yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy Note 3 General] rl421403:
HTC has lot to do to gain our trust back. But I am happy they are trying, at least. I like HTC one but I could not buy it because of HTC history. Bought S4 instead.

On the other hand Samsung does not give a sh*t about their customers. Also, I don't really think Samsung care about XDA anymore. Samsung sold more then 50M S3 and how many S3 customers come to XDA? I am guessing way less then or near 0.5% considering total 5M users on XDA.

But anyway, I don't think it's not their problem but ours. We are letting then do anything they want and we do nothing about it. If we want to send Samsung a message, we should stop buying their phone as you suggested.

I am not buying Samsung phone anytime soon. I am going for Nexus 5 as soon as it hits market in India. :)
[Galaxy Note 3 General] Chalao:
Alright, I should have mentioned that I don´t care about the warranty as long as rooting the Note 3 helps to make the region lock go away permanently.

Did anyone of you already try to root the device? How difficult is it going to be and how long would it take? Any geeks out there who are willing to share their experiences and give advice? Highly appreciated!
[Galaxy Note 3 General] rl421403:
Screen do not cover under warranty. Almost all manufacturers do not offer warranty over screen damage.

Also, in lot of countries rooting is legal but that does not obligate manufacturer to provide warranty on such devices.

For example, just like jailbreaking iphone is legal in US but Apple does not offer warranty on jailbroken phones.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] s2kdriver80:
I've read a couple of instances of people here saying that rooting will enable you to circumvent this region-lock issue completely but without details. Can someone actually confirm firsthand that they had experienced this region-lock issue (inserted home SIM, powered on, powered off, then inserted foreign SIM and discovered you're locked out)? And then rooted the phone, worked your magic, tried inserting the foreign SIM to find that it now works? And if rooting did solve the problem, what are the step-by-step instructions to properly defeat the region-lock? Thanks!
[Galaxy Note 3 General] wetsleet:
I think you missed the bit about the warranty having nothing whatsoever to do with the manufacturer? It is the statutory obligation of the retailer, the one who sold you the phone, not the manufacturer. I'm talking about the EU here, of course YMMV in the USA.

And it is not up to them to pick and choose which parts of the device the warranty covers - again, they are subject to the law of the land and can not just come up with capricious T&C statement like "we don't provide a warranty against the screen falling out". The device - all of it - has to be fit for purpose. Likewise, if the customer has modified the device, the retailer can not just say that excuses them of their warranty obligations - it would have to be shown that the modification caused the problem. So if you root the phone and the firmware you installed foobars the phone then that is not covered under warranty. But if the problem is not due to the firmware then they can not opt out of the warranty just because the phone was rooted. It is actually quite logical.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] Scootmien:
I'm sure i've seen a thread in these very hallowed pages where someone does exactly that. It can't be more than a couple of pages back at the most.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] s2kdriver80:
Do you mean another thread in this forum or somewhere in this same thread? I've followed pretty much every post in this thread, if it's in here, I must have missed it when I was quickly browsing through.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] Scootmien:
I meant another thread in this forum. I'm sure it's here somewhere. Apologies for any confusion :)
[Galaxy Note 3 General] Jade Eyed Wolf:
I'm sure it's just a matter of time before the development community figures out a way to collectively raise our middle fingers to Samsung by finding a way to disable/get around the region lock.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] wfire:
I certainly hope you are right!
[Galaxy Note 3 General] barokov:
I also can confirm that the unlocking with the proper region SIM card is not working.

My opinion is that the big problem for sh'tsung will be when the updates for S3, S4 and Note 2 will start rolling. I just can not imagine the reaction of the people, who buy these phones some time ago, when they go abroad and find that their device could not work with the domestic SIM cards! Than the disaster will be big. As I found, there are already OTA updated which includes the regional lock. So, the storm is coming.

We should push all the websites/blogs/forums related with the mobile communications to post information about this arrogant behavior of the sh'tsung. As many people know this, as soon we will get a solution! Please, post information in your region, as much as you can. The sadness in this case is non of the popular sites for mobile communications do not pay any attention about this and do not make anything to clear the situation. So, we have to do this.

