Database Info

Noob Unlocks and Subsequently Kills Phone

A day or two ago I unlocked my ChaCha using the HTCDev.com instructions. I then used DooMLoRD_v4_ROOT-zergRush-busybox-su to root it. Everything was going fine until I apparently deleted one too many system apps and now my phone is in extremis.
The problem: As the phone boots up and reaches the HTC logo screen, just when the main interface should appear, an error pops up. It says:
Code:
Sorry!
The process com.htc.bg has stopped unexpectedly. Please try again.
[Force close]
When I close it, the HTC logo appears again as the main GUI is reinitialised, which leads to the same error popping up again, thus entering into an infinite loop.
I can just about manage to connect the phone to my PC as a disk drive, but it's not connected in such a way that RUU or unrooting applications can "find" it from within Windows, so if I'm to fix this it's gotta be from the SD card/Hboot.
Details:
* HTC ChaCha with the latest Android firmware.
* Unlocked and rooted, but remains S-ON (Superuser was installed and worked).
* Used Titanium to delete apps, but made backups and have them on my hard drive for safe keeping but can't access the phone in order to restore them properly.
* I was unable to restore backed-up system apps prior to this critical problem emerging, which I think is because my phone isn't "truly" rooted. I can apparently remove from but not add to the protected areas of the phone.
* I've tried flashing the device with numerous recovery ROMs and they all fail (wrong image, etc.). I'm having an extremely difficult time finding the original ROM anywhere and more importantly finding one which will work without the phone being connected to the PC at any stage of the flashing job.
* Factory resets and recovery boots don't seem to have any effect.
* It's a carrier-locked/branded phone, from Three/Hutchison 3G UK. I'm locked into my contract for another year at least.
* Before I rebooted the phone for the last time [prior to the beginning of the above problem] I noticed that my ringtones and related media were all gone and I was unable to download new ones even using third-party apps; the "unable to download sound" error was constantly popping up and when I received messages or phone calls the phone would vibrate but wouldn't play any tones.
* My brother and I spent the better part of 6 hours scouring the net and trying every combination of steps we could think of to try and resolve this. I wouldn't have posted here if I wasn't at the end of my tether and if I hadn't tried every solution I could find from others on various forums including this one, nor would I be so quick to reveal myself to be a deletion-happy moron to a forum of experts (I saw that anti-noob YouTube clip!).
Is there any hope of fixing this issue given my obvious lack of critical faculties?
Thank you for reading this.

You can always install clockworkmod recovery and from there a custom rom. Check the relevant thread, it is pinned.

OK,
don't panic. I almost thought you'd hard bricked your phone when modifying the NAND. This is a soft brick and ALL soft bricks can be recovered, they just take a bit of pain and suffering. Sometimes more suffering than others, but that's irrelevant.
Question, you say you can't restore system apps? How did you try? If a phone is perm rooted, it's rooted. Obviously a temp root is different to a perm root, but I believe this is a perm root as you can REMOVE apps from the system memory. If a root wasn't perm, every app would be sandboxed so no app, including titaniumbackup would work.
* Unlocked and rooted, but remains S-ON (Superuser was installed and worked).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
S-ON is part of HTC's snap on BL protection. The fact your phone is S-ON is now not that important, the BL is unlocked, thats what matters.
* Used Titanium to delete apps, but made backups and have them on my hard drive for safe keeping but can't access the phone in order to restore them properly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, important advice here (for future ref), you shouldn't go mad with deleting unless you've tried freezing first. Freezing allows you to recover by simply doing a factory reset. Most bootloaders (including HTC's) allow you to perform an emergency factory reset from there. You might lose all the **** on there, but you will have a working phone. You also need to be careful with TitaniumBackup, I'm sure you didn't remove the obvious important ones, but the fact you lost access to your audio means you removed a sound/media package. Next time, google "HTC chacha, safe to remove" as more people root this phone in the next few weeks, safe to remove lists will appear. For SGS (my phone) there is a whole shared google doc with a list of system apps, and the consequence of removing them.
* I was unable to restore backed-up system apps prior to this critical problem emerging, which I think is because my phone isn't "truly" rooted. I can apparently remove from but not add to the protected areas of the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can't restore a system app if there is a conflict. Try and identify the conflict.
* I've tried flashing the device with numerous recovery ROMs and they all fail (wrong image, etc.). I'm having an extremely difficult time finding the original ROM anywhere and more importantly finding one which will work without the phone being connected to the PC at any stage of the flashing job.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
By the sounds of it, you are using ROMs designed for CWM. If you are going to do that, flash CWM first. There are shed loads of tutorials. If you want to install the stock rom all over again, just download the stock RUU.
* Factory resets and recovery boots don't seem to have any effect.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
See above about freezing.
* It's a carrier-locked/branded phone, from Three/Hutchison 3G UK. I'm locked into my contract for another year at least.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Doesn't matter, you'll fix it, guarantee it.
* Before I rebooted the phone for the last time [prior to the beginning of the above problem] I noticed that my ringtones and related media were all gone and I was unable to download new ones even using third-party apps; the "unable to download sound" error was constantly popping up and when I received messages or phone calls the phone would vibrate but wouldn't play any tones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
See what I said above.
* My brother and I spent the better part of 6 hours scouring the net and trying every combination of steps we could think of to try and resolve this. I wouldn't have posted here if I wasn't at the end of my tether and if I hadn't tried every solution I could find from others on various forums including this one, nor would I be so quick to reveal myself to be a deletion-happy moron to a forum of experts (I saw that anti-noob YouTube clip!).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried every combination of steps? You've clearly not tried CWM. I'm not suggesting that as a silver bullet (personally, I try to avoid CWM if I can) but it's the best way to give you low level access to the NAND so you could easily flash an OTA ROM, modded ROM or even return it to stock dead quick.

For a safe to remove list, check the Themes and Apps section.

skezza said:
OK,
don't panic. I almost thought you'd hard bricked your phone when modifying the NAND. This is a soft brick and ALL soft bricks can be recovered, they just take a bit of pain and suffering. Sometimes more suffering than others, but that's irrelevant.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Music to my ears!
skezza said:
Question, you say you can't restore system apps? How did you try? If a phone is perm rooted, it's rooted. Obviously a temp root is different to a perm root, but I believe this is a perm root as you can REMOVE apps from the system memory. If a root wasn't perm, every app would be sandboxed so no app, including titaniumbackup would work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In Titanium Backup I tried restoring the backups I made; the "Recovering Backup" notice would just hang indefinitely until I forced TB to close. This only happened with system apps. The backed up files are still on my PC hard drive from when I copied them from my SD card, but I'm not sure they're of any use at this stage.
skezza said:
S-ON is part of HTC's snap on BL protection. The fact your phone is S-ON is now not that important, the BL is unlocked, thats what matters.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ahhh, this is probably my problem then. I ignored most of the fixes and workarounds listed as [S-OFF] because I didn't think they'd work for my device haha.
skezza said:
Ok, important advice here (for future ref), you shouldn't go mad with deleting unless you've tried freezing first. Freezing allows you to recover by simply doing a factory reset. Most bootloaders (including HTC's) allow you to perform an emergency factory reset from there. You might lose all the **** on there, but you will have a working phone. You also need to be careful with TitaniumBackup, I'm sure you didn't remove the obvious important ones, but the fact you lost access to your audio means you removed a sound/media package. Next time, google "HTC chacha, safe to remove" as more people root this phone in the next few weeks, safe to remove lists will appear. For SGS (my phone) there is a whole shared google doc with a list of system apps, and the consequence of removing them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm disappointed in myself for being so haphazard in my deleting, I'm usually not that stupid but I think I was a little overexcited to have finally gotten rid of some of the bloatware that'd irritated me for so long haha. I was like "oh boy, I can save even more battery power and internal space if I just remove a little more!". Lesson learnt
skezza said:
By the sounds of it, you are using ROMs designed for CWM. If you are going to do that, flash CWM first. There are shed loads of tutorials. If you want to install the stock rom all over again, just download the stock RUU.
...
Have you tried every combination of steps? You've clearly not tried CWM. I'm not suggesting that as a silver bullet (personally, I try to avoid CWM if I can) but it's the best way to give you low level access to the NAND so you could easily flash an OTA ROM, modded ROM or even return it to stock dead quick.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As I said above I didn't realise I could make use of [S-OFF] materials so I didn't even attempt them for fear of making matters worse. I just now attempted to flash CWM and it hung on "parsing" which is what happened with previous flash attempts. If a flash attempt doesn't hang on "parsing" it parses for a second and then goes back to the main menu, apparently having no effect.
I'd be lying if I said I'm not overwhelmed by all of this; the tutorials I've read seem to assume a fair degree of prior knowledge that I definitely don't have haha. I hope I don't stretch anyone's patience here, but if you could explain it to me like a 6-year-old whose mother drank heavily during pregnancy I think it will help move things along!
Thank you for the thorough reply, much appreciated

