Galaxy S4/Note 3/Mega - Update Profile/PRL/HFA Fix for Sprint/Boost/Virgin Mobile/etc

Please DO NOT QUOTE this post in your reply.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DO NOT QUOTE THIS POST IN YOUR REPLY JUST TO THANK ME!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.

FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions):

Q: My phone is already rooted. How do I configure ES File Explorer to show hidden files and allow writes to system partition?
A: Do the following:
1) Install the latest version of ES File Explorer from the Play Store. Launch it.
2) On the upper left hand corner, there's a blue icon that looks like a phone superimposed on a globe. Click on that icon.
3) Expand the Tools section.
4) Scroll down and find "Show hidden files". Turn that on.
5) Scroll down and find "Root Explorer". Turn that on.
6) Grant root access.
7) Press on the word "Root" on "Root Explorer".
8) Choose "Mount R/W"
9) Look for "/system" and choose "RW"
10) Press OK button.
11) Done.


Q: I have just done a ##786# or ##7286# to factory reset the phone. The Update Profile fix didn't work for me. Are there extra steps I need to do?
A: Yes! Read post #1. See "This fix assumes the following:". Read assumption #5, 6, 7, and 8!

reserved #2

reserved #3

ecs87 said:

You're the man. I've been looking for a Note 3 HFA loop fix. Figured since the carrier partition got corrupted on the Sprint Note 2 phones that it'd be doing the same on the Note 3.

Is there any chance of posting a zip with the carrier partition/folder? Or is there sensitive information in there?

Sent from my SPH-L900. Please hit the thanks button if I helped you out!

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

I believe there are a couple or so sensitive info in the properties.db when I took a look at it using SQL Lite. I'll see if I can change the values a bit to make it more generic. I'm thinking though that the .chameleon.hash is an MD5 hash of the entire contents of /carrier. If a file is changed manually, the hash won't match and it won't work. In fact to see if this is the case, I put a different .chameleon.hash yesterday just to play around with it. After I rebooted the phone, MDN, MIN, and Profile 1 got wiped out and I had to reflash the phone again. The /carrier folder also got reverted back as if you did a ##786# on the phone.

I just attached carrier.zip in the first post. Enjoy.

Unzip contents of zip file in /carrier so that the files/folders would look like the attached screen shots in the first post.

Please give it a try and let me know if it works for you.

Thanks.

davidl1986 said:

Thanks so much for uploading the carrier zip. You saved my phone! It mostly worked, in that after ##72786# and then entering my mdn and msid I was able to finally get my s4 on boost to update my prl and profile. However, it is still trying to do the hfa and has not completed that. And every time I reboot it tries to activate. Also, I now have data back, but only 1x. When I was on the phone with Boost last night they said there might be some problems in my area, so all of the remaining issues might be due to that. I will post an update if/when something changes.

In any case, thank you so much for saving my phone!

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

You must do assumptions #5 thru #7 before applying the fix. I ran into HFA if I didn't do those steps. Manually entering MDN and MIN via ##phone's MSL# didn't work for me. Had to flash it. Same with Profile 0 and 1. Used DFS.

BTW, Update Profile works via WiFi I believe. So connect your phone to WiFi to test. This way you're not dependent on the strength of Sprint signal wherever you are.

For those who got it working,which phone(s) did you get it to work? I'd like to take a survey so I can update the original post.

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

Update PRL didn't work... How about Update Profile?

You can zip your original /carrier folder for backup purposes. Not sure why your /carrier folder you copied in SD card would get wiped out. I put mine in a sub folder in external SD card (not internal SD card) ... something like /ROM/carrier.

Anyone else have issues with update PRL?


Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

Let's wait until another Sprint Note 3 user provide feedback. I don't have a Sprint Note 3 to test.

In the meantime, try reflashing your MDN, MIN, and Profile 1 as described in the steps in post #1. Reboot the phone and try the update again.

Thanks.

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

Look in my flashing thread. No SIM fix is in the FAQ.

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

TTmaster99 said:

Same thing, Update Profile also didnt work.

It work in a sense that it popped up and tried to connect to the network. But then it say the exact error as mentioned above.

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

Are you able to do Update Profile in the "original" phone?

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk