Question Network unlocking a Samsung Galaxy S8 running Android 9 (One UI 1.0)

[HeyImAmy]

My dad purchased a Samsung Galaxy S8 phone, a few years ago, from Cricket Wireless. After using the phone for a few years, my dad passed it on to my mom who used it for a few years before recently getting a new phone and passing the S8 on to me.

I found a provider (Q Link Wireless) that has a Bring Your Own Phone option and, when I entered the IMEI number for my S8, their website said that i is compatible with their network so I applied for Q Link.

I recently received a SIM card from Q Link and, when I put it into my S8, I get a message asking about a PUK code. I read online that you need to contact your provider for that so I contacted Q Link and they gave me two codes. I tried both of the PUK codes they gave me with my S8 and, in addition to both codes not working (I get a message that says "Incorrect network unlock code entered"), My S8 shows a message with something along the lines of "Invalid SIM card. Network Locked SIM inserted".

My dad contacted Cricket by phone and was told that my S8 is "unlocked" but, after not being able to get my Q Link SIM card to work, I chatted with someone at Cricket who told me that they "unlocked" the phone.

My dad logged into his Cricket account and used the IMEI number for my S8 to generate an unlock code. The problem is that there is no place to enter the code (restarting my S8 or inserting my Q Link SIM card do not give me any pop-ups where I can enter an unlock code and the code does not work on the PUK pop-up I get).

I read online that you can dial #7465625*638*# on your keypad to get to a screen where you can enter your unlock code and get your phone unlocked but that does nothing (my S8 does not have a working SIM card so I get a pop-up stating I can only make emergency calls).

Cricket keeps telling me my phone is unlocked but I do not think it is.

I am wondering if there is a way to get the unlock screen to show up on my S8 so I can enter the unlock code I got from Cricket (ex: maybe insert a working SIM card so I can dial a code on my keypad and get to the unlock screen)?

Or how can I get my Q Link SIM card to work with my S8 if it's not a Network Lock/Unlock issue?

 

[VidJunky]

I know this is an old link and perhaps you've found a solution by now. When it comes to using the dialer to open a functions menu, the codes you find online are hit and miss. You need the right one for your device which changes if the device is carrier locked or unlocked from the factory. Online it sounds so simple but in real life...

Anyway I was thinking perhaps you could give the code to Q-Link and see they could do something with it because I know of no place on the device where it could be entered.