Follow this to flash CWM, you need to do it with your computer and using fastboot, this is needed for S-ON phones.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1449681

dapaua said:
Follow this to flash CWM, you need to do it with your computer and using fastboot, this is needed for S-ON phones.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1449681
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately I can't do anything via my computer; my phone isn't "discovered" by the command line, unrooting tools or anything else. It does allow me to access the SD card as a hard drive but that's all it does. Obviously this wasn't the case before my problems started, because I used my PC to root and unlock the phone originally, but now the phone's boot process can't reach a point where it becomes receptive to the PC's commands. I don't know why it lets me access the SD card though.
Is there any way to do this without my PC being involved beyond transferring files to the SD card? If not, am I screwed? haha
Thanks mate!

Can you boot into the bootloader (Whith the phone off, press Volume down + power for five seconds)?
Then boot into it, move up with the volume keys and then choose fastboot.
Then follow the procedures in the link I posted previously http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1449681 (start from step 3). Fastboot mode should be recognized.
The fastboot binary is here C:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-sdk\tools , if you installed the android SDK, which I asume you did.
Good luck, I hope this works!

dapaua said:
Can you boot into the bootloader (Whith the phone off, press Volume down + power for five seconds)?
Then boot into it, move up with the volume keys and then choose fastboot.
Then follow the procedures in the link I posted previously http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1449681 (start from step 3). Fastboot mode should be recognized.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dear CHRIST thank you for that - I didn't know about this feature, and it worked! I was able to connect to my PC and do everything I needed to. I used the command line to flash the CWM, then followed instructions for partitioning the SD card and installing a custom ROM. I feel like a real [email protected] I wonder if Anonymous are looking for any new recruits...
dapaua said:
Good luck, I hope this works!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It did - I'm back in business!! Thank you mate, if I could fellate you via WiFi I probably would. You'd have to be wearing some anti-virus trousers though, I'm not a slut.
Cheers!

PaddyM said:
Dear CHRIST thank you for that - I didn't...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great news (I thought you already knew about the recovery menu feature otherwise I'd have mentioned it).
As I said in my reply earlier, every soft brick can be fixed somehow. Some are just harder than others. If I'm honest, it seems like yours was pretty straightforward once you got into the Recovery menu.
By the way, if you decide you want to return to stock, you can do that quite easily. Also, if I was you, do the freezing technique I suggested earlier and use the safe list that's available.
If you keep CWM, do a Nandroid backup. You don't have to keep it on your SD, but they are great for doing a very fast recovery. I can usually restore my phone in about 10 - 15 minutes using Nandroid.

PaddyM said:
Dear CHRIST thank you for that - I didn't know about this feature, and it worked! I was able to connect to my PC and do everything I needed to. I used the command line to flash the CWM, then followed instructions for partitioning the SD card and installing a custom ROM. I feel like a real [email protected] I wonder if Anonymous are looking for any new recruits...
It did - I'm back in business!! Thank you mate, if I could fellate you via WiFi I probably would. You'd have to be wearing some anti-virus trousers though, I'm not a slut.
Cheers!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm happy it worked. Let's hope WiFi technology improves in the future

skezza said:
Great news (I thought you already knew about the recovery menu feature otherwise I'd have mentioned it).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I knew about the recovery menu (the stock one, at least) but I didn't realise I could go into the Fastboot option and for the phone to then be recognisable to the PC, thus making it possible to flash via the command line. If I had known that I probably wouldn't have needed to post this thread at all haha.
skezza said:
As I said in my reply earlier, every soft brick can be fixed somehow. Some are just harder than others. If I'm honest, it seems like yours was pretty straightforward once you got into the Recovery menu.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah... I think if it happened to one of you guys you probably would have had it sorted in about 6 minutes. 3 days isn't bad for my first attempt though! hahaha
skezza said:
By the way, if you decide you want to return to stock, you can do that quite easily. Also, if I was you, do the freezing technique I suggested earlier and use the safe list that's available.
If you keep CWM, do a Nandroid backup. You don't have to keep it on your SD, but they are great for doing a very fast recovery. I can usually restore my phone in about 10 - 15 minutes using Nandroid.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the advice man, I'll definitely be looking into the Nandroid backup option, although I hope I've learnt enough from this experience to have no need for it
Thanks to everyone who posted here, I appreciate the patience and the tolerance of my noobery.

Funnily enough, I tried TitaniumBackup today and the original poster is correct. While you can freeze, remove apps etc, you can't return them. especially system. I've not tried any of the alternative install methods that TB uses, but it's quite interesting.

TB is a bit quirky, I think. The system apps won't restore at all, but sometimes apps that I've downloaded myself will restore and other times they won't (the "Restoring App" notice just hangs there indefinitely). I usually find that forcing TB to close and then trying again does the trick, but I can't figure out why it happens in the first place.

Im wondering if anyone else has worked out a good configuration that will allow it to work every time?

[Q] Galaxy Note 2 - where is IMEI stored?

Hi,
After installing a custom ROM, the IMEI reported by Android is different from the one on the sticker under the battery.
I believe the IMEI is somewhere in the 'efs' folder, but where exactly? There are all sorts of files and folders in that folder.
There is even a folder called 'imei', but it contains just one file called 'mps-code.dat', and that is only three bytes long, which isn't enough to contain the 15-digit IMEI.
Can anyone help?
Thanks,
Steve
(Phone is Samsung Galaxy Note 2 GT-N7100)

Steve Thackery said:
Hi,
After installing a custom ROM, the IMEI reported by Android is different from the one on the sticker under the battery.
I believe the IMEI is somewhere in the 'efs' folder, but where exactly? There are all sorts of files and folders in that folder.
There is even a folder called 'imei', but it contains just one file called 'mps-code.dat', and that is only three bytes long, which isn't enough to contain the 15-digit IMEI.
Can anyone help?
Thanks,
Steve
(Phone is Samsung Galaxy Note 2 GT-N7100)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's inside the efs folder in the root of your phone.
Backing it up eh?

eatsleep said:
It's inside the efs folder in the root of your phone.
Backing it up eh?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, my phone stopped working and I think it's because the IMEI has got corrupted when I was messing with various custom ROMs - it no longer matches the sticker. I want to figure out a way to fix it - I can't bear the thought that I've just bricked a fine phone that I paid good money for.
Where in the efs folder? There are loads of files and folders in there.
Thanks,
Steve

