Develop Bugs

Problem whit efs folder backup

I made a backup of efs folder with root explorer just cut and paste on your sd card. Now that I have corrupt files and generic imei and no network when I put the sd files from efs folder when i reboot the phone I find myself the same corrupted files. Is there a way to prevent the system to regenerate files inside the folder efs?

notedue9 said:
I made a backup of efs folder with root explorer just cut and paste on your sd card. Now that I have corrupt files and generic imei and no network when I put the sd files from efs folder when i reboot the phone I find myself the same corrupted files. Is there a way to prevent the system to regenerate files inside the folder efs?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No mate, if you've done a backup which isn't 100% then your knackered. You should always use a toolkit or efsbackup software

LBTaylor1984 said:
No mate, if you've done a backup which isn't 100% then your knackered. You should always use a toolkit or efsbackup software
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what should I do? belonging to the assistance of course

notedue9 said:
what should I do? belonging to the assistance of course
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As for as I know if your EFS data is lost or corrupt, and you cannot restore a backup version you are stuck. However something has come to mind, does the phone have a Modem listed in the menu where the IMEI is listed? I had a modem not flash right and gave the impression that the IMEI was lost, however upon reflashing the modem, the IMEI returned and the phone as 100% ok.

LBTaylor1984 said:
As for as I know if your EFS data is lost or corrupt, and you cannot restore a backup version you are stuck. However something has come to mind, does the phone have a Modem listed in the menu where the IMEI is listed? I had a modem not flash right and gave the impression that the IMEI was lost, however upon reflashing the modem, the IMEI returned and the phone as 100% ok.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have generic imei 00049...

notedue9 said:
I have generic imei 00049...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh, tbh mate I know when I lost mine, I had to replace the EFS folder, then flash a ROM, factory reset, and it was ok, it's all i can suggest, someone more knowledgable then me might be able to help you a bit more.

notedue9 said:
I made a backup of efs folder with root explorer just cut and paste on your sd card. Now that I have corrupt files and generic imei and no network when I put the sd files from efs folder when i reboot the phone I find myself the same corrupted files. Is there a way to prevent the system to regenerate files inside the folder efs?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Flash stock Rom via odin, let's see if it's not that bad a problem
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note II GT-N7100 using Tapatalk HD

Elle233 said:
Flash stock Rom via odin, let's see if it's not that bad a problem
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note II GT-N7100 using Tapatalk HD
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
already done but no result

notedue9 said:
already done but no result
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Send to Samsung service center
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note II GT-N7100 using Tapatalk HD

[Q] About i9195 backup and restoring EFS

Hi all, I'm a new I9195GT owner (for a week already) and have been researching and having some satisfaction rooting and restoring all my apps with Titanium from my previous smartphone.
The phone works fine and I'm quite happy with it. I've already done a full backup with CWM recovery for any trouble I might come across in future but I don't know if a full backup from recovery contains all important and sensible data like EFS and NV data. Those two things are totally new for me as I'm coming from a HTC Desire which didn't require attention to those sensible points.
So I would be very grateful if anybody clears some doubts I have relating EFS and NV data:
- Does a full backup from recovery contain EFS and NV data, so in case that flashing a custom ROM results in corrupted EFS data, I would fix it just by restoring the full backup from recovery?
- What is the best and safest way for backup EFS and NV?
I've seen this post from arco68 which states a command I guess should be executed from Terminal directly in the smartphone, but I don't know how should that .img file restored to the phone in case it becomes corrupted.
I've also seen this post about the EFS Professional tool from lyriquidperfection but in the whole post I havent found anybody confirming it works in the S4 Mini i9195.... so it sounds good but I don't want to brick my new device being the first one to run the tool with the i9195
Thank you very much

As far as I know CWM does not back up EFS.
The good idea is to use TWRP recovery instead of CWM. TWRP does backup EFS.
You can get TWRP for 9195 here
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2449107

