[Q] [TMobile] IMEI Back up/ Restore - T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII

Simply put, do you have a verifiable way to do this?

Currently there is not. There is a thread in general discussing this problem. I hope we find a way soon. Take caution when flashing.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda premium

This is from the SGSII I9100 General section. I thought that since my phone was messed up, I'd give it a try,
but it was a no go. This does tell me a couple of things though. 1. CWM does copy the efs folder, and 2. I do not think the IMEI is there, but since I'm unsure when I lost my IMEI it is of course a guess.
[GUIDE] Recover your IMEI in 9 steps.
1. Running on a stock rooted ROM. Used Rom Toolbox. Created a folder called tempefs. copied the efs folder into tempefs.
2. Deleted the efs folder...rebooted the phone got a message that Factory Mode was on.
3. Went to restore the efs folder from my tempefs and it was GONE! I did not copy it to my external SD!
Phone still worked fine, but now a big box with System information is displayed.
4. Did a CWM recovery and back to normal except this time it restored CM9...so, the efs folder IS included, however, my IMEI # is still 0.
5. Started over...this time copied the efs folder to my external sd card.
6. Deleted the efs folder and rebooted phone. Note: Phone did not come back up into Factory Mode...running CM9.
Further, this "4) go to EFS folder using root explorer, and delete "nv_data.bin", "nv_data.bin.md5"." did not
apply.
7. Copied my imei folder from my external sd to the efs folder.
8. Copied my redata.bin file from my external sd to the efs folder.
9. copied my redata.bin file again
10. renamed my redata Copy.bin to redata.bak
11. Used Terminal and typed the following:
su <enter>
chown 1001:radio /efs/redata.bin <enter>
gave me this error message: Unable to chown redata.bin : Read only file system 10
12. I went in an changed the permissions of the file to all read all write and all execute and tried again.
same error message.
So, there ya have it. I have now received my replacement phone, so if any of you very smart dudes out there have any suggestions, I can compare stock vs. screwed at this point.

If you are willing to do some experimentation, we may be able to validate a backup/restore. Try doing this just as a proof-of-concept, though it may or may not be illegal (modifying an IMEI is illegal in several countries). You should only need to be rooted on the old phone for all the below
Without your SIM card in the old phone (we dont want the carrier knowing this happened :angel
1. Backup your old phones current /efs with the following command:
Code:
dd if=/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/efs of=/external_sd/efs_backup.img
(If you arent on a CM rom, you might need a different path for /external_sd/
2. Backup your new phones /efs with the same command. Done with the new phone (I aint trying to get that one messed up to )
3. Copy both files somewhere
4. Copy the new phone's efs backup to your old phone to something like /external_sd/efs_new.img and run the following to restore the new phones efs to your old phone:
Code:
dd if=/external_sd/efs_new.img of=/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/efs
Reboot (without the SIM) the old phone and see if it shows up with the new phone's IMEI info. If it does then I think we can say the above command can successfully backup and restore the efs data. At that point, restore the corrupted efs back over the old phone so that you dont have two phones with the same IMEI.
And use adb, not terminal emulator. You really do not want to make a typo with those dd commands. I strongly suggest people get a putty binary that has adb connectivity. And use bash on the phone.

I will check this out...I have 6 days to return my phone. Too damn tired tonight though. Thanks!
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda premium