Wait wait,
You can't text or connect to the network?
Try flashing a official firmware and see if the IMEI matches...
It's not that simple to modify your IMEI n.o, special softwares are required to do this.... It's stored in .nv_data
Don't you have any efs backups?
IMEI getting corrupt is seen many times in s3 and note 2 devices....
And also, modifying your iMEi is illegal, but people out there use a software to do it.... May not be good to discuss this software here...
And one more thing, does your phone shows a generic IMEI number when you dial *#06* ?

eatsleep said:
Wait wait,
You can't text or connect to the network?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for replying, eatsleep. That's right - the whole phone works fine. It will see all the mobile networks in my area, and will register itself on mine (O2-UK). The only thing that doesn't work is voice telephony, SMS, and mobile data.
eatsleep said:
Try flashing a official firmware and see if the IMEI matches...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I've done that. No good, I'm afraid.
eatsleep said:
It's not that simple to modify your IMEI n.o, special softwares are required to do this.... It's stored in .nv_data
Don't you have any efs backups?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here I must admit to being a bloody fool. I didn't know what I was doing and messed about stupidly in CWM, mounting and unmounting, deleting, reformatting, and so on. Basically I was trying to follow several guides at the same time, and made a total mess of it.
And no, I didn't know about backing up the efs before I started.
eatsleep said:
IMEI getting corrupt is seen many times in s3 and note 2 devices....
And also, modifying your iMEi is illegal, but people out there use a software to do it.... May not be good to discuss this software here...
And one more thing, does your phone shows a generic IMEI number when you dial *#06* ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not a generic one. It's really weird, because it's almost but not quite the same:
Sticker inside phone:
xxxxxx05861xxx3
*#06#:
xxxxxx05681xxx1
The ...86... has reversed to ...68... and the final 3 has become 1.
I'm an idiot and furious with myself.
Thanks again for any help you can give, though.
Steve

Wow! I've just seen how much it costs to buy that eight-tentacled device who's name shall not be mentioned.
$135 makes poor sense if it's only going to be used once. Perhaps the best idea is to check my local phone repairers until I find one who has the device?
Steve

Bumpety bump just this once:
Any chance of correcting the IMEI myself?
Thanks,
Steve

Steve Thackery said:
Thanks for replying, eatsleep. That's right - the whole phone works fine. It will see all the mobile networks in my area, and will register itself on mine (O2-UK). The only thing that doesn't work is voice telephony, SMS, and mobile data.
Yeah, I've done that. No good, I'm afraid.
Here I must admit to being a bloody fool. I didn't know what I was doing and messed about stupidly in CWM, mounting and unmounting, deleting, reformatting, and so on. Basically I was trying to follow several guides at the same time, and made a total mess of it.
And no, I didn't know about backing up the efs before I started.
Not a generic one. It's really weird, because it's almost but not quite the same:
Sticker inside phone:
The ...86... has reversed to ...68... and the final 3 has become 1.
I'm an idiot and furious with myself.
Thanks again for any help you can give, though.
Steve
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey babe..... please remove both of your IMEIs from here and never post them again in public. I'll post back in some time.... and your IMEI looks quite fine to me but still, lemme look for some time
And, your phone is not bricked, you've just got a bad IMEI

eatsleep said:
Hey babe..... please remove both of your IMEIs from here and never post them again in public. I'll post back in some time.... and your IMEI looks quite fine to me but still, lemme look for some time
And, your phone is not bricked, you've just got a bad IMEI
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for replying! I've edited my post to remove the IMEI, as requested. Perhaps you could alter the one where you quote my message?
I realise everyone must say this, but I'm genuinely not trying to do anything questionable or immoral. I just want to restore the IMEI so it's the same as the one on the sticker.
Thanks,
Steve

Steve Thackery said:
Thank you for replying! I've edited my post to remove the IMEI, as requested. Perhaps you could alter the one where you quote my message?
I realise everyone must say this, but I'm genuinely not trying to do anything questionable or immoral. I just want to restore the IMEI so it's the same as the one on the sticker.
Thanks,
Steve
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can't find some content for your device but please do one last precaution before following any more tutorials, backup your efs folder and place it in a safe place.......
If you don't find anything, I can provide you with some guides for s3 (my device ) but don't know if they'll work for you....
One advice, reset your phone and send it to any service center.... They may charge you if you are out of warranty.....
here is a random thread i found but I have a bad feeling about the person.... Carry on at your own risk but back up your current efs, it may be recoverable but can move to a unrecoverable state after some repair attempts so, we can have hope....
link:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2141928&page=1

eatsleep said:
Can't find some content for your device but please do one last precaution before following any more tutorials, backup your efs folder and place it in a safe place.......
If you don't find anything, I can provide you with some guides for s3 (my device ) but don't know if they'll work for you....
One advice, reset your phone and send it to any service center.... They may charge you if you are out of warranty.....
here is a random thread i found but I have a bad feeling about the person.... Carry on at your own risk but back up your current efs, it may be recoverable but can move to a unrecoverable state after some repair attempts so, we can have hope....
link:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2141928&page=1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you again, eatsleep! I really appreciate your continuing help.
I've gone about as deeply into this as I think I can, without trying even more bits of dodgy software from around the web which might make the situation worse. So, I think my next step should be to take it to a reputable service centre on a no-fix-no-fee basis. If they can't fix it either, then I'll regard it as a write-off and - on the grounds that there is nothing to lose - I'll have one last go with anything/everything I can find on the net.
Whatever the outcome I will report back so that others can benefit from my mistakes!
Thanks everyone who tried so hard to help - have a good weekend.
Steve

Steve Thackery said:
Thank you again, eatsleep! I really appreciate your continuing help.
I've gone about as deeply into this as I think I can, without trying even more bits of dodgy software from around the web which might make the situation worse. So, I think my next step should be to take it to a reputable service centre on a no-fix-no-fee basis. If they can't fix it either, then I'll regard it as a write-off and - on the grounds that there is nothing to lose - I'll have one last go with anything/everything I can find on the net.
Whatever the outcome I will report back so that others can benefit from my mistakes!
Thanks everyone who tried so hard to help - have a good weekend.
Steve
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, samsung can definitely help you, but again, be sure to make a backup of current efs to get back if situation gets worse!
And if you fail, then we can try some softwares out there, which might me improper to discuss here, but leave that for only when everything fails....
Wish you all the best

Sooo, my gf and I have same phones. S7 edge. I made back up of mine superstock rom. And made back up of hers rom. We decided to change phones becouse I bought rose gold very cheap and she has gold. So, my back up i transfered to pc, which later got corrupt I dont know why. And her back up tranfered to my phone. Wiped everything. Restored her back up, and by mistake recovered her efs in my phone. Now imei shows 000000. As I said, my back up corrupted, cant open on pc, twrp shows errors of corupted file...how can i recover my imei? Flashing stock clean rom via odin or samsung swich doesnt help...

Wixcee said:
Sooo, my gf and I have same phones. S7 edge. I made back up of mine superstock rom. And made back up of hers rom. We decided to change phones becouse I bought rose gold very cheap and she has gold. So, my back up i transfered to pc, which later got corrupt I dont know why. And her back up tranfered to my phone. Wiped everything. Restored her back up, and by mistake recovered her efs in my phone. Now imei shows 000000. As I said, my back up corrupted, cant open on pc, twrp shows errors of corupted file...how can i recover my imei? Flashing stock clean rom via odin or samsung swich doesnt help...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Time to send it back to Samsung for a new board. That's if they have one. Other then that you can try flashing a compete stock rom but normally that doesn't happen.
You learned a lesson. Never restore a backup from a different device.

