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johnhazelwood

Senior Member
Oct 7, 2010
472
54
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5
Definitely a possibility. Especially since the AT&T phone is "similar" to the Tmobile phone and the Verizon Phone and the Sprint phone. Could be that's what's causing the problem. Most people are claiming they are flashing supported ROM's though. They could be lying, they could have walked through a gigantic magnet, anything is possible still (thus the thread). If you search, you'll see loosing the IMEI isn't new. It's happened on the Captivate, Galaxy S2, and now this one. If you've never lost your IMEI before, I could see how you might blame stupidity.

whoops I flashed super wipe on a phone it wasn't intended for?

Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda premium
 

freakboy13

Senior Member
Sep 15, 2010
2,018
400
Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra
..

If you've never lost your IMEI before, I could see how you might blame stupidity.....

I wouldn't call it stupidity I would say its user error. 9x out ten it usually is.
It doesn't mean your stupid. Like forgetting to turn usb debugging, or disabling fastboot, or even Dl a corrupted file... yes these are considered user error, its not about fault.
Computers are computers are computers...even when they are a mobile device. A computer only does what you tell it to even when you inadvertently do so. Like people who mass-click links or commands when the computer is not responding.

I rooted my phone via Odin. The non trip method, yet my phone says modified. I don't know if it was supposed to or not...and this is user error. I did not read fully, why, and that's most people's problems: not reading fully, skipping steps.

I guessed the basis of my point is why isn't it happening to everyone...
Somehow somewhere there must be some kind of variable causing this.

If you take the imei off your box, you can't put it back manually ?
There has to be a work around for this.

Think I'm gonna hold of on the recovery flashing ....:eek:




Sent from my DROID X2 using Tapatalk 2
 

zmore

Senior Member
Apr 25, 2011
1,684
932
NYC
I rooted my phone via Odin. The non trip method, yet my phone says modified. I don't know if it was supposed to or not...and this is user error. I did not read fully, why, and that's most people's problems: not reading fully, skipping steps.

It's probably busybox. There's a service on the stock rom that periodically scans for "bad" things like /system/bin/busybox, then flags it modified. Uninstalling busybox and waiting for another rescan (or rebooting) will return the status to normal.

I guessed the basis of my point is why isn't it happening to everyone...

Because the variables are... variable. :) It'll eventually get narrowed down.
 

modest_mandroid

Senior Member
May 23, 2010
524
106
Never owned an S2, but it basically boiled down to corruption of the /efs partition on the Captivate. This could happen for a variety of reasons - bad rom flash that dicked around with a partition it wasn't supposed to (CM9 touches /efs, to my recollection), faulty sim-unlock (sim-unlocking also required modifying the contents of /efs), etc. Fortunately, fixing the problem was as simple as backing up a working /efs and restoring it in the event of a problem. That doesn't appear to be an option with the GS3.

I'm a bit out of the loop as far as technical details go with this new phone - having kids does that to a guy :/ Since, from what little I've read, it appears that backing up/restoring /efs does not restore the correct IMEI, I would assume that it's either being read from somewhere else or that the contents of /efs are being restored from a different location on boot. I would assume that flashing roms that only modify the /system partition are fairly safe. As a general safety rule, I don't flash any roms that include their own bootloaders, their own /efs, or anything else that isn't necessary, and you shouldn't either. You can easily check yourself what the rom package includes by extracting the zip archive, looking at the files it includes and reading the edify script that tells the phone what to flash.
 
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fireboypr

Senior Member
Dec 1, 2008
182
22
It's probably busybox. There's a service on the stock rom that periodically scans for "bad" things like /system/bin/busybox, then flags it modified. Uninstalling busybox and waiting for another rescan (or rebooting) will return the status to normal.



Because the variables are... variable. :) It'll eventually get narrowed down.

