yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] lawrians:
i have this problem too. my imei was changed to the generic 00499.... I think the entire nv_data is corrupt. my product code appears to be `not active`. anybody help? :-)) 10x in advance
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] multicolor:
fake imei 004999010640000

I used the application galaxy_s unlock (AVAILABLE IN MARKET) to unlock the sim, I was vraivent Unlocked but imei has been changed to the number 004999010640000 PLEASE HELP ME to restore it
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] mohitdabbaail:
Do you have the backup of EFS folder ?
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] multicolor:
thank you very much for your reply, but I have not saved the file efs
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] JJEgan:
http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=777288&highlight=IMEI+restoration

jje
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] joginder:
imei problem

hi..i hv samsung galaxy 3 during firmware update i lost my phones imei number...it doesn't show imei no..it only show 00000000..n also sim card not working in my phone...pls help me to recover imei.
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] myHalici:
[Q] How can i restore my corrupted IMEI? Like : 004999010640000

2 days ago, i have problem. But i dont know how can i solve.

My IMEI is changed to "004999010640000".

Its corrupted IMEI, and I cant use my SGSs phone capabilities becuse of that.

My operator rejecting the IMEI.

I googled about 40 hours

And has a lot of different ideas. But cant solve the problem.

my nv_data files not backuped before.

I have only nandroid backups.

I know my actual IMEI, and you guys, you have working nv_data files.

Anybody cant solve that?

I will give my IMEI and open you nv_data copy with hexeditor, and give me my working nv_data files?

I dont know how can it be done but, i am waiting solutions.

I dont have warranty, i cant give it to service.

I dont have any boxes like riffbox or spt.

So, please, i know some of yours guys can do that or did.

Share with us
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] ImraanK:
No known solutions yet... hav you tried the bak files?

Sent from my GT-I9000
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] android.francis:
Nandroid also backs up your EFS if you chose to 'back up all'.

If not, then tough luck since there are no public solutions yet.
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] myHalici:
i dont have working bak files.

is it possible with another sgs i9000 nv_data file?,

or editing it with my imei?
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] EarlZ:
As of now if you dont have a working back up there is no way to fix the IMEI yet since the actual IMEI numbers are encrypted on the nv_data.

Im wondering my self if its possible to like monitor how the riffbox/spt so we can decode the IMEI under nv_data..

Im guessing it may take a year from now for someone to break the encoding, its not really like jailbreaking the ip4 where there are dedicated devs working on it regularly.
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] myHalici:
i have backups.

backup all selected backups but, how can i open these backups on the pc?
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] nwsk:
Have you tried doing a full nandroid restore? (from a backup you knew worked)

IMEI isn't meant to be easily editted/changed. If it was, it wouldn't be of much use to people who wanted to report lost/stolen phone as the IMEI would be changed immediately. If you don't have a working backup, it's pretty much not possible.
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] EarlZ:
Samsung should have made it hardcoded into the phone and not some file we can mess around.. a little bit sneaky if you ask me hehehe
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] myHalici:
i extracted nandroid backups "efs.img" file with "unyaffs" program.

and use these nv files for fix.
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] thebazman:
i bit the bullet and took my galaxy s to service centre today.

ive got corrupted imei thru JPC before we knew about the problems.

i downgraded to jm8 from Darkyys v8, then upgraded back to froyo knowing it wouldnt boot.

so to them they think i upgraded to 2.2 rebooted past boot animation then after the S, blank screen

they said it would be fixed before end of week . so hoping they fix it to boot , then turn it on when i go to collect check imei number if its still corrupted then ask whats happened blah blah

regards
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] w98seeng:
Funny, my IMEI is the same as yours.

I have no problem using my phone. I do have a back-up I mad ewith ROM manager and my EFS folder is there.

Is it a problem if my IMEI is not proper but my phone works anyway?

