Develop Bugs

EFS-Backup before FLASHING

First what is efs-folder?
This is a very sensitive system folder that contains Phone-specific information such as the IMEI (encrypted in the nv_data.bin), wireless devices MAC addresses, product code (also in the nv_data.bin), and much more. Often users trying to change product codes or trying to unlock the mobile will end up corrupting data in this location.
"xda"
So I want to make a backup on my Samsung Galaxy Tab,Samsung Galaxy S and Galaxy Y with Rootexplorer.(easy way)
Created a .tar file works on my Tab and Galaxy S, but on my Galaxy Y the folder is empty!!! flashed my Galaxy Y a few times with customs roms.
So whats going on
Is there anyone out there with same problems???
Phone calls works fine on my Galaxy Y, IMEI still there but the efs folder is empty, flashed a few times to stock but still empty.
Phone rooted tryied a few version with Rootexplorer and Terminal Emulator.

demir02 said:
First what is efs-folder?
This is a very sensitive system folder that contains Phone-specific information such as the IMEI (encrypted in the nv_data.bin), wireless devices MAC addresses, product code (also in the nv_data.bin), and much more. Often users trying to change product codes or trying to unlock the mobile will end up corrupting data in this location.
"xda"
So I want to make a backup on my Samsung Galaxy Tab,Samsung Galaxy S and Galaxy Y with Rootexplorer.(easy way)
Created a .tar file works on my Tab and Galaxy S, but on my Galaxy Y the folder is empty!!! flashed my Galaxy Y a few times with customs roms.
So whats going on
Is there anyone out there with same problems???
Phone calls works fine on my Galaxy Y, IMEI still there but the efs folder is empty, flashed a few times to stock but still empty.
Phone rooted tryied a few version with Rootexplorer and Terminal Emulator.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The /efs partition is encrypted and hidden in SGY

Is there a way to save it??
I tried this tool a for a minute
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1308546
backup .tar and .img failed

anyone found a solution how to backup the EFS?
Have tried several tools and backup was always empty

MrButcher said:
anyone found a solution how to backup the EFS?
Have tried several tools and backup was always empty
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's a good chance, that /dev/bml15 is the efs or equivalent partition.
Sent from my SGSII using Tapatalk 2 & Swype

(I've found this old topic, which is not answered yet)
After examining a lot of bml15 dumps I conclude, SGY and companion does not have EFS folder, but have let's-call EFS partition, which is actually bml15 partition.
I'ts not so easy to loosing your EFS data (eg IMEI), but using Odin, accidentally you can (by clicking wrong option)
For safety reasons it's a good advice to install Galaxy Toolbox and have a bml15 backup in a safe place!

Try efs pro ...software backup u efs data ...
Sent from my GT-S5360 using xda premium

Doky73 said:
(I've found this old topic, which is not answered yet)
After examining a lot of bml15 dumps I conclude, SGY and companion does not have EFS folder, but have let's-call EFS partition, which is actually bml15 partition.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
/efs , however, does exist on SGY, but is empty

Hey!
I am new here on xda.
I flashed a lot of custom roms on my SGY.
Finally, i saw that my efs was empty.
The IMEI was still correct, but the phone didn't detect any sim card.
I tried restoring it to the stock firmware, but the results were the same.
I flashed the CSC, PDA, etc for my country but the phone didn't detect any sim card.
Please Help.

sarthakmital8g said:
Hey!
I am new here on xda.
I flashed a lot of custom roms on my SGY.
Finally, i saw that my efs was empty.
The IMEI was still correct, but the phone didn't detect any sim card.
I tried restoring it to the stock firmware, but the results were the same.
I flashed the CSC, PDA, etc for my country but the phone didn't detect any sim card.
Please Help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you flash the firmware from my firmware thread?
The efs partition in a galaxy y is not mountable and is untouched
Flashing a rom will not change it
The only reason you would loose imei is if your baseband didn't match the kernel ramdisk ril file but you can just flash the correct ril but this only effects custom stock based roms based on new firmware whilst you are using an old kernel ramdisk
Anyway - to cut a long story short - flashing a rom has no effect on efs partition
Goto my firmware thread and flash the firmware from there
If it doesn't work after that check the sim card works - Remove it & put it back in again & check there isn't a problem with your operator
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2568853

[Q] restore efs from copy of the floder?

