yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] androholic:
Just so everyone is aware, it appears that despite Mr. Highway creating access to this thread from bot the Att & Tmo general sections, they have become two separate threads. If you post in one, your post is not viewable in the other. Since the majority of the activity seems to be happening in the Att thread, I propose that users just stick to that thread for now, until Mr.Highway comes up with an adequate solution as I'm sure he will. I'm sorry for any inconvenience this may be causing, but the recent change in the forums have posed some problems for the moderators to sort out. I will make a post when the problem is corrected.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] babymatteo:
New experience with comment added.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] jpone7:
I don't know why but maybe people are formatting the system and data before switching to a CM bassed rom, then try to install another rom or nandroid back to stock rom...remember im not talking about wiping data and cache, but formating under the mounts and storage menu. I cant say really but just a thought
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] SiNJiN76:
Damn... I just wrote a lengthy reply and then erased it. Don't want to jinx myself! :silly:
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] keggerdude:
no it will not
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] dodohandbag:
which cellphone is the best

the cellphone it's a little expensive for me,can you recommend an cheaper to me.:o
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] xgp0006:
can someone list the items that belong in EFS and IMEI folder?

i lost mine using a JB rom's odex app....

i think i lost files...because the NV item write to my phone with the new apps just doesnt write to my phone...yet it can pull from it...@_@

so im guessing its cause there is no file to over-write??

thanks!
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] ingenious247:
Hopefully this will help someone

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1941881
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] MrFunEGUY:
Useful info. Thanks for that.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] ASharpEdge:
So, just to clarify that TWRP is official for "our device" ....This thread was split up and I think you are meaning that it is out for AT&T's GS3 correct?

And it is NOT out for TMO's GS3 (T999) if I understand this correctly.

I hope that it becomes available for T-Mobile's Galaxy S3.

As for the original post here, I am uncertain if this has bee fixed for the TMO and/or the AT&T versions....Can anyone clarify this?
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] DocHoliday77:
Wow! Id say you've got quite a bit of catching up to do!

TWRP was released for us over 3 months ago and has since been updated 3 times. Latest version TWRP is 2.3.1.0, latest cwm is 6.0.1.2.

Once rooted install rom or goo manager and use that to install the latest cwm or twrp recovery, respectively.

As for the imei issue, I doubt it'll ever truly be fixed, as I'm pretty sure no one has ever really figured out what causes it. It has been made irrelevant by peoplearmy and geek who have given us ways to backup and restore.

The forums were split a few months ago. If you have a T999 model, everything you need is here. Do NOT go flashing anything you find in other variants forums, especially the international versions. You could brick your phone.

Good luck!
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] neim81094:
I am definitely going to check this stuff out, expand my knowledge on s3 stuff
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] osbosb:
TMO SGS3 - Lost IMEI

Back when I got my phone, in September I immediately rooted it and debloated it. Once a CM10 Milestone build dropped, I flashed it. All was well until I went from the CM10 Milestone build back to my stock backup created with CWM, the reason I rolled back was video chat was not working..it was locking up my phone. That's another story in itself which I assume has been fixed in CM10 as it was back in September and this was the first Milestone build pushed. After I flashed back to stock root I lost 4g/3g service, and the phone turned into JUST A PHONE unless I had wifi.I tried factory resetting and even reverting back to the stock ICS firmware. I wound up bringing my phone back to a local retailer who replaced it under warranty as I was very short into my 14 day return period.

I've found the threads and have backed up my IMEI and done a full backup of my phone, is it safe to flash roms now? I'm on the fence as I don't want to risk losing my IMEI again and there doesn't seem to be enough information out there yet to know why / how this happens.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] daxecutioner24:
Yeah I think it might people restoring nandroids from different versions of android changing partitions freely.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] lextex:
Lost me IMEI today. Link in OP is dead.