lumbu said:
If you are willing to do some experimentation, we may be able to validate a backup/restore. Try doing this just as a proof-of-concept, though it may or may not be illegal (modifying an IMEI is illegal in several countries). You should only need to be rooted on the old phone for all the below
Without your SIM card in the old phone (we dont want the carrier knowing this happened :angel
1. Backup your old phones current /efs with the following command:
Code:
dd if=/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/efs of=/external_sd/efs_backup.img
(If you arent on a CM rom, you might need a different path for /external_sd/
2. Backup your new phones /efs with the same command. Done with the new phone (I aint trying to get that one messed up to )
3. Copy both files somewhere
4. Copy the new phone's efs backup to your old phone to something like /external_sd/efs_new.img and run the following to restore the new phones efs to your old phone:
Code:
dd if=/external_sd/efs_new.img of=/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/efs
Reboot (without the SIM) the old phone and see if it shows up with the new phone's IMEI info. If it does then I think we can say the above command can successfully backup and restore the efs data. At that point, restore the corrupted efs back over the old phone so that you dont have two phones with the same IMEI.
And use adb, not terminal emulator. You really do not want to make a typo with those dd commands. I strongly suggest people get a putty binary that has adb connectivity. And use bash on the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Awesome idea, but it did not work. Any other ideas?

zonly1 said:
Awesome idea, but it did not work. Any other ideas?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We can go through each block device one by one to try to find where the data is stored. But this could lead to an actual brick of the old phone, and I dont want you to do anything that might cause T-Mobile to charge you for something that they say voided the warranty. The rest of the backup commands (excluding /system, /data, /cache and recovery) would be:
Code:
dd if=/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/aboot of=/external_sd/aboot_backup.img
dd if=/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/backup of=/external_sd/backup_backup.img
dd if=/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/boot of=/external_sd/boot_backup.img
dd if=/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/fota of=/external_sd/fota_backup.img
dd if=/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/fsg of=/external_sd/fsg_backup.img
dd if=/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/grow of=/external_sd/grow_backup.img
dd if=/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/modem of=/external_sd/modem_backup.img
dd if=/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/modemst1 of=/external_sd/modemst1_backup.img
dd if=/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/modemst2 of=/external_sd/modemst2_backup.img
dd if=/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/pad of=/external_sd/pad_backup.img
dd if=/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/param of=/external_sd/param_backup.img
dd if=/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/persist of=/external_sd/persist_backup.img
dd if=/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/rpm of=/external_sd/rpm_backup.img
dd if=/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/sbl1 of=/external_sd/sbl1_backup.img
dd if=/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/sbl2 of=/external_sd/sbl2_backup.img
dd if=/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/sbl3 of=/external_sd/sbl3_backup.img
dd if=/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/ssd of=/external_sd/ssd_backup.img
dd if=/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/tz of=/external_sd/tz_backup.img
I really dont know what each of these does, so if I were you I wouldnt listen to me or try this. But if you want to experiment and are not worried about what T-Mobile might do, backing each of these up on the new phone and going through restoring one by one on the old one should let us figure out what device actually needs to be backed up.
Or we could wait for some people smarter than me who can figure this out without risking a brick.
------
Edit
-----
Before trying to restore, try backing them up on both phones. Then do an md5sum on each image to see which might be the same between the two. Cross those off the list of what to try restoring.

There's a user names Geek that is working on a fix...looks promising! Thanks for all the help!
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda premium

