromekobriger said:
Darn. So if there's no EFS backup, chances are this thing is now just a very small WiFi tablet? I didn't make a backup of EFS, didn't even bother to make any backup at all, just flashed Chroma and let it run for a month and half before the deathstroke happened.
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I've read a few threads where the EFS got corrupted and the phone had to be returned, but that was several years ago so personally I have a EFS backup via TWRP on a OTG stick, but I've never had to use it. I know it's an option to back up in the nandroids for TWRP but usually that is not one of the boxes checked.
I agree with you though it is hard buying pre-owned items. Personally, I have learned from past purchases to stay away from anything electronic that has been pre-owned due to the unknown nature and it can be a hit or miss.

Ebay note 5 bad imei

So I purchased a note 5 from ebay that stated it had a bad imei. I got the phone today and ran the imei through online checker and its clean? I put my simcard in and it works? Did I just get really lucky or do sometimes sellers know it will be blacklisted in the near future?? Im confused.

craig198 said:
So I purchased a note 5 from ebay that stated it had a bad imei. I got the phone today and ran the imei through online checker and its clean? I put my simcard in and it works? Did I just get really lucky or do sometimes sellers know it will be blacklisted in the near future?? Im confused.
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If the rear glass of the phone has not been replaced then you can check the phone imei.

PRADEEPHONDA said:
If the rear glass of the phone has not been replaced then you can check the phone imei.
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cant tell. It looks like just metal on the back. Its the note 5 gold version. I checked the imei through phone dialer. Its legit for now. Hope it stays that way because I cant find a way to fix it besides forking out money to random people who probably will just take the money and not be able to fix it anyways. Fingers crossed.

craig198 said:
cant tell. It looks like just metal on the back. Its the note 5 gold version. I checked the imei through phone dialer. Its legit for now. Hope it stays that way because I cant find a way to fix it besides forking out money to random people who probably will just take the money and not be able to fix it anyways. Fingers crossed.
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I too have gold version but the back door housing is not metal but glass. Post the pic of your back panel.

PRADEEPHONDA said:
I too have gold version but the back door housing is not metal but glass. Post the pic of your back panel.
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tried my best to get you a good angle of it.

craig198 said:
tried my best to get you a good angle of it.
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Buddy your phones IMEI is mentioned on the bottom last line of the back panel. I have marked the pic for you.

PRADEEPHONDA said:
Buddy your phones IMEI is mentioned on the bottom last line of the back panel. I have marked the pic for you.
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should we take the pic down? and do you see glass?

craig198 said:
should we take the pic down? and do you see glass?
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It's the glass not metal. But I didn't understand your first line.

Wasn't sure if imei info should be posted or not for security reasons

craig198 said:
Wasn't sure if imei info should be posted or not for security reasons
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OH ya remove it more over its hard to see. Anyways I will delete the pic.

I'm sure it's going to be bad soon anyways but just in case I got lucky thanks.

PRADEEPHONDA said:
OH ya remove it more over its hard to see. Anyways I will delete the pic.
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I don't think so, if it's matches the imei on the back of the phone with the phones IMEI then there is nothing to worry & moreover fake imei are hard to work so in my view it's totally fine.
I have removed the attached pic.. Cheers..!

If you hurry and pay now to have a company sim unlock it now, it won't be able to be blacklisted as it will show up as in unlocked phone on network lists.

eliaslear said:
If you hurry and pay now to have a company sim unlock it now, it won't be able to be blacklisted as it will show up as in unlocked phone on network lists.
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they cant block a phone that's sim unlocked? thought they go by imei number.

craig198 said:
So I purchased a note 5 from ebay that stated it had a bad imei. I got the phone today and ran the imei through online checker and its clean? I put my simcard in and it works? Did I just get really lucky or do sometimes sellers know it will be blacklisted in the near future?? Im confused.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
More than likely the account in which the phone is connected to will be closed with money still owed on the account. At that time, the carrier will Blacklist a phone. So at this time the account could still be in good standing until it gets closed for non-payment of Bill

g0t0 said:
More than likely the account in which the phone is connected to will be closed with money still owed on the account. At that time, the carrier will Blacklist a phone. So at this time the account could still be in good standing until it gets closed for non-payment of Bill
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thanks. Im still confused as to how sim unlocking could bypass this? was the other poster simply referring to being able to use on another carrier?
This was the ebay listing wording "The phone has a BAD IMEI, LOST and/or BLOCKED and can NOT be activated or used on T-Mobile. Sold AS-IS for IMEI. SIM card NOT included. " Well mine is activated for now at least
I wonder if tmobile will unblock it if I call and tell them I was sold a blocked phone on ebay.

