idoneapps.com Domestic Sim Unlock for SM-G900P (Review)

[xHolomovementx]

Hello this thread is my experience and review of idoneapps.com Sprint S5 domestic sim unlock.

REQUIREMENTS
-Running Lollipop or higher (I was on stock rooted 6.0.1)
-must be rooted
-Different carrier sim, for example I have At&t.
-Around $30, I know paid ughhh but honestly it's worth every penny.


Okay so here is my story that lead to this. I repair cellphones for a living and we do a lot of business with Verizon, well one of the workers offered me a Sprint S5 for $50. It was tempting as it was in great condition, the problem? I have AT&T. Anyways I bought the phone on impulse, as if I couldn't use it, I could still tweak and develop on it. So win/win for me.

Well after tons of research to domestically unlock the SM-G900P, I found idoneapps.

idoneapps have created an apk that will permanently sim unlock your Sprint and Boost mobile devices. (Check to see device compatibility on their website.)

Go to idoneapps.com

Go to Android unlocking services

Then go to "Samsung Phone unlock for final user" and hit "download unlock apk"

Install the apk and open the app.
Now that the app is opened, you now have to buy your license, when you confirms your purchase, it will send a confirmation .zip to your email. Open that .zip and it will grant you the unlock permission.

Now go back to the unlock apk, and go ahead and hit the unlock button, the phone should reboot twice, the first time it reboots, go back into the app so it can reboot for the second time.

After that you should now be unlocked, if you are rooted, the app will automatically install APNs, but if not then you can go ahead and add your APN.

The app does other helpful things as well.

It debrands your phone as well. Getting rid of hands free activation.


CONS

Ahh there has to be a catch somewhere right?

Because the sprint S5 is a CDMA phone, it doesn't get all the benefits of a GSM carrier. The only downside that I have personally experienced is that I don't get 4G or LTE.
At&t is very strong in my area so I'm fine with just 3g. Also if you run a custom ROM with Xblast tools, you can throttle your 3g.

Anyways, it's great for unlocking your phone to use with At&t or T-Mobile.

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160625/dc1823c5dcfa737c87d2bfdf820983installation


Also you are free to flash as many custom/stock ROMs/recoveries as you like as its permanent. (Proof in screenshots as I'm now running CM13) There are ways to relock the device if you aren't careful, but that requires a special dialer code and or messing with service mode. But you have unlimited unlocks incase that ever happens.

Also for some reason it says disconnected for my network but I assure you that I get calling/data/texting, I believe that is from "tricking" the phone during the unlock installation.

Hopefully this guide helps someone else!



Sent from SM-G900Pkltespr

 

[Youdoofus]

the unlock does indeed work on the g900p as ive unlocked 2 of them personally via idoneapps. I also only get the hspa connection, but that is very likely due to the LTE bands preselected on the phone. I have tried to do the stuff in this thread, but ive not got qpst to find the diag port on the g900p. Ive only half a$$ed in my attempts, so im not convinced that it cant be done, quite the opposite actually. Modder beware, if you brick your phone trying this, its not my fault, but its been said to work on many phones

 

[xHolomovementx]

the unlock does indeed work on the g900p as ive unlocked 2 of them personally via idoneapps. I also only get the hspa connection, but that is very likely due to the LTE bands preselected on the phone. I have tried to do the stuff in this thread, but ive not got qpst to find the diag port on the g900p. Ive only half a$$ed in my attempts, so im not convinced that it cant be done, quite the opposite actually. Modder beware, if you brick your phone trying this, its not my fault, but its been said to work on many phones

I actually managed to edit using qpst/qxdm and got those LTE values to stick after reboot. But with all my persistence, no LTE. I've done build.prop edits as well but soon learned that the firmware I'm on cannot edit GSM properties on build.prop. at least not for g900p

SM-900P CM13

 

[xHolomovementx]

the unlock does indeed work on the g900p as ive unlocked 2 of them personally via idoneapps. I also only get the hspa connection, but that is very likely due to the LTE bands preselected on the phone. I have tried to do the stuff in this thread, but ive not got qpst to find the diag port on the g900p. Ive only half a$$ed in my attempts, so im not convinced that it cant be done, quite the opposite actually. Modder beware, if you brick your phone trying this, its not my fault, but its been said to work on many phones