Ian
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] myHalici:
In some countries, IMEI numbers should be unique. And you should do some paperwork (or your seller) for register your imei to database.

When you are not listed in database, you cant use your sim card with that phone.

Its exactly same in my country.

Now i fixed that, and waiting for the paperwork.
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] w98seeng:
I got my IMEI back. I had my nv_data.bin.md5 and nv_data.bin backed up when I unlocked my phone after I got the new one from Samsung. I just coppied them the the efs folder and my IMEI is back.

Ian
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] zheka1:
IMEI issue

First thin I want to say, that it is not illigal to change your IMEI in United States.

And what I was wondering if anybody can show me how to change an IME on my samsung galaxy s
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] thebazman:
yes flash jpc thatll change it:p

this thread will get removed
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] AllGamer:
Not sure which parallel universe your USA is located in

but last i checked IMEI change is unlawful

however if you are simply trying to fix your phone because the IMEI got corrupted on one of those flashing

then all you have to do is restore the EFS backup, and it should get it going again

if you don't have an EFS backup... then you are pretty much done for

just brick it completely and send the phone back for repair
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Hinerakatauri1979:
I think there is a easier way to fix IMEI. I think its possible with Kies, at least with 2.0. it reads your emei, and just like faking current firmware I think its possible to change Imei. and when flashing changed emei will be inserted.

I haven't tried it yet. my emei is just fine. and just in case I have a backup.
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] zheka1:
I'm not trying to repair IMEI, I am trying to change it (for learning purposes)

I researched everywhere, and everywhere I look, itd not illegal to change IMEI.
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] AllGamer:
that will fall into wire tapping, cloning a phone, and making black listing IMEI in vain

when you have 2 phones with the same IMEI # you can easily tap into the other phone making the cal or receiving the call

back in my Treo days, i did it by accident, and it was cool that i was able to make/answer call and be able to listen to it from 2 cell phone

but doing it intentionally it's against the law
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] w98seeng:
I do not think it is possible to change your IMEI. It is encrypted inside your nv_data.bin.md5 or nv_data.bin files. From what I know, no one has been able to crack the encryption they use yet.
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] thebazman:
got phone call to collect my phone today, he turned it on when i got there, i checked the imei and it was the same 044.

he called for engineer who apoligised and said he'd need to send it to sammy(as he called it) and it would take 2 weeks to get back to me.

heres hoping

regards
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Lothaen:
[Q] Change (Reset) IMEI

If a phone has got a totally messed up IMEI number showing on the screen different from the one on the actual back of the handset - is there a way to reset this back to what it should be?

cheers
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Lothaen:
on further searching and reading...

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=743183&page=3

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=777288&page=2

doesn't look promising!

there is no backup so looking at the above threads there is no cure... :(
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] JJEgan:
there is no backup so looking at the above threads there is no cure

Got mine back .

How dont really know .

Still had original nav data bin bak file in the phones efs .

A factory reset or a reflash and i got it back to original .

jje
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] maryogav:
same problem, I want to restore IMEI because my phone changed it when tried to sim unlock it and doesn't restore it when I copy efs folder to device. if someone can help me please PM me or point me in the right direction to do it.

thanks
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] w98seeng:
I copied my nv_data.bin.md5 and my nv_data.bin from my computer to my SD card. Then using root explorer, I copied the two files to my efs folder. It asked me if I want to overwrite the existing files and I said yes. Voila, my IMEI is back to the original one.

Ian
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] maryogav:
did the same way, still wrong IMEI. Is there a way to modify the files with my good IMEI?
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] w98seeng:
Are your back-ups from before your IMEI got corrupted?
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] AllGamer:
exactly, it's just that simple

and as w98seeng said, make sure the files are from a good backup source before it got corrupted
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] maryogav:
well... I suppose the backup is corrupted if restoring it doesn't change my IMEI to original. what can I do now? I saw on other threads that some people managed to change the IMEI in the broken files usig some HEX editors. Seems complicated but if it's the only way... I will give it a shot.

