Samsung S24 Needs SIM BEFORE setup??

[DrMike]

I upgraded my wife's S22 to a new S24 and picked it up at a local Rogers store today. I wanted to set the new phone up using SmartSwitch before actually transferring the SIM - and I have done this in the past. In fact just this week I did that with a Pixel upgrade on my primary line.

Imagine my total surprise when turning on the new phone to find that after WiFi connect, the first thing it wanted to do was connect to a mobile network  and  demanded that I insert a SIM BEFORE I could get the phone into any mode for data and setting transfer. It did not want to set up a google account or any other setup until the SIM was inserted.

It said it needed to find a mobile network and was not going to budge until I satisfied that. No way to skip it. My Pixel upgrade had no such restrictions earlier in the week, and I did not insert my old SIM until I was ready to actually make the final transition and had everything set up on the new phone the way I wanted it....

I did manage to get around this as I found a trick detailed on the internet where you can tap in the 4 corners of the phone in 3 rotations and then press volume down and sure enough a pop up came up to say something like SIMLock unlocked or some such message. 

And then I could use Smart Switch and set up the new phone.

What was that all about?  I don't think the phone was "locked" per se, but clearly carrier restricted in some way (Rogers? Samsung?) to need a SIM card inserted before even getting to step 1 of the setup.  Is this a Samsung-imposed restriction I wonder? I have upgraded Galaxy phones several times over the years an have never encountered this? Did I do something wrong? Will I get a nasty surprise when I finally do put the old SIM into the new phone?

[RogersYasmine]

Hello @DrMike ,

I hope you are having a safe and happy holiday season thus far! 🙂

Thanks so much for taking the time to share the details of your recent upgrade experience when transferring your data over to the new phone. I recently did an upgrade myself (funny enough, also to the S24), however, I opted to put my old SIM card into the S24 before doing the transfer... I didn't have any issues, but I also cannot comment on your situation since you did it the opposite way around! 

With that being said, I cannot see why there would be any issue once you proceed with adding the old sim to the new phone. It should simply work as normal and provide you access to your saved contacts and to your Rogers plan and services.

You can try reaching out to Samsung support directly to inquire, as perhaps they have some jewels that they can provide to help clarify further. 

Kindest of regards,

RogersYasmine

[DrMike]

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@RogersYasmine wrote:

With that being said, I cannot see why there would be any issue once you proceed with adding the old sim to the new phone. It should simply work as normal and provide you access to your saved contacts and to your Rogers plan and services.

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At the end of it all, after her new phone was all set up with all files and setting and apps transferred etc so that we were 100% SURE we could transition from the old to the new, I did only THEN transfer her old SIM. As in LAST step, not FIRST step. And indeed all worked exactly as it should have. So all's well that ends well, as they say. 

But the real point is WHY is either Rogers or Samsung, or both, REQUIRING me to put a SIM card in as Step One. Why will it not start setup until it finds a mobile network? It was fully connected to Wi-Fi so if it needed an internet connection, it had it. The little "trick" I found of 3 rounds of screen tapping and a volume down is obviously an undocumented hack, and I should not have had to resort to some tom-foolery to bypass a restriction that, in my opinion, should not have been there in the first place. 

Anyway, all is good now, thanks. But since I had never seen this restriction before in any previous phone, Samsung or Pixel, I wondered why this unnecessary restriction? Who set that up? 

[TwitchyPuppy]

Hi!

It's Samsung and I think starting from Android 14. I don't know why the restriction, probably for some security reasons.