Also are you rooted? I can provide some information on how to connect to qpst. I had a really difficult time trying to get it to recognize my device. (Assuming you are on marshmallow)

SM-900P CM13

 

[Youdoofus]

im very rooted LOL i rooted it 3 days after getting it, which was 7 days after release 2+ years ago. I wasnt too keen on MM, so im still using ol' reliable MOAR 7.0. And yeah, id appreciate the heads up on what part im missing!

 

[xHolomovementx]

im very rooted LOL i rooted it 3 days after getting it, which was 7 days after release 2+ years ago. I wasnt too keen on MM, so im still using ol' reliable MOAR 7.0. And yeah, id appreciate the heads up on what part im missing!

Well I'm not too sure if this is the right answer for you considering the software differences, I'm running windows 8 with Marshmallow based 6.0.1 CM13

What you'll need:
Terminal emulator
QXDM
QPST
EFS Professional
NV Calculator app
USB cable (no hub)
Patience

So I found it to be rather difficult to enable diag mode for the S5 with marshmallow as its so new that hardly anybody found a method to successfully activate it.

1. Turn on usb debugging in developer settings

2.Set USB to DM-Modem-Adb
-Open terminal app
Use the following commands

su
setprop sys.usb.config diag,acm,adb

Now verify w/ command

getprop sys.usb.config

It should tell you if the commands did indeed stick. (diag,acm,adb)
This method should install a driver if you are connected to a usb with debugging on.

METHOD 2

Plug in your phone to your pc and open EFS Professional and click on the Samsung Tools tab.
You then should see a pull down setting to change the usb mode to DM-MODEM-ADB. This method should automatically install a driver and enforce diag/adb server (if your diag driver hasn't yet been installed.) Which is where I had the most difficulty in getting it to connect to my PC. EFS needs to berunning and be ready/connected before you open QXDM.

3. Open QXDM (Run as administrator)
(DISCLAIMER! It's important to understand that you should run QXDM AFTER you successfully connected to DM-MODEM-ADB server in EFS Professional)
-In QXDM hit options > communication

You should see a COM port that is opened up and active. If this isn't working. Restart process 1/2 from complete scratch.

4. Click the target port pulldown menu in the communications window and select the COM channel that is displayed in PortType that is active. After hitting the "OK" button, close the window.

Now you should be able to read and write your nv memory.

5. Click View > Common > Nv browser.

Use NV calculator app for the bands you need. The phone itself only has 850-2100mhz through WCDMA.

I would advise to only edit 6828/6829. If it says you need to edit RF band config, in my version of QXDM reads 1877 as a CDMA property, not a GSM or WCDMA property. While messing with this I learned that it might possibly be something of unimportance to the mod, correct me if I'm wrong.

Try it at your own risk.

If you can't still connect to your pc, close all your programs. And start over every time it doesn't work.

Also I noticed that there is never an actual diag driver in device manager like there used to be in windows 7. Once in diag mode, device manager should recognize the device as COM. And possibly as a Modem as well.

Make the edits and reboot when you are done. Please report back with results as I have the exact phone and would like to see if it works to get a final answer if this can actually be done. Test around with your hiddenmenu and apns to see if you can get it.

If you have any questions, report back here so if there is a solution it can help others!

SM-900P CM13

 

[xHolomovementx]

Also check here
http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2948822

SM-900P CM13

 

[xHolomovementx]

well i'm not too sure if this is the right answer for you considering the software differences, i'm running windows 8 with marshmallow based 6.0.1 cm13

what you'll need:
Terminal emulator
qxdm
qpst
efs professional
nv calculator app
usb cable (no hub)
patience

so i found it to be rather difficult to enable diag mode for the s5 with marshmallow as its so new that hardly anybody found a method to successfully activate it.