Wixcee said:
Sooo, my gf and I have same phones. S7 edge. I made back up of mine superstock rom. And made back up of hers rom. We decided to change phones becouse I bought rose gold very cheap and she has gold. So, my back up i transfered to pc, which later got corrupt I dont know why. And her back up tranfered to my phone. Wiped everything. Restored her back up, and by mistake recovered her efs in my phone. Now imei shows 000000. As I said, my back up corrupted, cant open on pc, twrp shows errors of corupted file...how can i recover my imei? Flashing stock clean rom via odin or samsung swich doesnt help...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Without an IMEI/EFS backup that was created before doing this, you're not gonna find much of a solution for restoring the device.
DO NOT CONTACT ME VIA PM TO RECEIVE HELP, YOU WILL BE IGNORED. KEEP IT IN THE THREADS WHERE EVERYONE CAN SHARE

eatsleep said:
Wait wait,
You can't text or connect to the network?
Try flashing a official firmware and see if the IMEI matches...
It's not that simple to modify your IMEI n.o, special softwares are required to do this.... It's stored in .nv_data
Don't you have any efs backups?
IMEI getting corrupt is seen many times in s3 and note 2 devices....
And also, modifying your iMEi is illegal, but people out there use a software to do it.... May not be good to discuss this software here...
And one more thing, does your phone shows a generic IMEI number when you dial *#06* ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi
I am using SM-N9500 samsung note 8 model, i frequently change the roms.. but last time i tried to install a custom rom and then i lost IMEI. i am getting error like IMEI-unknown, baseband- unknown, no network and sim cards not working..
i tried installing stock rom, custom roms, it was installing successfully but IMEI is not working. i didnt even back up my EFS folder. So, kindly help me to get back my IMEI.
please find below link to see all the procedures i followed and failed. kindly help me to restore my IMEI.
https://www.google.com/url?q=https:...246000&usg=AFQjCNF056_y5gTI2xpc9jM_I0ZlfkgpkA

Hopelessly stuck in a boot loop, unable to resolve. (resolved/fixed)

Hey folks I'm looking for ideas to unbrick my OPO which is permanently stuck in a boot loop. It all began last Friday while flashing the lastest CM nightly and gapps. The flash executed successfully then entered a boot loop that refuses to be resolved. I've tried formatting and wiping all pertinent partitions including /persistent, fastboot flashing different version stock images, different radios... I don't know what else to try short of j-tag to rectify. Any and all advice appreciated. TIA
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Feb. 18th, 2016 Edit:
Well I'm happy to announce that after nearly 5 months of trying different tactics I was finally able to get my handset up and running this weekend.
The technique I used was to first flash the new official Oxygen OS following the directions from the oneplus forums. From there I was able to boot-up for the first time in months, but had no connectivity. I went to settings and saw I had no IMEI showing. Realizing this, I tried using the technique Heisenberg suggested below in this thread, but again I had no success.
Then I tried the instructions in this thread (which I had tried previously with no success) http://forum.xda-developers.com/oneplus-one/general/guide-efs-partitions-how-to-lost-t3307793 and viola! I got my radio back. It took me several attempts to get bluetooth and wifi back working, with rebooting in between, but alas I was able to get all fully functioning again.
Then I re-rooted and reinstalled TWRP (unofficial 3.0), backed up everything (including firmware and EFS partitions), then proceeded to flash the latest CM snapshot, then eventually the latest CM-12.1 unofficial CAF Sultanxda that I'm now happily running!!!
Thanks again to everyone who posted trying to help me get my handset working again. Now I have two fully functioning OPO's and am very happy!!!

Odysseus1962 said:
Hey folks I'm looking for ideas to unbrick my OPO which is permanently stuck in a boot loop. It all began last Friday while flashing the lastest CM nightly and gapps. The flash executed successfully then entered a boot loop that refuses to be resolved. I've tried formatting and wiping all pertinent partitions including /persistent, fastboot flashing different version stock images, different radios... I don't know what else to try short of j-tag to rectify. Any and all advice appreciated. TIA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You might have a corrupt persist partition. Download this:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B98G0KTJwnBFUnJCNldodGs2dE0/view?usp=docslist_api
Then:
Code:
fastboot erase persist
fastboot flash persist persist.img

Heisenberg said:
You might have a corrupt persist partition. Download this:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B98G0KTJwnBFUnJCNldodGs2dE0/view?usp=docslist_api
Then:
Code:
fastboot erase persist
fastboot flash persist persist.img
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks it's greatly appreciated. I had tried this earlier with a download from another link, but tried again with your persist.img and unfortunately, it too didn't work.
This scenario that I'm currently experiencing is eerily like a common problem we had with the HD2, where over time and use NAND cells would get "stuck" and go bad. If the bad cells were located in the portion of the NAND allocated for the /system partition an unresolvable boot loop would result. To work around this developers added tools to HD2 recoveries that would allow reordering and resizing partitions so the /system partition would wholly reside in a contiguous healthy part of the NAND.
I'm wondering now if the hundreds of times I've flashed my beloved OPO has taken its toll, and created a similar situation where bad NAND cells now reside within the boundaries of my /system partition?
Anyone familiar or aware of any tools I can use from either recovery or fastboot that would allow checking the integrity of the NAND to determine if this is indeed the cause of my current dilemma or rule it out?
Again, any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. TIA

Odysseus1962 said:
Thanks it's greatly appreciated. I had tried this earlier with a download from another link, but tried again with your persist.img and unfortunately, it too didn't work.
This scenario that I'm currently experiencing is eerily like a common problem we had with the HD2, where over time and use NAND cells would get "stuck" and go bad. If the bad cells were located in the portion of the NAND allocated for the /system partition an unresolvable boot loop would result. To work around this developers added tools to HD2 recoveries that would allow reordering and resizing partitions so the /system partition would wholly reside in a contiguous healthy part of the NAND.
I'm wondering now if the hundreds of times I've flashed my beloved OPO has taken its toll, and created a similar situation where bad NAND cells now reside within the boundaries of my /system partition?
Anyone familiar or aware of any tools I can use from either recovery or fastboot that would allow checking the integrity of the NAND to determine if this is indeed the cause of my current dilemma or rule it out?
Again, any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. TIA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If that is the case it's the first time I've heard of it happening on this device. TWRP may have a feature like that but I'm not sure. Other than that I'm unaware of any tools of this nature.

Heisenberg said:
If that is the case it's the first time I've heard of it happening on this device. TWRP may have a feature like that but I'm not sure. Other than that I'm unaware of any tools of this nature.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks again for responding. I'm just at my wit's end with this and out of ideas, which is why I even suggested the hypothesis in my previous post. Fortunately, I have another OPO backup, so I still have a phone, but it too is problematic. Whenever the capacitive buttons are activated I experience phantom touches of the menu button, and usually at the most inopportune time. OPO customer service is nonexistent and have insisted since I received the defective device that my problems are firmware related and refuse to investigate further. Nearly a year later and numerous updates the problem is still unresolved, which is why I took the device out of service and made it my spare.
Now with my daily driver malfunctioning I'm nearly ready to throw in the towel and give up on Oneplus altogether and get another device from a more reputable manufacturer. They've sent me several OP2 invites, that I've declined using. My horrible customer service experience with them and now two faulty devices leads me to never want to purchase their products again, no matter how affordable or feature packed they may be.
Anyhow, as previously posted, if anyone has ideas to resolve my boot loop, please chime in. TIA

Is it possible that my boot looping is being caused by a corrupt iemi partition? If so, I never backed it up, but have the number readily available from the packaging my OPO shipped in. I also have my backup OPO that I'm currently using, is it possible to clone that partition?
Any ideas on how to recover or clone my from my other device would be greatly appreciated. Basically anything to help get my daily driver back up and running would be a heaven send. TIA

Odysseus1962 said:
Is it possible that my boot looping is being caused by a corrupt iemi partition? If so, I never backed it up, but have the number readily available from the packaging my OPO shipped in. I also have my backup OPO that I'm currently using, is it possible to clone that partition?
Any ideas on how to recover or clone my from my other device would be greatly appreciated. Basically anything to help get my daily driver back up and running would be a heaven send. TIA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A corrupt EFS partition doesn't cause this to happen, the phone will still boot but will have no network because it has no baseband and no IMEI.

