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Changing your ROM or Radio, the effect on your IMEI and Device ID.

Hi there,
It is always a difficult consideration, "shall I start a new thread on this?". But, I thought it would be good to have this information available to everyone. Please don't discuss specific ROMs or Radios in this thread. Just discuss the effects flashing has on your IMEI and/or Device ID.
Being new to flashing the following question came up. What happens to your IMEI and "Device ID"... (not "Device Name") when you flash a new ROM on your mobile. I asked this question in a specific ROM thread and the answer was... "not sure".
This may be an important question to consider before flashing your ROM. Example, my (paid for) Route66 GPS software and maps only work with my specific "Device ID". This is not the same as your Device Name. This Device ID is unique to your mobile (quoting Route66 support team).
This Device ID can not be found on the sticker at the back of your mobile below the battery. So, it seems to be some hardware or software generated number. On my mobile it looks like the following:
9934xx27xx089013B
(The xxx-es are just replacements for some other numbers.)
My IMEI number looks like the following
358xxx010xx4859
(The xxx-es are just replacements for some other numbers.)
I learned that the IMEI number on the sticker may differ from the one stored in your phone. If you press *#06# on your phone your 'stored' IMEI will appear. In my case the following showed up:
358xxx010xx485901
Note the additional two numbers not found on your sticker. Flashing your ROM or Radio can have an effect on these last two numbers I understand. They are some kind of version indication. So if you need to keep the same "full" IMEI number for some software to run on your phone the following question needs to be asked:
How will flashing the ROM or Radio effect your IMEI number?
How can we change the IMEI back to the original number?
Back to Device ID
In addition there are several questions unanswered regarding the Device ID.
Where does it originates from?
Will the Device ID change when flashing a ROM or new Radio?
Can it be changed back?
Do you have any experience with this? What effect did it have on your software? Did you compare your IMEI and Device ID before and after flashing? Do you know how to change the numbers back? Write in this thread please! (again I am new to flashing and if some of this information is not correct please let us know)
Thanks,

Moved this out of Rom Development as it has nothing to do with that topic, and would caution users against posting their IMEI numbers on a public site. That being said, please feel free to discuss the effects to your heart's content.

Permission protected data spoofing on CM7

http://review.cyanogenmod.com/#change,5677
This is an interesting patch to the CM7 repository frameworks base. If you scroll down and expand the comments you can follow the guys arguments on justifying such feature. Basically from what I understand this would allow you to spoof personal data to apps which may or may not request it. From contacts to SD card contents as well as phone IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) number.
It's not a committed change but I wanted to see what the community thinks of having such feature. Personally I see all the reasons why this would open up a can of warms. What do you think?

I think in some other implementation this could be really helpful to the paranoid (like myself). However, I also think that those that are against it have VERY valid points. The community needs MORE widespread acceptance, not less, and something like this could cause major problems with Google, Carriers, Developers....
Sent from a bird cage, with a swing!

Correct me if I am wrong, but the intention is to spoof necessary data that an app might request that it doesn't actually need and to help prevent app force closes that straight up permission blocking causes. Like pandora requiring to read contact data.
Setting aside the other ramifications for a second... This is actually a good idea. It gives us power to not have to accept (for example) Pandora being greedy bastards.
Now the other ramifications are indeed severe. But for example, Swype. Why the hell can't I just buy it on the market?
I think arguing over it is a moot point. This cat is already out of the bag. We can't stuff it back in. This functionality is coming. Maybe not on Cyanogen, but it will be here for the masses soon. The greedy bastards that are trying to milk the system had just better deal with it.

Wow this thread could not have popped up at a worse time , what with all the NexusSense 0.3 users having trouble with their IMEI's.
But having read through all the comments on the change, i see why the CM team do not want to implement it, obviously this kind of change would piss off devs and carriers and of course google.
Yes it is a good idea for us users, but for CM's image and survivability , id say not having it is a sacrifice we need to make

First of all:
Wrong section.
Second: They won't add it anyway.
Some developers cried about it and everything.

dario3040 said:
First of all:
Wrong section.
Second: They won't add it anyway.
Some developers cried about it and everything.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I figured this is about a development of Android ROM and posted in "Android Development" section. Forgive me if there was a better place to post it in.
This is also not marked as abandoned (as of this post) and still up for debate in the open section of Cyanogenmod Gerrit section.

