Unbrand a t-mobile locked Samsung phone

March 4, 2024 2:32 PM

I received a Samsung Galaxy S23 as a gift from a relative. It's network-locked to T-Mobile, and it also has a really obnoxious pink startup screen. I want it to act more like an unbranded phone. How?

• I currently use Google Fi and want to add this to my existing plan.
• My level of technical expertise is high, but rusty. 10 years ago I rooted my first android phone and installed a new bootloader and played with ROMs. So I'm comfortable in that world.
• But I don't want to use some custom ROM, I just want "stock" Samsung so it will get regular updates and I don't have to worry about it.
• I called T-Mobile and they said it cannot be permanently unlocked unless I start an account with them and keep it in good standing for 40 days, but I can use a temporary unlock to move to another network.
• I really want to get rid of the pink startup screen and any T-Mobile bloatware (I'd love to get rid of all the Samsung bloatware too and just use Google apps but one thing at a time)
• I have no idea if there's any warranty involved but it would be nice not to void it... but I'm OK with voiding the warranty as long as it doesn't lose OTA updates. So consider rooting it a last resort.

Is it possible to make this phone behave like it was never a T-Mobile locked phone? And can I avoid having to start a T-Mobile account to do so?

posted by rouftop to Technology (3 answers total)

Best answer: You can flash the stock samsung firmware with odin, which is signed by samsung so does not need oem unlock or such - if you do mess it up, you can flash the tmo firmware back with odin. That will deal wiht the boot screen - see https://www.reddit.com/r/GalaxyS23/comments/1143dch/if_youre_in_the_us_and_have_a_carrier_branded_s23/ for some info as to where to get the firmware and how. Dealing with odin is, of course, not for the faint of heart, but you're unlikely to _completely brick the phone_ since it works at fastboot.

That will NOT unlock the sim though. It will still be carrier locked to tmo. You'll absolutely need to sort that out first. In particular, that "temporarily unlocked" sounds mighty.... worrysome to me - because once it reverts to sim locked, the sim card (or esim) _will not work anymore_.

(once you get past that, btw, you can install lawnchair and have the pixel launcher and gooogle experience that way. i do this with my s22 that work requires me to have, and it works great)
posted by jaymzjulian at 2:51 PM on March 4, 2024 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: btw the S23 supports a physical sim as well as an esim, and I have a physical Google Fi sim card. When it is "network locked" does that apply to both eSim and physical? Or is it just the eSim that cannot change? I'm fine just using the physical sim card...
posted by rouftop at 3:06 PM on March 4, 2024

in theory, it should apply to both - absolutely, it applies to the physical one, I can't validate the esim side.
posted by jaymzjulian at 4:31 PM on March 4, 2024 [1 favorite]