1. Turn on usb debugging in developer settings

2.set usb to dm-modem-adb
-open terminal app
use the following commands

su
setprop sys.usb.config diag,acm,adb

now verify w/ command

getprop sys.usb.config

it should tell you if the commands did indeed stick. (diag,acm,adb)
this method should install a driver if you are connected to a usb with debugging on.

Method 2

plug in your phone to your pc and open efs professional and click on the samsung tools tab.
You then should see a pull down setting to change the usb mode to dm-modem-adb. This method should automatically install a driver and enforce diag/adb server (if your diag driver hasn't yet been installed.) which is where i had the most difficulty in getting it to connect to my pc. Efs needs to berunning and be ready/connected before you open qxdm.

3. Open qxdm (run as administrator)
(disclaimer! It's important to understand that you should run qxdm after you successfully connected to dm-modem-adb server in efs professional)
-in qxdm hit options > communication

you should see a com port that is opened up and active. If this isn't working. Restart process 1/2 from complete scratch.

4. Click the target port pulldown menu in the communications window and select the com channel that is displayed in porttype that is active. After hitting the "ok" button, close the window.

Now you should be able to read and write your nv memory.

5. Click view > common > nv browser.

Use nv calculator app for the bands you need. The phone itself only has 850-2100mhz through wcdma.

I would advise to only edit 6828/6829. If it says you need to edit rf band config, in my version of qxdm reads 1877 as a cdma property, not a gsm or wcdma property. While messing with this i learned that it might possibly be something of unimportance to the mod, correct me if i'm wrong.

Try it at your own risk.

If you can't still connect to your pc, close all your programs. And start over every time it doesn't work.

Also i noticed that there is never an actual diag driver in device manager like there used to be in windows 7. Once in diag mode, device manager should recognize the device as com. And possibly as a modem as well.

Make the edits and reboot when you are done. Please report back with results as i have the exact phone and would like to see if it works to get a final answer if this can actually be done. Test around with your hiddenmenu and apns to see if you can get it.

If you have any questions, report back here so if there is a solution it can help others!

Edit* make sure you connect the active state and that is reading your baseband under phone.

Sm-900p cm13

sm-900p cm13

 

[Youdoofus]

Right on man! Thanks!! I'll have to give this a whirl later today. And as for the differences in Roms, I have zero issue flashing a ROM to get this working because it should stick once complete and I can then go back to moar if I want. Thanks again!

Sent from my SM-G900P using XDA Free mobile app

 

[Youdoofus]

OK, so I tried several times and I can't get the diag port to show. Tried different modems and nothing. I flashed the modem with the idone unlock app but not with Odin. Might try that later. I know this is a few weeks back now, life got a tad hectic for me to spend much time on the computer and fiddling with odin

 

[ilikered]

Thanks, this indeed worked. It's worth the money!!

 

[FNetV1]

I was able to unlock mines using the free version of idoneapps 3.1.8 (GTv3.1.8) just fine, however I haven't tested mines to see if it would work on AT&T. I just purchased an AT&T Service and will be getting my SIM card by mail in a few more days.

Does the free version of idoneapps 3.1.8 unlocks it domestically, or is it just an international unlock?

 

[eurohunter]

I was able to unlock mines using the free version of idoneapps 3.1.8 (GTv3.1.8) just fine, however I haven't tested mines to see if it would work on AT&T. I just purchased an AT&T Service and will be getting my SIM card by mail in a few more days.

Does the free version of idoneapps 3.1.8 unlocks it domestically, or is it just an international unlock?

I have not tried it, but I have read that for domestic unlock to work, the steps are the same except that you also have to turn GCF settings off. It can be done by the IOTHiddenMenu. The steps are found here: https://idoneapps.com/settings.php. hopefully it works

 

[clb4g9]

I was able to unlock mines using the free version of idoneapps 3.1.8 (GTv3.1.8) just fine, however I haven't tested mines to see if it would work on AT&T. I just purchased an AT&T Service and will be getting my SIM card by mail in a few more days.

Does the free version of idoneapps 3.1.8 unlocks it domestically, or is it just an international unlock?

