[Q] Cannot update prl after activating service with Straight Talk

Sherryluv5 · Feb 14, 2014

Before I describe my issue, I'd like to state that I have searched high and low for answer to no avail. I am using a Sprint Galaxy Note II that has been upgraded to 4.3 stock. It was unrooted when my issue began, but I went ahead and rooted it to try and help my problem.

Two days ago I signed up for Straight Talk Bring your own phone. I entered the provided code which took me to the hands free activation. The activation proceeded successfully (my phone said success) until it forced a prl update. It says it fails (each time it tries the prl update) and immediately reboots the phone. Once booted the activation attempts again and repeats over and over unless I cancel before it gets to the prl update. Strangely enough if I try to make a call it says my phone has not yet been activated, and yet a few times after waiting I can make calls (verified they are coming from my new number), but no data functions. If I then try and complete the activation (the incomplete notification remains), I'm back to square one.

Straight Talk techs have assured me that my phone is active throughout their system and the sprint towers are having no issues. They say other Note II's have been successful. My phone is communicating with the towers as I get the LTE icon during activation.

As an experiment I activated a Samsung Galaxy 3 (never rooted) using the same method and it went through fine. It updated the prl and is now working like a champ. I am now at wits end with my Note. I have faith that all would function if I could get the prl to update and I haven't a clue how to get there from here. I have also been unsuccessful obtaining my MSL even after rooting. A little history on the phone is that it was active with Sprint and it was rooted at 4.1. I returned it to stock to take the 4.3 update.
If anyone can help it would be greatly appreciated.

ecs87 · Feb 16, 2014

Sherryluv5 said:
Before I describe my issue, I'd like to state that I have search high and low for answer to no avail. I am using a Sprint Galaxy Note II that has been upgraded to 4.3 stock. It was unrooted when my issue began, but I went ahead and rooted it to try and help my problem.

Two days ago I signed up for Straight Talk Bring your own phone. I entered the provided code which took me to the hand free activation. The activation proceeded successfully until it forces a prl update. It says it fails and immediately reboots the phone. Once booted the activation attempts again and repeats over and over unless I cancel before it gets to the prl update. Strangely enough if I try to make a call it says my phone has not yet been activated, and yet a few times after waiting I can make calls (verified they are coming from my new number), but no data functions. If I then try and complete the activation (the incomplete notification remains), I'm back to square one.

Straight Talk techs have assured me that my phone is active throughout their system and the sprint towers are having no issues. They say other Note II's have been successful. My phone is communicating with the towers as I get the LTE icon during activation.

As an experiment I activated a Samsung Galaxy 3 (never rooted) using the same method and it went through fine. It updated the prl and is now working like a champ. I am now at wits end with my Note. I have faith that all would function if I could get the prl to update and I haven't a clue how to get there from here. I have also been unsuccessful obtaining my MSL even after rooting. A little history on the phone is that it was active with Sprint and it was rooted at 4.1. I returned it to stock to take the 4.3 update.
If anyone can help it would be greatly appreciated.

If it's active in their system and if their systems are compatible with your phone then you should be able to update the profile and PRL with no issues. Make sure you're connected to WiFi. There isn't much else you can do short of cloning another phones information onto it but then you won't get LTE. Are you sure it's active on their system and not still attached to Sprint?

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

Sherryluv5 · Feb 16, 2014

ecs87 said:
If it's active in their system and if their systems are compatible with your phone then you should be able to update the profile and PRL with no issues. Make sure you're connected to WiFi. There isn't much else you can do short of cloning another phones information onto it but then you won't get LTE. Are you sure it's active on their system and not still attached to Sprint?

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

It is active in their system and unfortunately I don't have another phone to clone. My prl says 2010. It will not update over wifi or LTE. I've tried factory resets (before I rooted). I'm sure it's something with my phone. I just can't pinpoint it. The only progress I have made is that I did manage to extract my MSL. The reps at straight talk said my phone would use sprint towers to activate. Also I'm wondering it my note would use the same prl at the S3 I activated. Thanks so much for trying to help.

jlmancuso · Feb 17, 2014

You can do *22804 and it should update the prl

Sent from my SPH-L900 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

ecs87 · Feb 17, 2014

Although I may be completely wrong here, I can only go off of experience saying I haven't had a problem updating the profile and PRL or getting service from a "flashed to" carrier, by replacing the original carriers settings. I've tried NUMEROUS Sprint and Boost Mobile PRLs on my phones (I've had a EVO 4G, S2, Nexus, EVO LTE, and Note 2 on Boost...yeah I change phones a lot) and never had an issue getting Boost Mobile service since they use Sprint's towers.

