yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] circuit.007:
I'm gona be honest I have the touch cwm the . 5 version that let's you see ext sd card. And I have backed up my rom. And I have restored it at least 15 times this last week due to me trying to figure out the app that was giving me errors and force closing, a couple roms, and I have just flashed trinity kernel couple days ago. With all that I'm still here and no imei gone.

Now I'm not saying this isn't going to happen. In fact after reading this thread I have paused my flashing (although with cm10 or stock jelly bean kinks worked out I won't be able to resist) I'm just saying it would be weird if it was cwm creating this problem. I mean cwm has been in android forever, and I don't think it would cause this problem. There could be something else causing it. So let's still keep our eyes on the lookout.

Just my opinion..
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] RiNo808:
where did you get that touch cwm from and is it compatible with att?
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] Serinety:
This happened to my buddy on his captivate today. Att said that his sim was inserted into an iphone and as a result, they deactivated his line. After 3 hours on the phone, they were unwilling to reactivate his phone.

He was running dark night rom and his imei was changed. Fortunately he had a back up and was able to restore his service. But this is scary stuff. Be careful
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] androholic:
Well there are many different version cwm, and many different versions of it ppl are using on our gs3. There's also a change in our device of where the imei is stored, so I'm just thinking that maybe one of these cwm versions is wiping the partition the imei is hidden in. There's only one twrp for our phone, so I feel if it works it may be safer for me? Also, ppl may be mounting & unmounting different partitions or formating the system & storage areas? I feel if I can test twrp extensively, have no issues, and post my EXACT steps of factory reset, & install, then everyone would be on the one version of twrp available across all carriers, and hopefully no one would be losing their imei. I'm more convinced that it varies by which version of cwm you have, how your using it, and if your using consistently every time? I don't think it's that cwm is defective, I just think there are many variables with it... I hope that makes sense, I'm very tired & its been a very bad day:-(
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] RiNo808:
Where would we be able to get our hands on twrp for att gsiii?
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] lyriquidperfection:
Okay, anyone who has messed up IMEI, install Terminal Emulator or aquire the apk from somewhere and type the following:

su -c 'busybox mountpoint -n /efs'

If it returns something like:

/dev/block/mmcblk0p3 /efs

Then your partition is fine.

If it returns UNKNOWN or Not a partition then you may have a corrupt efs partition.

This is only a theory and may not necessarily mean your efs is corrupt.

Please post your findings here.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] unleashed12:
All this isnt even required, the quickest and easiest way to check is to just put *#06# in the dialer , if your imei returns all 0's or something then your imei is corrupted. And also guys, its been stated before on the fourms backing up the efs in such a way might not even help you, as in the us variant it is unknown where the imei is stored, and from what ive read its not even in the /efs folder, so backing it up is good in practice but cannot help you at all right now if you happened to corrupt your imei.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] lyriquidperfection:
Just because *#06# may display incorrect imei this is not what I am looking for. As a developer Im looking for a feasible solution and for me to see if a partition is corrupt or not cannot be done with the dial code. I was asked by another member to help with this so please dont confuse the situation. IMEI is stored in the efs folder which points to a partition on the device. If this becomes corrupt that causes the problem. The command I provided should display the partition location of the efs folder thus enabling me to implement a fix by updating my EFS Pro application.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] lyriquidperfection:
So let me know what the command returns please everyone.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] unleashed12:
sorry about that earlier i understand what you are asking for now, it may help your cause to also post your message here, http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1753833

as this is the "main" thread dicussing this issue for the past week or so. Some guys with toast imei #s frequent the thread.

