Samsung S10+ - Change country settings to Australia

[TedMan]

Hi everyone,

I bought my phone in Singapore but live in Australia. Every so often I get a strange Singapore-centric occurance such as:

- Samsung Store wants me to upgrade - Singapore Pay or some other Singapore App
- When I'm OS, the Home Clock is set to Singapore time.

Despite my Samsung Store, General settings and accounts all set to Australia, there is no way of changing the phone.

What I have noticed is under Samsung Account settings, under Country, it says Singapore in grey, and I'm unable to change it. Even though this account has been around for many years as Australian.

This happened with my note 3, I spoke to Samsung Tech support who instructed my how to do a reset and it fixed everything.

Tried with Samsung email, online chat and anything else and they were all completely useless. Which is starting to become a common thing with them.

Any advice would be great.

[BandOfBrothers]

I suspect the phone has that countries Singapore firmware on it @TedMan 

This can be the issue when importing a phone and using it in another country. 

It's greyed out because it's not meant to be changed.

You could pop over to xdadevelopers site and look at custom roms.

Read up on this extensively before thinking about doing this.

Disclaimer.

A person takes full responsibility knowing that using a Custom Rom can make a phone unstable or unusable.

[doesitmatter]

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@TedMan wrote:

Hi everyone,

I bought my phone in Singapore but live in Australia. Every so often I get a strange Singapore-centric occurance such as:

- Samsung Store wants me to upgrade - Singapore Pay or some other Singapore App
- When I'm OS, the Home Clock is set to Singapore time.

Despite my Samsung Store, General settings and accounts all set to Australia, there is no way of changing the phone.

What I have noticed is under Samsung Account settings, under Country, it says Singapore in grey, and I'm unable to change it. Even though this account has been around for many years as Australian.

This happened with my note 3, I spoke to Samsung Tech support who instructed my how to do a reset and it fixed everything.

Tried with Samsung email, online chat and anything else and they were all completely useless. Which is starting to become a common thing with them.

Any advice would be great.

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 I'm in the U.S. and my phone is from Singapore running the XSP firmware. I don't have this problem at all, the phone recognizes that I'm in the United States and everything is set to such. I have 2 sim cards in one from the U.S. and one from the U.K. I've tried setting to be U.K. but it keeps reverting back to the U.S.

Which kind of device from Singapore did you purchase? Is it the unlocked version running the XSP firmware? If not that may be part of the problem.

When you set it up for the first time, where were you? Did you have your AU sim in the phone at the time of setup?

You may have to do a factory reset, make sure your AU sim is in the device and that you actually are in AU. Make a new Samsung profile, though I personally would not do one if unless you have a need for Samsung Pay. Their store has nothing you can't get from some other place.

[TedMan]

Hey Doesitmatter,

While I used an Australian SIM card, now that I think about it, the first time I turned it on was in Singapore.

And it didnt matter how many times I asked Samsung Support how to I do a reset so that country settings can be Australia, they didnt know what I was asking and kept referring me to the clock.

But if your saying regardless what the SIM and country location is, the fact it was turned on for the first time in Singapore it will always think its a Singapore base, well that changes everything.

Thank you for sounding smarter and being more insightful than anyone that I have ever spoken at Samsung.

They act like they are customer friendly with email, phone and now live chat, but whats the point of all that if they are pathetic at replies or understnaidng the issues of their own products.  MAybe they should invest in training for their professional services.

[doesitmatter]

TedMan,

Thank you and you're welcome.

Yes, that is part of the problem is that you started up the phone in Singapore, it will recognize Singapore as it's "home". Part of this problem is Samsung, because they're blocking people from choosing their own home region for some unknown reason. Apparently Samsung thinks even though we buy the phone outright, they still have a right to dictate what we can and can not do with our phone.

Also, if you put your Google account in the Playstore while in Singapore, Google may have change that without your knowledge.  The only way to check that and change it is through the Playstore.

1. Make sure that your firmware is XSP ( this is the unlocked/unbranded firmware from Singapore). Go into Settings-About Phone-Software Information- Then look at your "Service Provider SW ver. line. Your bottom line should be as follows: XSP/XSP,XSP/XSP.  I don't know what the code is for AU sims, so one or more of the middle XSP's may be different. As long as the first XSP and last XSP is there it is fine.

2. Open your Playstore, click the hamburger,  go to Account and make sure under your Country and profiles it says Australia. If it isn't, you should have the ability to change it. Keep in mind if it doesn't, there may not be a link to change it back, Google only allows you to change the country once per year. If it's the wrong country and you can't change it, you will have to make a new google account while in Australia and use that.

If you have the XSP and your Google account is ok, just do a factory reset of the device. Back up your phone to the cloud first and just do a reset. You can get to it by just searching the settings section if you don't know where it is. If you don't have XSP, you may have to try putting new firmware on your phone.

I've had my dealings with Samsung Customer Service, if you want to call it that. Part of the problem is for a global company I think it ridiculous that they don't have people that can comprehend and speak the King's English.  I used the UK Customer Support, it was like pulling teeth to get a coherent response. And you're correct, whoever they're hiring at 50 cents an hour have no clue whatsoever about the products at all.

[TedMan]

Here here, very well said.

[doesitmatter]

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@TedMan wrote:

Here here, very well said.

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TedMan,

So how did things work out with the device? Were you able to fix it?

Also I should have mentioned/asked: Did you set up a Samsung Account? If so, they may also be showing as Singapore. You'll have to make a whole new one, as I found no way of changing the country on Samsung.

[goddess1]

This is an older post, but for anyone having issues and has not found a solution. I called Samsung support and this is what they had me do.

Unplug everything (yes, everything) from the TV, even the network. Go to settings and locate Reset SmartHub. Reset Smarthub. Let it finish the reset. Then below that is another Reset. Select that  and let TV reboot. when it comes back up it should start the setup as if it were a new TV. Go through it step by step. Make sure to agree to all of the terms and policy when you get to it. Connect the cable box if you have one. Connect the network  when it asks for it. Keep stepping through the step up until you get to the end. When you finish, you should be able to operate the functions as you did before.