yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy S III General] TheMrcool212:
Hi people, I updated to ARHD 29.0 which is based on EMG4 firmware. I did notice the modem had changed to the new one. But my problem is how can I change the modem to Malaysian one (DXEMB1) if I don't have flashable /efs image? . I remembered that before I installed ARHD ROM in the Aroma installer it asks me to backup the /efs in my external SD and I did. I noticed that there is efs.tar.gz file in the SD. In the file I noticed that there is a folder named "efs" and it contains the same as the /efs in the root folder.

Thanks.

EDIT: The post above mine might work with it, nevermind.
[Galaxy S III General] JustArchi:
Anyway you just need to extract .tar from this .tar.gz file (it's gzip compressed tar), f.e. 7-zip works fine. Then you have /efs backup in very common .tar format which is recognized by many program (EFS Professional works afaik).

Good luck.
[Galaxy S III General] TheMrcool212:
Thanks, I'll try it later on.

Sent from my Galaxy S3 i9300
[Galaxy S III General] n. tympanicus:
i flashed only modem with zip,so that doesnt change my efs?
[Galaxy S III General] danarama:
It does if mg4
[Galaxy S III General] Striatum_bdr:
Nope I tried to flash modem only with mobile Odin, then reverted to pre mg4 modem, and had no problem. On an aosp Rom, must be important as I suspect Sammy Rom to be the trigger.

I keep finally mg4 as it's far much better than older ones.

And I'm not the only one, several other guys reported that.
[Galaxy S III General] danarama:
Interesting....

So you're saying its flashing the rom that does it? Flashing the modem alone does not?
[Galaxy S III General] JustArchi:
That's true. I don't know why but it looks like we need Sammy's XXEMG4 with XXEMG4 modem to change /efs. Faced this strange behaviour some time ago.
[Galaxy S III General] Striatum_bdr:
Yes. And it's logical, as the modem is only a bunch of drivers basically. There must be a script executed at first Sammy Rom that convert efs.

To be honest I don't understand why devs keep providing a modem with their Rom. And why people are so anxious to change it every week or so. As long as the phone is working correctly I can't see the point changing the modem.
[Galaxy S III General] n. tympanicus:
i would say yes....
[Galaxy S III General] JustArchi:
Newer = Better. In 99.9% situations. XXEMG4 > pre-XXEMG4 modems.
[Galaxy S III General] slaphead20:
My suspicion is in the boot loader, it was upgraded for MG4.....that's why there was a new lowship rescue firmware
[Galaxy S III General] Alex---1:
I found this all out the hard way a few weeks back before these sort of threads were opened on it and MG4 wasn't known as the issue.

Literally just got my phone back from a Samsung service center and I'm scared of flashing anything on it now :(

I want to try out CM10.3 but don't know if this will corrupt my IMEI again.

Are we basically stuck on stock Samsung firmwares now or do we run the risk of bricking our IMEI's if we flash something else?
[Galaxy S III General] danarama:
If you have mg4 firmware you must stick with an mg4 or 2 baseband. You can flash any rom you want.
[Galaxy S III General] Alex---1:
My phone came back with MG4.

I've got no idea why Samsung have done this. What have they gained from changing this EFS stuff other than screwing things up. I'll be getting a HTC One next I think!
[Galaxy S III General] danarama:
There WILL be a reason. More basebands will come in the future that will be compatible. There will most likely gain somewhere down the line ... and don't forget that the average user is an OTA / kies user and will not be mixing and matching roms and basebands. We're seriously in the minority
[Galaxy S III General] Alex---1:
Yeah I guess you're right there. I'll just stay stock for a while, or at least until Samsung release a few new firmwares which could be years yet at the rate they've currently been going....
[Galaxy S III General] TheMrcool212:
For those who don't have flashable efs image for recovery but they do had efs.tar.gz file in external SD or /internal storage/efs_backup.

These files are backed up if you select to backup the efs folder before installing ARHD ROM.

Actually i don't have efs image to be restored in recovery, but I do have efs.tar.gz file in my phone. In efs.tar.gz file you can see there is a folder named 'efs' which is the efs you backed up before. I finally fixed my phone network issue by doing these:

1. Extract the efs.tar.gz, then you can see a efs folder there.

2. Go to " / " which the root of the phone, then delete the efs folder

3. Move the old efs folder to /

4. I'm not quite sure for the permissions of each of the file in the efs folder, so I changed it on each of the file to 777.

5. (Optional) reboot the phone to refresh the system.

