Related
Mods please make this sticky.
Before anyone flashes any custom rom further, be sure to back up your
/efs folder somewhere on your PC.
The /efs folder is a hidden folder. You wont be able to see it using a usual file explorer e.g astro. You will need to be root to do so using root explorer for e.g.
This is something found sticky in the galaxy s forums and unfortunately for some of us it is coming too late.
The backup might come handy anytime if ever you mess up your own with custom rom flashing.
Thanks
Edit: just for you to understand the situation, by messing up i mean where product code and imei of the phone gets changed to a fail-safe one and even nandroid backups are of no help.
What exactly is in /efs that we need to back up?
I actually have already flashed one rom and after that I could not make or receive phone calls. I ended up calling Sprint and after about an hour of tinkering on their end they got it working. Would this be due to something missing in the /efs folder?
Everything concerning ur hardware info in short. Bluetooth, mac number, imei, ....
Many of us have got this tampeted with and unfortunately we had no clue it was something important( despite numerous threads in the i9000 forums warning users of this and nobody had backups) ,
there is no fix yet.
Check the nexussense forum for more details.
But do make a backup please.
After that whole incident I downloaded Samsung's Reflash tool and restored my phone back to stock.
Since then I have reflashed a custom kernel, but so far all is well. What exactly should be in the /efs folder as far as files.
My /efs folder has
Code:
imei>bt.txt
uart_path
bluetooth>bt_addr
nv.log
lost+found
Could you tell me if I am missing anything. I checked my MEID by typing *#06# and it matches what I have on the box.
EDIT: the bt.txt file int he imei folder does not have my MEID in it. Is it suppose to be in there?
I just copied and pasted a back up using root explorer to my sd card. I am on miui NS4G when doing this should I be on a stock rom?
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using XDA Premium App
seekis said:
After that whole incident I downloaded Samsung's Reflash tool and restored my phone back to stock.
Since then I have reflashed a custom kernel, but so far all is well. What exactly should be in the /efs folder as far as files.
My /efs folder has
Code:
imei>bt.txt
uart_path
bluetooth>bt_addr
nv.log
lost+found
Could you tell me if I am missing anything. I checked my MEID by typing *#06# and it matches what I have on the box.
EDIT: the bt.txt file int he imei folder does not have my MEID in it. Is it suppose to be in there?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you have a backup? Also where on samsung's site is and how to use it please? And is there one that will work on nexus s?
Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk
Isnt this something that only gets messed with if you use someone elses Nandroid?
A custom rom doesnt normally mess with that folder, i thought...
Anyway, i have a Nandroid of my phone from before i flashed anything to it, so i assume im covered with that.
Can the OP please post a method to do the back up before making it a sticky tab?
Pointless to make it sticky and we still had to find the way to back up ourself. LOL
window7 said:
Can the OP please post a method to do the back up before making it a sticky tab?
Pointless to make it sticky and we still had to find the way to back up ourself. LOL
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agree even though it is pretty easy with Root Explorer. Just go to the root of the phone and find the folder called "efs". Long press the folder and choose copy. Go to the "sdcard" and paste it. I also suggest connecting your phone to your computer and save the "efs" folder to your computer somewhere you'll be able to find it.
An alternative to root explorer, you can use IO file manager (I think it works)/
From this thread ADB is also very easy.
Open a terminal emulator or ADB on your computer and type
su
busybox cp -a /efs /sdcard/
back up the file on your computer and you're done
AshsToAshs said:
Isnt this something that only gets messed with if you use someone elses Nandroid?
A custom rom doesnt normally mess with that folder, i thought...
Anyway, i have a Nandroid of my phone from before i flashed anything to it, so i assume im covered with that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nandroid doesn't touch this folder, it seems. Best to make a backup on your own to be safe.
Zehlek said:
Did you have a backup? Also where on samsung's site is and how to use it please? And is there one that will work on nexus s?
Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did not have a previous back up. I pulled mine from my phone with adb. I have no idea about your other questions.
window7 said:
Can the OP please post a method to do the back up before making it a sticky tab?
