yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] XTRoRDiNAiRE:
Is losing your imei always going to be something that will be an issue?

it sucks because everytime i flash a rom i pray that i dont have to come and do this here to

get my imei back

its gonna suck with flashing all these nightlies, i think with this device im going to play it safe and try not to flash too many nightlies
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] tgom222:
I also lost my IMEI without flashing an AOSP rom. I lost mine by flashing lean kernel I think.

I'm stuck in roaming since my issues happened before the QPST backup method was posted. Is anyone working on a roaming fix? Whoever finds that has a donation coming from me.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Jay Evans:
Problem is that nobody seems to know exactly what causes the the corruption. So until that is identified anything is possible I guess.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] atlbrav1518:
I created a thread to share what has worked or has not worked for those who have LOST IMEI / MEID. Please take the poll and share. THANKS!

[POLL] IMEI / MEID / EFS Data issues?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] jspidah:
I can backup the IMEI into a qcn file, but can't restore that file.

It gives me an error 3% into the restore process, where it attempts to turn off my phone.

Can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] xCHPx:
Is there an easier way to do this on a Mac other than using parallels?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] con247:
1) What ROM?

2) Are you unlocked?

3) Are you rooted if you are stock?

4) Have you enabled hidden menu before changing the USB mode?

5) Are you in the correct USB mode?

6) Have you tried rebooting the phone?

7) Have you tried rebooting the computer?

8) Have you attempted to Odin back to stock?

You need to provide more info before you ask questions.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] faddys123:
i have an changed imei but i am on international s3 does this work on it ?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] con247:
No.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] jspidah:
1. Stock root 66

2. Locked

3. Rooted

4. Enabled

5. RMNET

6. Phone rebooted before / after changing to RMNET

7. Computer restarted multiple times

8. Haven't tried Odining back to no - root, yet.

Sorry for making you type out a case report for me.

The error message is: "Memory Restore Failed!"

"Received an invalid command from the phone"

It stops 3% into the restoring process.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] con247:
Before you Odin, try making a backup with what you have now to see if it is a setup problem. It will be a junk backup since it will have a bad imei in it so just delete it.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] autoprime:
I'll start off by saying I do not have a Verizon GS3. The following method works on the Sprint version.. I dont see why it wouldn't on the Vzw. This works in Touchwiz only. For AOSP your options would be to flash back to Touchwiz or use QPST + modem mode script. here goes..

Do you Vzw guys have TestMode.. the Hidden menu? You should be able to get there by using Nova launcher and making a shortcut to hidden menus. Or you can download Netmonitor, open the app, then go to Menu > field test. This opens up test mode. From there you do UMTS > COMMON > NV REBUILD > NV RESTORE.

This should restore your original NV files from when your phone was brand new... and I would only assume contains the IMEI as well. If this works... then you guys have an alternative to busting out QPST and making NV edits. Be much easier on the OS X/Linux guys etc etc.

Next time someone loses their IMEI.. I'd love to hear if this method works to restore it. PLEASE be careful not to hit NV BACKUP. You dont want to backup an NV with no IMEI ;)

TestMode screen - http://i.imgur.com/7cD93.png

NV RESTORE screen - http://i.imgur.com/sdVBe.png
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] con247:
Does that require a preemptive backup? Or should it just work? I think we have that test mode app. Is it the one with all the gray square buttons!
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] jspidah:
I'm sorry for not specifying. My phone is fine right now, I am just testing to see if restoring works. My IMEI was wrong but never changed to 0 and I manually injected to fix it because my backup wouldn't work.

Right now I want to test out my capability to restore. I don't have any current problems outside of not being able to restore.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] autoprime:
should NOT require a preemptive backup. i believe it has a backup from original factory settings. you DO have the option to run a NV BACKUP at any time... replacing the OG backup. I'd suggest against that for the the average user.