For devices without an IMEI because they don't have a cellular radio, such as the Nook Color, some amount of this is valid and regarded as highly valuable. While I don't condone being able to haphazardly change or spoof your IMEI, I do believe that for devices that don't have an IMEI that some measure should be taken to create a device specific IMEI that will persist between different ROMs and ROM installations. Unfortunately with no IMEI support for devices like the Nook Color, there is no persistent ID that can be used. As developers continue to use the IMEI as a "device stable" ID, we need to come up with a way to support devices that don't have such an ID, and perhaps generate a non-colliding IMEI from a has of their login information, or some other identifying metric that will persist between different installations. The TAC could be created to identify the device type, and then the serial number could be generated based upon some information provided by the user.
In short, outright spoofing is probably a bad idea, but something needs to be done for devices that don't supply these sorts of IDs.

IMei number change possibility real or not?

hi
i have seen several posts on xda developers claimimg to change the imei of a device .However will this really fool the service providers who actually use the sim card to authenticate the imei number of an android device .
if yes what is teh way to do so .i am asking fo educational ppurpose only
thanks

[CLOSED] Can IMEI number be changed?

I wonder if IMEI number of phone can really be changed. I've been searching in the Internet for a while, but did not find a satisfying answer, because all of them differ from each other. I am going to summarize what I've found by now:
IMEI cannot be changed because it is stored in ROM memory,
IMEI can be changed using certain apps that are able to do this,
Such apps only change IMEI number that is displayed on the screen, but the real one stay untouched (supposed that it is true - how can I check if displayed IMEI is real or fake and how to check then the real one ?)
You can change IMEI via Service/Engineer Mode that can be accessed by typing secret code
(I tried this and I couldn't change there anything - there were only infos)
So as you can see, these answers are completely different. Could anyone refer to it?
P.S. If I've posted this thread in a wrong place, I apologize, but I'm a newbie here.

For as far as I know, IMEIs can be changed, with the right set of tools. It's still software after all. So...#2 seems to be the right answer here.
However, I would not recommend doing that. Cause you could easily create a duplicate of someone else's IMEI. Which is not gonna be fun.
I don't know about #3.
And Engineering mode (assuming you can access it) is mostly for factory testing, for as far as I know. Not changing IMEI. I guess it could be different from one phone to another, from one SOC to the other. But I doubt you would just have an option that says "change your IMEI".
So...I'd say better not go into this.

No, it is legally not possible to change the IMEI (usually), and very often it is punishable.
Yes, it is technically possible to change the IMEI (not always).
EOT

yes iit can be changed, and thats what they do to "reactivate" those phones that are reported stolen/blacklisted

@Maciaz99
Welcome to the XDA family.
Please see @Oswald Boelcke answer here.
[CLOSED][...] Change the IMEI number
Hello here. (I'm french, so be nice with my english please) I posting today to ask you if it exist a way to change an IMEI number on the Xiaomi REDMI 9T. Every explaination i've found are too much old (for android 5//6/7/8). {Mod edit} Thanks...
forum.xda-developers.com
Cheers all.

Maciaz99 said:
I wonder if IMEI number of phone can really be changed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
@Maciaz99 Thread closed!
Edit or change of IMEI is illegal in quite a few of countries. For this reason, I've closed and edited your thread! XDA doesn't allow and doesn't accept discussions about or support for such an edit or change.
XDA Forum Rules (excerpt):
...
9. Don't get us into trouble.
Don't post copyrighted materials or do other things which will obviously lead to legal trouble. If you wouldn't do it on your own homepage, you probably shouldn't do it here either. This does not mean that we agree with everything that the software piracy lobby try to impose on us. It simply means that you cannot break any laws here, since we'll end up dealing with the legal hassle caused by you. Please use common sense: respect the forum, its users and those that write great code.
...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In future, please refrain from starting such a discussion of XDA.
Regards
Oswald Boelcke
Senior Moderator

[CLOSED] Does changing IMEI really work?

I have a question, when the imei is changed to a rooted Android device, does the company operator see that new imei? Well, I understand that the imei is stored in ROM memory. Does any developer know how the Android OS accesses said IMEI number to send it to the operator?
Or do the magisk and app modules that mask the imei really cause the android system to send the changed imei when requesting the IMEI information?
Request this information not for illegal purposes, but to see the real usefulness of the apps that claim to be able to change the imei

MOD ACTION:
Thread closed.
@diro23
It is illegal in quite a few countries to change the IMEI. At XDA, we don't allow discussions on changing the IMEI.
Please read Rule 9:
9. Don't get us into trouble.
Don't post copyrighted materials or do other things which will obviously lead to legal trouble. If you wouldn't do it on your own homepage, you probably shouldn't do it here either. This does not mean that we agree with everything that the software piracy lobby try to impose on us. It simply means that you cannot break any laws here, since we'll end up dealing with the legal hassle caused by you. Please use common sense: respect the forum, its users and those that write great code.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse