Changing the IMEI number

albertocastillo2001 · Aug 31, 2013

Hello

I own a Galaxy S I9000 with Slimbean 4.2.2 for a few years already.
I am in another country now for a few days and I received a message saying that my phone's IMEI is not registered and will ban me from using their service unless I pay a tax.
If I were going to stay for a Little longer I wouldn't really mind to pay for it, but since I am leaving in one week it seems to be quite stupid.
However, I tried to slve it the legal way by going into the office, but I won't be able to do so until Monday because it's closed

I have a backup of my efs folder for a few years and a new one I did today. i also checked the permissions and the groups it belongs to so I quite know what I am doing. I tried renaming the nv_data.bin and bak files so the phone wouldn't find them and restarted just to get a generic IMEI number but the phone didn't register on the network. I know that depending on the operator the phone might register or not, so in this case it's not doing it.

My question is how could I change the IMEI number. I tried my own methods but don't seem to be working ok. I am not sure if the phone won't just work if the IMEI number in the file and the motherboard itself don't match.

I know changing an IMEI is an ilegal process and I am unsure if this is against the rules so feel free to close the thread in case it is. I have no plans on doing ilegal stuff with it, mainly because it's my own phone

Any ideas?

Thank you.

3L4CK_5C0RP10N · Aug 31, 2013

albertocastillo2001 said:
I am in another country now for a few days and I received a message saying that my phone's IMEI is not registered and will ban me from using their service unless I pay a tax.

This sound me like a scam.... : (
Since you pay to use the SIM card from that carrier, doesn't matter what phone IMEI you are using as long as that phone is unlocked for that carrier...

mrjraider · Aug 31, 2013

A scam can be possible. Altho it depends on the country you're in.. Also i woudnt reccommend it if you're there on a holiday of some sort.

albertocastillo2001 · Aug 31, 2013

Hi

Thank you.
No, it's not a scam. I confirmed it. And my phone has already been blocked.
The reason this is done, as far as I know it's because they want to prevent phones from other countries being sold here
Can I do what I proposed some how?

Thanks!

xsenman · Sep 1, 2013

albertocastillo2001 said:
Can I do what I proposed some how?

read this

Check this out!You , YES! you are an " Android ". Not your phone but U.

You Must watch this documentary concerning your privacy Terms & Conditions we had agreed to, by using a PC or Smartphone

How to say Thank you? If you find any post helpful on XDA, please click on the Thanks button

If you are using XDA App or Tapatalk, long press on the post and select :good: Thanks Its easier to give "Feedback" in this manner than make an additional post.

albertocastillo2001 · Sep 1, 2013

Hi

Thanks xsenman I am a bit affraid to do a full EFS restore since my pone is working properly, there's nothing wrong with it, just that it's IMEI has been blacklisted.
I tried to use now my existing EFS folder and using a nv_data.bin file from a friend so the IMEI would change. I tried setting right permissions and the right group, but the pone seems to always change those on next restart and sets only rwx for owner. I also tried to make a copy of the nv_data.bin of my friend to .nv_data.bak too

Any other idea

xsenman · Sep 1, 2013

albertocastillo2001 said:
but the pone seems to always change those on next restart and sets only rwx for owner.

all details are on that post, how to make it stick as well as final solution, please read again

Check this out!You , YES! you are an " Android ". Not your phone but U.

You Must watch this documentary concerning your privacy Terms & Conditions we had agreed to, by using a PC or Smartphone

How to say Thank you? If you find any post helpful on XDA, please click on the Thanks button

If you are using XDA App or Tapatalk, long press on the post and select :good: Thanks Its easier to give "Feedback" in this manner than make an additional post.

albertocastillo2001 · Sep 1, 2013

Hi

actually I did follow that but not all of it since it asks you to restore a efs you can get in the thread
However I didn't want to risk too much since my EFS is fine. And when I get back to my country everything will work fine because I can use my own IMEI. But since I am now in a country that has blocked my IMEI I am trying to use just a friend's nv_data.bin file in my phone.
However even if I set the same permissions and the group that you talk about in the thread it won't work for this file. This is what I tried already, sorry if I didn't mention it before

If I set 777 and root group to on my friend's file (as my original nv_data.bin has by default for some reason, since I think the right ones are 644 radio:radio) then the file permissions won't change in next reboot but still it will give me a generic IMEI number
If I set 644 root:root as indicated on your post on my friend's file it will change permissions on next reboot as commented in the earlier post

If I set 644 radio:radio to my own nv_data.bin file or 777 root:root as it's by default for some reason, it works., but again, it's my own file

So could it be that the phone knows that my friend's nv_data.bin file is from another phone? The same settings don't seem to work for a file that is not mine

Also, to let you know I am using Slimbean 4.2.2, I can't flash my phone to GB at the moment.

Thank you!

xsenman · Sep 2, 2013

albertocastillo2001 said:
So could it be that the phone knows that my friend's nv_data.bin file is from another phone?

First and foremost, the moment you want to Flash, the rule of the thump is you should have a EFS folder backed-up somewhere else ( external SD card or PC or cloud)

so IF you do have a backup, than overwriting it would not be a problem as you can easily restore it with your backup ( this applies to any an all files and folders in the Internal phone memory)

if you are swapping IMEI the files inside the efs folder, nv_data.bin and nv_data.bin.md5 has to be overwritten. swap may not last as the moment you flash again, they will be conflict between IMEI in the Nand memory and IMEI in your folder when booting the new ROM also note networks will reject two phones with same IMEI trying to connect to their network

the normal steps should be overwrite, (not replace) than save, than quit all using the editing app than reboot

if it fails to stick, one way is
Copy Paste EFS folder with root explorer (meaning overwrite it) , after paste , save and quit using menu, power down phone and reboot into recovery and wipe cache before rebooting....this worked for some

you can always fix permissions in CWM too and read this for better understanding.