P.S. - I made a contact with the chief service manager (got some connections) of the Samsung in my country and now waiting for it's answer about this problem.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] JU83:
I just spoke to an Australian Samsung representative and a Samsung Experience Store Rep and this is the information that I received, that all Australian Galaxy Note 3 models ( 4G 32GB only version Australia is getting :( ) are totally region unlocked.

Further she added that the phones from Kogan should also be totally region unlocked but could not 100% guarantee that. I asked whether all Australasian models would therefore be subject to the region lock and she presumed not and that the UK and US Region lock issue is most likely Carrier enforced in some way. This is slight conjecture, but may have some truth to it. I am still not sure I want to risk getting a 64GB Asian Variant though on the off chance this is not true.

If anyone has purchased an Australasian Galaxy Note 3 64gb variant can someone please verify that it is in fact region unlocked?

My other concern is that if you take a Note 3 to a service store to unlock and Kit Kat comes along will it relock it rendering the initial ( possibly not free) unlock void and re region lock your device again.

Too many Questions not enough answers!
[Galaxy Note 3 General] maidangisme:
[MENTION=4286793]JU83[/MENTION],

-First: Kogan sell phones to Australia all grey imported, They get stock from HK,UK and if you lucky they do stock Australia Version as well which has Triangle with tick inside, depend on your luck.

-Second: All Australia Verion are unlocked (Sim + Region), Australia has very tough policy to protect comsumers.

-Third: all phones buy from Kogan will not cover by Samsung, They are covered by by Kogan Themself.

-For More information, i suggest you to visit Whirlpool.net.au , All users there will tell you more about it.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] Chainfire:
Yeah I just added the network I'm using to the list and rebooted - but my connection still works. So it's definitely not just the CSC entries.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] dglx:
Region SIM Lock only effective on SIM home network?

There is a theory being advanced on a German site (www . heise . de / newsticker / meldung / Region-Lock-Samsung-S3-bekommt-SIM-Sperre-per-Update-1972042.html, xda won't let me post actual URL) suggesting that network locks may only take effect on the home network of any SIM card for which a MCC based network lock is in the CSC. I have not been able to verify this as I am in Europe right now. However, the outcome of your experiment casts doubt on that assumption.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] josch2k:
I think Samsung don't know what to do and try to get some time to think.

On 2.10 I called the german Samsung support and told them that I want to have an unlock key, because my Thai SIM (DTAC) is not working although I activated the mobile properly.

As they didn't know what to do they promised me to call me back.

Well today I recieved a call and this is what the Support Guy told me:

- It is intended that the phone will work with the Thai SIM.

- I habe to wait for some days thus that the phone recognizes "normal usage in the EU"

- After that it will unlock automatically.

- He could't tell me what "some days" exactly means. But in the case the SIM is still not working until the end of the next week (11.10.) I have to call back again.

Looks like that they try to find a solution to get out of that PR desaster...
[Galaxy Note 3 General] nhanda:
I just had a conversation with one of the Samsung Reps and she mentioned the phone once activated using a SIM card brought from the specific region should work worldwide.

I don't own an Android phone yet but hoping to get a Galaxy Note III before reading about this entire fiasco. Will be waiting for this entire blowout to subside and await the conclusion before buying the Note.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] wetsleet:
The question has been asked (twice) on Samsung's UK website Q&A (sadly more Q than A):

http://www.samsung.com/uk/consumer/...tphones/SM-N9005ZWEBTU-reviews/ask-and-answer

There is so far one response, but that is not from Samsung themselves, who have studiously avoided the question for over a week.

Maybe if more people post the same type of question they will be provoked to answer? Maybe not. But you have to word the question in a very vanilla way. Any hint of aggression or even assertiveness about your question, any suggestion that Samsung might be at fault, and all you get is a curt email back saying your question was not posted!
[Galaxy Note 3 General] htc6500uk:
nhanda - countless people have been given misinformation by Samsung and if you had read this thread before posting you would know that this is not true.

