Norton Mobile Security

[Andmike]

Hello again GR9623. 

Sorry that this is still not resolved but glad that you are again getting messages through.  However, as Erik pointed out, the fact that they are causing a vibration seems to show that the wrong message is being sent.

I will repeat again what needs to be done to try and make it clearer.  The "buddy" who you set up in NMS on your locked phone before it locked, needs to send a SMS message to the locked phone with NMS on it, in the format

unlock 123456789

where 123456789 is the number of the buddies phone without any leading zeros, spaces, non numeric characters or international dialing codes.  The word unlock or possibly in your case its Italian alternative (see the guidance on the locked phone) needs to be in lower case and to have just one space after it and before the number.  Given that you may have been changing SIM cards I would recommend that you put back whichever SIM card was in when NMS was set up - if that is possible, and remember that you should not need any credit to receive a call.  If it is not possible try with whatever you have.

Try that and tell us what happens.  Can you also tell us whether the guidance on the phone shows if you should use "unlock" or an Italian alternative.

I am off into the hills and will not be back for about 8 hrs but will check in here when I come back to see if you have been able to make any progress.

Good luck.

[Gr9623]

Thanks for hanging in with me! Means a lot.

My Buddy has texted to my phone

unlock her phone number, with space, without space, lower case, upper case. We tried all options.

Screen instructions in yellow is

unlock2134567890

On my screen, there is an Emergency Call, to the left of Unlock. Who receives that call??

At no time did I change/remove SIM card. Originally I was told (Virgin support) to turn off ph, remove battery, wait, replace and turn on. Then Norton walked me thru to reset to factory setting: Turn off, hold menu, down volume keys and turn on, releasing when phone turns on, etc etc etc. That did not work, Norton said it was LG problem so here I sit with a locked ph.

What is SMS? Am I misunderstanding/missing something?

On my screen, there is an Emergency Call, to the left of Unlock. Who receives that call??

There is no Italian alternative but I don't quite understand what you mean.

I thank you for your help.

[Andmike]

Hello again Gr9623.

Sorry nothing seems to be working.

Lets try and clarify a few things.

I thought you said that the text on the NMS screens was in Italian - that is why I thought it possible that the "unlock" command might also have been translated.  However from what you said in your last message it appears that it has not been - good - that simplifies one thing.

An SMS message is another description for the text messages that mobile phones send to one another.  The NMS instructions have to be sent as SMS messages from one phone to another.  There are some messages that can be sent from computers and tablets to mobile phones which try to look like SMS messages but NMS does not recognise them and they do not work.  However if you buddy is sending a text message from their "buddy" phone to yours then that should be an SMS message, so that should be fine.

The reference to Emergency Calls is, I believe, to allow you to call the emergency services (Fire, Police, Ambulance) even if the phone is locked.  This is a standard feature on mobile phones.  It is not relevant to the lock in this case and you should not use it, unless you get a real emergency!

What you describe as "the screen instruction in yellow" looks odd and appears to be wrong.  As I previously said there must be a single space between the word unlock and the buddy number.

Can you confirm that you registered your buddy's phone number with NMS before the phone locked up?

Can you confirm that your buddy has sent the SMS (or text) message

unlock 987654321

where 987654321 represents the number of the phone registered as the buddy phone, and the one from which the message is being sent, no spaces in the number, no characters other than numbers, no leading zeros and no international dialing codes?

If that does not work and just in case you do have the more recent software she could also try just 

unlock

In case that does not work (I have not known it not to work before) I will ask some more questions which it might be helpful if you could answer.

From what country is your buddy sending the message?  I believe that you are in the UK, is that correct?

Is your buddy sending the message from the same country that their phone is registered in?  Is your phone registered in the country you are in?  I.e.. has the phone you are using in the UK, a UK telephone number or has it, say an Italian number, on a roaming contract?

You might also like to send my a private message including your buddy's phone number so that I can look at it and send back the precise message that I think they should be sending.  Do not post this in a public post such as this.

My fingers are crossed but as you can tell I am running out of ideas.

I await your reply.

Good luck.

[Gr9623]

Hi, Andmike

I am in the USA, My Buddy also, both of them. Where are you? I believe My Buddy has texted correctly to my phone, from the phone, number which I registered. Also tried unlock with no phone number.

Yes, I registered the phone numbers before I got locked out - previously I was locked out and a call from My Buddy unlocked my phone, no problem.

Do I send a private message by clicking on your name on the upper left?

My Buddy is not available at this time. Will continue to work on this matter.

[Andmike]

Hi Gr9623.

First may I apologise for some confusion that is entirely down to me.  My mentions of Italy/Italian and the UK were because I had confused you with another unlucky person who also had had their phone locked.  This was my mistake, I hope it has not confused things too much.

However none of this seems to get us any further forward.

You say that the phone locked once before and that your Buddy unlocked it with a message.  You should have been reminded to reset the password then.  Did you not keep a copy having been locked out once before?

You also say that you have two buddies was the one who successfully unlocked the phone last time the one who has been trying this time?

If you want to send me a private message click on my name (Andmike) at the top left of my post.  That will take you to my "about" page - on the right you should see a "Send this user a private message" link - click on that.

[Andmike]

This is just to record that Gr9623 has sent me the two 7 digit buddy mobile phone numbers.  I have sent back the two messages that they should respectively send.  I have also suggested that if those fail then they might also try "unlock" and even Unlock" in case it is the more recent software.

I have further suggested that the best buddy to try first is the one that worked last time.

After testing on my own device I have confirmed that, certainly on the latest software and I am fairly sure on the earlier software, if you have a remote unlock then the software insists that you immediately input and confirm a new password.  I hope that this will have helped Gr9623 to remember the last occasion, and the password.

Now we just have to wait and hope.  If this does not work then I am sure Gr9623 would welcome any other suggestions.

[Gr9623]

Hi AndMike,

We finally tried unsend and Unsend. Neither worked. The phone never vibrated indicating the call was received. Anyway you could unlock it remotely?

I am at my wits end.

I will be gone Wed morning until Friday night and will carry the phone with me.

Gr9623

[erik_carlstrom]

Could you clarfiy what you mean by "unsend"?  Is that the command you are sending via SMS? The way to remotely unlock is to either have a registered buddy to send the unlock command via SMS if you have 2.5 or higher or to send unlock (their phone number, no leading 1, 0, etc or your passcode).  Creating a remote backdoor is not exactly secure, hence the reason why the ability to create a buddy.  The fact that you are not registering any received SMS would imply that your SIM card is not registering with your carrier.  

[Andmike]

Hi Gr9623.

Like Erik I am puzzled about your "unsend".  I am also puzzled as to why you do not appear to have read the private message I sent you on 19 April though you had read the one I sent on 18 April and replied to that.  May I suggest that you read the message I sent on 19 April and see if that helps.  Do let us know what happens.

[Rik55 Regular Contributor Mobile Master (Norton Mobile Users Discussion Forum)]

Hi all,

not being from the US myself, 7 digit buddy cell number seems a bit short. U drop any international codes. The US uses an area codes (3 numbers) + cell (7 numbers) which equals 10 digits. Here in the UK, after dropping the international code and leading 0, our mobile numbers are also 10 digits long.

Hi Eric, as Gr9623 has sent AndMike his two buddy number, each 7 digits long, to verify the format to send. Is this correct for Gr9623's possibly earlier version of NMS.

Plus, after all this, I hope 'unsend' is a typo. Lol.