Develop Bugs

Crap, can this be done?

Just got this phone and I love it but the seller on ebay had it rooted and had one of the roms from here on it. They said they would put it all back to stock for me. I like to start with a clean slate if you know what I mean. Well, it is back on gingerbread but root is still there and a whole bunch of other stuff (apps, roms, titanium backup) etc etc in folders on the internal storage. My question is can I safely get this phone back to being stock just like it was from the factory, without the risk of bricking it? I know how to use Odin for the Epic 4G and all. I knew there were some problems with the touch and some phones getting bricked. I have no clue what they may have done to the phone so I am a bit concerned to do anything to it till I hear from someone who has done this (gone completely back to stock) Also, is there a tutorial somewhere?? Thanks guys for your help with this.
Oh here is some more info if it helps looks like I am on Android version 2.3.6, EL29, kernel 2.6.35.7 there is some other info if you need it please let me know I do see a Caulklin's folder in there in the internal storage so most likely they did have that rom on there at one time. There is also a ACS folder in there but when I try to open any of the folders in there I get an error that there is no program that can perform this action. Grrrrrr

Hi.
When messing with Gingerbread, especially stock, bricks are pretty hard to come by nowadays.
Here is what I suggest:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1433101
(from what you said, you probably understand this already)
Just run the EL29 OC. You'll be good to go.
In terms of the internal storage, just delete it all or run a format. You won't get yourself in trouble that way, it's just the internal storage.
If you're concerned about the data wipe brick, that is only on ICS. So since you're on GB, it is not a problem (and totally unrelated to clearing internal storage.)
Post back if you have any questions or anythin'.

If you are on gingerbread then there is no danger of the EEMC superbug(As far as I've heard/read). As for reseting I don't have a link to a tutorial off the top of my head, however the process is pretty simple. Start searching through the development forums for the stock odin files and then flash them. I can try to find you a tutorial/links tonight but I don't really have time right now...besides the search function works the same way for you as it would for me! Feel free to ask if you need anything else!
Hahaha MochaCharok beat me to it!

Thanks guys. The phone at one time was on an ICS rom and yes I can search for it. I just wanted to make sure before I did, that this could be done. So, I will see about finding the tutorial and how to go about getting the phone all back to factory like. I know I am so anal this way, but I really do like to start with a clean slate before I do anything to any phone. thanks again guys I will holler if I run into any problems. LOVE this phone though.
thewadegeek said:
If you are on gingerbread then there is no danger of the EEMC superbug(As far as I've heard/read). As for reseting I don't have a link to a tutorial off the top of my head, however the process is pretty simple. Start searching through the development forums for the stock odin files and then flash them. I can try to find you a tutorial/links tonight but I don't really have time right now...besides the search function works the same way for you as it would for me! Feel free to ask if you need anything else!
Hahaha MochaCharok beat me to it!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

When you activated the phone on your account it should've wiped everything they had on the phone prior and reset it to stock. At least that's what happened when I activated a phone I'd bought from an XDA member. So I started with a clean slate automatically.

It didn't for whatever reason. I had to go in and edit the MIN and MDN manually to get it to activate so maybe that is why. That thing was a HUGE pain to do too. It would not take and kept resetting. Had to try it like 5 times.
Esoteric68 said:
When you activated the phone on your account it should've wiped everything they had on the phone prior and reset it to stock. At least that's what happened when I activated a phone I'd bought from an XDA member. So I started with a clean slate automatically.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

If you are stuck with what to do next then take it to a Sprint store and let them wipe it for you.

Good info
As I'm going to try this and hopefully get the missus off her Opt S and onto an E4GT this week this was good timing to cover the process.
Here's what I am planning to do:
1) Flash EL29 + Root
2) Factory Reset from Recovery (which should clear NVRAM if I understand correctly)
3) Call MVNO and have them set up phone
4) Allow hands-free activation to hopefully fill in the blanks
If this works as I hope then I shouldn't have to tinker manually with the NVRAM data.... if not then I have my phone to base most of that off of. And of course it depends if the carrier will let me set the phone up - in the past they haven't been warm to using a different phone unless you purchased it directly from them.
All this just to sit tight until we can get the GS3 probably next year.. yeesh.