This is a ridiculous question, but when I looked online and searched for the free version of idoneapps 3.1.8 and downloaded, the app I see doesn't have an obvious way to unlock the screen; this is what I see:

The only thing that's close is "SIM UICC Unlock." When I click on that it brings up a Network Unlock prompt. I downloaded the non-free one and it looks dead simple, but if there's a way to do it and save $35 I'm all for it

Did I download the wrong app?

 

[FNetV1]

For my Sprint Samsung Galaxy S5 (SM-G900P) there was an extra step that I needed to perform in order to unlock it for domestic usage according to: https://idoneapps.com/settings.php (Thanks @eurohunder for pointing this out for me). According to this quoted info, I am supposed to click on GCS settings on their paid for version of IDONEAPPS, but dont worry, I know that on the free version there is no such fancy button labeled "GCF", but fear no more! I will show you how to access the same exact menu where that fancy "GCF" button on the paid-for version leads to, its none other than simply clicking on the IOTHIDDENMENU button that I can see on your screenshot as button #2 on the bottom list, there you will see a series of menu, I believe the one labeled"Testmode" or something like that from the big menu leads you exactly to the same spot (which is the "SERVICE MODE") as if you were to click on the "GCF" button fron the paid for version, there you can just continue to follow the instructions on that page as it will be exact, depending on many factor and firmware version you are running.

Now that you have access the SERVICE MODE (or in other words "GCF"'s target destination if you were using the paid-for version) You would go to [2] UE Settings & Info, then [1] Settings, then [1] Protocol, then [4] GCF (note: MAYBE the "GCF" button on the paid for version leads you directly to this spot, bypassing the other menu options directly, maybe yes, maybe no, but it doesn't matter, the point is that you made it there), then finally you would tap "[1] GSM/(E)GPRS/WCDMA GCF ON", you will see a confirmation that the command succeeded, and as per the instructions from your own device you shall reboot your device using the power buttons and then tap on "restart/reboot". Thats all. At least in my case that should be it for unlocking GSM bands, according for further research I did, the Sprint Galaxy S5 would only work in 3G mode because all the 4G LTE GSM bands are blocked and the ones aren't compatible with the AT&T network (which is the network that I plan to use very soon on this device), so to fix that predicament because I dont want to be stuck on 3G mode I downloaded QPST and QXDM, I had to downgrade my firmware to kit-kat thorugh ODIN (was a b*tch sourcing the original .tar image on the internet, most servers that used to have it no longer had the file and when I was finally about to give up and pay sammobile their $15 to be able to download it from their servers at a speed greater than 15 kbps I finally found a server that was still hosting the NE5 firmware for free!)

For my particular device, beginning on Lollipop Samsung took measures (on the kernel) to prevent users from having access to QPST/QXDM, installing a customer kernel would have given access to QPST/QSDM without having to downgrade firmwares, but the custom kernel that I needed was nowhere to be found, so my only option was to do the firmware downgrade and thanks God that I didn't have the stock Marshmallow bootloader because downgrading would have been impossible then (Samsung implemented a downgrade check - blocker for the S5 starting on Marshmallow) so I was running the BO6 bootloader/baseband, the last ones of the safe bootloader version that allows downgrades.

So anyways, on QPST I made sure that all the 3G bands that I needed for AT&T were indeed enabled, and on QXDM I enabled all LTE bands (thanks to someone who posted the string value to enable all LTE bands for GSM).

So hopefully, when my AT&T SIM card arrives on Thursday Oct 26 not only should I have 3G access, but I also should have 4G LTE access as well, and after my AT&T SIM card arrives I would finally put all this to a test, how effective all this was and most importantly, if this method for domestic GSM unlock really works for me.

