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Help Htc - apn locked

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amh1000

Lurker
Hi -
I have a HTC desire - i am however battling to unlock the APN (it has alock on the display next to it). How do i go about unlocking the APN so i can create my own APN settings. At present it does not allow me to change or edit and i am thinking its locked to the network.

What is the solution to this?
Thanks
 
Hi .....
Because th apn does not work in south Africa.
I need to add a new apn or edit the current one but I can't do either.
Cheers
 
I have never seen that. Perhaps it is something in a carrier branded handset?

Please give the details from Settings>About phone
 
I have an HTC Desire S and like you, I find that my APN settings are locked by my network. I didn't want to try anything drastic like a full factory reset, which may have ended up not fixing the problem. However, I downloaded Tweakker APN Manager from Android Market. This has fixed it. I set it running. All I had to do was confirm the network from the list, and it re-wrote my APN settings with the correct parameters. I knew it had re-written them because the network name had changed to Tweakker and the padlock symbol had disappeared. I was then successful in changing it back to my network name (although it doesn't seem to matter if you don't) and saving the changes.

Check out the list of countries for which this works first on Android Market. It carries a huge library of APN settings - I checked and it does cover South Africa. Good luck.

Only one cloud on the horizon - apparently this won't work on Android 4.0 (ICS) and beyond as 3rd party apps are prevented from altering APNs.
 
I now am now using Straight Talk prepaid instead of AT&T (for $41 total monthly I get 2.5 GB 4G data, unlimited talk and text. And because Straight Talk is an MVNO carrier, I am using AT&T's towers on my phone! Go figure.)

Anyway Straight Talk's SIM program is where one buys a SIM from Straight Talk ($15) and can use that on any AT&T GSM phone, from an old model or the SGS III.

When putting the SIM into a different phone you have to manually enter the APN info. Straight Talk's site tells how to do that and I saved the settings on my computer too.

I was setting up my GF's phone for use on Straight Talk. She got a used (like new) AT&T HTC 4G Inspire for $100 (that's a good deal). When I went into Settings to enter Straight Talk's APN info I noticed there were two lock symbols next to two APN entries. (I believe that means the APNs are locked by the carrier. Not sure, but if you get the phone unlocked that gets rid of the locks.)

Anyway, I spent about 20 minutes trying all kinds of ways to get the Straight Talk APN to work and it would not.

Enter that Tweakker program. I downloaded that from Android Market (using a WiFi connection to the Inspire).

WARNING: This program apparently uses a WiFi connection to access the Net, perhaps to get to an online settings database?

I had WiFi turned off, when I opened Tweakker it turned on my WiFi connection (to access the latest list of APN settings?).

Tweakker then asked what carrier's APN do I want to set up (I picked Straight Talk U.S.).

Tweakker made the changes. It then said words to the effect "Checking the network connection, this will take about a minute."

It turned OFF my WiFi. About 60 seconds later I was connected to the Net, with a 4G connection. I checked the settings and the two padlocked APNs were GONE! Instead there was only one APN on the list. I checked the settings and they were the exact APN settings Straight Talk provides on the Net, in its support section.

Can't complain about that (I especially wanted to get rid of those locked AT&T APNs. (IMO even if it cannot get rid of those APNs the program would set them up so that Straight Talk, in my case, is the default APN used.)

By the way, this particular HTC 4G Inspire (again, it is an AT&T phone) is rooted, but NOT unlocked. (If you get your phone unlocked I don't think it matters which Android version you are using, you can change the APNs with a program like this. IMO this is so because that's the whole point of getting a phone unlocked, you can use any carrier's network.)

This phone is running Android 2.3.3 (Gingerbread).

Hope that helps, and that my opinions are correct. ;):D
 
You said: I downloaded Tweakker APN Manager from Android Market. This has fixed it. I set it running. All I had to do was confirm the network from the list, and it re-wrote my APN settings with the correct parameters...
____________________

I found your comment via a Google search. I entered the search term (without quotes): "padlock symbol on apn settings."