Testmode for us is a black screen... with text options. more basic that even the ##DATA# menus for example. On our model we can get to test mode thru here - http://i.imgur.com/6WZsZ.png

Or like i mentioned.. just using Netmonitor app > Menu button > Field Test. Then UMTS > COMMON > NV REBUILD > NV RESTORE

TestMode screen - http://i.imgur.com/7cD93.png

NV RESTORE screen - http://i.imgur.com/sdVBe.png
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Jay Evans:
I'm one of those stuck on Roaming after injecting my IMEI back. Thought I would give this NV RESTORE method a try.

No luck. Still stuck on Roaming. Thanks anyway .

Any idea what the NV REBUILD selection does?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] juancaperez2000:
Supposedly regenerate, including ur imei
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] opimpao:
I have all zeros for my serial number and I am pretty sure it happened when I backed up my IMEI. Does anyone else have this problem? Better yet does anyone know how to fix this?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] recDNA:
Where's the thread on backing up your imei? I've looked and looked.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] atlbrav1518:
[FIX/TOOL] Backup/Restore/Fix IMEI App v1.2.2.2b now available
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] brockkk:
this breaks the verizon test mode. dont do it.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] prototype7:
What does that mean? I used this and it didn't do anything, tried QPST and it restored the IMEI but I still don't have data, is that why?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] brockkk:
i tried that method and it borked everything up. was able to enable the hidden menu but was not able to access it. then when i logged onto myverizon on verizonwireless.com my phone came up as some old ass phone. then i tried reinjecting imei it said esn doesn't match. had to odin back to stock and redo it all.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] XTRoRDiNAiRE:
i lost my imei and did these steps and was able to get it back but my phone is still on roaming
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] prototype7:
Sorry if this is a dumb question, but how did you Odin back to stock? It keeps failing on me no matter what I try.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] brandao.gabe:
Same here, however roaming is only cosmetic you won't lose any signal nor have any additional charges, annoying as hell thought.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Neverendingxsin:
Alright hopefully i can add some helpful information to this post that may help you guys out. Well about a week ago my dad lost his IMEI and we restored it using this method and then reprovisioned, data and all that good stuff worked, sadly it said "roaming" but again data and everything worked. Well a few days ago he traveled to Denver from Virginia and upon arrival he was unable to receive text messages, make phone calls, and then lost data. The only thing he had done was put the phone into airplane mode for the flight. While being there he couldn't text, make phone calls, or use data at all. But when he returned home last night he was able to do all of that again.

I'm not sure how that can help, but i found it to be an interesting problem, and don't have any knowledge to why that would happen but maybe it will help you guys out :)

His IMEI numbers and everything else is correct except his ERI version is none.

Anyways i hope this helps you guys, if you need any other information please don't be afraid to ask for it :)
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] WildZontar:
This method is only if you have no QCN or /efs backup. The problem with this method is that it can leave you on permanent roaming. It should only be done if you neglected to make a backup, or restoring your backup failed.

Fortunately, permanent roaming is 99% preventable if you have both a QCN and /efs backup on hand. Click and follow both these links for a complete backup plan.

Synergy EFS Backup

QPST Backup
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Kamokazi:
I don't think that's the case. I had both a QCN and /efs backup, and neither were able to get my phone out of roaming. There basically seemed to be no difference from my first phone that I sent back, which I did not have backups for. I get the impression it's the same for other Verizon users, but it works fine for other carriers.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Hasherx1:
restoring IMEI

So I have been going back and forth between cm10 and a backup of stock rom that was rooted and unlocked. I had previously saved efs to efs.sbn on my sdcard. Tonight I booted to recovery to backup again and when I rebooted back I had the IMEI = 0. So I started reading this thread and followed the instructions in QPST to restore it back. IMEI now shows the proper number. But I am still unable to connect to VZW network. It says mobile network down. What other steps do I take. Should I try to restore the efs.sbn file to my phone and then factory reset it back to stock? Do I use qpst to backup and then restore after I have the IMEI back in there ? I am not sure what the next step to take is.

Do I ODIN back to stock 4.04 and take the phone to verizon to have them send a replacement since it is under warranty(normally without rooting or unlocked bootloadr) would they know if I had used CM10 or an unlocked bootloader?

I am not new to all this just not sure after reading all the threads how to actually get it working .

Steps I followed

1. installed QPST.

2. followed the steps to get it into connection mode for QPST.

3. Read the phone NVRAM.

4. found 550 and checked the hex box

5. put imei in backwards per instructions.

6. write nv for 550 back.

7 rebooted phone.

8. phone showed imei

9. reset hidden menu to enabled and back to MTP and ADB.

10. showed imei in about phone status.

11. top bar shows the O with a / thru it no mobile network.

12. went in to validate it was turned on. yes .

Should I try to write the efs.sbn back to the mcbblk location and reboot to see if that helps?

Should I try to backup with QPST and then restore back to phone?

Hope you can help me. I can remove my sim card and use my trusty Galaxy Nexus If I cant get it working .

EDIT: I did notice on the about phone stats screen that I have no ESN number in there. Could this be an issue?

Thanks ahead of time.

Hasher
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Kamokazi:
Hasher,

I had to reset like this twice...I think it resets it to 'new from the box' conditions...I think it does more than just a normal factory reset. I was never sure if it was necessary, but it fixed the no network for me both times after I had restored my IMEI from 0.

1) Get on a stock-based ROM. It may be possible on AOSP but I have no idea how.

2) Enable hidden menus by dialing *#22745927, then selecting enable.

3) Go back to the dialer and enter ##786# and select Reset. This will erase everything on the phone, so backup first!

Thanks should be directed to <:Geek:> and Puremotive for figuring these out.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Hasherx1:
Update WORKED.

That worked I got my mobile network back and it activated as well with no issues. Thanks So much. I knew someone had the answer I was looking for. As always this board and it's members are awesome.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Kamokazi:
Does it say you are roaming? (Triangle or R by signal) That's what most of us are stuck on now. You aren't actually roaming, your phone just thinks you are.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Hasherx1:
Well. It originally did not . But I had another issue related to me swapping the SIM out to a galaxy nexus. Coming back to The Sg iii would not get 4g at all so I swapped SIms at Verizon. Now I have the roaming tag.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Hasherx1:
It seems that all information regarding Verizon Wireless as the access provider is somehow missing from the phone and therefore it goes into roaming since it can not identify the network as its owner network. Can you research that part to determine maybe an nvram field for the Verizon Wireless information that may be missing from those of us who have lost their IMEI?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] mangler1055:
so you're saying we should be doing this method but with .378?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Peoplearmy:
NV Data Items have not changed through these different models. In other words regardless of which version you are using or which tool (DFS or QPST) the NV Items read by the program regardless of version will remain the same. If you are trying to do more than just NV Data backup/restore or writing the IMEI back into the phone then yes you will need to update your QPST version. There are some things however that the average user should not be touching in QPST or DFS anyways.

I do agree though that DFS may have an answer to the roaming issue. Newer versions of QPST will also require QXDM to perform certain things that was available in the older versions.

DX
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] E:V:A:
I don't know how you can say this, do you know this as a fact? Because I find it very hard to imagine that an old version of QPST would also read new NV items on a new new phone. Unless the NV region/size remains fixed between phone models and there are reserved NV regions...

Here is how it works, partially:

http://www.anyclub.org/2012/06/about-nv-items-as-xml-or-qcn-file.html
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Peoplearmy:
Never one to not accept when I am wrong. You are correct and I appreciate you pointing that out. I had been comparing NV Items from CDMA WS to a QCN backup of my phone paying attention to just the items pertaining to IMEI, MEID, ESN, and IMSI that existed in the QCN backup and overlooking the items pulled from CDMA WS when I should've been doing the reverse. I switched to the version of QPST you posted and was able to see additional information that I had been searching for! With this new data I think I have answers to a few questions I had been trying to answer! Thank you :)

DX
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] aar0nsky:
Has anyone with AT&T got this to work? I follow the instructions to a tee, but the part where I get stuck is recognizing the phone in QPST. Every driver for the phone installs correctly except the "USB Samsung RMNET Network Adapter Driver" installs correctly. I am not sure if this is what is causing the problem.