craig198 said:
thanks. Im still confused as to how sim unlocking could bypass this? was the other poster simply referring to being able to use on another carrier?
This was the ebay listing wording "The phone has a BAD IMEI, LOST and/or BLOCKED and can NOT be activated or used on T-Mobile. Sold AS-IS for IMEI. SIM card NOT included. " Well mine is activated for now at least
I wonder if tmobile will unblock it if I call and tell them I was sold a blocked phone on ebay.
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I have no idea but usually yes if it's stolen or some legality issues then you might end up in trouble but I don't know why you chose to buy out a phone with no security over your investment. Again you can't change your imei & if you do then you will land in some serious issues.
Sold as is means they are not going to be liable or responsible for anything.

craig198 said:
they cant block a phone that's sim unlocked? thought they go by imei number.
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not necessarily. any company can blacklist a phone for whatever reason. there are companies you can pay that have access to the list and they can manually remove the imei. some times a tech will submit the imei for blacklisting but the system will kick it out since it shows up as unlocked. sometimes a tech just shrugs it off and doesn't want to deal with it when it shows the phone as unlocked(paid off). kinda like how you can't report a phone stolen, that's out of contract... else anyone could have any imei blocked. not saying it won't happen but it's a little more security for you. so far, every phone i've bought on ebay that was potentially about to be blacklisted (money owed), i had sim unlocked. i've never had any of those phones lock on my.

I think I just bought a stolen Note 9 (Unlocked SM-N960U1). Advice?

I was looking for unlocked phone on craigslist and I found this unlocked phone listed for $800. However, the seller immediately agreed for $650 without much negotiation. I checked the phone, everything looks original, IMEI checks out, came with box and all the accessories. Its not a Chinese close. But seller was not able to provide the receipt. He claimed he bought unlocked directly from Samsung but he couldn't even show the email.
It didn't click me back then but now that I look back, everything looked shady. Like he immediately dropped the price and sold me immediately etc. I did get photo of his drivers license and car license plate and he was happy to provide that.
Am I at risk of getting my phone blacklisted later on if this is stolen? I know if the phone is from Verizon or AT&T, they blacklist the stolen phone with IMEI in their data base. But how about the factory unlocked phone? Is there any way for me to find out if this phone is stolen?

1. Check model# on the box, is it SM-N960U or SM-N960U1?
If the phone's model say n960u1 but on the box model is n960u then he flashed unlocked firmware on a carrier model.
2. Check the IMEI on swappa it will tell you if you have factory unlocked phone(SM-N960U1) or a carrier model(SM-N960U), based on your imei. https://swappa.com/esn
I have a factory unlocked n960u1 and t-mobile doesn't know what phone I'm using because they don't have my phone's imei in their database. So if the phone is factory unlocked and report it stolen to his carrier, I don't think they can do anything because it's not carrier's phone. But if it's one of carrie's phone and report it lost or stolen then the imei will get blacklisted. So just check the imei find out exactly if it's n960u or n960u1.
Hope that helps.

AlwaysNoob said:
I was looking for unlocked phone on craigslist and I found this unlocked phone listed for $800. However, the seller immediately agreed for $650 without much negotiation. I checked the phone, everything looks original, IMEI checks out, came with box and all the accessories. Its not a Chinese close. But seller was not able to provide the receipt. He claimed he bought unlocked directly from Samsung but he couldn't even show the email.
It didn't click me back then but now that I look back, everything looked shady. Like he immediately dropped the price and sold me immediately etc. I did get photo of his drivers license and car license plate and he was happy to provide that.
Am I at risk of getting my phone blacklisted later on if this is stolen? I know if the phone is from Verizon or AT&T, they blacklist the stolen phone with IMEI in their data base. But how about the factory unlocked phone? Is there any way for me to find out if this phone is stolen?
Click to expand...
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Was it stolen?

pizza_pablo said:
Was it stolen?
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I guess we're both bored to bring this deceased thread back up from the dead. OP probably sold it back on Craigslist .[emoji1787]
Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

Limeybastard said:
I guess we're both bored to bring this deceased thread back up from the dead. OP probably sold it back on Craigslist .[emoji1787]
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Inquiring minds gotz tuh no! :laugh:
This thread is so old that the OP is no longer a noob!

Carrier Locked? Sim Locked? UICC Locked? What state is my phone in?

