This has probably been covered before but I couldn't find the topic and I apologize if there is a specific area for these sorts of questions and I ask that this topic be moved there if need be. Anyway, I have an unlocked Galaxy S3 which I purchased off Ebay and activated on MetroPCS. The activation went fine, the IMEI is clean, but my question is, if I install a custom ROM will it change my IMEI? And if so, what sort of problems could that cause for my phone being able to use data or make phone calls? I've never flashed a custom ROM to a phone before so I'm not sure if it CAN change the IMEI, I was just warned by a friend that after he flashed his, the last few digits for his changed and he had to call his provider and it voided his contract. I have installed custom ROMs before but they were on an android based MP3 player so I never had to worry about an IMEI, however I enjoyed the special features that ROM had compared to the stock ROM and was wanting to have similar features on my phone.
Also on an unrelated note, my girlfriend had an old Galaxy S2 that sat in her closet for about 2 years. It had stopped working so she packed it up and was about to throw it away until I decided to fiddle around with it. It's model number is SPH-D710 so it doesn't look like a traditional Galaxy phone, so holding the home button does not help me boot into download or recovery mode. My problem with it, it doesn't boot up, it stays at the Galaxy SII screen and doesn't move passed that, Odin fails when attempting to flash a ROM onto it (Custom or recovery), and holding vol up+home+pwr does not boot it into recovery. She told me her brother previously rooted it with a custom ROM (No idea which) and it worked for some time before ****ting the bed. My theory is that he did a poor job at flashing and somehow removed the recovery menu completely and so the phone is stuck as a soft brick. That would mean my only option to save it would be to flash it but it fails every time. Is there anything more I can do to save it or should I just scrap it for parts?
EDIT: I went for it and installed it. IMEI is still the same and phone works fine as a phone. Currently my only issue is that it can't read my SD card nor can I copy files to or from my SD card to my computer. I have windows 8 and it says unspecified error when I try. Is this a problem with cyanogenmod or did I kill my SD card when I flashed?
Hi there,
You'd be best served asking for help from the experts who own your device here:
[Q&A][SGS2][Newbies][Experienced Users][RCs] New members friendly Q&A thread
Good luck
Related
Hey, so basically I'm in a situation where I have no idea what to do.
I recently just got a new phone, and am going to give my Samsung Galaxy S3, SGH-T999V model - from Wind Mobile to my Dad. Basically, when I first got the phone - a couple months after, I decided to try Rooting it, and I did, successfully. Since I didn't really know what to do with my rooted phone, I decided to unroot it - then tried rooting it again some months later, but it didn't work successfully. Basically my phone wasn't rooted, but I had the "Team-Win" recovery on it.
I wanted to bring my phone back to it's original state - and have the stock recovery on it. After some Googling, my solution seemed to be to flash the stock rom for the SGH-T999V model onto my phone using Odin. And I did that - and it worked successfully. But I still couldn't check for OTA updates or anything, it said my phone had still been modified in an unauthorized way.
Now that I need to give the phone to my Dad, I have to format the device and erase everything. This is where my problem starts. When I try to format it (using the Stock recovery), I see a bunch of error messages, with the Android logo falling down in a kind of dead way. I reboot my device, and nothing changes.
It still has all my data, and everything on it.
Sorry if this is the wrong area to post this (I'm relatively new to the forum), and if my problem doesn't make much sense - I've tried being as detailed as possible. Could anyone help?
Hi, thank you for using XDA Assist. Flashing the stock firmware should show you to get ota's. This should have everything you need,http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s3/general/samsung-galaxy-s3-sticky-roll-thread-t2344125. Also, you can ask further questions here,http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s3/help/help-thread-galaxy-s3-question-t2690307
Thread closed
Hey guys, so I'm pretty new to all this, I wanted to root my Galaxy S6 - SM-G920F - to be able to play pokemon from home... yes, that sad. So I started reading XDA like my brother recommended and "learnt" how to root my phone. In the beggining when i was installing SuperSU I had some problems and my phone went into bootloop, but it was because of my cable, I then reflashed it with another cable and it fixed the bootloop issue. I went on to install TWRP and that's when mistakes started happening. First of all, I forgot to back up my phone, including the EFS which, after reading countless posts, I understood is what gives the phone the IMEI code.