Pointless to make it sticky and we still had to find the way to back up ourself. LOL
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you already have adb, just do this:
Code:
adb pull /efs
seekis said:
I did not have a previous back up. I pulled mine from my phone with adb. I have no idea about your other questions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You said you used Samsung reflash tool. I was wondering where I can download it and how to use it
Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk
seekis said:
If you already have adb, just do this:
Code:
adb pull /efs
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I already flashed sense 0.3 and didn't backup
Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk
im still trying to figure out what exactly is getting messed with as the OP did not describe why we needed to back up this folder and or what could be messed up if we don't.
Any info would be great.
Zehlek said:
I already flashed sense 0.3 and didn't backup
Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well try it anyway and see what you get...i already flashed a different rom too, but the folder was still there
seekis said:
im still trying to figure out what exactly is getting messed with as the OP did not describe why we needed to back up this folder and or what could be messed up if we don't.
Any info would be great.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Look at this thread here. People are losing their IMEI number and is resulting in no service. If you back up the efs folder, it saves this information in case it happens to you.
I pulled it to my sdcard and computer. The imei folder is empty. I don't see a txt file and the bin files are all weird coding
Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk
Zehlek said:
I pulled it to my sdcard and computer. The imei folder is empty. I don't see a txt file and the bin files are all weird coding
Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I just finally looked at my imei folder that I saved to my computer and it only has one bt.txt file...
Hello guys, I have a question about the nandroid backup on Nexus 4
See I got my Nexus 4 the other day, and I flashed Clockworkmod Recovery 6.0.2.0, then I made a nandroid backup. The recovery said this backup was stored in sdcard/clockworkmod/backup. But when I return to my normal system I cannot find this folder(using root explorer). I can see that 1 or 2G space was used by something but I cannot find this folder no matter how, although this folder does exist. Later I found out that Rom Manager can get access to this folder.So is the recovery using a special way to hide this folder or what? Hope you guys can tell me something about this. Many thanks XD
ShawnZhang said:
Hello guys, I have a question about the nandroid backup on Nexus 4
See I got my Nexus 4 the other day, and I flashed Clockworkmod Recovery 6.0.2.0, then I made a nandroid backup. The recovery said this backup was stored in sdcard/clockworkmod/backup. But when I return to my normal system I cannot find this folder(using root explorer). I can see that 1 or 2G space was used by something but I cannot find this folder no matter how, although this folder does exist. Later I found out that Rom Manager can get access to this folder.So is the recovery using a special way to hide this folder or what? Hope you guys can tell me something about this. Many thanks XD
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Look in /data/media/Clockworkmod.
NOT the /sdcard/data, but in system root.
This recovery folder is only accessible by Clockwordmod when it is running. It cannot be displayed in file explorers for safety reasons, such as accidental deletion. But this folder can be accessed with a PC when your phone is connected to it, in order to take a backup of the folder. Hope this helps
Sent from my Xperia Pro using xda app-developers app
Check in /data/media as prev post said.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app
CMNein said:
Look in /data/media/Clockworkmod.
NOT the /sdcard/data, but in system root.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I see, thank you bro:good:
ajabhi95 said:
This recovery folder is only accessible by Clockwordmod when it is running. It cannot be displayed in file explorers for safety reasons, such as accidental deletion. But this folder can be accessed with a PC when your phone is connected to it, in order to take a backup of the folder. Hope this helps
Sent from my Xperia Pro using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that will be much safer... Thanks bro~~ thanks for the explanation
CMNein said:
Look in /data/media/Clockworkmod.
NOT the /sdcard/data, but in system root.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Finally I found that folder with your direction. Thank you bro!
Anyone else notice older versions of CWM backups were sometimes over 1gb and these new ones are only about 50mb?
dralways said:
Anyone else notice older versions of CWM backups were sometimes over 1gb and these new ones are only about 50mb?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, that's a new feature that tries to combine the backups and only re-backup newly changed data
Forgive my ignorance guys, but if you wipe the data partition, do you lose your backups? I want to get this straight before I root my phone that will apparently never be shipped to me.
Ordered my Nexus 4 on the 13th. Still waiting.
estallings15 said:
Forgive my ignorance guys, but if you wipe the data partition, do you lose your backups? I want to get this straight before I root my phone that will apparently never be shipped to me.
