I have an AT&T S3 which, during some shenanigans I don't remember, was encrypted with a password I could not retrieve. I used Odin to erase the phone's NAND because I had a nandroid backup. This backup, however, was corrupted. I was able to use Odin to flash a stock firmware, but I now only have access to EDGE instead of LTE.
I have restored EFS and NV backups from another AT&T S3 with my IMEI and serial written to them, and my serial and IMEI display correctly in my phone's status window.
I have tried flashing every available modem for the phone.
I have tried numerous APN settings and *#*#INFO*#*# settings.
I have tried damn near every solution to similar problems in this forum.
Any more ideas?
Where did you get your EFS and NV, and how did you restore them?
shortydoggg said:
Where did you get your EFS and NV, and how did you restore them?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used EFS Pro + Qualcomm tools to backup the EFS folder and NV data from a working AT&T S3. Doing this brought back my IMEI, but did not much else otherwise.
EDIT: To clarify, I used the tools to write my specific imei and serial to the backup before restoring that to my phone.
Ok, a lot of these usually don't get fixed, but I'm going to stick to here what worked for some.
First, I'm going to assume that you injected your IMEI correctly. I would next use the EFS Pro to format your EFS from the restore option at the top (then clicking format EFS), since that EFS came from another phone. Your EFS folder will automatically be re-created when you later reboot.
Next, I would download and unzip the attached file. Inject the .txt file with the nv reader /writer. The nv reader writer can be found in this thread.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=29514032&postcount=1
Follow steps 1-4, but instead of reading, you're writing the .txt file that you unzipped to your NV. It only contains missing information and should not touch your IMEI. Do not change the dec or hex range.
Reboot the phone and see what happens.
Related
I did the Root66 stock Rom with root flash. I had Super User Pro installed with the OTA survival mode block ticked- then did the OTA update back in the day for the multiwindow. I of course lost root but didn't worry about it. 2 months later- my phone reset a bunch of times and wiped my MEID, IMEI, Baseband Version- etc.
I never did an efs backup before this because i didn't know too. Anyway- I have a Note 2 here now that will not connect to the cell towers at all but is seemingly in great condition. I used root explorer to copy my efs folder to my computer and i need to know what files are missing and what values i need to change to get my phone back to working. I think this would be usefull information to everyone that encounters this issue.
reference threads:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1997150&page=5
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2143130
threads that fix this for other phones not ours:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1968360
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=859914
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1089039
we should have a thread that lists what files are supposed to be in our efs folder and where our important details are stored in those files- i.e.- what string to use a hex editor on to restore our values back to the phone.
Thanks everyone for your help.
dd807 said:
I did the Root66 stock Rom with root flash. I had Super User Pro installed with the OTA survival mode block ticked- then did the OTA update back in the day for the multiwindow. I of course lost root but didn't worry about it. 2 months later- my phone reset a bunch of times and wiped my MEID, IMEI, Baseband Version- etc.
I never did an efs backup before this because i didn't know too. Anyway- I have a Note 2 here now that will not connect to the cell towers at all but is seemingly in great condition. I used root explorer to copy my efs folder to my computer and i need to know what files are missing and what values i need to change to get my phone back to working. I think this would be usefull information to everyone that encounters this issue.
reference threads:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1997150&page=5
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2143130
threads that fix this for other phones not ours:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1968360
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=859914
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1089039
we should have a thread that lists what files are supposed to be in our efs folder and where our important details are stored in those files- i.e.- what string to use a hex editor on to restore our values back to the phone.
Thanks everyone for your help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
bump- can't believe no one wants to help wih this.
I'll pull some files off my phone and send you copies of you want me to. I'm not a developer and can't help with what you're doing but will send you copies of stuff if that's all you need.
ohh I have the same problem
AndroidStephen said:
I'll pull some files off my phone and send you copies of you want me to. I'm not a developer and can't help with what you're doing but will send you copies of stuff if that's all you need.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the same problem my phone create a new efs folder but of course dont have imei no baseband and 0 storage
I have the N7105 , I have on my screen info pop telling me some specs ... we need help with another efs files if you can put a zip file we will appreciate ...... thank you
I wouldn't be giving anyone your intact efs partition. That contains all of your device specific information such as IMEI, ESN, MEID basically everything someone needs to clone your phone. And its not as simple as editing the files in efs and pushing them back to the device. You would need something like CDMA WS or equivalent to actually reprogram the values into the device. Most likely your information isn't missing it's just become hidden due to a corrupt partition. You can try doing a full repartition and restore with the lj1 firmware and then once the device boots ##786# and master reset, when it reboots after the master reset all of the missing values should be back. The repartition will un hide them and the master reset will allow the device to re read the efs and load the values properly. Once yoi get the values back the device will need to be reactivated and reprovisioned with your user info such and phone #, MIN, username and password, etc.
