yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy S II General] vaskodogamagmail:
yes you can use terminal in your phone, but as for information for the other users, you don't need to enter " adb shell " command in step 8, because you are already connected to the phone's kernel.

I think you deleted your original EFS folder that came preinstalled with your phone, because I had " .nv_data " file.

anyway, use " nv_data.bin.bak " instead of " .nv_data " and see what happens.

thanks for the update. ;)

---------- Post added at 07:55 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:53 PM ----------

thank you for your reply. but please don't play with EFS folder too much. the Android OS can't recover your IMEI if you lost it completely. I've been lucky with this method to restore my IMEI.

thanks.
[Galaxy S II General] Schindler33:
Do you know if there are providers that block your

IMEI? I do not have any problems with my carrier now but I will soon go to the states, and I don't know wether my phone will get blocked there.
[Galaxy S II General] superleeds27:
Im not messing with it at all. Basically just copied it onto my SD card and then onot my PC. That way i know i deffo have a backup if anything was to happen
[Galaxy S II General] vaskodogamagmail:
I don't know any providers. but as a guess, I think some providers MAY block an irregular IMEI because of their security policy. but it's just a guess.
[Galaxy S II General] jerome.d:
I don't understand how you were able to apply the steps you describe to your case if you didn't have a backup of your original efs folder...
[Galaxy S II General] s_d123:
Help

My SGS 4G IMEI is corrupted showing some random symbols. Now I have taken backup of my EFS folder:(. EFS>root>afs>setings has .nv_state and nv_data.bin.

In IMEI folder there are only two files bt.txt and mps_code.dat.

Can it be repaired back to original IMEI? I don't have back up of my original EFS folder.
[Galaxy S II General] vaskodogamagmail:
I didn't had a backup of my original EFS folder BEFORE IMEI CHANGE.

after my IMEI has been changed to the fake one, then I backed up my EFS folder and do the steps in the first post.

---------- Post added at 05:22 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:13 PM ----------

the Content of your IMEI folder is correct, we don't have any business with the IMEI folder's content.

but look at your EFS folder contents, find the file named " .nv_data " (no post-fix), then do the steps in the first post.

but NOTE: my SGS 2 is a GSM model, not the 4G model, so I cannot guarantee that this method works with your phone too as it did for me.

thank you
[Galaxy S II General] dsxsk8:
Works in galaxy s too?

Thanks.
[Galaxy S II General] HorusEyE:
Hi...

I don't understand very well what you mean by

Do you mean that we should have the efs folder with the sud-folder and files structure as it was when the IMEI was not corrupted???

I.E.

/efs (dir)

nv_data.bin (file)

.imei (hidden file)

.nv_data.bak (hidden file)

.nv_data.bak.md5 (hidden file)

nv_data.bin.md5 (file)

nv_state (file)

/.android (hidden folder)

/imei (folder)

bt.txt (file)

mps_code.dat (file)

nvmac.info (file)

Another issue i'm facing is the fact that I can't do a chown radio:radio because i get the error that user/group radio does not exist...

And would this work for SGS I?
[Galaxy S II General] jcrompton:
Like others I am confused.

I flashed a ROM night before last.

I ended up with a phone that wouldn't work and the fake IMEI number.

By some chance I was able to get my phone working again with HC-kTool by restoring a efs.tar file -- I have a number of efsxxxx.tar.gz files in a folder called EFS_BACKUP on my sdcard (I don't how it got there but there are various dates of these files).

Now my phone works with data on the ATT network but my IMEI number is still the fake one.

SOOOO -- if I DON"T have an original backup of my EFS folder (or at least one I'm sure of) HOW do I restore my origianl IMEI ???
[Galaxy S II General] jinsiik:
Thanks for this!
[Galaxy S II General] lyriquidperfection:
Try using a different busybox binary. I noticed the one you are using is cyanogenmod. Install the stericsson one and give that a try.
[Galaxy S II General] frrustrated:
Sorry 'noob' here. Don't really understand what you mean:confused:

---------- Post added at 02:51 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:27 PM ----------

Nevermind i know what you mean. Tried that and did it on gingerbread this time around but still nothing...:(
[Galaxy S II General] hellovineet:
generic IMEI

I am able to restore the generic IMEI from blank IMEI using this method. How do I get my original IMEI? I had not done any backup before my IMEI suddenly out of blue gets wiped out and start showing blank. :(
[Galaxy S II General] EliezerBP:
I'm trying to delete my post, but there's only edit option.