First off, is the Note 2 still active on Sprint? CALL Sprint and verify this. I know if I try to activate a Verizon iPhone 4 on Page Plus that it'll default to Verizon OTA programming and pull that data when I WANT it to pull PP's OTA data via *228 (or *22890). Same thing may be applied here (except with update profile instead of *228). Secondly, is the phone's MEID the same as what you registered on the account? Although I think the L900 is set to show the OEM MEID in settings, I've seen some US Cellular (and maybe Verizon) phones that have shown the OEM MEID in settings but when hooked up in diag mode through the computer showed the real MEID which was completely different. Just something else to consider to make sure you cover everything!

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

Sherryluv5 · Feb 17, 2014

ecs87 said:
Although I may be completely wrong here, I can only go off of experience saying I haven't had a problem updating the profile and PRL or getting service from a "flashed to" carrier, by replacing the original carriers settings. I've tried NUMEROUS Sprint and Boost Mobile PRLs on my phones (I've had a EVO 4G, S2, Nexus, EVO LTE, and Note 2 on Boost...yeah I change phones a lot) and never had an issue getting Boost Mobile service since they use Sprint's towers.

First off, is the Note 2 still active on Sprint? CALL Sprint and verify this. I know if I try to activate a Verizon iPhone 4 on Page Plus that it'll default to Verizon OTA programming and pull that data when I WANT it to pull PP's OTA data via *228 (or *22890). Same thing may be applied here (except with update profile instead of *228). Secondly, is the phone's MEID the same as what you registered on the account? Although I think the L900 is set to show the OEM MEID in settings, I've seen some US Cellular (and maybe Verizon) phones that have shown the OEM MEID in settings but when hooked up in diag mode through the computer showed the real MEID which was completely different. Just something else to consider to make sure you cover everything!

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

I tried and it said the number or code is invalid. I will try again when I have a stronger signal. Uploading screenshot of phone connection specs. They look abnormal, but I am not an expert. I am running sprint stock 4.3 rom that was updated with kies. It is rooted but only after issue started happening. The phone number shown is not a number that I have ever had with Spring of Straight Talk

ecs87 · Feb 17, 2014

Sherryluv5 said:
I tried and it said the number or code is invalid. I will try again when I have a stronger signal. Uploading screenshot of phone connection specs. They look abnormal, but I am not an expert. I am running sprint stock 4.3 rom that was updated with kies. It is rooted but only after issue started happening. The phone number shown is not a number that I have ever had with Spring of Straight Talk

MMM I think I know what's going on here. You need to change your MDN and MIN to something other than 000000xxxx. I think that's forcing a HFA loop every time you boot the phone. Are you familiar with CDMA workshop or DFS CDMA tool? You'll need one of these to possibly fix your problem. Essentially, i think your phone needs to update the profile. This wouldn't be a big issue but I think HFA is strictly sprint and update profile won't work until you get rid of the HFA nag without disabling SprintDM. Check out the two programs I mentioned.

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

Sherryluv5 · Feb 19, 2014

ecs87 said:
MMM I think I know what's going on here. You need to change your MDN and MIN to something other than 000000xxxx. I think that's forcing a HFA loop every time you boot the phone. Are you familiar with CDMA workshop or DFS CDMA tool? You'll need one of these to possibly fix your problem. Essentially, i think your phone needs to update the profile. This wouldn't be a big issue but I think HFA is strictly sprint and update profile won't work until you get rid of the HFA nag without disabling SprintDM. Check out the two programs I mentioned.

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

This might just work. I have CDMA workshop demo version but am unsure how to conduct the procedure. I really need to get it fixed because now hubby is in the hospital and has the s3. This is my only means of communicating with him when I'm not there. Wish I had the funds to just buy a note 2 that is unlocked but that is not an option right now.

ecs87 · Feb 20, 2014

Sherryluv5 said:
This might just work. I have CDMA workshop demo version but am unsure how to conduct the procedure. I really need to get it fixed because now hubby is in the hospital and has the s3. This is my only means of communicating with him when I'm not there. Wish I had the funds to just buy a note 2 that is unlocked but that is not an option right now.

