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***WARNING TO ALL***FLASHING ANY FIRMWARE CAN POTENTIALLY BRICK YOUR DEVICE
With that said, PLEASE use some precautionary measures to keep your device alive!
There are many threads out there about making a backup copy of the "/efs" folder. that folder contains all of your IMEI information that is NOT replaceable! There are several cases all over the web, about people who have lost that information causing them not to have service, leaving them with "generic" IMEI's and some with all "0's"
I am posting this to help prevent thoes who are unaware of the consequences that happen when the EFS information is lost!
Here I will post a few guides and informational threads here in XDA to help with this.
EFS Tool for Windows
Guide for the Galaxy S II
A Story From the Vibrant
From the Galaxy Note
I would also emphasize on making a nandroid backup of your complete system in recovery before starting to venture off onto any custom rom!
Here the folks at XDA have built a great community with a outstanding reputation to help one another advancing to the next level, also unlocking the extreme potential of our devices.
Be sure to "hit" the thanks button and when possible post a personal "Thanks" to the great devs and contributers we have here in XDA!
Feel free to add to this thread, any useful tips and such...
Thanks and God bless.
I have not yet confirmed this, but here are three links to what may be a way for those who have lost their EFS to repair it!
there are other guides on how to recreate the efs folder but these tools may enable us to insert the correct information!
http://forum.gsmhosting.com/vbb/f611/android-language-editor-android-language-project-1543222/
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1570342
Thanks to Pierreone, he has provided this link providing a individual from Poland that can repair your IMEI through TeamViewer for a small donation. This may be out only hope!!
http://forum.samdroid.net/f70/repair-imei-s2-5729/
Please if anyone tries these methods, report here to confirm success or failed!
Thanks.
I just copy and paste in my pc the EFS folder, thats enough? and how you can identify if there is a problem in the EFS?
lorddavid said:
I just copy and paste in my pc the EFS folder, thats enough? and how you can identify if there is a problem in the EFS?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That should be enough, but I would make backups in at least to other ways just to be safe, it's better to be safe than sorry. a single file can get corrupt without your knowledge! find a on-line file host like Google drive and that way if your pc was ever to go down it will always be there. Just don't loose your password!!!
to know that there is a problem, check the about phone section in status, the device will show your phone info, look for the IMEI! if it reads all 0's or a generic number starting with "04" and ending like "40000" you have problems! that is a unique serial number that identifies your individual phone!
I'm also not sure that if you were to use it to call an emergency hot line like "911" they would be able to locate you in time! that may not be true tho!
dbrannon79 said:
That should be enough, but I would make backups in at least to other ways just to be safe, it's better to be safe than sorry. a single file can get corrupt without your knowledge! find a on-line file host like Google drive and that way if your pc was ever to go down it will always be there. Just don't loose your password!!!
to know that there is a problem, check the about phone section in status, the device will show your phone info, look for the IMEI! if it reads all 0's or a generic number starting with "04" and ending like "40000" you have problems! that is a unique serial number that identifies your individual phone!
I'm also not sure that if you were to use it to call an emergency hot line like "911" they would be able to locate you in time! that may not be true tho!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
mines is ok, has al ot of different numbers. Just a question, what ab out the serial number? mines has only 00000000000
lorddavid said:
mines is ok, has al ot of different numbers. Just a question, what ab out the serial number? mines has only 00000000000
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the serial number so far is not a problem! it's the IMEI that you need to worry about! some refurbished phones and others that have flashed a custom rom will display an all "0's" serial no.
this is simply a helpful warning to make a backup before doing any modding! and finding ways for others to repair what is lost! if your phone is ok, just make a backup and your good!
One day we will figure out how to completely restore a lost efs and edit what is needed to get back to the norm!
Thanks to Pierreone, I added a link to a thread that looks promising and has success reports!!
Whew, I got lucky. I don't have an EFS backup and have flashed several custom ROMs, but I referenced About Phone against the label under the battery and my IMEI is still intact!
Could someone post what the Generic IMEI is so people can know whether their device is intact?
This is a a bigger problem than it sounds, because in some countries, changing the IMEI may be crime and land you jail time! If the IMEI under About Phone doesn't match the under-battery label, you could be in deep ****.
roothorick said:
Could someone post what the Generic IMEI is so people can know whether their device is intact?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is 004999010640000.
