For some reason I lost my imei on one of the recent flashes and I've tried to restore it, but something is still wrong. When I boot my phone and go straight into settings I get "unknown" both for baseband and imei, it does happen though, that both of them pop up a few minutes later for no obvious reason.
How do I fix this? How do I stabilize them again?
Corndude said:
For some reason I lost my imei on one of the recent flashes and I've tried to restore it, but something is still wrong. When I boot my phone and go straight into settings I get "unknown" both for baseband and imei, it does happen though, that both of them pop up a few minutes later for no obvious reason.
How do I fix this? How do I stabilize them again?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It must be that the efs folder being improperly read or slightly corrupted it contains information regarding your IMEI number and several other important information like wifi mac address, you must backup that particular folder using the latest cwm or other software before you perform any flashes perform a backup by an application like efs products, there are some application which can repair it too, search and find... It is one of the basic things you must do before flashing anything because efs folder can easily get corrupted and if you lose it your device will be just a expensive multimedia device with no phone or wifi capabilities.
Using GT - I9100
Just hit the damn help button if I helped you.
maybe check this?
forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1264021
Related
Hi everyone,
So, I'm way out of my depth here and I've searched high and low for a similar situation to mine to no avail.
I'm fairly sure I have EFS issues. I flashed CM9 onto my S2 and had the RIL issue which caused me to have no reception. After trying about five different modems I gave up and went back to stock.
Unfortunately, I still have network issues. I realised after some mucking around that intermittently I my phone would recognise my baseband and IMEI and then it wouldn't, it would switch on restart. This sent me down the EFS issue, and now I'm freaking out.
I screwed around with my EFS and I don't seem to have done any permanent damage. My phone still recognises my baseband and IMEI, and it can still get a signal. Now I'm getting "Enter Network Lock Control Key" when I boot up though, and can only make emergency calls. The phone came unlocked, it was bought outright, and I have run CF-Root's unlock key finder to no avail.
Any suggestions?
Cheers
BobSwinkle said:
Hi everyone,
So, I'm way out of my depth here and I've searched high and low for a similar situation to mine to no avail.
I'm fairly sure I have EFS issues. I flashed CM9 onto my S2 and had the RIL issue which caused me to have no reception. After trying about five different modems I gave up and went back to stock.
Unfortunately, I still have network issues. I realised after some mucking around that intermittently I my phone would recognise my baseband and IMEI and then it wouldn't, it would switch on restart. This sent me down the EFS issue, and now I'm freaking out.
I screwed around with my EFS and I don't seem to have done any permanent damage. My phone still recognises my baseband and IMEI, and it can still get a signal. Now I'm getting "Enter Network Lock Control Key" when I boot up though, and can only make emergency calls. The phone came unlocked, it was bought outright, and I have run CF-Root's unlock key finder to no avail.
Any suggestions?
Cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try these apps.
1. (Try this one first, if it doesn't work, then try the second app).
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.helroz.galaxysunlock&hl=en
2.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.helroz.GSII_Repair&feature=more_from_developer
Good luck
Swyped from my Samsung Galaxy SII
Jokesy said:
Try these apps.
Good luck
Swyped from my Samsung Galaxy SII
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, thanks for the reply. I've tried both those tools to no avail. The problem has regressed to the original problem now. Do you, or anyone else, know the trick to restoring an EFS folder that isn't hasn't been turned into a tar folder? I backed up before doing any of this, but the backup doesn't seem fully functional when I restore it.
BobSwinkle said:
Hi, thanks for the reply. I've tried both those tools to no avail. The problem has regressed to the original problem now. Do you, or anyone else, know the trick to restoring an EFS folder that isn't hasn't been turned into a tar folder? I backed up before doing any of this, but the backup doesn't seem fully functional when I restore it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry about that:
1. Have you ever flashed Siyah kernel before, when your phone was still working perfectly?
2. This should help you manually repair your efs folder : forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1264021
Ps: if you have flashed Siyah kernel before, it always backup your efs partition in .tar to external SD /EFS_BACKUP, with time stamp on each backup, each time you flash it.
Swyped from my Samsung Galaxy SII
Ok, first of all, I take full responsibility and made some really stupid mistakes. I consider myself an experienced Android user and have been flashing ROMs and radios since the OG Droid.