Sent from my Galaxy S3 i9300
[Galaxy S III General] reS28raM:
Seen the tar program actually preserves the original permissions I would suggest to extract the folder directly at his place without messing with them. Also before deleting MG4's efs I would backup it. This whole procedure is NOT secure.
[Galaxy S III General] tohema:
XXEMG5 Heating issues

Hi Guys, I was on CM10.2 and i saw a new Samsung S/W Update - gone with the update and from that Moment my Phone started Heating like anything even if i am not doing anything At the Bottom of the Phone , i tried Flashing XXEMG5 from SamFirmware and also tried XXEMC2 and updated Phone useing Kies , it does the same thing, had issues with EFS Also when tried to flash another Rom... Thanks for this Thread , i was able to know abt the issue with this Build.

Now i am worried about Flashing Custom Roms, i dont want to currupt my Phone bcos of this .....
[Galaxy S III General] danarama:
Flashing mg* roms changes efs format. If you have done this without an efs backup, you can still flash any rom, but must stick with mg* basebands. That's all. This issue has nothing to do with custom roms
[Galaxy S III General] Striatum_bdr:
I think most of the people don't understand ...

If you flashed a whole mgX Rom your efs is modified but fully functional as long as you don't revert to older modems!

You can still flash whatever Rom you want, just be sure that the Rom doesn't come with an older modem!

In a couple of month all this psychotic stuff will end, when every body will have mgX modems.

All issues you have guys come from your irrepressible desire to revert your modems.
[Galaxy S III General] danarama:
Yep. Actually im finding the mg2 modem brilliant. Much better than older modems for me. Generally newer modems should be better, but too many variables to make that a "fact"
[Galaxy S III General] boomboomer:
+1 although with EMG4 rom & modem, battery life is much improved while the phone is idling. I think the major problem is people who flashed the rom or modem just because it was new, then found the modem wasn't for their country and couldn't go back.
[Galaxy S III General] slaphead20:
Couldn't agree more, I flashed it because I'm BTU and it works incredibly well for me, although it seems MG4 is most of Europe looking at the live updates.....I smell 4.3 not far away :D
[Galaxy S III General] Zohaib Imtiaz:
Please help

Where should i Put your file in odin? In PDA or CSC?
[Galaxy S III General] SignetSphere:
The emergency zip on the OP? It's a CWM flashable zip file if that's what's you're asking so you can just flash it using any cwm based custom recovery.
[Galaxy S III General] popcorn1122:
Yes CWM flash-able.
[Galaxy S III General] petrosl:
It worked!!!!

Thank you!!! you saved my ass:good:
[Galaxy S III General] JustArchi:
Nice to hear that :).
[Galaxy S III General] Gokhalesh:
aaah thanks a ton for that emergency file! i have been searching for this for almost 3 days
[Galaxy S III General] Arde:
Hi, simple question: how i can go back to XXEMB5 modem and rom? Flash rom from odin or what?
[Galaxy S III General] slaphead20:
Depends what Roms you have been on
[Galaxy S III General] emwdava:
Flashed MG4 rom without flashing MG4 modem.

Ok here goes...

I've read all posts up to now and I didn't find any info on my matter. I posted this in the UltimateRom thread. It was after flashing that ROM all went to hell for me (NOT BLAMING THE ROM OR THE CHEF, only myself).

I'm so so sorry to have to ask this question. I installed Shiva 14.0.1 on my wifes phone and I installed the MB6 Modem (nee) Not the MG4 modem.

And now the phone say IMEI is unknown. If I've never installed the MG4 modem, can I just go back to an older stock rom and IMEI will work again or am I f**ked?

I tried really hard searching the forums for an answer....

Please help!
[Galaxy S III General] JustArchi:
Step 1 - flash my xxemb6.zip, see if it works.

Step 2 - if not flash my xxemg4.zip, see if it works.

Step 3 - if not flash stock XXEMG4 from samsung through odin, see if it works.

Step 4 - if not flash stock pre-xxemg4 (XXEMD2 for example) from samsung through odin, see if it works.

If you won't be able to connect in any of above examples and you don't have any /efs backup you're screwed.
[Galaxy S III General] boomboomer:
Try the above steps, also a careful search through your internal and external sd cards for anything entitled 'efs' as some rom installations will automatically backup efs during installation.

If you don't have a backup and Archi's suggestions don't work then yes, you are screwed -that is why you didn't find an answer to corrupt efs folder, there isn't one apart from paying for a repair.
[Galaxy S III General] emwdava:
I ended up trying Archi's suggestions and the only thing that helped was reinstalling the rom with the XXEMG4 modem.

