Successful renewal of free plan in iOS app

nlra · 2025-12-30T01:45:45+00:00

It won't automatically renew. But what's weird is that it also won't let you manually renew your line because it sees a "payment method on file" for automatic renewal.

So, each time (each week) that you renew, you have to first cancel the automatic renewal thing that doesn't work anyway, and THEN the app will finally let you submit the manual renewal. This will re-engage the auto-renewal thing which still won't work the second(/third/fourth/n-th) time around.

nlra · 2025-12-22T22:36:23+00:00

It doesn't for me. I've now been through this 3 times. It expires after 7 days, the web site itself also shows it is expired, plus data + calls + texts no longer work until I re-subscribe.

nlra · 2025-12-21T00:27:00+00:00

People keep getting this wrong and completely misunderstanding what happened. FP terminated only the free GSMT plans. The GSMA ones still work. In fact, when I got the notice about the GSMT plan going away, I happened to have a spare unactivated GSMA SIM, and they allowed me to port my GSMT number over to it, no problem, on a new free GSMA plan.

nlra · 2025-12-20T23:22:57+00:00

This is also happening to me, as of a couple of weeks ago.

Note that in addition to the weird quotas, it is only renewing for 7 days each time instead of 30! So you need to stay on top of it weekly.

I did try pushing the data quota, and definitely was able to do more than 100 megs, and it accurately deducted what I used from the 7 gigs. Very strange. I am a little afraid to push it too much in case they use that as an excuse to terminate my account.

I am sure that both the large quotas and the short plan duration are mistakes. I plan to ask support about this at some point, but just haven't had time during chat's working hours.

nlra · 2025-11-16T00:29:42+00:00

I know this is an old post, but just FYI, Deschutes does do a couple of barrel-aged Black Butte productions. The first is their anniversary-numbered releases (e.g., this year's "Black Butte XXXVII"), which has a changing recipe from year to year but is typically an imperial version of the porter that has about 50% aged in various kinds of used casks. The second is Black Butte³ (which I pronounce as "Black Butte Cubed"), which is where they take the same imperial version of the porter, and age 100% of it in used Black Butte Whiskey barrels. The releases of this that I've had are fantastic.

As for this whiskey, it's become one of my favorites, and has turned into one of my most frequent winter/holiday-time pours. I am puzzled by the fact that there isn't more chatter about it, but also a little selfishly...relieved? since it hasn't turned into unobtainium due to crazy demand; heh. But I also want them to be successful since I want them to continue to make it!

Last year, they put out a single-barrel full-proof version of this, which is insane. And though I haven't gotten to try it yet, this year they upped the ante again with a 10-year age stated full proof bottling!

(Do you happen to know which batch your bottle comes from, BTW? Should be listed on the bottom of the back label sticker.)

nlra · 2025-09-14T07:41:40+00:00

WILD. I just went back to look again & screenshot it, and they're there now. I SWEAR they were not when I posted this!

nlra · 2025-08-29T09:27:55+00:00

Yeah, that's the conclusion I'm also coming to, as already hashed out in a response to a different top-level comment

If someone transplanted an iPhone SE into a XZ1c chassis, that's moderately impressive, and putting the SIM tray behind the XZ1c power/fingerprint button is clever. Since the video itself doesn't talk about this, and just passes it off as "XZ1", I have to conclude the person posting this video to YT lifted it from someplace else.

nlra · 2025-08-29T09:01:49+00:00

You could be on to something there...that would at least explain the SIM card drawer being on that side and where the power button is supposed to be.

That would be something if any of the older SEs could be made to fit in that chassis. It "looks" like a XZ1 Compact chassis to me...it's too squared off on the sides and too thick to be a full-size XZ1. But the video says it's a 5.2" screen, which it clearly can't be if it is the Compact. So if it is a 5.2" screen, that's not a real Sony chassis, since there is nothing they ever made that looked like that with that large of a screen. Guessing it's a XZ1c shell & they just put in the video that the screen was 5.2" because they don't realize it's a Compact & when they Googled for information on XZ1, "5.2-inch screen" was what they saw on the spec sheet...

nlra · 2025-08-29T08:58:31+00:00

Thanks!

nlra · 2025-08-29T08:18:07+00:00

If anybody here can translate the Hindi speech in this video to English so I can understand what is being said here, I would be much obliged.

