Database Develop

[Q] A quick knox question

I had two S3 LTE. Provider sucks big time on updates (until today, no KK) so on one of them I downgraded, unlocked, then flashed a stock voda kk rom. I knew this would trip the knox flag (the downgrade) but didn't much care about that one (needed it unlocked).
The other I'd prefer not to trip the flag so I unlocked via my provider who conveniently recently reduced the price to a tenner (from 30 quid).
Question. I've seen many people running even custom roms without tripping knox. Yet other have tripped it. So I'm a bit confused as to WHAT trips it. Pretty sure it was the downgrade and unlock method I used on the first one.
Can anyone tell me definitively (the phone's unlocked, still running stock EE JB, and has been factory reset/wiped) if I ODIN the Voda KK rom onto it, whether it'll trip the flag.
Pretty sure not but best to ask...
Cheers & tia

Knox, Bootloaders, Samsung Pay, AT&T--- HELP!

I just pre-ordered my ATT S6 and I've got a few questions! I've been spoiled by my Nexus 4/5 when it comes to "openness" so all this Knox business is new to me.
I'm curious what I'm missing out on if I buy the ATT variant or try and get a T-Mobile phone unlocked. I've done enough reading to know that flashing a custom recovery will trip Knox, so I don't want to do that. If I have the Tmobile ver with a clean Knox, can I still install TW roms with Odin? Or do those require a custom recovery as well?
I'm really trying to decide if I should cancel my ATT pre order and try and get a TMobile model instead... but if the TMobile version won't gain me anything (I want to use Samsung Pay) I might as well stick with what I've got..

Well first off the ATT version will likely ship bootloader locked, which in this case you won't be doing anything custom to the phone that could trip knox...locked BL you won't be able to root (till an exploit is found, the current root depends on an unlocked BL and it will trip Knox)..As for TMO it is likely to be unlocked so you can root it, the current method will trip knox, flashing custom recovery will also trip it, and likely you can't reset that counter once its tripped, also if you flash anything in Odin that isnt official Samsung i believe you will trip knox as well (i believe theres a built in consistency/signature check for this) i could be wrong though as its been a while since I flashed anything on Samsung through Odin, I tripped my tmo s5 day one as I didnt care about the knox features.

AT&T = death to development

Does anyone know if tripping Knox will not allow samsung pay to work?.... That's one of the many features I was looking forward to....

Daniel323la said:
Does anyone know if tripping Knox will not allow samsung pay to work?.... That's one of the many features I was looking forward to....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most likely, nobody is going to know until Pay comes out, so figure August or so.

Damn, that's a long time to wait without rooting... Might just hold on to my note 4 for a bit then.... ?

Note 8 N950F- Samsung pay in USA?

Hey, I have a Note8 international unlocked variant non rooted with knox intact. I am trying to get Samsung pay to work on this device, but my understanding is because the phone originated from Mexico, samsung pay in the USA wont work. With my current research, I've seen the indication that I need to flash either the tmobile (my carrier) or the N950U CSC on this device to get samsung pay to work.
Is this correct? Do I need to know anything more? I have experience with rooting and unlocking bootloaders, but barely any experience with odin or flashing CSC's. If its not possible for samsung pay to work on this device, I might as well go ahead and root my phone.
If any more information is needed, please do let me know. I've looked into all the threads I can find but haven't found an absolute answer.

Question ordering an s21 ultra from tmobile today. questions on bl unlock and root

it will be a day or two after we place the order in a few hours from now. (thursday june 17th 2021).
01 do i need to flash the newer U1 firmware with the v2 bootloader first then do bl unlock and root for custom roms?
02 since we will be in a 2 year contract maybe i should just keep tmobile original firmware and just bl unlock and root that firmware?
03 what is the best way to do it since i know we will be with tmobile for 2 more years?
04 samsung pay wont work and what else?
05 knox will be tripped forever?

