yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] con247:
Yes, it would be nice for a report back but hopefully nobody ever loses theirs again lol.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] imablackhat:
How often do people lose they're imei. I'm on stock rooted and unlocked and want to flash a rom. Just bought this phone less then a week ago.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] WildZontar:
If I had to guess, one notch above rare. Don't count on it never happening to you but don't go expecting it every time you flash a ROM. Be prepared and have backups just in case you'll need 'em.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Ibkevin:
I'm aware its a different phone but I'm running Jellybeans bld10 & was over in that thread & saw a few posts about peoples phones staying stuck in roaming & losing their iem's. Someone there put up a link to this thread which I'm glad they did cause it was very informative to learn about iem's but since the problem arose on the gnote 2 in that thread and there was a link to this thread I was curious to know if anyone tried steps A & B on the note 2 seeing as they are similar phones with the same issue.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] andybones:
the only way that step A is going to work is if you did the adb command BEFORE you lost your IMEI... (and I'm not saying try it on any other phone than the SGIII)
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Ibkevin:
I myself thankfully have not lost my IME ( knock on wood ) but someone had suggested this method ( Steps A&B ) as a safety precaution to back up the IME & since one or two people on Beans bld10 have got stuck in roaming or lost their IME, I of course would like to be safe & have mine backed up but do not want to just go following directions to do so that are from another thread for another phone & end up with a bad result. I at least know enough not to do that but at the same time if there is a safe way to back mine up for my phone, I would love to do so to be safe so that's why I asked. Maybe I should have explained myself better first lol. I realize that looked like a dumb question asking about a note 2 on an S3 thread, my bad.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] bond007taz:
ugh

so I did the

adb reboot nvbackup

before i did my first update to CM10.1 nightly and after the update I found that my IMEI was set to "0", so I followed the instructions to do the

adb reboot nvrestore

and I couldnt get the S3 to boot, it was just a blank screen and so I just reloaded CM via CWM but my IMEI was still gone and ERI was 0. I tried the restore again, same thing.

so after hours and hours of working it out I found my way to http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1867442 and I found that I HAD to use Official VRALG1 4.0.4 stock firmware (see step 5 of http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1762709... I tried numerous ROM's and I found that the MEID repair tool for the IMEI/ERI fix had to be on 4.0.4 ( after loading 4.0.4 i had to run the provision code to reset the phone - dial *2767*3855#). I was then able to get my phone working on the network with no roaming with all the IMEI/ERI settings
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Asadullah:
I'm on original release stock firmware and I did and nvbackup then changed my imei then did a restore it worked great
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] ckelly33:
I did this the other day and it seemed to work as described, thanks. I do have a question though - before I flash a new ROM (using TWRP), I wipe the old ROM completely (to the point that there is no ROM on the phone at all). I then flash the new ROM from my external CD card.

Are the backup files saved in this case? If I am doing this do I need to store the backups elsewhere (like the external SD)? If so, where would I find the backup files to copy them? And.....as I'm typing this I realize another question....if I am gonna move the backups, wouldn't it be just as easy to move a copy of the originals?

Thanks to the DEV for coming up with this.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] phatreno:
Terminal backup

I backed up thru terminal emulator method I flash a lot of roms thru Odin and recovery is the terminal emulator back up method a one time thing, I've done a lot of data wipes, just wanted to make sure that I shouldn't back up again that back up stays in phone regardless of anything I might flash
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Vorfidus:
Simple answer: Yes it's a one-time thing.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] wil2bm:
Is it possible to only have problems because of this on aosp roms?

I can run TW roms without a problen, flash kernels and every thing but constantly have "waitng for network" problems when running aosp.

If this is the cause can I make a backup while running a stock tw rom or do I need to restore the original since I don't have a back up?

?

Edit: the imei in my settings does match the back of the phone (currently running a rooted stock rom)
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Stealth111:
If I odin back to 4.0.4 and did the phone number full factory wipe trick, do you think it would still stick?