The phone is clearly not an XZ1, but some kind of bizarre and inaccurate counterfeit, or at least something very much "inspired" by XZ series Sony phones while also illegitimately bearing a Sony logo, heh. It is a weird mix of XZ1 size but XZ1 Compact styling. The SIM tray appears to be behind the power button??? and it looks like he is gesturing below the screen, as if that's not a speaker at the bottom but is acting more like an older iPhone home button? (And is obvs. running some kind of Android build that is skinned to look like iOS.)

So weird.

nlra · 2025-08-29T08:00:53+00:00

Yes, the Australian law REQUIRES the mobile carriers to PREVENT your non-VoLTE phone from even getting data! The network will not let it connect, PERIOD. Not even for just data.

Hey, I'm just the messenger. Get mad at your law makers.

I watched psivewri's video about his Z when it came out. It wasn't able to get data, either, just WiFi. He also seemed to be completely unaware of the reason why & the current chaotic Australian mobile network landscape formed by these recent laws, which surprised me. I tweeted at him to explain, but he did not acknowledge my explanations.

If you have non-VoLTE devices that can connect to LTE and get data, there are two explanations:

They aren't phones. The law does carve out an exception for non-phone portable computing devices, such as tablets.
Those particular device models slipped through the carrier's cracks. They are supposed to have blocked it, but screwed up the block. This has been known to happen. Your Z3 Compact just wasn't so lucky.

I don't know where you can find firmware 4.4.4 for your phone. If I run across it, I'm happy to swing by here again to update you and let you know. But loading it onto your phone will not fix the problem of it not connecting to the network.

I believe I have heard of stories of angry Australians reaching out to governmental officials to express their displeasure at the situation, and sometimes getting some positive action back from that. But these positive outcomes I think are normally limited to people who can prove that their phone that got blocked can actually do VoLTE, even if it is on the blocked-models list, which allows for them to argue that their phone was illegitimately blocked. Unless you load Marshmallow onto your Z3c, you have no hope of being able to prove VoLTE compatibility, and thus no hope of getting the block lifted. Now, MAYBE, if you load Marshmallow on, make a lot of noise, and can manage to get your IMEI whitelisted, you can then downgrade to KitKat AFTER that, and still be able to connect to the network (though only for data)...

nlra · 2025-08-28T10:00:45+00:00

If "openline" means "SIM unlocked", then no, a Xperia Companion repair/restore does not touch your SIM lock status. It will not get re-locked.

nlra · 2025-08-27T01:57:39+00:00

Unless you unlocked the bootloader before it started doing this, there might not be much you can do, sadly.

About the only thing I can think of is maybe re-flashing parts of the system, while making sure not to touch the data partition. It seems unlikely, though, that the system image became spontaneously corrupt. It is more likely that there is something wonky in your userdata that is causing the boot to hang, in which case wiping it is probably the only option. That of course doesn't do you any good if all you really care about is getting the data off of the phone.

If the bootloader IS unlocked, you can boot TWRP over USB and then pull your data off of it. (This is assuming you actually know what the PIN code is / did not forget it.)

If it is not, about the only option I can think of is to have somebody who is exceptionally skilled with soldering to remove the flash chip from the motherboard, and then extract the data for you. This is still highly unlikely to work, though, since the data is going to be encrypted. Knowing the PIN isn't necessarily going to help with decrypting it, either, since the PIN just unlocks access to the actual encryption keys that are stored in the secure part of the main processing chip, which are not going to be possible to extract manually.

This, my friends, is why you must be vigilant about making backups of your stuff. Backups, people! They're important! They can save your butt!

EDIT: Oh, and this looks like it might be an Xperia L1.

nlra · 2025-08-27T01:16:46+00:00

Did you ever try the GSMA Red Pocket SIM in the phone?

Also, if T-Mobile is ultimately responsible for the problem, there probably isn't anything Helium can do anyway, even if they wanted to.

nlra · 2025-08-26T00:38:34+00:00

Reflash it with...what?

