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Anonymous · ‎07-02-2020

So I'm torn between a couple phones.

1. Samsung S10+ with Samsung Pay that automatically flips in/out of NFC to make the payment. That and an SD card slot and headphone jack. But a lot of money.

2. Motorola One Hyper being pure Android without the bloatware and that neato pop-up front camera not taking screen real estate. Same with the SD card slot and headphone jack. Unfortunately Google Pay doesn't do that nifty auto-NFC. But a lot less money.

What to do what to do.

Anybody with real world experience yet with the new Hyper? Anybody with a way to turn on NFC automatically without giving up all kinds of private information permissions (don't want to get into rooting either) to run macros?

ryan34 · ‎05-26-2022

If this method is not working you can give it a try to droid unbox - https://droidunbox.com/how-to/install-custom-rom/samsung-galaxy-a31-6/

denver · ‎12-23-2021

You can try this method also - https://twrpupdate.com/install-twrp-recovery-on-samsung-galaxy-a31/

Anonymous · ‎09-30-2020

So I spoke with Samsung about these things today.

1. No they can't do anything about UAE. I mentioned things like Odin and flashing stock firmwares wondering if that's something he could help me with. No.

2. Asked him about Samsung Pay and it's link to UAE. He sent me off to the Samsung Pay department. No. Samsung would not even work here if it got registered in UAE anyway he said.

So I batted exactly zero today on four fronts. Crap. Maybe I'm just really lousy at dealing with support.

Google Pay works fine. And I ended up preferring it for economy of gestures and touches once I got Tasker going with it. But it would have been nice if Samsung Pay worked anyway and just not use it.

Oh well. Sigh.

darlicious · ‎09-19-2020

@Anonymous

Security wise I don't really use my phone for anything. I don't use Google or Samsung pay. I don't use any banking apps.....although my pc optimum account is pretty lucrative. So I don't really worry about the security in the phone. If you have an international phone youve purchased from a canadian dealer its probably pretty common for it to be a UAE registered device because of their lower price compared to most other countries.

Anonymous · ‎09-19-2020

@darlicious wrote:
@Anonymous
There you go.....if you can switch origin countries then you can tell me how its done just in case i change my mind. I doubt it but never say never.....again.

@darlicious just for your eyes only...

So you have not come across any restrictions or oddities having UAE? I don't know what all deeper security related things you use your phone for but about all I do (security-wise) is Google Pay and to a much lesser extent, Samsung Pay. It's actually fewer gestures/taps to make a payment with Google Pay than it is for Samsung Pay, so I kinda drifted away from Samsung Pay anyway.

darlicious · ‎09-19-2020

@Anonymous

There you go.....if you can switch origin countries then you can tell me how its done just in case i change my mind. I doubt it but never say never.....again.

Anonymous · ‎09-18-2020

@darlicious

I have downloaded and installed Samsung Pay. I run it. There it is. Touch something, anything, it pops up with the message I wrote before.

It had worked on my S7 with Koho. It's not up to any useful point. Just register for UAE. Before I can do anything useful.

But you're right. Along with geopublic earlier. Maybe I can ask Samsung yeah uh hey I have this phone that seems to be asking for UAE for Samsung Pay. I'm in Canada. What can I do?

And see what they say.

darlicious · ‎09-18-2020

@Anonymous

I just wish my copy and paste skills were better in chrome but CIBC has a Samsung pay live chat option which may help......

Samsung Pay: Supported banks in Canada

CIBC (Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce)
RBC (Royal Bank of Canada)
Scotiabank.
American Express.
ATB.

https://www.samsung.com/ca/apps/samsung-pay/

You can try live chat with the man Sam himself and make use of Samobile.

https://www.sammobile.com/samsung/pay/canada

Anonymous · ‎09-18-2020

@darlicious

Your searching prowess far exceeds mine! Thanks

I had read that CSC was a thing with Samsung before S8. And indeed my old S7 can do something with it. But now it's some other thing. I had read that this can only be changed with a firmware install. But I haven't found what I saw before. And then now I've stumbled on a SIM inserted then Recovery option that I might have to try because it sounds reasonably doable.