Can somebody help?
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] DocHoliday77:
Check your PM's
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] simonshuf:
The links is dead
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] Product F(RED):
ODIN should be safe. Again, I own an i9300 and can also have my IMEI corrupted, but the difference is I'm able to do an EFS backup. ODIN, being a Samsung tool, I feel won't wipe the EFS as long as you don't yank the cable mid-flash or something.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] androholic:
I think Ive read a couple ppl having the issue while pushing cwm, but I dont know how many ppl are thinking they are suffering from this issue and are actually noobs with no knowledge causing serious user errors. If you read my post about TWRP, I personally think thats the safest route over cwm & Im gonna be testing that as soon as I have a moment. I have it installed & its working well, and it more user friendly then cwm honestly.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] androholic:
To me the only constant variable for ppl having the imei issue is CWM, yet noone using TWRP have had the problem. Though for the sake of statistics, not near as many ppl are using TWRP, but as I stated in my possible solution post, it seems to wipe the partitions differently which is why I belioeve it to be safer.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] Kevinl86:
I just upgraded from diet ics to CM10. I'm using the latest CWM obtainable from rom manger. I wiped data/factory reset, cache, and dalvik. I then installed the rom and CWM in fact doesn't wipe internal SD. As a matter of fact I have two skyrockets with cwm touch and I've never had it wipe the internals as much flashing as I do.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] Paging Dr B:
Oh noes, The terrorists broke my IMEI!!!

I just read this thread and wow some of you guys need to grow a pair and relax. "Zomg I'm not going to blink or my phone is going to become dead and stuff". This isn't happening to everyone, just a small few. Right now we don't know if it's CWM or if it's just dudes who flashed a rom for another carrier. I'm also guilty of clicking on ATT instead of T-Mo, but I stopped before downloading anything. It happens to the best of us. For any of you who did get screwed can you please post exactly what ROM you flashed, and how you flashed it (CWM, ODIN, TWRP). I think that'll help squash some of the panic that we're seeing here. I mean there's thousands of guys in this section of the forum who have flashed multiple times, yet a few have a problem and people go ape****.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] jethro650:
Could this be related to a bad batch of hardware. Like the emmc on the Desire Z. There was a certain serial number and it was prone to frying. Not all of them did but it was thought that was the weak link. Just some out loud thinking here. I've read through a lot of post/threads about this and there doesn't seem to be much correlation other than clockwork recovery,but, lots of people are using that with no problems myself included. Although every time I flash something that's the first thing I check, sad but true.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] sabre31:
I just lost my pair and am worried on flashing any roms now. I used to flash roms big time on all my previous android phones and I have a lot of different phones before never an issue. Here is hoping the root cause is found soon.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] mobilehavoc:
You are entitled to take whatever risks you want but don't make fun of people who don't want to mess up their phones. Being cautious isn't a bad thing.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] androholic:
The thread I linked is very organized & ppl are naming all steps, and it is a known problem. Please don't troll my thread bro, I didn't tell anyone their going to brick their phone, but it is worth everyone flashing roms to at least look at & form an opinion. I'm flashing with no problems now from twrp recovery, but I just want ppl to be informed. I'm polite & respectful to others on & offline & I just ask ppl to be the same. Thank you, and just be aware that it could happen, but your correct also in the fact that if your hacking your phone your taking a risk anyway, and you can't really whine about it if you end up with a paperweight :-)
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] Ecliptical:
Anyone run into this problem when flashing a rom through rom manager?
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] s1mpd1ddy:
Been out of the country with my new gs3, aching to flash some roms, ,, now having a second thought haha. Gonna wait
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] Product F(RED):
All ROM Manager does is reboot your phone into recovery and automatically select the ZIP for you to flash instead of you manually navigating the recovery menu. In other words, it's just a front-end for your recovery, and therefore you'll still be susceptible.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] Ecliptical:
Understand that, but it does simplify matters to where there is less room for error...user error by formating the wrong things, etc....just wondering if anyone who flashed through rom manager lost IMEI
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] swa2k4:
If someone is accidentally formatting partitions they should not be messing around with this...cwm gives u 10 do not flash options everytime you press something. I hope the random imei erase issue gets resolved. Been fine for me since launch day 3 weeks ago.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] Ecliptical:
Agreed...would be helpful if we could narrow it down, I'd bet it's not so random after all..
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] frankdogg:
Just to add to this discussion, I wanted to share something I've observed. The other day I decided to check my imei using *#06* just to check. At the end of my imei number I had a /02 at the end which usually just represents a software revision number. Today I flashed CM10 to check it out, then when I was done playing, I flashed a cwm backup from earlier. Now my imei ends in /05. I'm really not sure if that means anything, but it got me curious about why it changed. Just food for thought.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] cashyftw:
Who exactly lost there imei? What did they do?

