Is it safe to update fw for note 2?

[Zergslayer69]

I've been out of the note 2 scene for a while and I plan on resetting my phone completely and going with stock samsung fw in preparation for android 4.3 (if they ever do it). However after lingering around on the note 3 forum people were talking about region lock on it (although they say an update was released to the note 3 to open up the region lock issue). I'm not sure if the note 2 was affected by any recent updates that locked a previously region free phone so just wondering if you guys have heard anything of this sort recently.

 

[aspot72]

I've been out of the note 2 scene for a while and I plan on resetting my phone completely and going with stock samsung fw in preparation for android 4.3 (if they ever do it). However after lingering around on the note 3 forum people were talking about region lock on it (although they say an update was released to the note 3 to open up the region lock issue). I'm not sure if the note 2 was affected by any recent updates that locked a previously region free phone so just wondering if you guys have heard anything of this sort recently.

I am not sure, but I think it's apply for new models (Note 3, S4 etc) only. I had S4 mini for a while and flashed any ROM on it without any issue.
The thing is, what Samsung means by "region lock". If its Americas, Europe and Asia, then it's simple enough - you can't flash european ROM to american/asian model and vice versa...

 

[Zergslayer69]

Ah is that what region locking is about? I figured people already would know you can't flash different region (which would be different model number) roms to nonsupported phones.

From what I gathered on the note 3 forums, if you buy an international unlocked phone you have to first activate it with the correct sim from the right region. And THEN you could use a sim from another country in it. I would imagine it'd be bad practice to lock out a perfectly working phone down the road just because they decided to change their policy.

 

[Zergslayer69]

So I just came across this article today

Samsung extends warranties of failing Galaxy devices after Chinese TV report

Is this sudden death thing due to bad hardware from the start or was it due to a bad firmware that increased the chance of killing your device?

 

[aspot72]

It was "fixed" by patch, but this bug applies only to devices made before June 2013...
All devices from June afterwards have different chips so no more SDS

 

[newbroot83]

Getting back to the OP's question, at this time I domt believe any patch had been made to region lock the note 2. Im on the current update atm. The "region lock" locks the phone down to, as it sounds, certain regions. All the America's work as one region. I believe to have it work in Europe you would have to have a European phone. Chainfire has already released an app to fix this for rooted users. But as I stated, this is a note 3 issue atm.

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Zergslayer69]

Alright, thanks guys, currently using the N7100 in America (originally activated in America) so was just worried they pulled a ninja update on it. Seems like everything is in the clear!

 

[midnite_blue]

we're in the not clear...

Not only has Samsung included the Note 2 on the list of phones targeted for the retroactive region lock, reports of just such a thing have started to come in from Note 2 owners.

The region-locking issue is not about user ROM flashing... it is, as you believed, Zergslayer69, about being able to use sims from out-of-region countries... and about the experience of many owners that unlocking didn't happen after they followed Samsung's instructions (to first use a SIM from the device's home region).

One month ago, Samsung UK announced: "The regional SIM lock has been applied to the Galaxy Note II and Galaxy S4 devices through a software update in selective markets." Indeed, Note 2 owners in Germany have reported that their phones became region locked after FW updates.

I'd say that little is in the clear right now. A major part of the problem is that you don't know when your market's been selected or which of Samsung's OTA updates will give you the lock. While Samsung has said that devices manufactured prior to July won't be affected, a German owner of an S3 purchased in June recently discovered the MCC blacklist in his customer.xml following his installation of a firmware download.