The phone is up and running and it looks like I'm out of the woods.

Thanks for all the help!
[Galaxy S III General] 78cortina:
So the deal is that if I did not back efs folder I can no longer go back to the i9300t optimized modem.

Because I am in Australia I need on optimized for the 850 network.

It there anyway I can go back? Or do I have to wait for one to be made?
[Galaxy S III General] boomboomer:
You can try, first backup your current efs, but probably won't work.
[Galaxy S III General] JustArchi:
You're lucky ;). Now make a backup of /efs and you're done.
[Galaxy S III General] popcorn1122:
I think wait is the option for you ! :(
[Galaxy S III General] pRo_lama:
If I flash the last Omega ROM which is based on XXEMG6 Android 4.1.2 with kernel stock XXEMG6 and modem CEEMG2, will I have the issues with IMEI or not ??? I think that I will not have issues, but I want to be 100% sure.
[Galaxy S III General] SignetSphere:
Any MG based modem/firmware will change the efs format. So if you flash that rom without backing up the efs first then you wouldn't be able to downgrade the modem anymore cause if you do downgrade modem with the modified efs then your IMEI won't be read hence you'll just see emergency calls only even if you still have signal.
[Galaxy S III General] sunnykinger:
I have also flashed XXEMG4 by mistake without taking any backup.

I am using this phone in India so will this modem cause any problems to me ?
[Galaxy S III General] Oomahey:
No issues. You'll be fine.
[Galaxy S III General] victorbravo:
Can you help me?

Thank you for your tip. I need your help with a deeper explanation. I've installed a ROM with XXemg4 without making a previous backup of the EFS folder and right now, after flashing the new rom my phone couldn't reach any mobile network. I assume that is because of what you clearly explained.

I've been trying to fix the problem flushing you emergency zip but I still can't use my phone. Can you give me some other advise??

Thank you very much.
[Galaxy S III General] Oomahey:
Details will be helpful.

Which ROM were you on before? Which ROM now? Did you update the modem when you installed the ROM? What is the IMEI now? Is it proper or a dummy IMEI? :thumbup:
[Galaxy S III General] victorbravo:
Help

I have flashed UltimaRom V14.

---------- Post added at 05:01 AM ---------- Previous post was at 04:57 AM ----------

I have flashed UltimaRom V14 coming from CM10. The setup installation offered me options for the modem and I chose XXemg4. Right Now the phone doesn't recongnize the imei. The phone has a proper imei written at the back under the battery.
[Galaxy S III General] JustArchi:
Flash full XXEMG4.
[Galaxy S III General] popcorn1122:
Select a full rom (Latest) of your region from http://samsung-updates.com/device/?id=GT-I9300

Then flash it and then wipe data and cache. You are good to go again on any network of your region
[Galaxy S III General] darkshaft:
I made that tremendously big mistake and flashed EMG4 without backing up, now samsung just released the newest modem for my country (Egypt) which is EMF6 but still no data connection, my question is samsung going to release EMG4 for all countries or not?
[Galaxy S III General] popcorn1122:
Yes... may be 3 months time more. Till then flash the latest egypt rom and the modem(Only) of MG4
[Galaxy S III General] Arde:
OK, if i flash I9300XXEMC3 with odin, maybe i have then working EMC3 modem too?
[Galaxy S III General] darkshaft:
Is there a way to flash the modem without rooting?
[Galaxy S III General] G1032:
I'm with 3 mobile in Ireland. I've always kept the 3 moblie modem when flashing new ROMs

Can I flash the latest MG6 ROM without flashing the MG6 modem without issue? What I normally do is flash any new ROM via Mobile Odin and leave the option to flash the modem unchecked.
[Galaxy S III General] danarama:
If you flash any MG* ROM, you will either have to stay with the MG* modems, or restore an EFS backup taken BEFORE you flash the MG ROM.

If you get my MG2/MG4 baseband zip from my IMEI/EFS thread, you could flash it before updating the ROM (doesnt alter EFS) sto see if its better than your Three baseband. MG2 is much better for me on Three UK than the aged Three baseband NEDL1.
[Galaxy S III General] G1032:
Great. Thanks. I''ll try the MG2 baseband first so. Past experience though with basebands other than the 3 mobile NELK2 have been poor........would never reconnect to 3G if it went out of reception.

But no harm now in trying the new baseband first to see how it is. Thanks again.
[Galaxy S III General] chrcol:
by the way is it possible the new format is to upset apps like galaxsim unlock?