Sent from my Aokp Galaxy s3! (:
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] frankdogg:
Several people have reported losing they're imei. My conspiracy theory way of thinking leads me to believe that the reason the nv_data.bin file is mia has to do with the carrier's new way of preventing unauthorized firmware so they can protect they're precious tethering packages and network control.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] sabre31:
I just think that would be dumb for carriers to do this they will get crap load of returns and Samsung would need to process the exchanges and lots of them.

By the way one user in this thread reports losing imei after flashing the CM10 using rom manager so it may be rom manager but not sure.

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1778278
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] mobilehavoc:
I still think it has to do with any type of "flashing" using a non stock recovery. There is a possibility that on our phones these recoveries might corrupt where IMEI is stored. We've yet to hear of a single person losing IMEI who has just used Odin and no non stock recovery.

Remember having root has a ton of advantages but also lots of risk along with it.

With great power....:D
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] frankdogg:
While I agree it would create a lot of attempted returns, it doesn't mean these carriers aren't trying new avenues to detect the ways we love to circumvent their rules. Developers here have always figured out ways to cover the tracks of us flashing addicts, but if they learn to track flashes through an imei that we can't fix...
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] swa2k4:
More And more people now ...what are we gonna do!! Maybe we should put all development on hold? Samsung won't service these phones if we lose imei I'm sure?
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] mrmako777:
flashed cwm, su, then flashed back to stock in odin earlier this evening and everything is still good on my end
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] Narcistic:
I'm on rooted stock from the no trip root method and mine has a 01 at the end
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] mobilehavoc:
I'm completely stock and it ends with 5
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] swa2k4:
No slashes here using cwm since launch day on tmo 3 wk ago . Running CM10
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] Narcistic:
Have you flashed anything previously?

May just be the imeisiv that's in settings mine matches it
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] frankdogg:
It's those last two number that have me curious. I never would have thought twice about it until they changed after a few flashes. I never applied the ota either.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] jgalan14:
I just went back to stock cause I was afraid of the alarm not going off tomorrow before going to work, I came from cm10 and since cm9 has been a release I been flashi;g everyday, I check mine IMEI and is the same in all my roms that I have flashed
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] Product F(RED):
Maybe it keeps track of how many times you flash and then wipes the IMEI? Maybe you're tripping some kind of internal counter, like the flash counter?
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] jerrygooch:
I just did the *#06# and I didn't see a /## I'm on tasks aokp. So some of you see this and others don't? Wtf is up with our imei's

sent from the next best thing
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] MacTheRipperr:
T-Mobile

Clockwork mod tmo compatible right after the sprint hacked one.

Flashed new clockwork via from manager that was specifically for my phone then installed Romans aosp. Did a fresh install. Booted up had no service. Nandroid restore did not work. Odin flash to stock does not work.

Conclusions

The efs file does not contain imei files any more. They are encrypted elsewhere. I'm almost 100 percent sure cwm was the reason. The partitioning of the internal and ext SD cards was messed up. I believe when I did a super wipe that cwm may have wiped the partition containing the encrypted imei info.

I rooted, adb installed cwm touch and installed several roms today with no problem. I believe that the only way to not lose it is if you don't modify the mounts. Because I remember I fooled around with those before I flashed aokp.

I am no expert but these are my observations and experiences. Ill upload pics of the old phone if you want me to
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] androholic:
please follow the link in the op guys, this was never intended to be a replacement thread for it! All pertinent info will be found there! I recommend for all random discussion this thread is finr, but if you really want to learn the facts, report an issue, or learn what is truly believed to be happening, then follow the link in the op!!
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] KillaHurtz:
Being hispanic ?

Most hispanics are citizens and some stretching back to places in the country before the USA was even formed. You need to check your racist ass remarks.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] androholic:
Alot of your theories are great guys & that's why I posted this thread. If everyone would follow the link in the op then you'll find a ton of organized minds trying to get to the bottom of this. I just wanted to contribute by passing the word and getting everyone on the same page(litteraly). If you follow the link, then you'll see what's been ruled out already. There's a much better chance of some of the brilliant ppl here on XDA solving this issue if your all in one thread. That's what xda is right, organized thoughts of educated ppl? I'm fairly new to XDA & I was just doing my part by posting a link, I would like to see everyone commenting in the same thread because it will probably be most productive. :-)
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] androholic:
Oh wow, this thread is nuts lol, I don't think anyone was racist... That was an oddly painted joke? :-\
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] ingenious247:
and what if this does lead back to CWM? hopefully no one blames anyone for it...

