Related
I was wondering if anyone else was running into the problem I'm having, and if it has been covered before and I missed it in the search box earlier I apologize. I just recently tried to upgrade to JACHero2.6 and my market app (most important) along with several others are missing. The apps are automatically installed on all my other roms, it is only with hero that I end up missing alot of apps. I have a correctly formatted SD card and I did a wipe before I installed this and tried the whole process twice. If I am forgetting to do something special prior to installation or afterwards please let me know!!
darkphoenix2012 said:
I was wondering if anyone else was running into the problem I'm having, and if it has been covered before and I missed it in the search box earlier I apologize. I just recently tried to upgrade to JACHero2.6 and my market app (most important) along with several others are missing. The apps are automatically installed on all my other roms, it is only with hero that I end up missing alot of apps. I have a correctly formatted SD card and I did a wipe before I installed this and tried the whole process twice. If I am forgetting to do something special prior to installation or afterwards please let me know!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you may have gotten a bad download. try redownloading it again. do you have 3 partition (fat32 ext2/3 linux-swap) if not i suggest that for jac's 2.63 also make sure you check file extensions in recovery screen. hopefully this helps
Yes I have my card that exact format and I tried using the filesystem checker in the recovery screen it said filesystem check was complete!! I'll try doing the whole process over again but I'm not sure how that would help, and it is sad too this is the best damn hero rom i've tested to date, its fast as hell!! If it weren't for my apps not being here i wouldn't be planning on a future rom update in the near future or until some big release happens.
make sure you always check md5 sum of all your hero build download
you could of had a damaged downloaded rom and this could affect your rom.
Just tried to download a fresh copy of the rom, checked to make sure my sd card was working properly, wiped and re-flashed yet my market app and the same apps I was missing before is still missing. It should be included that apps on my ext2 were coming back like they should be just not all of them, and not a few apps that I thought should be included with the rom. Is there anything I should check that I may not have yet?
I would use Root Explorer to check if the apk files are still under system/sd/app if they aren't... well, there's no way you're going to see them again unless you re-install them. You can also look under system/sd/app_s if that's there. Other than that, if you can't find it, it's not there. (If you know the exact name of the file or at least part of the apk file name, under terminal type: find "file name" (w/o quotes ofc)
You can add wildcards (*) if you don't know the exact name of the file. If the apk file is still there... well... let's just see if its there first.
I checked using terminal, I typed "vending.apk" and tried to check the dir's you specified for the apks. If they are there I can't find them, although I am a bit limited as terminal is the only app that came loaded with which to check for files. If the apk files are indeed not there then why would the apps install on their own without a problem on any other build but hero??? I must be doing something wrong right? I am open to any suggestions at this point, even using a different rom to check for something, my goal is to have this rom flashed with my apps working soon!
heres the vending.apk from jachero 2.63 you can try and adb push it to /system/sd/app_s and see if it works.
Thanks, I'll try pushing that over but I'm still worried about the rest of the apps I'm missing. Would there be anything else I could try to make it possibly fix all the missing apps? What could be causing this problem in the first place? I did notice that my sd card has an ext2 rather than ext3 part, will that cause all of this to happen? I'm still pretty lost on this. I tried going back to another rom just to make sure my apps would still all pull up correctly, and they did so it has to be something related to this most recent build of jachero, or something
welcome to the club my friend (-;
i have the exact same problem and noone was able to help me yet.
It must have something to do with Jacs apps2sd method. i read some tweets between him and cyanogen that it might be a little 'rough'.
however - it's always the same apps that are missing, in my case it's (badly enough) launcher.apk AND rosie.apk which pretty much means that i can't solve it.
i also tried everything i could with ADB - without luck. I somehow have the feeling that theres something staying on the phone even when wiping and formatting.... I'll check this through ADB this evening.
look @ my recent posts:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/search_rop.php?searchid=25731882
for previous moaning from myself ( (-; ) and discussion with others in the JACthread. Basically the last 15 - 20 posts are about nothing else (-;
I will also do some logcating today - i've already seen the errors through install (rosie.apk couldn't be parsed etc) but i forgot to save it (and the command promt only saves 100 lines or something)
h.nocturna said:
I would use Root Explorer to check if the apk files are still under system/sd/app if they aren't... well, there's no way you're going to see them again unless you re-install them. You can also look under system/sd/app_s if that's there. Other than that, if you can't find it, it's not there. (If you know the exact name of the file or at least part of the apk file name, under terminal type: find "file name" (w/o quotes ofc)
You can add wildcards (*) if you don't know the exact name of the file. If the apk file is still there... well... let's just see if its there first.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have used AndExplorer and put the APK's in the sys/sd/apps and it all worked fine. Very easy to do if you don't know how to push, just reboot after.
