yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Zoandroid:
I've not tried this yet, but it seems awesome! Could you please update the process so it backs up to the REAL EXTERNAL SD CARD instead of the accursed FAKE "sdcard" within the (volatile, easy to lose) internal memory? Thanks!

I am a 1 man army crusading for the abolishment of the asinine programming move that put the term "sdcard" in the internal file structure. The majority of apps I use do not provide a user-configurable path for file backup or content storage, They just ass-ume the decades old term "sdcard" will automagically point to the real SD Card, when on many devices it no longer will. So your crucial data, such as that which this utility was designed to rectify, gets retained within the very same "data" location that on many ROM flashes you are instructed to fully WIPE! I have to wonder what tiny percentage of smartphone enthusiasts flashing ROMs fully understands this pitfall. It may indeed be one of the principle causes of the "dirty flash" practice, used by those who don't want to spend a whole day reconfiguring their device after flashing a new ROM cleanly, and having lost hundreds of MB of internally stored things they needed.

It seems to me the developer community could fix this, because the manufacturing vendors certainly aren't going to, having been the jerks who started this whole mess. And they seem to be planning to completely abandon any external memory or USB ports as new phones are developed, to try to regain the draconian control they had on early cell phones and software. ( I won't buy a device without these 2 features.) Why not completely abandon any use of the term "sdcard" (or anything even remotely similar) used in the internal memory of any custom ROM? That way maybe apps would find the REAL SD CARD in its absence. Call the internal storage what it is. Internal Memory.

When I try this, I can set up Tasker to clone the crucial info folder onto my REAL SD CARD. But I shouldn't have to.

Thanks for listening. This issue really irks me. :)
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] thesefardi12:
I really agree with you and its pitiful the steps one has to take to reconfigure everything in my phone when flashed due to to this very same issue!
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Zoandroid:
Thanks for feeling my pain. But, alas, it is only going to get worse! I'm coming up on my upgrade rollover with VZW, so I am looking into the Galaxy S5. In that section here on XDA, I just read that, by default, they have the S5 set so that no apps can write to the external SD Card!! Fortunately after rooting there is a fix. But this is getting ridiculous!

There was a time when I saw rooting a phone as adding optional features that made it customized and more convenient (like using Titanium Backup, a custom recovery, and making nandroids). Something I would plan to eventually do, but I could still use the phone stock for awhile after buying it. But it is now at the point where I consider rooting an absolute necessity. Rather like turning on your oxygen tank before scuba diving. We now need root simply to make the device "functional"! What a load of BS, trying to prevent us from actually USING our SD Cards! From here on out I won't even consider a new device until after I read it has been successfully rooted. Otherwise it would be like buying a new car without an engine. ;)

With this in mind, I'd bet the whole reason the default IMEI backup is borked was INTENTIONAL on the part of the vendors, to try to trip up someone who had some bad luck attempting to root/ROM their S3, so they could deny them warranty support.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] thesefardi12:
I remember the days when I would send apps to my SD Memory card ? and save space although losing the widget functionality but now I fight with my phone even trying to pass and enable ring tones for contacts and the SD card is not allowed to enable it for the specific contact. This is one more example where Android is going with the battery and external SD card issue in a few years. I'm so disappointed that I have to lose stock functions by keeping my phone rooted and trying to find roms that the phone without rooting should do. I don't know! It's frustrating ?.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] bamaredwingsfan:
I just had to do a restore doing option A. My phone is stuck at the boot screen, how long should a restore take an what do I need to do, it's been 20 mins.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] iclickjohn:
restore with Terminal emulator?