Sent using Tapatalk
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] SlimSnoopOS:
What difference would it matter since you can't flash the Synergy zip to restore your IMEI while unrooted? That is presuming you still have the Synergy zip after dialing the sim reprovision code since it wipes internal storage.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] casper916:
OK so I've seen post after post of people saying thanks for this and doing the backup, but what would I do if I lost my imei and didn't do this backup? I was told that I'm now SOL because I didn't back up my imei.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] SlimSnoopOS:
You can either try:

-Odin flashing the VRALF2 or VRALG1 stock image then dial the sim reprovision dialer code

OR

-try the ERI thread by Amoamare.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] molitar:
Evidently Part B does not work with Spring SG3 as it reports the EFS is locked but it's not. I have a fully rooted phone.

BTW QPST is a pain in the ass to use to backup the file there is a MUCH Simpler method to backup and restore to PC for Part 3!

http://www.androidauthority.com/galaxy-s3-sph-l710-sprint-easy-root-99304/

For your convenience I have attached the file to this post.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] nicholi2789:
Is it safe to move to the root of the external sd card? As long as you don't rename it or anything?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] SlimSnoopOS:
Yup!
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] nicholi2789:
Cool. I just left it in the synergyrom folder. So to properly flash the file in the event of an IMEI loss do I need to move it back or can I flash it from its location on the external SD?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] vmancini3:
I've observed that I'm seemingly able to flash anything from anywhere...either by choosing "choose zip from sdcard" or "choose zip from external sdcard"....
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] ckelly33:
Maybe I'm unclear, here's what I did (I am rooted with terminal emulator installed):

1. I opened terminal emulator and typed 'su', then 'reboot nvbackup'.

2. The phone rebooted and it looked like something happened...

but how can I be sure that I had it a good backup? There is nothing in the directory that I was directed to in the instructions (/sdcard/synergyrom/backup). I am not running Synergy though, and it said that I didn't have to be - where then did the back up go?

?...confused...?

Thanks
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] SlimSnoopOS:
Honest answer? Nobody knows. That has been asked multiple times and nobody has responded. It's a "good" backup cuz you have your IMEI working now so it made a backup of the working partitions. This is true because you have data and can text/call. So just make that second backup and you'll be set.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Jason Roach:
Would this have to be redone if you've had to Odin flash back to stock?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] biyobe:
if i run the nvbackup command on a phone that is not activated... will it still do this correctly? I have an SG3 I'm going to sell on eBay and wanted to make sure the buyer doesn't end up with an IMEI issues and I don't want to give out my backup.....
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] LudicrousPeed:
need to be on Stock or no?

deleted, see later post
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] lazarus0000:
I flashed the Synergy solution on either Liquid or Slim Bean & have had no issues. Then again, prior to flashing it, never did an IMEI backup in the 1st place. Realized that flashing the Synergy zip was a heck of a lot easier than trying the other fixes after I lost it, if I did. Don't know that the Synergy zip protects me or not but I'd rather hope it does than KNOW I'm open to an "oops...!"

You live & you learn -

Or you don't live long...
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] tresveces:
Q: how do I check if my backup operation is successful?

I've go through the backup process by issuing "adb reboot nvbackup", there 2 blue info lines that went through really fast on the phone screen,

before I had any chance of reading them. Now I wonder if my operation was successful.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Addiso:
Yeah I believe it was but do the other methods just in case
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] LudicrousPeed:
Terminal Emulator FTW

Just did the part A and B backups, while running Cyanogenmod 10.1 Release Candidate 2 (which is super stable by the way). After reading through the thread, I decided the only safe way to do the commands is through Terminal Emulator on the phone rather than ADB (although ADB certainly has worked for some, but not all). Everything seems to have worked perfectly. Files backed up in my external SD as well as my PC hard drive and Google Drive.

It's good to be backed up :)
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] pkd600:
Does anyone know what happened to the "[Tool][Win] Repair IMEI & Roaming ERI issues" thread? It was an extremely useful Tool and Guide for repairing lost IMEI and ERI on phones that did not have a previous backup.