Can someone please tell me how i can get myfaves app on any mod im burning up my minutes thanks.
jivany said:
Can someone please tell me how i can get myfaves app on any mod im burning up my minutes thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You don't need to have the myfaves app for you myfave minutes to work. You are still calling them for free regardless if you have the icon or myfave compatible phone or whatever. If you want to manage the people just log on to mytmobile.com and make the changes there.
Hmmmmmmmm . I never realized thanks for pointing that out TurboTsi.
darkphoenix2012 said:
Thanks, I'll try pushing that over but I'm still worried about the rest of the apps I'm missing. Would there be anything else I could try to make it possibly fix all the missing apps? What could be causing this problem in the first place? I did notice that my sd card has an ext2 rather than ext3 part, will that cause all of this to happen? I'm still pretty lost on this. I tried going back to another rom just to make sure my apps would still all pull up correctly, and they did so it has to be something related to this most recent build of jachero, or something
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
open up your copy of the build and check in system/app_s to see if the .apks are even in the build. if pushing the vending.apk works i dont mind posting the other ones you are missing if you want to pm me or something
Just tried opening the update.zip file and verified that all the apks are there. Which makes me wonder what exactly is up. Im thinking it could be an apps2sd issue, like what was said above. I didnt have this problem with older hero roms that i can remember. TBH I could try pushing apps with adb but that wouldn't bring back my other 3rd party apps floating in ext2 limbo. So I'm out of ideas ;(
darkphoenix2012 said:
Just tried opening the update.zip file and verified that all the apks are there. Which makes me wonder what exactly is up. Im thinking it could be an apps2sd issue, like what was said above. I didnt have this problem with older hero roms that i can remember. TBH I could try pushing apps with adb but that wouldn't bring back my other 3rd party apps floating in ext2 limbo. So I'm out of ideas ;(
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
try going to the recovery console and entering upgrade_fs and that will change your ext2 to ext3 and see if wiping and flashing change anything. also if you have root explorer you can check your /system/sd folder to see if all of your third party apps are there
Just tried upgrade_fs and it gave me a "unable to allocate block" I noticed there is little if any room left on the ext2 partition. Would that cause all of this? If not would it be worth a shot to resize the partition and give it more space from my fat32 then try to upgrade wipe reload again?
If you're out of ideas, then I would attempt to resize first (but backup your fat32 first) and then see if that solves it, if not, then I would format, wipe, and update...
but are you sure those 3rd party apps are not there? Try using Root Explorer to determine if the 3rd Party Apps are there, if they are, just pull them to your sdcard and try installing them again with ASTRO or something like that.
Hi guys,
One miraculous day, my efs folder became corrupt, when it just so happened to be the week after the hard drive on my computer took a dump! What a week this has been.. I was wondering if it is possible for someone to zip their EFS folder and send it to me to see if I can't get this phone to connect back to the network again. I honestly think there are applications on androids marketplace that will wipe things if you have superuser installed.. because it was like BAM, one morning I wake up and my efs folder was deleted the day after I had installed some new apps.
So my question is - Will someone send me a backup of their EFS? If that won't conflict with their phone of course -- I would send it back to Samsung, but their 3rd tier support has no idea what I'm talking about - they just hear root and think I'm a piece of trash.
Any help would be greatly appreciated - I have not seen anything about trying someone elses efs so I thought it could be a bit experimental as well.. Thanks
-Brett
Salmiery said:
Hi guys,
One miraculous day, my efs folder became corrupt, when it just so happened to be the week after the hard drive on my computer took a dump! What a week this has been.. I was wondering if it is possible for someone to zip their EFS folder and send it to me to see if I can't get this phone to connect back to the network again. I honestly think there are applications on androids marketplace that will wipe things if you have superuser installed.. because it was like BAM, one morning I wake up and my efs folder was deleted the day after I had installed some new apps.