Just wondering if I can restore with built in terminal emulator with:

su

reboot nvrestore
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] lyriquidperfection:
Nooooo don't use that command unless you want to seriously break your device. That command only works on the old galaxy s3 models.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] iclickjohn:
On a galaxy s3 restore with TE

I have a Galaxy S3 rooted CM11 backed up IMEI using all methods in OP

(and if I seriously broke my device, what a great day that would be, I'd love to get a new phone. But as long as this one rocks......lol)
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] lyriquidperfection:
That would be fine then but I would not advise doing a reboot nvrestore unless you have performed a reboot nvbackup on a previous occasion otherwise you will overwrite the partitions that contain your imei and nv data with blank dummy data resulting in null imei.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] iclickjohn:
So if anyone wants to know. I did all of the procedures to backup. A couple years ago. I've lost my IMEI a few times since and restored it fine. Went to put a new ROM on and had a lot of problems with CWM recovery. I knew I was having trouble, but I had a backup saved as well. Did the backup but it was not even good. Then I realized that my IMEI was gone. I was going to do the ADB method. Geez, that was a trip. Never did find the ADB lost in the SDK which was lost in the Android Studio. I was forwarned about restoring by Terminal Emulator. And yes, blinking blue led. And that is all folks. I wanted a new phone anyway but it would have been nice to get a Benjamin for my S3. But C'est La Vie. Don't ever restore by Terminal Emulator. lol
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] kikomovilla:
I've bricked my phone using nvbackup command.... I`ve flashed stock rom but my phone continue bricked... but, this brick is weird, `cause the phone restart too late, while android were optimizing apps
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] papperlapapp:
Hi there,

the reboot nvbackup , restore commands, are they really Samsung specific?

I tried reboot nvbackup on a Motorola device, but can´t say if it did anything...

thnx
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] OmidoStyle:
This makes me just a little worried flashing roms so often (on Synergy nightlies, I flash all the updates lol), I keep re-reading the logic behind their method, and it sounds like it should work, but still, the un-tested nature of it makes me worry just a little. I guess we just sit back and wait at this point.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] fix-this!:
glad i found this thread as im getting my gs3 thursday and was going to flash the jellywiz rom. i may stay away from the aosp roms for now. anyways would the appropriate method be to back up your imei on a stock rooted rom, bootloader unlocked before flashing anything else?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] davefields3:
I successfully created a back up, can navigate to the new zip in the synergyrom folder. Thank you.

In the original post it mentions "a user has done a manual NVRAM wipe and restored it using this method, without the roaming issues."

How is doing the manual wipe and restoring different than losing it completely and then restoring? Just because it worked on a manual wipe doesn't mean it will work when you lose it completely and have to restore?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] pkd600:
Yes, the first thing you should do is Root, flash the Recovery of your choice, and then backup your IMEI. I would advise that you make a backup using both this method as well as the QPST method for the time being. We still have no verification that this method actually works, so err on the side of caution for now. Also, transfer the backup files that are created onto your computer, and then also store a copy somewhere on the web (dropbox, gmail, etc.). That way, in the rare case you lose your IMEI, at least you have your backups and will be able to find them.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] toy028:
Exactly but make sure you unlock the bootloader before trying to flash Recovery.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] RedRumy3:
I will do this as well better to have more backups just to be safe.

My backup file is 12.3mb is everyone else around the same?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] pkd600:
No need to unlock the bootloader before flashing recovery, you can do it in either order. The bootloader does need to be unlocked before flashing the Synergy IMEI zip file though. If you forget to unlock it, the file just won't run.

Easiest way to unlock the bootloader is to run EZ-Unlock from the market. Easiest way to flash a recovery is to run EZ-Recovery from the market.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] WildZontar:
As neither QPST nor Samsung's boot code is open source, it's difficult to tell if a manual QPST NVRAM wipe erases exactly the same blocks as Samsung's. This is why a "hot test" is nessecarry to know for sure.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] E:V:A:
I don't know what you're saying because you don't know what you're talking about, but I think I know...what you mean. But you better believe it! You gonna have serious side effects with backing up and wiping a new phone with an old QPST version!

Dammit! This is precisely why Qualcomm doesn't wanna release their tools. "People" are just not thinking, checking or anything, before doing stuff!