I tried installing the standard Xposed on Galaxy S6 (only later on i learnt you must use Wanam on samsungs from S6 and above) and my phone went into bootloop, with out knowing what to do (i tried the uninstall zip but it was failing to install from twrp...), very stupidly, i deleted my System folder... After much more reading, i tried using KIES3 and Smart switch to recover, but they always ask for the stupid recovery code,which I don't have, when i tried the upgrade and initialization option... I tried costum roms and a ****load of stuff. Custom Roms would usually work, my phone would turn on and that's when i noticed my SIM wasn't beeing recognized. (later on i also found out i didn't have IMEI) tried flashing the appropriate MODEM for my galaxy but it all failed. I don't remenber all the stuff I did tbh... I tried the tyrannus ROM and XtreStoLite Universal Deodexed Mod Edition ROM, and tried flashing the MODEM that comes with the last mentioned ROM and yeah, probably just useless attempts that wouldn't fix the problem in the first place. Then i tried flashing Stock, from Sammobile: I bought my phone at the Portuguese vodafone, so G920FXXS3DPF5_G920FVFG3DPC1_TCL (marshmallow) with Odin but it would always fail. Then i read something about splitting the folder in 5 and flashing 1 by 1 and it would work until the Hidden zip, which would always fail. I tried not flashing Hidden and my phone turned on and I went back to stock although, still with out IMEI or baseband. Then after more reading, i found out the best solution would be giving it to a store.
So i just rooted, twrp and did what i wanted to do in the first place. With the correct Wanam Xposed this time (later on i found a way to hack pokemon with out root... sucks :v) and i managed this time.
Yesterday i went to the stored and today the guy told me to go get it, with high hopes i went there, to find out he couldn't fix the problem... He tried Octobox to rewrite the IMEI from the one in the back of phone, but he says it failed. So now I really don't know what to do. The guy went on holidays and told me to go back there when he comes back, we wants to try to downgrade to lollipop and try to fix it from there (he said he has more tools available to work with). It could work, Galaxy S6 just got marshmallow 1/2 months ago officially, and i bought the phone in october of last year, so maybe with the ROM it came with, I really don't know.
At this point I'm just looking for suggestions. I'll be paying attention to the forum and try to reply to all the questions you might have to my best. Thank you all for your time and patience!
:EDIT: so... another major mistake i guess, I found out today, by asking my parents where they got the phone, that the phone wasn't actually purchased in vodafone, the phone was bought in a Samsung store, so it is unblocked. So most likely I've been flashing the wrong stock rom all along. Could you guys guide me in the right direction from here?
What would be the appropriate ROM for the unblocked? vodafone portugal is TCL, optimus is OPT and MEO is MEO. There is another one under the name TPH, would that be the appropriate one?
Solved
Okay... using the correct stock rom fixed all my problems... sorry for wasting your time guys! TPH was the right one
Where did you find your roms?
Hello everyone,
As this is my first thread, and I have been reading previous assists based on IMEI fixing and couldn't find the answer I am looking for, I really hope that the XDA community can help me fix my Galaxy S4 I9500. I will try to explain the problem the best I can, and I will create a list of every solution I have tried in the 3 week phone fixing saga I have.
1. The problem :
My friend decided he does not need this phone anymore, everything was fine with it except the battery was swollen(but I bought a new one so it doesn't matter). The day before he gave it to me, he accidentaly dropped it in the toilet and it couldn't boot. I opened the phone, cleaned it with alchohol and the phone booted up normally. The thing I noticed was that in the status bar the network symbol was replaced with No signal symbol. I tried 3 SIM cards and none worked. I decided to downgrade to 4.4.2 KitKat version and this is where everything went even worse. I used Odin to downgrade a firmware downloaded from sammobile.com, but I didn't create an /efs backup because I have flashed an Alcatel Idol 2 before and there were no problems with the IMEI or so. It turns out that Samsung devices are different and I am left with NO EFS BACKUP. I know, I should have checked what to do before flashing the device, but what's done is done. The device is doing everything great, there are no problems with Wi-Fi or Bluetooth either, except I cant connect to a network because IMEI is null/null and the Baseband is unknown. The thing is, I am not sure if the IMEI is wiped completely because of a hardware problem, or it's software related because of the /efs folder, because I am not a developer, but a civil engineer :silly:
2. Solutions I've tried so far :
- Flashed many different Android versions;
- Flashed a Lollypop with adonis.pit with Re-partition checked on Odin;
- Tried writing an IMEI and repairing the EFS with Octoplus box;
- Tried flashing an EFS backup from my friend's Galaxy S4 I9500 ( IT IS ILLEGAL IN MANY COUNTRIES, NOT IN MINE, BUT I WANTED TO TRY AND CHANGE THE IMEI LATER SO IT WOULD NOT BE A PROBLEM );
- Tried flashing with a IMEI_null_fix.tar.md5 file which i found on a forum and that didn't fix it either;
- Tried KIES to return the stock ROM but either it does not recognize my device, or it says that my device could not be initialized or so;
- Took the phone to service, but in my town the only service we have is not very professional and they didn't even know the IMEI null does not mean that I will have no wireless connection/bluetooth connection, so they didn't fix it either;
- Tried with EFS Pro, Terminal Emulator and programs similar to those, 3rd party and PlayStore ones;
- Maybe other things but I could not remember because I think I tried everything...