I hate it when some way of searching finds different results.

@gpixel : well enough alone indeed. Nope. NFC is a base requirement. That and Dual SIM. I _really_ like making small payments with just having my phone with me.

gpixel · ‎09-18-2020

@Anonymous if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

i think the only option you have is to flash the a315g/ds firmware. and that version doesn't support NFC... the NFC option may not even be in the software.

or

download a custom ROM. there are no guarantees that the ROM will have the NFC service working correctly. and you're giving up security

darlicious · ‎09-18-2020

@Anonymous

Seems like this is very doable you probably just need to talk to Samsung Canada going by these users this became readily available a year ago....

My phone is from the UAE and I am in the UK. At first Samsung pay wouldn't run but all I did was clear the app data and relaunched the app. It works 100% fine. No need to flash firmware or any other complicated solutions. Not even a factory reset

The easiest way is to go to sammobile.com and reflash your fone with the new firmware for the new country (not as scary as it seems, loads of guides on the website for what firmware version etc). Id recommend downloading phone info from the app store to tell you what version etc you have right now. I bought my s7 in UAE but moved back to the UK so i just flashed on the uk firmware and your samsung pay will change country automatically.

Downside is you gotta reformat the fone so do all the backups etc first. Whole install process took maybe 15 to 20 mins?. Id recommend using a laptop or pc rather than doing it directly on the phone but you can do it that way of you dont have access to a pc.

Also, ended up being pointless for me in the end because natwest (my main UK bank) dosent suport samsung pay so do check your banks supported before you do anything.

A good upside is i have a uk firmware s7 that supports dual sim which you couldent get initially. (Not sure if the duo version came out in the uk eventually or not)

But yeh all in all no complaints other than lack of samsung pay support from banks in the UK.

And a tidbit from Samsung Canada's community.....

have you changed the CSC for your phone? You'll need to first change your CSC to XAC, which is the code for a carrier unlocked canada phone. changing CSC will format your phone though.

.Hopefully something will work for you....

Anonymous · ‎09-18-2020

That is great information. Thank you.

My Google is all Canada all the time.

As much as I can figure out, the Samsung account is too. I made it when I got the S7 a couple years ago. I've added and deleted products over that time. I added this phone.

It's just this UAE thing on the phone and that Samsung Pay seems to want to look at it. Go into Samsung Pay, touch anything and it says Register Samsung Pay (United Arab Emirates)? Cancel (or) OK. Touch Cancel and it doesn't seem to do anything to proceed. I don't really want to hit OK.

Thanks again. I guess you didn't care that yours says UAE. It just kinda niggles at me but everything else seems to work so far.

darlicious · ‎09-18-2020

@Anonymous

That's identical to my phone. According to Samsung UK this how you change your country of origin. Once you change it to here you can then use it.

Changing your Samsung Account countryClick to Collapse

Your Samsung Account is registered to the country where you initially set it up. To change the country of your Samsung Account, first delete your Samsung Account, then set up a new Samsung Account. You will also need to remove the old Samsung Account from your device, then set up the new Samsung Account on your device.

For further information, find out how to delete, remove and set up a Samsung Account.

Your Google Play country determines what content you see in the store. To change your country, you first need to set up a new country in Google Play. To set up a new country you must be in that country and have a payment method from the new country.

Please note: It is only possible to change your Play Store country once per year. For full information about Play Store country options, go to Google Support.

1Open the Play Store app.

2Tap the Menu icon (three horizontal lines).

3Tap "Account".

4Tap "Country and profiles".

Please note: The "Country and profiles" option will not appear if you are not currently in a new country (this will be based on your IP address) and or you have changed your country in the last year.