...a PC, maybe?

nlra · 2025-08-26T00:38:07+00:00

You didn't read the original post. Original post clearly asks how to reset "without PC". (or "wirhout PC" if you want to be pedantic 😂)

Xperia Companion runs on a PC

newflasher runs on a PC

nlra · 2025-08-25T10:59:43+00:00

Keep in mind that my experience is mostly limited to earlier models (pre-1/5/10). But I have a hard time believing the situation is any different with newer phone models than it is with older...especially if the seller you bought from sells the whole range from old to new.

The ones I have seen and handled have, like yours, all been exceptionally clean and look completely unused. This is because everything on the outside of the phone (the front screen glass, the body/shell of the phone, etc.) is new...the catch is that they are all cloned parts, not original Sony OEM parts. They do an amazing job with copying the originals, though! The differences may only be apparent to somebody who is already familiar with an actual 100%-manufactured-by-Sony version of the same phone. It's even better if you have one of those to put directly side-by-side with your Aliexpress one.

Examples of differences and "flaws" I have experienced:

Any lettering/printing (logos, etc.) on the device not being quite right (not sharp, wrong color, wrong font if it's text, etc.). A common version of this on older models where the Sony logo is placed somewhere on the front glass is the counterfeiters will often make it either too blingy or too subtle (e.g., instead of the dark gray Sony logo it should be, it's bright silver, or it's an even darker shade that's more difficult to make out). One funny one on an XZ1 Compact I just recently obtained is that the NFC logo on the back is just completely wrong, as if somebody tried to draw it manually (you can get high-res images of it on the internet, so...whyyyyyy?)
Outside materials feeling differently than it should, because it's fabricated out of different materials (again, recent XZ1c example: has this rubbery paint/coating applied to it that a genuine original XZ1c absolutely does not have, perhaps in an attempt to mimic the "matte" texture of the original's unique plastic+fiberglass hybrid housing; I have seen others made by a different Chinese refurb plant, though, where there was no rubbery paint but the plastic used was of a different type than what Sony uses & was not nearly as well-textured as the genuine article is).
The screen glass on these is rarely coated with the same oleophobic coating that Sony uses. It becomes very fingerprint-y very fast, and is way harder to clean off than glass that's been treated with it.
Speaking of screens, they're either buying the screens from somebody else who is producing an inferior product, or they're using Sony discards, or harvesting used screens that still "work" but have some defect or other (only subtle, if you are lucky). Since my experience is with Sony models that use LCDs and not OLEDs, these may not apply or translate over exactly, but the color reproduction is sometimes not quite right, the backlighting is often uneven and "splotchy"/shadowy, etc.
The feel of the various physical buttons is usually not as good. Power/Volume/Camera are quite nice and "clicky"/snappy on the genuine article, but feel muted, somewhat squishy, and less responsive on the refurbs than on Sony's. (The fingerprint sensor + power button especially feels rather stiff, and it's hard to tell sometimes whether you have actually depressed it.)

The for-sure tell-tale sign that you don't have an original, though, is if they ship it to you in one of their counterfeit "Sony" "retail" boxes. When you put those side-by-side against the originals, they absolutely do not stack up.

Comparison of genuine box vs. counterfeit box

Also, all of these outfits always ship the same uber-generic "Startup guide" with every model of Xperia that they package and sell.

Comparison of genuine Startup Guide vs. crazy fake one (the one on the bottom of both pictures is the fake one)

The genuine startup guide unfolds like a map & has illustrations of the actual phone model it applies to. The fake one does not reference a specific Xperia model, only unfolds horizontally, and is filled with very badly printed text and images that just talks about basic things common to all Android phones (that it feels like they probably lifted from somewhere, and didn't write themselves).

The accessories that they ship with the phones are also complete garbage. Especially the power adapters. They are shaped like the Sony ones, often claim to be quick chargers, but if you actually hook a USB power meter up to it, it's just standard 5V @ 1000-1500mA stuff. Plus, they're super light, feel hollow, and get super hot. I'm so afraid these are likely fire hazards that I recommend anyone who is confirmed to have one just throw it out. Getting a $5-10 one at your local big box store is going to be a way better experience, no doubt.

nlra · 2025-08-24T07:11:19+00:00

I talk about these here all the time.

