yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Nexus S General] deeren:
Mods please make this sticky.

Before anyone flashes any custom rom further, be sure to back up your

/efs folder somewhere on your PC.

The /efs folder is a hidden folder. You wont be able to see it using a usual file explorer e.g astro. You will need to be root to do so using root explorer for e.g.

This is something found sticky in the galaxy s forums and unfortunately for some of us it is coming too late.

The backup might come handy anytime if ever you mess up your own with custom rom flashing.

Thanks

Edit: just for you to understand the situation, by messing up i mean where product code and imei of the phone gets changed to a fail-safe one and even nandroid backups are of no help.
[Nexus S General] seekis:
What exactly is in /efs that we need to back up?

I actually have already flashed one rom and after that I could not make or receive phone calls. I ended up calling Sprint and after about an hour of tinkering on their end they got it working. Would this be due to something missing in the /efs folder?
[Nexus S General] deeren:
Everything concerning ur hardware info in short. Bluetooth, mac number, imei, ....

Many of us have got this tampeted with and unfortunately we had no clue it was something important( despite numerous threads in the i9000 forums warning users of this and nobody had backups) ,

there is no fix yet.

Check the nexussense forum for more details.

But do make a backup please.
[Nexus S General] seekis:
After that whole incident I downloaded Samsung's Reflash tool and restored my phone back to stock.

Since then I have reflashed a custom kernel, but so far all is well. What exactly should be in the /efs folder as far as files.

My /efs folder has

imei>bt.txt
uart_path
bluetooth>bt_addr
nv.log
lost+found

Could you tell me if I am missing anything. I checked my MEID by typing *#06# and it matches what I have on the box.

EDIT: the bt.txt file int he imei folder does not have my MEID in it. Is it suppose to be in there?
[Nexus S General] dandan2980:
I just copied and pasted a back up using root explorer to my sd card. I am on miui NS4G when doing this should I be on a stock rom?
[Nexus S General] Zehlek:
Did you have a backup? Also where on samsung's site is and how to use it please? And is there one that will work on nexus s?
[Nexus S General] AshsToAshs:
Isnt this something that only gets messed with if you use someone elses Nandroid?

A custom rom doesnt normally mess with that folder, i thought...

Anyway, i have a Nandroid of my phone from before i flashed anything to it, so i assume im covered with that.
[Nexus S General] window7:
Can the OP please post a method to do the back up before making it a sticky tab?

Pointless to make it sticky and we still had to find the way to back up ourself. LOL
[Nexus S General] jerbeck24:
Agree even though it is pretty easy with Root Explorer. Just go to the root of the phone and find the folder called "efs". Long press the folder and choose copy. Go to the "sdcard" and paste it. I also suggest connecting your phone to your computer and save the "efs" folder to your computer somewhere you'll be able to find it.
[Nexus S General] thedauntlessone:
An alternative to root explorer, you can use IO file manager (I think it works)/

From this thread ADB is also very easy.

Open a terminal emulator or ADB on your computer and type

su

busybox cp -a /efs /sdcard/

back up the file on your computer and you're done
[Nexus S General] Viper87227:
Nandroid doesn't touch this folder, it seems. Best to make a backup on your own to be safe.
[Nexus S General] seekis:
I did not have a previous back up. I pulled mine from my phone with adb. I have no idea about your other questions.
[Nexus S General] seekis:
If you already have adb, just do this:

adb pull /efs
[Nexus S General] Zehlek:
You said you used Samsung reflash tool. I was wondering where I can download it and how to use it
[Nexus S General] Zehlek:
I already flashed sense 0.3 and didn't backup
[Nexus S General] seekis:
im still trying to figure out what exactly is getting messed with as the OP did not describe why we needed to back up this folder and or what could be messed up if we don't.

Any info would be great.
[Nexus S General] seekis:
well try it anyway and see what you get...i already flashed a different rom too, but the folder was still there
[Nexus S General] jerbeck24:
Look at this thread here. People are losing their IMEI number and is resulting in no service. If you back up the efs folder, it saves this information in case it happens to you.
[Nexus S General] Zehlek:
I pulled it to my sdcard and computer. The imei folder is empty. I don't see a txt file and the bin files are all weird coding
[Nexus S General] jerbeck24:
Yeah, I just finally looked at my imei folder that I saved to my computer and it only has one bt.txt file...
[Nexus S General] Zehlek:
Mine doesn't even have a file. Is there much on it?
[Nexus S General] window7:
Exactly what I wanted to say :rolleyes:
[Nexus S General] jerbeck24:
the bt.txt file when I open it just says bt_macaddr: with my specific bluetooth mac address I'm assuming...it is alpha numeric.
[Nexus S General] ccrosno:
If your rom allows you to dial sprint service numbers, open your phone dialer, dial *#06#, if a number pops up, this is your meid number. Wright it down. Shut off your phone, pull the battery. Your hex number is stamped there. If the numbers match, then you are probably safe.

