Database Develop

Samsung Galaxy S 5 unlocked but region locked and triple sim adapter is blocked

Just a word of warning for potential buyers that the region locking on the Samsung galaxy S5 is different to that on my Note 3. My note 3 is unlocked and can use different sims and software update without issues.
But had a Samsung Galaxy S5 for more than a week, got it before UK official launch as it was a Korean model 32GB LTE snapdragon version, it was unlocked and was able to use several different sims from various UK networks but couldnt software update as phone would keep asking for SKT (south korea telecom) sim for software update even though would work with other UK sims for calls data and text for more than a week of me using phone. worked fine for streaming thousands of songs via google music and deezer and calls and texts but no luck with software update. see alert shown by phone on attempting to do software update https://plus.google.com/108877366358490804054/posts/X38mPrxYHmf
wireless charging worked fine though with Qi insert as shown on my youtueb uploads for the S5 which can be seen from my tagline below
Just a heads up to people wanting to import a Samsung galaxy S5 from abroad that their region locking is getting worse with every new phone.
Dont have the S5 anymore and wont be buying a samsung phone again..... due to region locking blocking features... like fingerprint scanner use in ebay app in the UK even though unlocked phone and also samsung has blocked use of triple sim adapters as it has blocked the loading of sim app need for triple sim adapters to work. The same adapters work fine on my s4 and note 3. The adapter was inserted correctly as my main sim works through the adapter but cant access the extra sims as samsung has blocked the sim app from launching on the S5 but works fine on S4 and note 3 and other phones.

Not sure about internationally, however North America region lock seems to be disabled if you first activate with the carrier that the phone was built for and then unlock. If you just buy a phone from a carrier that has it region locked and you never activate it with them, you will have issues.
bubblesmoney said:
Just a word of warning for potential buyers that the region locking on the Samsung galaxy S5 is different to that on my Note 3. My note 3 is unlocked and can use different sims and software update without issues.
But had a Samsung Galaxy S5 for more than a week, got it before UK official launch as it was a Korean model 32GB LTE snapdragon version, it was unlocked and was able to use several different sims from various UK networks but couldnt software update as phone would keep asking for SKT (south korea telecom) sim for software update even though would work with other UK sims for calls data and text for more than a week of me using phone. worked fine for streaming thousands of songs via google music and deezer and calls and texts but no luck with software update. see alert shown by phone on attempting to do software update https://plus.google.com/108877366358490804054/posts/X38mPrxYHmf
wireless charging worked fine though with Qi insert as shown on my youtueb uploads for the S5 which can be seen from my tagline below
Just a heads up to people wanting to import a Samsung galaxy S5 from abroad that their region locking is getting worse with every new phone.
Dont have the S5 anymore and wont be buying a samsung phone again..... due to region locking blocking features... like fingerprint scanner use in ebay app in the UK even though unlocked phone and also samsung has blocked use of triple sim adapters as it has blocked the loading of sim app need for triple sim adapters to work. The same adapters work fine on my s4 and note 3. The adapter was inserted correctly as my main sim works through the adapter but cant access the extra sims as samsung has blocked the sim app from launching on the S5 but works fine on S4 and note 3 and other phones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

risestar2 said:
Not sure about internationally, however North America region lock seems to be disabled if you first activate with the carrier that the phone was built for and then unlock. If you just buy a phone from a carrier that has it region locked and you never activate it with them, you will have issues.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You have any way to unlock it with no issue in the future?

risestar2 said:
Not sure about internationally, however North America region lock seems to be disabled if you first activate with the carrier that the phone was built for and then unlock. If you just buy a phone from a carrier that has it region locked and you never activate it with them, you will have issues.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The phone is already unlocked as I used different UK sims For more than a week. The region locking only becomes apparent when trying to software update the phone. The phone was on Kitkat but there was an update available but couldn't update due to the issue mentioned.

If it is the international model (G900F) just flash it with the stock UK S5 rom.

electric0ant said:
If it is the international model (G900F) just flash it with the stock UK S5 rom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you know if it's possible to root and flash something else without having removed the region lock?

Dont have the phone anymore with me and think the person having it now is flashing cyanogen mod rom for this phone.
Dont think will be getting a samsung phone again as tired of the pr1ck5 at samsung p1ssing off paying customers with some locking cr4p or the other. Presently still have 3 other samsung phones (S4 note 3 and note 1) and many of my playlists on youtube have loads of samsung phone related. But really fed up with samsungs locking idiocy and will look to sony or LG from now on.

electric0ant said:
If it is the international model (G900F) just flash it with the stock UK S5 rom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think the SK Telecom model is the same as the G900F.
I think Korea uses some different network brands.
---------- Post added at 09:32 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:31 AM ----------
bubblesmoney said:
Dont have the phone anymore with me and think the person having it now is flashing cyanogen mod rom for this phone.
Dont think will be getting a samsung phone again as tired of the pr1ck5 at samsung p1ssing off paying customers with some locking cr4p or the other. Presently still have 3 other samsung phones (S4 note 3 and note 1) and many of my playlists on youtube have loads of samsung phone related. But really fed up with samsungs locking idiocy and will look to sony or LG from now on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't look at Sony.
You will receive software updates like 7 months after the release of that android version.
My Xperia Z still doesn't have kitkat.

