Please, I need help, my motherboard burned and bought a new one with no IMEI, after the technician installed the motherboard, it got generic IMEI "0049 ..." Before the burn motherboard, I had made a backup of the ROM "4.0.4" using CWM, and made a copy of the folder EFS "efs.img/efs.tar.gz" using KTOOL, not sure about KTOOL because was this in 2012^^, but I've tried everything I know, I have tried to restore using the KTOOL, already restored the backup using CWM, already flash ROM "4.1.2/4.3" via ODIN, I have done several reported here in some posts related about IMEI but it still fails, hope some enlightened can help me :/ sorry for my bad english
Model: GT-I9300
Actual ROM: 4.0.4
isisnx said:
Please, I need help, my motherboard burned and bought a new one with no IMEI, after the technician installed the motherboard, it got generic IMEI "0049 ..." Before the burn motherboard, I had made a backup of the ROM "4.0.4" using CWM, and made a copy of the folder EFS "efs.img/efs.tar.gz" using KTOOL, not sure about KTOOL because was this in 2012^^, but I've tried everything I know, I have tried to restore using the KTOOL, already restored the backup using CWM, already flash ROM "4.1.2/4.3" via ODIN, I have done several reported here in some posts related about IMEI but it still fails, hope some enlightened can help me :/ sorry for my bad english
Model: GT-I9300
Actual ROM: 4.0.4
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error of the technician, the imei is stored in the nand chip(comes with the mobo)and he should had flashed correctly it for you
now since you made a ktool backup(dont know what it is, but looks like a imei backup) and if this ktool is designed for the s3(so it backups all efs partitions, if i remember there are 3, can be wrong tho) you*should* could restore.
but there is a problem,if ktool is correct but its from 2012 that means it did a backup of the old style efs partiton (efsv1) witch dosent work anymore since Samsung upgraded it to efsv2 and downgrading will not help
what you should do is get a s3 with 4.1.2 or earlier and restore your efs to that, upgrade it to 4.3, and get a new efs backup
i could be wrong tho
Edit: i remember a thread about a guy fixing the imei issue without a backup, and i remember Reading a part where he formats the efs partition, so that should help, see if you can find it(i can´t look now). it was in the s3 forums
You cannot restore an efs backup to another handset or motherboard, it's also illegal to change the imei and discussion of this is banned on xda.
Your new motherboard is faulty, return it to the technician.
boomboomer said:
You cannot restore an efs backup to another handset or motherboard, it's also illegal to change the imei and discussion of this is banned on xda.
Your new motherboard is faulty, return it to the technician.
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really? excuse me is that I see many people talking about it here and have never seen any warning from the moderators, I thought it was legal because everyone says that the IMEI does not change, even changing the motherboard. And I have the invoice from the phone, just did not want to take the support of samsung because they charge too much.
Backing up and restoring efs to same motherboard/handset is legal, trying to move the imei from your old motherboard to new is illegal for you to do.
Related
Dear All,
My Galaxy S3 cannot connect to network after rom update. I have searched a lot but i could not figure out the problem since i have no problem with my imei. I can see correct imei, but no serial number no hardware revision and no signal when sim is inserted. without sim it can detect signals.
To figure out problem i need EFS.tar of some working I9300. If some one can provide me his efs backup in tar, i will be a big help for me.
ha ha ha ha ha! You really think someone is going to give you their efs?!
©®™ slappy
slaphead20 said:
ha ha ha ha ha! You really think someone is going to give you their efs?!
©®™ slappy
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Click to collapse
+1
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app
muhammad.ali123 said:
Dear All,
My Galaxy S3 cannot connect to network after rom update. I have searched a lot but i could not figure out the problem since i have no problem with my imei. I can see correct imei, but no serial number no hardware revision and no signal when sim is inserted. without sim it can detect signals.
