Sim card not recognised after Android 9 (pie) update

[#1]

Hi everyone,

I bought an unlocked Galaxy S8+ SM-G955FD from Giffgaff this week and used my old nano SIM on it - worked absolutely fine. My phone fits a single SIM only (not dual).

I kept getting prompted to update the android software on the phone though so went through with it - twice. I don't recall what version of android I was on before but I am now on version 9 - Pie. The first installation worked ok (presumbaly upgraded to Oreo), but after the latest one, my SIM isn't recognised, none of the mobile network options are available in Settings and it keeps saying "insert SIM". There is nothing wrong with the SIM as it still works on my old phone.

Also the IMEI numbers have disappeared from About Phone. Pressing *#06# in the keypad, which should also reveal them, keeps making the phone freeze.

After googling - I have literally tried everything under the sun- rebooted, re-inserted, cleaned the SIM, reset connections, rebooted and wiped cache partition, I even did a factory reset - but that did nothing - the exact same problem persists. (The factory reset retains the same android version 9).

One thing I noticed was when I boot in recovery mode (to wipe cahe partition) I see the following message at the bottom of the screen:

#fail to open recovery_cause (No such file or directory) #
#report recovery cause is [unknown] #
Support single-sku
File-Based OTA
Supported API: 3
e: unknown volume for path [/ odm]
e: unknown volume for path [/ vendor]

# MANUAL MODE v1.0.0#

remove failed dir  ‘/system/carrier/ATT/priv-app/AttIqi_ATT’ (No such file or directory)

E: [libfs_mgr] is_dt_compatible (): firmware info was not valid : '/ proc / device-tree / firmware / android / compatible': No such file or directory

Does this mean anything relevant to the SIM and does anyone know how to fix this?

Thanks,

Roger

[#2]

@rylin23 

I think you should start by trying to fix the IMEI problem. It's likely that not recognising the sim is an indirect result of that.

From a web search I got https://www.technobezz.com/restore-galaxy-null-imei-and-fix-not-registered-on-network/ which seems to correspond to the problem you describe. But in case that doesn't fix it, here's a couple of others that also came up:

• https://www.digitbin.com/restore-lost-imei-number-android/
• https://www.techjunkie.com/how-to-repair-samsung-galaxy-s6-imei-number-issue/ (ok, its for S6 but I suspect it's the same problem)

If none of those solve it, and nobody has any better ideas, then I'd suggest finding a relevant samsung forum and posting the question there.

[#3]

@rylin23 

One other thought occurs to me. If this was sold as a pre-owned phone, have you checked the correct IMEI (assuming you know it) at http://checkmend.com/ to make sure that somebody hasn't had it intentionally blacklisted?

[#4]

I would not be faffing about with it @rylin23  I would send it back for a refund.

[#5]

@jfc1951 @rylin23 

I would not be faffing about with it @rylin23 I would send it back for a refund.

Yes, I do agree with that. The factory reset has not fixed it, so if one of those links doesn't readily solve it I wouldn't spend much more time on a phone you've only had for a week.

The options and procedure for doing that are described at https://community.giffgaff.com/t5/Solve-your-questions/How-to-return-a-faulty-phone-within-the-first...

0 Links

[#6]

Cheers dude.

Yeah, I checked it on an IMEI checker site and it's not blacklisted. I tried all the keypad stuff but the codes just don't work on the phone. The other options were to root the phone which voids the warranty (I think) so I'm just gonna return it for a replacement.

It's a massive shame though because I liked the phone, it was just the android update which screwed it.

Do you know if you can avoid firmware updates? Do you just turn auto-updates off and leave it? If I get a replacement phone I'm just wary the same thing might happen so would want to keep those switched off.

Thanks,

Roger

[#7]

https://community.giffgaff.com/t5/Solve-your-questions/How-to-return-a-faulty-phone-within-the-first...

[#8]

@rylin23 

Do you just turn auto-updates off and leave it?

I can't vouch for all phones, but with auto updates off, I would expect no updates to happen without you specifically and individually requesting them. You might still get nagging alerts though.