Region lock on the 900A
I am looking to buy the galaxy s5 for use in several Sub-saharan African countries. I already have an old ATT sim with me and I will probably be ordering the 900A in/from the US and i want to make sure that the region-lock is not an issue. Will i be able to region unlock with an ATT sim card while in Africa or do i need to have someone make the 5min call for me while the phone is in the US? and is this call meant to be to or from the s5?
Thanks!

No one likes self serving restrictions by manufacturers or carriers. But Samsung is far from the only manufacturer doing things like this. And region locking is one of the easiest obstacles to overcome.
On single SIM phones at least removing the subsidy lock nullifies the region lock as well. In any event if you couldn't make a few calls in the area that the phone originated, you could simply have edited the region lock blacklist to circumvent the region lock.
.

bubblesmoney said:
Dont think will be getting a samsung phone again as tired of the pr1ck5 at samsung p1ssing off paying customers with some locking cr4p or the other. Presently still have 3 other samsung phones (S4 note 3 and note 1) and many of my playlists on youtube have loads of samsung phone related. But really fed up with samsungs locking idiocy and will look to sony or LG from now on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes that completely legal regioin lock this discourages grey market selling and scams
does this mean you arent buying blu rays or DVDs??

-PiLoT- said:
yes that completely legal regioin lock this discourages grey market selling and scams
does this mean you arent buying blu rays or DVDs??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had the S5 but no longer have it. Bought the one plus one which is half the price but 64gb and miles better with no region locking crap and call recording apps work on it unlike on my several samsung phones. Call recording apps did work earlier on samsung phones and after software upgrades by samsung they no longer work on them. But they work on other android phones. So samsung is deliberately gimping android with their "updates". Sane way triple sim adapters don't work on the S5 but they do on my s4 and note 3 and other phones.
Coming to your reference to dvd and bluray. .. i don't but them anymore as have several paid digital subscription packages and don't buy dvd and bluray anymore as realised i haven't bothered to open the packs of several of my earlier purchases.
Several other android manufacturers don't region lock or block call recording apps or triple sim adapters so there are better and cheaper options.

bubblesmoney said:
I had the S5 but no longer have it. Bought the one plus one which is half the price but 64gb and miles better with no region locking crap and call recording apps work on it unlike on my several samsung phones. Call recording apps did work earlier on samsung phones and after software upgrades by samsung they no longer work on them. But they work on other android phones. So samsung is deliberately gimping android with their "updates". Sane way triple sim adapters don't work on the S5 but they do on my s4 and note 3 and other phones.
Coming to your reference to dvd and bluray. .. i don't but them anymore as have several paid digital subscription packages and don't buy dvd and bluray anymore as realised i haven't bothered to open the packs of several of my earlier purchases.
Several other android manufacturers don't region lock or block call recording apps or triple sim adapters so there are better and cheaper options.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
did you research if the s5 was region locked, or had issues with call recording apps or sim adapater issues before you bought it. or did you buy it assuming they would work?

-PiLoT- said:
did you research if the s5 was region locked, or had issues with call recording apps or sim adapater issues before you bought it. or did you buy it assuming they would work?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did research like i do all my purchases. My opinions are just that. ... my opinions!
Are you a Samsung employee or funded by samsung in any manner!
edit: If you see my youtube videos for the S5 you might notice that i had uploaded my video BEFORE the UK release date as it was imported from korea.

bubblesmoney said:
I did research like i do all my purchases. My opinions are just that. ... my opinions!
Are you a Samsung employee or funded by samsung in any manner!
edit: If you see my youtube videos for the S5 you might notice that i had uploaded my video BEFORE the UK release date as it was imported from korea.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
region locking isnt an opinion. its an actual thing
heres my point
you want to buy a phone, you want it to have multi sim adapters support, no region locking and ability to record in calls.
you do your research like you do "all your purchases"
then you buy a device knowing these things wont work. then you ***** about samsung doing it anyway?