Read my post about crappy old versions of QPST!
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Hasherx1:
Just for the record. I have flashed Cyanogenmod 10 and then restored to a stock rooted backup I took. Did this a second time .. backed up the Cyanogenmod version so I could just restore when I wanted to play. I was going to play some more last night and went into recovery and backed up my current stock rooted again. When the phone rebooted I had no IMEI. So it disappeared without even flashing a rom. So it could happen to you even without flashing.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] WildZontar:
What I meant is that the NVRAM clear/dd restore test that this IRC user did can't exactly be taken as confirmation this method would work in reality because a QPST wipe and the wipe the device does may not be identical. The only way we can confirm this restore method works in reality is by attempting a restore of the block device images after the phone itself overwrote the NVRAM...all without any interference from QPST at all. Since we still can't induce the randomly occuring problem, all we can do is wait for a user to lose their IMEI in the course of flashing and attempt a restore using their backed up dd images. As this method only came out four days ago, and the IMEI issue is one notch above rare (a qualitative observation), we're still waiting for a solid test case.

I am not the one who wiped NVRAM with QPST. A user in IRC did this to test whether or not this restore method would work, and it ended up restoring properly. I am not sure what version of QPST they used, either. Regardless, common sense would dictate that there is never an actual need to clear your NVRAM with QPST.

You have a good point about QPST, which is why it is all the more imperative that we continue to find an IMEI restore method that does not require it. This method does not require QPST at all and I certainly hope (and believe) it is "the one".
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] mangler1055:
so were you able to restore? what method did you use?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Hasherx1:
QPST restore.

I used QPST to just add the IMEI back in. I had previously backed of the /efs but was not sure to use that. Adding the IMEI back did cause me to be roaming like everyone said but I am at least working for now. I still think a way will be found to restore a valid efs with us just adding our IMEI to it . but we have to wait and see.

I did not see all the other newer backup posts or would have done those as well . But for now. being on roaming does not bother me. If they somehow charge me for roaming. Then I will flash the ODIN 4.04 and take the phone back in saying it is faulty and still being under 1 year warranty replace it.

Oh well it's all experimental anyway. I can always just get a new phone if something really goes wrong.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] con247:
If the roaming is purely cosmetic we should just alter the signal images in ROMs to make the roaming bars look normal. That way you don't get stuck with the bad icons.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] mangler1055:
Understood. was hoping you'd be able to confirm this method. Thanks for the reply.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] amaury48:
Just flashed CM10 09-01 nightly and lost data, confirmed I lost my IMEI. I had used the process in the OP a while ago to backup my IMEI. Just would like to confirm that I just flashed the backup it created and happy to report all is well again. Thanks for the post of this tool........saved my butt......
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] con247:
Excellent! I take it you aren't roaming and have the correct IMEI back?
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] amaury48:
That's correct, no roaming and have correct IMEI
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] imablackhat:
You should only have to flash the zip and back it up once correct? If this ever happened to me I can use the same zip restore from months ago?

Sent from my SCH-I535
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] amaury48:
I originally backed it up after reading this thread and before flashing any roms. Only backed up once a couple of weeks ago. Put a copy of the file in around three different places just in case something weired would happen. Used the original backup on internal sd location.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] jaben2:
Wow that is great news. IMEI was the only thing keeping me on TW. Looks like I might be making the jump real soon to AOSP
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] amaury48:
Yea, initially it really freaked me out, but then I held my composure and started looking through the threads and I remembered this one. Searched my sdcard for that backup file, booted into recovery, flashed it and like I said, all is well now.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] imablackhat:
Great to know this works. Gets rid of my worries.

Sent from my SCH-I535
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] amaury48:
Here's a pic of my status after the re-flash of my backup, IMEI before was 0:

[
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] imablackhat:
Pic doesn't work.

Sent from my SCH-I535
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Zalithian:
Yes it does ^_^
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] bgolden84:
Not on tapatalk
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] WildZontar:
Thank you for confirming it works! Adding a testimonial update now.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] WildZontar:
Also, it's best practice that you either switch around or blank some of your IMEI numbers in photoshop when posting a screenshot with them.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] TrevE:
Glad to see my backup zip method worked & was as simple as I thought :) Good to finally have confirmation, and its nice to not have to mess with qpst/roaming issues. If my theory is correct on partitions being overwritten with backup parts (which is looking more plausible now) my guess is it restores a generic nvitems without all the proper VZW data in it, putting the imei in that "generic" nvitems with qpst works but it must be missing other items making the phone think its roaming. Obviously having the full backups with this method gets around this problem inserting nvitems.