Still trying to resovle. I refuse to give up!
I'm still looking for help in resolving this bootloop issue. I refuse to give up as long as there is the slightest hope of getting it back up and working.
Being a longtime Linux user I know that by default there must be some type of logs generated in the boot-up process. I'm thinking that perhaps if I can extract the log(s) and post them maybe someone can point me in the right direction towards resolving this issue. I've noticed that after flashing back the stock recovery there is a section which contains several logs. Which do I need, where do they reside, how can I extract them from my device, and how should I repost (them) here so they can be properly deciphered? TIA

Why don't you hard brick your phone and unbrick it by flashing ColorOS ? Not joking .. You can try that .. anyhow you're facing a soft brick ..

Tried flashing with twrp 2.8.6 build instead of 2.8.7?

Sanjiv Kumar said:
Why don't you hard brick your phone and unbrick it by flashing ColorOS ? Not joking .. You can try that .. anyhow you're facing a soft brick ..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought about this as a possible solution, but the "hard unbricking guide" only contains solutions to use with various versions of Windows. Unfortunately, I have no access to a Windows computer (at least one that someone would allow me to use for the purpose of unbricking). I run Linux on my laptop and desktop, specifically Gentoo Linux ~AMD64. I haven't run Windows on any of my machines for over a decade. For the extremely rare instances where I need to use a Windows application I run it on WINE in Linux.
If someone knows how to run the ColorOS unbricking procedure on Linux, I'd be happy to try it out.
NoobInToto said:
Tried flashing with twrp 2.8.6 build instead of 2.8.7?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This device was already running TWRP-2.8.6 prior to getting stuck in the bootloop. Since then I've tried every version above 2.8.4, I've tried Phil's, and CWM and both the CyanogenOS and CM recoveries. All with the same result.

Bumb to bring back up this thread, now that I've resolved my problems. Hopefully it will help someone else who may be having similar issues.

Bootloop to TWRP only

So I did the whole unlock bootloader flashed a custom rom, flashed twrp and did the verify boot image. And it worked flawlessly. I then decided to root the phone using supersu and verified again. it worked. I decided to do Magisk and now nothing I can do works. I flashed magisk did the verify, and it booted but said it was rooted but magisk was not installed. So I went back into recovery and flashed my custom rom again, twrp, magisk, then verify and now all it does it reboot a couple times till it gets to the google logo then it reboots into recovery. What can I do to fix this?

@KingAroan I've been there several times. Do you know how to revert to a stock image?
Here's the link to download a stock image.
Are you using linux or Windows? Either way keep in mind USB3 (blue plugs) are prone to issues unless you know how to work around them.

Thanks. I went back to stock to fix it, just upset because i didn't get to backup anything haha. Didn't know about blue plug USB causing issue's. I'll stick with the 2.0 plugs thanks for the information.

KingAroan said:
Thanks. I went back to stock to fix it, just upset because i didn't get to backup anything haha. Didn't know about blue plug USB causing issue's. I'll stick with the 2.0 plugs thanks for the information.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, now I'm feeling kind of bad. I hoped you would reply before doing stuff!!! But I know the urgency. if you remove the "-w" from the "fastboot" lines in the script(s) then it won't actually format your internal storage. Sorry man. But I'm glad you got it working again.
As a general rule - when messing with SuperSU and Magisk and stuff like that, ya always want to read the install instructions carefully to figure out if you can install it at your current system state, or if you need a "new system state" (like a fresh install).
If you setup a fresh install properly you won't actually have to wipe all your data. I know it's tricky. Hopefully you have original copies of everything on your phone. If not, let me know and I'll show you some good methods for backing up your data. I might have to ask more questions for your setup though. Some backup solutions require root. Some don't.
Glad I could help, though I wish it was under better circumstances

It's fine I flashed stock the same night. I appreciate the information. I am backing up myself information with titanium backup and storing it on my Google drive for safety just in case I mess up another flash. I think I messed up by trying to flash magisk v12 and then I found the pixel version separately... So it was my mistake.

KingAroan said:
It's fine I flashed stock the same night. I appreciate the information. I am backing up myself information with titanium backup and storing it on my Google drive for safety just in case I mess up another flash. I think I messed up by trying to flash magisk v12 and then I found the pixel version separately... So it was my mistake.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sir, I understand all too well.
Let me know if I can help in the future. I'm generally well versed on the Windows side, and getting much more well versed on the Linux side.
There is generally a specific order to do stuff in, with any kind of tinkering. And with Pixel and it's crazy partitions, all the more so.

Yeah the pixel order is crazy especially with having to sign the boot images.

[GUIDE] how to fix EFS Damaged on samsung devices [EASY!]

Edited in 2022 to make it look a bit better!
*WARNING* *TAKE A NANDROID BACKUP OF EFS AND BASEBAND BEFORE STARTING*
Hello people, first I want to say that this is my first guide so it doesn't really look professional but I am doing my best to be clear as possible.
In this guide I will be showing you how to repair your IMEI for free/without Z3X box
So lets get into it.
Its better to start fresh in stock rom
So flash the stock rom first
Now we are really starting,
Step 1) flash TWRP and flash Magisk (if you weren't rooted yet)
Step 2) now search for a custom rom for your phone download it before doing something or just download on pc and move it later
Step 3) now go to mount and select efs or else your efs will be empty at the next step
Step 4) now go to file manager and goto /EFS
Just delete everything in it OR YOU CAN LEAVE Privo data and factory app, you have a backup anyways. *WARNING: DO NOT DELETE THE EFS PARTITION IT SELF, IT WILL MAKE YOUR PHONE NOT BOOTING ANYMORE ONLY DELETE THE FILES INSIDE OF IT SO DELETE ALL FILES*
Step 5) now flash the custom rom for s7 edge i would recommend kingrom, do full wipe at the aroma. You may try to skip this step. There have been comments saying that this guide also works without this step.
Step 6) now reboot your phone, first reboot may take 5-10/15 minutes please be patient and make sure you put your phone in the charger if your battery is low now when your phone is in the welcome screen look or your signal is returned if not just setup your phone sometimes it may take a while for the signal to appear. If your signal is returned then go to phone app and dial *#06# and look or the IMEI matches the IMEI of the box of your phone (make sure you have the original box if you don't have this then open the back of your phone (if you can), there is a sticker label with your s/n and IMEI. If you cannot open the back of your phone, then you will have to trust that the IMEI is right. If everything is functional then you're done with this guide. The next steps are more ''checking'' if everything is alright.
Step 7) If your s/n is ok skip to step 8 if its not right then download a root explorer and go to /efs/factoryapp and edit the serial no file with a text editor and enter your s/n there now save it and IMEI and s/n should be alright
Step 8) Now, for IF the IMEI is correct and everything is fully functional, then delete the earlier made backup of EFS and baseband and make a new one with the working partition, then save it somewhere safe on an external drive, the cloud or on an USB, or just a pc that you will never reset or wipe its data.
Congratulations on getting past step 8. I hope this guide has helped you and that it worked for you. If not then I'm sorry for not being able to assist you. This guide is just me sharing what I did to solve this issue. Good luck on solving your problem if this guide did not work.
If the IMEI is not correct or this guide doesn't work then I can't help you any further except for if you have any questions, however I found a guide for the Samsung galaxy s7/Edge (if you have s8 then click same link because the thread has a link to s8) by Cubz (thanks to Cubz for his guide)
Link: https://www.google.com/amp/s/forum....ow-to-fix-check-drk-imei-issues-t3379516/amp/
S7/E/8 only and some other models as long its an s7 (edge) or s8/+
******* Some tips when you follow the guide*******
1) When you flash combination firmware and it gives you errors then dial *#1234# and look at the cp it should have UX in it (X could be 1,2 or 3 download the correct firmware with the correct bootloader version. You can upgrade from u1 to u2 and u2 to u3 but not downgrade from 3 to 2 or 2 to 1
2) If it didn't work then flash back to stock and fully delete everything in efs folder then retry (this is actually just guide B) its better to follow the guide above
3) If you got bootloader exception error then keep tapping the home button fast until it reboots then just manually reboot and enter download mode
The first method was tested and worked on SAMSUNG GALAXY S7 EDGE SM-935F it may work on other Samsung devices and maybe other android devices but I cannot guarantee that it works on your device
** I take no responsibility for any damaged device, make sure you take a back up so you can go back to the state before you started following this guide!**
If the device gets bricked then always flash back to stock, if you cant enter download mode then just wait until your battery drains and then when you put it in the charger it may start up automatically so enter download mode fast or if you got bootloader exception error then keep tapping the home button fast until it reboots then just manually reboot and enter download mode
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Happy flashing and please confirm in the comments below if it worked for your device or not