Dude pull that bee out of your bonnet. Dint you have anything better to do than dig up a few months old thread of mine!
Triple sim adapters work on the S4 and note 3.
Call recording apps do work on android phones and even older samsung phones and other new android phones and don't work on new or software updated older samsung phones.
Yes i know what region locking is.
I now choose to spend my money on other companies android products which i think are better. If that bothers you then that is not my problem. I have better things to do today than argue on the Internet with someone i don't know.
Good night.

bubblesmoney said:
Dude pull that bee out of your bonnet. Dint you have anything better to do than dig up a few months old thread of mine! .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didnt actually dig it up, read back a page
bubblesmoney said:
Triple sim adapters work on the S4 and note 3.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But research you said you did said it wouldnt on the s5
bubblesmoney said:
Call recording apps do work on android phones and even older samsung phones and other new android phones and don't work on new or software updated older samsung phones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But you said you did research so you knew this
bubblesmoney said:
Yes i know what region locking is.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No one said you didn't. ever
bubblesmoney said:
I now choose to spend my money on other companies android products which i think are better. If that bothers you then that is not my problem. I have better things to do today than argue on the Internet with someone i don't know.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My issue isnt with you buying anything. my issue is with you being such a vocal detester of certain features or lack thereof, when you bought them knowing full well they had these things wrong with them because you did the proper research.
why would you even buy a phone that you know wont work the way you want, better yet why moan about samsung doing this. even though you knew they did it before you bought it
bubblesmoney said:
Good night.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

One last time. .. my trile sim adapters did work then on my note 3 and S4 but they didn't on the s5. That was my experience as I hadn't come across posts regarding that it didn't work on the S5. The adapter actually 'works' on the s5 too in the sense that the sim number 1 works via the connector but the other sims can't be used as samsung blocks the launch of the sim app but it doesn't get blocked on older samsung phones. Ps. they work on iPhones and other android phones.
Getting to call recording apps. . They did work on s4 and note 3 and stopped working on note 3 after software updates. Sometimes software have glitches so I gave them the benefit of the doubt but since on the newer s5 it didn't work either and works on other new android phones like my one plus one it is my understanding that samsung is blocking some features which you can gather if you read up more on the topic.
As explained AGAIN above and
in my personal experience the triple sim adapters worked in s4 and note 3 (but not after software update indicating it is samsung doing the blocking) and didn't work on the s5.
Call recording still works on loads of android phones including my one plus one. It used to work on my older samsung phones till later software updates and didn't Work on the S5.
If you need more of my reasons why I think the are better ones out there than the S5....
water proofing is **** as shown in my videos. Sony is better.
Internal memory is loads better on cheaper phones like the one plus one.
Camera is worse than much cheaper one plus one.
Speaker is much louder on the one plus one.
Battery life "without cutting back any features" is better on the one plus one. But would be better on s5 using that black and white ultra power saving mode which stops many features working.
Edit. I still have my note 3 and note 1 and s4 but I do like my gadgets and have other 6 android phones, 5 android tablets and 2 android mini pc's and ipad air. So after owning the and using many other android devices which I no longer have my personal impression of the S5 is that there are better ones out there.
If the above bothers you then not much I can do but say agree to disagree. Cheers.

eezeh said:
I am looking to buy the galaxy s5 for use in several Sub-saharan African countries. I already have an old ATT sim with me and I will probably be ordering the 900A in/from the US and i want to make sure that the region-lock is not an issue. Will i be able to region unlock with an ATT sim card while in Africa or do i need to have someone make the 5min call for me while the phone is in the US? and is this call meant to be to or from the s5?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ignore some of the apologists for Samsung on this thread trying to pester people who purchase their own android devices unlike the usual reviewers on many websites who get their free review phones and do your own research before spending your money.
Word of warning even when buying an unlocked or no region lock samsung phone in a country with no region lock, it can subsequently get region lock if you do any software updates while traveling or moving to another country with region lock as shown long time ago in the Note 3 thread (thread with hundreds of posts) http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=47664261&postcount=1380 As you can see paying customers who bought unlocked (no region lock phones) samsung phone later got region lock with software update while travelling and working in the Eu and their phone would no longer work with their home country sim. Please note phone was bought from official samsung store and not so called grey market what ever that term grey market may mean! So any person who travels and works across countries or even travelling abroad and wants to use roaming or local sims would be at risk of region lock unless they never want to update their phone or need to resort to hacking the software which most wont be able to do.

Mod Edit
Thread Closed
ronnie498
Forum Moderator

[Q] UAE camera in the US - Any caveats?

Bought a EK-GC110 off Amazon. Stated as "New, not refurbished" but price was more along the lines of a used / refurbished, so I was OK if it arrived refurbished (it did). However, it's a UAE "model".
Any caveats before I get too attached to it? Obviously there's no warranty regardless, but I don't want a month later to find out some feature won't work because it's a UAE model and I'm in the USA (not even sure what would be a problem, but...)
Thanks

wifi version has identical hardware worldwide.
even if someday you find a feature that doesn't work you could just flash the official rom for the US version, but I think the software is the same everywhere too.

thedicemaster said:
wifi version has identical hardware worldwide.
even if someday you find a feature that doesn't work you could just flash the official rom for the US version, but I think the software is the same everywhere too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey thanks for the reply. So nothing you can think of that may be 'different' - If I recall there's a few extra wifi channels that the rest of the world has that the USA doesn't - that's fine obviously, I just want to make sure there's not say frequencies this UAE version wouldn't have that the US would. Or some encryption or - I don't even know what else but if it's the same, no problem.
Thanks

I have the same camera.
Im looking to restore it back to factory after root but am not sure what firmware to use. Also, it seems i would benefit from using another regions firmware based on what you said. Is that correct?