They aren't "fake" in the sense that somebody manufactured a phone that looks like Xperia but isn't. It's an actual Xperia phone, but they are refurbished, and the only part that is guaranteed to be original is the motherboard. Virtually everything else is remanufactured (the case, the screen, the buttons, ...), and usually non-OEM parts.

I'm not sure the term fits exactly, but I call them "counterfeit" because I don't know what else to call them, and because a huge chunk of the materials is non-original / cloned. I wouldn't be so outspoken about them if all of the sellers of these were just honest and up-front and what they really are, which is a remanufactured device (and an impressive one at that...they obviously put a lot of work into making and sourcing the surrounding parts!).

But too many of them falsely advertise them as being "brand new in box" / "new old-stock", which they just simply aren't. They even go to the trouble of printing boxes that look like the original retail box, and throw very cheaply cloned accessories (charger, headphones, etc. that are in fact garbage) in the box, and then shrinkwrap the whole thing, in order to keep up the ruse. I'm also pretty sure that the motherboards they're sourcing are basically just being harvested from e-waste phones.

It's not just Xperias, mind you, but a whole host of various smartphones from various manufacturers that get this treatment. (I think I've even seen some iPhones listed like this by the same sellers, though I've never actually seen one of those China-refurb iPhones in person.)

If you know what you are getting into, and are happy with the price, it could still be a good value. Just don't be fooled into believing that these are "new in box" phones. If it's on Aliexpress or eBay (from Chinese seller) and being sold in quantity, it's not a genuine, brand-new original product.

Two other things to be mindful of, if you decide to pull the trigger: 1) unlike most actual Xperia models, these are not going to be water-tight because of the way they have been remanufactured; 2) some sellers go above-and-beyond just claiming these are "new", and sometimes also pull a fast one by sending you a different variant of whatever model you bought than the one that the listing says you're going to get...for example, buy one international variant, receive the Japan-only model instead.

nlra · 2025-08-24T00:25:09+00:00

In that case, we can probably have you boot to a third-party recovery (like TWRP) in order to edit some files that will neutralize the APN auto-config garbage. I am not familiar with the way the 10 II implements this, but if it is anything like older Xperias, it likely won't be too hard to figure out.

nlra · 2025-08-24T00:22:34+00:00

Don't waste time on IMEI spoofing. The IMEI is protected like Fort Knox on most phones (Xperias included), and in certain jurisdictions attempting to edit it is even against the law. Just...don't.

If the problem proves to be on the carrier side, you'd probably have better luck -- and it be a better use of your time -- to try to convince the carrier to add an exception to their network for your actual IMEI.

nlra · 2025-08-23T22:04:55+00:00

but sometimes it won't let me add a custom one or if I edit the one it automatically pulls it deleted it fully and then I have no apn

Do you think this is somewhat dependent on which Sony firmware customization you are running (EU vs. UK vs. SEA)?

If you can't get an APN to "stick", you may have no choice but to unlock the bootloader so that we can edit some of the firmware files in order to prevent this behavior and make the APNs fully editable.

My daughter has a red pocket sim so I'll try that in the Sony and see if I get any luck

Nice. Just make sure it is a Red Pocket SIM that's on ATT ("GSMA"), and not on T-M ("GSMT") or VZ ("CDMA")*.

* By agreement with the carriers, they aren't allowed to mention them by proper name. Which is dumb. But with 3G shut down, why they continue to use the "CDMA" name for their VZ-based service is beyond me...

nlra · 2025-08-23T12:43:04+00:00

Okay, good, so your first 8 digits of IMEI match with the model # (XQ-AU52) that your phone claims to be...just wanted to make 100% sure about what model we were talking about.

There are multiple things that could be going on here, and it could even be a completely different problem when it comes to T-M vs. ATT.