"I have no idea whats going on right now"

Man,
For 3 days, i've been reading and getting distracted and confusing mysef with this OG EVO.
Can I backup with nandroid, TB, or mybackup?- which is the most current and reliable?
Can I backup to dropbox, drive, or flash card cos I'm temporarily without my 6ram HP and accessing this info through my phone and a different pc.
Do I back up before visiting HTC DEV for the bootloader?
Where is the folder I'm supposed to put my recovery.img and .zip fies in for s-off functionality?
Which new, updated and most reliable recovery should i flash?
You got the time to tweet tips to me @niteridet?
I have no idea what's going on right now and i need a devoted individual to tutor me please and thank you.
posted by another annoying noob troll with 2.3.5 android; stock 2.6.35.10 kernal; build 5.07; PRL 60690; hboot 2.18.0001; hardware 0004

niteridet said:
Man,
For 3 days, i've been reading and getting distracted and confusing mysef with this OG EVO.
Can I backup with nandroid, TB, or mybackup?- which is the most current and reliable?
Can I backup to dropbox, drive, or flash card cos I'm temporarily without my 6ram HP and accessing this info through my phone and a different pc.
Do I back up before visiting HTC DEV for the bootloader?
Where is the folder I'm supposed to put my recovery.img and .zip fies in for s-off functionality?
Which new, updated and most reliable recovery should i flash?
You got the time to tweet tips to me @niteridet?
I have no idea what's going on right now and i need a devoted individual to tutor me please and thank you.
posted by another annoying noob troll with 2.3.5 android; stock 2.6.35.10 kernal; build 5.07; PRL 60690; hboot 2.18.0001; hardware 0004
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes: Nandroid BKUP
Yes: Either Or
N/A: Either Or
N/A
N/A
NO
Tell everyone a little bit more of whats going on. I still don't know what your problem is, be specific.

i think i need a book of this stuff.
I just want to be pointed in the right direction..I don't know much about tweaking gadgets, but i'm a fast learner and i'm more hands on then a visual observer.its hard for me to visualize specific steps of something, but i know as i get into a routine doing this, i'll be more comfortable and not so much a loof.
whats the correct order with the root and the best up to date one?
i want to tether internet and have something other then this boring setting customization option HTC gives us, and I want my phone to be smooth....Mybad, earlier I typed out a whole thread like it was a freakin novel and it randomly disappeared. wow.
Is it possible to flash a jb custom rom after first rooting OG? All these guides are in different locations and its constant flipping back and forth between directions and i lose track of what i'm doing because I get distracted easily. I need someone to hold my hand and watch over my shoulder to correct my every kink. is that even possible. I need training! What you got? :silly:

First off, you are thinking way, way to hard. Slow it down a notch and think things through. I would really recommend that you use Youtube. I mean, since you and me both are more of a visual type of person. Try this link first http://youtu.be/zEwEM641gBs
and or/ go to Youtube and type in How to root HTC EVO4G and find the most recent one.
Second choice is to actually find a "How To" on here, but like you said, you are more of a visual person, as am I also.
Rooting is overwhelming, with all the custom Roms, Kernels etc etc. Once you are rooted it basically gives you permission to do anything with your particular phone. With following the "How to root", the recovery is included. Basically, once I was rooted I found a Rom that I wanted that looked cool and looked suitable to my needs, I downloaded it, made a new folder on my SD card called "Rom" and transfered the Rom I downloaded from my PC to my Rom folder on my SD card. I then went into recovery mode, made a backup, wiped all 3 (factory reset-dalvik cache & cache), went to flash zip, went to my Rom folder, found the Rom I put in my folder and flashed it. Re-boot and BOOM you now have a custom Rom! If need be, send me an E-Mail. [email protected] and I can help you some more.

Thanks, I'll do that and let you know Nick.:good:

Lost IMEI, service, etc, issues - working on a fix. Need some input

So, over the past, well I don't know how long... ever since I started using my galaxy s III back in July, I have seen these threads pop up, and more so recently (to be quite honest this is a disheartening thing to see, and can easily be prevented, but we'll get into that) that say "hAlp ma service is teh failll I kant haz no moAr IMEI!!!" -__-
What is lacking in most of these threads, situations, occurrences, whatever you wanna call them - user error, lack of responsibility on this forum of the developers around here (myself included) to instruct people from step 1... BACK UP YOUR EFS PARTITION! There are many ways to do this, terminal emulator, the andromizer app, some handy tool I have seen floating around here where you connect your device to your computer, open it up, so on so forth. Everybody should be doing this. Everyone. But that is hardly the issue, nor the point of this thread - (pointing fingers).
Last night after seeing ANOTHER one of these threads where somebody had lost service to their device, costing them a good amount of $$$ now, it dawned on me that maybe, just maybe, the issue isn't that the partition is actually being corrupted, but maybe there is a problem occurring where the device doesn't actually read it - some type of failure or registry during booting. All of these instances have had one thing in common - the IMEI mysteriously disappearing and no service issue happen after boot up. And not necessarily after doing any 1 particular thing... granted yes, flashing a ROM, but that should have nothing to do with your IMEI not registering on a network unless said ROM has some kind of issue/bug whatever where it is simply not displaying such information in the status bar (unlikely, but who knows at this point, right?)....
Again, back to last night... I was curious to see if I could duplicate this issue that a user reported where they had flashed a kernel and their IMEI had disappeared. So, I picked some random kernel from asylum that carried the same 7500 device ID that my currently running kernel has of his (running asylumcore)...
Downloaded it, flashed it through cwm, booted up, BOOM! No IMEI. No service. Interesting. Didn't restore my backup of the efs partition which I had made a month ago, for obvious reasons stated - wanted to see if the partition was indeed corrupted, or if there was simply some kind of disk read error.
So I booted back into cwm, flashed back to my other kernel, booted up, and wouldn't you know it, IMEI and service was restored. So what does this mean... this means that the IMEI isn't, hasn't, never was, "lost" per say - there is simply an issue causing it not to be read properly.
So to troubleshoot this issue properly, I need people to pipe in who have "lost" (not really lost) their IMEI's. This is what I need to know:
what version of recovery were you using?
what ROM and kernel were you running right before this happened? Need the revision, android build (jelly bean, AOSP, whatever), everything, details please.
what did you flash or do to the device right before it was gone?
were you able to fix it? - a backup, reboot, reverted back to previous firmware? what?
This will help quite a bit. So far I have been able to duplicate a "lost" IMEI on my own device 4 times in a row, and been able to get it back without any kind of back up. I need some more information from some of you, however, to say 100% what is causing the issue.
Also, since we are already here. I will simply say that developers around here need to take more responsibility in their little "disclaimers"... seriously. If we all know that this is an issue, then we should be instructing people in our ROM threads to take measures to prevent this kind of thing from happening. Especially since at the moment it appears to be random, and especially since there are plenty of methods to be prepared for it. Just sayin.
Something as simple as this:
"Warning, certain users have an anomalous issue of losing their cell signal and having their IMEI not registering. It is highly recommended that if you intend on flashing ANYTHING to your device, that you read threads regarding this issue and furthermore that you make a backup of your EFS partition on your device to prevent permanent cell signal failure - in the event this anomaly happens to you, you will not be without a working device and out $600. Developers are looking into this issue and working on a fix, but as of yet, there is not definite fix. MAKE A BACKUP!"
Then how about a link to that thread for the andromizer app that is not stickied, not looked at ever? Not too hard to do. And would have been nice for those who were suddenly caught off guard by their device turning into a paperweight. Here is the link:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1972757
I am working on a write up right now to fix IMEI issues.

Sticky this. Excellent work and ingenuity. Im subscribing to this thread.
Sent from my SGH-T889 using Tapatalk 2

From what I've gathered by reading here, lost IMEI issues due to kernel or ROM flashing can indeed be resolved by flashing back to whatever was working in the first place.
In the case of modem cross-flashing however, things aren't as cut and dry. I pulled an NV items backup (with NV_reader_writer) from my phone prior to restoring it to service with a backup from a working phone, and NV item 550 was returned as inactive, along with a bunch of others that shouldn't have been.

Very interesting write up here. I did actually had this happend to me on my GS3, that I purchased new from T-Mobile back in November. The first night I had it, my flashaholic itch kicked in. Before I knew it I was in the process of rooting the GS3....but all hell broke loose once I rooted. The Root kit at the time had a earlier version of CWM and it caused me to lose the IMEI# when flashing a CM10 rom.
So I did the whole process of reinjecting the IMEI# bla bla bla, I was able to retrieve data and IMEI. No issues what so ever after that. I even just in case did the whole QPST tool of backing up the IMEI# for just in case purposes.
Well a week ago, I was planning a installing a theme over the current Wicked Rom on my GS3. So I did the steps going into recovery, Wipe the caches and went to install the theme when I realized that out of my stupidness I never downloaded the theme. So I just did a simple reboot from TWRP 2.3.3.2 I believe if not it was 2.3.3.1. And once the my phone booted back to my home screen I had zero data.
So at that point I was utterly confused in what had happened. All I did was wipe the caches, I had no clue that the caches have ties with the EFS partion. Still till this day I have no Idea what happened.
I want to try other roms but I just so scared for this to happen to me again. What should I do to stop from having this happening to me again?
Thanks
So I knew the first thing to do is another reboot just to see if something might of hiccuped during the booting up process. But once it booted up again and back to the home screen still no data. Not even Edge, Had the Cancel symbol over my bars on the status bar. So I knew to check the IMEI# under phone status and sure enough it was not there just displayed Zero.
I knew I had a back up of the IMEI# so I tried to just reinject it, Since I knew it was basically a painless process. After doing so, Still no data, even though the IMEI# is showing CORRECTLY under phone status it still would not kick in even Edge. Eventually Edge would connect but it would be like Dial Up speeds.
So I Odin'd back to a Root66 stock rom and checked the status of the data and still no go. Everything is still showing under phone status at this point, so no loss of the IMEI# but no data at all.
So I Odin'd back to the T-Mobile Stock Firmware and same results and just for kicks I tried to reinject it once again and still nothing.
Ended up conducting the triangle away process, got it back to Samsung Official everything and even the Modified Status was set back to Normal status. Everything was back to stock at this point, Kernel, Modem, Rom, Bootloader, just everything was stock as if I just bought it. Still no data.
Conclusion I did a warranty exchange, got the new GS3 fully working ofcourse, gave it to the wife and bought me the N2.
Now I am terrified to do anything to this phone. I'm currently running MyRom Rev V2 and have a nandroid of the Stock firmware.