4G/LTE Samsung tablets also region locked?

I saw a surprising note on clove.co.uk I think it was, they said all Samsungs shipped after 2013 are region locked. This was a note on the bottom of the page for a Tab S2 LTE. They went as far to say they were no longer selling sealed boxes because they are region unlocking all devices before selling to international buyers.
Can anyone confirm/deny there's a region lock on Samsung's 4G/LTE tablets? Thanks.

midnightrider said:
I saw a surprising note on clove.co.uk I think it was, they said all Samsungs shipped after 2013 are region locked. This was a note on the bottom of the page for a Tab S2 LTE. They went as far to say they were no longer selling sealed boxes because they are region unlocking all devices before selling to international buyers.
Can anyone confirm/deny there's a region lock on Samsung's 4G/LTE tablets? Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I dont think that's true. My Tab S LTE is international unlocked made in mid 2014 and sealed.
Tab A 9.7 lte I bought last year same thing.

Thanks. I didn't buy from them after I read that, I bought from another place to make sure I didn't get an open box item for the prices everybody is charging. It has not been shipped yet although it was supposed to go out Friday. I guess I will use it on wifi just to be safe until I get to the region where I bought it. Heading there for work anyway. BTW I didn't mean carrier unlocked, I meant region unlocked. Not sure if that came through ok.

midnightrider said:
Thanks. I didn't buy from them after I read that, I bought from another place to make sure I didn't get an open box item for the prices everybody is charging. It has not been shipped yet although it was supposed to go out Friday. I guess I will use it on wifi just to be safe until I get to the region where I bought it. Heading there for work anyway. BTW I didn't mean carrier unlocked, I meant region unlocked. Not sure if that came through ok.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I bought my 715Y from Amazon in USA.
It is unlocked but I still haven't gotten MM and it is out for 715Y for more than a week.
However my local SIM card works fine.
There was a time when you had to activate the SIM in the country you bought it from (mine is built in Vietnam, impossible for me) and then it was OK anywhere.
None of that merry go round with the 715Y.

Shofar1 said:
I bought my 715Y from Amazon in USA.
It is unlocked but I still haven't gotten MM and it is out for 715Y for more than a week.
However my local SIM card works fine.
There was a time when you had to activate the SIM in the country you bought it from (mine is built in Vietnam, impossible for me) and then it was OK anywhere.
None of that merry go round with the 715Y.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Pretty much all of them are built in Vietnam.

In the end I couldn't find anyone to ship me an LTE model so I got the wifi only model which kinda sucks but is ok for now. I couldn't get the Exynos version either, the stores that would ship here only had the new one. I got a T819 with the Qualcom. I'll try to pick up an LTE version when I go to Europe for work later. Thanks guys.

ashyx said:
Pretty much all of them are built in Vietnam.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah it even says "designed and built in Vietnam" Kinda interesting, I had no idea Vietnam was a high tech center or that Samsung had a facility there.

Samsung UK support says LTE tablets are definitely region locked. I don't know if I believe them since they were trying to push me to buy a tablet in my country- which has no Samsung store, and no Samsung presence except for a company that is the "official importer" that has nothing in stock and doesn't import the tab s2 in lte anyway. I call B.S. and I would bet money the tablets aren't region locked like you guys seem to be saying. But I can't prove it until I see an LTE tab box with the region lock warning.

My S2 bought in Hungary died the day after i took it to the usa and put in a local sim. Specially the imei and the baseband went null. Hungary tech support says it's due to the out of region sim. Believe it or not.

The whole thing is kinda stupid. It seems to make some sick kind of sense with phones from a corporate strong-arming the customer point of view. On the phones they say you have to make an actual 5 minute voice call to unlock, they specifically say using data won't work. The whole point of an LTE tablet is not to make calls, although you can. It's supposed to keep you connected when you're away from wifi. So what are people supposed to do? Hold up a ten inch brick to their heads and make a 5 minute call to region unlock it?
The phones that are region locked are supposed to come with a warning sticker on the box. Unless your tablet packaging specifically warns of the region lock I call B.S. on Samsung support on this topic. Otherwise they've been reasonably helpful.

N9500 UK - anyone used this and is it any good?