To figure out problem i need EFS.tar of some working I9300. If some one can provide me his efs backup in tar, i will be a big help for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry to be the one to tell you this, but without a proper backup, you almost certainly won't be able to recover the efs folder. That's why backing up the efs folder is so critical before you begin any flashing procedure. It contains information unique to your device, without which, you have basically a very expensive media player.
donalgodon said:
Sorry to be the one to tell you this, but without a proper backup, you almost certainly won't be able to recover the efs folder. That's why backing up the efs folder is so critical before you begin any flashing procedure. It contains information unique to your device, without which, you have basically a very expensive media player.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does this means that even if have another efs folder it will be no use to me?
I have my EFS folder intact and it has all files in it. but there is some problem with any file, that does not allow to register to network.
That's quite unfortunate, backing up my EFS folder was the 1st thing I did after getting my phone to avoid this kind of issues (prior rooting, of course).
By the way, was it an official OTA update or was it manually injected?
Any piece of information you can bring about the issue may help people here to figure out a way to help you.
How sure are you it is the EFS that's the problem? If you can see the folder and it has files in it, why are you looking at EFS being the problem? I'd have thought with a corrupted EFS you wouldn't have a file structure to be looking at, but I may be confused as to what an EFS is/does)
Have you tried using CWM to Factory Reset, wipe data and Dalvik and then run your Rom again?
Have you tried downloading and flashing a stock ROM for your phone?
VulguM said:
That's quite unfortunate, backing up my EFS folder was the 1st thing I did after getting my phone to avoid this kind of issues (prior rooting, of course).
By the way, was it an official OTA update or was it manually injected?
Any piece of information you can bring about the issue may help people here to figure out a way to help you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Infact there was an OTA update but it failed to install from stock recovery mode. After reboot there was a message to use kies or contact service.
So i used. But kies showed that it cannot updte this phone ( because CSC was XXX ) so i used firmware inatialization method to download firmware by entering model and serial number in kies.
After update i was stuck in this situation,
Have you flashed a stock Rom with Odin to try and rectify?
Journyman16 said:
How sure are you it is the EFS that's the problem? If you can see the folder and it has files in it, why are you looking at EFS being the problem? I'd have thought with a corrupted EFS you wouldn't have a file structure to be looking at, but I may be confused as to what an EFS is/does)
Have you tried using CWM to Factory Reset, wipe data and Dalvik and then run your Rom again?
Have you tried downloading and flashing a stock ROM for your phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes i am also confused about this.
Befor touching EFS folder i did factory reset, wiped data, delvik , re installed different official and custom roms. But it did not solve my issue.
I focused my attention to efs because all my symptoms are similar to people who have lost their imei. But my imei is O.K
You have any other suggestions.
slaphead20 said:
Have you flashed a stock Rom with Odin to try and rectify?
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Click to collapse
I flashed LE8 and LH1 via odin , but it did not help
If your IMEI is intact its not generally an EFS issue.
Asking for someones EFS backup is generally a no no, and it wouldn't work anyway.
My understanding, from reading what Odia posted (who is generally considered the expert on this sort of thing) is that the EFS is in part encrypted with the devices ID, so if you use someone else's EFS on your device, it will fall back to the generic IMEI which would be worse.
Try flashing a full odin firmware and go from there.
veyka said:
If your IMEI is intact its not generally an EFS issue.
Asking for someones EFS backup is generally a no no, and it wouldn't work anyway.
My understanding, from reading what Odia posted (who is generally considered the expert on this sort of thing) is that the EFS is in part encrypted with the devices ID, so if you use someone else's EFS on your device, it will fall back to the generic IMEI which would be worse.
Try flashing a full odin firmware and go from there.
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Click to collapse
I have tried using LE8 and LH1 from samfirmware.
Is there any other full odin firmware?
I'm a little confused here. If I am reading this correctly, the phone works OK except it will not connect to a network and so doesn't work as a phone any more. Is that correct?