So my question is - Will someone send me a backup of their EFS? If that won't conflict with their phone of course -- I would send it back to Samsung, but their 3rd tier support has no idea what I'm talking about - they just hear root and think I'm a piece of trash.
Any help would be greatly appreciated - I have not seen anything about trying someone elses efs so I thought it could be a bit experimental as well.. Thanks
-Brett
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is an interesting request, Brett.
I thought the efs.rfs file contains one's phone imei number/network id etc.
idk for sure...
I thought using someone else's imei is kinda like "let me borrow your ss# so i can check the ss office to see if mine is working.
I didn't know if you found this link and tried it?
http://forum.samdroid.net/f28/complete-imei-restore-how-1817/
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=882039
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=953436
Fortunately for me, I had a efs backup on my hd.
I think I also saw scripts in Zeus and Doctor ROM that backs up efs also prior to flash..
good luck
I wasn't trying to steal anyone's IMEI.. I just have tried multiple techniques, but I have not tried the first link..
I've been having trouble getting a shell with adb, does it need to be in download mode?
I was trying to see if it were possible to copy someone's existing files, and use a hex editor to change things, but reading into it, the IMEI is not able to be edited easily without knowing the encyrption type.
I'm just frustrated and have been back and forth with both at&t and also samsung (Their support is a joke, no one I spoke with even knew what the EFS folder was..)
I will try this technique and will report back later when I get home from work tonight. I've been reading a lot of similar issues with the null/null IMEI in the infuses and the guy at the AT&T store said that this was the reason they stopped selling the phone in their store.
Thanks for the help, I'll let you know what happens.
-Brett
Goodluck.
From the tone of your post, I didn't suspect any malice...I had a gist of what you were trying to do.
From reading some of links, there may be some method of recovery.
I hope that you're able to get it back.
I posted one a while back. I think it was in the q&a section. I won't be at my computer for a couple of days or I'd upload it for ya. Try searching or scrolling thru there.
Edit: I just uploaded an EFS.zip, unzip and flash the included efs.tar thru Odin or heimdall.
I had the same problem but i fixed it through Odin. There is an option in odin where you can click on the side (sorry i just reformated the comp so i dont have odin installed) that says something about the EFS. Try that, it fixed it for me.
On a related note. I thought I read somewhere that typical backups such as tibu and nandroid do NOT back up the efs folder. Is this correct? Should we all be doing this manually to protect against corruption?
Try searching here or on market. I remember there was this app called "nitrality" something. This app backs up EFS that we can restore in case we mess it up.
diablo009 said:
Try searching here or on market. I remember there was this app called "nitrality" something. This app backs up EFS that we can restore in case we mess it up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did try to dl that app and ran it. It didn't work for me. The app hung up the system until you fc it.
If you're versed in linux or Term emu, you can use script to back up your efs.
If you had flashed zeus or doctorz, there are scripts build in that backs up your efs.
if you had root explorer, you can find efs folder in your root. long press on the folder allows you to create zip or tar of this as well.
Any harm in just copy/paste the whole folder to external SD with root explorer? Then copy paste to windows over USB? Will permissions get messed up?
I think I've already backed it up but there have been a couple threads on this. Wonder if it should be part of superthread or a sticky...do this first :...
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using XDA App
rxnelson said:
Any harm in just copy/paste the whole folder to external SD with root explorer? Then copy paste to windows over USB? Will permissions get messed up?
I think I've already backed it up but there have been a couple threads on this. Wonder if it should be part of superthread or a sticky...do this first :...
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no problem with copy/paste that I know of.
Being cautious, I have a zip, a tar, and the whole folder on my PC, USB and box.net.
Hypothetically,
I have access to another Infuse on the same family plan at that, if i were to copy the efs folder to mine what would that do?
I want to make sure not to have the same IMEI number on the network though, but this could save me a lot of hassle...
any thoughts?
Read the threads on the links I provided...you will get more understanding.
I have multiple times, but the first post that seemed like it would be the best fix, I have to get him to send me a fixed nv_data file and he seems to be unresponsive at the moment.
I think I'm going to root the 2nd infuse, back up her efs folder (MULTIPLE times lol) and fix it so it's generic and not an exact replica of hers..
Do you see any problems there? I'm definitely not an expert at all with this.
Salmiery said:
I have multiple times, but the first post that seemed like it would be the best fix, I have to get him to send me a fixed nv_data file and he seems to be unresponsive at the moment.