Hello I have a classical corrupted EFS/ Bad IMEI after flashing rom problem. So I cannot making a calls...
I made a backup of EFS floder but no using software but just copy of whole floder. Now I dont know if it is possible to restore it because backup programs are using iso formats ot tar formats. When i am trying to replace it in Rootexplorer it does not help...
I tried format EFS floder and it does not help either.
Is there any way to save the phone ?
Or another question... is it posible to make "efs.img" from the floder in my computer ?

dumir said:
Hello I have a classical corrupted EFS/ Bad IMEI after flashing rom problem. So I cannot making a calls...
I made a backup of EFS floder but no using software but just copy of whole floder. Now I dont know if it is possible to restore it because backup programs are using iso formats ot tar formats. When i am trying to replace it in Rootexplorer it does not help...
I tried format EFS floder and it does not help either.
Is there any way to save the phone ?
Or another question... is it posible to make "efs.img" from the floder in my computer ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No i dont think its possible to manually restore it , Rrather you should have followed steps of Backup restore take it service center pay it and get it replaced
or out 100% there is 1% chance to save by flashing proper Stock Firmware .

how to restore .tar.gz EFS backup?
By the way same thing happened to me and I have .tar.gz file type as backup. This backup was taken using Aroma while installing rom. How can I restore this backup please?
Thanks in advance,

Solution
Ok I done it with help of "wenousch" from czech forum.
Solution that helped:
1. a) flash Stock rom via Odin. ( Auto Rebot F. Reset Time a Nand Erase All )
b) flash Stock rom via Odin again but !!!without!!! NAND ERASE ALL.
1.5 IMEI check ( false 00sillyness)
2. Root
3. deleting all files in efs floder with root read/write premissions ( using root explorer )
4. adding files from backed up floder to (now empty efs floder in root directory )
5. restart of phone
done - I have good IMEI and I am able to make a calls.

[Q] GT-N7105 network blocked , not available storage

my galaxy note 2 (GT-N7105) is no service and not available storage :crying: how can i fix it pls anyone help me
PS: this videos phone exactly sama as mine phone

ibizadesert said:
my galaxy note 2 (GT-N7105) is no service and not available storage :crying: how can i fix it pls anyone help me
PS: this videos phone exactly sama as mine phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What did you. Havent looked at the vid so far, but it woud be nice to have a few more facts.
Did you tried to install a custom rom (modified Android-Software) or you are on the original Andrid Software? Since when you having the Probems?
No Service sounds like an EFS Problem, if you did a SW Change and it doesnt worked out well. Having no storage (if you mean ext. SD-Card) could be also a sign of a non proberly installation.

Same here maybe efs as you have imei unknown
Sent from my GT-N7105 using xda app-developers app

thedadio said:
Same here maybe efs as you have imei unknown
Sent from my GT-N7105 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed, looks like a fried efs partition. And that usually happenes after trying to flash an OLD ROM aftetr flashing a new one. As the new ROM does something to the EFS partition(i am not a dev so have not clue what) that makes it screwed when you try to flash old ROMS.
I would try to flash a new ROM again and see what happenes. And do search for invalid IMEI Note 2 and you will find ALOT of help.

If you did flash a new ROM and having these issues then, take your efs.img (which you should have backup after rooting your device on the official Android Software -> also called Stock Rom) copy it on a SD-Card, insert that card to your Note 2 and copy it to the SDCard0 folder (the internal storage), then do the following:
- Start in Recovery Mode
- wipe cache
- factory reset
- format /system (under adv. settings -> Storage...then you see it)
- flash the Rom again
- wipe cache
- wipe Dalvik Cache (under adv. settngs in Recovery)
- Reboot
Now check your IMMEI and your Service. IMMEI should be ok now and Service available and running. At least your SD-Card should be mounted now and available. I believe you tried to flash from a 4.1/4.2 System to a 4.3 System and you didn`t wiped the Dalvik-Cache, which is the System tree of Android, which got changed with Android 4.3. I think something went wrong in your installation, so this "tree" mght be corrupted. Be sure that you also install the right GAPPS (Google Services for Android 4.3, such as Google Play Store). You can flash it as .zip also over Recovery-Mode, after you flashed the ROM (Software).
If you didn`t save your EFS on any proberly running System before, you might get hard times recovering it.

