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.
Click to expand...
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
Click to expand...
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.
Hallo
How can i fully backup my new phone before rooting and before doing anything to have a safe copy of everything on it so i can go back to it later after bad flasjing ect?
What country are you in and what provider are you with?
UK Three
I want to have full backup of my phone incl IMEI efs and all
The latest official stock ROMs can be found here...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1113928
so no need to back yours up - just use them.
To backup efs, just back it up with a file explorer. I tend to have a copy of it on my external sd card, just in case.
But in this case i still need to root the phone befor backup?
Also that will not recreate the partitions in case they ar domadged as in my last phone
You don't need root for any of that. As for partitions, I can't answer you, as I don't know what you're going to flash that might repartition.
At the momment i got 2 SG2
One have no IMEI no baseband problem and i do not have copy of their EFS folder and i can not edit EFS as it is constantly in RO mode. I wish to avoid this situation on my new SG2 so i want to BACK ALL up to be able to recover in case if something like this happend again. How can i fo kind of RAW one to one copy of the phone. SOmething like Clone image of my computer?
EFS restore post ,
and have a look at Nitrality in the market backup EFS and restore .
jje
Hi,
I backup my efs with ktool on XWKI4. Now I am on XWKI8.
So incase of trouble, can I restore my efs backup on any rom or should I revert to KI4 ?
Thanks
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App
It should still work, as the EFS isn't a part that get's written during the ROM flash, unless someone purposely asks Odin to format it during a flash, which is generally a terrible idea.
Is it possible to backup EFS without root. I am going to root my phone but first I want to backup my EFS folder just in case of any problems.
thanks
mohaziz said:
Is it possible to backup EFS without root. I am going to root my phone but first I want to backup my EFS folder just in case of any problems.
thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hmmmm, not that i'm aware of (please anyone else, correct me if i'm wrong) but i can't see you running in to many problems which could effect your efs if you're not rooted. AFAIK it only gets corrupt, via flashing roms and etc, which requires root access (again, someone correct me if i'm wrong)
yes, you can flash a recovery and back it up using that
Glebun said:
yes, you can flash a recovery and back it up using that
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
see, even i learn something new everyday on XDA.
So the answer is I cannot - I first need to root the S3 then only can I backup. thanks
mohaziz said:
So the answer is I cannot - I first need to root the S3 then only can I backup. thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your question
Is it possible to backup EFS without root. I am going to root my phone but first I want to backup my EFS folder just in case of any problems.
Glebun's reply
yes, you can flash a recovery and back it up using that.
recovery does not affect root. I recommend using TWRP or Philz as they have built-in EFS backup capabilities
mohaziz said:
Is it possible to backup EFS without root. I am going to root my phone but first I want to backup my EFS folder just in case of any problems.
thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would suggest you that first root ur phone wit the samsung galaxy s3 toolkit.
This toolkit alsoo has a option to backup the efs folder at the same time.. .
Or otherwise root and download hellcats efs backup app from play store and then u have a efs back up in seconds..
Cheers...
Click THANKS if my reply was Helpful..
mohaziz said:
Is it possible to backup EFS without root. I am going to root my phone but first I want to backup my EFS folder just in case of any problems.
thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's possible to back it up, but you can't restore it - So there's no point. And why don't you want to root your phone?
Download ADB and open CMD type the following into the command window
Code:
cd <Path-to-ADB>
adb start-server
adb devices # To make sure the ADB can "see" your device
adb pull /efs %UserProfile%\.Android\Efs_Backup\Efs<Type a number or something>
# Backup is complete - You could zip the folder up or something...
adb kill-server
Hope I could help!
mohaziz said:
Is it possible to backup EFS without root. I am going to root my phone but first I want to backup my EFS folder just in case of any problems.
thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think it is possible. Haven't tried it before and my phone is already rooted. Try and let us know if it is possible.
Install ES File Explorer and enable 'Up to Root' under Preferences. Now you should be able to navigate till the Root folders. Copy the EFS folder to the External SD card.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app
mohaziz said:
Is it possible to backup EFS without root. I am going to root my phone but first I want to backup my EFS folder just in case of any problems.
thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can't have that sort of problem with rooting. Rooting is just pushing an apk and a binary in /system partition. And efs is located on a different partition...
Use the toolkit mentioned above very convenient and you can backup it on your computer.
does efs change everytime we install a rom or changing a firmware versions?i have a lot of copies of my EFS file because i always back it up before ill try a new firmware or custom roms im just confused if its ok to delete the old EFS file that i saved.
heyjhay said:
does efs change everytime we install a rom or changing a firmware versions?i have a lot of copies of my EFS file because i always back it up before ill try a new firmware or custom roms im just confused if its ok to delete the old EFS file that i saved.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
AFAIK every rom has to avoid EFS and not mess with it, since its crucial for your phone. Backing it up is a wise thing to do, and if you do each installation as instructed, you should have no worries. But do a backup of those EFS files on your PC if you intend to delete them from your phone, just in case.