My phone feels great even in this state but I want to have the right IMEI just in case I have to send my phone to a service. If the IMEI in the software is different than the one on the device, they will not repair my phone.

Thank you all for the replies.

If someone can give some hints to help me I can only be greatfull.
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] sloroland:
Go to samsung service. They charge me 20 eur.
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] w98seeng:
Do a search on your computer. I don't know where you are storing your back-ups, but there might be multiple files in different places. I have some from a ROM Manager back-up I did and from when I did my unlock (The unlock program saved back-ups). If there are multiple files, use the older ones.

Ian
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] AllGamer:
for those wishing to repair their IMEI, there was a topic in this section with some pointers on how to do it.

basically you just need to delete or rename the files at the root inside the EFS folder, then flashing Darky ROM or some other full ROM it should automatically regenerate the original IMEI for you

and for those wishing to find out if the phone is stolen or not check the IMEI

http://www.numberingplans.com/?page=analysis&sub=imeinr
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] w98seeng:
I can't believe my eyes. You stole my link. You crook, you gonif. You saw my link in my other post and thought you would be a hero and post it here.

I'm telling my mommy. I'm gonna tell the internet stealing people. That's it, I'm through. I'm outta here, I'm leaving this den of iniquity.

I should think twice before add a sarcastic post on this board. I remember what happened the last time I did. But you know what, I like sarcasm and it likes me.

Ian
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Dopedangel:
Does IMEI number really change with nv_data.bin.md5 etc as my IMEI is correct but the nv_data.bin.bak show my sales code as ENG. I don't know how to get back to my original sales code but as my IMEI is correct I am not messing with it.

I bought my phone and flashed it long before people started complaining about changed sales code etc so had never backed it up.
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] branuloo:
I am from slovakia, and yesterday kies allow me to update my galaxy from 2.1 Android jm2 to new android 2.2 GT-I9000_I9000XWJPH_I9000OXXJPA_I9000XXJPP_I9000XWJPH . After flash my imei changed to another 004... and when I try to restore my original imei by copy my backup efs folder to phone... Thats not work to original imei....after several hours I could to change imei to original by downgrade to 2.1 jm2... So whats wrong that after upgrade to 2.2 my imei being changed?
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] AllGamer:
my bad, forgot to add credits goes to w98seeng :D
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] snapper.fishes:
You get 4chan images. That's what you get.

Um. What were we talking about again? Oh yes, EFS. Wait, why are we still talking about that? Didn't this thread start with some guy claiming that modifying IMEI is legal?
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] mobile mouse:
did you backup before you flashed the phone ?. if you did your emi number should be in the backup EFS file, or try a recover of those files back onto your phone, i had the same problem and, Aragorn fixed mine for me good luck and take care...
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] AllGamer:
:D

evidently it has turned into a very resourceful "HOW TO" fix your IMEI topic

very good source of information for those that messed up their IMEI by accident
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] AllGamer:
FYI + REF

http://wireless.fcc.gov/services/index.htm?job=operations_3&id=cellular

Operations

Fraud

Cellular fraud is defined as the unauthorized use, tampering, or manipulation of a cellular phone or service. Cellular industry estimates indicate that carriers lose millions per year to cellular fraud, with the principal cause being subscription fraud. Subscriber fraud occurs when a subscriber signs up for service with fraudulently obtained customer information or false identification.

In the past, cloning of cellular phones was a major concern. A cloned cellular telephone is one that has been reprogrammed to transmit the electronic serial number (ESN) and telephone number (MIN) belonging to another (legitimate) cellular telephone. Unscrupulous persons obtain valid ESN/MIN combinations by illegally monitoring the transmissions from the cellular telephones of legitimate subscribers. Each cellular telephone is supposed to have a unique factory-set ESN. After cloning, however, because both cellular telephones have the same ESN/MIN combination, cellular systems cannot distinguish the cloned cellular telephone from the legitimate one.