Have it, because the unlock made my network disconnect every 10 seconds.
About the efs folder ?
First of all Thank You for the heads up... I'm finding out a lot about backing up the efs folder but not a lot of detail about what exactly is contained in it other than imei and serial... probably because it shouldn't be fooled with but I like to know how things work in detail... is there any detailed post or site where I can get a complete explanation about it ? Complete file list/tree? What else does it control ? Can it be edited ?
EFS Tool for Windows
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This utility works fine. Just wanted to mention 2 things that you need to set before running this successfully:
Settings -> developer options -> android debugging enabled
Settings ->Developer options-> Root access -> set to 'apps and adb'
I followed the guide from the Galaxy S2 forum, and after the first command:
busybox cp -a /efs /sdcard/efs/
Every line says "can't preserve ownership of..." and "operation not permitted"
Am I doing this right?
I did get an efs folder on my internal storage which is about 5mb in size after that command anyway
The rest of the guide, all of the other commands went through ok.
Holy crap, I wish I had listened to this warning! After flashing a great new rom and getting it 98% set up the way I like it I was deleting some junk apps the marketplace had auto installed, one of them (for wi-fi hotspots I think) was to blame and must have toasted my IMEI.
I thought, oh I'll just restore my CWM backup from an older setup - md5 error can't restore. DOH! After spending most of two days hunting for solutions (none of them linked in this thread worked, except I did get to where I could place calls with a generic IMEI but no data or text). I finally was able to recalculate the md5 manually and restore my old backup, which then got stuck at boot logo, then I flashed a new ROM and the IMEI still isn't back! After much reading I have come to understand NANDROID BACKUPS DO NOT TOUCH THE EFS. That is one thing that that I didn't understand, and the reason I thought I was safe. Please update the OP to state that so more people like me will listen to your advice.
Backup your EFS! Thanks for the warning
Sent from my SGH-I927 using xda app-developers app
Victory!!!! :victory:
I was so close to just paying at http://sam.123unlock.nl/ and using their service to re-write my IMEI (because they show an unlock video using our phone and their software), but I kept digging in XDA and trying everything I could find. I tried the SIII IMEI editor, NV reader-writer, manually restoring the .nv_data.bin, mobiletech videos backup script...blah blah blah. I tried restoring CWM backups, flashing back to stock everything, using kies, I was trying everything! During all this I at times had no IMEI, all 000s, and a generic #, each of which provided different levels of services. I considered keeping the generic IMEI which AT&T didn't seem to mind but then I finally stumbled on a solution.
In reading the http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=859914 post which is linked to in the "A Story From the Vibrant" in the OP I tried the abd EFS tar command and executed it on another Captivate Glide I have that had some water damage but is mostly still functional thinking I could overwrite the entire good EFS of that phone to my good phone with the hosed IMEI. I used AROMA http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1646108 and deleted the EFS from CWM (I felt like adb and terminal weren't effective since the OS was still awake) and then restored from my working EFS tar, then wrote on top of that the first backup of the hosed EFS I had from before I started messing with it (thinking I'd try that before trying just the other phone's E)FS.
When I rebooted I had the correct serial and IMEI back for the phone! It is now working 100%
I flash alot from to rom, if i use the aroma file manager n save the entire efs folder on my external drive ,if i were to ever run into problems can i go bak to aroma file manager n just restore the efs folder and make everythinfunction again ?
Some guys say yes, others say use the tar command to preserve file permissions. I backed it up both ways. When I used aroma I deleted the files and replaced them rather than over-writing the corrupted ones and it worked fine for me.
Sent from my SGH-I927 using xda app-developers app
So I just got my captivate glide bought it used and I followed thegreatones instructions to get CM 10.1 using the factory image to get it to 4.X then flashing the rom.. and after i flashed CM 10.1 my imei was gone. SIGH. I don't have a backup, which of the paid services works the best? who has tried them?
I managed to make EFS Pro work but the glide is not listed and I don't see any partition to backup. Am I missing something?