Sounds like the issue may have something to do with recoveries

same here !
My galaxy note 2 . I root the phone and put room T889_N7105ZHALJ4 it work fine for awhile but It have robot voice when calling .
and I try to boot another rom PhoeniX.ROM.v4.0.by.tamirda-signed this is big problem .
This rom make phone unable to connect network . after that I try to flash back old rom . It same thing . Make phone able to connect network .
My phone is now dead . only connect wifi . Try to call customer service . And now they have to send me another phone .

No idea after what 4 years of hacking android phones not once had that happened. Now I feel like a complete amateur because of that.
I'm literally terrified to do any thing else with my phone and I'm not at all that satisfied with the choice of rom I've selected either but it'll do till there is an answer for all the random issues people having with this generation of "Galaxy" series phones.
Sent from my SGH-T889 using Tapatalk 2

Im having the same issues with no service. I have a t889 and a original sim card which was cut to microsim form. I had no trouble getting service. I rooted successfully and still had service. At this point I performed nandroid backup and efs backup and attempted to flash jedi x. As soon as I did this I lost service...it has bars but no voice calls and no 4g. My IMEI still shows however. I ve tried everything from stock factory restore through ODIN to restoring efs, flashing stock radios/kernels restoring nandroid still cant get service, defintely need some step by step advice on how to get back my service. I feel like I followed all the appropriate steps to flash the room.
Sent from my SGH-T889 using xda app-developers app

amullins said:
Im having the same issues with no service. I have a t889 and a original sim card which was cut to microsim form. I had no trouble getting service. I rooted successfully and still had service. At this point I performed nandroid backup and efs backup and attempted to flash jedi x. As soon as I did this I lost service...it has bars but no voice calls and no 4g. My IMEI still shows however. I ve tried everything from stock factory restore through ODIN to restoring efs, flashing stock radios/kernels restoring nandroid still cant get service, defintely need some step by step advice on how to get back my service. I feel like I followed all the appropriate steps to flash the room.
Sent from my SGH-T889 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same problem I had I had imie showing but I keep having instability connection. So what I did is claim insurance and got my new note 2. I belive it must ben defect of the phone because I have no issue with my new phone running jedx9
Sent from my SGH-T889 using xda app-developers app

I paid full price for my phone so.. no insurance, and even if I could what if I experience the same problem with another Note 2? Then I just lost more money and time. I followed all steps correctly for T889, I feel like this should be reversable if I have nandroid backup and EFS backup. Hopefully developers can help us out with this to figure why this issue is occuring in some Note 2's and not in others.

Yes please trt figure out how to fix this issue yes I also notice people are hav8ng lost service or instability data due to this problem with flashing. I encounter this problem I and lucky fof me tmobile sent me a new phone due to claim it was defective.
Sent from my SGH-T889 using xda app-developers app

I can't believe all these pple are saying help me help me.
The OP has been kind enough to risk his note 2 and lose imei intentionally to try to find the cause and a fix.
He clearly says, to do this I need everyone's help who's lost imei (I need as much detail as possible. Rom, kernal, modem, version of jelly bean, version of twrp. Flash anything before lose? Mods,tweaks, themes, scripts if so what?)
That's all OP is asking for and not one person has been specific
And I don't think OP has replied to anyone. Who knows probably gave up trying to find a fix.

Haven't given up. Just don't have enough data to conclude what the issue is. All I know for certain is that when it is "lost" it isn't really lost, just not registering the info or reading it.
But yeah, not a whole lot of input.