thanks for working on this issue :good:
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] mobilehavoc:
I was thinking either a mount or even a permissions issue. If the IMEI file didn't have write permissions it would cause this corruption too.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] lyriquidperfection:
True but this could also indicate partition stuck in read only mode which to remedy would require formatting as long as you have a backup ready to restore after.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] androholic:
On rootzwiki there were users saying it's working. One said it wouldn't read internal storage, but I think others confirmed it was okay. But you really don't need it as twrp doesn't wipe the internal sd card when you do a wipe/factory reset from inside twrp, so essentially all of your downloads, backups, & media are safe. I'm not sure if this is maybe why no one's reported the imei issue, but I suppose there are less ppl using it at this point, so still be very cautious.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] androholic:
Now that's awesome info! Thank you sir!
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] androholic:
That is the most insightful thing anyone has posted yet, thank you so very much. It was stated in terms we can all understand with directions easy to follow! :-) I do wish you share with the other thread, but I'm just happy you posted! :-) I'm far from an advanced user, and actually I have a question for you, do you think I'm maybe best to leave twrp alone? I don't have anything against cwm, there are just so many versions that I didn't know if it was one of them, or how ppl have been using one of them? Does cwm wipe the internal storage from a factory reset /wipe? Lastly, which version are you using for Tmo? I opened the thread for the advice of ppl like you. I did the backup, to my internal SD because I'm on a stock rooted rom now, and I'm going to copy it to my external storage & a folder on my pc! I'm in the dark about alot of this, and that's the only reason I wanted ppl to follow the link. Anything else you can offer would be great, and anyone you can advise here is great. I'm not afraid to ask questions, I'm only afraid of not knowing, and I'm still in the learning state. I've flashed alot of roms, and I have alot of devices, but I've only never bricked because I read &make SURE I understand what I'm doing before I do it. I'm very happy to have ppl like you here on XDA, because you make it a place that is possible to learn things if your willing to shut your mouth, and open your ears, lol!
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] androholic:
Thank you so much for stepping in and helping, I appreciate everyone of you guys who are knowledgeable in these thing for all your doing to help!
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] bravomail:
IMEI probs

1. AOKP CWM script use to have some EFS backup nonsense. Not sure if that was fixed. Refer to ROM devs.

2. Ppl just flash wrong ROMs and/or themes which were not for their phones. And then don't admit to it.

3. Use dd command to save/restore your /efs partition as a file.

Here - problem solved.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] Product F(RED):
I know the S2 is very different from the S3 on the software level, but maybe someone could write an app like this:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/...GwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS5oZWxyb3ouR1NJSV9SZXBhaXIiXQ..

From the description:
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] lyriquidperfection:
They already have, its called EFS Pro, an app I made for backup, restore and repair of imei. It will also repair partition by formatting with correct parameters.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] Product F(RED):
I know; but the issue it doesn't work on US variants. I posted a link to that app mainly because it says that the IMEI won't show up if it's stuck in read-only mode, not only corrupted. It was more for brainstorming.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] lyriquidperfection:
Ahh I see so it cant be from bad partition then. Without the physical device, I have no way of testing.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] Product F(RED):
Neither do I lol. I have the i9300 (international variant), which works fine. The ones in the US are different in that they have Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processors (with LTE for AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon, but no LTE for T-Mobile) and 2GB of RAM to make up for it. I'm thinking the partition arrangement may be due to the difference in hardware rather than intentional douchebaggery on the part of the carriers. AT&T I can see doing this, but not T-Mobile. The fact that it happens on both carriers' phones is interesting. T-Mobile in general is much more lenient and would not pull anything like this.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] androholic:
I think we need to get you a gsm us gs3 then? I know you're a moderator, and I know mods generally don't care for bounties, but maybe even if someone suffering from the issue already would trust you with their phone, and possibly you know someone with a working us version you could dig a little more? Or, dare I say it, we do a bounty? I think there are enough ppl with the issue(or terrified of it) to contribute, and mature enough to understand that there are no guarantees in development?
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] mdfritz:
Wondering if this caused my imei loss...

I lost imei and here's what I did to lose it:

flash CWM thru odin

flash superuser using CWM recovery

--I accidentally forgot to install BusyBox at this point--

Flash CM9 nightly 7/17 through Rom manager

IMEI gone. 2g only, installing BusyBox at this point did nothing.

+1 counter

I am wondering if not installing busyBox before flashing the nightly was the problem.

Anyways, I am within 14 days, so I unrooted and reverted to stock and returned it to the store for an exchange. Triangle Gone isn't going to support the T999 so I returned it with +1 mods. At the store, they don't know anything about that, all they know is it looks like an out of the box phone with an imei glitch.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] cwalker0906:
I've seen a couple people mention installing clockwork and then flashing a rom right away without rebooting in between. I wonder if that may be the issue
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] lyriquidperfection:
I used to be a mod but gave it up. Im not looking for a device people could help by just co ooerating and helping test commands. :)
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] drksilenc:
if you need a tester for a non corrupt imei let me know i have an d2att that has flashed cm10 and back with no issues.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] lyriquidperfection:
Nice one, type this into Terminal Emulator and tell me what it says:

su -c 'busybox mountpoint -n /efs'

I need someone with corrupt imei to do the same so I can compare.