SunShiner said:
What did you. Havent looked at the vid so far, but it woud be nice to have a few more facts.
Did you tried to install a custom rom (modified Android-Software) or you are on the original Andrid Software? Since when you having the Probems?
No Service sounds like an EFS Problem, if you did a SW Change and it doesnt worked out well. Having no storage (if you mean ext. SD-Card) could be also a sign of a non proberly installation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks for trying helping me dude my IMEI / baseband version is UNKNOWN that is problem :crying: how can i repair my imei back ?

SunShiner said:
If you did flash a new ROM and having these issues then, take your efs.img (which you should have backup after rooting your device on the official Android Software -> also called Stock Rom) copy it on a SD-Card, insert that card to your Note 2 and copy it to the SDCard0 folder (the internal storage), then do the following:
- Start in Recovery Mode
- wipe cache
- factory reset
- format /system (under adv. settings -> Storage...then you see it)
- flash the Rom again
- wipe cache
- wipe Dalvik Cache (under adv. settngs in Recovery)
- Reboot
Now check your IMMEI and your Service. IMMEI should be ok now and Service available and running. At least your SD-Card should be mounted now and available. I believe you tried to flash from a 4.1/4.2 System to a 4.3 System and you didn`t wiped the Dalvik-Cache, which is the System tree of Android, which got changed with Android 4.3. I think something went wrong in your installation, so this "tree" mght be corrupted. Be sure that you also install the right GAPPS (Google Services for Android 4.3, such as Google Play Store). You can flash it as .zip also over Recovery-Mode, after you flashed the ROM (Software).
If you didn`t save your EFS on any proberly running System before, you might get hard times recovering it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
my internal storage is not available and i tried to copied stock rom to my Sd-card but when i do step by step (factory data reset , wipe cache , wipe dalvik cache , fix permission) rom will not be installed

thedadio said:
Same here maybe efs as you have imei unknown
Sent from my GT-N7105 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
my imei is unknown too. any ideas ? did you know fix that ?

Did you a backup of your EFS?..... that's what your IMMEI needs.
If not, try to download Stock ROM from a Source you know and maybe the immei will be rebuild. I don't know much about how to rebuild immei without EFS. Only thing I know is that there are not much ways. It's pretty difficult.
---------- Post added at 09:39 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:32 PM ----------
Which ROM and Kernel you flashed?
BTW try to copy the files to thr phone without SDCard available thru a USB Cable to your PC. The phone should appear in the explorer list then.

SunShiner said:
Did you a backup of your EFS?..... that's what your IMMEI needs.
If not, try to download Stock ROM from a Source you know and maybe the immei will be rebuild. I don't know much about how to rebuild immei without EFS. Only thing I know is that there are not much ways. It's pretty difficult.
---------- Post added at 09:39 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:32 PM ----------
Which ROM and Kernel you flashed?
BTW try to copy the files to thr phone without SDCard available thru a USB Cable to your PC. The phone should appear in the explorer list then.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i've flashed an old firmware and gone my imei. and now not available storage if i connect to PC storage is hidden.

ibizadesert said:
i've flashed an old firmware and gone my imei. and now not available storage if i connect to PC storage is hidden.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What you mean by old firmware? Like official firmware or modified (custom ROM)?

Maybe you have flashed an n7100 rom? I know the n7105 stored nv data in a different way to the n7100 so a standard efs backup using cwm or twrp will not suffice
Sent from my GT-N7105 using xda app-developers app