Hey guys just fyi to let you know what I found with this issue. Just giving my input.
Well it looks like my imei is populating but my note 2 no longer gets service. Im probably going to warranty it so I can get service again I spent all of my weekend trying to fix. I think this issue may be related to something within the modem or radio being flash incorrectly and somehow corrupting the efs files. I searched forums about efs corruption and I think maybe it has something to do with a nv_data file missing? Not sure if that applies for sgn2 but I couldnt find or maybe I dont know WHERE to find it in root explorer. Maybe if we compare a working sgn2's efs file with a NON WORKING sgn2's efs file maybe that would help? I followed the steps in the t889 root guide step by step... and then as soon as I flashed Jedi X9 through cwm recovery BAAM...service was gone.
I tried reflashing, I tried reflashing stock modem\kernel and reverting back to stock via odin but no go.I did notice it was able to connect to tmobile for one to two sec because it would actually sync the time and date after turning on for the first time. But never again after that. My Imei and bars are showing ..but when I make a call it says "not registered on network" and no 4g either. I think this may be because the rom had included a different radio not sure which one defintely wasnt the canada ver. Flashing this rom somehow made my phone stop receiving service...Does restoring efs backup a guaranteed fix the lost imei/ service issues? Can flashing using earlier version of odin cause an issue? I used 1.84. Everything passed successfully however. Just throwing ideas to help. I definitely want to try to avoid the issue when get my note 2 back from repair.
Before I had this issue I had the latest stock firmware from tmobile the 889VALL4 modem and kernel 4.1.1 jellybean. No problem rooting the phone and still had service after root with chainfire method.

My guess is the phone doesnt have true root towards the efs/modem/nv levels with the current custom recoveries available... its like twrp and cwm arent messing with those files but when flashing certain roms those files are being mishandled.... therefore creating the restore ineptitude
Ultimately I have only used well known roms and kernals that others have tested without hitches (for all my android devices) like CM or Jedi... those "third party" roms arent trustworthy in my mind as to some devs "open source" often translates into "cut and paste" which can be problematic to say the least
With the GNII, i have used CWM (not sure on build but I can find out) and TWRP (only 2.3.3.2 never 2.3.2 or whatever was before)... and like I said "well tested roms/kernals" so cf_auto_root, then Teshxx lk8 stock, then Teshxx ll4 stock, then Jedi 9 with saber_7+, then Jedi Master 9 with Saber 10.2, and finally switched to the Perseus kernal 3.0.36 alpha 32...
Never any issues with connectivity, imei, anything...
Hope this helps and more importantly you find what is lacking and get the info to CWM and TWRP for updating (id say let the rom devs know too but by bettering the Custom recoveries, roms like all other devices, wont affect those files
Sent from my SGH-T889 using xda app-developers app
---------- Post added at 01:04 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:58 AM ----------
I will add no roms were ever flashed through CWM... only had it because I was use to it and new to TWRP... my Bro in law made the suggestion and it looks like its the best advise he could have given me to this point... that and my overall patience to not jump the flash gun... again I cant stress this enough, only use well tested roms/kernals/etc... I know CWM came by surprise as we all have grown to love it but its not perfect and even other recoveries were there before (RA, etc) and it wont be the last (TWRP)
Sent from my SGH-T889 using xda app-developers app

i got mine working
here is what i had... i lost my note and got a replacement.. then i found my note in my girls car.. no service i insert my sim no service my imei was blacklisted. so i googled ways to change my imei. no dice the terminal emulator way didnt work. i said i got a paper weight and i can **** with it so i did.. got in the service mode *#197328640# and toyed with everything in there.. lost all the network setting and signal and in the
umts /debugmode /common/ rebuild nv it said it will delete my efs part. so i did haha lost my imei bootloader serial number and everything that makes my note a phone. a few days later i was at it again but this time i was going to fix it hoorah! so read and read bout efs part and googled some more and more.. and found this..
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1801997
what i did was backed up my new notes efs/ nv files and used them in my other note.. now i have 2 notes with same serial number and imei i gave one to my wife and both are working like new.. but having 2 phones on same family plan with same ime/sderial numberi just wont cut it. so i decided to change the imei and foud this....
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1804123
the old imei is bad and wont work so i need a different one.. lucky i had a old samsung behold2 laying around the house .. turned it *#06# a new imei!! yay now i dont have a clone phone but more of Frankenstein monster.. cool huh when i log in to my tmo account it says samsung behold on the other line,,

^lol ....

maktucali said:
here is what i had... i lost my note and got a replacement.. then i found my note in my girls car.. no service i insert my sim no service my imei was blacklisted. so i googled ways to change my imei. no dice the terminal emulator way didnt work. i said i got a paper weight and i can **** with it so i did.. got in the service mode *#197328640# and toyed with everything in there.. lost all the network setting and signal and in the
umts /debugmode /common/ rebuild nv it said it will delete my efs part. so i did haha lost my imei bootloader serial number and everything that makes my note a phone. a few days later i was at it again but this time i was going to fix it hoorah! so read and read bout efs part and googled some more and more.. and found this..
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1801997
what i did was backed up my new notes efs/ nv files and used them in my other note.. now i have 2 notes with same serial number and imei i gave one to my wife and both are working like new.. but having 2 phones on same family plan with same ime/sderial numberi just wont cut it. so i decided to change the imei and foud this....
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1804123
the old imei is bad and wont work so i need a different one.. lucky i had a old samsung behold2 laying around the house .. turned it *#06# a new imei!! yay now i dont have a clone phone but more of Frankenstein monster.. cool huh when i log in to my tmo account it says samsung behold on the other line,,
Ok so what effects does the frankenstein have? Everthing works fine?? You should send the devs a copy of your beast for autopsy!
Anything you have to do differently trying to do this for the GNII?
Sent from my SGH-T889 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

