So I was reading about backing up your /efs folder and I was wondering if backing up your device with CWM through recovery, will that also back up /efs folder?
Thanks!
i dont now this but you can just copy the efs folder and paste it at your computer.its so easy
If you want you can download nitrality apply from market, which can automatically do a backup for ya
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App
just copy the files might not be enough, permissions and ownershiop etc is lost. Look in this thread for info how to backup /efs
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1068193
I'm wondering the same thing... Does CWM backup the /efs folder?
No. There are apps that can do same (Hellcat's kTool being one), and some kernels automatically make an EFS backup by default (Siyah for example).
Edit to add - For clarity, CWM will not make a separate backup of the EFS. As it essentially makes an image of the phone, obviously the EFS details will be included (everything is included), but I doubt you can extract the EFS folders/files on their own from a CWM backup. If there is a way, I'd certainly like to know how to do it Would be handy to know, even if I do backup EFS whenever I do a backup as a matter of course.
So as long as I've made backups using CWM and then suddenly my efs folder gets corrupted, a simple CWM restore would repair the efs?
On the other hand... in theory (I would never try this) wouldn't that mean that if I did a CWM restore on a different SII that phone's IMEI would change?
Brgds... /Tubgirl
Hmmmmm....Basically when you restore a CWM backup, you go back to whatever state your phone was in at the time you made the backup.
Now, if you borked your EFS, and if you restored a CWM backup, would this fix this EFS issue. In theory & based on the CWM backup being an 'image', you'd reckon yes it would.
In practice, I'm not about to delete my efs folders & try it out tho
So far as the IMEI is concerned, no, I don't believe it would. Reason I say this is because I know people who have taken a CWM backup of a phone they've had to return for replacement. Got the replacement phone, and restored the CWM backup on the new phone; essentially cloned the old one. And that hasn't messed with the new phone's IMEI.
At the end of the day, people who don't make EFS backups are insane IMHO (you probably guessed that from my sig). Given it takes literally 20 seconds to make an EFS backup with kTool, and another minute to transfer a copy over to a PC, there's no excuse for not making a backup.
Edit to add - Interesting questions/thread BTW I know who could answer these questions definitively for us. Odia. He's the EFS king on here. Can sometimes (often ?) recover IMEI's when there are no EFS folders/files to work with. How ? Who knows. Voodoo maybe ?
Ok, I'm no expert by any means and please correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't a complete efs backup include imei?
The reason I'm asking is because suddenly my phone can't make/receive phone calls with my current carrier (other carriers still work). I restored a previously made CWM backup but it didn't help. Today I read about efs and what it contains so I started to wonder if maybe that's where the problem lie. I've only made CWM and Titanium backups so far because I had no knowledge about efs.
Brgds... /Tubgirl
Easiest way to tell if it's an IMEI issue is to check the IMEI. If you have your actual IMEI in settings/about phone, that obviously isn't the problem (whatever you do, don't post your IMEI on XDA. Ever), if you have the generic IMEI 004999010640000, then you've got a problem.
If you do have the generic IMEI, then we can look at options to possibly rectify it (sometimes possible, sometimes not).
If your IMEI is fine, the problem lies elsewhere & you're worrying about nothing There are a million things that could cause the problem you described.
However, no excuse for not making an EFS backup nowish if your IMEI is OK & keeping one copy on your external SD card & another copy on your PC (and even another copy on a external drive if you're really paranoid).
I just used the IMEI example to question whether efs is included in CWM backups or not. My IMEI is just fine but since I'm so reluctant to send my phone in for repair I'm just grasping for straws here Thought maybe my problem was related to efs since I suspect it's not included in CWM backups. Anyway... since I never made a "real" efs backup my question is pure academic. I'm afraid my phone needs to be sent to a service center. System restore didn't resolve my problems either but I'm pretty sure that wouldn't resolve efs problems either.
Brgds... Tubgirl
Did a bit of digging & found this. It would appear EFS is not backed up in a Nandroid backup after all despite it being somewhat of an 'image'. So I guess that answers both our question.
No, system restore more than likely won't solve EFS issues. Normally the only way to fix it short of having Samsung do it is Odia/whatever method he uses (which he won't divulge; and fair enough. I'm sure it's highly technical).
If you need to send your phone in for warranty service, do a format cache, data, system, & sd card in CWM. Then flash a stock rom in Odin, then use a jig to reset the flash counter.
Obviously once you root a phone and/or run non-stock firmware on it you void your warranty and should have no expectation of warranty service, but many people have been able to get same by doing the above. But in saying that, there have been people on here who have followed these steps & been 'found out' in any event.