Why would someone want this to say official or unmodified or whatever? If its for warranty you can just triangle away, then flash stock and it will say official... Also you should not have root anyways if you're going to warranty so you should flash stock anyways..
 

johnhazelwood

Senior Member
Oct 7, 2010
472
54
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5
I only had a Captivate, not GS2 (but saw people complain about the same for those phones). I didn't put a lot of troubleshooting into the issue once I realized I could just copy back my nvdata file if it went missing. I want to say it was when I flashed a custom rom, then stupidly went back to stock (usually a custom already rooted version via a one-click odin), and at that point in time it was messed up.

what is the cause(s) for losing the imei on these devices? if we had a common denominator across past devices, it could be a good starting point for determining what is going on here
 

swa2k4

Senior Member
Feb 19, 2011
557
60
Chicago, IL
what is the cause(s) for losing the imei on these devices? if we had a common denominator across past devices, it could be a good starting point for determining what is going on here

Everyone can read my previous posts on this and I am going to advise people NOT to flash cwm touch via Odin tar because I have had two phones now mine is working fine been on CM10 for 3 days installed cwm touch via adb. The other one yesterday sadly cwm touch was installed via Odin tar and after CM10 installed lost imei. You can check my signature I have owned and rooted almost every phone experience with Odin and cwm and both Samsung DL mode and HTC bootloaders.

I'm not saying this is the only cause but it was a cause on a brand new phone that is now headed to Samsung for repair!


Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda app-developers app
 

mobilehavoc

Senior Member
Mar 12, 2006
2,172
356
Everyone can read my previous posts on this and I am going to advise people NOT to flash cwm touch via Odin tar because I have had two phones now mine is working fine been on CM10 for 3 days installed cwm touch via adb. The other one yesterday sadly cwm touch was installed via Odin tar and after CM10 installed lost imei. You can check my signature I have owned and rooted almost every phone experience with Odin and cwm and both Samsung DL mode and HTC bootloaders.

I'm not saying this is the only cause but it was a cause on a brand new phone that is now headed to Samsung for repair!


Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda app-developers app

I think using DD is safest way because you are literally piping data from one location to another. DD is a Unix system binary and used in Unix environments including desktops and servers. So I agree using DD is safe as long as you know what you're doing.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2
 

johnhazelwood

Senior Member
Oct 7, 2010
472
54
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5
Good point, stupidity was a little overkill.

I wouldn't call it stupidity I would say its user error. 9x out ten it usually is.
It doesn't mean your stupid. Like forgetting to turn usb debugging, or disabling fastboot, or even Dl a corrupted file... yes these are considered user error, its not about fault.
Computers are computers are computers...even when they are a mobile device. A computer only does what you tell it to even when you inadvertently do so. Like people who mass-click links or commands when the computer is not responding.

I rooted my phone via Odin. The non trip method, yet my phone says modified. I don't know if it was supposed to or not...and this is user error. I did not read fully, why, and that's most people's problems: not reading fully, skipping steps.

I guessed the basis of my point is why isn't it happening to everyone...
Somehow somewhere there must be some kind of variable causing this.

If you take the imei off your box, you can't put it back manually ?
There has to be a work around for this.

Think I'm gonna hold of on the recovery flashing ....:eek:




Sent from my DROID X2 using Tapatalk 2
 

mrmako777

Senior Member
Dec 14, 2010
1,673
1,901
dragging knee on the track
Everyone can read my previous posts on this and I am going to advise people NOT to flash cwm touch via Odin tar because I have had two phones now mine is working fine been on CM10 for 3 days installed cwm touch via adb. The other one yesterday sadly cwm touch was installed via Odin tar and after CM10 installed lost imei. You can check my signature I have owned and rooted almost every phone experience with Odin and cwm and both Samsung DL mode and HTC bootloaders.

I'm not saying this is the only cause but it was a cause on a brand new phone that is now headed to Samsung for repair!


Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda app-developers app

youre the 3rd person ive seen who lost their imei that mentioned cm10. not saying thats whats causing all this, but just an observation
 

SiNJiN76

Senior Member
Sep 14, 2009
3,993
626
Maybe a Poll should be made...that way we can kind of keep track of How many people this has affected so far. Along with the recovery they used. Version number as well. And How long they've been using that recovery before the zap.
 
