yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] David Dee:
Lol, agreed on a JB build. One guy summed it up perfectly on one of the forums: With the IMEI problem, excessive flashing on this device is like being a porn star in early 80s with the introduction of AIDS.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] SiNJiN76:
So what about this. I remember some of you were thinking that it may have to do with busybox.

S Beamed by my T999
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] kssxs:
What you're referring to there is the watcher process declaring BusyBox as 'dangerous', and that is what changes the phone status to 'Modified' when it finds it installed. As for BB causing the issue, it doesn't seem likely, based on the evidence gathered so far.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] SiNJiN76:
Thanks. A side request...could you tell me what I should be looking for in a logcat to identify a random reboot?
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] kssxs:
I myself don't know, perhaps someone else here can point it out?
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] David Dee:
Hopefully Peter will see this one before he sends back his broken phone.

Great post, very informative, thanks.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] lordmorphous:
I just did the backup (I still have my IMEI). I just wanted to point out that I had to change the command to:

dd if=/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/efs of=/mnt/extSdCard/efs_backup.img

in order for it to work.

Therefore the restore command would need to be changed to:

dd if=/mnt/extSdCard/efs_backup.img of=/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/efs_sdcc.1/by-name/efs
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] David Dee:
How large is this backup file?
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] drothenberger:
14 MB
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] getsaf:
They zip up quite nicely to about 60k. The partition is mostly empty but the extract still pulls in the bytes that make up the unused space.

I dropboxed mine and gmailed it to myself to make sure I never lose it.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] fireboypr:
should I do this on the same phone right? With the terminal app from market?
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] lyriquidperfection:
Why would the command be that? If you type this in Terminal:

su -c 'busybox mountpoint -n /efs'

You will see that the efs partition is:

/dev/block/mmcblk0p11
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] lordmorphous:
Couldn't tell you. Unfortunately, I'm not a code junkie. I just knew the original commands included an invalid path.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] David Dee:
Now I am lost....which code is correct?
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] lyriquidperfection:
/dev/block/mmcblk0p11 is basically a direct route to the other one which is longer and more long winded. Other than that, they are the same.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] getsaf:
I'm on TMobile, but basically, whichever command works on yours is fine as long as you don't get an error, you're good.

It doesn't hurt to try both, they won't mess anything up UNLESS you get the IF and OF wrong. DO NOT MESS THAT PART UP.. IF is input-file OF is output file.

Just try both, one will produce a file and one will not.

You should probably SU first too so:

Open terminal:

$>su
$>dd if=/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/efs of=/external_sd/efs_backup.img
$>dd if=/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/efs of=/mnt/extSdCard/efs_backup.img

One of these will produce a file on your external SD card..
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] David Dee:
Thanks man, the above command line worked, must be for i747m versions. Final question I have is would this change at all with the lte radio on our model?
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] wavrunrx:
Confirmed working on USA, AT&T Galaxy S3

:good:
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] sabre31:
But does anybody know if this will actually work if imei gets corrupted and you have this backup and restore it? I thought even with this backup it does no good as imei is no longer stored in efs partition.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] wavrunrx:
for now it is a precaution as we are waiting on a few folks to get back to us on that.

i for one feel a bit of relief having dd'ed my partition now. still wont be flashing anything though....
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] sabre31:
I hear you I did the same wish somebody much smarter then me would figure out how to properly back this up so I can flash away I am same boat as you with flashing for the moment.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] androholic:
For TMobile users, the quote above from Lordmorphous contains the correct commands for our model.

Now we REALLY need someone to test this! This was stated by KevlarTheGreat a few days ago, but no one ever followed up on it? I'd hate to see it fade away into the thread untested & undetermined yet again. Is there anyway we can prove this concept without patiently waiting for one of the few of us that have created the backup to lose our imei? I think most of us who have the backup created are those of us that have been in thread regularly waiting on a solution, and unfortunately most of us have put our flashing on hold. When we do see a new report of a lost imei, it seems that the user has not been to the thread before to have known to make this backup? We have somewhat of a catch 22 here...
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] es7241:
Does this just back up the /efs partition like what efs pro does?
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] johnhazelwood:
I think a backup wouldn't hurt, but find it unlikely it contains the imei. Typically it's contained in an nvdata file, on the captivate, gs2, and international gs3. It seems unlikely they've changed that. Stupid file must be hidden somewhere. I'm assuming in an area written to during rom flashes.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] es7241:
You sir are on to something, my md5sum is completely different than yours... I would post but I'm posting from my phone
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] wavrunrx:
well thats an interesting find;

i checked the md5 of my redata.bin, and it indeed has a different md5.