 

[clb4g9]

For my Sprint Samsung Galaxy S5 (SM-G900P) there was an extra step that I needed to perform in order to unlock it for domestic usage according to: https://idoneapps.com/settings.php (Thanks @eurohunder for pointing this out for me). According to this quoted info, I am supposed to click on GCS settings on their paid for version of IDONEAPPS, but dont worry, I know that on the free version there is no such fancy button labeled "GCF", but fear no more! I will show you how to access the same exact menu where that fancy "GCF" button on the paid-for version leads to, its none other than simply clicking on the IOTHIDDENMENU button that I can see on your screenshot as button #2 on the bottom list, there you will see a series of menu, I believe the one labeled"Testmode" or something like that from the big menu leads you exactly to the same spot (which is the "SERVICE MODE") as if you were to click on the "GCF" button fron the paid for version, there you can just continue to follow the instructions on that page as it will be exact, depending on many factor and firmware version you are running.

Now that you have access the SERVICE MODE (or in other words "GCF"'s target destination if you were using the paid-for version) You would go to [2] UE Settings & Info, then [1] Settings, then [1] Protocol, then [4] GCF (note: MAYBE the "GCF" button on the paid for version leads you directly to this spot, bypassing the other menu options directly, maybe yes, maybe no, but it doesn't matter, the point is that you made it there), then finally you would tap "[1] GSM/(E)GPRS/WCDMA GCF ON", you will see a confirmation that the command succeeded, and as per the instructions from your own device you shall reboot your device using the power buttons and then tap on "restart/reboot". Thats all. At least in my case that should be it for unlocking GSM bands, according for further research I did, the Sprint Galaxy S5 would only work in 3G mode because all the 4G LTE GSM bands are blocked and the ones aren't compatible with the AT&T network (which is the network that I plan to use very soon on this device), so to fix that predicament because I dont want to be stuck on 3G mode I downloaded QPST and QXDM, I had to downgrade my firmware to kit-kat thorugh ODIN (was a b*tch sourcing the original .tar image on the internet, most servers that used to have it no longer had the file and when I was finally about to give up and pay sammobile their $15 to be able to download it from their servers at a speed greater than 15 kbps I finally found a server that was still hosting the NE5 firmware for free!)

For my particular device, beginning on Lollipop Samsung took measures (on the kernel) to prevent users from having access to QPST/QXDM, installing a customer kernel would have given access to QPST/QSDM without having to downgrade firmwares, but the custom kernel that I needed was nowhere to be found, so my only option was to do the firmware downgrade and thanks God that I didn't have the stock Marshmallow bootloader because downgrading would have been impossible then (Samsung implemented a downgrade check - blocker for the S5 starting on Marshmallow) so I was running the BO6 bootloader/baseband, the last ones of the safe bootloader version that allows downgrades.

So anyways, on QPST I made sure that all the 3G bands that I needed for AT&T were indeed enabled, and on QXDM I enabled all LTE bands (thanks to someone who posted the string value to enable all LTE bands for GSM).

So hopefully, when my AT&T SIM card arrives on Thursday Oct 26 not only should I have 3G access, but I also should have 4G LTE access as well, and after my AT&T SIM card arrives I would finally put all this to a test, how effective all this was and most importantly, if this method for domestic GSM unlock really works for me.

Thanks for taking the time to type all of this out...I didn't have any luck getting this to work with TMobile, but it's possible I screwed up something in the process before I made it to the GCF settings. I tried to set the towers to GSM and register the phone on T-Mobile's network, but it just wouldn't register, and I never could get the "invalid SIM" to go away. No big deal; I had a Moto E4 that I bought from Amazon, so I figured by the time I returned the Moto and paid for the $35 I might as well just use the Moto.

 

[Poebat]

Do you have the .zip file he sent you?

 

[masterse7en777]

Honestly...best damn unlock service ive ever used...and ive used alot but for samsung devices, and mainly sprint devices, its instant, theres a live chat, and if theyre unavailable on live chat, if you leave a message they get back to so fast...i will use them every single time i can.

 

[doubledragon5]

I have done this on my Not4 using idoneapps, you do not need another carrier sim to domestic unlock... When it is unlocked, pop in a sim from another carrier and your all set to go.

 

[ajeevlal]

i got mine unlocked thru Ebay for around $8, the seller used GT tools i believe and it is successful. By the way, did you guys update ROM after unlocking? if yes what custom rom did you update?