[Galaxy Note 3 Themes and Apps] hzh:
Successfully updated to KITKAT without reactivating the region lock- N9005

Hello everyone, this might help:

I have mentioned here before that I was able to update my phone to the xxudmj7 baseband (same build number) (which is not supported by regionlock away) by setting a fake official system status with wanam xposed and using ota updating on my stock (rooted) rom (was rooted on mi7 build and mi6 baseband and unlocked via regionlock away and using my phone in the Middle East- Lebanon). After the update I was surprised that my n9005 was not relocked. After updating the system I was still rooted.

(For anyone who wants to know the details about what I have done exactly to update OTA, please refer to page 58 of this forum)

I also performed a factory reset for my phone later and after the reset my phone was still rooted (supersu was still present) but regionlock away was not installed. Even with regionlock away not present on my system I was still region unlocked and the lock was not reactivated.

After that, I was eagerly waiting to do the same and update my phone to kitkat when it arrives OTA to Lebanon. It arrived last week. I was happy; however, after downloading the update package, when I clicked install and the phone entered the recovery mode to install the update, I received an "unknown error" at 27%, the system restarted and I had a notification saying: "Failed to update firmware. Try again using a computer software (Kies) or visit a Samsung service center." I tried over and over again with the same error occurring.

After that I decided to use Kies on my laptop. Thankfully, everything went fine and the kitkat update was installed on my phone. The best part was that my n9005 was still unlocked and the region lock was not reactivated. All my data and applications were intact. However, after the update, I have lost the root access and all my root apps were useless, but who cares, I am on kitkat now and I can root again if I want.

It is noteworthy to mention that now, the android build on my phone is the Arab version (build number and baseband number are the same: N9005XXUENC2) with CSC: NB2 (XSI) which is the Middle East version. A weird thing is that given that my phone is a European model that is region locked to Europe as written on its box, in the "about device" in the options menu in the end it says: United Arab Emirates (with some weird numbers that I do not understand what they mean).

Last but not least, given that some people are questioning that maybe it is the CSC that is responsible for the region lock, I started to think so myself given what happened in my phone's case. May be the updates I have received were with the Middle Eastern CSC (given that I have updated through the Middle Eastern servers) and maybe that is why my phone was not relocked after updating and after my CSC have changed (I remember that I have checked the CSC when I brought the phone and it was a UK CSC). I am no expert, but probably I am now unlocked because my CSC is now Middle Eastern. Previously I used to think that the EFS partition was responsible for the lock and that the unlocking via regionlock away was somewhat similar to what Samsung claimed regarding unlocking after a 5 min call with a compatible SIM from the same region and that this was the reason behind not being locked after my update, but now I started to change my mind about what is responsible for the lock.

Enough with this talk, I just want to say that my phone is now better than ever on the new android, faster, smoother and the battery lasts forever as compared to before.

Now, I hope that some of those N9005 owners that are rooted and unlocked via region lock away and who are still on the older firmware would want to try to update their phones and share their experience. I searched a lot on the internet and never found any clue on somebody unlocking an N9005 running on kitkat. At least this way some of the experts here can conclude the exact cause of the lock and can come up with a solution for those who want to unlock their Kitkat N9005. I feel that I am the only one who updated my phone like this :p. I acknowledge chainfire's effort with regionlock away and want to thank him for unlocking my phone, but he seems uninterested in updating the application to make it work on kitkat.