Unless it's a case of actual damage to the phone caused by use or whatever, if it's a hardware fault, you might be able to get away with it.
WHich method do you use to backup your efs?
I use Siyah kernel which automatically makes an EFS backup & dumps it in the /data/.Siyah folder. There are also apps which enable you to make a backup, I've used kTool in the past & there are others (names of which escape me; search on here/Google Play).
I'd recommend kTool (search for it on here/Google Play) as it isn't kernel or rom dependent, it backs up EFS to /sdcard/efs.img & also allows you to verify the backup. You can then transfer a copy onto PC, external drive or whatever in case the worst ever happens. Quick, easy & no fuss.
Thanks a bunch... I'll search for it.
No probs
Tubgirl said:
Thanks a bunch... I'll search for it.
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Click to collapse
I saw this thread was about CMWbackups, and have a quetion about it. decided it's better to ash here than start a whole new thread
The CMW backups; does it backup EVERYTING?
So if i forexample have some movies on my external SD card, and then takes an CMW backup..... Next i delete everyting on this SDcard, and then flash the CMW image,,,,, will my movies then be back at my SD card? Will they be back at any other place at the phone? or will they be totally gone?
Nikolaiim said:
I saw this thread was about CMWbackups, and have a quetion about it. decided it's better to ash here than start a whole new thread
The CMW backups; does it backup EVERYTING?
No as said it does not back up EFS .
It takes an image of the firmware OS and applications on the internal sd card .
So if i forexample have some movies on my external SD card, and then takes an CMW backup..... Next i delete everyting on this SDcard, and then flash the CMW image,,,,, will my movies then be back at my SD card? Will they be back at any other place at the phone? or will they be totally gone
Gone Gone Gone .
jje
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Click to collapse
If i have a siyah backup of my esf (a tar.gz and a img.gz) what do i have to do to restore my esf folder?
Search for/read the kTool thread on here.
I have been fortunate enough to come into possession of 2 galaxy s2's
Bit of a random question... Is it possible to restore a nandroid backup from one phone to another without any adverse effects? Or will this write over the EFS part and lose a unique IMEI number? And what will google think, will the restored phone lose it's unique "identity"?
Not really an urgent request. I'll probably just play it safe and use titanium backup to move apps across but I'd be interested to know if CWM backup would work.
b631nz said:
I have been fortunate enough to come into possession of 2 galaxy s2's
Bit of a random question... Is it possible to restore a nandroid backup from one phone to another without any adverse effects? Or will this write over the EFS part and lose a unique IMEI number? And what will google think, will the restored phone lose it's unique "identity"?
Not really an urgent request. I'll probably just play it safe and use titanium backup to move apps across but I'd be interested to know if CWM backup would work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Check this it may help
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=728266
Hi all !
if i restore nand backup from another phone on my phone + restore my orgininal EFS folder does it mean my phone will work perfectly without any surprise ????
thanks a lot
dahikino
totally not recommended. you could be coming from different android version, or even if same version, different manufacturers may have different setup.
if you feel adventurous, you can try just reinstalling the "data" portion though, that is where your installed apps are placed. but be warned it also contains some previous system settings which may not be compatible with sgs3.
better alternative is to install Titanium backup, it has function to read from nandroid backups so you can pick and choose what you want to extract from there.
First of all this is the wrong section to post this, go to the q&a section instead.
If the other phone was not the same exact model of phone then DO NOT restore the nandroid. Like the other commenter mentioned you can use titanium backup to save and restore apps or even use it to extract the apps from the nandroid.
Hi all,
I remember my first Froyo rom on my GS1 was provided as a nandroid package..
Questions go in the Q/A section
Fyi, nandroid doesn't touch the EFS partition or the bootloaders, or radio, just the system, data, cache and boot (kernel) partitions.
You *can* restore another person's nandroid onto your phone, but its really not a good idea (someone shipped roms as nandroids for a bit...), and you shouldn't need to touch the EFS unless something goes wrong, and a rom should never touch the EFS.
Edit: As people above say, don't restore a nandroid from another model of phone onto your device, if you want to move data from phone to phone like that use titanium backup or the like.
i want to copy a nand backup from a S3 orange 16GB onto my phone S3 SFR 32GB, because i have no solution for a "NO SMS,NO CALL BUT INTERNET WORKING" problem
changing rom, modem,etc.. etc... so many things without solved it
thanks
dahikino
dahikino said:
i want to copy a nand backup from a S3 orange 16GB onto my phone S3 SFR 32GB, because i have no solution for a "NO SMS,NO CALL BUT INTERNET WORKING" problem
changing rom, modem,etc.. etc... so many things without solved it
thanks
dahikino
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Click to collapse
Well in that case at your risk by Nand i hope you mean a CWM Nandroid recovery .