I like to break stuff!
-EViL-KoNCEPTz- said:
I wouldn't be giving anyone your intact efs partition. That contains all of your device specific information such as IMEI, ESN, MEID basically everything someone needs to clone your phone. And its not as simple as editing the files in efs and pushing them back to the device. You would need something like CDMA WS or equivalent to actually reprogram the values into the device. Most likely your information isn't missing it's just become hidden due to a corrupt partition. You can try doing a full repartition and restore with the lj1 firmware and then once the device boots ##786# and master reset, when it reboots after the master reset all of the missing values should be back. The repartition will un hide them and the master reset will allow the device to re read the efs and load the values properly. Once yoi get the values back the device will need to be reactivated and reprovisioned with your user info such and phone #, MIN, username and password, etc.
I like to break stuff!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for this reply- I already tried to flash back to stock with a Pit file and the and repartitioning checked in odin. didn't work. thats why i started this thread. ulitmately i think it was a hardware failure becuase it didn't happen when i was flashing the phone- is just happened when i was sitting on the couch watching tv. my phone reset a bunch of times in a row and then no signal. i finally got a new phone so i guess it doesn't matter.
Hi, my N7105 has lost the capability of reading its IMEI (and even knowing what model it is) after I flashed this: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2531965
I have an EFS backup, but it's useless, it seems that I need the param_bin for the N7105, because as I've read, the phone didn't really lost its IMEI, it only can't access it. Please help me!
Solved. Just flashed the via Odin the .bin files that were inside the .tar.gz backup made with EFS Pro, then the IMEI, model number and signal got back. Then EFS Pro was able to recognize my phone and restored the full backup, now even the serial number is restored. Hope this helps anyone who finds himself in a similar situation.
I am in a the same situation, but my efs backup is just a efs.img created by efs_backup_restore_win.
Restoring using it can't bring back my imei.
[Edit] EFS pro keep saying Device not connected. But I already granted the ADB connection in my phone.
Hello,
I have screwed up my IMEI after some risky operations. I have a backup of EFS partition (folder), which is useless, since it doesn't contain my IMEI, which I haven't checked previously and just dumbly/blindly relied on it containing my IMEI. The big question is, where is IMEI stored on galaxy s4 mini LTE (I9195)? I tried to restore using several methods, like:
EFS Professional Qualcomm Tools, by writing my original IMEI, but it still doesn't do any changes, nor before restart of the phone, nor after.
NV Items Reader/Writer - same result as EFS Qualcomm. Same goes to QPST tools.
Tried reboot nvrestore through adb/console, but i haven't had made backup previously.
I guess it stores it in some other partition. Also, after research done, there have been claims that phone stores backup of nv_data in some partition and automatically restores it if there are differences between backup and real imei. Or phone just restores backup automatically on each phone bootup. Either way, I must've screwed really big, since on my adventures both are wiped and my nulled IMEI seems to be right for the phone.
I include a PIT file.
Seems like I am the only one unlucky in this situation, cause there are no similar topic on this forum or internet altogether concerning EFS and I9195.
.PIT FILE
any1?
well i had a i9000 before. and there was always a efs backup made when you installed cm for example. i screwed my imei also more than once on this phone and restored it by installing an factory image from samsung. i has to be a complete image with all parts for odin i think.
OT: here are less developers around. this phone isn't so much supported as i thought it would be. but i really dont want to buy a 5inch just to have developer support so i hope someone will be able to help you.
x10isrooted said:
well i had a i9000 before. and there was always a efs backup made when you installed cm for example. i screwed my imei also more than once on this phone and restored it by installing an factory image from samsung. i has to be a complete image with all parts for odin i think.
OT: here are less developers around. this phone isn't so much supported as i thought it would be. but i really dont want to buy a 5inch just to have developer support so i hope someone will be able to help you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are right, it does make a some kind of backup, which manually could be made through adb with command "reboot nvbackup", but my problem is that either I don't have that backup, or it somehow has made a backup of efs after it was corrupted. Somewhere in this forum i saw someone writing that reboot nvbackup command backups efs to fsg and backup partitions, but I through-Hex-checked it, no trace of any content of efs/nvdata.(Or it is encrypted somehow.). Also I did recieved backup and fsg partitions of healthy phone, and checked-through it. Same story.