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modest_mandroid

Senior Member
May 23, 2010
524
106
Just putting this out there because I haven't seen it mentioned in this thread yet and because I've seen people mentioning mps_code.dat:

/efs/imei/mps_code.dat doesn't contain anything useful. Issuing 'cat /ets/imei/mps_code.dat' outputs 'ATTapp_18'. The IMEI is stored somewhere else.
 

androholic

Senior Member
Dec 22, 2011
562
177
Canton
It's probably busybox. There's a service on the stock rom that periodically scans for "bad" things like /system/bin/busybox, then flags it modified. Uninstalling busybox and waiting for another rescan (or rebooting) will return the status to normal.



Because the variables are... variable. :) It'll eventually get narrowed down.

I have an off topic question for you. I know busy box performs a number of Linux commands and background processes, but why do we install it. I always install it, I'm not so much interested in all its functions because I know there are many, but the hy do we install it as soon as we root? I more or less do it blindly out of habit & I'm rather unclear on what it needs to be there for.
 

modest_mandroid

Senior Member
May 23, 2010
524
106
Some like it because it provides a lot of the functionality you typically get with bash on a full linux machine. There are also a few useful apps that require it to run properly, like Titanium Backup.
 
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zmore

Senior Member
Apr 25, 2011
1,684
932
NYC
I have an off topic question for you. I know busy box performs a number of Linux commands and background processes, but why do we install it. I always install it, I'm not so much interested in all its functions because I know there are many, but the hy do we install it as soon as we root? I more or less do it blindly out of habit & I'm rather unclear on what it needs to be there for.

We install it because quite a few root apps require, or just work more simply, when the extra powerful tools are there, so they don't have to reinvent the wheel in java.

That reason aside, *I* install it mainly because I use the adb shell all the time and can't live without many common utils like find, grep, wc, less, etc.

edit: and md5sum, sha256sum, head, tail, vi, and others... (type "busybox" for a full list of supported utils)
 
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androholic

Senior Member
Dec 22, 2011
562
177
Canton
Maybe a Poll should be made...that way we can kind of keep track of How many people this has affected so far. Along with the recovery they used. Version number as well. And How long they've been using that recovery before the zap.

YES! This is what I just signed on to request! I've been very, very busy, as well as very very sick so I have not had time to check the status of these threads. I think a poll would at least give ppl an idea of how many this has affected and then they can decide if they are willing to flash anything. I'm curious of what the total count is, I know there are quite a few, but in the big picture is it really all that man? I'm beginning to wonder if this is just a very small percentage? Either way we need to know why, and how to restore it.
 

androholic

Senior Member
Dec 22, 2011
562
177
Canton
We install it because quite a few root apps require, or just work more simply, when the extra powerful tools are there, so they don't have to reinvent the wheel in java.

That reason aside, *I* install it mainly because I use the adb shell all the time and can't live without many common utils like find, grep, wc, less, etc.
I wasn't even aware it was required for adb, shows how much I know, lol. That's reason enough to make it necessary Imo.
 
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  • 14
    UPDATE 7/29/2012 : PEOPLEARMY HAS FOUND A WAY TO BACK UP, RESTORE, OR INJECT YOUR IMEI! BELOW I WILL PASTE A LINK. THE PROBLEM APPEARS TO NOW HAVE A SOLUTION! PLEASE BE SURE TO THANK PEOPLEARMY, AND MOST OF ALL, IF AT ALL POSSIBLE I ENCOURAGE YOU TO DONATE TO HIM, AS HE HAS SAVED MANT PEOPLE FROM WARRANTY EXCHANGES, BRICKED DEVICES, AND MILD HEART ATTACKS!

    http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1801997

    UPDATE 7/30/2012: IT APPEARS THAT USER "GEEK", WHO PLAYED A LARGE ROLE IN PEOPLEARMYS IMEI SOLUTION, HAS NOW WRAPPED UP THE BACK UP PROCESS INTO A VERY SIMPLE AND EASY TO USE TOOL THAT ONLY REQUIRES FREEWARE! BELOW YOU WILL FIND A LINK TO GEEKS TOOL & EASY TO FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS ACCOMPANIED BY A VIDEO DEMONSTRATION! PEOPLEARMY HAS SUGGESTED THAT HE BELIEVES IT WOULD BE BEST IF YOU WERE TO CREATE THE BACK UP USING BOTH METHODS. PLEASE BE SURE TO THANK GEEK WHEN YOU VISIT HIS "IMEI TOOL THREAD", AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, IF YOU ARE IN A POSITION TO DONATE THEN PLEASE DO. WITHOUT THE HARD WORK OF BOTH OF THESE USERS, MANY PEOPLE WOULD HAVE LOST THEIR VERY EXPENSIVE GS3'S!

    http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1804123
    11
    Hi,

    Just wanted to fill you guys in on what I'm working on.