I will be interested to see if it happens again to you somehow - it could wipe your imei again if you hit that weird reboot code to restore.

Ive been dreaming up a process to hit the other reboot modes (found in here) to manually kick a "stock" backup off so when you hit the restore code things just work but without a gs3 myself its a bit hard.

Have you guys gotten any OTAs yet? I havent stumbled across a place that hits that 0x77665511 backup code yet. Im wondering if its triggered on an OTA or something similar, the backup partitions may comes stock with some generic imei in there and never get new data without some stock process.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] jnehama:
It's been unclear from the thread if the backup can be flashed using TWRP recovery. I downloaded the zip from Tapatalk app which downloads to internal sd card mnt/sdcard/Tapatalk backup. I went into recovery(TWRP) install zip which initially shows data/media which is the internal sd card and went toTapatalk backup and found the zip and flashed it. Using root explorer I found the new synergyrom file with the restore zip inside. TWRP can flash the back up.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] WildZontar:
Well, injecting an IMEI with QPST is the only thing that will trigger roaming almost all of the time, from what I understand. Restoring a QCN backup is generally successful, although it fails occasionally and at least one user reported roaming issues afterward. It also leaves users in questionable legal territory as I believe QPST was leaked software, and the one going around is also an older version which may not back up any "parts" newer than what that version can recognize. Then again, I have no idea what QPST actually does during a backup, but I do know what this one does at least, and it can all be done without using a PC. Hearing a testimonial only makes me think it's more reliable as well.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] WildZontar:
Thank you. I don't use TWRP (yet) so I can neither personally confirm it nor give concrete instructions on how to use it within TWRP, but it should work assuming TWRP uses CWM's update.zip format.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] ddggttff3:
We have had 1 OTA so far, but I think it was pulled. All it did was remove the in-app search thing that google got in that lawsuit with apple for.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] amaury48:
Removed pic link until I have a chance to edit out personal info......
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] TrevE:
I could see QCNs possibly working, the last leaked build I knew about of QPST was 355 which was the first (only?) build I could get to work with E3D right. Havent played with it much since, def not a tool for beginners. I believe that QPST 355 was officially released like 3 years ago though so id use with caution for sure...

The other thing I would be curious of, if backup is infact overwriting main parts here you'd potentially be loosing more than your IMEI if nothing was ever backed up (although that would be most noticeable). The partitions its restoring seems to hold a boatload of data. Bluetooth/wifi mac seem to live on these parts as well along with HDMI HDCP keys and _possibly_ playready DRM among other things. Has anyone noticed if there mac addresses of bluetooth/wifi changed before->after loosing IMEI and using only the QPST method? or (longshot anyone uses it) HDMI stops working? QCNs will certainly not contain the data on these partitions, only the radio's nvitems -- another reason i'd go full part backup like this method does instead of qpst
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] TrevE:
ah, silly lawsuits. won't get into that though I'm sure we all feel the same way about that B.S. Ill keep prodding around code to see if I can figure out how the stock backups "should" work, might be able to get one more layer of protection against this stupid bug - thanks for the info.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Hasherx1:
Well I have looked at the picture that you had up of your status and I notice on your phone that your MEID matches your IMEI except for the last digit. My phone has this:

Dec: 18 digit number here

Hex: 0xmy IMEI here minus last digit.

So maybe this is causing an issue with my phone roaming since the MEID is so weird. Not sure. Thought I would mention it. Since I did not see the new backup method that came after the efs.sbn and I lost my IMEI.

If we could actually identify what is truly missing then maybe we could build a restore that would work and just add the IMEI.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] WildZontar:
Does your MEID read something like A1000xxx...?