The Commission considers any knowing use of cellular telephone with an altered ESN to be a violation of the Communications Act (Section 301) and alteration of the ESN in a cellular telephone to be assisting in such violation. The Wireless Telephone Protection Act (Public Law 105-172) was signed into law on April 24, 1998, expanding the prior law to criminalize the use, possession, manufacture or sale of cloning hardware or software. The cellular equipment manufacturing industry has deployed authentication systems that have proven to be a very effective countermeasure to cloning. Authentication supplements the use of the ESN and MIN with a changing encrypted code that can not be obtained by off-the-air monitoring.
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] cangri12:
[Q] Samsung Galaxy s issue with IMEI

You all know that if you root your galaxy s device it`s possible that you screw your IMEI.

Is there any way to change that back?

right now the one on the phone is like 00499901064****

on the phone sticker oon the back it says that it should be 35478104*******
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] snapper.fishes:
Unless if you have a backup of the efs folder, nope.

There are reports of people succeeding in restoring their imei by deleting the efs folder and flashing the phone again, but those occurrences are rare.
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] kunjar:
I thought you could only screw up the imei by flashing firmwares only, not rooting?

The other day i rooted using SuperOneClick and backed up my efs using root explorer. Better safe than sorry.

If your handset is still under warranty, take it to samsung service centre and say it ****ed up whilst you were upgrading new firmware on kies. Stick an official rom on it before you send it back and unroot of course. Everything stock basically.
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] JJEgan:
You could search the forums some say they have got it back .

Mine came back after flashing new firmware and messing with the efs folder .

jje
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] bimmerboii:
What exactly is the efs folder for/do? What were you doing to the phone that it changed its imei?
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] cantIntoCode:
EFS folder contains sensitive information about your phones IMEI and product code. Any changed can change your IMEI to the test one (0044...). Without a good backup of the EFS folder your more or less screwed if anything happens to your IMEI due to flashing.
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] cangri12:
funny

You know what seems funny to me?

that you all talk about legal stuf.

if my phone now has a "fake" IMEI am I not in illegality?And this happened only because of Samsung after I upgraded with kies.

All we ask is to get back to "legality" by using the original IMEI found on the back of the phone.

So we are not asking to do smth illegal but just to fix an error.
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] sturmeh:
I hope you backed up your efs, if you did... restore it!
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] JJEgan:
So you simply take the phone to a Samsung Service centre or ask Samsung .

Their is no other method of restoring the IMEI unless you backed up your EFS folder .

jje
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] anarchyuk:
supposedly you dont even need a backup of the EFS folder, im pretty sure you can get it back by flashing certain stock roms, think I seen allgamer saying that somewhere

also it is illegal to change an imei not to restore/repair imeis hence the compnays selling flashing boxes that repair them..
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] baz00ka:
Sorry for Bumping,But has anyone found a fix for this?

I lost my EFS folder after i bricked my phone,and after reviving it again with JTAG method using RIFF BOX...

I never made a backup :(...my IMEI shows BLANK/Nuthin! And SIM is not getting recognized!

Please can anyone help me out?
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Rytkonen:
Phone's IMEI code is in the label under battery. You just have to somehow get that to the efs.
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] baz00ka:
Tht much i know! but how to do that is the question,no?

Hmmm...I was thinking wat will happen if i copy the entire EFS folder from my friends i9000 and paste it over my EFS folder?? Will this work? i just want to make my phone recognize my SIM!
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] baz00ka:
Ok finally! Got it to work! now my phone is recognizing my SIM,i can make and recieve calls etc just fyn! HEEHAW!

Heres wat i did to fix the BLANK IMEI Problem i was facing! My EFS folder got corrupted after a firmware upgrade,and i had no backups of any sort!