But just in case, back up the efs folder. Mine only contains a file called like BS.txt or something like that.
[Nexus S General] Zehlek:
I am also missing the uart_path
[Nexus S General] thedauntlessone:
In the efs folder there are 6 encrypted files. One of the files contain your imei information. If you lose them you're sol unless Sammy gives you their encryption key

Here's a pic
[Nexus S General] TheDub:
It appears this doesn't effect cdma phones.

As shown in the screen shot only the bluetooth mac address is there.

Am I correct in saying that cdma users should be safe? Still good to backup for the bluetooth of course.. not sure if those files missing would break Bluetooth or not.

Sorry for the portrait orientation.
[Nexus S General] LudoGris:
Where did you get the Samsung Reflash tool?

|N€XUS S 4G|
[Nexus S General] infinitybiff:
Hey guys. Easiest way to back this up is to download and install

NITRALITY

from the market. Its supposed to be used with the galaxy S line of phones but will backup your EFS partition no problem. (as well as some other cool tweaks)

Flashing a ROM via rom manager does NOT touch efs... however if you do an odin flash it often does. Didn't realize it presented an issue on nexus s though as I only thought its needed for SIM unlocking.
[Nexus S General] TheDub:
Backed up and deleted the efs folder to test how this effects cdma.

No adverse effects, all radios work. However it did change my Bluetooth address.. still seems to work though.

Just a fyi.. sorry if this was common knowledge.
[Nexus S General] cgi101:
Hi All,

I used to own a Galaxy S Captivate and have dealt a lot with efs issues after accidentally wiping the efs partition on my first Captivate. Thankfully my wireless carrier still allows phones with generic/broken IMEIs to work on the network and use data (I heard reports of people who wiped their /efs and couldn't connect to their european networks).

While I could use the phone for day-to-day use without issues, sometimes Android Market would not work and I'd have to factory wipe the phone whenever the issue would periodically crop up. According to the Google support forums, others were having this issue too, but only people who had the generic IMEI (after corrupting their /efs/nv_data.bin).

The biggest problem however was that after /efs was accidentally deleted, I was no longer able to make emergency 911 calls. All calls would work except for 911 (or variants like 112). The phone would say it is dialing, then immediately say the call failed.

This was investigated by my wireless carrier. They determined it was not a network issue, but a phone issue. They sent the phone to Samsung to investigate the issue. I tried erasing /efs/ on another Captivate (after backing it up of course) and it suffered the same issue where it would not make emergency calls. Restoring my /efs/ backup fixed the problem.

I'm not sure if this problem would carry over to the Nexus S, but be warned since it is so similar to the Galaxy S.

If you were ever in an emergency and your phone wouldn't complete an emergency call, you can call directory assistance (411 in USA/Canada) and ask for the police/fire department/911/112.
[Nexus S General] Borky_16:
this isseu is only by wiping or at the galaxy S to flash beta roms from samsung cause of the csc manipulation to korean type.. so guys make a backup for safety, but we are not using samsungsoftware! so OP you have to know the reason why this happen ;)
[Nexus S General] seekis:
it was listed in the how to root/rom list (cdma) thread here.

i actually had a bit of an issue with getting my phone into download mode because i was holding down the power button long. :s
[Nexus S General] fixxxer2008:
my ns4g seems fine and i backed the the said folder to my pc. my question is how did this issue just come up all the sudden? shouldn't this of been found since the beginning of flashing custom roms? i think im staying stock for awhile. ;)
[Nexus S General] Zehlek:
Something in the NexusSense Tom 0.3 was recently uploaded and it starting doing this like a new virus
[Nexus S General] fixxxer2008:
good thing i never flashed his rom then. has the dev made any statements as to what went wrong? that's concerning to me to say the least. :(
[Nexus S General] Zehlek:
All I know so far is that it erased the efs folder and created a new one
[Nexus S General] treUse:
God, my phone feels like a bomb after flashing that ROM, knowing it might stop working at any moment...
[Nexus S General] SilverEagle:
The adb pull method doesnt keep the permissions though...
[Nexus S General] window7:
So far no one has any method on how to solve it? Hmmmm.. Software brick is very fragile nowadays.
[Nexus S General] styckx:
So what I getting here is you will be fine as long as you don't go doing crazy things like using roms or flashing apps that were for all intent and purposes never designed to work with this phone?