Related

[How to] Recovery through adb

At this point there's no way to have full recovery backups through CWM. adb allows us to do almost the same.
Here's how:
Code:
$ adb shell
$ su
# stop
# busybox tar cf /mnt/external_sd/data.ext4.tar --exclude media --exclude dalvik-cache /data
# reboot
To restore:
Code:
$ adb shell
$ su
# stop
# busybox tar xf /mnt/external_sd/data.ext4.tar -C /
# reboot
This will not backup the internal sdcard "/data/media" it's likely too large, so it should be backed up manually.
tar is the same format CWM uses, so it should restore from Titanium Backup.
thanks for this! Every little bit helps.
eww245 said:
At this point there's no way to have full recovery backups through CWM. adb allows us to do almost the same.
Here's how:
Code:
$ adb shell
$ su
# stop
# busybox tar cf /mnt/external_sd/data.ext4.tar --exclude media --exclude dalvik-cache /data
# reboot
To restore:
Code:
$ adb shell
$ su
# stop
# busybox tar xf /mnt/external_sd/data.ext4.tar -C /
# reboot
This will not backup the internal sdcard "/data/media" it's likely too large, so it should be backed up manually.
tar is the same format CWM uses, so it should restore from Titanium Backup.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've not tried this yet, but am wondering what and where the output file would be located. Would you be able to use this as a recovery method from one ROM to the saved ROM similarly to what is done with CWM?
tomlogan1 said:
I've not tried this yet, but am wondering what and where the output file would be located. Would you be able to use this as a recovery method from one ROM to the saved ROM similarly to what is done with CWM?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For the instructions posted an external sdcard is needed it would be in the root of the card. You can substitute external_sd with sdcard to save in to the internal memory.
And yes this can work just as CWM when switching ROMs. For example before upgrading to ICS. Then, if possible, flash back to Honeycomb and restore the backup.
eww245 said:
For the instructions posted an external sdcard is needed it would be in the root of the card. You can substitute external_sd with sdcard to save in to the internal memory.
And yes this can work just as CWM when switching ROMs. For example before upgrading to ICS. Then, if possible, flash back to Honeycomb and restore the backup.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just to make sure I have done this, correctly, I have a file on my external sd called data.ext4. Should I wish to try another ROM, I would load the new ROM via the normal recovery method, and then if I wanted to restore from the data.ext4 file, I would use ADB to restore this file. Would this overwrite the existing ROM so I could , for instance, use ICS and then move back to HC? Looking at the data.ext4 file, it appears that all the applications have been backed up as well. Am I correct? Thanks.
tomlogan1 said:
Just to make sure I have done this, correctly, I have a file on my external sd called data.ext4. Should I wish to try another ROM, I would load the new ROM via the normal recovery method, and then if I wanted to restore from the data.ext4 file, I would use Titanium backup to restore this file and then use Titanium to also restore applications and data that I has backed up previously. Am I correct? Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Currently no one has made any roms, I guess because of no CWM which isn't needed, Theres only stock HC and stock ICS. Unfortunately ICS CAN'T be downgraded back to HC, previously I saw no mention of it being possible or not. Titanium backup is capable of restoring apps and data from a nandroid / tar. Which I don't own so I can't test it. Lets say you start getting a bunch of Force Closing apps and you have already made a tar backup. Then just fire up adb and restore it. Or you want to factory reset and start fresh, then install individual apps/data through Titanium from the tar, if even possible.
AppExtractor can also restore app data from a nandroid. Well, it doesn't work with my adb backup on the a100 but if I copy it to my phone AppExtractor has no problem reading the archive. I don't know about Titanium.
[edit]Just want to add to this post because it is actually possible to downgrage to HC. crossix has instructions here forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=22970185&postcount=147.
Also peporras opened a thread about it forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1517286
eww245 said:
Currently no one has made any roms, I guess because of no CWM which isn't needed, Theres only stock HC and stock ICS. Unfortunately ICS CAN'T be downgraded back to HC, previously I saw no mention of it being possible or not. Titanium backup is capable of restoring apps and data from a nandroid / tar. Which I don't own so I can't test it. Lets say you start getting a bunch of Force Closing apps and you have already made a tar backup. Then just fire up adb and restore it. Or you want to factory reset and start fresh, then install individual apps/data through Titanium from the tar, if even possible.
AppExtractor can also restore app data from a nandroid. Well, it doesn't work with my adb backup on the a100 but if I copy it to my phone AppExtractor has no problem reading the archive. I don't know about Titanium.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know there are no custom ROMS. If I wanted to try ICS, there there is no way to flash one of the stock ROMS back? Just wanted to be sure before I do something I would regret.
Thanks.
I am new here so sorry for this newbie question, I have tried the method in post 1 but I get the message tar: empty archive have I missed something? any help will be greatly appreciated. Many thanks in advance.
I have re-typed the commands and all seems ok.
Your not specifying any files to be tarred. The command should end with /data
eww245 said:
Your not specifying any files to be tarred. The command should end with /data
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
many thanks
eww245 said:
At this point there's no way to have full recovery backups through CWM. adb allows us to do almost the same.
Here's how:
Code:
$ adb shell
$ su
# stop
# busybox tar cf /mnt/external_sd/data.ext4.tar --exclude media --exclude dalvik-cache /data
# reboot
To restore:
Code:
$ adb shell
$ su
# stop
# busybox tar xf /mnt/external_sd/data.ext4.tar -C /
# reboot
This will not backup the internal sdcard "/data/media" it's likely too large, so it should be backed up manually.
tar is the same format CWM uses, so it should restore from Titanium Backup.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you changed "data.ext4.tar" to "nameilike.ext4.tar" you would then be able to have a catalog of different setups you made, assuming some other ROMS in the future. The reason for this is the previous generation of CWM on the A500 used the date for the file name and if you had 5 or 6 you didn't know which was which.