Wat i did was,i called my friend who had a T-959 Vibrant (I Had no option as no one had a i9000 so opted for this) ,and copied his Entire EFS FOLDER to my i9000... and thats not the only thing i did,i also changed the .IMEI number by putting my IMEI(under the Battery) over his T-959's IMEI number,by simply using the Root Explorer's built in "Text Editor"(Although Notepad would have worked just fine too).. And thats it! Within 2 seconds i saw my phone recognizing my SIM CARD!

Now the thing is that Although my original IMEI is still not being shown,instead the 4000 one is being shown,but who cares!? as long as i can use my SIM CARD!

Another Problem which i am facing is that if i restart my phone,then again i lose my EFS Folder somehow,and SIM CARD again doesnt get recognized,i do the same process of copying and pasting all over again,and then it recognizes my SIM CARD...

So anyone knows y i am losing my settings of EFS Folder after restarting the phone?
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] baz00ka:
Bumpin!

Can someone help me with my problem(posted above)...?
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] wilsey:
What do you mean with that part? i lost my /EFS folder also, and have tried copying over a friends i9000 folder, but i still get the blank IMEI. what file did you change the IMEI info? Thanks for any help.!
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] baz00ka:
There shud be a file by the name of .IMEI in the EFS folder which u copied of ur friends... just open it with any text editor, like Notepad on ur pc etx...

By the way,u are using Root Explorer on android to view the EFS folder ryt?
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] wilsey:
Yea, am using Root Explorer, But the /efs folder doesnt contain any .imei file....

nv_data.bin

nv_data.bin.md5

.nv_data.bak

.nv_data.bak.md5

.nv_state

.nv2.bak

.nv2.bak.md5

Then two folders,

.android/empty

imei/ bt.txt

mps_code.dat

Phone is on I9000XWJM8. Friends phone works perfect wthout that file you mentioned..
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] baz00ka:
Thts odd... All the files are exactly identical,yet the .IMEI is missing only...
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] baz00ka:
Maybe u can make a new one urself? like in notepad? u just have to put ur IMEI number in that file without any dots or hashes etc etc,jst plain digits and save it as .IMEI(Take care u dont miss the DOT in the beginnin!) in the EFS folder.... Dont put it in the IMEI folder ,just in the main EFS directory... i hope that helps!

Ur phone will catch signals rite after u exit root explorer,sometimes u have to open and close root explorer 2 to 3 times...
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] snapper.fishes:
I don't have a .imei file either. You said it came from a vibrant right? May be it's a different implementation.
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] baz00ka:
I dont kno buddy, but i am 100% sure tht i have the .IMEI file which i copied from his VIBRANT..
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] wilsey:
Thanks for the info, i will try to make one later and see how that goes, thanls again!
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] liem107:
apparently there is some ways to recover from the crazy 000049XXX IMEI

http://forum.gsmhosting.com/vbb/archive/t-1206374.html

I myself noted something strange since my IMEI got corrupted:

on my mobile carrier I can get unlimited data on my payg sim althought my credit expired a long time ago but I can't receive phone calls and sms. When I change the sim card to a vectone mobile sim, I can make calls and SMS but I can not access data...

very strange.

if I uderstand, there is no legal issue involved in restoring ou IMEI to the original IMEIs.. but it would most certainly be illegal to change the IMEI to something else with all the criminal applications it involves.

Is there any chance to "force" the phone to recover its own original IMEI?? this imei still appears in clear in the .imei file but I don't understand why the phone is not able to regenerate a proper nv file wtith the proper IMEI when it crashes.. is it because the crypto can not be generated by the phone? I suppose it would be too dangerous for samsung to leave the crypto program on the phone itself just in case some hacker discovers it....
[Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] myHalici:
I solved this situation before. Its about only nv_data.bin file. Its contains IMEI number.

If you have full backup of your system you can replace correct nv_data.bin file from backup. Otherwise, you can not recreate new nv_data.bin. Its encrypted.