5Select your new country, then follow the instructions to update your payment method.

Anonymous · ‎09-18-2020

@darlicious wrote:
@Anonymous
I hate that app its constantly popping up and it's completely useless....to me at least. But you can change your country of origin for Samsung pay.

https://www.samsung.com/uk/support/mobile-devices/how-do-i-switch-on-my-location-and-change-my-location-settings/

But I've only ever had a Samsung account here. It's that somehow Samsung Pay looks at the phone and thinks it's in UAE.

Were you saying that about Google Pay or Samsung Pay with the pop ups?

Samsung Pay does have neat features. You can choose to pull it up from the bottom of the screen kinda like the Edge feature. It also allegedly works for non-touch terminals but I never got that to work on my S7.

darlicious · ‎09-18-2020

@Anonymous

I hate that app its constantly popping up and it's completely useless....to me at least. But you can change your country of origin for Samsung pay.

https://www.samsung.com/uk/support/mobile-devices/how-do-i-switch-on-my-location-and-change-my-location-settings/

computergeek541 · ‎09-18-2020

@Anonymous I actually thought that you were talking about the .tar files for flashing.

Anonymous · ‎09-18-2020

@darlicious

Oh. You're right. Indeed TRA.

It's really just a niggle. Samsung Pay is using that somehow. So I'm just sticking with Google Pay.

Korth · ‎09-18-2020

Attempting to install modded firmware with a locked bootloader can brick a device. Some devices are intentionally designed this way to prevent tampering.

Other devices simply deny write access to nvflash. Intentionally designed this way to prevent damage (and warranty costs).

I don't know specifics for this device or this flashing software. Samsung builds great tech but they go out of their way to make things difficult for hackers.

computergeek541 · ‎09-18-2020

@Anonymous

You don't need to be rooted to flash with ODIN. You do need to have an unlocked bootloader to flash a software package that was never intended for your device.

darlicious · ‎09-18-2020

@Anonymous

A "TAR" ID or a TRA ID? Im just curious what the worry is? My phone has the same because its a UAE phone.

Anonymous · ‎09-18-2020

@Korth

Oh I don't trust Google. I swallow the compromise to have the integration, turn it on and it works ease of use.

You're right though. But how does one know one can "trust" a source? Any source will say they have the right one and slam the other. For a new explorer, it's a little worrying.

computergeek541 seems to be saying that some firmware installations don't need rooting. I wonder if trying to remove UAE and TAR ID would. Which would be the goal. But I wish to continue to use Google Pay and the Play store. Rooting stops that (afaik).

gpixel4 and sammobile seem to suggest this model is pretty much from the "middle east" and south Asia. He said something about UK but I don't see that. So there's no unbranded Canada firmware anyway. I dunno. I do wonder if I should just leave well enough alone. The thing works. (Apart from the niggle.)

I could very likely tinker with my old S7 though 🙂

Korth · ‎09-18-2020

@Anonymous wrote:
How do I know it's an official firmware? How do I trust it hasn't been "altered"?
Can this be done short of rooting to stay in the Google-sphere?

You don't. You can't.

In theory you can pull out IDA and WInHex to disassemble and examine all the code.

In practice this isn't something anyone ever does unless they're (re)writing the code or doing a complete reverse-engineering teardown analysis.

You can download the packages directly from the source. And do /whois lookups to confirm the source is indeed legit instead of some shady hacksite. You can verify package integrity with documented checksums and hashes to confirm they haven't been compromised or corrupted.

But ultimately you just gotta trust whomever wrote that code for you and your device.