If you're on a CDMA network, meaning your carrier didn't give you a SIM card, then having an unlocked phone does nothing for you. Straight talk might be CDMA and GSM though, never looked too much into it. Anyway, you're going to need to dial ##DIAG# in your dialer to bring up the "port" menu. Leave it on PDA and select Qualcomm USB settings or something along those lines. You should be at MTP. Switch it to DM+Modem+ADB. Plug your device into your computer. In device manager you should be able to see which port your computer assigned to it. If you have to, change the port number to be COM25 or under. Go into CDMA WS, connect to the port, send the password: 2012112120131219 and your SPC. Go to NAM1 and read. You should see your MDN and MIN are kind of zeroed out. Replace them with something other than zeros, like MDN: 7737777777 MIN: 3122222222. Reboot your phone. HFA nag should've gone away (if you're on 4.3). Now you should be able to update your profile WITHOUT having to go through Sprint's HFA, and after it grabs everything it needs, you should be on Straight Talk.

Sherryluv5 · Feb 22, 2014

ecs87 said:
If you're on a CDMA network, meaning your carrier didn't give you a SIM card, then having an unlocked phone does nothing for you. Straight talk might be CDMA and GSM though, never looked too much into it. Anyway, you're going to need to dial ##DIAG# in your dialer to bring up the "port" menu. Leave it on PDA and select Qualcomm USB settings or something along those lines. You should be at MTP. Switch it to DM+Modem+ADB. Plug your device into your computer. In device manager you should be able to see which port your computer assigned to it. If you have to, change the port number to be COM25 or under. Go into CDMA WS, connect to the port, send the password: 2012112120131219 and your SPC. Go to NAM1 and read. You should see your MDN and MIN are kind of zeroed out. Replace them with something other than zeros, like MDN: 7737777777 MIN: 3122222222. Reboot your phone. HFA nag should've gone away (if you're on 4.3). Now you should be able to update your profile WITHOUT having to go through Sprint's HFA, and after it grabs everything it needs, you should be on Straight Talk.

Tried the above but got lost on MIN. (is this the same as MSID?). Didn't find MIN anywhere. This is what I did try and it may have worked..so far, so good. I changed my number via the Straight Talk automated. I then tried the HFA which failed again, so I went in and maually programmed my username, MDN and MSID. I then tried mms and making calls and it worked. I then used root explorer to get rid of HFA by deleting the Sprint update apk. The prl 2010 remained and Sprint Zone says it is current. My only issue is that internet does not work though mms does. That is an issue I am now going to try and tackle. For the record, internet also does not work on the S3 that completed the HFA and prl update successfully. If anyone has any ideas on how to fix that I am open for suggestions. Thanks for your help on this. Please see screenshots..

ecs87 · Feb 24, 2014

Yes MIN is the same as MSID. You needed to program the numbers through a CDMA flashing program to get rid of the HFA nag. Now that you've programmed them through the phone...I'm not too sure how you're going to deal with the HFA. Yes, you disabled it, but you also disabled the ability to update the profile which is what you need to do for your data to work...

Sherryluv5 · Mar 5, 2014

Success!

Success!! Here's what I did...Found an old Sprint prl file and copied it to sd card. Flashed Digiblur Rom which includes ability to write a prl file in settings. Used root explorer to go in and rename Sprint Update apk so that it would temporarily deactivate. Updated prl to the one on sd card through Digirom. Went back in and "reactivated" Sprint update apk. This activated the HFA immediately and promptly updated the profile and prl to the correct one for sprint (since straight talk BYOP uses those) and voila.. voice, mms and internet are now working perfectly. The issue seemed to be that HFA was changing MSL to 0000006503. Simply correcting it was not enough. I had to roll back the prl to make it update correctly. It updated it back to the 2010 that it was before and updated the profile as well. I like Digiblur Rom but decided to go with Paranoid Android rom instead. I'm loving it. May try a 4.4 next. I'm running Kit Kat on my Nexus Tab and I like it. Until this fiasco, I hadn't rooted my Note 2. Forgot how much fun roms can be. Used to play with them all the time on my HTC Evo. See screenshot of my success; unfortunately showing 3g in screenshot. LTE is spotty in my area so at times I'm reduced to 3g inside my home but I'm on wifi at home anyway.