I "lost" IMEI lastnight, Just got the phone rooted with Exynosabuse. Then i Flashed CF-Auto root with mobile odin. Then I flashed Note2Core 7105 with Mobile odin.
When i woke up in the morning I noticed no signal, Baseband is unknown and so is IMIE. And I didn't back up EFS. :crying:
I booted into recovery and wiped still the same. I also re flashed the kernel.
Downloading stock rom hoping that will work :fingers-crossed: This is a N7105T ( I know this is a T-mobile thread)

Follow this guy he fix his lost imei and baseband I dunno it might work
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2145967
Nailed it!!!!!!!!! My 4g is back again
Sent from my SGH-T889 using xda app-developers app

New CWM Causes Trouble

So off I went to install a new CM nightly, just as always, wiping my phone full clean and getting these zips installed.
Or so I thought.
CWM 6.0.4 for some vaguely incomprehensible (dumb) reason exposes the /factory/ partition to be formatted under Mounts and Storage. Do the developers understand how dangerous it is? For people like me who are freaked out by dirty installs and who just wipe out the device before installing a new ROM the consequences are terrible. And with no previous warning whatsoever, with no proceed warnings in CWM, this is really an eat-crap-after-you-fail fail.
But of course, one can't blame the developers, can they?
Well then AT LEAST why aren't we allowed to discuss possible ways of restoring our god-darned IMEIs then? Now I'm rendered with a micro tablet that cannot register on any network because of DEVELOPER and DOCUMENTATION ERRORS. And I just happen to be a Python developer so I know when the errors are by which party. There isn't any phone repair shop within my area that is able to restore the IMEI using an SPTBox so to fix this it all relies on my, and other victims', expertise. If keeping a backup of nv-data.bin was mentioned anywhere before I went into this case then I would've gladly backed up the file, but you only get to know that after you lose your IMEI. And just spending $300 on a box to fix my phone is ridiculous, isn't it?
</rant>

ammyt said:
So off I went to install a new CM nightly, just as always, wiping my phone full clean and getting these zips installed.
Or so I thought.
CWM 6.0.4 for some vaguely incomprehensible (dumb) reason exposes the /factory/ partition to be formatted under Mounts and Storage. Do the developers understand how dangerous it is? For people like me who are freaked out by dirty installs and who just wipe out the device before installing a new ROM the consequences are terrible. And with no previous warning whatsoever, with no proceed warnings in CWM, this is really an eat-crap-after-you-fail fail.
But of course, one can't blame the developers, can they?
Well then AT LEAST why aren't we allowed to discuss possible ways of restoring our god-darned IMEIs then? Now I'm rendered with a micro tablet that cannot register on any network because of DEVELOPER and DOCUMENTATION ERRORS. And I just happen to be a Python developer so I know when the errors are by which party. There isn't any phone repair shop within my area that is able to restore the IMEI using an SPTBox so to fix this it all relies on my, and other victims', expertise. If keeping a backup of nv-data.bin was mentioned anywhere before I went into this case then I would've gladly backed up the file, but you only get to know that after you lose your IMEI. And just spending $300 on a box to fix my phone is ridiculous, isn't it?
</rant>
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try this: https://www.google.nl/search?q=rest...mobile&sourceid=chrome-mobile&espv=1&ie=UTF-8
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA Premium HD app

mrgnex said:
Try this: https://www.google.nl/search?q=rest...mobile&sourceid=chrome-mobile&espv=1&ie=UTF-8
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA Premium HD app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wouldn't have posted this before I have gone through extensive research.
All the methods described o require some form of backup which I have never read about or known of, or via SPTBox which is very costly, it's different with our nexuses because of the way it stores the nv data file, no imei rewrite program works.

Welcome to the club. I'm in the same boat.
I have a CWM nandroid backup which was made half a year ago. I will try a full restore. Not sure if CWM backs up /factory folder. If I will be able to restore /factory maybe this guide will help http://blog.falcondai.com/2013/10/fixing-galaxy-nexuss-imei-number.html

That sucks man. I hope everything works out for you. This is just another example of why documentation is super important.