Unfortunately in the UK, the only way to get the Deep Sea Blue variant would be to buy the N9500. I understand that this was built specifically for China markets, but it should have the right network frequencies for the UK. I was just wondering if anyone has bought one of these before, and whether there's any quirks in the device compared to the UK model? Cheers

Using Note8 N-9500 for 3 weeks now
doubleluckstur said:
Unfortunately in the UK, the only way to get the Deep Sea Blue variant would be to buy the N9500. I understand that this was built specifically for China markets, but it should have the right network frequencies for the UK. I was just wondering if anyone has bought one of these before, and whether there's any quirks in the device compared to the UK model? Cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes. Note 8 N-9500 is Hong Kong/China version. I have been using it for 3 weeks now, but I would not recommend it.
I have Hong Kong version. (China version doesn't support Google Play Store. Avoid it!)
Here are some negative things that I found out so far.
1. It works perfectly with UK network frequencies, however, you can't enable VoLTE or wifi cailling.
This is really downside. it keeps saying my current software does not support VoLTE.
2. It doesn't have Samsung Pass. Some apps require it to log in with your bio info (cf. finger print etc.), so it is bit annoying.
3. Android Pay works fine.
I have not use Samsung Pay yet, but Samsung Pay is registered as Hong Kong so you will get promotions from Hong Kong market only and you can't change it.
4. If you contact customer service through handset it automatically connect with Samsung Hong Kong Service centre. ha ha
I have tried to change it with other CSC roms such as Europe versions, but Note 8 N-9500 uses Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 not Exynos as Europe or Korean version.
At this point as far as I know it is impossible to use other CSC roms.

twotoy said:
Yes. Note 8 N-9500 is Hong Kong/China version. I have been using it for 3 weeks now, but I would not recommend it.
I have Hong Kong version. (China version doesn't support Google Play Store. Avoid it!)
Here are some negative things that I found out so far.
1. It works perfectly with UK network frequencies, however, you can't enable VoLTE or wifi cailling.
This is really downside. it keeps saying my current software does not support VoLTE.
2. It doesn't have Samsung Pass. Some apps require it to log in with your bio info (cf. finger print etc.), so it is bit annoying.
3. Android Pay works fine.
I have not use Samsung Pay yet, but Samsung Pay is registered as Hong Kong so you will get promotions from Hong Kong market only and you can't change it.
4. If you contact customer service through handset it automatically connect with Samsung Hong Kong Service centre. ha ha
I have tried to change it with other CSC roms such as Europe versions, but Note 8 N-9500 uses Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 not Exynos as Europe or Korean version.
At this point as far as I know it is impossible to use other CSC roms.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you managed to flash Europe firmware successfully?
I've also got N9500 deep sea blue, the only reason I bought this version was for the colour!
I quite like it but would like to have volte

SM N9500
No I haven't. As far as I know EU firmware doesn't work with this SM-N9500.
I ask some questions to Samsung customer service Hong Kong, but I haven't got the answer yet.
If I do, I will post it here. cheers!

Note 8 n9500
doubleluckstur said:
Unfortunately in the UK, the only way to get the Deep Sea Blue variant would be to buy the N9500. I understand that this was built specifically for China markets, but it should have the right network frequencies for the UK. I was just wondering if anyone has bought one of these before, and whether there's any quirks in the device compared to the UK model? Cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the China variant of the N9500 in Deep sea blue
I I've had it for 3 months with no problems. I saw from one of the other posts that there had been some issues they had found with theirs. Just to comment on mine Samsung pay initially wouldn't let me load a card and work but now it works fine with no issues. Google play was installed and works without issue also. Unfortunately I have not been able to get VoLTE or WiFi calling to work as the firmware installed does not support the former and the latter, I'm still trying to get to work, but neither I or EE can come up with a reason why it doesn't. I've also not been able to install a European /UK firmware due to the Exynos/qualcom incompatability issue. mind you there are only a few reasons why you'd want to install the firmware as the phone works fine with the firmware installed bar the issues I've mentioned and f you can live without WiFi calling or VoLTE then there's no reason to use it. They are a great bit of kit as I they come with a much larger internal storage than is available over here. This was the reason I got mine in the first place as I store loads of books and music as well as videos and as an amateur photographer alongside my DSLR I still use this for photos as the shots are quite comparable in lots of cases. I hope this has helped, oh and one more thing, I i got mine new from a online phone store via ebay I ended up paying about £750-800 for it which was cheaper than the lower storage version that you can get in the UK so that's another plus

NDB19573 said:
I have the China variant of the N9500 in Deep sea blue
I I've had it for 3 months with no problems. I saw from one of the other posts that there had been some issues they had found with theirs. Just to comment on mine Samsung pay initially wouldn't let me load a card and work but now it works fine with no issues. Google play was installed and works without issue also. Unfortunately I have not been able to get VoLTE or WiFi calling to work as the firmware installed does not support the former and the latter, I'm still trying to get to work, but neither I or EE can come up with a reason why it doesn't. I've also not been able to install a European /UK firmware due to the Exynos/qualcom incompatability issue. mind you there are only a few reasons why you'd want to install the firmware as the phone works fine with the firmware installed bar the issues I've mentioned and f you can live without WiFi calling or VoLTE then there's no reason to use it. They are a great bit of kit as I they come with a much larger internal storage than is available over here. This was the reason I got mine in the first place as I store loads of books and music as well as videos and as an amateur photographer alongside my DSLR I still use this for photos as the shots are quite comparable in lots of cases. I hope this has helped, oh and one more thing, I i got mine new from a online phone store via ebay I ended up paying about £750-800 for it which was cheaper than the lower storage version that you can get in the UK so that's another plus
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No volte is a biggie for some.
Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

i wonder if the wifi calling would work on the proper csc for n9500's or if like my provider, regardless of what mods are done to the phone's software, if its not a device purchased from them, they black list imei. well i should say they white list theirs and simply block everything else.
people on rooted 9500:
have you manualy extracted csc from relevant provider firmware and copyed to system/omc?