BuzzERKINdff · May 28, 2014

Sherryluv5 said:
Success!! Here's what I did...Found an old Sprint prl file and copied it to sd card. Flashed Digiblur Rom which includes ability to write a prl file in settings. Used root explorer to go in and rename Sprint Update apk so that it would temporarily deactivate. Updated prl to the one on sd card through Digirom. Went back in and "reactivated" Sprint update apk. This activated the HFA immediately and promptly updated the profile and prl to the correct one for sprint (since straight talk BYOP uses those) and voila.. voice, mms and internet are now working perfectly. The issue seemed to be that HFA was changing MSL to 0000006503. Simply correcting it was not enough. I had to roll back the prl to make it update correctly. It updated it back to the 2010 that it was before and updated the profile as well. I like Digiblur Rom but decided to go with Paranoid Android rom instead. I'm loving it. May try a 4.4 next. I'm running Kit Kat on my Nexus Tab and I like it. Until this fiasco, I hadn't rooted my Note 2. Forgot how much fun roms can be. Used to play with them all the time on my HTC Evo. See screenshot of my success; unfortunately showing 3g in screenshot. LTE is spotty in my area so at times I'm reduced to 3g inside my home but I'm on wifi at home anyway.

Having the same problem too. Where did you find the old Sprint PRL file? Thanks

donclark · Aug 14, 2014

Thanks for the info but...

Sherryluv5 said:
Success!! Here's what I did...Found an old Sprint prl file and copied it to sd card. Flashed Digiblur Rom which includes ability to write a prl file in settings. Used root explorer to go in and rename Sprint Update apk so that it would temporarily deactivate. Updated prl to the one on sd card through Digirom. Went back in and "reactivated" Sprint update apk. This activated the HFA immediately and promptly updated the profile and prl to the correct one for sprint (since straight talk BYOP uses those) and voila.. voice, mms and internet are now working perfectly. The issue seemed to be that HFA was changing MSL to 0000006503. Simply correcting it was not enough. I had to roll back the prl to make it update correctly. It updated it back to the 2010 that it was before and updated the profile as well. I like Digiblur Rom but decided to go with Paranoid Android rom instead. I'm loving it. May try a 4.4 next. I'm running Kit Kat on my Nexus Tab and I like it. Until this fiasco, I hadn't rooted my Note 2. Forgot how much fun roms can be. Used to play with them all the time on my HTC Evo. See screenshot of my success; unfortunately showing 3g in screenshot. LTE is spotty in my area so at times I'm reduced to 3g inside my home but I'm on wifi at home anyway.

Im happy this worked for you. I believe you have to have an older Android OS to make the trick work. My question is, how can we make this work with a 4.4.2 OS? Much thanks in advance.

losttaco · Aug 14, 2014

BuzzERKINdff said:
Having the same problem too. Where did you find the old Sprint PRL file? Thanks

Also would like to know thanks

jlmancuso · Aug 16, 2014

donclark said:
Im happy this worked for you. I believe you have to have an older Android OS to make the trick work. My question is, how can we make this work with a 4.4.2 OS? Much thanks in advance.

My community rom (4.4.2 tw) has the ability to write prl via ##data# then view knot edit).

Sent from my SPH-L900 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

donclark · Aug 18, 2014

Samsung Galaxy S3 (L710)

On both of my L710 (S3), the write PRL option was not showing. So ##data# didnt work for me. I had to install this app:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/32jc7i0w2fa2oxw/PRLWUnhide_S3_MA6.zip/
This made it so I was able to see that function.

Here are a bunch of PRL files. I believe the latest is 25018. If its not listed there, just do a search for the zip file:
http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=35576100

I was able to update the Profile and PRL after writing the TEST.prl file.
However, that didnt seem to solve my problem.
No 3g/4g, with HFA loop, with FreedomPOP as my provider (SPRINT MVNO).
I get a "unable to establish a data connection" error MIP:67 on one of the phones when trying to activate.
On the other phone, I get the notice to call customer care (SPRINT).

I believe this to be an ICCID issue, but I cannot confirm this:
https://community.sprint.com/baw/thread/143514

6stringandy · Oct 24, 2014

Pull up your dialer, punch in ##72786#. Let the phone go through its little process, then try to update prl and profile.
I am currently using a sprint note 2 on straight talk, had the same issue, and that's what I did to fix it.

[Q] Cannot update prl after activating service with Straight Talk

Member

Senior Member

Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Member

Attachments

Senior Member

Member

Senior Member

Member

Senior Member

Member

New member

Member

Member

Senior Member

Member

Senior Member

Similar threads

Top Liked Posts