If you’ve tried to activate the Samsung Mobile Tracker on your Samsung Galaxy S I9000, you’ve undoubtedly encountered numerous pointless error messages like ‘SSO_2012′ or ‘For legal reasons, this function not in service in some countries.’. I, for one, am sick and tired of living in a ‘technological 3rd world country’ that always gets the short end of the stick for anything on the World Wide Web and since moving is not an option for me, I decided to figure out a procedure to set up and use Mobile Tracker despite the arbitrary limitations.
First things first: I’ve only tested this on Froyo 2.2 and you will need a rooted phone to pull this off. The usual disclaimers apply. (I’m not buying you a new phone if you break yours, you may get sued into oblivion by Samsung, cause the destruction of the entire universe … or worse. You’ve been warned.)
1. Signing up for an account.
This needs to be done from ‘Location and Security’ menu on the device, but typically will be met with an error message like ‘SSO_2010′. To fix that, root your device, download the MarketEnabler application (just google it) and use it to fake another provider (like ‘T-Mobile US’). Signup should work fine with that.
2. Triggering a location update request.
With the account you created in step 1, you can log into samsungdive.com. Sadly, when trying to use the ‘locate’ feature, you may get another error message stating that this is not allowed in your country ‘for legal reasons’. (I can’t fathom a legal reason that would prevent me from requesting the location of my own phone, but that is what it says.)
To fix this, log into the Samsung Dive site and go to the Mobile tracker. Once there, access the following URL while replacing ‘YOURPASSWORD’ with your account password to trigger a location update request:
http://www.samsungdive.com/locationN/forwardLocationRequest.do?password=YOURPASSWORD
That page will return gibberish which your browser probably won’t like. Just ignore it and go back to the Mobile tracker page, where your request will be pending or have completed in the meantime.
3. Issuing a remote lock command.
If you want to issue a remote lock for your device, use this URL:
http://www.samsungdive.com/lockN/forwardRemoteLockResult.do?password=YOURPASSWORD¤tReqId=REQUESTID
YOURPASSWORD = your account password
REQUESTID, PHYSADDRESS and USERID can be extracted from the source code of the mobile tracker page. You will see something like this in there:
//remote lock
var lockCurrentUserId = “USERID”;
var lockCurrentRequestId =”REQUESTID”;
var lockCurrentRequestStat = “2800″;
var lockCurrentRequestStatMsg = “Operation Success”;
var lockCurrentDevicePhysicalAddress = “IMEI:XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX”;
It is likely that USERID and PHYSADDRESS are static, REQUESTID changes over time (either on login or even for every request).
4. Issuing a remote wipe command.
To issue a remote wipe, use this URL while substituting YOURPASSWORD with your account password:
http://www.samsungdive.com/wipeN/forwardRemoteWipeResult.do?password=YOURPASSWORD
Note that I have not checked this functionality because I did not really want to wipe my device. If you tried it, please let me know in the comments if this works or not.
In conclusion, there is really no reason why these services are not enabled or allowed for people in countries other than the US. I know numerous other products that offer similar functionality without any issue. That said, Samsung can probably close the loopholes listed above very easily but until they do, enjoy the full functionality of your phone.
Update: While writing this, I noticed that the Remote Lock and Remote Wipe features are now also blocked. These used to work regardless of country, with only the Locator feature being blocked but apparently Samsung decided to further restrict functionality to their users. I have added the URLs to use for the lock and wipe commands as well. YMMV.
Update 2010-12-19: Apparently the Remote Lock URL changed again so I’ve updated this post.
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well , i can’t seem to get remote lock working , it’s issuing a cancelation request … any thoughts? if you’d like , mail me.
Please see the new update above. It should work with that.
could you mail me ? i need to ask you something cause i need some help understanding their source code.
This can be fixed be fixed by going to SamsungDive, logging in, then at the top by the picture of your mobile phone, you’ll see your mobile number, click edit under it, then you MUST put in your country code (e.g +44) instead of 07, this fixes the legal reasons error message
not for me… prefer the source code bugs , my country code is +40… it still gives that message, and the fixes from this post don’t work no more.
@David: I don’t live in the UK so +44 would be wrong for me and my actual country code does not work.
@Adrian: I just issued a location request and a lock request and both still work fine for me.
thanks worked a charm for me.
Hey guys,
I just bought a Samsung galaxy S I9000 and I am already so annoyed… living in Uganda this thing just does not work for me. Can’t register, therefore can’t download upgrades and even all the internetconnections seem to have some trouble (which might be the fault of the ISP’s maybe, but still)
there is no World Wide Web, there is only a 1.world web…
It seems I have to jailbreak and do other stuff to get things “right” which shouldn’t be so…
I can register (open an account) with SamsungDive, but I cannot log in later. It is blocked for Uganda it seems….
any advice or tipps?
greetz, miriam
Strange, I’ve got a Samsung Galaxy S2 and I can track it, lock it and wipe it. In The Netherlands. My girlfriend has got the Samsung Galaxy S and she can’t because of legal reasons…same country. :-S
On samsungdive.com I get a screen named “remote acces” and she “mobile tracker”. Has it something to do with Android version???