Ordered my Nexus 4 on the 13th. Still waiting.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No you don't as the data partition is separate from the backup folder. But just to be sure, make a backup of your backup on your PC :cyclops:
Does TWRP also stores their back ups here too??
---------- Post added at 09:33 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:10 AM ----------
ajabhi95 said:
This recovery folder is only accessible by Clockwordmod when it is running. It cannot be displayed in file explorers for safety reasons, such as accidental deletion. But this folder can be accessed with a PC when your phone is connected to it, in order to take a backup of the folder. Hope this helps
Sent from my Xperia Pro using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
how if when i plug my phone to the computer all i can see is the stuff in the SD drive?
Sparta507 said:
Does TWRP also stores their back ups here too??
---------- Post added at 09:33 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:10 AM ----------
how if when i plug my phone to the computer all i can see is the stuff in the SD drive?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you can copy your data/media/clockworkmod to your SDcard(with root explorer or something like that), then plug the phone to your PC, move the clockworkmod folder to your PC. I did it this afternoon
how do i go about doing a nandroid backup? steps please
so nandroid backup? save the backup folder to PC, then i can flash a custom rom like matrix1, and how do i get back all my apps/folders again? just put back the backupfolder?
can i just connect to my PC and copy and paste ALL OF the nexus4 drive? is that backing up as well?
ajabhi95 said:
This recovery folder is only accessible by Clockwordmod when it is running. It cannot be displayed in file explorers for safety reasons, such as accidental deletion. But this folder can be accessed with a PC when your phone is connected to it, in order to take a backup of the folder. Hope this helps
Sent from my Xperia Pro using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How do i save the backup to my pc? I do not see the data folder when i pluge in my nexus 4 to my computer.
CMNein said:
Look in /data/media/Clockworkmod.
NOT the /sdcard/data, but in system root.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is this directory stored on the internal storage? In other words, when I do a wipe to I flash a rom, would this directory be included in that wipe? I mean, it sounds like a stupid question. And I would expect it to be located in the internal storage, but I don't wanna do a wipe and install the rom and now I'm stuck without my backup.
what would be the quickest process to copy a nandroid backup from my nexus4 to a computer?
and when i wanted to paste it back onto my phone, how would i go about doing that to restore from it?
I have been reading about how people (including myself) are having issues mounting the SD card with CWM Recovery 6.x.xx and I was wondering where (if it exists) I can find an earlier version for my Nexus 4. The problem I am having is when my phone is connected to my computer, I cant find the Clockwork Mod file to remove the backup from the device. I have the 8GB N4, so I really want to remove it, put it somewhere safe and not have it take up precious space.
If anyone has any thoughts or other solutions, please let me know. I am also having the same issue with TWRP2 (cant mount while in recovery).
toonhead85 said:
I have been reading about how people (including myself) are having issues mounting the SD card with CWM Recovery 6.x.xx and I was wondering where (if it exists) I can find an earlier version for my Nexus 4. The problem I am having is when my phone is connected to my computer, I cant find the Clockwork Mod file to remove the backup from the device. I have the 8GB N4, so I really want to remove it, put it somewhere safe and not have it take up precious space.
If anyone has any thoughts or other solutions, please let me know. I am also having the same issue with TWRP2 (cant mount while in recovery).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just download Astro file manager from the Play Store and find the backup and delete it. You can also delete the backup from in recovery as well.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2
scream4cheese said:
Just download Astro file manager from the Play Store and find the backup and delete it. You can also delete the backup from in recovery as well.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have Root Explorer and can't find the folder on my /sdcard. If I could, I could take the backup and move it, but it doesn't seem to be visible.
I have been thinking, do I need to be rooted to be able to access the folder, or see it for that matter?
And as a side note, I tried TWRP2 and I can see the folder with backups made.
toonhead85 said:
I have Root Explorer and can't find the folder on my /sdcard. If I could, I could take the backup and move it, but it doesn't seem to be visible.
I have been thinking, do I need to be rooted to be able to access the folder, or see it for that matter?