    So far I have built a custom rom that enables Diagnostic serial port on T-mobile SGS3
    I have Extracted the 16 digit password from the modem
    I have Connected to Qualcomm Service tools such as CDMA workshop and QPST/QXDM
    I have READ the IMEI with these tools.
    I have achieved a full NV dump of the phone.

    The only thing left is to achieve WRITE of IMEI and your problems will be solved.

    I do not have the issue on my device but decided to put some time into this to see if I could get it done. I am still working on it now.

    Is there an official bounty for this solution or no?
    9
    I'll concur, that command looks ok to me.. Don't really need to cd /sdcard though but it won't hurt anything.

    zonly, good luck, and as usual, this is at your own risk but you already have a brick right :)

    Assuming you can get back to a shell afterwards, you can (theoretically) re-dd the original img back to restore the original state.

    Okay boys, I'm goin' in. Will report back.
    6
    has anyone tried restoring a complete dd backup after losing imei?

    I believe this is the most important question that can be asked but it seems to have been looked over.

    I know I've seen people say that the EFS Backup "App" doesn't work, but I'm not terribly surprised by this. Backups don't get much more rock-solid than a 'dd' backup.

    (don't remember which thread this was from but it was posted by id_twin)

    Backup by typing this in the terminal:
    Code:
    dd if=/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/efs of=/external_sd/efs_backup.img

    Restore by typing this in the terminal:
    Code:
    dd if=/external_sd/efs_backup.img of=/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/efs_sdcc.1/by-name/efs

    For those who are not familliar, this basically backs up a partition by reading directly from the storage device and outputting the byte-for-byte into a file that can be copied off for safe keeping when done. The restore process does the opposite, but writes byte-for-byte the entire partition block back to the partition area exactly the way it originally was pulled.

    The important thing to know here is that most backup/restore apps will copy "files" out of a partition and into a different storage format than the partition such as tar or zip. To restore from one of these kinds backup apps, you would have to have an existing properly-formatted partition ready and mounted to extract the files to BUT when you're done extracting, the end-result is that you would have a different partition with the same files but with slight differences, such as the fact that the re-extracted files would likely be written to different areas of the partition than the original partition you extracted from, therefore your restore would NOT give you the EXACT same partition that you started with, just one that appears the same when mounted.

    THIS kind of backup (dd backup) is a bit more awesome in that it will perform a partition-level backup which is the raw filesystem and all, it basically reads the 1's and 0's from a particular sector of your storage that includes the filesystem headers and filesystem structure and all in the backup. This means a couple of things. DD doesn't care (or know) what the underlying file-system is, in fact, there doesn't even need to be a filesystem present, it's just bytes in a block on a drive. This means that restoring THIS kind of backup will restore the base-level filesystem in-tact byte-for-byte. It's an exact mirror of your partition. These backups are so solid that these kinds of backups can actually be mounted as if they were a drive-partition on their own because technically, they ARE exactly a partition.

    That being said, I really would be shocked if someone couldn't restore their EFS partition this way. I have backed mine up with this method but have not had any IMEI issues as of yet. If someone would be willing to share their DD backup with someone who has lost their IMEI as a proof-of-concept just to let the rest of the group know if this backup/restore method is effective that would be awesome. I have to admit I'm not terribly fond of handing out my IMEI to anyone, but it would be a great test for someone who has TWO GS3's handy (one with a bad IMEI and one good).

    Hope this post helpful more than it is boring. I hope this gets figured out soon. I'm still a bit scared to flash another rom for now.
    6
    yousefak ;

    YOU HAVE HEREBY BEEN OFFICIALLY DOXXED.

    in the future; might want to sign out of your google account *before* you deface something, that so many people have worked hard on...

    just a thought buddy.;)

    maybe we should deface your website ??
    baahh....
    no need, its already a mess.