Guys please comment or it works on your device or not!

It works for me. But I have to manually change CSC on my phone after original rom flash to fix Network. TGP rom have that option.

I followed your guide and my model name changed from G930F to G930FD and my IMEI is just bunch of zeroes wtv

SOLVED AT LAST - MISSING IMEI and EFS DAMAGED SOLUTION
Hi Guys,
First off, please take GOOD note - I am NOT a techy, just an old boring flashaholic who works in an office and likes pyjamas more than partying. This is my account of me fecking up my phone and finally reaching a solution after three days and most of two nights to a missing IMEI, messed up EFS and non-working phone - hoping that it might help anyone as desperate as I was. You do what you do with your phone and that's your business and I'm not responsible if you mess it up, but my hope is that you have have a brain (that's all I have) and you get some helpful piece of info here as I did from a whole ton of posts I read that finally led me to this.
Next - I am not sure what landed me in this mess. I've seen Superman Rom mentioned a couple of times..I didn't use that but I did use Batman Rom which is by the same Dev. It was great to use, too, so I'm not faulting the Dev by any means. What did happen, though, is that when I flashed other ROMS, maybe 3 or 4 of them following, the Batman splash screen was always there before the new ROM's boot sequence, so there were clearly some residual things of it in there ...so perhaps the same coding is in there and could have had something to do with it, I don't know. The breaking point came when I flashed Sac23 Rom hoping to get Pie on my phone. It was cool but I decided to revert to Resurrection Remix - always my favourite overall - and all of a sudden I get errors.
What should have been a routine "Restore" of my backed up RR ROM via TWRP gave "Error mounting EFS". Reboot, wipe, retry. No joy, same again. A couple of tries to restore the EFS from the backup in TWRP didn't work either.
Next go to is flash "original firmware" (more on this wording later). I had that on my PC (not a phone backup, just the firmware so it's clean copy with no data).
Get Odin out, download mode, correct files in correct boxes, all that standard stuff you can find guides on most places - no joy.
Error showing was "Fail at pm.bin" or something like that. Install aborted.
Try again. This time "Fail at cm.bin" Install aborted. Reboot from recovery also fails. Oh sh1t.
Several more attempts made. I have five different Odin vers. I have seven different firmware vers. I have two USB ports and about 8 Samsung cables. Not a single combination I tried worked.
The XDA heroes will know what to do, I thought. I read and read. And read. And CubZ (who is a hero even if he IS from Lancashire ), says MAKE SURE YOUR PHONE IS RUNNING ORIGINAL SOFTWARE. Well...I kinda did that mostly already...but maybe I need to go RIGHT back to the rubbishy 6.0.1 version that came actually ON my phone when I got it....almost 2 years ago? Who remembers that stuff?? I'm about 18 ROMS down the line now. I was desperate. I'm telling you...I even got out my bank statements to trace when my first payment to my current provider was...I read about firmware numbers and country codes, and I chose one from Sammobile with a build date, country code, unbranded code (which my phone always was) and correct phone model (of course!) as I needed. And it WAS .."the ORIGINAL" firmware.
This time I swear Odin failed me a second BEFORE I pressed the start button! No joy.
Have a flask of coffee and a few valium sandwiches and off I go back to XDA again. I read a loooong series of "Missing IMEI" stuff and there's CubZ again with an IMEI/EFS fix guide guide...brilliant! And it WAS brilliant, and clearly he helped tons of people (kudos, man). But I had messed up MY phone in the time-honoured "right royal" way - worse than his guide could help me. My IMEI was Unknown, my EFS was empty, My SIM wasn't being recognised, no network info or signal...nothing. But genius that he is, he CubZ DID post a Combination file that gave me a base to keep trying on when firmware after firmware had failed almost immediately with errors either of pm.bin/abort or cm.bin/abort.
I almost wore the print out on CubZ guide, I read it so much and tried so many times. Then...I see people saying things about U1, U2 and U3 firmwares. Turns out you shouldn't mix the two. I got that snippet from CubZ too. More research and the little coffee-fuelled connections in my brain are like.....ok....
My ORIGINAL firmware has in its name "U1" and there are similar ones with "U2". Might that be it? My phone has been screaming "DEVICE 2 FIRMWARE 1" (or something like that) at every aborted 'original firmware' installation via Odin and download mode that I've tried, including the EXACT firmware that was on my phone the day it was unwrapped and I danced happily round the room with it.
So if DEVICE 2....FIRMWARE should be 2 maybe? Back to Sammobile. There are firmwares with the same model number, country code, branding info as mine..but with a "U2" where mine said "U1". But...they were Oreo and Nougat where mine was "originally" Marshmallow.
It's now day three in the Big Mother House. My valium and coffee and running out and my communication with the outside world has ceased. I've had about five hours sleep, my food is running low and I cannot call for takeaway cos I ficked my phone up good and proper. I even....get this....start looking up PAID services to fix this. I KNOW, right!!??
I pick up a Nougat firmware from Sammobile...careful to match model, country, branding AND U2 - wondering if I can match it up with CubZ's Combi file as a base to appease Odin......and then maybe revert to my 'original' stock from that to start another attempt at the IMEI/EFS thing.
It loaded. Odin was pleased with my sacrifice. And lo and behold, it had restored the whole lot WITHOUT me having to go any further with stock ROM reversions. It frickin' worked. I got my signal back. My SIM card was detected. My phone number was showing. My IMEI was showing. My E-Frickin-S was mended. I feel like Judd Nelson at the end of Breakfast Club.
So here's the semantic bit that I hadn't known and that is unclear in many many posts. My phone is now working 100% on stock firmware....but is is NOT REALLY the ORIGINAL software - it's the MODEL......COUNTRY......BRANDING.....LANGUAGE - specific firmware but it is Nougat where my original was Marshmallow, and it is a U2 firmware where my original FW was U1. THAT was the killer difference, it seems. Thanks to all of you who posted anything - many many of you - who helped me get this. It's a compatibility issue detail I've never seen or had issues with before.
I now have G930FXXS2DRDI_G930FXEU2DRB5_XEU
Where G930F is the model number, XEU is the country code for UK and Ireland (even though UK is a nation and not a country - just sayin' ) and the U2 sits there hiding in the middle of the second section of the name.
Which gives unzipped files as follows: NOTE - THESE ARE NOT LINKS.
AP_G930FXXS2DRDI_CL12365438_QB17789072_REV00_user_low_ship_meta.tar.md5
BL_G930FXXS2DRDI_CL12365438_QB17789072_REV00_user_low_ship.tar.md5
CP_G930FXXU2DRB6_CL648265_QB8952207_SIGNED.tar.md5
CSC_XEU_G930FXEU2DRB5_CL13061583_QB16917099_REV00_user_low_ship.tar.md5
HOME_CSC_XEU_G930FXEU2DRB5_CL13061583_QB16917099_REV00_user_low_ship.tar.md5
It's Nougat, but that's okay for now; I got my IMEI, EFS, SIM, BIN, probably ENT, RAC, SUV and BMX too, everything
And now, with my working phone, I am gonna phone the local Chinese Takeaway for food, answer all my emails that popped and binged and tinkled at me when it became resurrected, and leave CubZ with huge thanks and all of you guys with the hope that this helps somebody out there.
And maybe look at backing this sucker up and reverting to my Oreo RR ROM I love so much..... I HATE Touchwiz!!!!
Good luck!
:good::good::good:

I was also on similar problem and i lost my efc
Baseband unkwn
Imel null
No signal
I was on s9 port rom by teamexykings and when i update i did dirty flash and my phobe stuck on samsung logo somehow it was boot but it was keeps rebooting than i boot my phone in twrp
When i was trying to wipe system data and dalvic cache
In wipe menu i was shocked to see that it showed internal storage 0mb
I had this problem 1st time
And i have to format my phone to boot properly
U know my big mistake is that i haven't taken a back up of my all apps and my data
After 10-15 min latter it boots
But 2nd shocked was that
I lost my signal my imei my baseband vesrsion unknown
I was so scared to lost my imei
Than i searchon google and i have read lot of articals about restoring efc partition
And than i found similar thread like u have explained
It's really work for me
And this article will help most of device of samsung
And xda user
What i have done
In twrp i mount efc partition
Than in advance menu
File manager
Efc
And i have deleted all of file in efc
(Remember not efc partition it self)
Except privo
Privo data and factory app
Than reboot
After boot my phone i got signal back
I was so happy that it was very easy to do
Your guide will help for many device

shabbir143 said:
I was also on similar problem and i lost my efc
Baseband unkwn
Imel null
No signal
I was on s9 port rom by teamexykings and when i update i did dirty flash and my phobe stuck on samsung logo somehow it was boot but it was keeps rebooting than i boot my phone in twrp
When i was trying to wipe system data and dalvic cache
In wipe menu i was shocked to see that it showed internal storage 0mb
I had this problem 1st time
And i have to format my phone to boot properly
U know my big mistake is that i haven't taken a back up of my all apps and my data
After 10-15 min latter it boots
But 2nd shocked was that
I lost my signal my imei my baseband vesrsion unknown
I was so scared to lost my imei
Than i searchon google and i have read lot of articals about restoring efc partition
And than i found similar thread like u have explained
It's really work for me
And this article will help most of device of samsung
And xda user
What i have done
In twrp i mount efc partition
Than in advance menu
File manager
Efc
And i have deleted all of file in efc
(Remember not efc partition it self)
Except privo
Privo data and factory app
Than reboot
After boot my phone i got signal back
I was so happy that it was very easy to do
Your guide will help for many device
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You deleted all files and folders from EFS Mounted partition? how is it possible working?

You are awesome man!
I just deleted the files in EFS, restarted without installing custom rom and my IMEI was fixed.
I'm definitely donating. How to donate to you?
Thanks for your great work!

cisekpro23 said:
You deleted all files and folders from EFS Mounted partition? how is it possible working?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think samsung phones are capable of regnerating their efs. But its not working for me on samsung galaxy s6. Guess I am screwed.

Hey everyone, I'm sorry for not responding to anyone in this thread. I've been inactive for a long time. I want to thank everyone for trusting the guide and I hope it has worked for you if you tried following the steps. If you have any questions feel free to ask me.
Also I have edited my guide to improve the reading experience because I see my English was absolutely horrible at the time when I wrote the guide.

oh no. i accidentally deleted the efs partition and it can't mount anymore what im gonna do now. im fvcked up please somebody help me

vigilante said:
Edited in 2022 to make it look a bit better!
Hello people, first I want to say that this is my first guide so it doesn't really look professional but I am doing my best to be clear as possible.
In this guide I will be showing you how to repair your IMEI for free/without Z3X box
So lets get into it.
Its better to start fresh in stock rom
So flash the stock rom first
Now we are really starting,
*WARNING* *TAKE A NANDROID BACKUP OF EFS AND BASEBAND BEFORE STARTING*
Step 1) flash TWRP and flash Magisk (if you weren't rooted yet)
Step 2) now search for a custom rom for your phone download it before doing something or just download on pc and move it later
Step 3) now go to mount and select efs or else your efs will be empty at the next step
Step 4) now go to file manager and goto /EFS
Just delete everything in it, you have a backup anyway *WARNING: DO NOT DELETE THE EFS PARTITION IT SELF, IT WILL MAKE YOUR PHONE NOT BOOTING ANYMORE ONLY DELETE THE FILES INSIDE OF IT SO DELETE ALL FILES*
Step 5) now flash the custom rom for s7 edge i would recommend kingrom, do full wipe at the aroma
Step 6) now reboot your phone, first reboot may take 5-10/15 minutes please be patient and make sure you put your phone in the charger if your battery is low now when your phone is in the welcome screen look or your signal is returned if not just setup your phone sometimes it may take a while if your signal is returned then go to dialer and dial *#06# and look or the imei matches the imei of the box (make sure you have the origional box if you dont have this then open the back of your phone, there is a sticker label with your s/n and imei if imei is not good then skip to step 9
Step 7) now if your s/n is ok skip to step... if its not right then download a root explorer and go to /efs/factoryapp and edit the serial no file with a text editor and enter your s/n there now save it and imei and s/n should be alright
Step 8) Now, for IF the IMEI is correct and everything is fully functional, then delete the earlier made backup of EFS and baseband and make a new one with the working partition, then save it somewhere safe on an external drive, the cloud or on an USB, or just a pc that you will never reset or wipe its data.
Step 9) now for if the IMEI is not correct or this guide doesn't work then I can't help you any further except for if you have any questions, however I found a guide for the Samsung galaxy s7/Edge (if you have s8 then click same link because the thread has a link to s8) by Cubz (thanks to Cubz for his guide)
Link: https://www.google.com/amp/s/forum....ow-to-fix-check-drk-imei-issues-t3379516/amp/
S7/E/8 only and some other models as long its an s7 (edge) or s8/+
******* Some tips when you follow the guide*******
1) when you flash combination firmware and it gives you errors then dial *#1234# and look at the cp it should have UX in it (X could be 1,2 or 3 download the correct firmware with the correct bootloader version you can upgrade from u1 to u2 and u2 to u3 but not downgrade from 3 to 2 or 2 to 1
2) if it didn't work then flash back to stock and fully delete everything in efs folder then retry (this is actually just guide B) its better to follow the guide above
3) if you got bootloader exception error then keep tapping the home button fast until it reboots then just manually reboot and enter download mode
The first method was tested and worked on SAMSUNG GALAXY S7 EDGE SM-935F it may work on other Samsung devices and maybe other android devices but I cannot guarantee that it works on your device
** I take no responsibility for any damaged device, make sure you take a back up so you can go back to the state before you started following this guide!**
If the device gets bricked then always flash back to stock, if you cant enter download mode then just wait until your battery drains and then when you put it in the charger it may start up automatically so enter download mode fast or if you got bootloader exception error then keep tapping the home button fast until it reboots then just manually reboot and enter download mode
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Please donate and like this thread if you found this helpful, I have experienced this problem my self and it costed me €60! I said NO its too expansive so then I found this solution and now I am sharing it to the world, I could have let this guide cost €61 but my guides and solutions are free a support would be great for finding this out
Happy flashing and please confirm in the comments below if it worked for your device or not
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oh no. i accidentally deleted the efs partition and it can't mount anymore what im gonna do now. im fvcked up please somebody help me

