[Tutorial] Unlock your Samsung Phone

[eveready]

Unlock your Samsung Phone
[GT-S5570 / more...]​

This tutorial was tested on a Samsung GT-S5570 ( Galaxy Mini ) but worked on some other models too ( i5500 / Galaxy Ace ).

First thing you must know is that in order to keep following this tutorial you must have your phone rooted. Temporary or permanent, both will do the job. For any information about rooting phone ( Android 2.2 / 2.3 ) you can do a quick search on Google.

Root Desktop App: SuperOneClick


Now there are 2 methods for extracting the file we need to obtain unlock code, one using ADB Shell(if you use this method, make sure you have installed Android USB Driver first) or using a Terminal App for phone.
ADB comes with Android SDK Tools and Terminal Emulator App from market or somewhere else.

• Method 1 (ADB Shell)

- Open one instance of "Command Prompt" and go to folder containing ADB tool (adb.exe). (e.g C:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-sdk\platform-tools>)
- Make sure your phone is connected to PC and "USB Debugging" it's enabled. (Settings -> Applications -> Development -> USB debugging [X])
- The following commands will be executed in "Command Prompt" that we opened earlier:

- adb shell
- su
- cat /dev/block/bml5>/sdcard/bml5.img
- exit (2x)
- adb pull /sdcard/bml5.img

So let's understand what we did here. First we run remote shell interactively, grant super-user access, extract the bml5 file to /sdcard then copy it to PC.

The file that we copied to PC should be in C:\Users\~username~\AppData\Local\VirtualStore but you can do a quick search to find it.


• Method 2 (Terminal App)

- Open Terminal Emulator app
- Grant Super-user access to application
- The following commands will be executed in current opened application:

- su
- cat /dev/block/bml5>/sdcard/bml5.img
- exit (2x)
- Close the application.

bml5 -> (BE-EM-EL-FIVE)
2x -> run the command 2 times

Attention: If you run cat command with the path from above and it's says the file doesn't exists or something like that make sure you try "cat /dev/bml5>/sdcard/bml5.img". For Samsung GT-S5570 the files is under /dev/block.

If you get this message when trying to access .bml file while your connected to PC: Permission Denied then try to get your USB card out of Mass Storage mode, so card won't be used by another process.

Ok, so after using one of these methods we have our file bml5.img in our PC if we used first method or on our /sdcard if we used second method. Keep in mind that we need this file on our PC, so if you used second method just copy the file to PC!
Now comes the part where we need to work with the file that we just extracted. So, in order to get the unlock code we need a HEX Editor, i've used XVI32 Hex Editor to open the file.

• Finding the unlock code

- Open XVI32 Application that we just downloaded. Hit CTRL+O and select the bml5.img file that we extracted earlier. (Open the file)
- At the first look we will see just a bunch of FF's and 00's and random decimals or symbols, but somewhere deep in there it's our unlock code.
- Hit CTRL+F to open search dialog, select "Hex String" and put the following search string

FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30

(maybe the search string won't be the same for all phones, but the one from above worked for Samsung GT-S5570)
- Mark "Case Sensitive", Direction "Down", Scope from "Begin".
- Click ok, or hit ENTER to start our search.
- So now, we must hit F3 until we find our unlock code.
Our unlock code will be 8 digits plain text surrounded by unknown symbols just like in image below.

(I've hit F3 like 3 times, but don't know if it's the same for everyone. Also to make sure you see the code, after hitting F3 make sure you go 2-3 rows up to make sure the code is not above the searched string.)
(Unlock code can be find in multiple places in file, so if you skip one searched string by mistake, just pay attention for next ones)

After getting the unlock code, write it somewhere in PC or paper... close the phone, remove the actual SIM Card, insert a foreign one and turn it ON! Wait untill it boots up, insert the unlock code and your done. Now you have an unlocked phone!

Attention: Unlock code can be extracted using a Custom ROM like CM7 in my case, the file was there, but can't be unlocked since the window to insert code doesn't appear(pop-up). In order to unlock your phone you must have a Stock ROM that actually can read any Samsung code and have that Network unlock code window!

Most custom roms that tries to remove blur break the subsidy lock interface (sim unlock screen doesn't show on them). If you flash other rom and subsidy unlock screen doesn't pop when you insert foreign sim, you will need to flash back stock ROM in order to unlock. So the easyest way for those of you running a Custom ROM, just do a nandroid backup using CWM, flash Stock ROM, unlock your phone then restore your backup.

• Useful Codes

*#7465625# - Dial code to check if phone it's network locked.
#7465625*638*UNLOCKCODE# - Replace UNLOCKCODE with your 8 digits number, then dial. Phone might reboot.

Details about test environment

Phone used: Samsung GT-S5570 (Galaxy Mini)
Android Version: 2.3.4 (Gingerbread)
PC Windows: Windows 7 (64-bit)

If you have reached the end of the tutorial and you wasn't able to obtain the unlock code( find numbers like 00000000 / 11111111 ), then it means that your phone it's "Hard Locked" or doesn't have the unlock code provided with the phone. I don't know any solution until now for this problem. For most of the people here, this works flawlessly, for some doesn't work.

 

[eveready]

Please confirm here for successfully unlock...

 

[animalistic]

nosebleed.

 

[kengkay22]

Thanks dito TS!! na unlock ko samsung galaxy 5 ni GF.maraming salamat!!!

101%WORKING PO ito...

 

[kid26]

Any updates or feedback po d2 kung working pa? or kung ano anong models ang pwd . thanks in advance!. God Bless!