Sent from the current Heavy Weight champ GALAXY SIII
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] sabre31:
Makes you wonder why AT$T allowed an unlocked boot loader in the first place. They are just as bad as Verizon.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] Product F(RED):
It has more to do with the fact that Arizona's "you must carry your passport and ID with you at all times" law is in itself racist. He wasn't being racist, although I think a better example could've been used.

It's already been established that the IMEI is encrypted for the i9300 if you look at the thread for EFS Backup Pro. But the way it works is it creates, I believe, an image of all the blocks in the EFS partition. It's like not being able to read Chinese, but you can still copy all of the characters without knowing what they mean regardless. I think the reason EFS Backup Pro doesn't work for you guys is because Samsung and/or the carriers moved where the IMEI is stored, possibly because of the different SoC? In other words there's probably a different mount point. I saw some logcat stuff from the EFS Backup Pro thread where someone with an i747 tried doing a backup, but adb couldn't mount "/efs".

That being said, I think it's really sad carriers have this power over OEM's. I have my i9300 running on Straight Talk AT&T, and I have none of these problems. What's more sad is that it's us, the geeks, who hype over this phone. Not the average person who doesn't know anything about computers or technology. So if we complain, our screaming falls on deaf ears because at the end of the day, while we may be the ones that carriers look to for which phones to sell, it's the average person who doesn't know anything about computers that buy the carrier versions.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] Android_Monsters:
No one loses their imei from flashing
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] Product F(RED):
This isn't limited to the Galaxy S III. It happens on older Samsung devices.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] jgalan14:
Yup I agree I had the galaxy nexus gsm and seem to be a problem as well :(
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] mastibeta:
Shot in the dark, but I know previous devices would lose imei when permissions for the file got corrupted...that may be what's happening...losing read rights.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] androholic:
I may have been here at XDA for less than a year, but rule number one is ITS NOT ANYONES FAULT! YOU CHOSE TO DO IT! And according to some, if it kills your mama, screws your girlfriend the right way, or causes you wife to divorce ya.... It's still not their fault, lol! Just saying, there's disclaimers all over the place! :-)
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] androholic:
AMEN to this comment, because almost all of us with a carrier version have it because one our (many, lol) lines were due for an upgrade. If we don't have an upgrade, then the carrier version never even gets a glance from usB-) It's all good though, this phone for the most part is one of the best carrier versions that I didn't feel I was necessarily" settling " for because of the upgrade price...
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] Milk Tea:
You need to learn to read. I said "looking Hispanic and your U.S. passport was destroyed". In case you have no reading comprehension I am clearly talking about U.S. citizens and never implied anyone wasn't. (Non-U.S. citizens don't have U.S. passports now, do they?)

I'm more offended that a moderator censored my post, but you quoted it so it's still here to prove I wasn't out of line. The entire point of my post was to prove it's a huge deal and it obviously worked too well on you.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] :
A passport isn't the same as a green card.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] jjlean:
Lol nice
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] johnhazelwood:
I'm wondering if using the sprint clockwork mod causes problems. Especially because sprint/Verizon phones don't use imei numbers they use esn numbers. Might be written in different places. Just throwing theories out.

Also, when I used to Bork my imei on my captivate, I believe I traced it back to flashing a stock rom via Odin.

Ultimately we need a way to back up and restore efs, because as we've seen it is possible to delete it, and could happen again.
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] Aridon:
Never mind
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] androholic:
I honestly believe twrp is the answer, it doesn't wipe near as many partitions as cwm I don't believe. I have it installed, I've done a wipe with it, and restored a backup. If you read my previous post about testing it, that's going to have to be tomorrow evening that i'll start flashing my way through the Tmo roms. I had a family emergency tonight & things just took a strange turn, so I was unable to give this any attention earlier in the evening. But now it's insomnia kicking in, with an over active brain to boot:-(
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] 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..
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] RiNo808:
where did you get that touch cwm from and is it compatible with att?
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] 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
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] 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:-(
[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] RiNo808:
Where would we be able to get our hands on twrp for att gsiii?