en11gma said:
it will be a day or two after we place the order in a few hours from now. (thursday june 17th 2021).
01 do i need to flash the newer U1 firmware with the v2 bootloader first then do bl unlock and root for custom roms?
02 since we will be in a 2 year contract maybe i should just keep tmobile original firmware and just bl unlock and root that firmware?
03 what is the best way to do it since i know we will be with tmobile for 2 more years?
04 samsung pay wont work and what else?
05 knox will be tripped forever?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure about your local network provider policies so can't say about points 1 to 3. Points no 4 and 5 however are quite simple to answer:
04 samsung pay wont work and what else? Most banking apps, payment gateway apps, some streaming services and a large number of services requiring some kind of authentication or DRM will stop working if they detect that your phone is rooted. Most of these can be bypassed even when rooted using Magisk hide. But Magisk development in the future is uncertain right now, so don't put all your eggs in that basket. Some of these apps may work now, but lose functionality later, unless you unroot.
Samsung Pay is gone forever once you root. As well as Samsung Pass. No way to get these back again as far as I know.
You also won't get OTA updates anymore and will have to flash newer firmwares manually.
Warranty is gone too, unless your country has special laws against this. Recently a forum member posted his experience where Samsung wouldn't even perform a paid repair for a screen replacement. Their reason was apparently because he had rooted his phone and voided his warranty. Think about that - they wouldn't even repair his phone, or sell him the parts, even if he was willing to pay! I'm not going to get into whether that's justified - but it is what it is. Be warned.
If you're willing to take the risk and Samsung Pay etc doesn't mean much to you, and features that rooting bring mean way, wayyyyy more to you, even at the risk of losing warranty, proceed with rooting after careful consideration.
05 knox will be tripped forever? Yes. Once you root, this will be irreversibly, permanently, irrevocably, unrecoverably, soul-stone permanently - be tripped forever. Nothing short of a motherboard replacement will get that flag up again.

is there a proper way about doing it when we receive the phones?
i mean will the phones try and auto update when i insert the sim card and power phone on therefore stopping the phone from being bl unlocked and rooter on stock firmware?
do i need to stop this from happening?

en11gma said:
is there a proper way about doing it when we receive the phones?
i mean will the phones try and auto update when i insert the sim card and power phone on therefore stopping the phone from being bl unlocked and rooter on stock firmware?
do i need to stop this from happening?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's a paid service for unlocking bootloaders on certain US Snapdragon devices. If you update to the March Security Patch or later the bootloader can't be unlocked. You can turn off the Auto Update function. There are a number of features you'll lose. Warranty (Knox will be tripped), Samsung Pay and Pass. You will also lose Secure Folder and Samsung Health however they may be able to get restored. All data is lost as well as any option to update the device and expect the bootloader to remain unlocked. You can review the details here.
[Android][UNSAMLOCK] Bootloader Unlock for Samsung US/Canada Devices
This thread is @svetius approved Important notice: Do not update to April 2023 security update (XXXXXXXXXXWCX) or later. Examples: G998USQS6EWCA, N986USQU4HWD1. Samsung has patched the bootloader unlock again on those updates. NOTE: The OneUI...
forum.xda-developers.com

if this is T-Mobile US (or any US snapdragon version including unlocked, network free) you'll only be able to unlock your bootloader via the above mentioned type of method which isn't cheap as I understand it.

Personally I would need to see a custom rom with a whole lot of functionalities I would use before I opted for this method. If rooting your device is a priority it would seem to make more sense to aquire a Snapdragon or Exynos variant with an unlocked bootloader. The reason for buying a US Branded device, besides a generous trade in allowance are carrier features. If you root a carrier device you'll lose a number of these advantages.

varcor said:
Personally I would need to see a custom rom with a whole lot of functionalities I would use before I opted for this method. If rooting your device is a priority it would seem to make more sense to aquire a Snapdragon or Exynos variant with an unlocked bootloader. The reason for buying a US Branded device, besides a generous trade in allowance are carrier features. If you root a carrier device you'll lose a number of these advantages.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i thought if i bl unlock and root a stock firmware it just allows me to use twrp to make full backups so i can restore later and the root is for like hotspot stuff.
i know root disable samsung pay and something else but i thought all the carrier stuff still worked correctly

en11gma said:
i thought if i bl unlock and root a stock firmware it just allows me to use twrp to make full backups so i can restore later and the root is for like hotspot stuff.
i know root disable samsung pay and something else but i thought all the carrier stuff still worked correctly
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You should inquire about call features with the developer before you decide. IMHO you're sacrificing a lot of features for a hotspot.