I've use this tool and guide many times to help others, but recently it appears this thread has disappeared.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] uncleguito:
It's very unfortunate. My IMEI got corrupted and I've tried everything to fix it (spent the last 2 days trying). That tool would have been a great help.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] jmspiers:
Cached version of the post can be found here - http://webcache.googleusercontent.c...hread.php?t=1867442+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us. You'd have to do some digging to find the files that were linked since I don't think they're cached by Google.

Use at your own risk. If the post has been deleted (versus just moved) then there could be a good reason why. It may be good to try to find the last page of it in Google's cache so you can see if people reported problems.

I haven't dug that deeply into it yet so I'm not sure if it was deleted or just moved. I think methods A & B in this post will be enough for me.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] pkd600:
I have the Samsung MEID Repair tool saved on my computer. I don't want to repost it to this forum though for several reasons:

A) It's not my file. I didn't create it.

B) I don't know why it was deleted.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] sbenson1226:
I just picked up an S3 and am having issues backing up the EFS.

I flashed a rooted stock ROM with odin, then used EZ-Recovery to unlock and flash TWRP. I installed Goo Manager and updated TWRP to the latest version. Once this was done I downloaded Synergy_Backup_HWKeys_signed.zip from part B and booted into recovery. When I tried to install I get the following:

Preparing device...

Setting up 7z

Backing up EFS if unlocked

***Not Unlocked Skipping Backup***

Updated partition details...

Not sure what's going on here? I rooted and unlocked my wife's S3 months ago and had zero issues. I'm at a bit of a loss. Can anyone lend some help please?

Thanks in advance.

EDIT: Derp. Nevermind, I'm a dumbass-it would probably help to use EZ-Unlock to actually "unlock" the damn phone. Yeesh, continue on with your day.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] what be up:
Did you unlock your bootloader?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] JPD19:
Why is it that I can see the /sdcard/synergyrom/backup folder via CWM recovery when I choose "install zip from sdcard" but I cannot find this folder for the life of me on a root browser?? Because I can't find this folder on my phone, I can't keep a backup on my PC. Anyone else having this issue?? I have no idea why I could navigate to this folder via CWM but not via browser. Help!
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] lazarus0000:
Just a guess, but are you looking @ the correct SD card? With 4.2.2, you have 2 - the internal (and default, basically) and the external.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] JPD19:
Definitely the internal sdcard, not the external. That much, I know :)
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] lazarus0000:
Just another guess then... Check to make sure that whatever file browser you're using is showing hidden directories. I don't even know if that's a possibility with Linux / Android but that's something to look @ at least.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] whitmerray:
changed imei with dfs and now need to recover my original imei

I flashed my GS3 to boost mobile. Long story short, I used a boost evodesign4g as a donor, I changed the correct values to get it activated, but I also changed the IMEI with DFS to match the evo design4g (never thinking to back up my original gs3 imei let alone write it down:crying::o). I figured out at a much later date that I never needed to change my IMEI to match the evo design. Now I am switching over to voyager mobile as they allow byod sprint devices, so I can have lte. BUT ONE HUGE PROBLEM, Currently my GS3 has the wrong IMEI.... I need to recover my original sprint GS3 IMEI as it is linked in the sprint database to my meid and ICCID for LTE activation. Yes I have checked the obvious, I searched the forums found nothing for my situation, it’s not on the white sticker on the back I don't have the original box anymore because if I did I would not need to ask for help...I figure it might be similar to recovering a Verizon GS3 IMEI, Maybe the original is hidden in one of the NV items?. So does anyone know how to recover the original factory set IMEI for a SPRINT GS3??? Is there a way to calculate it from the ICCID number?:confused:

Thank you to all who reply! I’m really in a bind here and need some help or guidance.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] HeadlessPonch:
I had no problem finding and copying to the external card with ES File Explorer. I do have show hidden files checked, so that's probably the solution.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] lazarus0000:
Good to hear you've gotten it taken care of.

---------- Post added at 08:57 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:53 PM ----------

I'm at a total loss on this and not able to provide a bit of help to you with it. But you might try posting this question here:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2117418

It's an emergency help thread that often gets quick responses and seems to be monitored by quite a few people "in the know."