I think I'm going to root the 2nd infuse, back up her efs folder (MULTIPLE times lol) and fix it so it's generic and not an exact replica of hers..
Do you see any problems there? I'm definitely not an expert at all with this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In order to see what is on the root of a phone, you may need to root it.
Once rooted, you can look for the efs folder.
I haven't used z4root in a while on an unrooted phone, I don't know if this program will let you see the root folder or not. It's possible.
The efs on my phone shows several programs and folders.
One of the folder is /imei. I suppose this is where the unique id is located.
read the thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1372455
as you can see, the efs contains unique id...i'm not sure of even how to make up a different imei file from using someone else's efs folder.
if your phone boots up but does not connect, if you go to settings/about phone/status
does it list the imei?
if it does, are you able to use a script in terminal emulator to back it up?
if you can't find the script, you can try flashing doctor or zeus rom, they have scripts to back up your efs folder. then try locating it on your phone.
the other thought i had was for you to call your provider to see if they can give you your previous imei number.
I'm only reasoning from what I have read...these are new territory to me.
Right, I have rooted my phone and for whatever reason the EFS folder is completely empty... The folder is there, but completley empty.
I have the IMEI number, its on the back of the phone as well as AT&T gave it to me.
The fact that my entire folder is empty, and I hadn't backed anything up because I never flashed the kernel or rom makes me think that the android marketplace does have malicious code that simply says:
if(phone==rooted){
wipe efs foler
}
continuing to pull my hair out and attempt new things, if anyone has any ideas let me know.
Salmiery said:
continuing to pull my hair out and attempt new things, if anyone has any ideas let me know.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Check out Post # 5, I just edited my post.
its not simply a folder its actually a partition, on Linux you can mount drives/partitions however you like so it can appear to be under another directory and be an entirely different device.
you can make a .rfs image from the dd command through adb or terminal emulator.
if it is corrupt you "may" be able to salvage it through options of the dd command.
I gotta look up the device path and whatnot but if there is anything on there, visable or not, you might be able to recover the unique files and paste them over the files from someone else's efs backup. if not I have heard but never tried it, but I heard that fromatting the partition will cause the system to generate a generic efs, but I don't know for sure.
edit: the device location is /dev/block/stl3
you can dump it to the SD card with
dd if=/dev/block/stl3 of=/sdcard/efs.rfs bs=4096
if there are bad blocks I think but not quite sure you can add noerror to the end
dd if=/dev/block/stl3 of=/sdcard/efs.rfs bs=4096 noerror
but if the information has actually been deleted unless it was overwritten it is mostly intact. it is not well known that delete doesn't actually delete the data, even after a format data can be recovered with the right program. if the dumps come up empty there is also dd_rescue and foremost but I don't know if those commands are available on android, but you may be able to loop mount the dump on a Linux box or in cygwin and try the ddrescue or foremost commands.
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-newbie-8/learn-the-dd-command-362506/
hopefully you can recover something. and learn something along the way. this is also useful for recovering deleted files and securely deleting stuff you want gone for real.
i remember I lost my efs on my captivate. There are tools in the forum to get it back.
Salmiery said:
Hi guys,
One miraculous day, my efs folder became corrupt, when it just so happened to be the week after the hard drive on my computer took a dump! What a week this has been.. I was wondering if it is possible for someone to zip their EFS folder and send it to me to see if I can't get this phone to connect back to the network again. I honestly think there are applications on androids marketplace that will wipe things if you have superuser installed.. because it was like BAM, one morning I wake up and my efs folder was deleted the day after I had installed some new apps.
So my question is - Will someone send me a backup of their EFS? If that won't conflict with their phone of course -- I would send it back to Samsung, but their 3rd tier support has no idea what I'm talking about - they just hear root and think I'm a piece of trash.
Any help would be greatly appreciated - I have not seen anything about trying someone elses efs so I thought it could be a bit experimental as well.. Thanks
-Brett
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Uh, NO than you. My EFS folder has nothing to do with yours. Don't know how that would work...
So I have a problem with my Nexus 5. Yesterday I tried all kinds of different Lollipop roms and at the end of the day I sticked to Cataclysm. I liked it and my phone was all set up but I noticed there were a lot of unnecessary folders on my internal storage and a nested 0 folder (0 inside /0). I didn't like that so I thought about making a nandroid backup, storing it on my computer (together with my music etc.), wiping everything and restoring it by using TWRP and then eventually putting my music back.