It would be helpful if posters either state which country they are in or referring to and/or update their profile so that others know.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] Chainfire:
From my Twitter ...

'nuff said !
[Galaxy Note 3 General] theronkinator:
It's not done by the list in the customer.xml as my S3 has a big list of blocked mcc numbers so someone would have noticed by now.

Big issue for me as I'm currently using a Nz sim in my EU s3 whilst abroad. I'll bring both the nz and aus sims back to the uk of people need to test.

Looks like chainfire has sorted it now anyway though.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] serdar013010:
Unlock code puman.ru

Just contacted puman.ru about the validity of sim lock. Got the response that after activating note3 with the code it will be unlocked forever. Not only for 14 days. Just wanted to share that with you.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] mathieulh:
You need both the CSC entries and the EFS/NVM lock set for the region lock to be enforced. If your device's network lock level is disabled, the region lock will not occur.

I gave extended details on how the lock actually works in this thread.

That's why using an Unfreeze or a NCK on the device will remove the region lock entirely.

---------- Post added at 03:40 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:24 PM ----------

As I have said and explained several times in this thread, the region lock requires BOTH the MCC list and a specific Network level lock set in the EFS (Exynos variant) or the NVM (Qualcomm variant).

That is why despite the fact that all new firmwares now have the MCC list, only newly produced devices have the lock.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] wimbelgium:
I use when I'm not in Europe a Senegal (Africa) sim card. Senegal does not seem to be in the blocked countries list of the EU version I have seen on some sites, can anyone confirm this than I don't have to wait anymore to buy a note 3..
[Galaxy Note 3 General] s2kdriver80:
Thanks for the info. Quickly went through the entire thread, but must have missed your details. So is "Unfreeze" and "NCK" apps? And I take it undoing the locks in the EFS/NVM is a relatively painless procedure? And lastly, this fix would apply to the new Galaxy S4s too, yes?
[Galaxy Note 3 General] Jacob Crane:
Negri Electronics

Just had a conversation with Negri Electronics online shop. They are aware of this issue and say that they sell both region locked and completely unlocked versions of Note 3. Completely unlocked - meaning it will work both in Israel (where I live) and worldwide with corresponding SIMs. They say that model 9000 is the locked one and 9005 is unrestricted. Negri indicate this difference quite clearly on their corresponding model pages.

They promised to refund me if after I purchase it, the phone will turn out to be restricted. I am aware of the fact that if it works in Israel, right now there is no certain way to know whether it would work with other country SIM.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] LuckyLinUK:
the only way to collectively raise our middle fingers is to no longer buy their crippled phones.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] Chainfire:
I don't think they're right, as I have the 9005 ...
[Galaxy Note 3 General] djudenne:
Me too I have N9005 and was not unlock for all country :(
[Galaxy Note 3 General] Chainfire:
I still need a tester for my unlocker ... :)
[Galaxy Note 3 General] lonelyw:
I can do that.

9005 model
[Galaxy Note 3 General] Chainfire:
You have a SIM that asks for a network PIN ?
[Galaxy Note 3 General] lonelyw:
yes
[Galaxy Note 3 General] Chainfire:
PM sent - hope you got root :)
[Galaxy Note 3 General] lonelyw:
delete
[Galaxy Note 3 General] Mr_Jones:
[MENTION=847956]lonelyw[/MENTION] : Works or not works. You edited your post.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] lonelyw:
Works :D :D:D, but I can't share it without Chainfire's permission.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] SupremeXXL:
Can you please be more specific ? Was your device locked ? Then You used chainfire's unlocker and you have a simfree n9005 now?
[Galaxy Note 3 General] lonelyw:
my device is N9005 UK model was region locked . I couldn't use SIM cards from outside of Europe (asking for network unlock pin), now after installing and running Chainfire's test apk, I can now use SIM cards from the middle east that I couldn't use before.

thanks Chainfire
[Galaxy Note 3 General] bilal1979:
Please give that apk ... i am waiting a device from uk as well and planned to return it back to uk for activation ... you will help me alot and save alot of time for me please
[Galaxy Note 3 General] lonelyw:
I need Chainfire's permission to do that
[Galaxy Note 3 General] jgaviota:
[MENTION=847956]lonelyw[/MENTION]

Just one more thing, you need to be rooted and that means you get a prompt on boot that knox is tripped, is that so?
[Galaxy Note 3 General] lonelyw:
Just wait, maybe Chainfire will release it tomorrow, I can't do that at the moment.