Check list if I want to buy a S10 with the intention of rooting

I am looking for a phone to replace my rooted S5. One of the candidate is a second hand S10.
It is crucial that I am able to root the phone, and I was wondering how tricky the process is on this phone, and whether there are models where it might be impossible (perhaps Snapdragon based?), or if the baseband is above a certain version, or anything there are anything else that might impede the process I should pay attention to.
If anyone has successfully rooted their device in 2021 (ideally recently), please let me know.
Thanks.

A few fellow XDAers have done this recently. I assume you're speaking about a Snapdragon phone, which is where it gets tricky. The process requires payment to someone to perform the actual unlock... there are two providers (that I know of) that offer this service.
For the device, the bootloader revision is what's important - it needs to be old enough to allow this to work. In addition, once unlocked, it must REMAIN on this older bootloader otherwise you lose root. I believe you must be on BLv4 or older, which means it cannot be updated past Februrary of this year. The 5th character in the PDA/Phone build number (a number) from the right is what shows this version. For example, the March update for Verizon on the SM-G975U is G975USQU5GUBH, so that "5" means it's BL5.
My recent purchased phones were 5 and 6. I'm giving up on getting root, as I don't need it anymore. Sure, I'd prefer to have it, but it's getting too difficult and expensive to get it and I don't NEED it...
The two unlock providers I know about can be seen here (I have used neither myself, of course):
[Android][UNSAMLOCK] Bootloader Unlock for Samsung US/Canada Devices
This thread is @svetius approved Important notice: Do not update to April 2023 security update (XXXXXXXXXXWCX) or later. Examples: G998USQS6EWCA, N986USQU4HWD1. Samsung has patched the bootloader unlock again on those updates. NOTE: The OneUI...
forum.xda-developers.com
Samsung Development | SamPWND
Unlock your bootloader on USA Model Samsung Galaxy devices! Visit https://www.sampwnd.com and have the SamPWND team help you!
www.sampwnd.com

schwinn8 said:
A few fellow XDAers have done this recently. I assume you're speaking about a Snapdragon phone, which is where it gets tricky. The process requires payment to someone to perform the actual unlock... there are two providers (that I know of) that offer this service.
For the device, the bootloader revision is what's important - it needs to be old enough to allow this to work. In addition, once unlocked, it must REMAIN on this older bootloader otherwise you lose root. I believe you must be on BLv4 or older, which means it cannot be updated past Februrary of this year. The 5th character in the PDA/Phone build number (a number) from the right is what shows this version. For example, the March update for Verizon on the SM-G975U is G975USQU5GUBH, so that "5" means it's BL5.
My recent purchased phones were 5 and 6. I'm giving up on getting root, as I don't need it anymore. Sure, I'd prefer to have it, but it's getting too difficult and expensive to get it and I don't NEED it...
The two unlock providers I know about can be seen here (I have used neither myself, of course):
[Android][UNSAMLOCK] Bootloader Unlock for Samsung US/Canada Devices
This thread is @svetius approved Important notice: Do not update to April 2023 security update (XXXXXXXXXXWCX) or later. Examples: G998USQS6EWCA, N986USQU4HWD1. Samsung has patched the bootloader unlock again on those updates. NOTE: The OneUI...
forum.xda-developers.com
Samsung Development | SamPWND
Unlock your bootloader on USA Model Samsung Galaxy devices! Visit https://www.sampwnd.com and have the SamPWND team help you!
www.sampwnd.com
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. Does the Bootloader 5 restriction also applies on Exynos devices? I am uessing that might be why I had difficulties my recently purchased Tab S4.
Another question, can a bootloader be updated while the OS stays on an older version, or do they usually get updated together? For instance, if I find a phone that is still on Pie, is it likely be on an older baseband, or can a phone be on Pie AND be on a new baseband?

I don't know much about Exynos systems, but from what I gather they may be "normally rootable"... I don't believe there are as many restrictions on that platform (it seems to be a USA/EU thing to prevent rooting, primarily).
BL and OS seem to get upgraded together, generally speaking.

xAxB said:
Thanks. Does the Bootloader 5 restriction also applies on Exynos devices? I am uessing that might be why I had difficulties my recently purchased Tab S4.
Another question, can a bootloader be updated while the OS stays on an older version, or do they usually get updated together? For instance, if I find a phone that is still on Pie, is it likely be on an older baseband, or can a phone be on Pie AND be on a new baseband?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
nope- those can be unlocked whenever
they still can't be downgraded though damn...
I have both phones...snapdragon IS slightly better