So after I stored a backup on my computer, I started my device into recovery mode and chose the option 'advanced wipe'. Usually I would do a lot of research for everything I do but in this case I was a bit lazy to do that, I tried digging into the search results of Google concerning wiping but I gave up after some unsatisfying results. So I checked every box in the list, including data and system and went through with the wiping. So because my storage was completely wiped I didn't have a 'WRTP/BACKUPS' folder anymore. I made a backup from the stuff I had (which was only a few mb's) so I would have that folder again (otherwise I wouldn't be possible to locate my nandroid backup). I wanted to transfer my nandroid from my computer to my phone by connecting it through USB but for some reason the Nexus 5 didn't show up on my PC when it was booted in recovery (this sometimes happens for some reason)
I managed to do it by using 'adb push Cataclysm folder' in cmd. I went into recovery and restored my backup. My phone booted and I thought everything was as it should be. The wallpaper was black but that was logical because my internal storage was wiped, including my custom wallpaper. But then I noticed something strange, my status bar disappeared, sames goes for my navigation bar. I really have no idea what happened because I've restored nandroid backups before and everything went fine.
So then I put a clean version of Cataclysm on my phone and for some reason it asks me to insert a SIM-card into my device while it has one. I skipped that step and then it asked for my home Wi-Fi and I chose mine, then it checked the connection way longer than it would normally do. After I was done with all the steps my homepage entered my screen and guess what, my status bar and also my navigation bar were absent. It was like my cell phone was in immersive mode all the time. Then I tried flashing the KitKat factory image by going into recovery with my phone and opening 'flash-all.bat' on my PC but then it said '< waiting for devices >' while I enabled USB debugging... I opened cmd and typed 'adb decives' and mine showed up, so it was connected (although it now says 'unauthorized' when my phone is normally booted).
Then I flashed clean Cataclysm again and it again said I had to insert my SIM-card and it then again checked the connection with the Wi-Fi for a couple of minutes. When I was done with the installation I tried replacing the wallpaper with one from Lollipop but it didn't work although there was a preview available. There was again no status bar and navigation bar. I then opened chrome and went to this website and now I'm typing this on my Nexus 5 which has a permanent immersive mode now.
So I don't have much in my internal storage anymore, only a TWRP folder with backups, nothing more, not even a 0 folder if I'm not wrong. There's something wrong with my mobile connection and definitely something going on with my navigation bar and status bar. I hope anyone could help me with this because this is really frustrating becausr I tried to fix it for the last couple of hours, unfortunately without any result...
EDIT: I forgot to mention that when I was trying to figure out how to send the nandroid without being able to access my internal storage via my computer, I booted in recovery, went to 'advanced' and then to 'adb sideload' and tried that because I saw it somewhere on the internet. I somehow believe this contributed to the problem I have.
EDIT2: Now, when I try to power off my phone by holding the power button, it reboots the device instead, what's going on... And as I said, I have a black screen as wallpaper for some reason and I can't change this, but if I open my weather widget, the widget window shows up with my chosen wallpaper on the background, what kind of sorcery is this?
EDIT3: I wanted to download a terminal emulator from Google Play to do this but I couldn't get to 100% so I thought there was something wrong with the app on my device. I googled the apk and I wanted to download it from Zippyshare and when I clicked on the button 'download now', the phone showed the message 'no SD card', so I guess that's the culprit of all of this?
TL;DR My phone is acting really weird (no status or navigation bar, phone reboots instead of asking whether I want to have it shut down when I hold the power button, the wallpaper being strange, SIM-card isn't being recognised) after I wiped data and system and actually everything...
Reboot to bootmanager , flash a factory image , wipe , start over . Something must have gotten corrupted in your nandroid backup.
Regarding ADB not working , you also need to authorize the pc you are working from . You will get a prompt on your phone when connecting . If you dont , go to developer setting , wipe ADB credentials , reconnect the phone.
Also , adb push works fine for single files but it sometimes borks when you are pushing big/many files.
Edit : I hope you didn't wipe EFS as well ( though AFAIK TWRP doesn't wipe it on a advanced wipe) . If you did it's time to return it to stock and send it to LG/Google
Niflheimer said:
Reboot to bootmanager , flash a factory image , wipe , start over . Something must have gotten corrupted in your nandroid backup.