I am, however, new to Samsung/Touchwiz, and made an error I'm trying to determine if I can repair.
I have not flashed any custom ROMs on the Note 2, but I was unlocked/rooted with CASUAL. I was having some issues with my proximity sensor and my capacitive button lights, and decided to ODIN back to stock. Here is where I screwed up, I think. Instead of flashing like normal, I think I want a completely clean slate, and I checked Nand Erase. I know, please don't bash me, the brick sitting on the table is punishment enough. I was thinking of erasing backups, as in Nandroid (Nand) backups.
Well, everything flashed as normal and the phone bootlooped. No biggie, booted into Recovery, and it gave the warning it couldn't mount the /data partition. I did a factory reset from stock recovery, and everything seemed fine. The phone booted correctly, but it wouldn't activate on Verizon. It finally allowed me to skip set up, and I found the dreaded "Unknown" IMEI.
No, I didn't have a back up of the IMEI. I began reading and studying on ways to fix this, and it seemed simple enough, but I couldn't get QPST to recognize my phone so I could repair the IMEI. The computer could see it on COM5, but QPST kept saying No Phone.
I tried a few other methods, including EFS Professional and NV Item Reader/Writer. But everything said it couldn't communicate with the phone. I made sure I had it in the correct mode in the Phone Util hidden menu, checked USB cables, ports, and drivers a hundred times, with no joy.
Then on a whim, I checked my /efs folder with ES File Explorer, and the contents are empty. Not sure how I erased all the contents, but now I'm pretty sure I'm screwed.
I wanted you to know my steps, before I started asking questions.
1. If I can get another working Note 2, is it possible to use a copy of that phone's /efs folder on mine? If I can get QPST to work, I could then use it to inject the correct IMEI back into the folder.
2. Is there anyway anyone here could upload their /efs folder so I can try it?
3. Any suggestions on QPST and getting it to recognize my phone?
4. Am I just completely hardbricked and out of luck?
Thank you.
I know there are other similar threads, and I have searched...a lot. I'm just trying to figure out if I'm missing anything.
Also, I've found some IMEI repair services online that will fix a missing or corrupt IMEI for about $25 plus shipping. Does anyone know of a reputable repair service for this issue? I'm getting somewhat desperate to get this fixed. I'd be willing to pay someone here to fix it as well if you have the know-how and equipment.
Thank you.
Hi,
There are success stories on this issue in xda...would suggest you to read xda articles on this issue.
Thanks,
Nikhil Dhand
[email protected]
Hope your problem is solved
Thanks,
Nikhil Dhand
Email/chat: [email protected]
Right I'm really sorry to have to burden all you lovely helpful people with this, as I know there's dozens of threads, of which I have sifted and sifted through for the past 2 days. Most of them have been helpful and I am now 95% fixed, but here is the down low:
Mid-last week, I finally decided to stick a custom rom on my old, laggy Galaxy S3. Up until this point I had been running on stock 4.1.2 Firmware, rooted, with things like Bloatfree cleaning the device up a bit.
I did some research and landed on the latest Paranoid Android build, based on 4.4.4. All was rosey for a little under a week with no problems whatsoever until this Monday afternoon. I was doing nothing other than opening Snapchat when my S3 turned itself off, only to get stuck on the bootscreen.
It took me all day yesterday just to get the thing to boot again, I must of tried 4 different stock roms, searching for ages to find CWM that would flash via Odin and any fix just to get it past boot. After finally getting it into Recovery it kindly let me know that "E:Failed to Mount /EFS".
Since that happened I have managed to get the phone booted up into a stock 4.3 rom, exited factory mode and got it rooted with busy box and terminal. It has become a WiFi-only Tablet, essentially.
I am at the last hurdle, where I have no network connectivity and my IMEI is wrong. I of course have my correct IMEI on the back of the phone which I wish to reintroduce to the phone. I do not have an EFS backup.
TL;DR
Phone on Stock 4.3 ROM SGS3INT-XXUGMK6-BTU-20131216, rooted with busy box, root explorer and terminal. Always had stock kernel.