mine is: ecd52050e9ab933aa11e3570fbf8a19c
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] naturefreak85:
Except it doesn't if you flash stock firmware.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] lordmorphous:
My md5 is different too.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] norbarb:
i get permission denied.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] lordmorphous:
did you su first? Are you rooted?
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] norbarb:
yes and yes
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] woody1:
Are you saying this is the same problem that's being reported here? Do the GSM phones use this Qualcomm chip, because when I hear Qualcomm, I think CDMA. If this is a CDMA issue, seems like it would only affect CDMA carriers, e.g., Verizon and Sprint? If so, why are most of the people having the problem on GSM carriers?
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] androholic:
If I read your post correctly & your on Att, then you don't want to use the command posted by Lordmorphous, you want to use the other command I believe. On the Tmo model our external storage is named extSdCard, and on the other command that Att users were saying is working the command differs there & is something like "external_sd" or something along those lines? Try the other command that was posted I think on Page 35, and I hope it works for you.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] lordmorphous:
I'm on at&t and my external storage is named extSdCard.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] norbarb:
You are correct i'm on att

My external name is extSdCard so i don't think external_sd will work..

I did try bout and no go all i have is permission denied.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] lyriquidperfection:
Qualcomm manufacture chipsets for gsm aswell as cdma and from what I have read on the gsm forum, it looks like the same problem you guys are having with your SGS III devices.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] laylovj:
I haven't seen people who flashed custom roms lose their imei....but I have seen people lose by reverting to stock through (PC) Odin. (Tmo)
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] androholic:
It seems to have happened with different recoveries, but if you go to the thread linked you'll find many different variables. I myself am not an advanced user, but I'm an informed user who makes sure I know what it is I'm doing before I do it, and if I don't I read. My goal is to warn ppl of the risks, as well as get more advanced users, such as yourself, involved in hopes that your knowledge may contribute to a solution.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] AvatarOfFrost:
i have lost all my connectivity just now after restoring a stock factory ROM backup. I have no connectivity no matter what ROM I flash.

I am on Sprint though and I still have an IMEI number so don't know what the problem is.

Help!
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] mt3g:
I don't like this one bit. Holding off on flashing anything else from here on out til thesis sorted out. Insurance or not, it's not worth it just to be able to run custom TW or CM9, CM10 stable, I'm flashing away, haha.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] androholic:
I'm not asking anyone to hold off flashing anything? That's everyone's own decisions, I only want ppl to be aware. From your statistics you seem to have been here for a long time, and I highly doubt you will be posting HELP!!! in the development section should something go wrong, lol. I just want ppl to be warned that's all, I have no intention of scaring anyone.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] androholic:
Well if you see anyone having the imei issue, maybe you could just direct them to the link I've posted.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] androholic:
I haven't heard of this happening to sprint phones, but you could always go to the linked thread & report the problem. If it's an imei issue dial *#06# and if it returns your imei number then it's not related.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] AvatarOfFrost:
i can't dial anything because i have no connection
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] id_twin:
Is it possible that the people who are losing their IMEI are flashing from a different carrier? I know that a lot of people have been using T-Mo/AT&T roms interchangeably..
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] androholic:
Hmmm.... It may still bring up the imei, because it's not dialing out as far as I know it triggers an internal phone command to display the imei. I could be wrong, and if I am, try going under settings-about phone-status, the imei should be several numbers listed there. If it says 00/02 or 00/01 or anything along those lines under the heading imei, then you've corrupted it. (or something did?)
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] ingenious247:
This is actually quite concerning.

Perhaps they have found a way to stop us all from hacking our phones.. at least until we figure out how to bypass it.

Remaining stock until this is solved.

I'll tell you, though, if this is something done on purpose, they'll pay the price in the end. More exchanges, that's all this will be..
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] AvatarOfFrost:
I still have the IMEI. Don't know if it's good but I still have it.

Also, I was restoring a factory stock ROM after which this happened. So I wasnt flashing anything from another carrier.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] androholic:
That's been one of the many theory in the thread, and they've been advised to stay away from roms that are universal supported, and stick to the ones specific to your carrier. But any theory should be posted in the thread I've linked, as I'm not qualified to really say, and I just want this thread to more redirect ppl to a unified forum where it's more likely we will come up with an answer or solution.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] androholic:
Well I'd say your problem is probably unrelated & maybe consult some of the awesome sprint devs & they may know a very easy fix?
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] mt3g:
I know you aren't implying for people not to flash. Even with insurance, I'm still careful not to have a paper weight. I've had 4 devices HTC LG and now Samsung no bricks I couldn't revive lol. I'm curious as to this being mostly user error... improper flashing, maybe even bad downloads of some sort.