I bought an SM-N960U used off of letgo about a month ago now and I have been trying to get it to work for me but I am still having a few issues.
The guy I bought it from, who himself bought it used, was using it on T-Mobile and I am able to make and receive calls okay and get internet okay with Verizon. The phone was originally a Sprint phone. It continuously gave me "Activation was Unsuccessful" fullscreen messages repeatedly until I used adb to disable com.sec.omadmspr and com.sprint.ms.smf.services.
When swapping SIMS from different carriers the phone DOES NOT ask for an UNLOCK code.
When I first got the phone I tried to call Sprint and ask if the phone was Carrier locked thinking that if there was a small amount owed or something perhaps I could pay it and UN-Carrier Lock the phone... Well, that didn't go well. Since I wasn't on the account and couldn't provide the name or phone number of the old owner they wouldn't tell me if there was OR wasn't a carrier lock on the phone. Eventually I got them to take the IMEI but they still told me nothing.
So, I've been using the phone daily for about a month now, but because of it's problems (the app that won't run) I still have to carry my old phone as well. This phone is always on Roam. One time when trying to fix it I dialed the *228 PRL update number. That was a mistake. It broke my internet to the point where NO ONE was able to fix it. I went to a Verizon stone. No help. I called customer service. No help. They transferred me to Tech Support.... finally they had me swap in one of my older SIM cards and they programmed that one to work.
TLDR; The phone works with VZW voice and data, but is always on roaming, some apps refuse to work properly, under UICC Unlock the phone says it is locked to Sprint Sims and sometimes the data connection drops and it says it doesn't work because of "Data Roaming" being disabled.
What version of locked is my phone? Is it safe to start flashing it?
ref: https://forum.xda-developers.com/ga...h-firmware-t3958791/post80093967#post80093967

you probably has nothing to do with your problem but it may be of some help if you contact the guy mentioned in this thread for the LG V20, it's a guy that works for sprint and you can contact him on the Sprint Users forums ..
He may be able to help you with the sim unlocking of your phone, there's nothing to lose I think!
give it a shot ... look at this thread and then register for an account on the Sprint Forums and look for the guy..
https://forum.xda-developers.com/v20/help/lg-v20-ls997-successfully-unlocked-oreo-t3835061

You need to contact the person who sold you the device and ask them for assistance. As they may need to contact Sprint to activate the device and unlock it for you.

kbrn said:
you probably has nothing to do with your problem but it may be of some help if you contact the guy mentioned in this thread for the LG V20, it's a guy that works for sprint and you can contact him on the Sprint Users forums ..
He may be able to help you with the sim unlocking of your phone, there's nothing to lose I think!
give it a shot ... look at this thread and then register for an account on the Sprint Forums and look for the guy..
https://forum.xda-developers.com/v20/help/lg-v20-ls997-successfully-unlocked-oreo-t3835061
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Click to collapse
Hey thanks! I looked at this link and think maybe this guy can help. I sent him a message!
Hoping for the best!

iceepyon said:
You need to contact the person who sold you the device and ask them for assistance. As they may need to contact Sprint to activate the device and unlock it for you.
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Click to collapse
Thanks, but the guy I bought it from bought it used, so he wont have any Sprint account info, so then I'd have to try to track down the person he bought it from... and on and on and I dont know how long or fruitful the search would be... and again... I'm on the phone right now, on Verizon with a Verizon SIM. I dont think its carrier locked... but then I dont know what's going on.

towdy said:
Thanks, but the guy I bought it from bought it used, so he wont have any Sprint account info, so then I'd have to try to track down the person he bought it from... and on and on and I dont know how long or fruitful the search would be... and again... I'm on the phone right now, on Verizon with a Verizon SIM. I dont think its carrier locked... but then I dont know what's going on.
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They don't want to make it easy for people to re-purpose stolen phones. There are things a legitimate owner can do in order to make a phone ready for re-sale, and it sounds like these things didn't happen for the phone you bought. It all sounds a bit fishy, doesn't it?

gruuvin said:
They don't want to make it easy for people to re-purpose stolen phones. There are things a legitimate owner can do in order to make a phone ready for re-sale, and it sounds like these things didn't happen for the phone you bought. It all sounds a bit fishy, doesn't it?
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Click to collapse
Thanks, but if I thought "it sounds a bit fishy" I probably wouldn't have bought the used phone in the first place... and I certainly wouldn't have called Sprint and given them the IMEI and asked them; the people that could render my phone a useless brick, with one tiny bit of information, for help. Each smart phone I've bought in the last few years has been used because frankly to me it seems to be the best way to buy them financially. $1000 the day they come out or $200 - $300 6 - 12 months later used.

towdy said:
Thanks, but if I thought "it sounds a bit fishy" I probably wouldn't have bought the used phone in the first place... and I certainly wouldn't have called Sprint and given them the IMEI and asked them; the people that could render my phone a useless brick, with one tiny bit of information, for help. Each smart phone I've bought in the last few years has been used because frankly to me it seems to be the best way to buy them financially. $1000 the day they come out or $200 - $300 6 - 12 months later used.
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Point is, when someone is about to buy a used phone from a stranger, make sure it is factory reset and then immediately call the carrier and confirm the IMEI is clean and that it has been carrier unlocked, else, don't buy it. Obviously it's not advice for you, since you already did it the wrong way. This is a good lesson for posterity.