In despair I stormed every single partition on the phone I could reach. The only partition containing contents of efs (also IMEI) was mmcblk0p24, which stores userdata and mounts on root as /data. I doubt it's legitimacy, since as far as I know, it gets wiped after factory reset, so it couldn't be the place sensitive data are stored. Now I am waiting to receive a healthy phones userdata.img.ext4 partition backup to get memory addresses of IMEI location and to be able to write my IMEI in my userdata.img.ext4 backup. Cross fingers, but doubt this will work.
Also, I didn't check loop# and ram# partitions under /dev/block/. This will be my next step, if writing and restoring userdata fails, which probably will.
farewellartist said:
Hello,
I have screwed up my IMEI after some risky operations. I have a backup of EFS partition (folder), which is useless, since it doesn't contain my IMEI, which I haven't checked previously and just dumbly/blindly relied on it containing my IMEI. The big question is, where is IMEI stored on galaxy s4 mini LTE (I9195)? I tried to restore using several methods, like:
EFS Professional Qualcomm Tools, by writing my original IMEI, but it still doesn't do any changes, nor before restart of the phone, nor after.
NV Items Reader/Writer - same result as EFS Qualcomm. Same goes to QPST tools.
Tried reboot nvrestore through adb/console, but i haven't had made backup previously.
I guess it stores it in some other partition. Also, after research done, there have been claims that phone stores backup of nv_data in some partition and automatically restores it if there are differences between backup and real imei. Or phone just restores backup automatically on each phone bootup. Either way, I must've screwed really big, since on my adventures both are wiped and my nulled IMEI seems to be right for the phone.
I include a PIT file.
Seems like I am the only one unlucky in this situation, cause there are no similar topic on this forum or internet altogether concerning EFS and I9195.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You've found the address of IMEI? I also did not find my IMEI in a full backup of EFS partition. I also do not believe that it is in mmcblk0p24, if it were, would lose the IMEI on a factory reset.
Sorry for bad English... :silly:
lrdslr said:
You've found the address of IMEI? I also did not find my IMEI in a full backup of EFS partition. I also do not believe that it is in mmcblk0p24, if it were, would lose the IMEI on a factory reset.
Sorry for bad English... :silly:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I think, that I have found it, but this is difficult. I haven't slept for over 40 hours, I'll convert this thread into research thread after I get some sleep. But for now, short version.
Using Cygwin, i have backed up healthy phones every single partition in .RAW format (which backs up not only files, but every single bit of memory) , including phones whole memory partition (mmcblk0), all 7 loop and 15 ram partitions and then hex checked them. What I've discovered is: that none of partitions contain IMEI nor in HEX or STRING format except mmcblk0p24, which contains 24 entries in my case in STRING format. BUT the whole phone memory block (mmcblk0) contains 60+ entries ..
If we weight information (considering all backups were made in .RAW format) that none of the partitions contain IMEI and IMEI is stored in whole memory block, I think we probably can conclude, that IMEI is not stored in any file on the phones memory. (And this is concluded based on information I got on backing up mmcblk0 using cygwin in .bin format. After hex checking file, it also contained around 24 entries, which is roughtly the same as userdata partition.) It is stored in phones memory not as a file, but as written bits in memory, which are not FRS recognizable.
I only I could restore .RAW format backups, this problem could easilly be solved. Damn, if I mange to solve and fill lacking information bits that spoils a big picture, I won't hesitate to spare one day of my life to actually create a tool to solve this. This has been a long and painful process,
Hi, I know this is an old topic, but I 've got same issue and I'd like to know if someone successed to re-write the IMEI on S4 mini LTE.
Thanks.
Hello everyone!
Yesterday, I tried to upgrade to a Kit Kat rom. I used the Galaxy nexus toolkit, and did a full backup... plus an EFS backup. Afterwards, I did the full format/wipe from CWM recovery, and installed the ROM.
Well, apparently one of the options wipes your EFS file folder; I have no way of connecting to my network. My IMEI is the stock number, and I've spent hours scouring the internet trying to find a way to restore it. The majority of the responses are "try a factory reset and restore" or "too bad so sad, should've backed up". Well, I did try several options. The first being the EFS restore. Apparently, the backup is stored on the phone and wasn't sent to my computer, like the rest of the normal backups. That option is now out. Oh, how I miss SD storage.
The second was a full restore to stock, again, nothing. Third, I had an old nandroid backup. After doing these I saw that the EFS tree is left untouched, as it is so delicate. The only way to do this is give up and send it in for servicing, or to do a phone NV Backup swap with QPST.