bamcarpio123 said:
oh no. i accidentally deleted the efs partition and it can't mount anymore what im gonna do now. im fvcked up please somebody help me
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Have you created a back up of your efs partition? I have clearly written it in the guide with all caps. If you haven't made a back up, please do so to avoid getting into this situation in the future.
*WARNING* *TAKE A NANDROID BACKUP OF EFS AND BASEBAND BEFORE STARTING*
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Click to collapse
Anyways, I'm sorry to hear you got your self in this situation. Even though it has been a long time since I did this kind of stuff, I still remember that it's possible to fix this issue. I am sure that I have been in this situation before my self and that I somehow managed to get it back. Try to back up all your data, then flash stock rom with CSC file and not Home CSC

vigilante said:
Have you created a back up of your efs partition? I have clearly written it in the guide with all caps. If you haven't made a back up, please do so to avoid getting into this situation in the future.
Anyways, I'm sorry to hear you got your self in this situation. Even though it has been a long time since I did this kind of stuff, I still remember that it's possible to fix this issue. I am sure that I have been in this situation before my self and that I somehow managed to get it back. Try to back up all your data, then flash stock rom with CSC file and not Home CSC
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Click to collapse
I'm sorry for being so stupid because I continued without performing a backup in TWRP, I forgot to back up the EFS, and when I panicked because I was already screwed up, I deleted the efs folder—which is incorrect. I deleted the efs partition before I saw this thread. And now it always says, "failed to mount /efs (invalid argument)" and I've done everything, and it seems like everything is done, I have no idea what to do. I haven't slept for four days and there is still no hope. but my phone is still okay with the stock firmware, but it always restarts. I did almost everything but still nothing
My phone's current csc code is THL (Thailand), but the original is XTC (Philippines), which is my nation, thus I'm curious why THL? of course I flash the right firmware which is the csc is XTC but if I check the CSC the CSC is still THL. I tried to change the csc using tools, but it cannot be change. There may be no hope. I'm worried about losing my phone, yet I'm to blame.
If I lose my IMEI, it won't matter. But the thing is my phone is always restarting every minute.
(can someone know how to disable auto-reboot so i can still use my phone even the EFS is damaged?)
ALSO THANKYOU FOR YOUR REPLY! I APPRECIATE IT!
EDIT: OH I FIX THE EFS PARTITION. NOW MY PROBLEM IS HOW TO GET OUT FROM THIS DARKNESS. HOW CAN I FIX THE IMEI AND BASEBAND WHAT EVER? HMM. BUT I WON'T GIVE UP

bamcarpio123 said:
My phone's current csc code is THL (Thailand), but the original is XTC (Philippines), which is my nation, thus I'm curious why THL? of course I flash the right firmware which is the csc is XTC but if I check the CSC the CSC is still THL. I tried to change the csc using tools, but it cannot be change. There may be no hope. I'm worried about losing my phone, yet I'm to blame.
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Click to collapse
Try to download this tool if you haven't already: https://samfirmtool.com/
I like to use this tool when flashing stock rom because I can download specific versions of stock ROMS and also enter the correct region in it. And to top it off the download is really quick (depending on your download speed of course)
Enter your device model number and at region enter the csc you need. It should download the correct files with the right csc. However, I did find this thread saying it is impossible to change your csc to XTC, but it is always worth a try.
If the CSC is XTC then try to follow this guide again to fix your EFS.
If it is not XTC then try to install a custom rom for your phone that has an aroma installer that allows you to pick a CSC, it might also help with the EFS problem but I am not sure.
EDIT: OH I FIX THE EFS PARTITION. NOW MY PROBLEM IS HOW TO GET OUT FROM THIS DARKNESS. HOW CAN I FIX THE IMEI AND BASEBAND WHAT EVER?
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Click to collapse
Since you have mentioned that your EFS partition is fixed, try to follow the guide again but correctly this time. Maybe it will work this time.
Can you tell me how you checked what your CSC is? And which phone do you have? In case this didn't work.

.

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vigilante said:
Try to download this tool if you haven't already: https://samfirmtool.com/
I like to use this tool when flashing stock rom because I can download specific versions of stock ROMS and also enter the correct region in it. And to top it off the download is really quick (depending on your download speed of course)
Enter your device model number and at region enter the csc you need. It should download the correct files with the right csc. However, I did find this thread saying it is impossible to change your csc to XTC, but it is always worth a try.
If the CSC is XTC then try to follow this guide again to fix your EFS.
If it is not XTC then try to install a custom rom for your phone that has an aroma installer that allows you to pick a CSC, it might also help with the EFS problem but I am not sure.
Since you have mentioned that your EFS partition is fixed, try to follow the guide again but correctly this time. Maybe it will work this time.
Can you tell me how you checked what your CSC is? And which phone do you have? In case this didn't work.
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Click to collapse
My phone is Samsung Galaxy J8. Before i start to flash custom rom, I took a snapshot of the device's hardware information and discovered that the csc is really XTC. I have completed all the necessary steps. I did everything right, but nothing actually changed. I'm so exhausted that I might just give up. I appreciate your assistance.
If I can't retrieve the imei, it's fine, but unfortunately my phone is always restarting
EDIT: MY PHONE IS NOW FIXED. THE SIMS ARE NOW WORKING, THE SIGNAL IS BACK AND I FEEL SO HAPPY. HOW DO I FIX? WELL I USED THIS METHOD, I DELETE ALL THE FILES FROM EFS FOLDER (NOT THE PARTITION JUST THE FILE INSIDE OF IT) THEN I FLASH THE LATEST STOCK ROM WHICH IS ANDROID 10 BUT THE CSC FILE IS FROM ANDROID 9 AND AFTER THAT I USED TFT SAMSUNG MODULE WHICH IS VERY HELPFUL AND LEGIT TOOL AND ITS 100% FREE!. THEN I FIX THE IMEI AND BASEBAND USING THAT TOOL AND YES THAT SOFTWARE IS A BEAST. AND NOW ITS WORKING PROPERLY. IT TOOK ME 2 WEEKS TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM BUT IN REALITY ITS VERY SIMPLE HAHAHA! IT SAVES ME FROM SPENDING MONEY JUST TO SAVE MY PHONE BUT I DO NOT KNOW THAT I AM THE ONE WHO WILL FIX MY PHONE HAHA HOW COOL IS THAT. JUST DON'T GIVE UP NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS!
#FVCKTHATZ3XBOX
THANKS TO THIS METHOD AND TO SIR VIGILANTE.
EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE JUST DONT GIVE UP EVEN YOU'RE TIRED.