Seems that my cwm copy is corrupt and I am missing one tar.b archive

I just searched everywhere but our Gnex is so damn stubborn when it comes to fiddling with the IMEI.
I ended up going to a 3rd party repair shop in our area, got my old IMEI written back again for a well not so cheap price, I'm just glad it's alive again.

ammyt said:
I just searched everywhere but our Gnex is so damn stubborn when it comes to fiddling with the IMEI.
I ended up going to a 3rd party repair shop in our area, got my old IMEI written back again for a well not so cheap price, I'm just glad it's alive again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mine got fixed as well. In my case - warranty covered the fix.

[Q] Rom deleted EFS, is there any hope? Please Help! Will pay for results!

Hello XDA forum patrons, if I am out of terms for stating that I will pay for help, I apologize as I am just that desperate for concrete help and or affirmation of being screwed. I am not a new person to this forum but I made this account specifically for this problem. If I have offended anyone to this point I apologize. So if I am allowed to offer monetized reward for real results then please allow me to continue and hear my plight.
I have an AT&T Galaxy Note 2 Model - SGH-i317, while I have successfully and easily rooted and flashed custom roms for over 10 different phones, this one has ultimately made me a fool either in personal error or erroneous rom damage. So in that allow me to explain what I have done and maybe, hopefully, someone reading this can help me get my phone in a usable state as the stress of my girlfriend ( it's her phone ) is slowly killing me and this is consuming every waking hour trying to fix. #firstworldproblems
I digress.. lets jump in.
5 Days ago after realizing that the new rolled out 4.4.2 update disabled tethering and hotspot creation from 3rd party apps such as Foxfi, ( i live in an area where the only options for internet is cellular, dial-up, satellite) I became enraged and decided to root and install a rom for it so I could bypass and circumvent what I felt was crap, and or my impatience to wait for FoxFi to be updated to bypass these changes. So I backed up my rom, installed CWM and supersu 2.1 with no problems, I then installed LiquidSmooth Rom 4.4.4. with no problems everything worked fine, well almost. Silly me I had forgotten to take in account that LiquidSmooth was a very fast, clean android experience without any hint of touchwiz and pen usage.. well I hadn't really cared nor wanted those features but my girlfriend damn sure did. "How am I to take quick pen notes now?
etc... so I decided to switch to DN3 V5.2, well CWM wouldn't allow me to install so I tried Philz to no avail, so I installed TWRP and sure enough it flashed and installed fine. Well there was the problem (at least I am guessing) as DN3 V5.2 is based on 4.4.2, so as much I know with roms is you can go up but never go back... if I am wrong please correct me, So after booting up, my sim card was not being read, so I was like WTF? Turns out I installed the rom for n7100, instead of for n7105/sgh-i317... doh, so I thought well that's no big deal, I will just go ahead and flash the correct one, well I did same problem... so then I got panicked and plugged my phone up to my computer, my internal storage was cleaned out, my titanium backup folder with all my progs and other useful things was removed.. so yah, I think my .efs got wiped. I have never up till this point had this type of problem so never have backed up an efs exclusively, I have always made rom backups but never efs. I guess that is my folly as well, so here is my question am I borked or does someone know what to do here?
Things I have tried:
1.wipe/format/dalvik try to reinstall Liquid smooth to no avail TWRP says failed.
2. Restore rom, TWRP doesn't find the file, I guess it doesn't recognize backups from CWM? that are not made in TWRP? so tried Philz, Philz says "Error while restoring /system!", so I reinstalled CWM and CWM installed it, however after getting to the AT&T splash logo the phone stays there in bootloop.
3. tried different things utilizing steps 1 and 2 with liquid smooth
3. From there reinstalled DN3 5.2 successfully, still no service or data.. and that is the last step I have taken.
My questions are as follows:
1. Does a back up typically save .efs data or is that gone for good?
2. Is there a recovery or a prog that can allow the phone's internal memory to be read like a flash drive or a standard drive on a pc so that I can possibly try to use data recovery software to try to find useful files?
3. Can I get a set of efs backup files from this phone from someone else and perhaps edit the file and enter my IMEI information through notepad or another program?
4. Can a stock rom recovery install what I need?
5. If no to the previous 4 is there any online services or companies that could possibly fix this?
6. or am I completely f***ed?
Please if you have no constructive criticism, thoughts, things to try, or have had any experience in dealing with this issue please move on, I have kicked the **** out of myself enough to bypass trolling.. for all those who want to genuinely help and have some understanding of what I am asking/have done, please help and I will do what I can to reward you in turn. THank you so much to any and all! -j