Its often best to have the same version of recovery to restore backup if first attempt fails ..
Be far simpler to flash a stock SGS3 Orange rom via Odin .
jje.
Hi XDA's,
I know there have been many threads about IMEIs with 0049.... My situation is a little different though.
My phone was soft bricked whilst flashing ROM's. When I restored it I found that the base band was unknown and the IMEI was 0049.... A common problem after reading up on a number of threads.
Where my situation is different though is that after flashing back to old stock(from what I read a common solution to the problem) I am able to use my phone however my IMEI is still 0049.... and not what is on the back of the phone. Additional info - even when the moden was corrupted I could always use my WIFI and BT.
I know that it is possible to edit IMEI through a terminal su function and have already tried it with no success.
Could someone check my code or offer constructive advice on how I can fix this as I would like to learn how to correct this issue. I would like to have the correct IMEI for my phone displayed in the software? I originally bought this phone under contract with Vodafone when the S2 first came out and have all my papers.
Thanks.
Without a good EFS backup, your chances of fixing this are close to zero. By all means try the stuff in threads here which claim to be able to restore/recover it from nothing, you may luck out if it's one of those cases where the IMEI 'disappears' temporarily for whatever reason (flashing some roms seems to cause this, hence the advice to try going back to stock in the first instance).
But more than likely it's a service centre or local mobile repair shop job.
Thanks, I have been able to find a copy of an EFS backup in my /sdcard however I did not intentionally create it - one of the ROMs I flashed seemed to have made it.
I'm not experienced but as far as I understand my EFS is working - I just need to edit the IMEI.
Currently I can boot and make\receive phone calls however the IMEI is showing 0049.... not what is displayed under the battery(3590*******).
No. You do not need to 'edit the IMEI' or anything of the sort (which is impossible without specialist equipment regardless of what some thread might say). If you've got a generic IMEI, it's because the EFS files are corrupt/broken. Your EFS is not 'fine'.
You need to restore the EFS backup that was fortunately made by whatever kernel you flashed (which you should have done manually yourself as soon as you rooted your phone). Use an app like Hellcat's kTool (or others) to restore the backup (there's a thread on here devoted to the app/that process; search).
Most carriers block phones with generic IMEI's in civilised parts of the world (Tier one carriers at least; some MVNO's may not), if you don't fix this problem you will more than likely find yourself without connectivity at some point soon.
MistahBungle said:
No. You do not need to 'edit the IMEI' or anything of the sort (which is impossible without specialist equipment regardless of what some thread might say). If you've got a generic IMEI, it's because the EFS files are corrupt/broken. Your EFS is not 'fine'.
You need to restore the EFS backup that was fortunately made by whatever kernel you flashed (which you should have done manually yourself as soon as you rooted your phone). Use an app like Hellcat's kTool (or others) to restore the backup (there's a thread on here devoted to the app/that process; search).
Most carriers block phones with generic IMEI's in civilised parts of the world, if you don't fix this problem you will more than likely find yourself without connectivity at some point soon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, already tried k-tool but I was not able to find the backup with k-tool only create a new one and restore that new one. I will read the k-tool thread to get a better understanding of how to work the app. Probably just need to copy & paste the old EFS to some folder.
Yep the copy/paste thing has been known to work sometimes so definitely try that. Also (though I've never used it), some people swear by EFS Pro for fixing these things. If you do manage to fix it, make sure you keep a copy of that EFS backup somewhere safe (keep one copy on your PC & back that up, keep another other copy on the external SD card in your phone if you have one).
I'm "cloning" 200 Jiayu G3 (MediaTek) Android devices for a non-profit organization working in Africa. I make a nandroid backup via CWM of one G3 device and then restore it to the other 200 devices, however the NVRAM/IMEI info (wifi/bluetooth MAC addresses + IMEI #) get cloned as well. Is there way to remove the NVRAM/IMEI data from the Nandroid backup so the device specific identifiers are retained on the other phones? MTKDroid Tools restore process is laborious and it seems the guys who post ROMs are able to prevent overwriting the unique identifiers...
Help on this would be much appreciated!
Is my question not clear enough, or is it a stupid question? Really struggling to find an answer... it seems absurd that there would be no way to retain the unique identifiers other than restoring them via MTKDroid Tools... perhaps someone has written a script to retain the unique identifiers? Or moved them out of the data partition?