Good luck & let us know on this thread what, if any, solution there is...
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] whitmerray:
Thanks for the info,, This have been solved thanks to autoprime, view thread

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2003948&page=5
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] JPD19:
Hey, still having the issue of not being able to access the synergyrom folder. I have done the following things:

1. Using ES browser, astro browser, root browser in rom toolbox

2. Looking in the sdcard, not the external sdcard

3. Have hidden files shown in multiple browsers

4. Searched my entire phone for the keybackup file and can't find it

The only way I can see the synergyrom folder is if I go into CWM recovery and pretend that I'm installing a zip. I can then find the folder under sdcard/synergyrom. When I go into that folder, I see a "backup" and "log" folders. When I go into the "backup" folder, I see a file named keybackup_*** with *** being the date of the backup.

I tried to see if I can find this folder via TWRP, but it is not visible through this recovery.

How can this be?? I know the file exits on my phone...why can't I see the folder?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] andybones:
You can always flash . zip again.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] JPD19:
I flashed 3 times, so I have 3 separate files with recent dates. I need to copy the folder to my PC so that I can have an appropriate backup. Maybe I can adb pull the files from my phone to PC, but not sure how to do this...just aware of the concept. Thoughts?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] andybones:
try this maybe?

adb pull /system/sd/nameoffolder

might work?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] SpudsterZ:
Have you looked under /mnt/shell/emulated?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] JPD19:
Holy crap! It's there! Thank you so much. How did you know to look in there?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] SlimSnoopOS:
Probably just thought out of the box and figured you flashed an AOSP rom which shifts your internal storage around.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] SpudsterZ:
No prob.

Back when I was searching for my CWM backups after updating to 4.1, focused efforts on /mnt because that's where all storage (normally) gets mounted in a Unix environment.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Shaftamle:
This is probably a dumb question but does this work for the galaxy s4?

Sent from a Shaftamle Galaxy S4

"Thanks" are always appreciated!

http://mycolorscreen.com/Shaftamle/
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] ruler1976:
imei not lost but stuck roaming and no data

imei not lost but stuck roaming and no data any ideas?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] LuigiBull23:
Thanks! Helped a lot
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] junowhoo:
Wait, can you just copy the "efs" file from root explorer and paste it on a external sd card everytime your going to flash?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] SlimSnoopOS:
You can copy the Synergy folder to wherever you want. It is not dependent on location.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] dani21pb:
Lost IMEI

Hi, I completly lost my IMEI, I didn't know this could happened so I don't have any backups of my IMEI, I went to part C but the link is broken, can you help me with that? Thanks in advance
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] cr4ck3r4lif3:
Follow this guide. Has good links.

http://droidmodderx.com/galaxys3/?page_id=79
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] exoduzaries:
Not sure if this will work on i747 but it supposedly works on the Verizon version:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2065285
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] sxorpyon:
Thanks for this guide!

I am rooted on CM10.1.2 and just did a reboot nvbackup for good measure.

If I need to restore do I have to used ADB? Would it be possible just to use terminal emulator or access the backup and restore it some other way?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Helron:
Read all of the posts, but very confused. My phone has lost all connectivity. How do I know if my IMEi is lost/corrupted.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] cr4ck3r4lif3:
Goto settings/about phone/status and check for imei. If it's shown as zero, then you'll need to use the tools to restore.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] mcc23:
How can I unlock the bootloader to install the synergy backup? I keep getting the **Not unlocked skipping backup" msg..On Sprint btw
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] bluezr1:
Here you go bud

http://rootzwiki.com/topic/32456-app-920-ez-unlock-14-easiest-way-to-unlock-your-bootloader/
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] mcc23:
thats for Verizon
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Rexxe:
Hello,

I am trying to do this backup and I've run the reboot nvbackup command. Is there a way to validate it was backed up? Also, when I run the script in Part B I get an error telling me the "Backup the EFS if unlocked *** EFS Backup Failed *** ". I am using a Verizon Galaxy S3 and I have TWRP 2.6 and CM 10.2 on the phone. Any thoughts?