[Q] Nandroid EFS Backups

I have a s3 And I have rooted and flashed roms many times. I have done many titanium and nandroid backups but I was wondering if doing one of those would backups my efs folder and would finding the Efs folder and saving would do anything?
The EFS partition doesn't really have too much to worry about anymore. At least as far as the IMEI is concerned. Cant hurt to make a copy of it of course, but ive never heard of it being any kind of issue on the Qualcomm based S3's.
What you do need to do is open a terminal emulator and enter the following. (Ill post an explanation of it when I get on my computer)
su
reboot nvbackup
Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk
Nv Backup
I did that and it rebooted and said something in the corner. What should I do now?
You are done! Sorry I havent posted back. Never made it to the computer before my bed last night!
Ill post it in a few min.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk
---------- Post added at 09:42 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:35 AM ----------
This is a copy/paste of what I usually send to folks after helping to fix a missing IMEI. If anything is not clear, just let me know and I will try to explain better...
This is how to create an On-Device backup of your NV data using Samsung's built in utility.
It will backup your NV data across several partitions. These are partitions you should never have a need to mess with. So the backup is essentially permanent and you only ever need to do this once! You also cannot wipe it by flashing the usual stuff in Odin or recovery.
The really cool part about this backup though, is that if any NV corruption is ever detected, it will auto restore from the backup during boot up! This basically means it will protect you from ever having to worry about IMEI loss or other NV related problems!
If this had been run at the factory, or at least at the devices first boot, as I believe it should have been, I am convinced that we would never have had so many of these kinds of issues! No one who has run this backup has ever reported any problems with IMEI loss or NV corruption!
So, here is what you need to do:
Install Terminal Emulator from the store
Open and enter the following:
Code:
su
reboot nvbackup
Thats it! Your device will reboot and create the backup. There shouldn't ever be a need to force a restore, but in case it does happen, just enter this:
Code:
su
reboot nvrestore
Ok, you're all set! You are backed up and protected!
Happy Flashing!!!
Thanks
Thanks for the help. I once flashed back to stock touchwiz and it messed with my I Imei But I fixed by flashing to the latest firmware. It wasn't that serious thought which was good. I just wanted to take extra precautions. But anyway thanks for the help
In those cases the imei isnt actually lost. Its just not being read correctly and flashing the firmware like yo u did usually fixes it.
Lost imei's are common though but this backup will protect against it. Now that youve done so you shouldnt have much more than the usual stuff to worry about when flashing.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk
DocHoliday77 said:
This is how to create an On-Device backup of your NV data using Samsung's built in utility.
It will backup your NV data across several partitions. These are partitions you should never have a need to mess with. So the backup is essentially permanent and you only ever need to do this once! You also cannot wipe it by flashing the usual stuff in Odin or recovery.
The really cool part about this backup though, is that if any NV corruption is ever detected, it will auto restore from the backup during boot up! This basically means it will protect you from ever having to worry about IMEI loss or other NV related problems!
If this had been run at the factory, or at least at the devices first boot, as I believe it should have been, I am convinced that we would never have had so many of these kinds of issues! No one who has run this backup has ever reported any problems with IMEI loss or NV corruption!
So, here is what you need to do:
Install Terminal Emulator from the store
Open and enter the following:
Code:
su
reboot nvbackup
Thats it! Your device will reboot and create the backup. There shouldn't ever be a need to force a restore, but in case it does happen, just enter this:
Code:
su
reboot nvrestore
Ok, you're all set! You are backed up and protected!
Happy Flashing!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where exactly does it store the files? I did this a week ago and I'm just curious to see what it looks like.
You can't see it. I think is stored partly on modemst1, modemst2, fsg or grow, and maybe others.

