Unlocked s21 Ultra showing as "Unknown Device" and not supporting 5G or Extended Range LTE on My Mobile account

Thank you. I think I just needed to hear that bit about “...just to get people off their back”. 

They owe me four hours of my life back.

T-Mobile doesn’t have the IMEI in their system so they don’t know what the device is.  That’s why it says unknown device.  Even unlocked iPhones not in their system will say the same thing.  Everything will work even if it says unknown device.  Been that way for all carriers when buying unlocked.

I bought from t-mobile store 

I guess I'll go to store and ck

I've got the same problem as I have in the past. 

Just to clarify we're talking about official  USA Samsung T-Mobile devices purchased in the USA from vendors other than T-Mobile directly and not dual sim international Samsung devices.

I purchased a T-Mobile Samsung S21U from Best Buy USA. It is not recognized by T-Mobile because the IMEI number is not in their system. 

Now this is a major problem for me because the IMEI needs to be in T-Mobiles system for a sim unlock request to be fulfilled. 

I had a similar issue in the past with T-Mobile Samsung devices bought from Samsung directly. T-Mobile claim they can't sim unlock the device because it's not in their system.  

I have already contacted T-Force via Twitter but have been told to wait at least 14 days to get a response. We'll see. 

Exactly the same issue here with the two S21 Ultras we bought directly from Samsung. I have spent countless hours of the phone with all levels of their tech support. Each time I’ve been told at the end of the VERY long call that 1) they had figured out what the issue was, 2) had submitted the necessary hoodoo to get it fixed, 3) they asked me to be patient and give it 48 to 72 hours for the changes to show in my account, and 4) that they would call be back on a specific date to make sure everything was fixed.

Not one time has anyone called me back. None of the ‘fixes’ ever happened.

I’m beyond furious about this, most of all because I feel like I’ve been fed a ration of crapola on every call. It’s ridiculous and disrespectful.

I am extremely unhappy about this, and after years as a faithful customer who has consistently over the years promoted T-Mobile to friends and family, I no longer feel that way.

So why does customer support keep leading me to believe this is a “glitch” and a “fixable” thing. And that I should expect it to be remedied within 48 to 72 hours?

Hello to All,

I’m joining the Unknown Device list.  I purchased a brand-new Galaxy S21+ 5G 256GB DSDS Unlocked International phone that is 100% T-Mobile compatible.  I detected two issues:

1.  The Unknown device status - My phone and yours are not in their network DB.  Even though a SIM can be installed and activated, and we still get billed and must pay, but the network doesn’t really know we are out there.  T-Mobile needs to cleanup their process to deal with BYOD - locked/unlocked device by gathering the requisite data: device, Serial N., EMEIs, and Freq Bands, etc. for entry into the network DB that runs things.
2. My phone is now network locked after the T-Mobile SIM was installed.  I’ve been told it’s going to take 72+ hours to obtain the unlock code.  However, I have a DSDS (Dual Nano-SIM) phone and both of my EMEI numbers are valid, not blacklisted, and are NOT in the T-Mobile Network DB; and are NOT in the network DB, so that they can pull up my data based on my EMEI numbers.

Note:  I manage a complex NMS system for a large food supply shop, and when new IT staff join, they get admin level credentials and automatically gain access to the NMS system that monitors servers, WAN link, UPS, switches, etc.  So, when checking the DB for them via the NMS GUI, they aren’t there, but if I access the records at the SQL query level, guess what they are there.  So, to correct the issues, I must advise them that an acct issue is present, delete their acct, and add them with a more restrictive policy to the NMS system via the GUI.  Now the system is fully aware of them.

Sorry for the long story, but to correct this issue, many users may end up in the same predicament that my IT staff deal with and may lose cellular service while T-Mobile is making these changes.  You can’t have duplicate records present.

I just bought an unlocked S21 Ultra directly from Samsung.  It works great, including the tmobile voicemail app and RCS through the Google messages app.  It says I’m connected to 5G on the phone, and I get 150+mbps download from home on speedtest.net

The problem is that the tmobile account website shows this:

The problems with this is:

1. Most important: I have free phone repair insurance through my Uber Visa Signature credit card.  In the past, when I filed a claim, they required a screenshot of the account to show that I have the device I’m filing a claim for on the tmobile account that I pay monthly through my credit card.  I would have issues proving that I have an S21 Ultra on my tmobile account if it says “unknown device:”
2. I’m worried I’m not getting the best speeds or roaming experience if I were to take a road trip in a rural setting.  150mbps+ from home is good enough in the major city that I live in, and I’m sure it’ll be better if I get closer to the tmobile cell phone tower which is 3 blocks away.

How do I get this phone to show as “Samsung S21 Ultra” instead of “unknown device”?  I don’t see any option online to specify this.

Not only that, but in areas covered by T-Mobile’s partners you will have no service. This happened to my wife and me. Galaxy Note 20 ultra 5g and Galaxy S20 from samsung. We had no service in Clarksburg WV, when we contacted T-Mobile we were told it’s because our devices were not purchased from T-Mobile, and as such are not allowed to roam on the US Cellular network where US Cellular provides domestic coverage for them. Just be aware.

I have a s21 plus

Got from t-mobile store

Says same thing 

T-mobile has no idea.

What would be the grounds for the complaint?   Presumably not just that it shows as an unknown device on a web page?   If T-mobile can’t unlock it once you meet the conditions, then that would make sense.

Why would they not have IMEI in there system.

I bought phone from them?

a lil add on for those not in the know..when you call in to have you device unlocked the person you are talking to is not the one that handles this..they pass it up the chain to the department that handles this stuff...there is zero contact with said department.. so whatever you hand off to the call in agent hopefully gets passed up the chain.