In QPST when I add the correct COM port for my phone, it shows up "No Phone" but the port is enabled. Not sure where to go with this as I have been stuck on it for a few days trying to find a solution. I am on windows 7 x64. AT&T Galaxy S 3
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Peoplearmy:
Are you on a stock based ROM or AOSP ROM? Also try uninstalling the drivers and reinstalling the USB drivers from Samsung.

DX
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] jakereeves31:
Last night when I tried flashing Beans build 10, the phone turned on, and I saw that my service went bye bye, I about had a heart attack. I went though the whole process to get my IMEI back and it worked. Then I wiped my phone and boom, I had my service back. Even though it's roaming, it doesn't make a difference to me. I'm just glad my phone works! Thanks a lot for this. I hope we can get the roaming thing figured out!
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] aar0nsky:
I checked everything and it was not my fault it wasnt working. The qpst build did not work with my phone. I got my hands on qpst 2.7 build 378 and it recognized the phone right away. Only problem with build 378 is that it does not include the NV Items Manager. Therefore I needed to get qxdm. I used QXDM to write my imei values and it does not seem to be sucessful. I rebooted after writing the changes and still no service and a null/null imei. The nv items program fails for me.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Peoplearmy:
Look in the bin folder of the QPST folder inside Program files/Qualcomm and you will find RF NV Item Manager.

DX
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] jamz2277:
I did this

When I went to check the IMEI on the phone, it displayed all the the digits except the last one in my IMEI. Is this a problem? I went back and did it again and it still doesn not display the last digit. I'm wondering if this is why I can't connect to any network.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] lobird:
will this work on the gt-i9300
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Breezer23:
Great. I'm getting "Memory Restore Failed" below that it shows "Received an invalid command from phone"

I noticed someone earlier had te same issue but they never replied again. No clue how they fixed it. I really don't want to buy a new phone.

Never thought I'd do this but I guess I'll have to be a hypocrite and restore the phone to stock and return it.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] con247:
Try the other repair tool I linked to you: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1867442

I replied the same way @ rootz. Hopefully you see it either way.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Breezer23:
For those of you having the roaming issue this fixes it. http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1867442
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] sunilj75:
Thanks for the link
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Deadstar:
hello,I have a question...

Someone sold me a galaxy smartphone with a blocked imei, so it doesn't work as phone anymore. The only way i found to make it works again is to set it to generic imei, deleting nv_data.bin in the efs folder. I also have some old or broken samsung phones in the house that i don't use anymore (a samsung star for example)... can i use the first page "fix" to set my galaxy imei with one from my dismitted phones? :confused:

So i could switch from the generic imei that so mutch people use on their device and gain, again, an unique imei code,:rolleyes:

And what should happen if two devices are registered on the phone net with the same imei? Is it dangerous (somehow)?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] con247:
IMEI changing is illegal. Sorry you bought a stolen phone.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Deadstar:
Yea, maybe is a stolen phone or maybe is only in a black list, or maybe is only a mistaken... i just want to know if is it possible whit this "how to" to use the imei from one of my dismitted phone on the new one.. this is just an information, any my action would be my responsability, and i will not make dangerous actions. ;)
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] DriveEuro:
I lost my IMEI today when flashing to AOKP b5. Not sure how.

I managed to reporgram it using QPST. I now have 4G. But I do not have 3G or voice. Neither work.

I also copied eri_0 to /nvm and overwrote what was there. Still got no voice/3G.