Timelord83 said:
So I just got my captivate glide bought it used and I followed thegreatones instructions to get CM 10.1 using the factory image to get it to 4.X then flashing the rom.. and after i flashed CM 10.1 my imei was gone. SIGH. I don't have a backup, which of the paid services works the best? who has tried them?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't tried any but I would first give AT&T a call. They can probably assist you. And I believe there's a 14 day return date, I believe AT&T only checks the physical aspects of the phone.
jzamoras said:
I managed to make EFS Pro work but the glide is not listed and I don't see any partition to backup. Am I missing something?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It worked for others. Check to make sure you have all Glide drivers installed and reread the OP please Thanks!
Finally I used an older EFS Tool and it worked!
I unlocked my Bootloader today and without knowing basically wiped my SD card of all personal files including music, text message backup files, my backup root files, ALL files. I honestly dont care to recover all files that were deleted but am dying to get my pictures back. Is there anyway i can get them back without the guide used to get back all deleted files as seen in this http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1994705 guide? I was trying it but it doesnt wanna play right with my laptop(Windows 8 and it keeps saying i dont have "permission", even though im the main and only user). I tried the disk digger app but its finding all kind of random pictures i never remember and things like that, just too much. So please if anyone knows anyway i can get them back share some insight.
Anything????
That was a super fast bump...you could try recovering everything with disk digger and trying to pick out what you're looking for after it finishes. The recovery applications look for anything that has not been overwritten in memory (even if it was deleted), it won't pick and choose the most recently saved stuff for you; you usually need to do that yourself.
bananagranola said:
That was a super fast bump...you could try recovering everything with disk digger and trying to pick out what you're looking for after it finishes. The recovery applications look for anything that has not been overwritten in memory (even if it was deleted), it won't pick and choose the most recently saved stuff for you; you usually need to do that yourself.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I Meant DiskDigger On My Phone, It Takes ALL Pictures. But That may be My best Option, Idk But Thanks
Any other ideas?
Did you try this? It's right on the front page of the general forum.
pfmiller said:
Did you try this? It's right on the front page of the general forum.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats the guide i was talking about didnt work
NexusS4gFreak said:
Thats the guide i was talking about didnt work
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Then you are out of luck
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
any one help plx, i try to flash many ROM and try to back to stock Rom, and still have this message come out every time restart the phone, i want my phone back to normal mode, plx help
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=28113616&postcount=14
Might help?
try this
1. You have to install a terminal emulator from google market
2. Type su
3. Then enter the following after the #
echo -n ON > /efs/FactoryApp/factorymode
(yes ON is the correct setting to turn it off)
anything i doing wrong？
Might be why you are having the problem. Is the EFS and EFS/FactoryApp directories there?
krelvinaz said:
Might be why you are having the problem. Is the EFS and EFS/FactoryApp directories there?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i check my efs, there is nothing inside of folder, how can i get EFS factoryapps back to folder?. after i flash wicked v3 and my phone is brick, "process system isn't responding" message come out, and i restore my backup, and the rom is like this happen. even i flash other rom, its still same.
So how do I do to get els factory apps back?
skyandriod said:
So how do I do to get els factory apps back?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Looks like you have a bad EFS - Follow this thread, read up on it, and this will fix your phone.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2471421&highlight=brickloop
idtheftvictim said:
Looks like you have a bad EFS - Follow this thread, read up on it, and this will fix your phone.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2471421&highlight=brickloop
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can I copy and paste the els files from other notes to get the lock screen and power menu back.
I try many time what that post teach be to do. But I always get same answer. No such files in xx
idtheftvictim said:
Looks like you have a bad EFS - Follow this thread, read up on it, and this will fix your phone.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2471421&highlight=brickloop
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It was work, but after resort the phone, I do it again and keep happen like picture. How to fix now?
skyandriod said:
It was work, but after resort the phone, I do it again and keep happen like picture. How to fix now?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After reboot those files are gone. How come
skyandriod said:
After reboot those files are gone. How come
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm wondering the same thing. I'm in the same boat as you. My efs folder was somehow deleted by TWRP and after I recovered from the brickloop this caused I found that "Factory mode" is also activated on my device. I was able to solve this by pasting the contents of someone else's Verizon Note 3 efs folder into mine, but the files disappear every time I reboot. No one has responded to my inquiries about this as of yet, but after some searching it seems that there might be a efs.img file that the efs folder is built off of upon boot of the phone. At least that was my understanding...