IMEI incorrect, with no backup of EFS.
I have tried:
EFS Professional - EFS Format errors on mount read/write
NVitems_reader_writer, though I can not get my device to stay in RMNET + DM + MODEM mode to be able to connect via COM port as a serial device.
A few of the other simpler methods from the forums
Any help is much appreciated, and while I have read that modifying the IMEI number is frowned upon and illegal practice, I am simply trying to restore it to it's original state, no tom foolery here.
Regards
Dan
Take it to a repair centre, they can recode it for a small charge. Make sure it works on 4.3 before you pay them.
boomboomer said:
Take it to a repair centre, they can recode it for a small charge. Make sure it works on 4.3 before you pay them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately I have tried that with every local shop, and they don't seem to think they can do anything about it, and there is no other official Samsung repair centres nearby! Seems like a problem that independents don't come across too often.
On the methods you've tried you've stated this "A few of the other simpler methods from the forums",
Does this mean you tried flashing the latest modem.bin for your device through Odin or through the recovery?
Saad_ said:
On the methods you've tried you've stated this "A few of the other simpler methods from the forums",
Does this mean you tried flashing the latest modem.bin for your device through Odin or through the recovery?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have tried flashing an XXEMG4 modem onto it and unfortunately hasn't made any difference. My IMEI is currently posted as one of the generic 0049 numbers when *#06# is dialed.
As far as I can tell, my best bet would be finding a way to get the serial port working through NVitem_reader_writer, as I have generated my correct IMEI file to add to the phone, but it won't successfully switch to RMNET + DM + MODEM to be able to connect to my computer in that way!
Dan
D4 BCK said:
I have tried flashing an XXEMG4 modem onto it and unfortunately hasn't made any difference. My IMEI is currently posted as one of the generic 0049 numbers when *#06# is dialed.
As far as I can tell, my best bet would be finding a way to get the serial port working through NVitem_reader_writer, as I have generated my correct IMEI file to add to the phone, but it won't successfully switch to RMNET + DM + MODEM to be able to connect to my computer in that way!
Dan
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is there a driver I could be missing for it to connect as a USB modem instead of a serial port when trying this?
Dan
I have a similar problem, efs restored, imei is showing right but cant get any signal, saying emergency calls only. After flashing stock.
Well, after 3 different phone shops and 2 gruelling weeks, the phone is back in action.
I gave very detailed notes on everything I did to the 3rd guy and he eventually managed to get it working again for a nice £15.
I'm unsure if he did anything else, but for anyone who ends up with this problem in the future, rolling the latest stock ROM will not always work. My phone was successfully recovered by rolling back all the way to 4.0.4. I'm sorry I can't give more information as I've already rooted and stuck SlimROM on it to get it back to how I like it, though this time I have been clever enough to actually create a proper full nandroid backup. I had done a backup before, but in my relative noobness years ago it was not a full backup.
D4 BCK said:
Well, after 3 different phone shops and 2 gruelling weeks, the phone is back in action.
I gave very detailed notes on everything I did to the 3rd guy and he eventually managed to get it working again for a nice £15.
I'm unsure if he did anything else, but for anyone who ends up with this problem in the future, rolling the latest stock ROM will not always work. My phone was successfully recovered by rolling back all the way to 4.0.4. I'm sorry I can't give more information as I've already rooted and stuck SlimROM on it to get it back to how I like it, though this time I have been clever enough to actually create a proper full nandroid backup. I had done a backup before, but in my relative noobness years ago it was not a full backup.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A nandroid does not back up the efs unless you are using philz or twrp and you specifically tell it to. There is no way in CWM.
Not sure if you new that or not since you said a full backup but just thought I would pipe in just incase so you don't have troubles next time.
D4 BCK said:
Well, after 3 different phone shops and 2 gruelling weeks, the phone is back in action.
I gave very detailed notes on everything I did to the 3rd guy and he eventually managed to get it working again for a nice £15.
