My guess is that this is the reason. One cause of Prenormal is that the phone is new (usually) and the phone has not proved to Samsung RMM that it is in normal use.
Samsung’s “rules” can be different, but in Europe we have seen (at some time) that Samsung expects a user to make 5 minutes of calls in the region where the phone was intended for sale.
Other times the 5 minutes calls are not “a rule” but the phone must be shown to be in normal use for 14 days. Sometimes a user finds with a SIM installed and WI-Fi connected simply checking for updates lifts Prenormal to “Checking” and this is enough to allow “non Samsung binaries” to be flashed, that is a Custom ROM or TWRP.
Should you have bought the phone recently, new or refurbished, I guess you should also try to establish that the phone was being sold in its “intended market”, that is that it is not a “grey import” from say, perhaps, an Asian country to NZ.
Yes, for example, take the initiative and research on the WWW to learn what prenormal RMM state means and how you can prevent prenormal RMM state on Samsung Galaxy S8 device.
Alas that won’t work either as I have to flash the bypass AFTER flashing twrp.
I can’t flash anything other than official Samsung images until the RMM state is changed.
So I need to change that state without flashing anything other than official Samsung stuff.
I myself have not yet been confronted with the RMM problem. But there will be a solution to elemenate the troublemaker declared by Samsung as a “protective measure”, therefore: Trial and error comes after study.
Try to:
remove your SIM card, then reboot.
reset to factory settings BTU UK firmware
now reset to factory settings BTU UK firmware a second time
install recovery
If that doesn’t help, we could try rooting the BTU UK firmware.
Perhaps read carefully the links I included. My first link includes some workarounds, including changing time and date … and checking if the “local” Samsung community forum may help.
Of course the “14 days” is not set in stone either. If you choose to read my first link I suggest you try to work out the cause of your Prenormal.
Thanks again guys. I’ve done the time and date thing, Sim card out, no internet etc.
The thing I’ve noticed is that even without a Sim, it says (on Download Mode screen) Carrier VNZ, which is Vodafone NZ.
Why would it say that without a Sim? Seems odd.
I’m going to call them tomorrow as their Unlock Phone online system that you enter your IMEI number into says this phone is not theirs.
I’m not sure if there is a local Samsung community but I’ll look for one. I may also call Samsung NZ on the off chance
Taking everything we have said into account, I would reflash the BTU UK firmware and activate additional options in Odin3 (I have done this several times to “flatten” the system. This has never caused any damage).
This is presumably part of the “history” of the phone which we don’t know. The phone could be possibly been carrier locked in the past and released, or carrier bootloader locked – as you plan to do, this is important to research.
Please notice that there is a time to do this when following advice or instructions … but without rushing … and one thing at a time … you need to be online in order to make contact with Samsung servers and release RMM and KG.
Hi @aibd, if that were the case, it could not do this:
enable ‘OEM Unlocking’ toggle
bootloader unlocking
The European model G950F is not officially marketed overseas.
Just for info: I had a Samsung Galaxy S5 with Saudi Arabian Emirates firmware. Everything is locked. It is also not possible to install another firmware of another country or continent.
I am trying to avoid being at all dogmatic, and I hope I am simply opening out your above point when I say that OEM unlocking has opened the phone to Samsung official binaries, but we do still have the partially / conditionally locked bootloader, where we are trying to guess the “conditionally”.
Hey @aibd, yes, remote diagnostics are time-consuming and error-prone, especially when we helpers are only given overly general information. But the three of us have one goal: /e/OS on SM-G950F for Pete. So we keep working on it to eliminate existing constraints.