Thanks for the idea. I'm ready to install TWRP recovery but, before installing it and replacing CWM,
Is it possible to launch TWRP recovery from CWM recovery, as temporary? And when rebooting CWM is back.
I remember doing something like this in my previous device: from 4EXT recovery launching a CWM recovery for some particular reason I don't remember
Sent from my GT-I9195 using xda app-developers app

batareikin51 said:
As far as I know CWM does not back up EFS.
The good idea is to use TWRP recovery instead of CWM. TWRP does backup EFS.
You can get TWRP for 9195 here
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2449107
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
TWRP Recovery does not backup full EFS. IMEI is not included at least. Even though it lists a possibility of EFS backup, all it does is backups /efs partition. which does not contain IMEI in it. This concerns specifically I9195, which I own too and am researching this issue and also lost IMEI issue.

farewellartist said:
TWRP Recovery does not backup full EFS. IMEI is not included at least. Even though it lists a possibility of EFS backup, all it does is backups /efs partition. which does not contain IMEI in it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I already had installed TWRP and made backups and nandroids....
So how can we safely backup IMEI in a way we can restore it in case it gets corrupted?

sergiosch said:
I already had installed TWRP and made backups and nandroids....
So how can we safely backup IMEI in a way we can restore it in case it gets corrupted?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good question, I've been looking for answer for weeks.

sergiosch said:
I already had installed TWRP and made backups and nandroids....
So how can we safely backup IMEI in a way we can restore it in case it gets corrupted?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Guys!
The most simple method to backup our IMEI (efs folder) is:
1.Install rootexplorer
2.open it with superuser permission
3. Copy efs folder from root main folder to your sd card.
4.Upload from sd card to clouds to be sure you have a backup a different places.
5. Push thx for me

radicspeter said:
Guys!
The most simple method to backup our IMEI (efs folder) is:
1.Install rootexplorer
2.open it with superuser permission
3. Copy efs folder from root main folder to your sd card.
4.Upload from sd card to clouds to be sure you have a backup a different places.
5. Push thx for me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did already that too, not with rootexplorer but TotalCommander which also has root access to any partition, I guess it performs the same backup just copying everything.
But then I don't know why it is valid to do "raw" directory/file copy with root explorer but it is not valid an EFS partition backup with TWRP recovery. I'm a newbie with this but, it seems the same to me....
Can anyone tell exactly in which file is stored imei? Isn't the same structure/process valid for other Galaxy brand smartphones so we can follow them?

radicspeter said:
Guys!
The most simple method to backup our IMEI (efs folder) is:
1.Install rootexplorer
2.open it with superuser permission
3. Copy efs folder from root main folder to your sd card.
4.Upload from sd card to clouds to be sure you have a backup a different places.
5. Push thx for me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I repeat, EFS FOLDER / PARTITION even on a raw byte level DOESN'T CONTAIN phones IMEI. This concerns specifically Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini LTE (I9195).
---------- Post added at 03:45 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:31 PM ----------
sergiosch said:
I did already that too, not with rootexplorer but TotalCommander which also has root access to any partition, I guess it performs the same backup just copying everything.
But then I don't know why it is valid to do "raw" directory/file copy with root explorer but it is not valid an EFS partition backup with TWRP recovery. I'm a newbie with this but, it seems the same to me....
Can anyone tell exactly in which file is stored imei? Isn't the same structure/process valid for other Galaxy brand smartphones so we can follow them?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Normally, phones IMEI in previous galaxy devices (don't know about current S4, I own S4 Mini LTE), was stored in nv_data.bin file which was located in /efs folder on root. (which is a mount point for mmcblk0p10 partition in S4 Mini LTE). But, in this device, there is no nv_data bin file and IMEI is not stored nowhere close to efs partition. Not too many people own S4 Mini's and almost everybody whom I asked an information based their knowdledge on another devices and were feeding me false information I heard over and over again.
To clarify something, I know, that EFS partition doesn't contain IMEI, because:
No file in efs mount point contains IMEI.
No IMEI found checking EFS Professional backup (tar) on HEX level using various search methods. Even through-looked it, file is not that big.
No IMEI found through-looking .raw backup made using cygwin (which contains every single byte of partition, even though it is not a part of a file), which is 95+% warrant, that IMEI is not in EFS partition.