My Galaxy SII can't access Internet and the Samsung Kies don't connect to the device. But USB connection with my PC it´s OK and adb also identify the device.

How can I download Root explorer from my PC and install into the Galaxy?
[Galaxy S II General] hellovineet:
IMEI still showing generic

After trying the listed method, I am still not able to restore my original IMEI number. It is still showing me Generic IMEI.

After spending lots of time, i finally gave it to the Samsung Center and they told me that it is motherboard issue as their own software of Fixing IMEI is also not able to restore the original IMEI due to some calibiration issue as area where IMEI is stored is not able to be written.

They said it is going to charge Rs 9500 (US$200) which is too much :(

Please can some one give me some solution on this. This is too much of money for fixing one year old phone

Thanks
[Galaxy S II General] hellovineet:
Restored

Finally I get it back..I used EFS Pro.. its wonderful tool.
[Galaxy S II General] vangamom:
Not ok i'm try about 10 times. But not recover my IMEI 00.......640000. Fake thread.....
[Galaxy S II General] suriya83:
i don't have such a .nv_data file on my galaxy s. Is that normal?
[Galaxy S II General] faddys123:
hi,

i am trying this method for the galaxy s 3, will it work eventhough i have no backup of efs at all
[Galaxy S II General] Un Loko:
My story

Got my IMEI back on my i9000B after flashing CM10 by flashing stock gingerbread (includes my carrier's bloatware).

I cannot understand why this happened though (why I could recover it this way). I did not have the files to follow the instructions of this thread.
[Galaxy S II General] TediTamo:
Anyone knows how much it costs to take it to Samsung to fix my IMEI? :(
[Galaxy S II General] neerajganga:
i don think they fix the imei

---------- Post added at 09:17 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:14 PM ----------

u can try
[Galaxy S II General] Odia:
Not a cat in hell's chance.
[Galaxy S II General] AlwaysDroid:
I hope your sarcastic lol.
[Galaxy S II General] yourmate:
no questions answered

I really do like this thread. I really do...

The reason why is that I have the same problem as many of the posters (aka NO efs backup and now only have a generic imei) who keep asking the same question over and over again without a reply.

Besides the questions the only posts you can see is "I used this and it's saved my phone/life/marriage/etc!!"

I do NOT consider myself a noob so I am probably just blind missing the point ;)

So could somebody tell me (and the other 20+ who asked this already) what to do when you haven't done a backup and now you can only recover to a generic IMEI?

Thanks a lot
[Galaxy S II General] gaarared:
Even though I cannot get my real IMEI to show up after use this method but I can get my phone to detect my simcard and can be use as normal phone agai. Thank you very much...
[Galaxy S II General] slaj76:
If you don't have a backup of efs then read the first page .
[Galaxy S II General] stuku:
My SGS I9000 is strange, this method doesn`t work but as soon as I put it on charge I get IMEI back and can use phone, although after reboot there is no IMEI. I would be very thankfull if someone can point me in the right direction.
[Galaxy S II General] txzx6r:
yea, unfortunatley, I have found this out with my sidekick 4g. I am desperatly trying to find a way to put my imei back in.
[Galaxy S II General] ADA Works:
Is this valid even for Galaxy Nexus ?

Hi, Will this work for galaxy nexus, i tried the same but with "factory" folder instead of 'efs', but in vain, it did not help . My problem: I am from india and i bought a galaxy nexus from google play store (US), while ordering it was mentioned as unlocked, anyway once i got it shipped to India, i did an OTA update to Jelly Bean and then the next day during a call, the network got disconnected and i could nt search for any, and i realized the phone showed the IMEI as unknown thereafter. I tried re installing the factory rom(4.0.4 yakju) after that and even your solution. But it did not work, can suggest me as to what i can do to fix my issue ?

---------- Post added at 09:52 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:17 PM ----------

Will this work even for Galaxy nexus.. ??

My issue:

i am from india and am having a similar problem, i bought a galaxy nexus(they had mentioned it as unlocked) from google play store(US) recently. I did an OTA update for Jelly Bean and then next day while talking, the network disappeared and i was not longer able to even search for network and realized that the IMEI is shown as unknown. Can you suggest me if there is a fix for this issue ?
[Galaxy S II General] cor3dump:
Nice post ,must have in bookmarks

Enviado desde mi GT-I9100 usando Tapatalk 2
[Galaxy S II General] acikmese:
thank you
[Galaxy S II General] InevitableDJ:
Thanks this is really useful!
[Galaxy S II General] XiR_:
Hi.