I had a "problem" like this on AOSP, however, I never lost my IMEI nor was any normal phone/data function broken. Went back to differing only by the last digit when i restored my stock nandroid. This may or may not be a problem and more to do with the way AOSP represents the MEID.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] Hasherx1:
IMEI and MEID differences

NO it is actually just a straight Decimal number with DEC: and below that a Hex with 0x starting the IMEI minus the last digit.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] kman79:
In the same boat, can't risk my phone being down, but would like to be back on AOSP ROMs
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] TrevE:
Ziggy helped grep through kernel code - in /arch/arm/mach-msm/restart.c (http://git.ziggy471.com/i535.git/tree/arch/arm/mach-msm/restart.c) there's the following code for reboot reasons. Not entirely if you can just hit these reasons with something like -

adb shell reboot nvbackup

-

or if you have to hit it in fastboot (if you guys have it) with

fastboot oem reboot nvbackup

but either may be possible to kick a stock backup with something similar. *use at own risk*

Also if these nv reboot commands (nvbackup/nvrestore/nverase/nvrecovery) are just screwing you guys over instead of actually working, maybe kernel devs can patch them out? Or change them to boot into download mode or something similar so atleast people can track when something would have happened? Just throwing some ideas out there

if (cmd != NULL) {
if (!strncmp(cmd, "bootloader", 10)) {
__raw_writel(0x77665500, restart_reason);
} else if (!strncmp(cmd, "recovery", 8)) {
__raw_writel(0x77665502, restart_reason);
} else if (!strncmp(cmd, "oem-", 4)) {
unsigned long code;
code = simple_strtoul(cmd + 4, NULL, 16) & 0xff;
__raw_writel(0x6f656d00 | code, restart_reason);
#ifdef CONFIG_SEC_DEBUG
} else if (!strncmp(cmd, "sec_debug_hw_reset", 18)) {
__raw_writel(0x776655ee, restart_reason);
#endif
#ifdef CONFIG_SEC_PERIPHERAL_SECURE_CHK
} else if (!strncmp(cmd, "peripheral_hw_reset", 19)) {
__raw_writel(0x77665507, restart_reason);
printk(KERN_NOTICE "peripheral_hw_reset C777!!!!\n");
#endif
} else if (!strncmp(cmd, "download", 8)) {
__raw_writel(0x12345671, restart_reason);
} else if (!strncmp(cmd, "sud", 3)) {
__raw_writel(0xabcf0000 | (cmd[3] - '0'),
restart_reason);
} else if (!strncmp(cmd, "debug", 5) /* set debug leve */
&& !kstrtoul(cmd + 5, 0, &value)) {
__raw_writel(0xabcd0000 | value, restart_reason);
} else if (!strncmp(cmd, "nvbackup", 8)) {
__raw_writel(0x77665511, restart_reason);
} else if (!strncmp(cmd, "nvrestore", 9)) {
__raw_writel(0x77665512, restart_reason);
} else if (!strncmp(cmd, "nverase", 7)) {
__raw_writel(0x77665514, restart_reason);
} else if (!strncmp(cmd, "nvrecovery", 10)) {
__raw_writel(0x77665515, restart_reason);
} else {
__raw_writel(0x77665501, restart_reason);
}
}
#ifdef CONFIG_SEC_DEBUG
else {
printk(KERN_NOTICE "%s : clear reset flag\r\n", __func__);
/* clear abnormal reset flag */
__raw_writel(0x12345678, restart_reason);
}
#endif
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] ddggttff3:
DUDE, you are officially on to somthing here!

just ran reboot nvbackup, rebooted into the bootloader, 2 lines of blue text (both about files being copied somewhere) flashed, then it booted right back into the rom. I dont know if it made a proper backup or what, but it shows that these commands are active. il try to video the process again and get you the exact text....

EDIT: Heres what the blue text says

Copy modemst1 to fsg

Copy modemst2 to backup

then it reboots into the ROM. Hope this helps
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] con247:
I've never lost my IMEI but I have seen blue text while rebooting to recovery once. But it doesn't always happen to my knowledge.
[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] bgolden84:
Mine shows blue text on the first splash screen. Every time I reboot Into recovery. Never lost my imei. I also had a d2spr. Did the Same on that Phone.