I don't know if the problem can be fixed, but deep inside me I hope that there is a solution, and I think this is the best place to search for help, because it is a great phone and I don't want to throw it away just like that.
Thanks in advance everyone, hope you can come up with a solution.
Anyone please ?
You may get more help in the s4 forum as this is the s6 forum mate.
christopherrrg said:
You may get more help in the s4 forum as this is the s6 forum mate.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
An admin redirected this thread here, its not me haha...
Thread closed.
OP reposted in the correct section.
Okay this is my very first post. Let me start off by saying this is like my second Android phone. Previously I had the Galaxy J1 thru verizon but never had any issues. All my other phones have been all iPhones and I don't know anything about Android rooting/flashing etc. I've switched to Android recently after having practically every iPhone since the original. My problem is that I rooted the Amp 2 following the instructions from this thread https://forum.xda-developers.com/general/help/galaxy-2-rootable-t3384285/page4. It worked, the main reason why I decided to root the phone was to gain more system memory which I'm disqusted that Android takes up a lot of it's OS or w.e in its system memory and to bypass Cricket's stupid tethering block on the $60 plan without the mobile hotspot. Once I flashed the file provided via odin and rooted with kingroot, I would get a security notice that unauthorized changes have been made and that I would need to reboot my device, that was fine with me but I did so only to find that the message still appears every fifteen minutes so I disabled it with the package disable pro that I bought on the google play store. The problem I'm having is that I can't encrypt my phone and
SD card. Everytime I try to do so it wont work and I can't even get the SD card to mount properly so I unrooted the phone with kingroot and restored my phone back to factory. Still the same issue.... For whatever reason, it wont let me encrypt the phone again and I cannot get back whatever pictures from my SD card I had and a backup of all my contacts I imported from my J1. All I wanted was to try a custom recovery and ROM but I want to make the phone stock again because I been having so much issues. Like I've stated before I don't know anything on Android rooting and flashing, only iPhone jailbreaks. If somebody can help me out that will be great. I understand that the phone was given to me for free by porting over my number and that I can easily get another Android for cheap but all I want to do is get some assistance.
I downloaded the stock ROM file but I can't seem to flash it in Odin or using the recovery mode if that makes sense to anybody reading this thread. I've tried clicking the AP box to select my file but its a zip file and I can't get it to work.
Helppppp
Bump need help recovering back to a stock ROM. I must of screwed something up. I've downloaded the stock Rom over the internet but I can't seem to get it to work by Odin. CAN SOMEBODY HELP CUZ I CAN'T EVEN DOWNLOAD ANY APPS OFF GOOGLE PLAY!! PLZ HELPPPP
Hello people of XDA!
I know that this thread may be repetitive, but I unfortunately didn't find any help in all threads regarding GSII's NAND r/w problem.
So in short, I will explain what happened to this device
I bought this GSII brand new as my 1st flagship device, and I am kind of sentimentally connected to it, if not I would've thrown it in trash a long time ago.
So here is the thing
I had stock firmware on this device (4.1.2 JB) , and after some time decided to flash CM 11 on it when it came out, and had it on my phone for 4-5 weeks but I instantly noticed that my device was overheating with that ROM so I decided to get back on stock firmware, unfortunately thing is that i flashed android 4.0.3 ICS (Movistar Mexico) then my device got bricked (I had a really bad knowledge back then about roms and things that I SHOULD and SHOULDN'Tdo), anyway I tried fixing the mess I made by flashing my original android 4.1.2 JB rom (Telenor Serbia) hoping that will solve my bricked device, but unsuccessfully. Then I tried flashing again standardly for maybe 4-5 times with no success and decided to explore more functions that odin provides, so I checked NAND erase all last time I flashed and I guess made a huge mistake, but still I couldn't boot my device, I tried hard resetting it (I lost my power button while replacing the screen of my phone, so I couldn't boot into recovery to check if device is soft bricked or really hard bricked, but download mode works just fine). Still I tried, I flashed custom kernels hoping they would fix this brick but nothing happened, I would really like to get this thing working again, I had no success at finding a good mainboard to replace the old one, and doing it in official repair shops and non-official ones costs more than the phone itself. Sorry for asking the same old question I guess but I would be really thankful if I could get this working again!