I need to get access to the service menu (or any way to change the USB/Modem) as listed here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1946915
Unfortunately, *#7284# does nothing on an i9250, nor does anything besides *#*#4636#*#*... which isn't what I need. The terminal command doesn't appear to work, either.
I don't understand very well but, have you tried to restore your EFS backup from recovery? Did you make the backup from recovery or from toolkit?
lkeops said:
I don't understand very well but, have you tried to restore your EFS backup from recovery? Did you make the backup from recovery or from toolkit?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have done a recovery from the toolkit (as the files are stored on the computer and not the phone) which is where I made the backup from, as well.
However, the EFS partition is apparently never included in this backup, as it is supposed to be immune to changes and formatting. I proved them wrong.
Well I did that same blunder last month with my nexus and then I tried all remedies plus own experiments but couldn't get results. All I heard is that to send phone to service centre. If you find any other solution so do mention here, I gave up after so many tries
what9000 said:
I have done a recovery from the toolkit (as the files are stored on the computer and not the phone) which is where I made the backup from, as well.
However, the EFS partition is apparently never included in this backup, as it is supposed to be immune to changes and formatting. I proved them wrong.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
@what9000 you may want to check out this thread http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2508320
Specifically post #6 AND #9
I have personally never used the nexus backup tool, but if it does does backup the /radio folder, you may be in luck.
Well, it has been repaired. Thank you all for your help, in the end I managed to pull some things together in a mash up of fixes.
It appears that upon a new restore from a nandroid backup, I was still getting no signal. However, I did a *#06#, and my IMEI was intact. I read that the Radio folder gets backed up, but not the factory folder. Upon a new install, I imagine the radio folder is wiped, which is why every install from then on had a bunk imei (it had nothing to pull from as my factory folder is toast)
However, it looks like the efs backup I had *did* save the folder structure... I found the efs.tar backup in my galaxy nexus toolkit folder. It had the folder zip, but couldn't restore it due to permissions... didn't feel like messing with that at the moment. I copied them in with root explorer, grabbed the nv_data files from the /radio/ folder, deleted the files from /radio, and restarted. Lo and behold, they were restored from the factory folder with the correct IMEI.
I just put a fresh copy of kit kat 4.4.2 on and have cell service again. Oh happy day, I don't have to use my old HTC Sensation! :highfive:
This also marks the first time a backup actually saved my skin. Usually I vaporize the backup accidentally before it has an opportunity to prove itself useful.
So I found myself wondering how can I make life difficult for myself... I did a software upgrade in Kies on my T805 and now I have a default IMEI...
I was on cm11 before doing the upgrade to 5.0.2
Has this happened to anyone or does anyone have any idea how to fix it?
Many thanks for any reply.
That shouldnt have happened but youre not the first person to state that cm has messed with the partitions. Id stick with stock based roms in future.
Download EFS professional then under the samsung tools tab select other tools then 'Repair NV data from internal file backup'
If youre lucky it will be restored.
Now some friendly advice, ALWAYS make a full backup via recovery before messing with anything custom on your device, especially make sure the EFS partition is backed up.
ashyx said:
That shouldnt have happened but youre not the first person to state that cm has messed with the partitions. Id stick with stock based roms in future.
Download EFS professional then under the samsung tools tab select other tools then 'Repair NV data from internal file backup'
If youre lucky it will be restored.
Now some friendly advice, ALWAYS make a full backup via recovery before messing with anything custom on your device, especially make sure the EFS partition is backed up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply, sadly it restore a different default IMEI ending in /01 instead of /17.
I was 100% sure I had backed-up my efs, turns out I did but on my phone x(.
Any other suggestions?
Try this. Make a backup in recovery of the efs partition.
Boot into android then using a root file explorer open the efs folder then delete nv_data.bin and nv_data.bin.md5 then reboot.
See if this replaces the deleted files with the backup.
ashyx said:
Try this. Make a backup in recovery of the efs partition.
Boot into android then using a root file explorer open the efs folder then delete nv_data.bin and nv_data.bin.md5 then reboot.
See if this replaces the deleted files with the backup.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It does but not with the correct imei. Thanks for the reply!
What IMEI does it give?
ashyx said:
What IMEI does it give?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A default imei ending in / 17 instead of / 01
DieZz said:
A default imei ending in / 17 instead of / 01
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You may as well post it as its not a valid imei, it's a generic imei.
Is it 004999010640000?