Were you ever able to fix the problem on your device?
bodieism said:
I'm wondering the same thing. I'm in the same boat as you. My efs folder was somehow deleted by TWRP and after I recovered from the brickloop this caused I found that "Factory mode" is also activated on my device. I was able to solve this by pasting the contents of someone else's Verizon Note 3 efs folder into mine, but the files disappear every time I reboot. No one has responded to my inquiries about this as of yet, but after some searching it seems that there might be a efs.img file that the efs folder is built off of upon boot of the phone. At least that was my understanding...
Were you ever able to fix the problem on your device?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
still have this problem..no1 like to help here..
Hi, apparently some genius developing CWM decided it would be fun to allow the factory partition to be formatted with the newest versions of CWM (I'm on 6.0.4.6). Well guess what, I managed to format it on my GNex (it's quite easy to do actually).
Anyways, I've lost my IMEI data and unable to access mobile network (data connectivity is fine, however, surprisingly). Somebody please help me restore my IMEI because I don't have a nandroid backup either.
Thanks a lot!
Deleted, did a search on IMEI and found a bunch of threads. Reading them now...
pherder said:
Deleted, did a search on IMEI and found a bunch of threads. Reading them now...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Paul how did you manage to mess up your phone? Was it the same way I did? The thing is, all is not lost, I'm absolutely certain of that. It's not a brick until it absolutely and completely refuses to power up...
@osm0sis, can you please help me out here? I know there was even an IMEI changing tool but most probably considered illegal or something by the "powers that be" and hence removed most likely. I just need my original phone IMEI back, that's all. Thanks a lot!
rahimali said:
Paul how did you manage to mess up your phone? Was it the same way I did? The thing is, all is not lost, I'm absolutely certain of that. It's not a brick until it absolutely and completely refuses to power up...
@osm0sis, can you please help me out here? I know there was even an IMEI changing tool but most probably considered illegal or something by the "powers that be" and hence removed most likely. I just need my original phone IMEI back, that's all. Thanks a lot!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think I screwed up and flashed my phone with the wrong image (LTE instead of CDMA) that wiped the factory info and all the attempts I have tried do not do anything to get the phone back. I have a nice tablet that just upgraded to 4.3 via WiFi since it isn't on the Verizon network.
Paul
pherder said:
I think I screwed up and flashed my phone with the wrong image (LTE instead of CDMA) that wiped the factory info and all the attempts I have tried do not do anything to get the phone back. I have a nice tablet that just upgraded to 4.3 via WiFi since it isn't on the Verizon network.
Paul
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My maguro CWM thread has all the info you need explained several times. Check it out.
osm0sis said:
My maguro CWM thread has all the info you need explained several times. Check it out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i have gone through your cwm thread. it's suggested taking it to a shop and getting it fixed with spt box or something. unfortunately, i can't do that because nobody in my location has anything even remotely similar to one of those. apart from that, i've done everything i could think of, flashed radios, flashed stock samsung rom, flashed google factory images. what else would you suggest?
i don't have a prior nandroid either
Resolved
Problem solved. Took it to repair shop and got it fixed. Everyone that helped or tried to help, thanks a lot! Mods please close thread, thanks!
I was thinking more along the lines of restoring a backup and grabbing what you need to fix Factory from Radio, which was detailed a couple of times.
Glad you got it fixed, nonetheless. :good:
rahimali said:
Problem solved. Took it to repair shop and got it fixed. Everyone that helped or tried to help, thanks a lot! Mods please close thread, thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you ask them how they fixed it?? we need to know so we can help others..:--))
osm0sis said:
I was thinking more along the lines of restoring a backup and grabbing what you need to fix Factory from Radio, which was detailed a couple of times.
Glad you got it fixed, nonetheless. :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i didn't have a nandroid, nothing in factory since i had wiped it accidentally via the new cwm's new ""feature". i didn't like twrp until now but i ain't budging from it now that cwm has screwed me up so bad!
buhohitr said:
Did you ask them how they fixed it?? we need to know so we can help others..:--))
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the guy connected it to a couple of external devices which in turn were connected to his pc, i guess one of them was something along the lines of an spt box, the other thing looked like a miniature spaceship, so maybe ET was involved in fixing it as well...