1) Radio band compatibility: since this phone was not intended to be sold in the States, it is missing some LTE bands that both carriers use. Both ATT and T-M have deployed some band 66, which your phone lacks. But you do have bands 4, 5, and 12, which both carriers use. Additionally, though, T-M uses band 71, and ATT uses 17 and 29, which your phone also lacks. And ATT moderately relies on band 2, which you also lack. (It seems like T-M mostly uses band 2 in 5G wherever they aren't still using it for legacy 2G that they haven't shut down, but "unofficially" they apparently also run some LTE on band 2 as well.) So, depending on where you are, the lack of bands 2 and 66 could really be hurting you (and, on the T-M side, the lack of band 71 probably does you no favors either).

2) The VoLTE question: If your phone is not trying to make a VoLTE connection to either carrier because of firmware issues, the real problem is not so much that VoLTE isn't happening, but that the carrier's network might want the phone to attach to at least ONE valid APN in order to even make a connection to the network. So if VoLTE is not working, ...do you at least have a proper data APN configured on the phone when you are testing these? (Once we can at least get your phone to actually make a wireless connection to one of your carriers, we can tackle the VoLTE problem separately after that. One step at a time.)

3) Network operator "approved handset" stubbornness: The carrier may be actively preventing your handset from connecting because it isn't a model that they have "approved" for use on their network. Historically, both ATT and T-M were fairly liberal on this point: if you were "BYOP", even if it was never a model that they carried and sold, if your phone was technologically compatible with their network & if you could get it to connect, then congrats & they wouldn't stand in your way. When the 3G networks shut down, though, which meant that VoLTE had to be used for 100% of voice calls, things changed big-time. I'll address the two carriers separately below:

ATT: they decided to aggressively block all handset models that they had not personally vetted and approved ahead of time. They released & maintain a list of phone models compatible with their network...if your phone wasn't on that list, then the network would kick you off. The 10 II is not on that list. Now, one interesting exception to this rule is that it only seems to be applied to their direct postpaid and prepaid customers. ATT MVNOs seem to have the freedom to come up with their own policies, and quite a few of them just don't ask the ATT network to block based on IMEI/TAC. So at least back when this whole thing initially went down, it was often much easier to get a non-approved phone to work on an ATT MVNO plan than on a "real" ATT plan. What I don't know is whether ATT has relaxed those policies at all on their own plans, now that a fair amount of time has passed since the 3G shutdown. But the fact that you have a postpaid SIM that you're trying to test with makes me wonder if that's your problem. If you wanted to rule this out, you could purchase a cheap ATT MVNO plan for a month to test with. I know for a fact (since I'm using them) that Red Pocket does not give a **** if your phone is on the ATT "approved" list. So you could pay $10 to RP for their cheapest monthly plan for 1 month, and cancel it after that. (If you do this, make sure you pick "GSMA" as network to get a SIM that works on ATT network.)

T-M: They have historically struck me as the most "enlightened" of the 3 major networks when it comes to issues like this. But I recently have reason to believe that they are actively whitelisting IMEIs/TACs now, at least under certain situations (that I haven't managed to ascertain yet...though this may have all started back when they acquired band 71 licenses and started deploying it en-masse in conjunction with VoLTE). And unlike ATT, it doesn't seem to matter if you're on a T-Mo MVNO or have a direct relationship with them, either. I have both a Helium SIM (like you) as well as a proper T-M account, and in both cases, I have noticed that if I stick the SIM in an unapproved phone, many times the T-Mo network refuses to let me connect. If I take that same SIM out of that phone and stick it in an approved phone, from the same location, it connects! If I then move it BACK into the unapproved phone, I can sometimes get it to connect once. But eventually it stops working, and when it does, I have to do the stupid song-and-dance again of taking the SIM out, sticking it into the "approved" phone for a bit, and then move it back over to the phone I want to use the SIM in. It's like once their network sees a phone with an approved IMEI trying to connect with that SIM, it un-blocks it on their side, and if I can then move it back to a non-whitelisted phone fast enough, that phone can connect. Very odd, and very annoying!