I'm going off the top of my head so bear with me...
In the case of the Note 2, you cannot downgrade bootloaders. The rest works, aside from some Wi-Fi issues with the early bootloader recent ROM combo.
1. I think TWRP does; but if your internal SD has been corrupted and you don't have anything to restore from... Corrupt internal SD might warrant flashing with the appropriate .pit file and the (usually strongly advised against) "repartition" box checked.
2. I don't think so, but there's no harm in copying the entire 16GBs of the phone's memory to an image in order to try said recovery. There's a few threads out there with step-by-step instructions. It involves using netcat to forward your dd or cat command's output to the computer, since you (obviously) don't have enough space on the phone.
3. There's NV items backups with the IMEI removed that have been posted, notably for the AWS mod, these are probably your best shot. Take a look at EFS Professional which has a very educative thread as well.
4. I doubt it.
5. Some guys with "boxes" that do SIM unlocks, JTAG repairs and the like might be able to help. Maybe.
There should be other threads about people inadvertently flashing their T889 or N7105s with the wrong ROM, maybe they've got some interesting findings.
For your and your couple's sake, general rule is that you shouldn't tinker with your SO's device. The same holds true for friends and family. Otherwise you'll risk blame for every "tech" problem, from the printer running low on ink to the latest spyware they unconciously install.
Good luck,
Darkshado

Darkshado said:
I'm going off the top of my head so bear with me...
In the case of the Note 2, you cannot downgrade bootloaders. The rest works, aside from some Wi-Fi issues with the early bootloader recent ROM combo.
1. I think TWRP does; but if your internal SD has been corrupted and you don't have anything to restore from... Corrupt internal SD might warrant flashing with the appropriate .pit file and the (usually strongly advised against) "repartition" box checked. What is a pit file? My internal SD is not corrupted it's just wiped.. there are files and folders present, but my originals folders and files that included my Titanium backup files and such are gone.. how do I know if my .efs files are present at all?
2. I don't think so, but there's no harm in copying the entire 16GBs of the phone's memory to an image in order to try said recovery. There's a few threads out there with step-by-step instructions. It involves using netcat to forward your dd or cat command's output to the computer, since you (obviously) don't have enough space on the phone.why do I not have enough space on my phone? i have 30 gigs free between internal and external storage? But copying files to attempt a recovery is not the same thing, data recovery software has to be able to access the device to read the nand in order to recover any files correct?
3. There's NV items backups with the IMEI removed that have been posted, notably for the AWS mod, these are probably your best shot. Take a look at EFS Professional which has a very educative thread as well. WHere can i find these NV items? do you have any links? I have efs professional installed but i am still pretty clueless and I keep getting errors trying to access my device.
4. I doubt it.
5. Some guys with "boxes" that do SIM unlocks, JTAG repairs and the like might be able to help. Maybe.
Do you know of any websites or links? i have been unable to find anything to help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There should be other threads about people inadvertently flashing their T889 or N7105s with the wrong ROM, maybe they've got some interesting findings.
For your and your couple's sake, general rule is that you shouldn't tinker with your SO's device. The same holds true for friends and family. Otherwise you'll risk blame for every "tech" problem, from the printer running low on ink to the latest spyware they unconciously install.
Trust me I know, but she said it was okay plus I have never ran into any problems like this before ever, I do all those little pc repair tasks for all my family because I did just that.
Good luck,
Darkshado
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
THanks for your help, I will paypal for any positive results I swear it!

Generally a wrong rom means a trip to the JTAG guy at www.mobiletechvideos.com and you pay $50 and wait a week.

rangercaptain said:
Generally a wrong rom means a trip to the JTAG guy at www.mobiletechvideos.com and you pay $50 and wait a week.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This...^^^^^...
And data recovery is also possible...along with EFS RESTORE services...
I used them for a bootloader downgrade service last month...
Josh can fix you up....g

We gave you your solution --- pay up!

No longer desperate for help.
Well, unfortunately for you all, and I should make a thread that states this very thing, that I resolved the issue on my own w/o 3rd party help. Where I had thought it was my efs, it wasn't, it just happened to be my modem was deleted. So from a wi-fi connection and from the DN3 7100 rom I downloaded the appropriate rom for 7105 and a stock recovery to try first, flashed a new version of CWM touch, deleted and wiped everything except int. storage. I then tried the stock rom to successful boot, just still no baseband, no service, no sim recognized, so after thinking and trying a few other things, I thought maybe it was just my modem, sure enough, after flashing the modem UCAMH3, my baseband, connection, and everything came back, after that I rewiped and installed DN3 for 7105 and boom, everything is right with the world. Many thanks for your previous suggestions, but as I did not use them.. you have my gratitude.

Er, you can't actually delete the modem - it's a binary file that flashes a chip. You can replace the firmware with other firmware. Possibly you flashed a corrupted file.