Regarding ADB not working , you also need to authorize the pc you are working from . You will get a prompt on your phone when connecting . If you dont , go to developer setting , wipe ADB credentials , reconnect the phone.
Also , adb push works fine for single files but it sometimes borks when you are pushing big/many files.
Edit : I hope you didn't wipe EFS as well ( though AFAIK TWRP doesn't wipe it on a advanced wipe) . If you did it's time to return it to stock and send it to LG/Google
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for reading my huge explanation. After hours of searching and trying a lot of things with my device I figured out how to fix it. Do you remember I said that when I tried to flash the factory image with 'flash-all.bat' that it responded with '< waiting for devices >' ? Well, after reinstalling the drivers countless times and trying to find the culprit I realised I was trying to flash it with TWRP being open, and not the bootloader... So after I was aware of that I finally managed to put stock Lollipop on my phone, then I wiped everything and flashed Cataclysm. It felt pretty satisfying to have a working phone again, it's a pity I had to start from scratch but on the other side, I now how a phone without any rubbish.
Regarding adb push, if I would like to ever push a rom or a big file onto my phone in case I would ever have a similar annoyance, what do you recommend me to do it with?
And what is EFS exactly and what happens if I would ever wipe that? Thank in advance!
Regarding ADB push / twrp MTP mode you jst need to remember not to try and upload the entire content of a sdcard backup or > 3-4 gigs. Big files rarely missbehave , but I screwed up my SD permissions when trying to restore my sdcard ( thousands of files and about 14 gb total).
EFS is a secure partition that stores your GSM/network id and profile - IMEI and so on. AFAIK it's pretty hard to erase but it is possible if you play around with format/repartition commands. Just follow the guides and instructions on this forum and it should be fine.
Corrupted or erased EFS = no network connectivity besides WiFi . And since tampering with it is illegal in some countries the only way to fix it is by RMA/warranty.
I'm glad you've fixed it - I'm not surprised it was a simple mistake , I've been there myself ( tried for an hour to flash a factory image unsuccessfully only to realize I had my phone plugged in a USB3 socket ) .
Don't forget to make a nandroid now that you are set up with your fav. ROM - it will come in handy sometime.
Niflheimer said:
Regarding ADB push / twrp MTP mode you jst need to remember not to try and upload the entire content of a sdcard backup or > 3-4 gigs. Big files rarely missbehave , but I screwed up my SD permissions when trying to restore my sdcard ( thousands of files and about 14 gb total).
EFS is a secure partition that stores your GSM/network id and profile - IMEI and so on. AFAIK it's pretty hard to erase but it is possible if you play around with format/repartition commands. Just follow the guides and instructions on this forum and it should be fine.
Corrupted or erased EFS = no network connectivity besides WiFi . And since tampering with it is illegal in some countries the only way to fix it is by RMA/warranty.
I'm glad you've fixed it - I'm not surprised it was a simple mistake , I've been there myself ( tried for an hour to flash a factory image unsuccessfully only to realize I had my phone plugged in a USB3 socket ) .
Don't forget to make a nandroid now that you are set up with your fav. ROM - it will come in handy sometime.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll definitely make a nandroid, just in case. Thanks for the help and the clarification!
Try wiping your bum more thoroughly
Hi,
I have been trying to troubleshoot this problem for some time. The basic problem is that every time the device is shutdown/reset the existing wifi data including known hotspots and passwords is lost.
I have tried factory resetting the tablet (Samsung Note 10.1 SM-T520), along with flashing various stock 4.4.2 Roms (i.e. different release dates and different countries). The tablet was purchased in the US and gifted to my mum in New Zealand, it originally had a stock US rom and now has the NZ rom loaded. Unfortunately Samsung's warranty required us to ship the tablet back to the US to investigate the problem (they would not look at it in NZ as it was not from NZ).
Based on some other threads, I thought it was a problem with the wpa_supplicant.conf file. So I rooted the phone using CF root through odin. I have looked at the wpa_supplicant.conf file and noticed that every time the device is shutdown/reset the
Code:
network={
}
section is removed.
When the device is turned on and I enter the network password the wpa_supplicant.conf file will be updated with the network information and as I said when shutdown this information is removed.