Cheers.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] ingenious247:
I'm not saying that anyone would be legally responsible, yes disclaimers are nice, and necessary... however if they come to find out that the CWM version that was specifically posted for each respective versions of the GS3 was actually causing this problem, then there would certainly be a lot of anger toward the person who posted (and/or wrote) the code for said recoveries...

Which leads to another problem. How much are we willing to trust these developers or thread-makers who have earned our trust and posted instructions which we blindly follow to the tee since they've always been OK before, if we come to find out they can make mistakes and basically turn our brand new $600-$700 devices into useless wifi phablets?

Personally, if it does lead back to the ("correct") versions of CWM causing the problem for each respective phone, I won't be flashing another CWM recovery, ever.

Disclaimers are for people who can't follow instructions or cross-flash device recoveries and brick their phones through idiocy. They're not meant to be an excuse to post destructive recoveries with no liability.

I'm not pointing fingers here, we don't know the cause just yet, and I've ALWAYS used CWM and rooted my phones through the proper instructions on xda and I've never had a problem.. but if I see this kind of thing happening and the OP's or developers making huge mistakes and then saying, oh well, you're problem.. it's going to destroy development on xda and elsewhere.

Something to think about.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] Product F(RED):
You can be mad all you want, but in the end it's your choice whether or not to be an early adopter. If you're not ready to take risks, you shouldn't be rooting your phone. And if you're not happy with the way your phone is and you refuse to root it, go buy an iPhone.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] drksilenc:
/dev/block/mmcblk0p11 /efs

this is exactly what is outputted on cm10 do you need this specifically on stock rooted?
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] woody1:
Just some thoughts here:

1. While it's good to bring this problem to light, I don't think panic is required. Everything you do with your phone poses some degree of risk. Just walking out of the house with your phone exposes you to the risk that you'll lose your phone or drop it and break it. It's not clear, at this point, what % of flashes are having this problem, so we don't know the degree of risk here.

2. Some people are jumping to the conclusion that the carriers are doing this on purpose. There's no evidence for that. If they wanted to sabotage people how load custom roms, they would probably find a way to do it to 100% of the people who do it, not just a small number of people at random. No good is served by making superstitious and unfounded accusations.

3. Ultimately, sounds like the problem will be resolved by our brilliant and hard-working developers creating a good backup for IMEI data. Until then, people will just need to be cautious. Like all other risks, people will have to judge whether the benefits of flashing outweigh the risks involved.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] lyriquidperfection:
Interesting, on the International Galaxy S III (I9300) the efs partition is located at: /dev/block/mmcblk0p3.

Now we just need someone who broke their fone to run the same command and see if result is the same as yours.

If you could do the same again on a stock rom flashed through odin I can then see if it differs.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] drksilenc:
would my backup of my stock be ok?
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] jasvncnt1:
Do you mean flashing your stock backup if you lost your IMEI? No that wont help
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] swehes:
I decided to try this command. I am have the T-mobile version. Rooted, stock.

command: su -c 'busybox mountpoint -n /efs'

Result: /dev/block/mmcblk0p11 /efs
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] lyriquidperfection:
Yes thats fine just to see if partition location differs on stock to cm but I have a feeling it will be the same.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] drksilenc:
kk ill load that backup after i backup my current cm10 build

---------- Post added at 05:31 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:16 PM ----------

/dev/block/mmcblk0p11 /efs

same results on both cm10 and stock rooted. att imei not corrupt going back and fourth although something odd i never installed busybox until now on this rom.

if you need anything else let me know
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] ingenious247:
The iPhone comment was unnecessary.

You nailed it with the "early adopter" comment. That is really where the risk lies for those of us who know what we're doing.

For the record, I never said I was mad. I'm just saying that some people might be if that is the cause. My phone is fine, because I don't feel the need to root it at this point. I may in the future, but it will be long after this is sorted out.

Like I said, I've always rooted my phones and used CWM recovery without problems. It could very well be that people are flashing the wrong recovery or something of that nature.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] Product F(RED):
I think the iPhone comment was necessary. Why? Because it comes from a company that babies you and tells you what's good for you. On Android, if you don't like something, you can do something about it. My point was, if you don't want to spend time and effort customizing your phone to your liking, then Android is not for you.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] drksilenc:
i dont really agree with that fred i mean i know plenty of people who just run stock builds and a really happy with their gs3 dx2 and all sorts of other handsets. Most dont care they they will never get ics
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] Product F(RED):
I'm saying if you find stock not to your liking, and all you do is complain instead of rooting your phone and flashing a ROM, Android is not for you. But I don't want to derail this thread, so let's get back on topic. Any new findings?
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] lyriquidperfection:
I would be interested to find out if anyone with a broken imei can mount the efs folder as read/write and back to read only in root explorer without issues.