I noticed now that app cant detect if I am locked or not.

(thankfully phone came unlocked).
[Galaxy S III General] boomboomer:
Answer remains the same, it depends what rom you have been on. If you've flashed any EMG rom then no -you'll need and efs restore from before you flashed EMG to be able to go back to EMC3.

This information is posted many times on several threads.
[Galaxy S III General] spocky12:
That's quite possible yes :)
[Galaxy S III General] danarama:
Apps haven't been updated yet.
[Galaxy S III General] spocky12:
Well I was on holiday so I didn't have much time at home to check, but I believe that imei + lock information have been moved to a secured place, perhaps only accessible through radio (one thing is sure, it's not in efs folder anymore). This might mean that apps possibly won't be able to unlock those devices anymore :( (hopefully I'm wrong)
[Galaxy S III General] darkshaft:
Has anyone tried Samsung unlock guide on this website http://www.unlocksamsungonline.nl/unlock-samsung-I9300 to fix IMEI caused by the new modem??
[Galaxy S III General] chrcol:
and until it is samsung stopped people using it ;)
[Galaxy S III General] Cezar`:
OK, so basically this is what Apple does with their basebands. On 3GS, for example, it was impossible to downgrade the baseband (until some smart boys made it happen through reverse engineering). Not funny Samsung, don't get even closer to Apple, you're slowly starting to suck.
[Galaxy S III General] danarama:
I suppose, but what do they gain from that?

---------- Post added at 09:38 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:36 PM ----------

We don't know the reasoning behind it though. Maybe the next generation of basebands are much better. Maybe they're making the EFS structure more resilient to muppets who keep losing their IMEI? Obviously I am not counting people losing their IMEI from flashing MG*
[Galaxy S III General] Cezar`:
I'm buying an android phone for it's flexibility. If I want "safety", I go with Apple. I'm sick of these moves that raise tons of question marks. At least Apple is predictable and you know what to expect :laugh: . I'm sitting here running a glitchy AOSP 4.2.2 ROM while people with phone 1 year older than mine (sgs 2 plus) have 4.2.2 officially from Samsung. Again, another "??????" move from them. Now, I guess it happens with other manufacturers as well, but at least the other producers (HTC, Sony) don't bloat the OS with crap that slow down the phone and force you to go AOSP.
[Galaxy S III General] danarama:
Then prevent you from really going AOSP beause they couldn;t be bothered / didn't want to release documentation and sources for their exynos SoC...

But thats another issue...
[Galaxy S III General] JustArchi:
[MENTION=2872010]rootSU[/MENTION]

There is one important problem. Such conversion is NOT safe, and I'm not talking about "us", guys who know more than 95-99% of people using SGS3. I'm talking about normal typical users, who update their system via kies or even android itself, doing typical region updates from XXELLA to XXEMG4 and losing their IMEIs in such process.

This problem affects users who NEVER had fun with their phones, who DON'T know what is root, what is it for, why they need it. Guys who have no idea why their phone is broken and what caused that. The only thing they know is that it worked fine before and after update it doesn't.

And no, I'm not talking about one or two users. I'm talking about at least 20+ users, posting through local polish forum dedicated to android. And that only covers my own country, I have no idea how it looks like on the other boards but I'm more than SURE that it looks similar. It's NOT rare issue to break /efs in such process, even if you're or I'm sure that it's safe.

The fact is one. We don't know why Samsung did it but better for them to have a really good reason for doing so. It's more than stupid to implement that big changes. And don't tell me that they could not prevent it, a script which makes a backup, performs update and checks if it worked is a less than 5 minutes of writing a script for me, probably a half of that for Samsung engineers. The fact is one, they don't care. They don't care because forcing people to buy S4 sounds like a better idea than developing Android 4.3 for free.

That's my stance, nobody forces you to agree with me. But these are facts and my speculatuions behind it. I doubt that such /efs change is needed to perform any big update and even if it is then it's really easy to prevent such problems. If we can prevent it, they obviously are able to do the same.

I don't want to think about a reason behind it, but I highly doubt that it's attached to any improvement in terms of stability, battery or even signal.
[Galaxy S III General] Cezar`:
Those are my thoughts as well. Not sure Samsung has anything more to offer to me or any other Android tinkerers. Most good phones come from HTC and Motorola (from speed and built quality point of view), not sure what's the hype with Samsung after all. I guess we're all so comfortable knowing Samsung HW and SW so well that we just don't find the power to change :) . I guess I'll just have to buy an Oppo Find 5 and start from scratch.
[Galaxy S III General] reS28raM:
I dont see the point in following a company which embraces opensource but then don't give ANY information about what they do to OUR phones IMHO.