I somehow doubt it is related to the Android release. My phone runs Android 2.3.3, the same as the current Galaxy S2 phones, and the site still won’t let me use those features. It may just be tied to the model and Samsung may have decided to stop the ridiculousness with their latest phone.
hi,
I did the steps in the first post. after running this page : http://www.samsungdive.com/locationN/forwardLocationRequest.do?password=YOURPASSWORD
and back to location information : the statut is in ” processing”.
the probleme is i don’t remember if i already activated tracker on phone.
if someone find my phone and activate GPS, does samsung dive show me the phone location ??
You shouldn’t be able to see your phone on the Samsung Dive page if you never activated the Mobile Tracker. With that said, most firmware upgrades deactivate it, so you need to re-enable it after upgrading the phone. Likewise, it is probably easy to get rid of the tracking by simply wiping the phone.
As for the location request, that actually enables GPS on its own. You’ll see the GPS icon light up for a few seconds when your phone receives the request. The Samsung page only updates on request though, so if somebody just enables GPS on the phone, you will not be notified of that. There are other applications that will try to actively track the phone, like Google Latitude, Lookout, Prey or Smrtguard. (I am not affiliated with any of them, there may be others.)
thank you very much Steltek,
hi steltek,
location request still runnig since 13 june, always in processing. i ran remote wife and remote lock too, i think there is a chance that the one who ” will buy it or maybe bought it!! ” activate mobile tracking on the phone to test it, there is also a kind of people who activate all options on there mobile phone “on pc too” just like that!! and maybe i will locate it!!
if not; is there an other way to locate the phone ? usin imei for exemple ?
SY
Jamal
There are not really any options for private persons.
The provider can locate the phone based on its IMEI, at least to the cell tower it is booked into. From there, it may be possible to triangulate its exact position, but you’ll need special equipment for that, and providers typically only cooperate with the police.
If you had any apps on the phone that regularly access Internet services, you may be able to find the phone when it gets booked into a WiFi network, by tracing its source IP. This will only work if those apps are not uninstalled however, and again, tracing the IP requires cooperation from an ISP, which you will only get if the police is involved.
All… Numeric password only
The passcode on the device may only be numeric, yes. The password on the Samsung Dive page can be anything.
Good morning everybodt;
If they are more than one provider in country; must I consulte them all or just the ” historical providers “.
in my country, they are 3 providers, 1 of them is the oldest – like france telecom in France-.
sy
I’m not sure. I do believe every provider can track the IMEI to their towers through the phone’s broadcasts, but cannot guarantee it. In either case, the provider whose SIM is currently being used in the phone may actually be able to tell you which account/person the IMEI is associated with, so it is probably best to notify them all.
Hi, How can I deactivate the app? someone has activated the tracker in my samsung s7550, and since then I was receiving all sorts of “tracking” calls. Is it enough to deactivate it in the cell phone? I suspect someone has created an account for my number, since I can´t register it in Samsung Dive…
Can you activate the samsung dive after your phone has been stolen or must it be when you have your phone?
Since you need to set up the tracker on the phone, no, you cannot activate it after the phone has been stolen. You must do it before.
Your only option after the phone has been stolen is to go to the web market at http://market.android.com and install the ‘Plan B‘ app by Lookout Mobile Security. Once installed, Plan B will immediately try to locate the phone and report back to the e-mail address associated to your Market account.
i lost my phone on the beach, dropped it without my knowledge. went to check, it wasnt there and i think its either in the water (which is good cz i know no one can access my personal info and with the water in the phone, it wont turn on) or with someone – which is veeeery bad. but i have activated mobile tracker b4 and no one has entered a SIM yet cz i ddnt get a msg. so i think its in the water. but anyway, does GPRS need to be active in order for the whole location thing and remote lock thing to take place? cz i only turn on GPRS when needed (cz it consumes my battery) and before i lost it, i turned it off. this may be a stupid question but does the phone need to be “on” for all these things to work?
if possible, please email me the answer cz i’m not in a position to go on the web for a while.
The phone DOES need to be on. If it is turned off, Samsung Tracker cannot reach it. As for the mobile data connection, I am pretty sure that needs to be on as well but I cannot test it since I have migrated away from the stock ROMs to CyanogenMod since writing this article. (Samsung could work around needing a data connection by sending an SMS, however that wouldn’t work if the SIM card is swapped.)