farewellartist said:
I repeat, EFS FOLDER / PARTITION even on a raw byte level DOESN'T CONTAIN phones IMEI. This concerns specifically Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini LTE (I9195).
---------- Post added at 03:45 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:31 PM ----------
Normally, phones IMEI in previous galaxy devices (don't know about current S4, I own S4 Mini LTE), was stored in nv_data.bin file which was located in /efs folder on root. (which is a mount point for mmcblk0p10 partition in S4 Mini LTE). But, in this device, there is no nv_data bin file and IMEI is not stored nowhere close to efs partition. Not too many people own S4 Mini's and almost everybody whom I asked an information based their knowdledge on another devices and were feeding me false information I heard over and over again.
To clarify something, I know, that EFS partition doesn't contain IMEI, because:
No file in efs mount point contains IMEI.
No IMEI found checking EFS Professional backup (tar) on HEX level using various search methods. Even through-looked it, file is not that big.
No IMEI found through-looking .raw backup made using cygwin (which contains every single byte of partition, even though it is not a part of a file), which is 95+% warrant, that IMEI is not in EFS partition.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks mate. Pretty clear :good:
I was also not confident about some tutorials I read in other forums claiming that just doing a copy of file structure from /EFS folder would backup our IMEI. Your explanation is appreciated.
Hope to find some way to effectively backup sensitive data as IMEI is....

sergiosch said:
Thanks mate. Pretty clear :good:
I was also not confident about some tutorials I read in other forums claiming that just doing a copy of file structure from /EFS folder would backup our IMEI. Your explanation is appreciated.
Hope to find some way to effectively backup sensitive data as IMEI is....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Found it! Making guide right now. Basically IMEI is contained in both mmcblk0p11 and mmcblk0p12 partitions. Samsung apparently has developed a new error-safe phone nv data preservation system, I'll explain in details in tutorial.

farewellartist said:
Found it! Making guide right now. Basically IMEI is contained in both mmcblk0p11 and mmcblk0p12 partitions. Samsung apparently has developed a new error-safe phone nv data preservation system, I'll explain in details in tutorial.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great news! looking forward to read that guide :good::good:

sergiosch said:
Great news! looking forward to read that guide :good::good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How do you mount those partitions? I've tried with no success. All I get is "mount: No such device".

deliog said:
How do you mount those partitions? I've tried with no success. All I get is "mount: No such device".
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't mount, just backup.
Through terminal emulator, enter commands
su
dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0p11 of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p12

And how to restore later if IMEI gets corrupted/null?
Sent from my GT-I9195 using xda app-developers app

sergiosch said:
And how to restore later if IMEI gets corrupted/null?
Sent from my GT-I9195 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
See this: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2569532

sergiosch said:
Great news! looking forward to read that guide :good::good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could you (or someone) PLEASE post or send PM with backups of partition mmcblk0p11 and mmcblk0p12? While researching this issue, I trashed 2 OF MY PHONES and nulled my IMEIs because of delusion caused by memory of having a backup, which I didn't. It's a pity to give away such a fortune for spares. I need NV blocks to hex compare them with blocks I got from another healthy I9195. Since IMEI numbers of different phone blocks will be different, difference will show on hex level too, which will help me determine exact address of IMEI location, after which I could modify my trashed NV blocks at determined memory address with my original IMEI, which could save me from watching at useless brick. And also would help me at development of I9195 IMEI Restore tool.
Disclaimer: I am not modifying my IMEI nor doing any actions which end-target is modification of original IMEI and differing it from original one. I am modifying nulled (trashed, unoriginal) IMEI to its ORIGINAL state which ultimately couldn't be called nothing else but RESTORING. I won't use IMEI from gathered NV blocks. I just need a another healthy block to fix my issue and help develop tools so others could be able to sleep at nights without issue that causes me sleepless nights.