It is quite possible that EMG4 at first bootstrap makes a backup of efs folder and saved it to some location on the file system in some binary format, we'll never know that...

In my country there are rumors now about emg6 efs not being compatible with emg4 efs, I doubt that being true but some people are testing it right now.

I have to pay €700.00 to be distressed this way? Nope. Last time for me, until they become as transparent and crystal clear at least as Microsoft is, and I would not add anything more... :eek:
[Galaxy S III General] boomboomer:
I'm not so sure on the conspiracy theory to buy an S4, most of the people loosing their IMEI are who've just flashed the latest firmware release, even if it was the wrong baseband for their country -then lost their IMEI in trying to go back to the right region modem, usually then flashing anything they can grasp at until they brick their phones.

I've yet to read someone who's applied the EMG4, 5 or 6 stock firmware, who lives in the right region for that baseband, having any IMEI problems. Given the 30 million odd handsets sold the problem is microscopic, but obviously hard for those experiencing it.

For me the EMG4 update gives much better battery at idle, no IMEI problems. No, I'm not happy at having to stick with a stock ROM to be able to use all the phone functions, but I knew that when I bought it -freezing all the bloat is just part of the fun. If I'd really wanted AOSP I'd have bought a Nexus, but am prepared to live with a Samsung to have a replaceable battery and SD card.
[Galaxy S III General] darkshaft:
I have been trying the new modem for few days now, I have to say it has a better performance than the previous ones, the battery now is 68% 13hr on battery with 1 hr screen on, what I noticed when the phone is not in use the battery consumption is 1% per hour but with usage (wifi + media player) it's much more. BUT STILL PLEASE DON'T TRY THIS MODEM UNTIL THERE IS A SOLUTION FOR IMEI CORRUPTION. Hopefully the new modem in jellybean 4.3 will fix it.
[Galaxy S III General] JustArchi:
I'm not even talking about impossibility to return back, I'm talking about possible /efs corruption while doing an upgrade from anything to XXEMG4. Yes, maybe here on xda there aren't that much posts, because most people here are experienced and know how to do it properly but on the other boards there are bunch of unhappy guys who lost their IMEIs during an upgrade, no downgrade, upgrade.
[Galaxy S III General] danarama:
I haven't personally seen any of these posts. So far I have only seen people flashing unofficially via Odin or Custom ROMs based on MG*

The whole way Samsung's EFS is so insecure is ridiculous anyway and leaves the devices exposed to issues. As per my Thread, I recommend anyone upgrading via Odin backup EFS first.

Although I say I haven't seen any posts about efs corruption via KIES / OTA, doesn't mean it doesn't happen. All devices have risks with upgrades via these methods. An upgrade is never 100% safe, 100% mitigated, on any device. I've seen many devices "brick" from official upgrades. I'm not sure that the nature of the "brick" on Samsung's is relevant above and beyond the fact that I have already stated the entire EFS situation is ridiculous. If it didn't "brick" that way, there are plenty of other ways an upgrade could have bricked a device.
[Galaxy S III General] popcorn1122:
Yes

just download the emergency zip and extract the mobile.bin

In odlin select "Phone" and flash the mobile.bin

Remember it is PHONE you have to select for only installing the Modem.
[Galaxy S III General] dhiru1602:
I don't understand why people see this as the end of the world. EFS Corruption, EFS Doom, EFS Nuclear Bomb. It's just that Samsung is trying something which we have no clue as to why.

Assuming that the modem is now available as a part of official updates, there is nothing else that we could do other than slowly starting to migrate to the new modem or efs. The only reason to be careful about this new modem is that people who have unlocked their devices would have problems since they will have to unlock their phones again in accordance with the new efs.

My 2 cents.
[Galaxy S III General] sleepyhead08:
Thank you ACRCHI!!!!! Big time life saver!! :D I soo wish i was earning..could have donated..anyway thanks alot!! :D
[Galaxy S III General] FINEEEEE:
Hey guys i have a question.. I just installed a custom

Rom i mean ÚLTIMA ROM that rom use Last Fw MG4 like base.. Then when i was installing that i choose on aroma MC2 modem ..Then i change the rom to cm10.1 and works fine.. Well my question is i will have problems if i flash vía odin a FW MC3?..

I have my EFS backup.. Thx guys

Desde cualquier lugar de mi ciudad con el GALAXY S3 de samsung