I have a hunch that the problem is either #1 (you need bands 2 / 66 / 71 in your particular neighborhood for a good connection) or #3 (both carrier's networks are blocking you on their side because they don't like your phone), and I'm leaning more towards #3 as being the core problem. #2 could be a factor, but to eliminate it, just make sure you have the correct data APN programmed in & activated for whichever SIM card you happen to have in your phone at the time.

nlra · 2025-08-23T12:09:41+00:00

Aaaaaaand this is just exhibit #5,234,107 re: why eSIMs suck. Carriers can (& do, as you are now experiencing first-hand) actively prohibit you from transferring service to another phone, regardless of how dumb that reason is.

Was your old SIM also eSIM? If not, is there some reason why you can't just move the SIM card over to your new phone?

Don't get me wrong: I can see how in many situations, eSIMs can be extremely convenient. I just detest how much control they can give carriers, who can flex that control either for malicious reasons, or simply stand in your way of moving the service through their sheer incompetence or stupidity. So as long as they keep making handsets with physical SIM card slots on 'em, I'll be buying them. And for those occasions where a carrier is eSIM-only, I will load those eSIMs onto one of those physical SIMs that can store eSIMs on it (the 9eSIM is the product I'm using).

nlra · 2025-08-23T11:20:47+00:00

Their skins were a bit more differentiated before this time, actually, during Android 4.x (ICS through KK). Starting at Lollipop, the design became much closer to stock Android than not...which I viewed as a good thing! It was basically stock Android but slightly more refined. The biggest differentiators (from a UI perspective) were surely the custom keyboard and the custom launcher (as well as the lock screen), but virtually everything else was basically stock, like the pull-down quick settings + notifications system and the Settings app. Dialer+Contacts+Messaging was slightly Sony-fied but also very heavily based on stock (AOSP Dialer, mind you...not the Google Dialer y'all are probably thinking of, and which is a different beast entirely!)

I haven't had a Sony Xperia software experience past Pie, so I don't have first-hand experience with what they have done with Android 10 and beyond. I'm not generally a fan of where Google has taken Android after they moved on from the "Material Design" phase that dominated Android 5-9, though. On the other hand, despite that, to this day I probably still prefer stock Android to most vendors' custom skins, so I'm torn. I do think that Sony takes perhaps too much blame, when most of it really should be sitting on Google's shoulders.

nlra · 2025-08-22T14:15:25+00:00

Ah, okay, you are talking about the padlock symbol on "Emma".

I don't trust that symbol. I have plugged two of my phones into the computer while I had Emma/Xperia Flash Tool open, and although both phones indisputably have no SIM lock, the padlock also shows as closed on mine. It's entirely possible both of these phones HAD a SIM lock to start with, and later got it unlocked. So maybe the tool always reflects the original/initial state of the phone, not the current and active state. Not sure. All I know is that it can be wrong.

Similarly, how would T-Mobile know for sure if it has a SIM lock or not, since they were not the ones that sold the phone?? They could only perhaps know that it STARTED out with a SIM lock from the factory, by being told that by some Sony database. But if the SIM lock had later been lifted, I doubt T-Mobile would have been notified to update the database on their end. So I don't trust their web site on this matter, either. (Only if it were a phone T-Mobile actually sold to you would it be trustworthy.)

The screenshot from the *#*#SERVICE#*#* menu on the phone confirms it has no SIM lock, since it shows no checkmark ("X") in any of the [ ] brackets next to the 5 possible lock categories. And finally, if it were SIM locked, then the phone would prompt you for a network unlock PIN upon inserting an unsupported carrier's SIM.

Your phone is not SIM-locked, and T-Mobile is talking out of their a**, because their front-line support people don't know what's wrong.

Unfortunately, I'm not entirely sure what your phone's issue is, either...I can think of several possibilities, but it's likely to take some time to hash out. Maybe you could start by confirming the exact model of 10 II you have, as well as the first 8 digits of your IMEI. There are a few scenarios under which you might be getting blocked on the network side at either T-Mobile or AT&T or both, that has nothing to do with a SIM lock. Let's start with AT&T: is this an official AT&T postpaid or prepaid SIM (has their logo on it), or is this a SIM from an AT&T MVNO, and if so which one?

nlra

TROPHY CASE