It didn't worked for my international i9300. Thank you anyway.

Regards
[Galaxy S II General] Azure1203:
I just used your process to get my IMEI number back to how it is supposed to be.

Couple things though. I'll quote the OP, and put in what I did to make sure people get it. Hopefully it helps some guys here out.

4) go to EFS folder using root explorer, and delete "nv_data.bin", "nv_data.bin.md5". - Did this.

5) go to your backed up EFS folder on your sdcard, copy the "imei" folder to the EFS folder at the root of your phone, then again go to the backed up EFS folder at yout sdcard and copy the " .nv_data " file to your EFS folder at the root of your phone using root explorer, NOTE: the dot in first of nv_data is not a mistake, copy the ".nv_data" file. - Not sure why, but I copied the imei folder that I had made a backup of, and then I copied over the 'nv_data.bin' file, and not the '.nv_data' file. I never had a '.nv_data' file on my backup.

6) make another copy of the ".nv_data" file in EFS folder in your phone, so you would have 2 copies of ".nv_data" in EFS folder - I made another copy of the 'nv_data.bin' file here. The one I had copied over on top.

7) rename one of ".nv_data" files to "nv_data.bin" and another one to "nv_data.bin.bak" - One of the files already was called 'nv_data.bin' so I just called the other one 'nv_data.bin.bak.'

I then followed the rest of the instructions and it worked great.

Also, my EFS folder was completely kaput after flashing a new ROM, but luckily for me, somewhere in the process the ROM author had but in a command to create a backup of my EFS, so when I went to my SDcard storage, there was a backup folder there, and lo and behold, 3 EFS backups. I used the newest one to fix my problems.

Hopefully this can help some people here.
[Galaxy S II General] sacmat:
done as u said on your 1st post.. but not get the success ...

still phone is show no imei add. and in settings>about> unknown baseband.

tell me what i do ?

please help me out.
[Galaxy S II General] shopsdesire:
When I run fix permission will this fix permissions of efs folder? If not what shud they be?
[Galaxy S II General] SPEED_RACER_5.0:
i did make a backup of my efs folder, but dont know how to restore it, and cant seem to find an answer. can anyone help
[Galaxy S II General] bihslk:
Today everything worked fine on my phone i just rooted it. And tonight i turned it of but forgot to set alarm for the job.

When i turned it on i didnt get any sim pin code or network.

Then i realized after searching google after no baseband that my imei was gone and my serial number.

I was totaly scared. OMG wtf happened?

Then i read this thread and first thing i did was to navigate to the EFS folder and copying it to the SD CARD

Tryed with subscribed post but no luck then i did it my way.

i did it this way

I backed up my EFS folder to SD CARD

Then i deleted everything in my EFS in root.

Then restarded phone

Then i copyed back IMEI folder to the EFS root and nv_data.bin and maked nv_data.bin.bak

Then i reflashed my phone with ODIN with 4.0.4 firmware

After it was done everything vent back to normal. My imei is back and serial number.

This method as subscribed in this thread maked me crazy hahahahha so i did it with my method and it works
[Galaxy S II General] Jahandar:
brothers , just flash a cyanogen kernel and stable cyanogenmod rom to resolve your problem ...
[Galaxy S II General] Azure1203:
That only works if the essentials files for restoring the your IMEI are still on our phone.

The whole point here is that you STILL need the original files in the EFS folder that contain your IMEI number. If you don't have those, I don't know how this process would work.

I had a backup of my EFS, which is why the process worked.
[Galaxy S II General] hovensy:
imei, no network, baseband restored

I lost my radio after flashing a ROM.. I was searching many threads and post and their solution needs a lot of resources.

I've done so many restocking procedure but it didn't work.

Glad I found this one.. the only thing I've done was the first 2 parts...

1. copied my efs folder to the sdcard

2. deleted my efs folder and restart

After restarting, my network was restored.... everything else went fine... a ton of thanks...
[Galaxy S II General] andnote:
help

you have said original pda..what does that mean any stock rom or stock rom which was installed while i bought my set.

now i am in galaxy note 4.0.4 and i am rooted.

yesterday i flashed german rom and i lost my imei number.

my number is changed

can i recover my imei number by this method

or i have to go to gingerbread

plz reply
[Galaxy S II General] kuluval:
Thanks for share ...i am added your links to my favorites
[Galaxy S II General] skar_16:
I got one phone which doesn't have any efs backup, will give this a try and post result if it works, tnx for the post and the effort to give clear details...
[Galaxy S II General] andnote:
dont kill other time

Deleted by myself..
[Galaxy S II General] efte:
.nv_data

i can't find ".nv_data" in efs folder, what should i do?
[Galaxy S II General] geoslake:
First, thanks for the useful post.