If so, maybe you're flashing the wrong thing - you might need to flash Modem firmware not ROM. Now I might be even more confused than I think I am, but it seems to me all the Comms stuff will require the modem side of things to be correct. It's possible I think) to have flashed a ROM that could be incompatible or which corrupted your modem side of things.
Keep in mind I am still learning this stuff, but recently I thought I'd get ready to flash a JB ROM by flashing a kernel that was supposed to be for JB - there were others there with a warning NOT to use with JB so I figured I should get one suitable for JB - long story short I had a non-starting phone and had to work from scratch with PC Odin to get everything working again.
So, I am guessing that the ROM you are flashing also needs a kernel and Modem flash. I'm also hoping if I am wrong someone more experienced will tell me why
My guess is also you'd need to flash kernel, then ROM, then Modem, and make sure they are all to whatever version o Android you are wanting to have.
Am I making sense or am I talking through my proverbial?
have you try to use another micro Sim, it can be micro Sim reader o your Sim.
I got my phone repaired from a third party repair centre,
They used SPT box to repair the efs folder. Now i have signals and it can connect normally.
It cost my $60 for repair.
Thanks to every one for helping me out in the repair.
hello i have an issue with my IMEI on the samsung galaxy s3 i9300, i restored a rom from another phone with TWRP recovery and the EFS was ticked. and that's when the problem started and after that i flashed 4.3 rom on it but nothing happed, I also tried installing different modems, go back to stock firmware, but when i tried to use QPST or NV reader/writer i was not able to connect the phone in serial mode, only modem would show up. also if i try to put *#7284# i do not get the qualcomm USB settings so i tried doing it with the quickshortcut but when ever i click on the RMNET+ DM + MODEM it automatically goes on MTP. I went trhough older threads. they did not work at all :crying::crying:
Restoring an efs from another phone is illegal as you are attempting to alter the imei, Samsung have obviously prevented this.
If you have the phone's original efs backup, from before you restored the twrp backup, then I'd suggest you use it.
This thread will probably be locked by a moderator.
boomboomer said:
Restoring an efs from another phone is illegal as you are attempting to alter the imei, Samsung have obviously prevented this.
If you have the phone's original efs backup, from before you restored the twrp backup, then I'd suggest you use it.
This thread will probably be locked by a moderator.
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is there anyway to fix it? i restored it by accident, i backed up the phone with kies, would that help ? i only wanted to restore the data
Pretty sure kies won't backup the efs, but worth a try -there is no other way to fix efs than a service centre.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk
hi
A general question:
If I flashed a new rom and my IMEI got 0000000 or some other corrupted EFS issue, and I didnt backed up the EFS - is it fixable?
(Lets say that flashing stock roms did not fix the issue).
I want to unsderstand if EFS backup is that important?
tnx!
shakta said:
hi
A general question:
If I flashed a new rom and my IMEI got 0000000 or some other corrupted EFS issue, and I didnt backed up the EFS - is it fixable?
(Lets say that flashing stock roms did not fix the issue).
I want to unsderstand if EFS backup is that important?
tnx!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hope these are hypothetical questions and that it hasn't happened to you already
EFS backup is the most important thing you should do first before you even think of flashing a new rom. It can avoid a lot of pain and help you to save some money because you do not have to send it to repair.
for more informations please read the stickies in general section, in your case espacially http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2393289 everything is documented there.
shakta said:
hi
A general question:
If I flashed a new rom and my IMEI got 0000000 or some other corrupted EFS issue, and I didnt backed up the EFS - is it fixable?
(Lets say that flashing stock roms did not fix the issue).
I want to unsderstand if EFS backup is that important?
tnx!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Fixable by Samsung, yes and you'd have to pay. Cheaper repair shops usually botch it.
Get ready to pay £50+ to get it fixed... Or just smash your phone and claim warranty..
some Links
shakta said:
hi
A general question:
If I flashed a new rom and my IMEI got 0000000 or some other corrupted EFS issue, and I didnt backed up the EFS - is it fixable?