I'm unsure if he did anything else, but for anyone who ends up with this problem in the future, rolling the latest stock ROM will not always work. My phone was successfully recovered by rolling back all the way to 4.0.4. I'm sorry I can't give more information as I've already rooted and stuck SlimROM on it to get it back to how I like it, though this time I have been clever enough to actually create a proper full nandroid backup. I had done a backup before, but in my relative noobness years ago it was not a full backup.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hey, i have this similar problem right now. So, what i have to do is rolling back all the way to 4.0.4? will it work? but i haven't coded the right IMEI.. do i have to? btw when you have that failed to mount efs, did you use the tutorial that uses adb shell and mke2fs?
D4 BCK said:
I have tried flashing an XXEMG4 modem onto it and unfortunately hasn't made any difference. My IMEI is currently posted as one of the generic 0049 numbers when *#06# is dialed.
As far as I can tell, my best bet would be finding a way to get the serial port working through NVitem_reader_writer, as I have generated my correct IMEI file to add to the phone, but it won't successfully switch to RMNET + DM + MODEM to be able to connect to my computer in that way!
Dan
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi everybody,
I am trying the same, changing imei by using nv items reader. I have the problem that i got a phone from a friend that has a 0049 IMEI, I dont know what he or someone else did to that phone to kill the imei.
The phone: Galaxy S3 I9300
Buildnumber: JSS15J.I9300XXUGNG3 (Android 4.3)
Baseband: I9300XXUGNA8
Rooted with Odin using CF-Auto-Root-m0-m0xx-gti9300
I am stuck at the same part, i cant get the phone in rmnet + dm + modem mode. what I did is: *#0808# - tip "RMNET + DM + MODEM" - tip "OK" - it says "8 saved!" (but it is not saved, when i go into the *#0808# it switched back to MTP)
When i do this when the phone is connected to my computer there is an unplug sound and a plug sound. So I think the phone tries to get in RMNET + DM + MODEM mode but it does not get it. I can activate all other Modes shown in this menu, only the one i need does not get activated.
What can I do to access this mode?
Thanks for your help in advance.
vuli111 said:
Hi everybody,
I am trying the same, changing imei by using nv items reader. I have the problem that i got a phone from a friend that has a 0049 IMEI, I dont know what he or someone else did to that phone to kill the imei.
The phone: Galaxy S3 I9300
Buildnumber: JSS15J.I9300XXUGNG3 (Android 4.3)
Baseband: I9300XXUGNA8
Rooted with Odin using CF-Auto-Root-m0-m0xx-gti9300
I am stuck at the same part, i cant get the phone in rmnet + dm + modem mode. what I did is: *#0808# - tip "RMNET + DM + MODEM" - tip "OK" - it says "8 saved!" (but it is not saved, when i go into the *#0808# it switched back to MTP)
When i do this when the phone is connected to my computer there is an unplug sound and a plug sound. So I think the phone tries to get in RMNET + DM + MODEM mode but it does not get it. I can activate all other Modes shown in this menu, only the one i need does not get activated.
What can I do to access this mode?
Thanks for your help in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Discussion is against the rules, and also illegal.
Changing to rmnet + dm + modem Mode is illegal?
Changing imei, which what your post stated, is illegal -don't ask for help here.
Take it to a repair centre and pay them to restore your efs folder.
I did not ask for help to change the imei.
I asked for help to get in the rmnet mode. Is this illegal too??
Hello, guys!
I'm facing a real hard issue with a brazilian Galaxy SIII GT-I9300. (international model)
Last night I did the CWM tutorial, and then I installed a custom ROM based on 4.4.4 KitKat.
Everything works great, but I lost the IMEI in this process.
I lost the entire night reading about ways to get my original IMEI restored, and I tried to use some tools from the XDA fórums.
Anyway, I had a serious problem with USB debugging function, and after a few tries, I got the phone being connected with Windows again.
Now, every time I try to use NV-items reader_writer, I can get the phone connected but it still can't read the phone.
the message "Failed....Phone does not Answer" shows up when I click the Read button.
I used the *#0808# in the dial app to get USB settings but when I choose the "RMNET + DM +MODEM" option, Windows says that could not install drivers for my "Unknown Device", and the RV-items reader_writer could not access the phone.
Please, I beg you help me!
I lost an entire night trying to solve this, but I can't get over this point.
I got Null IMEI values right now!