Basically stick to xda nexus s/s4g roms and cmw flashes and you're safe?
[Nexus S General] du1sbo:
I used an app called "Samsung galaxy s unlock", I only used it to back up my EFS folder, nothing else. I think it is meant to be used for Galaxy S phones, but by using the EFS folder back up option, It was a success for backing up the EFS folder and its contents.
[Nexus S General] vignesh_jariwala:
Too Late for me

This annoucement is too late for me as my nexus s imei got messed up after flashing nexussense rom and my sim got blocked, eventually had to give it for service as I could not recover my /efs files after taking so many steps(like nand backup etc) because I did not know imei info is saved in /efs folder. Samsung should have saved such sensitive files in more secure way, anyways I am not blaming them as its my fault.
[Nexus S General] deeren:
lucky u, that u still had the warranty covered.
[Nexus S General] deeren:
come on mods, this should be sticky imo.
[Nexus S General] mak213:
they dont have a word for what it should be it should be like friggin nailed
[Nexus S General] deejaylobo:
So, my phone works fine. But, how do I find out if my efs is messed up? What does a normal efs look like? I haven't flashed NexusSense. Only, Liquid NexusBread and MIUI so far.

EDIT: Okay I checked my IMEI against the one on my phone (on the phone under where the battery is). It is the same.

efs folder backed up. Thanks for this thread.
[Nexus S General] nicknowsky:
I use Droid Explorer de.codeplex.com for Windows. Its so easy to backup this and anything, Basically usese Windows Explorere to browse your phone
[Nexus S General] ccrosno:
Ok let me get this straight. Is it the flashing of a rom or the unlocking/rooting of the phone that causes the efs files to become corrupted and or missing?

I am on my 3rd NS4G as of today. The same thing happened to number 1 and number 2 phones. I lost my ability to download updates like PRL and Update my profile.It would just keep failing. Even the activation. I though it was just the poor signal. Both number 1 and 2 phones had hardly anything in the efs folders. My MEID numbers all matched what was on the boxes and in the phone information. My number 3 phone, which at this time is neither unlocked nor rooted, has a whole bunch of files and folder in the efs folder. And BTW, hard reseting and returning to stock does not restore the efs files and folders..

Since my phone is not rooted, anything I have used to back up the efs folder fails.

My theory is, as soon as you unlock and or root the phone, the system erases the efs folder and creates new files. Just like unlocking erases the sdcard. Not necessarilly flashing roms. I have not flashed the rom in question either. I have flashed CM7, Opensoju and gingerbread deck as well as some of the earlier rooted stock roms. I am not going to test this theory on my new unlocked phone just yet. I hope that someone else will and report.

Kinda makes you wonder, hu.
[Nexus S General] Graham19:
Is a regular file copy of the contents of /efs enough? In the case of a disaster, will that let me restore?

Am I better creating an image of the /efs partition?
[Nexus S General] deeren:
yes just copy the entire folder and saeve it somewhere else. well no, you do not need to create an image file. in fact the most important file is the nv_data.bin and the .nv_data.bin.bak.
[Nexus S General] jkhrist:
1. Root. Download root explorer

2. Open said apk and navigate to root dir.

3. Copy /efs dir and place somewhere on sdcard. Then place on pc if desired.
[Nexus S General] mrnexus:
any other file manager apps work besides root explorer?
[Nexus S General] matt2053:
No, the only problem was one particular ROM (Nexus S) had a script in it that was meant to back up efs but accidentally deleted it instead. No other ROMs that I am aware of will have this bad script, and unlocking the bootloader certainly won't have any negative effects.
[Nexus S General] Valantin:
Exist any way to resolve? I have flashed nexusSense :( and my imei is wrong....

**** my nexus have 4 day Life

Sorry for my bad eng
[Nexus S General] ccrosno:
Well then I am the first on cdma. We as cdma owners can't flash the nexussence rom if I am not mistaken it is GSM, correct? All I know is that my efs folder was missing the 3 protected files and I could not do updates. Now I have the 3 protected files and I can complete updates without failing.