LG backup

Can lg backup tool be used to create a complete backup that can be used to restore later like a nandroid backup?
Since flashing v10f,this backup is looping, any ideas?
Nope
-
We humans are capable of greatness.
backup alternative
So as a newbie what's the next best thing to a Nandroid backup on the LG-D850 if the bootloader is locked and can't use CWM or TWRP? I made a Titanium Backup and I've read that's not enough.
I think you should backup your modem/radio and also have full TB backup. If your phone screws, you have to reflash and restore all apps and config. Make sure your launcher backup is copied to ext sd card. Very painful until boot loader is unlocked.
Found this somewhere on cad on how to backup efs.Copy to the cloud for safe keeping
Backup EFS
adb shell
su
dd if=/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/modemst1 of=/storage/external_SD/modemst1.img
dd if=/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/modemst2 of=/storage/external_SD/modemst2.img
Restore EFS
adb shell
su
dd if=/storage/external_SD/modemst1.img of=/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/modemst1
dd if=/storage/external_SD/modemst2.img of=/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/modemst2[
Thanks that's actually exactly what I did. As of now I have a TB, EFS and my action launcher backup on my PC. I really want to mess around with G3 Tweakbox but I don't want to install the Xposed framework until there's an exploit found to make a Nandroid backup.
Sent from my LG-D850 using XDA Free mobile app
Can someone tell me is there EFS folder on LG g3 D855? I cant find it with Root Explorer. I've made an backup with ADB SHELL etc. but I want to copy that folder by myself. Thanks!
I found this topic trying to find some guide for backing up EFS files.
Unlike you I haven't manage to backup in any way the two img files but I have followed the path below (from root with root explorer):
/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name where you can find modemst1 & modemst2
After that I couldn't in any way manually copy them or upload them.
Still trying to find a way to backup EFS with the given code in the respected threads. In particular I miss the steps before entering the code...