Limeybastard said:
No volte is a biggie for some.
Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
/ appreciate that it must a deal breaker for some out. there .I guess its just never been such a huge issue for me really. Its the inactive wifi calling that's the pain in the rear for me. It's not that
its not working that annoys me the most, its more
that there is no actual reason why it shouldn't work. that's the most annoying thing. its just so usefull to have.
Sent from my SM-N9500 using Tapatalk

Question Anyone have U1 XAA 5BULH?

Short story long, I was on U1 XAA 4BULE, and I've been having major issues with app crashes (specifically DJI GO 4 for my drone) and I was going to downgrade to 4AUIP (Android 11 One UI 3.1). I downloaded the firmware, patched Odin, flashed the downgrade, failed, phone won't boot.
Turns out, my phone auto updated on reboot (I forgot to disable that in Developer Options) so it automatically updated to 5BULH, and now that it's on the baseband 5, it can't be downgraded to any baseband 4 firmware. So, easy enough right?, just flash 5BULH? Well, as far as I know, that was ONLY released as a baseband PATCH in the form of an OTA, and there's no actual firmware as far as I can tell.
Which basically means my phone is bricked until Samsung releases an actual 5XXXX firmware to flash with Odin.
I've been looking for awhile, checked Frija, SamFW, GalaxyFirmware, SamFrew, SamMobile, SamFirms, FirmwareX, and Sfirmware all with no avail, every latest firmware that shows is 4BULE
Unless someone has a baseband 5 full firmware for Odin, because I couldn't find anything online, than I guess I'm screwed until *5CVAA comes out, which is rumored to be on February 9th during the S22 launch event.
So, anyone have that firmware? Or am I just going stone age until February 9th when the new build is suppose to be released?

bANONYMOUS said:
Short story long, I was on U1 XAA 4BULE, and I've been having major issues with app crashes (specifically DJI GO 4 for my drone) and I was going to downgrade to 4AUIP (Android 11 One UI 3.1). I downloaded the firmware, patched Odin, flashed the downgrade, failed, phone won't boot.
Turns out, my phone auto updated on reboot (I forgot to disable that in Developer Options) so it automatically updated to 5BULH, and now that it's on the baseband 5, it can't be downgraded to any baseband 4 firmware. So, easy enough right?, just flash 5BULH? Well, as far as I know, that was ONLY released as a baseband PATCH in the form of an OTA, and there's no actual firmware as far as I can tell.
Which basically means my phone is bricked until Samsung releases an actual 5XXXX firmware to flash with Odin.
I've been looking for awhile, checked Frija, SamFW, GalaxyFirmware, SamFrew, SamMobile, SamFirms, FirmwareX, and Sfirmware all with no avail, every latest firmware that shows is 4BULE
Unless someone has a baseband 5 full firmware for Odin, because I couldn't find anything online, than I guess I'm screwed until *5CVAA comes out, which is rumored to be on February 9th during the S22 launch event.
So, anyone have that firmware? Or am I just going stone age until February 9th when the new build is suppose to be released?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Bummer! That's a genuine horror story of I ever heard one!
Tried searching for said firmware, but couldn't locate one anywhere.
It's either stone age for you or just pop into a service center and have them flash the phone for you. From what I can see you only tried flashing stock firmware, phone should still be under warranty...

Wish it was that easy, population of 98k in a town that is roughly 750km (~470mi) away from the next major city means a service centre doesn't exist for me lol. Purchased through a Carrier also requires an additional $15 monthly charge for warranty outside of Samsung which I obviously didn't pay for lol. Plus with shipping times around here (Amazon Prime shipping takes a week minimum), just to send the phone to Samsung for repair, I would be looking at close to a month there and back. Looks like I'm just better off just waiting for estimated 10 days until the 5CVAx/5CVBx firmware to be released.
I dusted off the old Windows Phone, it'll do for now I suppose. Hopefully they release something before February 9th haha
Thanks for looking around for the firmware.

bANONYMOUS said:
Wish it was that easy, population of 98k in a town that is roughly 750km (~470mi) away from the next major city means a service centre doesn't exist for me lol. Purchased through a Carrier also requires an additional $15 monthly charge for warranty outside of Samsung which I obviously didn't pay for lol. Plus with shipping times around here (Amazon Prime shipping takes a week minimum), just to send the phone to Samsung for repair, I would be looking at close to a month there and back. Looks like I'm just better off just waiting for estimated 10 days until the 5CVAx/5CVBx firmware to be released.
I dusted off the old Windows Phone, it'll do for now I suppose. Hopefully they release something before February 9th haha
Thanks for looking around for the firmware.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wish you luck man! Hope the release comes soon. And condolences on being stuck with A12.
Do let us know once you get it up and running again!