So, in theory, I should unlock, root, backup efs folder, flash rom and then restore the efs folder. Has this been tested and works?
[Nexus S General] Valantin:
Can someone send me in private your partition efs?

At least 2 people, possibly with an i9023 but not essential. I would understand if the files are the same on different phones and make a dif between my nv_data.bin generic and two originals to see if you can inject code IMEI

Thanks

Sorry for my bad eng
[Nexus S General] papedo:
try this one:

https://market.android.com/details?id=xcxin.filexpert
[Nexus S General] Valantin:
No one want to share is /efs files for the cause
[Nexus S General] ccrosno:
Ok, well, updates are now broken again on the 3rd phone. All I did was unlock, install cwm 3.1.0.1, installed rooted stock rom grj22deodexed and now can no longer receive sprint updates. Sump'ns not right.
[Nexus S General] Haizum74:
my data.bin shows a date of 29 May 11 and I dont have a data.bin.bak just a data.bak
[Nexus S General] dandan2980:
I can only update my prl but my profile will not update. I have an ns4g. Maybe you should have flashed the cwm in fastboot then flashed the super user. Booted your phone backed up the efs folder than flashed the rooted rom. Or is it possible to back up the efs folder before rooting or unlocking the phone????
[Nexus S General] dandan2980:
Also it take me more than one try to update the prl.
[Nexus S General] apreichner:
Sprint users are not free from efs folder damage. I damaged my efs and my phone behaves absolutely normally but I have a Samsung failsafe imei now. It is possible that eventually my carrier will blacklist this imei and my phone will become unusable but it hasnt happened yet. This is why the error wasn't caught during testing.

I do fear that this problem is not just limited to nexussense 0.3 as some users who havent flashed have a bad efs folder. This couldn't either be from buying the phone used or possibly another rom has a similar issue.
[Nexus S General] deeren:
i wish to say that on my gf's nexus s ( undamaged), i checked the nv_data log. apparently , the main nv_data.bin was damaged but the nv_data.bak (which is a good one) was restored. i usually do the flashing on her phone and i have till now flashed only things like cyanogen stable, deodexed stock and superaosp and some others( mainly modified stock) but in any case none of the ports.

my conclusion is that it can still be damaged. how? i have no idea!

here was the log on her phone:

Thu Mar 3 00:57:53 2011: MD5 fail. orignal md5 '166f55dc2f739ca9162745e0a452428d' computed md5 '4a91c384e17881179359bcb6bfc74cd7' (rild)

Thu Mar 3 00:57:55 2011: backup NV restored.
[Nexus S General] buenso80:
Edit: Linda file manager does the trick just fine. Just tick "show hidden files"
[Nexus S General] ahdee:
Too late I don't see any efs folder already after a few rom flashes.........
[Nexus S General] deeren:
U Must use a file manager with root/write options.
[Nexus S General] dhingra_vinay_in:
in case if this happens....whats the procedure to retain the original imei through efs folder...
[Nexus S General] deeren:
Just place the saved NV_data.bin in the eds folder and boot
[Nexus S General] leejeans:
i replaced the whole elf folder with my backup and rebooted,but it still got the messed up imei:0004999XXXXXX0000,anything wrong?
[Nexus S General] deeren:
from your backup folder,

1) copy nv_data.bin, nv_data.bin.md5, .nv_data.bak, .nv_data.md5.bak

2) on ur phone, with root explorer navigate to your efs folder and delete everything inside.

3) copy the 4 file i mentioned up in your empty efs folder

4)reboot your phone.
[Nexus S General] fabrizioo2007:
can be usefull this one :http://www.darkyrom.com/community/index.php?threads/imei-issue-showing-004999010640000-instead-of-unique-original-number.1876/???
[Nexus S General] leejeans:
thx,i will try and give my feedback asap;)
[Nexus S General] deeren:
it should do the job. i have been trying it on a 2nd nexus s for like 100 times trying to compare the default corrupted one with the original one.

never had a problem restoring.

if ever you have a problem again, please post your log found in the efs folder.
[Nexus S General] leejeans:
there is no .nv_data.md5.bak but .nv_data.bak.md5,and i tried your steps,it still got 004999010640000:confused:
[Nexus S General] leejeans:
my nv.log is "Tue May 31 22:13:09 2011: MD5 is turned on",nothing else.......:confused:
[Nexus S General] Lowroad:
for some reason i lost my Imei number. Im not sure when or how, but i would guess it was due to flashing.