farewellartist said:
Could you (or someone) PLEASE post or send PM with backups of partition mmcblk0p11 and mmcblk0p12? While researching this issue, I trashed 2 OF MY PHONES and nulled my IMEIs because of delusion caused by memory of having a backup, which I didn't. It's a pity to give away such a fortune for spares. I need NV blocks to hex compare them with blocks I got from another healthy I9195. Since IMEI numbers of different phone blocks will be different, difference will show on hex level too, which will help me determine exact address of IMEI location, after which I could modify my trashed NV blocks at determined memory address with my original IMEI, which could save me from watching at useless brick. And also would help me at development of I9195 IMEI Restore tool.
Disclaimer: I am not modifying my IMEI nor doing any actions which end-target is modification of original IMEI and differing it from original one. I am modifying nulled (trashed, unoriginal) IMEI to its ORIGINAL state which ultimately couldn't be called nothing else but RESTORING. I won't use IMEI from gathered NV blocks. I just need a another healthy block to fix my issue and help develop tools so others could be able to sleep at nights without issue that causes me sleepless nights.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't done yet any of the backup processes you explain, so I don't even have the files you're asking for, but with all the gratitude and admiration I feel for the developers I wouldn't feel any confortable sending sensible data from part of a nandroid backup.... speaking just for myself of course, if I could choose how to help a developer I would preferr doing a donation to help him recover the hardware he has broken to help others. Some months ago I heard a friend telling that he had been scammed with a phone he bought in some cash converter and only worked for one day, then it became with null IMEI, and he suspected someone had "stolen" or "shutdown" his IMEI for unknown reasons...
sorry to say that, maybe I'm an ignorant but I just don't feel confortable with what you are asking directly to me

Only EDGE Network After NAND Wipe

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.

[Q] alternative way to make backup EFS (not EFS Pro)

Hi,
i try make backup may EFS partition AT&T Stock ICS (phone rooted, busybox installed). When i try EFS Professional v2.0 i stil have information "unable read PIT file". I make backup with GalaxSim Unlock 1.02. Now i have 3 files (down below). Do this is good EFS backup files?
Do i can from this files restore my EFS partition (IMEI etc.). If yes, what i must to do?
greetings

kamykkamyk_pl said:
Hi,
i try make backup may EFS partition AT&T Stock ICS (phone rooted, busybox installed). When i try EFS Professional v2.0 i stil have information "unable read PIT file". I make backup with GalaxSim Unlock 1.02. Now i have 3 files (down below). Do this is good EFS backup files?
Do i can from this files restore my EFS partition (IMEI etc.). If yes, what i must to do?
greetings
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Use this version of EFS pro, newer versions don't play nicely with our phones

If you make a standard nandroid backup, but skip the data backup, you can restore your EFS anytime.
Sent from my SGH-I927 using Tapatalk

kamykkamyk_pl said:
Hi,
i try make backup may EFS partition AT&T Stock ICS (phone rooted, busybox installed). When i try EFS Professional v2.0 i stil have information "unable read PIT file". I make backup with GalaxSim Unlock 1.02. Now i have 3 files (down below). Do this is good EFS backup files?
Do i can from this files restore my EFS partition (IMEI etc.). If yes, what i must to do?
greetings
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
Of course you can use GalaxSim Unlock to restore your EFS backup. The backups made by other tools for this device will contaion the same data. By default, it will restore the EFS folder. If you check "advanced mode" in settings, you can chose to restore the whole partition.
Unfortunately, I've had a look at your data : you seem to have lost your stock EFS data (I suppose you IMEI might be wrong). Unfortunately if you don't have a backup made before you lost it, you can't do much to restore your imei.