Any takers?
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] :
Wow. You people take all threads off topic. :/
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] Product F(RED):
Maybe this will cheer everyone up: http://www.engadget.com/2012/07/18/uk-judge-forces-apple-samsung-tablet-not-ipad-copy/
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] mdfritz:
FYI, I did reboot in between, just forgot busybox.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] cwalker0906:
Did you reboot before flashing su?
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] fireboypr:
How do I know if I lost my IMEI??
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] drksilenc:
your data speeds will be at sprint levels
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] neotoky:
When you can't make calls, receive or send text or and lose data. You can check under About Device, then Status, under IMEI there should be a 15 digit number I believe. If it says 0 then you lost your IMEI.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] Kevinl86:
I see what you did there.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] :
Hahaha.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] es7241:
lyriquidperfection, same results with no imei:

/dev/block/mmcblk0p11 /efs

According to a user in the att thread
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] swa2k4:
Any takers?

Unfortunately I have fallen to the IMEI lost issue :( This was on my sister's phone which is the Tmo GSIII , I have the same phone and mine has flashed over 20 times with no problems however, today when her phone came in, I rooted it with ODIN (root66 tmobile stock file) then flashed the CWMtouch .tar file in ODIN just as I did on my own. And then booted and then went to recovery pressing vol-down home power. and then as soon as the phone started up I saw it was only getting Edge, then checked the settings/status/Imei and it read 0.

I have read the threads and now tried your request of mounting efs as read/write and then back to read and it has been successful. What else can I do to help? I will probably be sending it out tomorrow to mobiletechvideos to have them reflash the IMEI for $30. until then I am all ears and would like to help. any way I could fix the IMEI issue myself possibly? I did not back up anything before unfortunately, ive owned so many devices and this was a first!!
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] fireboypr:
Sad to hear man, I hate when something works 100% with personal phones and then when doing it for a friend or family for free it messes up and one look like a noob and guilty... good luck
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] RaymondPJR:
What OTA? Which carrier released one?
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] androholic:
Sprint & Att both had an update to change the search feature so that Apple wouldn't make a fuss over the local search... :-(
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] lyriquidperfection:
So as far as I can tell, efs folder remains intact, efs partition is okay for people that have tried my simple tests so the imei will still be there but it looks like after flashing, the phone doesnt know where to look for it resulting in a null or 0 for the imei. We need to figure out where the device looks for the efs partition to report imei.

As wifi and bluetooth mac addresses are also stored in the efs folder, has anyone with broken imei had issues with wifi and bluetooth not connecting??
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] dudesmiles:
Stock rooted rom

I'm on a stock rooted rom. Will these instructions backup my info as well or should i flash to cm9 or 10 first?
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] es7241:
I'm starting to think it isn't an imei or efi issue anymore...

The screenshot shows that it is not only the imei but the serial number is missing as well.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] swa2k4:
wifi has been working just fine
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] Product F(RED):
Perhaps the IMEI is dervied from the serial number? As in it's a calculation of it.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] RaymondPJR:
Thanks for posting this thread. Like most in here I am concerned. One of my first thoughts after dropping my first S3 was to give it to a dev for ROM making purposes. I had cancelled my insurance the day I bought it. Then T-Mobile reversed my decision to cancel my insurance and I have to return the damaged unit or face a fine from Asurion. Would have been nice, the old one works perfectly just has a busted display.
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] mrmako777:
ok guys, i mentioned this before, but i have flashed root twice (once after flashing back to stock via odin). i still have my imei. in my efs folder there is an imei folder and in that folder there is a file named mps_code.dat which shows it has been modified (i assume) on yesterdays date (july 17th). is this file the same for everyone else on tmobile? i thought i saw some people mention something about a bin file. not sure if that means anything, but figured id throw it out there in case it helped
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] es7241:
yes same file here on tmobile
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] sidekickingjorge:
Im sure that the serial number doesnt matter, i dont have this device yet (but will soon) but on my current device it says that my serial number "unknown" and im still conneted and getting service on Tmo
[AT&T, Rogers, Bell, Telus Samsung Galaxy S III] Markdental:
I got permission denied trying to backup on cm10.