Now i do have a backup of my efs folder, but somehow putting that one back doesnt work.

First i copy/paste my backup efs folder, then reboot.

It seems to have worked, since my imei is restored.

However, when i reboot once again im back at the 00049 imei!

I get the following error in my nv.log:

Backup NV restored.

"MD5 fail. Original MD5 '17f88xxxx etc'

Computed MD5 'fbe9xxxxx etc'

Anybody with a solution to this?

I was thinking it might be because with ICS my radio was changed to the new one, so it makes a different MD5 checksum. Does this make any sence at all?

[edit]

ok this is really weird. Apperently ICS causes this.

When i restore a nandroid back to GB and restore my backed up imei files, they stick and i have my imei back.

As soon as i go back to ICS the problem returns.
[Nexus S General] cile381:
...perform /efs partition backup and enjoy, the less touching /efs partition is better ;)
[Nexus S General] sspikey:
anyone have a step by step to do this?

Would be great!
[T-Mobile LG G2x] diablos991:
I just noticed that the best emulators are now not in the market...

Just in time for the xperia play release.
[T-Mobile LG G2x] aim1126:
Just noticed this too. And I just bought snesoid two days ago and can't get a refund
[T-Mobile LG G2x] diablos991:
Anybody have his email address?

Maybe he should go to the amazon app store if google of kicking him out.
[T-Mobile LG G2x] rvdangel630:
there are other ways to get it........:p
[T-Mobile LG G2x] rauelius:
Not the point...Could Google be worse than Apple?....Nah, but this still isn't cool!
[T-Mobile LG G2x] diablos991:
But if they kick him out, it may hinder his development of said apps. He also deserves the money for making such great apps!
[T-Mobile LG G2x] lbingham:
freeman.Yong@gmail.com. he's a good guy. Be nice and he'll email it to you while he works out some kinks.

He's just doing maintenance.
[T-Mobile LG G2x] negroplasty:
Started a support thread here. (WARNING: strong language)
[T-Mobile LG G2x] Jboxmods:
Lol... love the thread :)

We could always go the route of sales through forums, or "donations" if that works better. Paypal works, payment is payment. I would prefer a more personal 'market' anyways.
[T-Mobile LG G2x] PKTRaul:
He apparently is going to look into posting them on 3rd party appstores market like the slideME market.

See androidforums.com/android-applications/343376-yongzh-emulators-gone-market.html

And supposedly will put them for free for the first couple weeks. Right now I only have an old backup of Nesoid Lite, but with my new Tablet was trying to find them all to install.
[T-Mobile LG G2x] joshnichols189:
If you check slideME most of them are already up for free.. sadly not N64oid yet =/
[T-Mobile LG G2x] PKTRaul:
N64oid is there as well. I clicked on the yongzh's name and they all came up including N64oid.
[T-Mobile LG G2x] bdkinney:
That's freakin' awesome news...
[T-Mobile LG G2x] otakuloser:
He didn't make them. The majority of their code was stolen. So they should be free anyway. If he wanted support he should have just used a donation button instead of selling them for profit.

http //www reddit com/r/Android/comments/hmwj7/android_markets_most_popular_emulators_disappear/

http //www snes9x com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=4454

http //www gp32x com/board/index.php?/topic/58889-n64-for-android/
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Inverno:
Hi,

I'm newbie with SGS, I tried to flash an official italian firmware 2.2.1 with Odin and 3 files. Everything appears ok, but now the phone module don't starts. On notification bar only a no-entry sign. Wifi works fine.

With *#1234# shows:

PDA: I9000RSJS2

PHONE: UNKNOWN

CSC: I9000ITVJS1

BUILD INFO: 2011.01

With *2767*4387264636# shows:

service mode... nothing.

Originally, the product code was from a portuguese device, the firmware a 2.1-update1 release.

Any chance to recover the situation? The phone enters in download & recovery mode...
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] SaneinOne:
Have you checked to see whether your APN settings are correct?
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] vcespon:
Phone should be I9000XXJPY, like all european 2.2.1 ROMS

Try to flash the modem only, check in ODIN that it lists modem.bin as being copied to the device.
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Inverno:
Yes, I've tried to reflash a h3g rom (I have a h3g sim).

And it is not an apn problem, I can't access the phone signal at all, I get only a no-entry simbol on tray notification and can't make calls. Now it's getting to be a bit worried...