Take Note, Altering IMEI is illegal in most countries

Check this out!You , YES! you are an " Android ". Not your phone but U.

You Must watch this documentary concerning your privacy Terms & Conditions we had agreed to, by using a PC or Smartphone

How to say Thank you? If you find any post helpful on XDA, please click on the Thanks button

If you are using XDA App or Tapatalk, long press on the post and select :good: Thanks Its easier to give "Feedback" in this manner than make an additional post.

albertocastillo2001 · Sep 3, 2013

Hi xsenman

Thanks for your replies. Sorry if I couldn't reply earlier.
I actually renamed my original nv_data.bin to nv_data.bina and nv_data.bin.md5 to nv_data.bin.md5a so I could put my friend's nv_data.bin and then set the right permissions and group. I thought this would have been enough but it didn't work.

Replacing the complete EFS folder "scares" me a bit just in case I get to mess something important. I guess this is because I really know that the efs folder is neccesary for the pone to work fine and I am affraid to mess something up. Even if I got a backup (Actually I got more tan one, since I did my first backup last year, and a newer one 4 days ago)

I asked my friend to give me a copy of his complete EFS folder but apparently he doesn't know to.

Thanks for your help.

xsenman · Sep 3, 2013

albertocastillo2001 said:
I asked my friend to give me a copy of his complete EFS folder but apparently he doesn't know to.

look here for dummy EFS folder [15 to 23] Problem:-

Check this out!You , YES! you are an " Android ". Not your phone but U.

You Must watch this documentary concerning your privacy Terms & Conditions we had agreed to, by using a PC or Smartphone

How to say Thank you? If you find any post helpful on XDA, please click on the Thanks button

If you are using XDA App or Tapatalk, long press on the post and select :good: Thanks Its easier to give "Feedback" in this manner than make an additional post.

albertocastillo2001 · Sep 3, 2013

Hi

Yes. I forgot about that one but I looked at it before. I wanted to ask you why do I need it and why can't I use my own since the important files are nv_data.bin only?

Sorry if I am making a mess with this explanation. I forgot to tell you that when I renamed my original nv_data.bin, nv_data.bin.md5, nv_data.bak and nv_data.bak.md5, I pasted my friend's nv_data.bin file but I didn't paste his .md5 file since I don't have it. When I restarted the pone the MD5 file got generated.

Shouldn't the dummy EFS folder only be used when somebody knows that it's EFS is corrupted but the nv_data.bin is fine?

xsenman · Sep 3, 2013

albertocastillo2001 said:
Shouldn't the dummy EFS folder only be used when somebody knows that it's EFS is corrupted but the nv_data.bin is fine?

that's what I noted from your first post as such I emphasized it, you only used one file, it should be two, that uploaded folder contain files from a broken i9000, so its more or less original , you can use only the two files in it. as i understand, you only want to use for a few days.

Check this out!You , YES! you are an " Android ". Not your phone but U.

You Must watch this documentary concerning your privacy Terms & Conditions we had agreed to, by using a PC or Smartphone

How to say Thank you? If you find any post helpful on XDA, please click on the Thanks button

If you are using XDA App or Tapatalk, long press on the post and select :good: Thanks Its easier to give "Feedback" in this manner than make an additional post.

albertocastillo2001 · Sep 3, 2013

Hello

Oki, so since I don't want to mess up much with the EFS partition on my pone. Can I just overwrite nv_data.bin and nv_data.bin.md5 with the ones from my friend and then set the permissions and group?
I will ask him to send me the .md5 since he only sent me nv_data.bin

Would this work?

Thank you.

xsenman · Sep 4, 2013

albertocastillo2001 said:
Would this work?

It should work, just overwrite files, and reboot after save and exit in menu, but if both of you are in the same network, both can be banned, if network decides to do so.

Check this out!You , YES! you are an " Android ". Not your phone but U.

You Must watch this documentary concerning your privacy Terms & Conditions we had agreed to, by using a PC or Smartphone

How to say Thank you? If you find any post helpful on XDA, please click on the Thanks button

If you are using XDA App or Tapatalk, long press on the post and select :good: Thanks Its easier to give "Feedback" in this manner than make an additional post.

albertocastillo2001 · Sep 4, 2013

Thanks.

My friend will send me the file in a few hours. Once I try I will let you know.
I know about being banned but he's in my country and I am in another one at the momento. So nothing should happen.

His IMEI number will get banned in this country too after a few days. They are about to ban cheap Nokia pone I have too.
They just ban any phone that hasn't been bought in this country unless you pay that tax

Thanks!

albertocastillo2001 · Sep 4, 2013

Hello

I tried to add the nv_data.bin.md5 file from my friend. After restartng the pone I had my original IMEI instead of the original one or the generic one. So I think it's because it tried to restore the backup from nv_data.bak and nv_data.bak.md5

So, besides pasting my friend's nv_data.bin and nv:data.bin.md5 I tried to copy these files as nv_data.bak and nv_data.bak.md5 but after restarting I got a generic IMEi

I will try to ask my friend to send me nv_data.bak and nv_data.bak.md5 so I will replace:

nv_data.bin
nv_data.bin.md5
nv_data.bak
nv_data.bak.md5

with the ones from my friend and see what happens.

Thank you.!!

PrashannaGP · Apr 13, 2020

albertocastillo2001 said:
.

albertocastillo2001 said:
!

albertocastillo2001 said:
Hi

Here is the thing important for you guys
Follow this post

Changing the IMEI number

Senior Member

Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Similar threads

Top Liked Posts