Your post was #3 on the first page of search results. :adore:

The preview said:

Htc - apn locked - Android Forums

androidforums.com › ... › Desire - Support and Troubleshooting
8 posts - 2 authors - Jun 7
Hi - I have a HTC desire - i am however battling to unlock the APN (it has ... How do i go about unlocking the APN so i can create my own APN settings. .... had changed to Tweakker and the padlock symbol had disappeared.
____________________

The reason I clicked your comment first was because it said "padlock symbol had disappeared." Your words were music to my eyes. :D
 
Tyseyh said:
Why do you want to change it?
Click to expand...

For others who might happen upon this thread, APNs have to be changed, for example, if one goes from one carrier to another.

For example, here in the U.S. Straight Talk is a prepaid carrier. But it is an MVNO carrier using T-Mobile and AT&T towers. A main feature of Straight Talk is the availability of its BYOP program ("bring your own phone").

What I have done is buy used AT&T phones on eBay and set them up to use with Straight Talk. A critical part of the set-up is telling the phone to use the part of AT&T's towers that Straight Talk is leasing from AT&T, in other words, to set the APN under: settings, network, APN, menu.

While this has been easy in the past because I have had unlocked phones, the HTC Inspire was NOT unlocked so it had locked APNs (that apparently conflicted with Straight Talk's APN settings).

I assume what Tweakker does is "unlock" a phone to the extent that the APNs can be unlocked and deleted.

(Sidenote: in the past there has been companies who provide phone unlocking services via the Net (for $30 they send an unlock code number for the ESN/IMEI, model phone, and carrier. But I have now seen FREE phone unlocking programs in Market. Maybe those phone unlocking services days are numbered.)
 
All, I too have an HTC Inspire that I just bought used (previous ATT phone). Now I have a Straight Talk SIM that I inserted into the phone, after taking it out of another phone she was using temporarily and tried adjusting the APN settings using the method above (Tweakker).

I also tried changing APN using this method:

"Hook the phone up to a WiFi connection. Set up a google account on the phone if you haven't already. Go to your market. Download APN Backup And Restore. Use that app to backup the existing APN addresses to your SD card(in the event you need to restore it later if you decide to sell the phone). Then delete the APNs(they can interfere with your new ST APN).

Go to Settings>Wireless & Networks>Mobile Networks>Access Point Names.....press the menu button on your home row(the appearance and position may vary depending on the phone...consult the user's manual if it's not obvious). You should now have the option to create a new APN.

Fill in the following fields(note that this info creates TWO APNs). Do not change the defaults in the other fields.

First APN

Name
HOME

APN
att.mvno

Leave everything else alone EXCEPT the bottom selection that says:

APN type (here you must enter the following)
default,supl

Then save, next choose to add another APN
make it look like this:

Name
MMS

APN
att.mvno

skip down to
MMSC
http://mmsc.cingular.com

MMS proxy
proxy.mvno.tracfone.com

MMS port
80

skip to:
APN type (enter the following)
mms
THEN SAVE

Then select the APN(you won't be able to select the MMS one....this is normal)
Then reboot the phone.

Done.


Note: If you experience issues with MMS use the above info to create just one APN. Just be sure to leave the APN type blank or whatever the default is. Like this.....

Name
Straight Talk

APN
att.mvno

skip down to
MMSC
http://mmsc.cingular.com

MMS proxy
proxy.mvno.tracfone.com

MMS port
80

THEN SAVE

Then select it and reboot."

Nothing is working. I've spent half of my Sunday on this phone, and still do not have data or MMS working.

Should I root the phone? I'm out of options at this point.
 
Hi arustik1, and welcome to AF :)

I suggest asking in the Inspire forum, as the people there are more likely to know how to change apns on that handset.

My guess is that rooting by itself won't change your situation, and that you'd need to load a custom ROM as well. You would definitely need to ask in the Inspire All Things Root forum for advice on that.

Good luck
 
Hadron said:
Hi arustik1, and welcome to AF :)

I suggest asking in the Inspire forum, as the people there are more likely to know how to change apns on that handset.

My guess is that rooting by itself won't change your situation, and that you'd need to load a custom ROM as well. You would definitely need to ask in the Inspire All Things Root forum for advice on that.

Good luck
Click to expand...

Thank you. Will do that now.
 
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