The wpa_supplicant has read/write privilages and user is set to system and group is set to wifi (I did not change these), this is the same for the wpa_supplicant.bak.conf which is created on reboot/shutdown (the bak file doesn't keep the network data on reset either)
In the data/misc/wifi/sockets folder (which the wpa_supplicant.conf references) are the following 4 files:
p2p0
wlan
wpa_ctrl_2719-7
wpa_ctrl_2719-8
This has been an ongoing problem for a year now and has driven me to the point of insanity.
Also, the problem was not originally solely related to the wifi data but also other common settings (i.e. app positioning on the home screen, stored settings), however, after some tinkering and flashing various stock roms some of the problems I was having before I have not been able to re-produce. I am waiting until the battery runs out to see if my home screen will return to the default factory state along with other settings which initially was part of the problem.
Any help or advice would be much appreciated I am happy to do any troubleshooting that may shed some light on the problem. The tablet is current rooted with a stock NZ room running 4.4.2.
Thanks
So an update, with some success
I read another thread that suggested the /efs/ss_data file could be causing the problem. Although this file does not exist... however as part of the troubleshooting process to see if this file might be causing the problem the following was suggested
There is most likely a problem with the phone's /efs/ss_data file. I think it's basically a key for decryption of your Wi-Fi passwords and other things in secure storage.
Root is required for this fix.
First we need to confirm it's a problem with secure storage.
Install BuildProp Editor from Play Store
Set ro.secure.storage=false
Reboot, setup Wi-Fi & reboot again
WiFi should now remember passwords if there was an issue with secure storage.
Now let's fix the secure storage issue since we know what's broken.
Set ro.secure.storage=true using BuildProp Editor
Backup EFS using TWRP/CWM recovery
Delete ss_data in /efs using ES File Explorer in root mode
Reboot, setup Wi-Fi and reboot again
Your Wi-Fi passwords should be remembered now on any ROM/kernel, non rooted and without edits to build.props
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't have the exact entry as per above but changed ro.securestorage.support to false and my wifi password seems to have saved. At least on one reset test.
As a side note, previously my apps weren't updating automatically and my gmail was not responding, now both seem to be working. Everything I have tested so far that had known problems seems to be working.
Now I have ejected the microSD and have not tested it with it in the device, I'm on 3% battery so running it dead before I do more testing.
Can someone shed any more light on how this problem has occurred and what is the permanent fix? (I cannot delete the ss_data file as the advice above suggests as the file does not exist??!!?
Hello,
I got a little problem with my phone (so freak... I'm explaining)
I got a router before but now I changed it, because I switched to another operator. But it feels like the Wi-fi of my phone is not agree with that.
I "forget" the now inexisting router I had and connect to the new one...
...But I do this each time I turn off then on Wi-fi, and even after switching off the device with enabled Wi-fi!
For now I just have to remember one Wi-Fi router (and, thank you Kika Keyboard developers who made an extensive clipboard where I can store my password <3) but figure out what it will be when I'll have to save more passwords! So yes it's annoying. And I also already lost at leat 8 router passwords because of this strange cr*p.
Fortunately I got a Wi-fi retriever app but this is not auto connecting and this is no longer working!
That was the last point: even the router password retriever app is acting like I didn't connect to a new router since its last analyze!
So could you help me fix this annoying bug?
For now I got an hypothesis: I got XPosed and a device ID changer app.
And it contains an useless but impossible to disable option that is "changing the SSID"
Default configuration make your phone to display your SSID. But not with the local variable where your actual SSID is displayed! No, with the SSID you got when you installed the app. So you can connect to another Wi-fi and still got the same SSID (perfectly useless)
Rest of my theory is that messing up with SSID display may cause network state not to be saved properly. But this is only a supposition. And this is hard to figure it...
So to corroborate this theory, a subquestion: What is the local Android variable where SSID is stored? Tried %WIFI, %SSID but it doesn't work. And I didn't found it after a quick search.
Thank you in advance!
Sorry for wasting your time with so much text :/
https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/124792/my-phone-stopped-remembering-wifi-passwords
There are also people conplaining this problem.
In the link pasted on the top, there is a possible fixes for some fortunate people... But actually this doesn't work for me.
-First, ro.secure.storage or ro.securestorage. thing does not exist on my device. I don't even know if it existed on my device.
-Second, there is something about /efs/ss_data, a file that also not exists on my device.
So I don't know if it's because Samsung built it differently or it has been removed. Keep checking...
