Hey guys,
yesterday i flashed a new rom. everything worked as usual and i started installing my backups etc.
after a while i noticed that i didnt have any signal apart from my wifi. after some investigation i saw that my IMEI was gone.
I had heard of this before so i went to a journey to google to try and solve my problem.
The thing is i didnt perform a backup of my efs folder manually or using tools like HC-ktool.
BUT on my external sdcard are files called
efsdev-mmcblk0p1,img
efs_03Mar2013-2255.tar.gz
which i assume are backups which where made by custom kernels.
Now my problem is that i dont know how to restore these backups, as every tool i tried didnt identify the files mentioned above.
How can i restore those files manually? Or which tool do i need to use?
If all that doesnt work, is my phone bricked now or is there any other option?
Thanks in advance
Jens
Maybe the recovery that came with the kernel has an option to restore efs partition.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium
Yep. Probably Siyah/similar doing an auto backup. Lucky for you; hopefully this is a lesson learned - backup your EFS immediately after rooting/flashing a custom rom & keep a copy somewhere safe away from the phone as well . Try restoring with kTool (I prefer over EFS Pro for its simplicity) from Google Play; there's a thread devoted to it on here that's a great resource if you have problems (search).
Edit - kTool should be able to restore from either the img or the tar.gz, might want to read the kTool thread to workout what caused the restore not to work if you did try to restore with it/it didn't work (you were a bit vague about what you did/didn't do & the actual problems you had with the restore).
Extra edit - Also, the IMEI disappearing can be a temporary thing; some people have got it back simply by going back to stock.
So there's a couple of things to keep you busy for a while.
Restoring the backup via ktools for example didnt work for some reason i dont understand.
I tried flashing a stock rom though and suddenly the IMEI was back.
I dont understand it, but the thing is it works not =)
Thanks for your help.
First thing i am doing now is creating efs backups and save them _everywhere_
Really happy that i dodged that bullet.
Thank you thank you thank you =))
Yeah that's weird you couldn't restore with kTool. Oh well, the important thing is going back to stock worked & you have your IMEI back. I'd also love to know exactly what causes IMEI's to sometimes go away seemingly randomly like that when people flash custom roms. I guess we'll never know.
You're welcome
Related
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.
Alright, first of all, yes, I'm a noob here, however I am not a noob to forums. I did search for similar problems but to no avail. Moving on..
I just recently put CM 7.2 on my dad's Droid X2, I had it working flawlessly and everything was fine. Created a nandroid backup and all was good.
Today he wanted to restore his phone back to that original nandroid in order to get his recipes and notes from some app that didn't transfer over (I was unaware, or i would have saved them) when he did so he restored it and everything was going fine until the phone locked up with "dynamic config335.data" on his screen. Apparently, it locks at this and needs a battery pull to fix, and the restore never occurred.
We ended up doing this a second time and the same process occurred again. As I never had to deal with this with my DX2, i'm not quite sure what to do.
Any help would be great!
Thanks
You could try to sbf and then restore the nandroid.
DD you do not ID the restoration agent is it TB? Or what?
Ok so the error occurred after the suspected nandroid?
Here is where I get confused
"(I was unaware, or i would have saved them) when he did so he restored it and everything was going fine until the phone locked up with "
Restored it w/ cwr?
DD you do not ID the restoration agent is it TB? Or what?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
'
You'll have to slow it down with the acronyms until I know them all haha
After I rooted his phone, and before I flashed CM7, I created a Nandroid. After he's been tinkering with it for the last few days he realized he wanted some files that did not get transferred over.
He decided to restore to that nandroid and while it was restoring it got stuck with that appearing on his screen. It never finished the restore.
Luckily I had him make another nandroid before messing with it so I was able to get CM7 back unharmed however he still wants these files...
Do you guys recognize this error? It just happens mid restore
Never seen the error. You could just have a random error. Maggard.
...may have the best advice.
If you have Titanium Backup you could try using it to restore just the data that he needs. TB has the ability to restore files and data from nandroids. You may have to have the paid version though, I'm don't remember for sure.
Alrighty, i'll try and mess with it. Thanks guys!
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
Click to expand...
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.
my phone crashed during a billiard game and now the screen shattered, it's fine cause i have warranty but i don't know if they'll change the screen or replace the phone so i need to know everything is backed up.
i have a backup with titanium, and cmw and i know they both save the backup in the sdcard but does they can restore the information to a new phone? i just need to put the sdcard in the new one and titanium will restore the information?
second question, i have a lot of reminders in the "notes" widget that i can not remember, can i run the phone in a virtual machine in the computer even just once to see what i wrote there? i really need those notes.
thank you very much, sorry on my English and all have a good day and a great weekend
Yes. You should be able to restore your CWM backup to your new phone. You won't need your Ti backup as the CWM backup is a 'snapshot' of your phone at the time you took the backup.
the thing is the CMW backup is a bit old, can i restore the TI in a new phone?
what about getting the notes back?(i need them before the phone will be fixed)
OK. Think about what a CWM backup is & what happens when you restore one.
When you restore a CWM backup your phone (all of it; app settings, etc) will be restored exactly as they were when you took the backup.
The Ti Backup might restore OK to a different phone, never heard of anyone on here trying it, so you're only going to find that out when you try it.