bANONYMOUS said:
Short story long, I was on U1 XAA 4BULE, and I've been having major issues with app crashes (specifically DJI GO 4 for my drone) and I was going to downgrade to 4AUIP (Android 11 One UI 3.1). I downloaded the firmware, patched Odin, flashed the downgrade, failed, phone won't boot.
Turns out, my phone auto updated on reboot (I forgot to disable that in Developer Options) so it automatically updated to 5BULH, and now that it's on the baseband 5, it can't be downgraded to any baseband 4 firmware. So, easy enough right?, just flash 5BULH? Well, as far as I know, that was ONLY released as a baseband PATCH in the form of an OTA, and there's no actual firmware as far as I can tell.
Which basically means my phone is bricked until Samsung releases an actual 5XXXX firmware to flash with Odin.
I've been looking for awhile, checked Frija, SamFW, GalaxyFirmware, SamFrew, SamMobile, SamFirms, FirmwareX, and Sfirmware all with no avail, every latest firmware that shows is 4BULE
Unless someone has a baseband 5 full firmware for Odin, because I couldn't find anything online, than I guess I'm screwed until *5CVAA comes out, which is rumored to be on February 9th during the S22 launch event.
So, anyone have that firmware? Or am I just going stone age until February 9th when the new build is suppose to be released?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you try samsung's smart switch recovery procedure ?

DaReDeViL said:
Did you try samsung's smart switch recovery procedure ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The programme says it can't connect to a USB File Transfer device when in recovery, and when booted in Download Mode, it says to open the recovery procedure, which asks for a recovery code from a previous OS install. Which I don't have because I've never used this before. So, looks like it needs a previously working instance before it can be used for recovery.
Also, entirely unrelated, but I made a video of my friends car with that quote in your signature haha
EDIT:
It appears Youtube removed the audio for copyright reasons lol.. never mind

Learned quite a few things today.
Samsung just released 5BVA1 for G998W. So I switched to that just so I have a phone. (I usually stay on U1 for faster updates which apparently isn't the case anymore)
It turns out that 5G is also working in my city now that I'm not on U1.. So for some reason Canadian 5G doesn't work on U1 even though they use the same basebands which is weird. It's like Bell is blocking non W phones from using it even with all the correct APN settings.
It's also pretty interesting that even on G998W XAC (unlocked Canadian CSC from Samsung with no bloat apps), it now says on setup "looks like you're using Bell, restart the phone" (with no way to close it, or ignore it) and after rebooting, it forcefully installs all of the Bell bloat apps as System apps that can't be uninstalled unless using ADB.
So there's literally no reason to buy a phone directly from Samsung now, at least in Canada. You get the carrier bloat apps by force no matter what with One UI 4.0 Might as well just buy them from the Carrier with the discounted prices for a 2 year term.
S21 Ultra from Samsung for Canada was $1999.99, though Bell it was $350 up front plus $50 a month for 12 months, works out to $1550. You literally save $450 CAD by getting a phone through a Carrier. Only reason to buy from Samsung was for the limited edition colours, and so the phone didn't have bloat apps preinstalled from the carrier. And personally, it's not worth $450 since you get bloat apps no matter what now, only for a special colour when replacement back panel which are like $60 CAD off eBay if you REALLY wanted a different colour lol
U1 XAA still doesn't have the bloat apps, but 5G doesn't work in Canada.
So it's either W XAC with Bloat and use ADB to remove it. Or U1 XAA with no bloat, but no 5G.
My phone is now working again, but those are some interesting findings, use this information as you will.

bANONYMOUS said:
Learned quite a few things today.
Samsung just released 5BVA1 for G998W. So I switched to that just so I have a phone. (I usually stay on U1 for faster updates which apparently isn't the case anymore)
It turns out that 5G is also working in my city now that I'm not on U1.. So for some reason Canadian 5G doesn't work on U1 even though they use the same basebands which is weird. It's like Bell is blocking non W phones from using it even with all the correct APN settings.
It's also pretty interesting that even on G998W XAC (unlocked Canadian CSC from Samsung with no bloat apps), it now says on setup "looks like you're using Bell, restart the phone" (with no way to close it, or ignore it) and after rebooting, it forcefully installs all of the Bell bloat apps as System apps that can't be uninstalled unless using ADB.
So there's literally no reason to buy a phone directly from Samsung now, at least in Canada. You get the carrier bloat apps by force no matter what with One UI 4.0 Might as well just buy them from the Carrier with the discounted prices for a 2 year term.
S21 Ultra from Samsung for Canada was $1999.99, though Bell it was $350 up front plus $50 a month for 12 months, works out to $1550. You literally save $450 CAD by getting a phone through a Carrier. Only reason to buy from Samsung was for the limited edition colours, and so the phone didn't have bloat apps preinstalled from the carrier. And personally, it's not worth $450 since you get bloat apps no matter what now, only for a special colour when replacement back panel which are like $60 CAD off eBay if you REALLY wanted a different colour lol
U1 XAA still doesn't have the bloat apps, but 5G doesn't work in Canada.
So it's either W XAC with Bloat and use ADB to remove it. Or U1 XAA with no bloat, but no 5G.
My phone is now working again, but those are some interesting findings, use this information as you will.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where did you find that 5BVA1 ???