I encountered this problem yesterday, when i updated from Slimbean 2.3 to Slimbean 2.5.

I followed your first steps, however i got no IMEI folder in EFS folder (the one i backed up at step 1), any idea on what i could do now ?

Thanks
[Galaxy S II General] JarikSolo:
Hi,

I just installed Paranoid Android 2.12 on an SGS and now I get IMEI failure. The phone worked for an hour or so, then the signal went dead.

Typing *#06# I get an IMEI number that is very different from the one under the battery.

Using ES File Explorer I am unable to copy the files in the efs-folder to /emmc, just says unable to copy files.

Are the files in use or is it a permissions thing ?

Any other tips ?
[Galaxy S II General] themadba:
Did you ever back up your /efs folder? If not, I suppose you could follow the guide here, its worth a try. As for the files not be able to be moved, have you given File Expert

root access? Also make sure you are in read/write mode. Then choose the efs folder or whatever is required and select move. You could also use Root Explorer if you can't get File Expert to work.
[Galaxy S II General] PATRiOT96:
This will be useful when I use my phone warranty. Thanks for posting.
[Galaxy S II General] chinopz:
Hi guys i've done everithing that says in the post.

And also i've seen a cople of person that ask the same problem that i have but no answer.

The thing is that in the back up that i've done there is no .nv_data file only nv_data.bin

So what i want to know if there is a solution for this or there is nothing else to do?

I'm runing 2.3.4 i9100XXKG1

Thanks hope to get an answer!!
[Galaxy S II General] hypehnx:
will it work on my captivate glide?

i unlocked the phone using this http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1595756

i keep my original efs
[Galaxy S II General] dafank:
Maybe a very stupid question but... what's wrong about having a fake IMEI ? everything should work as before, the only thing I can think of is that if you have to go to your customer service, they won't be able to corroborate that that's actually your phone.
[Galaxy S II General] bihslk:
One problem guys. My imei keeps change back to the FAKE one. Im recovering it and when restart after the guide my imei shows as normal. But when i restart the phone again it getting back to the FAKE one??? HELP
[Galaxy S II General] bihslk:
Fixed it. Installed STOCK firmware and downloaded SGII repair and installed my backed up EFS folder. Now it working again.
[Galaxy S II General] liquidvampz:
hi, i have the same problem with u. about flashing stock firmware, i should use Odin & will it wipe my device? thanks!
[Galaxy S II General] bihslk:
It will wipe your device YES...
[Galaxy S II General] bulldozer1021:
Question

if someone use the kernel "siyah", "dream", "dorimanx"

the kernel will make the efs backup in /SDCARD

and I installed the HC-Ktool from market

when i checked using the app

the HC-Ktool app can`t find the back up files

so i did back up again

what`s difference between made by Ktool and other kernels
[Galaxy S II General] RomanticBoy:
I not look "imei" folder in EFS folder...

Help me!

My phone: Galaxy S2 I9100G

Ver: 2.3.6

Lost IMEI, current no detect SIM and Baseband "Unknow"

Sorry for my English!
[Galaxy S II General] bihslk:
can you see nv_data.bin in the EFS folder? But without IMEI folder i think there is no help
[Galaxy S II General] jaydvn:
Can I use a backed up efs folder of another phone for restoring with my phone?
[Galaxy S II General] HITSY:
I have the same query !!!! can any one conform this ??

can i use backed up efs folder from another phone to restore in my phone ..

please help !!
[Galaxy S II General] Tomydevasia:
I am also facing the same issue mentioned in the subject of this thread. NO IMEI in Galaxy SL (I9003). So I tried out the steps mentioned in the in various threads. But it didn't worked out. Later I came to know that the efs folder is not mounting after these steps and the error I got from the kernel message is the following

<3>[ 6.589019] init: SEC_DEVENC ***[/dev/block/stl3][0]

<3>[ 6.593566] init: failed that mount s:'/dev/block/stl3', t:'/efs', f:rfs ,op :check=no,iocharset=cp437 (Invalid argument)[BIF: ] FSR VERSION: FSR_1.2.1p1_b139_RTM

<3>[ 7.013549] init: SEC_DEVENC ***[/dev/block/stl3][0]