---------- Post added at 11:43 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:43 PM ----------

Yes
[Galaxy Note 3 General] bilal1979:
Thanks for you and for chainfires ... i am indeed waiting this

---------- Post added at 10:48 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:44 PM ----------

It will be great and really appreciated if he can release it with a fix of OTA as after rooting i cant use OTA As the device status changed to custom . Thanks for great achivment
[Galaxy Note 3 General] lonelyw:
I was sure that Chainfire would solve the region lock issue

---------- Post added at 11:51 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:48 PM ----------

the problem is you need root permission to unlock the phone :rolleyes:

but you can always use ODIN to update the phone
[Galaxy Note 3 General] bilal1979:
Once i receive it for sure i will root it and then i will have root permission but even once i have root permission i will still not able to ise OTA
[Galaxy Note 3 General] lonelyw:
It usually takes Samsung ages to release OTA updates for some regions, it is better to get updated roms from here or Sammobile
[Galaxy Note 3 General] bilal1979:
I am totally agree with you sir .
[Galaxy Note 3 General] Chainfire:
There'll be an app release soon enough.

If you don't want root for other reasons, it is indeed unfortunate you currently need it for this. Rooting (via CF-Auto-Root) does void KNOX warranty (irreversable), however, if you use the unroot option in SuperSU, and flash back a stock kernel and recovery, OTAs will work again. Note that it is possible to root without tripping KNOX warranty using a customized system partition, I'm sure someone has made or will make one sooner or later.

It is theoretically feasable to do this without root, but a lot tougher to make and maintain, with the information I currently have. I'm certain there is a way to improve this, I just haven't found it yet - and as I'm a full on root user, I doubt I will spend more time looking for it.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] bilal1979:
Thanks chainfire for your usual valuable work and information ... i am root user as well what i ment with keeping phone rooted still can use OTA feature by using your great app triangle away in NOTE 2 n7100 as i were using it since long ... so my note 2 was rooted and OTA was working fine but in NOTE 3 seems different story. As i tried triangle away but still showing device status custom

Thanks for your time and efforts
[Galaxy Note 3 General] uvaman:
CF alreday said that T. Away doesnt work for now.. Check dev CF thread...
[Galaxy Note 3 General] bilal1979:
I know that uvaman but wishing with the new release from our great developer to find away for solve this case.if possible .
[Galaxy Note 3 General] uvaman:
Aham :D Well If he has time and ideas how to fix it he will. So far things afe moving on and that's good.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] BullHorn7:
Is Chainfire's apk supposed to unlock all the phones for all the regions?

I might go get me a Note 3 if that happens..
[Galaxy Note 3 General] stevenkhan168:
I have some questions here:

1. Lock even it's an international version?

2. What if I travel abroad? I cannot use that country SIM card?

3. I bought the phone in my country, it's an international version, but I use a leaked firmware from other country, will it's blocked?
[Galaxy Note 3 General] Apo11on:
I hope you're going to obfuscate the code, and not use any GPL stuff, so you won't have to publish the source. Otherwise, Samsung will just take care of your exploit in the next OTA update and Kit Kat later. And they sure do know how to lock stuff - there is a reason, why the bounty for Verizon's and AT&T's S4 bootloader unlock is currently over $5,000
[Galaxy Note 3 General] Chainfire:
http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2470551
[Galaxy Note 3 General] DjeMBeY:
Hmmm.... I've managed to create CUSTOM system partition and KNOX flag wasn't triggered but it was ROOT-FREE... CSC with removed REGION LOCK has been implemented in system and it went fine. KNOX remained 0x0...

