[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] AlpineMan:
Please DO NOT QUOTE this post in your reply. Just post your questions or comments if you have any. I DON'T CHECK OR RESPOND TO PM'S.

Proof of Concept:

Sprint Samsung Galaxy S4's & Note 3's that have been flashed to Sprint legacy accounts such as SERO or Sprint MVNO's such as Boost, Virgin Mobile, Ting, etc. suffer from the fact that you can't launch Update Profile / Update PRL unless the phone has been previously activated in a Sprint LTE account. If the phone has been factory reset using ##786#, the user will also lose the ability to run Update Profile/PRL. As a side effect, you will also get a Hands Free Activation nag each time you turn on/reboot your phone. Disabling/freezing certain apk's to fix the HFA nag unfortunately breaks the phone's ability to run Update Profile & PRL as well. The fix below gets rid of the HFA nag and enables Update Profile & PRL on flashed Sprint Samsung Galaxy S4 & Note 3 phones.

If you'd like to thank me, please click on the "Thanks" button instead of posting a thank you note. Let's save storage and bandwidth. And please, please, please...DO NOT QUOTE THIS POST IN YOUR REPLY JUST TO THANK ME! Again for those who don't know me, I do not accept personal donations. Instead I encourage you to donate to the American Cancer Society, to your local church, or any other not for profit charities. ;)

What good is running Update Profile anyway?

1) This will automatically correct your MDN and MIN settings on your phone if they were flashed incorrectly.

2) This will automatically correct the Profile 1 (or Profile 2) username and AAA key to get your 3G working.

This fix assumes the following:

1) You have a rooted phone. I've only tested on a TouchWiz-based rooted ROM (Sacs Custom ROM based on Android 4.3 on the S4 and stock rooted 4.3 on the Note 3). Post #44 reports that this doesn't work on Android 4.4.2.

2) You have access to another Sprint Galaxy S4 or Note 3 in which Update Profile/PRL already works. Let's call this phone "SOURCE". In theory once you have the appropriate files from "SOURCE", you can use these same files over and over.

3) You're looking to get Update Profile/PRL to work on another phone that is already flashed to Sprint (or Sprint MVNO). This will not work for any other provider! Let's call this phone "TARGET".

4) You have a spare microSD card to transfer files between "SOURCE" and "TARGET" phones.

5) You have flashed your "TARGET" phone's MDN and MIN using DFS, CDMA Workshop, etc.

6) You have flashed your "TARGET" phone's Profile 0 and Profile 1 using DFS, CDMA Workshop, etc.

7) Profile 0 must be accurately flashed. Profile 1's username can be flashed using a bogus value such as "johndoe@sprintpcs.com" if you do not know the actual username.

8) If you removed/disabled/froze system apk's / apps in your phone to get rid of the Hands Free Activation nag previously, make sure you put these back in their original state.

9) You have the ability to reflash your S4 or Note 3 back to Boost, Ting, Virgin Mobile, etc. in case your flash gets wiped out cuz you didn't follow the directions closely.

Steps to fix Update Profile / Update PRL: (idea is to copy SOURCE phone's /carrier directory to TARGET phone)

1) Use a root-enabled file explorer app such as Root Explorer or ES File Explorer to backup the /carrier directory from your "TARGET" phone to a microSD card.

2) Rename this /carrier folder in the microSD card to something like /carrierBackup.

3) Use the file explorer app to copy the /carrier directory from your "SOURCE" phone to the microSD card as well. Insert this microSD card to your "TARGET" phone.

4) Copy the contents of /carrier directory from microSD card to your "TARGET" phone. Overwrite the files that may already exist in your "TARGET" phone's /carrier directory.

5) Reboot the "TARGET" phone.

6) Run "Update Profile" or "Update PRL".

7) Done.

OR...Instead of doing steps 3 and 4, simply use ES File Explorer to unzip contents of attached carrier-GS4.zip OR carrier-Note3.zip file in /carrier so that the files/folders would look like the attached screen shots.

Pay attention to the content in the screenshots as well as file/folder permissions to make sure they match!

WARNING: DO NOT USE WINDOWS TO COPY/EXTRACT FILES TO/FROM PHONE. IT WILL OMIT THE HIDDEN FILE CHAMELEON.HASH. YOUR BOOST/TING/VIRGIN MOBILE/ETC FLASH WILL GET WIPED OUT IF THE CONTENTS OF YOUR /CARRIER FOLDER DON'T MATCH THE SCREENSHOTS BELOW.

Reboot the phone and perform an Update Profile.

The screen shots attached are contents of /carrier folder of "SOURCE" Sprint Galaxy S4 phone.

Give it a try and let me know if it worked for you and what phone(s) you used.

If you'd like to thank me, please click on the "Thanks" button instead of posting a thank you note. Let's save storage and bandwidth. And please, please, please...DO NOT QUOTE THIS POST IN YOUR REPLY JUST TO THANK ME! Again for those who don't know me, I do not accept personal donations. Instead I encourage you to donate to the American Cancer Society, to your local church, or any other not for profit charities. ;)