Not CWM's fault, though I definitely understand your sentiment. But "with great power.."
I make damn sure I know what I'm pressing Yes on when I'm wiping.
osm0sis said:
Not CWM's fault, though I definitely understand your sentiment. But "with great power.."
I make damn sure I know what I'm pressing Yes on when I'm wiping.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
with great power comes great tragedy
anyways, I was just browsing through my phone with root explorer and with twrp's file manager and surprisingly there's no efs folder there! is that normal?
i've taken a twrp nandroid backup to include efs as well but i'm thinking to take a raw backup as well as described here. i've also copied the /factory and /data/radio folders.
i was wondering whether flashing a stock samsung ROM might result in the creation of the efs folder? on yakju 4.2.2 stock google image right now...
Nah efs is the partition but it's mounted to /factory :good:
osm0sis said:
Nah efs is the partition but it's mounted to /factory :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's great thanks!., I'll clean flash 4.3 yakju in a day or two and see if the IMEI sticks after the wipes. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to backup using EFS Commander or the terminal/shell commands (got error both ways) so I'm hoping the TWRP backup (without MD5) and manual file copy should be sufficient insurance...
I have a oneplus 7t, on straight talk using verizon towers.
So since I got the android 12 update, I have spent several hours on the phone with customer service, and haven't been able to fix every issue.
We did fix the problem where I had no data, customer service walked me through updating the APN and that was fixed.
-I still can't receive MMS pictures through the standard app, I can work around that using the google messages app, but that's frustrating since I know something isn't working correctly.
-I randomly get call failed when I try to accept a phone call. This happens very often, but i'm not sure why it doesn't happen every time. I seem to be able to make outbound calls without any issues.
Not being able to fix the call issues, and MMS issues makes me want to roll back to android 11. the phone worked great until this android 12 update. I tried a factory reset, and still have the same issues.
I've tried searching for instructions but all of them are lacking thorough instructions. They say "pick the matching file for your phone", but mine is 1905, but only 1901 and 1903 are listed. I'm sure one of those are supposed to work, but which one?
"download this apk"...... ok, now i have a .apk.zip file that i don't know what to do with.
-delete .zip and i don't know how to make the .apk file install or open
-unzip, and i have 500 files that i don't know what to do with.
"move this to the root storage".... how?
I used to be more tech enabled, but it's been so long since i've rooted a phone or something else this involved. I really just want my phone to work properly again.
Well I can get the local update apk to open, but I can't figure out where to place or what to name the roll back file for that apk to find it. This is frustrating and wasting many hours of my life
https://oxygenos.oneplus.net/OnePlus7TOxygen_14.I.31_OTA_0310_all_2112101928_downgrade_327348e7ed1f4427.zip
HueyT said:
https://oxygenos.oneplus.net/OnePlus7TOxygen_14.I.31_OTA_0310_all_2112101928_downgrade_327348e7ed1f4427.zip
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, but that's not super helpful. I'm at the point where I'm struggling to get local update to find it, because I'm not sure where or how to move it to make it be found
dempseyjosh said:
Thanks, but that's not super helpful. I'm at the point where I'm struggling to get local update to find it, because I'm not sure where or how to move it to make it be found
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does the file contain something called MSM tool? If so you will need to do this from a Windows PC (or VM).
EDIT: nevermind disregard this post.
dempseyjosh said:
Thanks, but that's not super helpful. I'm at the point where I'm struggling to get local update to find it, because I'm not sure where or how to move it to make it be found
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Move it from \sdcard\downloads to \sdcard root
I Need a little more specific help than that. Do I need to be hooked to a computer to do that? Does it mean to be changed at all? .zip.jar is correct? Because I've tried moving it from the downloads folder to device storage. It feels right to me, but it's not finding the file to update with.
dempseyjosh said:
I Need a little more specific help than that. Do I need to be hooked to a computer to do that? Does it mean to be changed at all? .zip.jar is correct? Because I've tried moving it from the downloads folder to device storage. It feels right to me, but it's not finding the file to update with.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No on pc. Yes to rename jar file to zip
HueyT said:
No on pc. Yes to rename jar file to zip
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you, that was the last bit of help I needed with that. I've successfully rolled back and my phone is working correctly, as far as I can tell.
Well you answered my question. "Do not take this upgrade"