Unfortunately if you add ROOT files it doesn't work this way anymore.... Binary status stays OFFICIAL but System&Device become Custom..

This shows me that there is NO hash or any other signature in system partition and it is still unknown (to me) how the SuperSU gets detected....
[Galaxy Note 3 General] maidangisme:
What comes Next?

-Knox and now Region Lock, Samsung will piss off more and more customer.

-Hopely HTC will bring back feature like Sensation on their High End android phone: Removeable battery + SD card slot.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] onyxogen:
Is there some sort of an e-petition on this regarding that not only Note 3 is affected but also many older devices? I don't think Samsung is going to go through with this, there will be lawsuits etc., but I'm sure this takes time. (And we don't have time)
[Galaxy Note 3 General] betoNL:
I see you already own a great (proven)phone (GNote2) , so indeed, why not just wait to see how this, and possibly more issues (yes, the Gnote3 still have to prove itself on a daily use) will be dealt with, before buying another expensive gadget?

I have already some friends visiting me from Brazil here in Holland , that already decided to buy the excellent and MUCH CHEAPER, HASSLE FREE, totally unlocked OUT-OF-THE-BOX GNote2, instead of a always abusively priced newer flagship phone..

.Specially for Brazilians, that know that when flagship phones finally arrive over there (Brazil) they will be even (MUCH) more expensive....

Region lock ( no matter how relevant it is for many users or irrelevant it is for some others) is definitely another Samsung's low...

.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] Scootmien:
Until of course they install the next update from Samsung, then they will have the same region locking issue as the Note 3. Sad but true
[Galaxy Note 3 General] hagba:
Obviously you are right, they will most probably go to a great length to induce the Note II owners to trade them off for Note 3.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] mermaidkiller:
After the update to 4.3 or 4.4 on the Note 2 an option can be installing the Region Lock Away app when you are rooted. Great work, Chainfire !
[Galaxy Note 3 General] Chalao:
Alright, I think I read in an Android forum somewhere that the unlock code is just a temporary solution and after 14 days everything is back to "normal". I guess we have to wait at least another week until someone who had his/her phone unlocked by puman.ru can confirm that the unlock is indeed permanent.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] Chainfire:
Maybe I'm not following something, but neither what they say nor write reflects reality as reported by people who have tried activating with the proper SIM, then using a foreign one ?
[Galaxy Note 3 General] 1sagain:
Hey

I am just wondering... Is it asking for a SIM network unlock PIN?

Can you try purchasing an unlock code online (should be ~20-30$) and can you try unlocking it?

there are websites out there like cellunlocker.net you can try

If my guess is right... this is a different lock than a regional - lock on the note 3

Let me know how it goes!

---------- Post added at 05:20 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:18 PM ----------

Thank you so much!

Like many others, it is a different unlock entirely. Sim unlocking and region unlocking should not be confused with one another.

Great to hear!

---------- Post added at 05:30 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:20 PM ----------

Hey can you guys try buying an unlock code online too and try the codes

I hear you have to make sure the companies answers their chat or phones or emails to make sure they are legit.

But anyways, I believe you can get it to work by inputting the Unlock code (SIM unlock not region which usually asks for SIM network unlock PIN) and then it should work with other sim cards

I want to buy the Note 3 but I want more confirmations
[Galaxy Note 3 General] jmaciak:
Hi all!

I've gone into retail store here in Slovakia to see the Note 3 and hold it just for a while before I buy it. I've talked to the guy there for a while and he did not know anything about region locking, I have showed him this thread on XDA and showed him the images of the stickers on the box. He insisted that the phone they sell is not region locked so I asked him to bring a fresh box out of the storage and really, the box does not have any sticker. So it seems to me that there are still some GN3 here in Slovakia without the region lock, so my assumption is:

- I am going to buy it as quickly as I can, maybe there are not many of them

- If Sammy locks me later on with update, I am very sure I will be able to return the phone and demand full money return because I did not agree with the region lock at the moment when I bought it

Do you think this will be unlocked without region lock if it has no sticker on the box?