(Lets say that flashing stock roms did not fix the issue).
I want to unsderstand if EFS backup is that important?
tnx!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello,
just new here in writing but read a lot, so i might have seen some posts that could help you (I've backed up everything but never had to restore EFS, so everything is theoretically).
The first step I would do - even if everything seems lost - make a full backup!
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2206898 (Search for "Recoveries". If You played with KitKat - you should use a newer Recovery not from this site, but then you still know that).
Helping for your Problem this:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1264021 (You should have a sticker somewhere - under tha battery - with the original IMEI)
Maybe if this didn't helped - this can be a try for you:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2392632
Just have seen this - but haven't tested yet.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1308546
But the link from Darkened_Sky is also very important to read (thanks, just read it now).
Good luck - :good:
Hello everyone.
First i'll tell what i did.
I rooted my phone couple days ago and flashed paranoid android but then i thought that i can do something more with it and tried to flash new kernel, but that pu my phone in bootloop. So i tried to flash original firmware but this didn't work and i was still stuck in bootloop. Then i found on some forum that i can do this through kies so i did flash original ROM through kies and everything was ok (i thought so because i didn't think about that my phone had no range), so i tried to flash Paranoid again and when i did it i saw that i have no range (I had also null or 0049 imei). I tried to flash new radio because i thought that this could be somehow broken. That didn't help at all so i found diffrent way to bring back range to my phone but when i did it i put my phone in factory mode so i dealt with that problem, and i had range allready but my phone still had this "only alarm calls" state. But my phone knows what carrier i have because i can choose from the list in setting but that doesn't help too. Now i found a way to do it (sort of i think) but i cannot change my recovery.
And i have no imei till now (and i didn't backup my efs folder :/ ).
That's preety much it, but i could forget about something or the order is diffrent.
I'd like to go back to paranoid android and to have service and imei
I'd appreciate anyone help with that because now i'm in middle of nothing and i'm like i lost my phone... :///
P.S. Sorry about my language skills.
Hundreds of identical posts, search and read on imei. Restore your efs backup to regain your imei.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk
You see, it's not that simple because i cannot copy efs folder or delete it. I wrote this because nothing works not because i'm too lazy to do search
boomboomer said:
Hundreds of identical posts, search and read on imei. Restore your efs backup to regain your imei.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk
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Click to collapse
Hi,
First, I work in a phone repair shop, I'm not trying anything illegal!
I have a Z3x Box at the work, and a S3 i9300 myself.
A friend with another S3 at 600 miles, and has lost his EFS. I already told him to make a backup, but unfortunately he had it on the internal SD. After a bad ROM flash he had to use a PIT file for flashing a stock rom, and that he wiped everything.
His EFS folder was blank, no nv_data or anything.
With the z3x, I tried putting his imei and S/N on my EFS, then doing a backup and sending that copy to him (obviously I restored my phone after that) but it didn't work.
So, I'd like to know if there's any way to repair or regenerate the EFS with a working phone as base, without having to send the phone
dabyd64 said:
Hi,
First, I work in a phone repair shop, I'm not trying anything illegal!
I have a Z3x Box at the work, and a S3 i9300 myself.
A friend with another S3 at 600 miles, and has lost his EFS. I already told him to make a backup, but unfortunately he had it on the internal SD. After a bad ROM flash he had to use a PIT file for flashing a stock rom, and that he wiped everything.
His EFS folder was blank, no nv_data or anything.
With the z3x, I tried putting his imei and S/N on my EFS, then doing a backup and sending that copy to him (obviously I restored my phone after that) but it didn't work.
So, I'd like to know if there's any way to repair or regenerate the EFS with a working phone as base, without having to send the phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately i think it's not possible, i think z3x must have the phone connected, i needed to repair my efs via z3x and it could be only done via cable, and also, say your friend he is stuck with patched modem / kernel for the rest of his life, or else he will have Emergency cals only and baseband unknown. Must love z3x as much as you must hate it