EDIT: If I force the DM mode via USB settings, Windows says that can't install drivers for the device. NV item reader_writer still saying that the Phone isn't responding for the Restoring Process
P.S: I already did the 226.txt with the phone original IMEI for use with NV item reader_writer
EDIT2: I just found is a Factory Mode in the last reboot!!! What it means?
Not even Kies can help me...
Even with Kies, I'm facing problems!
There's nothing in the world that makes my recent installed Kies connect to the Galaxy S3.
I was trying to make a restore with Kies!
But even this is not working...
What should I do? Please, help me guys!
Take it to a service center for repair. Nothing here can fix a corrupted efs.
I had a similar problem last week, and if you don't have a backup there is nothing you can do but take it to the repair service. However, you can try in some phone stores. Some of them has a device called box with which they can restore your IMEI and it's way cheaper than Samsung's service. It worked for me.
Good luck dude.
PD: I've heard that when you flash CM roms it backs up you efs automatically to your internal memory, but I've never found it, give it a try if you want.
vitiin92 said:
PD: I've heard that when you flash CM roms it backs up you efs automatically to your internal memory, but I've never found it, give it a try if you want.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No this is not true. CM does not touch the efs or modem so it has no need to.
To backuo efs you need to manually do it from recovery or with apps.
Been using the soldier andriod 9 rom for a while now. was using my phone yesterday when it went off suddenly. turned it back on and got greeted with the black screen of death ((BSoD). I tried every trick available to try and get the screen to turn back on but nothing worked. I was hesitant to reset my phone because i had a lot of important accounts i got my phone logged into that are gonna be a pain in the ass to recover access to should i wipe the phone clean. Eventually i got tired of waiting and instead of just resetting my phone i got the dumb idea to try and recover a full working twrp backup i had made a month ago. After recovering the backup my screen turned back on. I was proud of myself till i realized i had lost my network signal. upon going into my about page in settings i discovered my baseband and imei values were null/empty. I started to panic since i knew what loosing your imei and baseband permanently meant. But i also quickly remembered that the twrp backup i made was a full backup including my efs and baseband folders. so thought maybe trying to recover those partitions alone would solve it. i have tried severally but my network still isnt working and my baseband and imei values are still null. i dont want to panic because i have my baseband and nfs backups. i read online that twrp sometimes can **** up when installing the recoveries and that some simple line codes in the twrp terminal can help correct the error. but unfortunately the code lines they gave in the tutorial i found doesnt seem to work for the s9. Can someone help me out here? at this moment i am out of options. i was thinking of flashing a stock firmware with odin to see if that helps but i dont want to go further without advice from a third arty. been going forward alone for a while now. i dont know if what i keep doing are actually helpping or worsening my case.
drickles said:
Been using the soldier andriod 9 rom for a while now. was using my phone yesterday when it went off suddenly. turned it back on and got greeted with the black screen of death ((BSoD). I tried every trick available to try and get the screen to turn back on but nothing worked. I was hesitant to reset my phone because i had a lot of important accounts i got my phone logged into that are gonna be a pain in the ass to recover access to should i wipe the phone clean. Eventually i got tired of waiting and instead of just resetting my phone i got the dumb idea to try and recover a full working twrp backup i had made a month ago. After recovering the backup my screen turned back on. I was proud of myself till i realized i had lost my network signal. upon going into my about page in settings i discovered my baseband and imei values were null/empty. I started to panic since i knew what loosing your imei and baseband permanently meant. But i also quickly remembered that the twrp backup i made was a full backup including my efs and baseband folders. so thought maybe trying to recover those partitions alone would solve it. i have tried severally but my network still isnt working and my baseband and imei values are still null. i dont want to panic because i have my baseband and nfs backups. i read online that twrp sometimes can **** up when installing the recoveries and that some simple line codes in the twrp terminal can help correct the error. but unfortunately the code lines they gave in the tutorial i found doesnt seem to work for the s9. Can someone help me out here? at this moment i am out of options. i was thinking of flashing a stock firmware with odin to see if that helps but i dont want to go further without advice from a third arty. been going forward alone for a while now. i dont know if what i keep doing are actually helpping or worsening my case.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have same issue after upgrading to UAEGT3 and now signals are gone. Following this thread for resolution.