<3>[ 7.017883] init: failed that mount s:'/dev/block/stl3', t:'/efs', f:rfs ,op :check=no,iocharset=cp437 (Invalid argument)

So what i can do to recover from this and also for I9003 how we can recover the IMEI. Please help
[Galaxy S II General] sahnisarbjit:
Thankx

Thank you very much sir for this great job to recover IMEI. This helped alot. Just one thing to add from my side that I tried it on ICS 4.0.4 but it didn't work. Like you said I flashed Stock 2.3.6 first then it worked. Its really amazing. Thankyou......
[Galaxy S II General] goranjel:
recover your imei in 9 steps

thank you very much..i menaged to recover imei on my i9000 with 4.1.1 and:fingers-crossed:
[Galaxy S II General] Henrikwango:
Hi!

Got a Samsung Galaxy S2 but something is really wrong.

Updated to 4.0.4 and my IMEI, Baseband, PDA dissapeared.

In Samsung stock rom 4.0.4 the phone boots, but do not start properly. The screen is black and the only visible is the notification bar.

Now running CM9 (9-20120420-CODEWORKX-galaxys2)

It all works but not the SIM-function.

Can't type *#1234# nad *#06# shows "blanked"-IMEI

I've tried all the steps in the original post, but it wont work.

Shall the IMEI folder in /efs.tar folder include something more than just:

"bt.txt

keystr

mps_code.dat" ?

in case of yes, what?

Even if i restore efs.tar through GSII_repair, it wont work.

Someone please willing to just give me just one hand?

Thanks in advance
[Galaxy S II General] manganok:
It could be usefull, thx!
[Galaxy S II General] daniel.hajdinjak666:
Hi guys!

I play with my phone, and lost IMEI. I had backed up one, but seems nothing work. Then i just delete EFS folder with root explorer, and c/p that one from sd card. Now evrything work OK,but when I reboot my phone, I must c/p again. And i can´flesh anything else then 4.0.4 stock rom?!

I can flesh Siyah kernel, and CF root, but anything other?!

Try my method to at least make network working!
[Galaxy S II General] ajayadithya:
not working in samsung i9003

is this method applicable to samsung i9003?

my imei field went blank with no signal when phone is kept idle.

But efs folder contains nv_data.bin and when mounted in adb shell , efs folder is mounted.

i tried this method but no signal and no imei .

pda: i9003xxkpe

phone:unknown

csc: unknown

need help..plz
[Galaxy S II General] daniel.hajdinjak666:
If is your EFS mounted when you look with ADB, then download "EFS Pro" program, make backup, and then press "repair "nv" file. Maybe you gona have some luck! Yes, this is a method for Galaxy series, probabley gona work for you.
[Galaxy S II General] ajayadithya:
thanks dude,

but its not working ....
[Galaxy S II General] No.01:
lost my efs folder.

Hi members, What should I do if I lost everythings in EFS folder in galaxy note? Means when I open it I can't find anything in it.

Note: I did a backup for it in my PC.

How can I restore it?
[Galaxy S II General] sgs9:
I have Titanium Backup Pro on my Phones. If I start TB, message come up like "something changed" would you restore? Say yes, phone reboot und all fine.

Did you have TB? Make a test.
[Galaxy S II General] No.01:
No, I don't have it.
[Galaxy S II General] Ajsk:
EFS folder problem(

made a recovery from cwm mode, went to efs and deleted it. After booting up, i still have no imei, no sim detected, when i press power button no of sceen log no more, just straight reboot. And a message on screen that does not go nowhere see screenshot.
[Galaxy S II General] sumitkmrngm:
Plz help about thr IMEI issue in Karbonn A1

tried your way to soolve my problem after installation of Microfire 2.1 , but i cant find the EFS folder in root (where does it stay?) n cant do changes about "nv_data" cuz i m not having installed firmware now..plz help

I have lost my IMEI number when i installed the rom Microfire (luved it's style n interface) 2.1, n i dint backup the EFS folder cuz i dint know about these things (thanx i got knowledge about where the IMEI presents) , I also didnt make the backup of my stock ROM (Firmware) of Karbonn A1, but i got it on this link (ziddu.com/downloadlink/19964124/a1softwaredltool.rar), (got it on GSMhosting.com), it will flash the firmware with the help of a software named as "Common Downloader" , but io don't know why it stops after 3% of download and giving me msg "DNLop Failed" i dont know about this thing,,, plz plz plz help........