As long as the version of CWM you use to do the restore isn't too far away from the version you used to take the backup, it should restore OK. If it doesn't, you might have to flash a kernel with the same CWM version you used to make the backup (to make a certainty of the restore working).\\
You can use ADB to pull stuff off a phone with a broken screen. Lots of tutorials about same on here/elsewhere (search).
dvirginz said:
the thing is the CMW backup is a bit old, can i restore the TI in a new phone?
what about getting the notes back?(i need them before the phone will be fixed)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thank you very much, new question, can i somehow backup (a cmw backup) the phone without the screen?
do you know in which folder the notes widget and the info of what i wrote is in the sdcard?
i've opened the phone on the coputer, but no folder contains the info for the notes widget, where the phone contains it?
http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/7629/13531407120489.png
ty
edit:someone knows something like that to the S2? it will help me a lot with backing up and reading the notes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEeHaszOMi0
i managed to get the notes via kies but can't open them, someone know a way to open .smm files in the pc? can't find nothing on google
I've flashed roms and mods on my Sgs2 since I bought it 2 years ago. I've bricked it a few times and I always managed to fix it by myself, I only asked for help when my WiFi stopped working and I couldn't get signal at all only emergency calls (Never found fix for WiFi).
Anyway, I'm facing a similar problem now with my IMEI, I had this problem before and I learned how to fix it but now nothing works.
I've used EFS Pro, Restored a nandroid, flashed a stock samsung JB ROM (even though I don't think ROMs do anything to efs) I used kTool from Hellcat and the only way to make it work is doing my nandroid restore (CM9.. old nandroid backup) and copy pasting my efs folder I have backed up, however, If I copy paste the folder using another ROM (thats how I always fixed my corrupted imei) it doesn't work anymore, It only works once after restoring nandroid CM9, If i flash CM9 Odin it doesn't work, any ROM I install gives me corrupted imei. this problem started happening since I flashed stock JB ROM, I NEVER could use stock JB ROM without losing my IMEI, and I wasn't able to put it back by copy pasting efs folder (always used to work when i had this problem) another thing ~ I used NukeWipe Script ~ before moving to Android 4.2.2 now I only can use my phone with CM9 from my nandroid and fixing the imei there by copy pasting my backed up EFS. If I flash anything else my IMEI gets corrupted and I can't fix it with anything! hoping for some help, I would like to know how much will it cost me to fix this, take in mind that I'm from Mexico and USD is pretty expensive here
PS: I also tried the tutorial of Recover IMEI in 9 steps and it didn't work.
When I restore my nandroid I have a corrupted imei and no signal, my nandroid doesn't have a file explorer so I download one from market.. how do I download one from market if i have no signal at all and corrupted imei? I don't know ... I don't even have the 3G icon or any signal and it says no service but internet works fine.
PunkOz said:
I've flashed roms and mods on my Sgs2 since I bought it 2 years ago. I've bricked it a few times and I always managed to fix it by myself, I only asked for help when my WiFi stopped working and I couldn't get signal at all only emergency calls (Never found fix for WiFi).
Anyway, I'm facing a similar problem now with my IMEI, I had this problem before and I learned how to fix it but now nothing works.
I've used EFS Pro, Restored a nandroid, flashed a stock samsung JB ROM (even though I don't think ROMs do anything to efs) I used kTool from Hellcat and the only way to make it work is doing my nandroid restore (CM9.. old nandroid backup) and copy pasting my efs folder I have backed up, however, If I copy paste the folder using another ROM (thats how I always fixed my corrupted imei) it doesn't work anymore, It only works once after restoring nandroid CM9, If i flash CM9 Odin it doesn't work, any ROM I install gives me corrupted imei. this problem started happening since I flashed stock JB ROM, I NEVER could use stock JB ROM without losing my IMEI, and I wasn't able to put it back by copy pasting efs folder (always used to work when i had this problem) another thing ~ I used NukeWipe Script ~ before moving to Android 4.2.2 now I only can use my phone with CM9 from my nandroid and fixing the imei there by copy pasting my backed up EFS. If I flash anything else my IMEI gets corrupted and I can't fix it with anything! hoping for some help, I would like to know how much will it cost me to fix this, take in mind that I'm from Mexico and USD is pretty expensive here
PS: I also tried the tutorial of Recover IMEI in 9 steps and it didn't work.
When I restore my nandroid I have a corrupted imei and no signal, my nandroid doesn't have a file explorer so I download one from market.. how do I download one from market if i have no signal at all and corrupted imei? I don't know ... I don't even have the 3G icon or any signal and it says no service but internet works fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Back up your efs folder with another app like galaxy s unlock or something (some apps make a copy of the EFS folder while other apps make an image of it), copy them to your PC then flash stock with mobile odin and see what happens.
gastonw said:
Back up your efs folder with another app like galaxy s unlock or something (some apps make a copy of the EFS folder while other apps make an image of it), copy them to your PC then flash stock with mobile odin and see what happens.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I managed to get my imei back, codeworkx helped me, all i had to do was restore efs and then flash stock GB check if i still have my imei then flash ics then check if i had my imei then flash the old rom i had (mcm 4.2.1) and i had my imei but ... i tried to update to 4.2.2 nightly and my imei got corrupted, can't restore it while using 4.2.2, I couldn't use stock JB because of this, im guessing this is happening in 4.2.2 because they're using new stuff from stock JB.
Any ideas?
Could be, tattoo EFS on your arm just in case.
Sent from the little guy