After a check of my backups I saw that I got none of the file and property mentionned before.
So I'm unable to know where is the problem...
Atronid said:
After a check of my backups I saw that I got none of the file and property mentionned before.
So I'm unable to know where is the problem...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you're saying that you looked in build.prop but you don't see any lines that say ro.securestorage, you can add those lines if they don't exist. Just edit build.prop and type the line in at the bottom then save build.prop and reboot the device.
I DO NOT PROVIDE HELP IN PM, KEEP IT IN THE THREADS WHERE EVERYONE CAN SHARE
Droidriven said:
If you're saying that you looked in build.prop but you don't see any lines that say ro.securestorage, you can add those lines if they don't exist. Just edit build.prop and type the line in at the bottom then save build.prop and reboot the device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is what I did. Uneffective.
Why? Because I never got this prop before.
I checked my backups where the Wi-fi worked perfectly in case all of this would be due to the fact that this prop vanished because of a dark and random informatic process. And after checks I finally realized that I never had this prop...
Same thing for the file I mentionned before, located in /efs. I didn't lose it because I basically never got it.
So... This means that my device save Wi-fi informations by another way. And because I don't know this way, I cannot fix it...
(Device: Samsung Galaxy Core Prime SM-G361F AOG1 build.
Pre-rooted firmware, release date 23 February.
Latest Xposed Frameworks, Custom build by Wanam )
Atronid said:
This is what I did. Uneffective.
Why? Because I never got this prop before.
I checked my backups where the Wi-fi worked perfectly in case all of this would be due to the fact that this prop vanished because of a dark and random informatic process. And after checks I finally realized that I never had this prop...
Same thing for the file I mentionned before, located in /efs. I didn't lose it because I basically never got it.
So... This means that my device save Wi-fi informations by another way. And because I don't know this way, I cannot fix it...
(Device: Samsung Galaxy Core Prime SM-G361F AOG1 build.
Pre-rooted firmware, release date 23 February.
Latest Xposed Frameworks, Custom build by Wanam )
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you got a different router but kept the same network name and password and didn't change anything on your device, that might be the issue, your device is probably looking for your original router because the information you originally saved was saved while the other router was in use.
Try backing up your apps, app data and settings but don't backup your wifi settings or saved wifi information. Then boot to recovery and factory reset and wipe cache and dalvik/ART. Then reboot the device, when it boots to system, try connecting and signing into your network again and see if it saves it correctly.
If the backups you are talking about are nandroid backups created in TWRP, you can also try doing an advanced restore in TWRP, you can restore just the data from your previously working backup without restoring everything else.
I DO NOT PROVIDE HELP IN PM, KEEP IT IN THE THREADS WHERE EVERYONE CAN SHARE
Thank you, I'll try this out
Droidriven said:
Try backing up your apps, app data and settings but don't backup your wifi settings or saved wifi information. Then boot to recovery and factory reset and wipe cache and dalvik/ART. Then reboot the device, when it boots to system, try connecting and signing into your network again and see if it saves it correctly.
If the backups you are talking about are nandroid backups created in TWRP, you can also try doing an advanced restore in TWRP, you can restore just the data from your previously working backup without restoring everything else.
I DO NOT PROVIDE HELP IN PM, KEEP IT IN THE THREADS WHERE EVERYONE CAN SHARE
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, tried what you told me and this didn't end well...
I used to make a factory reset of my phone. The problem was fixed. When I connected to the wifi first time, now each time I disabled and re-enabled it automatically reconnected (auto-connect is miraculous lol)
Then I flashed data back with TWRP recovery (backup by Nandroid app because I got a classical TarFork error with TWRP 2.7.0.1...)
When rebooting to Android it spammed 1M layers of various program crash message box.
Then using TWRP I reflashed this time everything I got then rebooting to Android the bootloader freezed.
I thought my phone was dead until I realized I could boot to recovery again. So I flashed an older backup and lost some data (fortunately I backed up SMS and apk).
My device is safe now, but this misadventure taught me lots of things:
-When I did a factory reset data has been erased, but system still the same and it reworked. So maybe an app is locking my Wi-fi like this. But which?
-Nandroid backup app is NOT reliable. If your device isn't clearly identified your backups are corrupt. Gotta erase all Nandroid backups I made.
Solved. Bug due to a bad TWRP backup. Made a fresh install and everything is fine now.
Thread closed.