[Q] adb backup

So I'm looking to do some playing around with my G3, it's a Sprint Variant, has been stump rooted; nothing else. I run Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, have installed adb/fastboot, and it sees the device as being connected.
I can't shell / dd the twrp file as it mentions being able to do manually in the thread from my PC (under terminal); denies me permission, despite the file being in the main directory of the Internal storage (or does it need to be in the physical 'root' directory? This wasn't clear for me on the Bump! TWRP Thread).
I did however pass the hiddenmenu tag for disabling ota updates directly through terminal emulator on the device itself, so I do have access to be able to do it that way.
Long and short, can I make a back up of everything as it is now on the device (firmware, radio, baseband and all associated files)? Without having to get them here on xda?
I will read instructions; I've gotten this far by reading, I just can't find the information I'm looking for.
Thanks in advance, hopefully I can get some solid instructions.
If you have the proper twrp image for your phone loaded at the root of your internal SD, you can install it using the terminal emulator app right on your g3.
You just input the three command lines starting with the "su" line.
After you do that, you can launch into recovery (I like the Quick Boot app for that), then use twrp to do a backup. In my case I reformatted my external SD card to fat32, from twrp, so that card would be usable by both normal android and twrp (backup the external SD to your PC or a flash drive before reformatting, then copy the files back in after it is done)
There is one last chunk of stuff to backup. See http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2907329
Good luck!
markfm said:
If you have the proper twrp image for your phone loaded at the root of your internal SD, you can install it using the terminal emulator app right on your g3.
You just input the three command lines starting with the "su" line.
After you do that, you can launch into recovery (I like the Quick Boot app for that), then use twrp to do a backup. In my case I reformatted my external SD card to fat32, from twrp, so that card would be usable by both normal android and twrp (backup the external SD to your PC or a flash drive before reformatting, then copy the files back in after it is done)
There is one last chunk of stuff to backup. See http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2907329
Good luck!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I already dd'ed the EFS files in question through terminal emulator, and I'm sure I can install TWRP just fine through there as well.
To clear this up, I don't want to install TWRP right away. I want to back up my device's recovery files, baseband, radio, and all the vitals, and basically make a personal .tot or .kdz for it to restore to (that I don't have to source online) under, say, the flashtool.
Hopefully this helps clear this up and someone has the answers I'm really looking for.

How to copy /data partition from HTC One M8?

My HTC ONE M8 battery died and all SMS messages disappeared.
I badly need them back.
So my idea was:
1. to have a block by block backup of /data partition to a Linux or Windows box.
2. use some standard tools trying to find missing or corrupted or deleted files there. Find the one which has the messages.
3. extract the messages using something like mmssmsxml.py in the SMS Backup/Restore format and bring it back to the phone.
Unfortunately at this point I am still at #1 since this requires Rooting the device and rooting according to all posts is going to delete all data. So my questions are:
1) Can I do a "partial rooting" to just unlock /data partition?
This would give me opportunity to dd all data from the partition.
2) are there any other methods? Maybe the standard Unix/Linux way of booting a limited OS image (consisting of: boot, mount, parted, dd ...) so I could boot from SD and run the dd command and copy /data partition to the SD card and then bring it to the Linux computer.
Please help.
No way to do this that I know of, unless you happen to already by s-off: http://forum.xda-developers.com/htc-one-m8/help/root-losing-data-s-off-t3457817
redpoint73 said:
No way to do this that I know of, unless you happen to already by s-off: http://forum.xda-developers.com/htc-one-m8/help/root-losing-data-s-off-t3457817
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So, is there a way to S-off the phone without wiping it out?
You can use ADB to make a backup without root.
adb backup -apk -shared -all -f C:\Users\NAME\backup.ab to backup everything. Replace "NAME" with your Windows username.
adb restore C:\Users\NAME\backup.ab to restore the backup, replacing "NAME" again, of course.
You can read more about it in this thread.
I have not used the adb backup but I was told, that it backs up only files. The new mmssms.db exists in the file system and currently has no messages. I need to have the full image of the partition in order to search all block marked "empty" which could potentially be blocks of the damaged (and disappeared) mmssms.db file in order to re-construct the file and get all sms messages from it. The new mmssms.db exists in the file system and currently has no messages.
Please correct me if I am wrong and I will be able to search the adb backup for missing blocks.
Regards.
Vladimir
rubashev said:
I have not used the adb backup but I was told, that it backs up only files. The new mmssms.db exists in the file system and currently has no messages. I need to have the full image of the partition in order to search all block marked "empty" which could potentially be blocks of the damaged (and disappeared) mmssms.db file in order to re-construct the file and get all sms messages from it. The new mmssms.db exists in the file system and currently has no messages.
Please correct me if I am wrong and I will be able to search the adb backup for missing blocks.
Regards.
Vladimir
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I really don't know. I've never had a problem like this myself, but I thought I would suggest it as it's the only way to backup without a custom recovery that I know of. To flash a custom recovery you need to unlock your bootloader first, and that will wipe your phone.

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