The 7105 posts in this forum are mixed with the posts for problems with the 7100 hence the title "Samsung Galaxy Note II GT-N7100 , N7105 " above
but the 7105 does have a different and way of storing data responsible for the correct operation of the IMEI and baseband along with other items
The backup programs provided by other members of the forums backup the efs partitions of the file system.... this is VITAL and allows user of the 7100 to restore their lost baseband and IMEI more easily than the on the 7105 Model.
It is possible to damage items in the NVram of the 7105 which can result in Baseband Unknown , IMEI unknown , lost of GPS functionality and also the loss of the internal storage file system making it appear as 0 bytes available which crashes applications as Android thinks there is no space on the emulated file system which presents its self as /storage/sdcard0 and other linked directories.
As a result of flashing the N7105 may users risk NVRAM corruption and may think they have a backup ... but they have no way of backing up the NVRAM only the EFS , as a result luck is the only thing between a phone with working IMEI , Baseband , GPS and internal storage becoming a tablet with WIFI only !!!!!
Their are some programs out on the net which claim to read and write the NVRAM such as QPST and NV-Reader Writer but Samsung use a modification to the
Qualcom message set which means that not all loacations are read and also writing the data back when a phone does have a corrupt NVRAM is a hit or miss affair.
the worst button on ODIN is the ERASE NVRAM button ..... if you have a 7105 model make sure you do NOT have this box ticked as it may not make you day a happy one !!!!
I would ask the Mods to separate the GT-N7105 posts into a separate forum as the 7100 and the 7105 share are lot but are different enough to make a big issue when people read posts on how to recover from
My BaseBand is UNKNOWN
My IMEI is UNKNOWN
My internal storage is 0Kb or doesnt mount properly as /Storage/sdcard0 ..../emulated/legacy etc
My GPS has stopped working
all of the above on the N7105 can point to a corruption of some data stored on the EMMC chip which we can call NVRAM within the device.
The 7100 is different as you have data in the /efs partition which MAY fix the problem
THE 7105 does NOT
As a result the 7105 at present has a good chance of taking a trip back to Samsung if you are unlucky enough to get a NVRAM problem...
Comments Please :

Am I right in thinking normal efs backups dont work with n7105?
Sent from my GT-N7105 using xda app-developers app

The normal EFS backups do contain what is in the EFS directory which is mounted BUT
BUT the 7105 carries addition data in the NVRAM and this is NOT repeat NOT backed up by
the backup programs or utilities in the forums.
As a result if you loose the IMEI and the Baseband you may be lucky and just damaged the efs directory and have a backup
BUT their is a good chance you may not get back to a working phone from and EFS backup as damaged NVRAM will not be fixed
by restoring an EFS backup
so if you have a GT-N7105 and you have 0kb of internal storage
or /and Baseband Unknown
or /and IMEI Unknown
or /and GPS not working
then you may be in a suitation which nobody on the forums has really got into that is full restore of N7105 NVRAM
from scratch.
As this contains the IMEI then nobody is going to post their own backup for you to use
and the NV reader Writer or QPST or the Pro Qualcom reader tools are old and have read errors in them
If anyone has performed a full backup of N7105 NVRAM then erased it ,,,, then restored from backup
please let us know as nobody appears to have proved to have tested a NVram backup and restore cycle.

[Q] Cant access any of the hidden menus

I am on hyperdrive RLS 1. I am trying, without success, to access any of the engineering menus (*#0011*) or any of them. When I go to my efs folder to access the carrier HiddenMenu file, I cant find it! My efs folder is intact, I just cant find the folder termed, "Carrier."
Things I have attempted:
Restore my stock efs partition backed up using TWRP 2.7.
I am on KK bootloader, I do have wanam installed, but I have also restored the original framework file.
Thanks in advance !
P.s. The whole reason behind my attempts: To turn off wifi power saving mode.

[Q][Help]EFS lost! Please help me!

Hi everybody.
I've Installed some days ago a custom rom.
Everything is working fine, but I've seen that my IMEI is changed with generic 00499901064000
even MAC ADRESS is not availlable.
But it seems that everyting is working fine.
Now, I don't rember if I've a EFS backup.
There is a way to rebuild or recover it? (either with that without EFS backup. (I've cell box with IMEI shown)
I've seen that I've a taz file of EFS backup in my SD folder, but it is only 85 byte large.
Thank you very much for help me.
Regards

lukappaseidue said:
Hi everybody.
I've Installed some days ago a custom rom.
Everything is working fine, but I've seen that my IMEI is changed with generic 00499901064000
even MAC ADRESS is not availlable.
But it seems that everyting is working fine.
Now, I don't rember if I've a EFS backup.
There is a way to rebuild or recover it? (either with that without EFS backup. (I've cell box with IMEI shown)
I've seen that I've a taz file of EFS backup in my SD folder, but it is only 85 byte large.
Thank you very much for help me.
Regards
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Bro Goto Your data/radio Folder & Delete nv_data.bin ,nv_data.bin.md5 & Then Goto Factroy Folder & Copy only [ nv_data.bin ] To data/radio Folder & Restart Your Phone Thats it....

Thank you very much.
Solved!