Thanks!
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] SlimSnoopOS:
Nope, just make sure you flashed.

Only works on TW.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Rexxe:
Thanks for your reply. What is TW?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] SlimSnoopOS:
TW = TouchWiz. Its the stock Samsung UI that shipped on your phone (or a custom rom such as Beans, Bonestock, CleanRom, etc). You're on AOSP for instance.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Rexxe:
Ahhhhh, got ya. I haven't used Samsung's UI in ages so I forgot all about it.

Thanks again!
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] SlimSnoopOS:
Haha its all good. I'll probably be running AOSP full time by November. Make sure to temporarily flash a TW rom so that you can run this Synergy zip.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] mcc23:
Try using EzUnlock. I think it's in the app store. Someone else posted a link a page or 2 back
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] SlimSnoopOS:
Who was your post directed to?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] mcc23:
Rexxe
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] SlimSnoopOS:
That will not help them. EZ Unlock v1.2 (which you quoted btw) is meant to unlock the VZW GSIII's bootloader so that you can flash roms. Rexxe's issue is that they're already unlocked, they're using CM after all, but the IMEI backup part B will only work if you're on TW as well. The two are related but what you posted is not a resolution.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] saber0091:
ClockworkMod Recovery v6.0.2.3

Amend scripting (update-script) is no longer supported.
Amend scripting was deprecated by Google in Android 1.5.
It was necessary to remove it when upgrading to the ClockworkMod 3.0 Gingerbread based recovery.
Please switch to Edify scripting (updater-script and update-binary) to create working update zip packages.
Installation aborted.

So "Part B" is no good.

Regarding "Part C":

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=29461812#post29461812

Gives error:

Invalid thread specified. This can happen for a variety of reasons-- most likely because the thread or post you are trying to view has been moved or deleted. Please return to the forum home and browse for another similiar post.

I'm trying to find if the thread was moved/renumbered.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] saber0091:
Regarding OP's "Part A" Restore/Backup sections:

Did the su reboot nvbackup from terminal on rooted stock without issue.

Tried su reboot nvrestore from terminal, after installing newest Avatar ROM nightly and noticing network issues... system rebooted, and now it's soft bricked.

Okay, no problem, that's why I keep a known-good copy of the OS version I'm using on the SD card. So I do a dirty flash from ClockworkMod Recovery v6.0.2.3, everything loads again. Great.

Tried adb reboot nvrestore , over adb. System reboots, I see two lines of tiny blue text, now it's soft bricked again. Makes it through two load screens, doesn't make it to the third, reboots, ad infinitum. Same song and dance as above.

Don't know if it's worth anything, but ClockworkMod's "show log" reports:

ClockworkMod Recovery v6.0.2.3
net.bt.name=Android
net.change=net.bt.name
dalvik.vm.stack-trace-file=/data/anr/traces.txt
init.svc.ueventd=running
init.svc.recovery=running
service.adb.root=1
init.svc.adbd=running

I:Checking for extendedcommand
I:Skipping execution of extendedcommand, file not found...
I:Can't partition non-vfat: datamedia
I:Can't format unknown volume: /emmc

Can't seem to figure out how to yank a logcat since the system won't boot far enough.

46 pages for this thread is a bit TL;DR , so can I just yank the nvbackup-ed blocks with QTSP and reinject into the main? Maybe something else instead, before hitting "Profit"? Or do I need to ODIN back to stock and whine to Sprint at this point?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] saber0091:
Nice. QPST doesn't recognize that the phone is connected. ADB works fine, MTP works fine, Windows sees the device, USB Debugging from the phone-side recognizes the computer. But QPST shows Active Phones as empty, and both COM ports as Waiting state.

Now, I am seeing that IMEI shows a value. So it's not NULL. How do I tell if this is a "dummy value" ?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] cammykool:
this just saved my a$$ started showing no service freaked out then remember that i had done this and my issue was a smptom so i did su reboot nvrestore and BAM back in business :D thats so much!