Defective watch?

[starcat42]

so i am pretty sure at this point i have a defective watch. EVERY single indication says the watch should work, yet its not. permenant broken cloud, no cellular signal even though the card is recognizing the simcard and saying everything is ok, and everything is perfect on t-mobiles way.

 

[ekerbudeeeek]

Take it back

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[starcat42]

Ya im going to exchange it tomorrow

 

[foxbat121]

The Tmo CSR probably disconnected your watch on his phone. Otherwise, all his email and text messages and contacts will go to your watch. If he knows that before hand, he will not do that favor to you. I know I certainly won't .

So, until you get yourself an Android phone, stop playing with the watch. At this point, you can't prove or disprove anything because you don't own an Android phone.

 

[Jaycemiskel]

The Tmo CSR probably disconnected your watch on his phone. Otherwise, all his email and text messages and contacts will go to your watch. If he knows that before hand, he will not do that favor to you. I know I certainly won't .

So, until you get yourself an Android phone, stop playing with the watch. At this point, you can't prove or disprove anything because you don't own an Android phone.

This! You'll likely have the same problem with a replacement device.

 

[starcat42]

i bought an android phone, everything worked fine on my sim. and i ran into another problem. people are saying that the watch wont work because the sim thinks its a cell phone. so it locks itself.

 

[foxbat121]

It is true. T-mo's wearable plan only works for T-Mo branded Gear S and Gear S2 watches. If the device's IMEI is not recognized, it will lock the SIM and the account. So, you should never put this kind of SIM in any phone or non-Tmo smart watch. There are reports that some are getting lucky, i.e. the CSR knows how to put in the IMEI of Urbane 2 into the system to make it work. I suspect your SIM worked as well until you tried it in your phone.

However majority T-Mo CSR doesn't know what they are doing. Hence can't get it work for most ppl.

 

[json405]

Hey @foxbat121

When you got your 2nd edition, did you turn it on right away with the ATT sim in it? I think you said you didn't activate it on ATT but did you turn it on or did the person who sold it to you turn it on?

I was remembering the day I got my watch and I told the ATT rep that I was not planning on activating it. When he brought out the watch he showed it to me, then he said don't turn it on ok, it'll be easier that way. So that spooked me a little bit that's why I never turned it on until I got to the Tmobile store to check to see if I could activate my watch on the wearable plan. The Tmobile person took out the ATT sim first then he had me set up the watch. He didn't do anything special that I noticed except pop in a sim card to check if it worked. I was out of there in a minute.

Is it possible if you turn on the device with the ATT sim in it, that the watch becomes locked in as an ATT only device? ATT doesn't have a wearable plan per se so they still use a phone plan to activate your watch if you decide to activate it with ATT. I wonder if that's what causes the issues when trying to activate it as a wearable on Tmobile since they actually do have a wearable plan that's separate from a phone plan? Maybe it locks it in as a phone device not a wearable or locks it entirely.

It was just a thought I had because my friend got an ATT 2nd edition too and went to a Tmobile store (a different one) and he walked out of there with a wearable plan attached to his watch. He did the same thing I did and did not turn on the watch until he got to the tmobile store.

 

[starcat42]

i called and had the IMEI put in , all you have to do is ask to talk to a tech support guy they all know how to put in IMEI numbers. the device went from not working to barely working when i did that, so that must be done. but even after that it still did not connect cellularly.

 

[starcat42]

i am wondering if this has anything to do with it . T-Mobile USA down? Current outages and problems | Down Detector which would be just the cherry on the top to all this that everything really was working perfectly but t-mobile was down everywhere.

 

[foxbat121]

@json405,

I'm with AT&T, not T-Mobile. But T-mo wearable plan locking to IMEI is not new. Before Urbane 2, there is Samsung Gear S that many owners found this out the hard way. It is not unique to Urbane2.

AT&T always tell you not to turn on the phone or watch until a few hours after you activated the SIM. It is not a problem actually and won't suddenly lock your device to AT&T. That's not how it works in GSM world.

 

[daverns]

I may try exchanging the watch and try what @json405 have done, I am just not sure this will work, I am thinking the IMEI of the watch gets binded to ATT when it's turned on with the ATT sim on it.

 

[json405]

Well maybe not lock it to a carrier but more like format it to be recognized as a phone rather than a wearable. So when you try to put a wearable sim from tmo it sees it as a non wearable.

I totally understand why Tmobile would want to have that IMEI lock on their plans since they have one for each type of device. People can abuse it very easily if that type of security isn't in place for their plans.

 

[foxbat121]

Nope, t-mo use its own database to check IMEI number belongs to wearable device. Unfortunately, that means only T-mo branded watches are in the database. This restriction was only put in place in early 2015. Before that, there was no such restriction. I guess a lot ppl use it for regular smartphone.

If you ever put you wearable sim in a phone, you will receive a message and the sim will be permanently locked and useless. AT&T has nothing to do with it. When Samsung Gear S2 first released, a lot ppl have trouble even with T-mo branded watch because T-mo forgot to put them into database.

Just ask @xendula. He was on T-mo wearable plan with his AT&T version of Gear S. Last Nov, he took the SIM out and put inside the Urbane 2, his wearable SIM no longer works with either device.

 

[tech_head]

I may try exchanging the watch and try what @json405 have done, I am just not sure this will work, I am thinking the IMEI of the watch gets binded to ATT when it's turned on with the ATT sim on it.

No it does not get locked to AT$T.
I used mine with an AT$T SIM.
I now have a T-Mobile pay as you go and it works fine.
It has to do with the T-Mobile wearable plan. They do not allow non T-Mobile devices.
Unless you get a CSR that knows what they are doing it will never work.

 

[afblangley]

T-Mobile maintains a IMEI database for watches and tablets (but apparently not for smartphones). At any rate, it can be manually overridden by tech support. I didn't know if they can do it in the store, but it can definitely be done over the phone.