T-Mobile SGS III
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] Serious_Beans:
I've flashed the first cm nightly, aokp, touch recovery and the latest nightly and no imei problems so far.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] jgalan14:
This is a known issue in galaxy nexus gsm only, so yeah is possible on our gs3 but we need to find a way to be able to recover I'm holding off flashing for now I been thru night lies and aokp and back to touchwiz, so I'm staying like this till something comes up of how to recover
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] SilverSpade:
Flashed AOKP, then back to stock and then back to AOKP. I've still managed to keep my IMEI but I'm stopping here and counting myself lucky. I'm just hoping this all gets sorted out before a really solid build of Jellybean comes out, the temptation would be too great...
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] jgalan14:
Same here I wanted to flash jellybean from cm but ill wait
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] androholic:
You know, I emailed zedomax to see what his opinion is and which recovery he uses & his overall opinion on the matter. He seems to feel it's probably user error like ppl formatting the system or not flashing roms for the right carrier? I tended to believe the same, but I've seen so many cases now, and alot of them who are long time xda members and very experienced, so I'm leaning more towards a system error somewhere that is kind of luck of the draw? I say if you have backup phones & feel confident that you can pull of an exchange under warranty then flash away, no worries. I have several phones, but I just don't want to deal with it. When I see something great pop up, like a stable, solid jellybean build, then I'm on it. Otherwise, I'm fine with stock rooted rom for the moment... But to users who don't know how to unroot, don't carry insurance, and don't have a great deal of experience, I want them to be warned so that we aren't getting the development thread flooded with noob HELP posts, that literally drives me nuts!
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] getsaf:
If you get "permission denied" that means you didn't properly get root.

Make sure you use the 'su' command before you use 'dd'. If you type 'whoami' on the terminal, you should see 'root'. If you don't then one of three things probably happened:

1) (Most likely culprit) At some point, when prompted by the superuser app's dialog for your terminal emulator asking for permission to grant root access and you clicked "Disallow". Check your superuser app settings and make sure you don't have the terminal app you are using marked as 'disallowed' or 'blocked'.

2) You're using an adb shell and you haven't checked the Settings>Developer Options>Root Access>Apps and ADB setting.

3) You're not working with a rooted phone :)

FYI everyone, I recommend Chrome-to-phone to run these commands.. Remember, you can select text on a web page and send it to your phone's clipboard with Chrome-to-phone so you don't have to type terminal commands on the android keyboard.

If you're able to plug in USB to a computer, I recommend using 'adb shell' (google it)
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] David Dee:
Same for Rogers. We all (att, tmobile, canadian variants) should be using this command.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] David Dee:
All North American versions are using dual core Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] norbarb:
any other command tru terminal works

1 everything is in order there

2 like you said

3 my phone is rooted i check TB is working like should Root explorer too etc app are ok with how phone is rooted.

FYI i did check so many time if i type correctly, yes i did. I will try Chrome-to-phone and post info.

Edit: i clear memory in task manager and everything worked... Thanks all for help.. :)
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] zonly1:
This does NOT work. I tried this with user lumbu; it sure looked good though. I have my new phone and my old with the blown out serial # and IMEI, so if someone else would like to to try something, PM me.

Speed Reading is NOT good! I did not read to the end...I will give this a shot since I have both working and non working phones!
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] buvk:
Try restoring a complete dd from your working device to your busted one
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] jethro650:
Running Bell here with AOKP and it was external_sd. Just look in a file explorer if your not sure.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] Poser:
FWIW: though tedious, typing the commands in terminal serves to begin at least a rudimentary comfort with command line tools in a unix environment.... Which can all agree serves an android user well. (your comments regarding DD are gospel as far as I am concerned....and as soon as location of IMEI data is confirmed, DD backups of partition should be implemented into ALL flash instructions for first time flashes until root cause for corruption is identified) /soapbox

Sent from my SGH-T999
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] Intercrew:
Does this only happen when you flash another rom or could it happen from rooting the phone? I'm fairly new to the rooting stuff but following up the instructions have always worked out for me. But if it's possible to lose the IMEI from rooting than I'll hold off for now
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] Andrew_han:
Is the warranty one year through Samsung? So if I lose IMEI I can just triangle away, back to stock and return to Samsung?
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] zonly1:
With all due respect, it would do nothing but confirm we have a needle in a haystack, and we already know that.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] zonly1:
Idk, but I'm sending back to Tmo. I would assume this is not truly covered under warranty.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] buvk:
fair enough, but it would at least confirm that it's possible to restore it, and people could flash roms without being afraid :)
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] wavrunrx:
@zonly1

PLZ before you return your bricked phone, read this post and report back to us.

also, it might be helpful if you can share your redata.bin with us.

http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=29095544&postcount=368
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] drothenberger:
It would confirm that the information is stored on the internal SD card. We don't even know that yet. And, as someone else mentioned, it would show that we could recover from a lost IMEI.