Frija
Searched for SM-G998W XAC, it get's firmware directly from Samsung's servers so it'll always find the latest version Samsung has up.
I have it on Google Drive if you want it from a different mirror, or if you can't get Frija working cause it depends on Visual C++ x86 2008 and 2010 and even then it fails to load on Windows 11 sometimes which is why I stayed on Windows 10 lol.
SM-G998W XAC 5BVA1

bANONYMOUS said:
Frija
Searched for SM-G998W XAC, it get's firmware directly from Samsung's servers so it'll always find the latest version Samsung has up.
I have it on Google Drive if you want it from a different mirror, or if you can't get Frija working cause it depends on Visual C++ x86 2008 and 2010 and even then it fails to load on Windows 11 sometimes which is why I stayed on Windows 10 lol.
SM-G998W XAC 5BVA1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thank you very much i found it . The weird thing is that mine is GLW and it can not find it in software update. I already downloaded the TLS . do you know if there is any difference from XAC?

You could flash the U Firmware as well. It's up to #5 BL. I'm not sure what your limitations would be, but it's worth a shot. It's 5BULJ.

bANONYMOUS said:
Short story long, I was on U1 XAA 4BULE, and I've been having major issues with app crashes (specifically DJI GO 4 for my drone) and I was going to downgrade to 4AUIP (Android 11 One UI 3.1). I downloaded the firmware, patched Odin, flashed the downgrade, failed, phone won't boot.
Turns out, my phone auto updated on reboot (I forgot to disable that in Developer Options) so it automatically updated to 5BULH, and now that it's on the baseband 5, it can't be downgraded to any baseband 4 firmware. So, easy enough right?, just flash 5BULH? Well, as far as I know, that was ONLY released as a baseband PATCH in the form of an OTA, and there's no actual firmware as far as I can tell.
Which basically means my phone is bricked until Samsung releases an actual 5XXXX firmware to flash with Odin.
I've been looking for awhile, checked Frija, SamFW, GalaxyFirmware, SamFrew, SamMobile, SamFirms, FirmwareX, and Sfirmware all with no avail, every latest firmware that shows is 4BULE
Unless someone has a baseband 5 full firmware for Odin, because I couldn't find anything online, than I guess I'm screwed until *5CVAA comes out, which is rumored to be on February 9th during the S22 launch event.
So, anyone have that firmware? Or am I just going stone age until February 9th when the new build is suppose to be released?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just to let you know: BULH standalone for U1 has been released on SAMMobile

On Frija as well. Usually a faster download there.

bANONYMOUS said:
Learned quite a few things today.
Samsung just released 5BVA1 for G998W. So I switched to that just so I have a phone. (I usually stay on U1 for faster updates which apparently isn't the case anymore)
It turns out that 5G is also working in my city now that I'm not on U1.. So for some reason Canadian 5G doesn't work on U1 even though they use the same basebands which is weird. It's like Bell is blocking non W phones from using it even with all the correct APN settings.
It's also pretty interesting that even on G998W XAC (unlocked Canadian CSC from Samsung with no bloat apps), it now says on setup "looks like you're using Bell, restart the phone" (with no way to close it, or ignore it) and after rebooting, it forcefully installs all of the Bell bloat apps as System apps that can't be uninstalled unless using ADB.
So there's literally no reason to buy a phone directly from Samsung now, at least in Canada. You get the carrier bloat apps by force no matter what with One UI 4.0 Might as well just buy them from the Carrier with the discounted prices for a 2 year term.
S21 Ultra from Samsung for Canada was $1999.99, though Bell it was $350 up front plus $50 a month for 12 months, works out to $1550. You literally save $450 CAD by getting a phone through a Carrier. Only reason to buy from Samsung was for the limited edition colours, and so the phone didn't have bloat apps preinstalled from the carrier. And personally, it's not worth $450 since you get bloat apps no matter what now, only for a special colour when replacement back panel which are like $60 CAD off eBay if you REALLY wanted a different colour lol
U1 XAA still doesn't have the bloat apps, but 5G doesn't work in Canada.
So it's either W XAC with Bloat and use ADB to remove it. Or U1 XAA with no bloat, but no 5G.
My phone is now working again, but those are some interesting findings, use this information as you will.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How do you find the phone after the update? Issues with lagging? How is the battery life? I had to downgrade back to 11, I found the earlier firmwares too beta-like for daily use.