spocky12 said:
Hi,
Of course you can use GalaxSim Unlock to restore your EFS backup. The backups made by other tools for this device will contaion the same data. By default, it will restore the EFS folder. If you check "advanced mode" in settings, you can chose to restore the whole partition.
Unfortunately, I've had a look at your data : you seem to have lost your stock EFS data (I suppose you IMEI might be wrong). Unfortunately if you don't have a backup made before you lost it, you can't do much to restore your imei.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello,
i buy my I927 from Singapure in september 2013, they have original Stock 4.0.4 ROM and was unlocked. After buying i root device and now (3 days ago) i flash Omni Rom 4.4 (KiteKat). I backup my EFS partition before i falsh OMNI Rom, also my backup ist from original stock AT&T 4.0.4 ROM

Weird backup-restore TWRP behaviour

I have been using TWRP for a while and have been saving backups regularly on the external SD-card. I have restored many times after testing some custom ROM.
Today I tried to restore my most recent backup and after it was done, it throws me back into the boot screen.
I can see a long list of previous backups but when I select them I observe the following, which I had not paid attention to before:
1) the most recent backup involves the partitions System and Data
2) the three next backups show no partitions and TWRP refuses to restore them (and I could swear I had restored from them in the past)
3) a very old backup shows System, Data and Boot
4) an older custom ROM backup also shows System, Data and Boot
Can someone please tell me what you think the problem is here? I cannot go back to my most recent backup.

Make sure you've not somehow ended up with 2 twrp folders with different id's as twrp will only recognize the current Id.
If that's the case copy the backups into that folder.

There is only one TWRP folder. It seems some backups contain "Boot" "Data" and "System" and some backups contain only "System" and "Data" and are missing "Boot".
As I only followed the "defaults" when I did the backups, I need to understand why in some cases it did not save "Boot".
Would you know why?

Zilliman said:
There is only one TWRP folder. It seems some backups contain "Boot" "Data" and "System" and some backups contain only "System" and "Data" and are missing "Boot".
As I only followed the "defaults" when I did the backups, I need to understand why in some cases it did not save "Boot".
Would you know why?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've no idea, never come across it, unless you accidentally unchecked those partitions?
In any case none are full backups.
You should make a backup of EFS and modem too.

ashyx said:
I've no idea, never come across it, unless you accidentally unchecked those partitions?
In any case none are full backups.
You should make a backup of EFS and modem too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have managed to restore an older backup which had Boot, Data and System partitions. I then restored the latest backup which only had Data and System. It now seems to work. I started it up and it all appears to be in place.
I then booted into TWRP and selected to do a backup and it had automatically selected the Data, System and Boot partitions. Why did it leave Boot out of the previous backups I do not understand but will keep an eye on it from now on.
Regarding the EFS partition: Originally I installed the stock ROM using ODIN. Does this mean that all the partitions were created during that initial installation? Or was the EFS partition present beforehand?

EFS partition is not part of the firmware, so is extremely important to back up, probably the most important of all to backup as it contains a lot of information that could render your device useless if it gets corrupted.

OK, thanks, will do it now.

ashyx said:
EFS partition is not part of the firmware, so is extremely important to back up, probably the most important of all to backup as it contains a lot of information that could render your device useless if it gets corrupted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can we make EFS checked by default? I had no idea that it's that important..

alexeyp said:
Can we make EFS checked by default? I had no idea that it's that important..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
"Important" - is there anything other than the IMEI to worry about? On my other, dual-SIM Chinese phones, I used to change the IMEI as I liked.
Yes. And it's ONLY 20MB, compared to the other partitions which are many GB in length.
And Restore should be made to have the partition unchecked by default.

Zilliman said:
"Important" - is there anything other than the IMEI to worry about? On my other, dual-SIM Chinese phones, I used to change the IMEI as I liked.
Yes. And it's ONLY 20MB, compared to the other partitions which are many GB in length.
And Restore should be made to have the partition unchecked by default.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Check it and it should stay checked.
And yes it contains a lot of important stuff related to imei, wifi, network, Bluetooth.
Lose it and you could be in trouble.
Search Google for more info.