It would be a great piece of information.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] zonly1:
PM sent to getsaf

---------- Post added at 11:56 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:52 AM ----------

Good point...let me see what I can do.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] sleevasteve:
When I try to backup in terminal emulator it says "can not create SU. Read only file system." Same if I try to dd without doing the SU command first. It never asked me for root permissions though. I've created data on both SU and terminal and cleared caches in recovery. Also android debugging is selected in developer options. Any ideas?

Sent from my SGH-T999
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] Intercrew:
Umm, so can someone answer my previous question. Is it possible to corrupt the IMEI from just rooting? Atm, I can only find incident of corrupting the IMEI through flashing stuff
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] zonly1:
At this point I would say that anything is possible, but I think just by rooting it is unlikely. Hopefully we can figure out what to back up and restore and it will not matter. :)
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] Maconi:
I believe the directory is /mnt/extSdCard on our phones. I don't have an sdcard handy to check, but last time I used one I was pretty positive that was the path I had to drill down into in Root Explorer to pull stuff of my card.

:highfive:
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] zonly1:
lumbu suggested this:

http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=29033419&postcount=7

Everyone agree that this is the best way to attack this or does someone have a better idea?
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] lordmorphous:
Really won't know until somebody has a borked IMEI and a unborked one and can try the commands. Ideally, one would pull one img at a time from the new one and dd onto the borked one, boot up, check IMEI, then move on to the next until the IMEI shows up, if it does.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] zonly1:
Dude...that would be me...I have both devices on my laptop ready to go!
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] drothenberger:
There is also a 4 MiB section of the internal SD card that is not in any of the partitions. This is where the flash count is kept, for example. It's possible the IMEI is also stored there. (It's also possible it's not stored on the internal SD card at all.)

It can be dumped with this command:

dd ibs=4194303 count=1 if=/dev/block/mmcblk0 of=mmcblk0_pre.img

It might be interesting to compare that block for a phone with an IMEI and a phone without. It would also be interesting to try backing up the block and restoring it if the IMEI gets wiped (or copying from a phone with an IMEI to a phone without). Of course, any of that could seriously brick your phone, so do that at your own risk.

I've personally backed up all my partitions and that 4 MiB block. If I lose my IMEI, I'll be doing comparisons at the very least, and maybe trying some restores.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] wavrunrx:
you would be a real hero if we can confirm where the imei is located.

i wish you luck, and lets all cross our fingers. :fingers-crossed:
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] zonly1:
This will be my first test then...I'll back this up from the good phone and then restore to the bad.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] getsaf:
How's it going man? We could start up a google+ hangout if you want some help.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] zonly1:
Hey bud! Please! That would be great since I'm very green with this!
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] wavrunrx:
maybe just jump on #xda-devs on freenode ?
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] zonly1:
yahoo messenger, live messenger, etc...lets get this figured out!
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] getsaf:
Give me a few min or so to eat (girlfriend just got done cooking) then we'll fire one up.. PM your email address anyone else who can help is free to join as well. Please only ask to join if you're VERY familliar with UNIX and/or the IMEI situation in general.

How's 4:30 sound?
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] zonly1:
4:30 ET? I'm on MT.

---------- Post added at 02:44 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:56 PM ----------

Are you ready? :fingers-crossed:
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] lordmorphous:
:fingers-crossed::fingers-crossed:I know the rest of us are:fingers-crossed::fingers-crossed:
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] zonly1:
I guess he must be on CT. lol
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] David Dee:
I am looking forward to hearing from you guys after this irc, keeping my fingers crossed :fingers-crossed:
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] sabre31:
Kudos to zonly1 for willing to work on this and help us all out and to everyone else who helps him.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] lumbu:
I'm solid on UNIX (that's the day job) so if you need anything holler

---------- Post added at 04:57 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:55 PM ----------

/external_sd is a mount point on CM9, stock was /mnt/extSdCard. Adjust paths accordingly.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] zonly1:
Nice to see you here! I'm going through your list now! Did not have any sb11-13..is that a problem?

EDIT: I found it was a typo on my end...
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] :
What the hell? I clicked on the spreadsheet and there was a bunch of racism and profanity. Did someone vandalize it or add a bunch of inappropriate new entries?
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] getsaf:
Sorry about the time man, I should've been more specific about the time zone. I'm EST :)

I started a public hangout..

https://plus.google.com/hangouts/_/ffcf466617bca97bcd24b71193e3b145b4559f49?authuser=0&hl=en-US

Or you can skype me: getsaf

Anything we can do to get a screen-share really.