You evidently trust Google to provide your best interests, your privacy, your control over what you can do with your own device. Accept the known evils. But some of us are not so trusting of Google installing itself as a big brother. Tradeoffs either way, but at least one path offers no niggles. And the decision is more straightforward whenever full opensource is available.

computergeek541 · ‎09-17-2020

@gpixel wrote:
@Anonymous I think you would only have to root if installing a custom ROM. otherwise if it's Samsung then you just need to unlock the bootloader which Odin will probably do automatically (not too sure).

to download official Samsung firmwares go to sammobile.com

https://www.sammobile.com/samsung/galaxy-a31/firmware/#SM-A315F

By default, Odin doesn't unlock the bootloader. It only flashes the ROM. If you try to install an incorrect ROM, it sometimes won't even proceed.

computergeek541 · ‎09-17-2020

@Anonymous wrote:
Thanks @gpixel : So Odin isn't officially available. Firmwares come from "somewhere". Still not clear on whether it has to be rooted to do. Do you see my hesitation? 🙂
I would prefer to stay in Google-sphere and indeed Knox too.

These "official" firmwares/ROMs are official if you trust that no one has messed with them. If someone was messing around with the software package, you would also have to hope that someone else who knows how to program this type of software catches it. I've used Odin to temporarily downgrade my Samsung Galaxy A8 (2018) to Android 8 before, and it didn't trip the Samsung security checker. I also still received future OTA updates.

gpixel · ‎09-17-2020

@Anonymous I think you would only have to root if installing a custom ROM. otherwise if it's Samsung then you just need to unlock the bootloader which Odin will probably do automatically (not too sure).

to download official Samsung firmwares go to sammobile.com

https://www.sammobile.com/samsung/galaxy-a31/firmware/#SM-A315F

https://www.xda-developers.com/download-stock-odin-firmware-samfirm/amp/

Anonymous · ‎09-17-2020

Thanks @gpixel : So Odin isn't officially available. Firmwares come from "somewhere". Still not clear on whether it has to be rooted to do. Do you see my hesitation? 🙂

I would prefer to stay in Google-sphere and indeed Knox too.

A couple years ago I hacked around with an old LG. I did actually have some success. But indeed, no more Google-sphere. Basically the Play store. So then one has to download apk's from again some random apk site. iirc Google Pay won't work on rooted phones either. Let alone Samsung Pay but that's a bit of a wash at the moment.

Anonymous · ‎09-17-2020

@geopublic wrote:
@Anonymous Call Samsung tell them you just got back from the UAE and ask them if there are any specific codes that will allow you to make changes to NFC.

I know on the be Umidigi F2 I can make changes via *#*#3646633#*#*

@geopublic

The NFC works with Google Pay. Samsung Pay recognizes somehow that the phone is UAE and wants to go into some kind of process using that. I didn't proceed.

But maybe they'll have a way to break it out of UAE TAR ID.

That dial code doesn't work. I get public mobile guy.

I just might have to explore that idea though. Thanks

gpixel · ‎09-17-2020

@Anonymous it's not like how it was in the past. people use that term now to say the device won't boot to os.

it really depends what you want to flash. try flashing the official Samsung firmwares first. try downloading the UK f version for your device

as for baked ROMs. you probably will never know if anything has been altered.. that's why I don't flash or root my device anymore. when you root you are giving admin permissions to the system. if there were any sort of breach.. the attacker can do whatever they like.

a guide: seems like a plug and play type of software

https://www.lineageosrom.com/2017/07/how-to-flash-custom-rom-via-odin.html?m=1

https://android.gadgethacks.com/how-to/use-odin-flash-samsung-galaxy-stock-firmware-0182037/

geopublic · ‎09-17-2020

@Anonymous Call Samsung tell them you just got back from the UAE and ask them if there are any specific codes that will allow you to make changes to NFC.

I know on the be Umidigi F2 I can make changes via *#*#3646633#*#*

Anonymous · ‎09-17-2020

@gpixel

Bricked is bricked. If something can be fixed and backed out of then it's not bricked. At least how I understand it.

How do I know it's an official firmware? How do I trust it hasn't been "altered"?

Can this be done short of rooting to stay in the Google-sphere?

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