Whenever I try a voicecall or check my voicemail it says "Mobile network not available"

I'm not sure what else I'm missing.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] jamz2277:
You just bricked your phone. Chances are you tried installing a GSM ROM onto an

LTE phone, our vice versa. I did the exact same thing on a Verizon S3 and it bricked it... Had to reflash to stock, reset the ROM counter

and re-lock the bootloader, send back to Verizon claiming I don't know what happened to the phone.. It worked, and when I flashed the correct ROM, it works fine.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] DriveEuro:
I wish I could believe you... but I just checked my ROMs that I flashed. All are SG3 VZW specific ROMs. I definitely didn't flash a GSM ROM.

I'm still in my BestBuy 30 day return window. So I think I'll exchange.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] jamz2277:
I just know that I did the very same thing, lost the very same things you lost and NOTHING I did would bring back voice. The new phone I got from Verizon, I went to the AOKP official site, downloaded their VZW AOKP ROM, flashed the ROM and GAPPS, and although I had everything backed up, I didn't need to restore a single thing. The phone turned on after the flash, came to life without any trouble, voice, text, LTE data.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] DriveEuro:
But that's what's weird about all this. I did the same thing as you. Went to AOKP. Got the ROM and the GAPPS and installed. No different than last time I tried B3. Done this many times with CM10 also.

I just don't understand what went wrong this time. My file is the VZW one.

Oh well, just rooted my phone, installed the app that wipes your custom binary count. Now am ODINing back to stock. This way if they check the flash count, they'll see zero. I highly doubt BB even knows how to do that... but would rather cover my butt.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] jamz2277:
This is the address to the ROM I downloaded from AOKP, and it worked flawless.

http://goo-inside.me/devs/aokp/d2vzw/aokp_d2vzw_jb_build-4.zip
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] DriveEuro:
Thanks, but it doesn't do me much good now as I can't even get a stock ODINed ROM to work.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] DriveEuro:
Thanks! Was pulling out my hair all day yesterday trying to get my phone working!

I had injected IMEI and ERI and was stuck with just 4G and incoming texts. Outbound texts, 3G and voice were not working.

##786# was my savior.

Thank you all so much that contributed to this entire thread and community. Its so great to have such a great resource like XDA.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Ajsk:
Please help

Thanks allot for this guide, I have a prob, when i go to hidden menu, and select usb settings, I select "RMNET + DM + MODEM" click ok, then when i go back again in to USB Settings the dot is still at MTP. And i can’t get my Samsung Mobile USB serial port seen by the device manager (((

So finally i managed to make my device visible by PC as Mobile USB serial port, by selecting in hidden menu first "RMDIS + DM + MODEM", PC recognized it, than i changed to "RMNET + DM + MODEM", and it was still recognized by PC.

But now i run in to another problem when i RF NV manager, and enter my IMEI number, i get a window message, please see attached file:

I Tried with the HEX box checked and that was the prob on the screen shot, i guess because my EFS folder was deleted, it can’t mount Samsung Mobile USB serial port in "RMNET + DM + MODEM" mode, and has nowhere to write the NV_ file, since its not present in EFS...
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] andimanium:
I keep trying this method and get stuck at step 15 because it gives me an error saying the port is either busy or not working correctly am i doing something wrong?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] con247:
Use the method in the sticky before you do this.

Sent from d2_vzw
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] jntdroid:
I was able to successfully restore my IMEI, but still not able to get activated. It simply continues to show the crossed-through circle and doesn't want to attempt to activate evidently.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] jntdroid:
I'm using amoamare's thread to try and restore the ERI, but every single time I try and connect to the comport the software simply hangs and I get stuck.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] con247:
Have you downgraded your radio to G7 or something? Download here: http://rootzwiki.com/topic/34053-of...zon-sgs3-sch-i535-odin-or-recovery-flashable/

The new radios write lock what the program tries to fix.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] jntdroid:
Yes - thanks - needed to update over here too... radio downgrade didn't quite do it - had to reflash an older factory image and the reprovisioning code worked - all is good now :)
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] jamieross:
Can this method be ported to sort my samsung galaxy note?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] coolxal:
Does this only work for the Galaxy S3 or does it work for other phones as well?