And as a side note, I tried TWRP2 and I can see the folder with backups made.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had this same issue as I'm using CWM 6.0.2.0. For whatever reason, they changed the saved backups location to /data/media/clockworkmod now so you can't access it by plugging in your phone because the backups aren't on the sdcard. That's also the reason you can't find it. To my knowledge, you can do two things to get them to your computer:
1. Use ADB to pull the clockworkmod folder to your computer. I still haven't completely figured out how to do that yet as I don't screw around in ADB shell too much and I'm not sure if you have to mount the filesystem before doing it. I'm sure if you search around, you could find the ADB solution.
2. (This solution sucks but it works...) If you have a file manager (like X-plore) and root access, you can copy the contents of /data/media/clockworkmod folder to the sdcard location on your phone. Once it's there, THEN you can access that copy when it's plugged into your computer. Then just get rid of the .nomedia file in the folder and move it from your sdcard to your PC. Simple but takes forever for the files to copy depending on how many backups your moving and how big your blobs folder is.
If someone knows a better way, I'm definitely all ears. Really don't like how they changed CWM to this new style. Makes it a pain to offload backups from your phone to your PC.
Hatzy said:
I had this same issue as I'm using CWM 6.0.2.0. For whatever reason, they changed the saved backups location to /data/media/clockworkmod now so you can't access it by plugging in your phone because the backups aren't on the sdcard. That's also the reason you can't find it. To my knowledge, you can do two things to get them to your computer:
1. Use ADB to pull the clockworkmod folder to your computer. I still haven't completely figured out how to do that yet as I don't screw around in ADB shell too much and I'm not sure if you have to mount the filesystem before doing it. I'm sure if you search around, you could find the ADB solution.
2. (This solution sucks but it works...) If you have a file manager (like X-plore) and root access, you can copy the contents of /data/media/clockworkmod folder to the sdcard location on your phone. Once it's there, THEN you can access that copy when it's plugged into your computer. Then just get rid of the .nomedia file in the folder and move it from your sdcard to your PC. Simple but takes forever for the files to copy depending on how many backups your moving and how big your blobs folder is.
If someone knows a better way, I'm definitely all ears. Really don't like how they changed CWM to this new style. Makes it a pain to offload backups from your phone to your PC.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use ROM manager to connect to the server and download my nand directly to my PC.
Sent From a Freaked out Nexus 4
You have an option in cwm uder the backup menu to remove the backups or unused data. It works for me.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium
strapped365 said:
I use ROM manager to connect to the server and download my nand directly to my PC.
Sent From a Freaked out Nexus 4
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Didn't even know you could do that. I always just boot to CWM, never use the ROM manager app. That sounds like a paid feature or is it on the free version?
Edit: Yeah, it's a paid feature but I'm seriously considering going this route since it's so damn handy. If I can't figure out how to ADB it, I may just buy the premium version. Thanks bro.
webdo said:
You have an option in cwm uder the backup menu to remove the backups or unused data. It works for me.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
He wants a copy of the backups on his PC before he removes them.
Sorry for my incomplete answer than. I found mine using a root explorer
/mnt/shell/emulated/clockworkmod/backup
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium
Thanks for all the great tips/answers/comments. I will see what I can do in terms of finding where the backup is stored on my phone now (since it seems there could be two places).
Cheers!!
Hatzy, you can pull the backups using insecure adbd by chainfire [app]. Otherwise, you can only pull sdcard. Or, i believe you can pull via the path /mnt/shell/emulated..
So, after doing some looking... I thiink my best bet is to use Rom Manager's new Download Server feature. I'll give it a try and let everyone know how it works out!!
Hi guys, the problem I have is after a few times of plugging in my Nexus 7 to my PC, it has seemed to 'Wipe' the SD partition. Both the PC and device (File explorers and terminal) report it has been cleared, with obvious new files created by some apps on startup.
I have/had a backup on said SD partition,when I boot into recovery, Clockworkmod recovery still shows that I have these backup file... I then get a Md5 mismatch error when trying to use it. (I have attached a screenshot of where CWM displays my backup)
What I want to know is, do I get this error because the file isn't there? Is there any way I can restore my SD partition by some sort of witchcraft?
Thanks in advance, Dan
That's not where CWM stores its backups though. The actual location is /data/media/clockworkmod/. This folder is not accessible from the computer.
korockinout13 said:
That's not where CWM stores its backups though. The actual location is /data/media/clockworkmod/. This folder is not accessible from the computer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh ok... What's with the path above my backup then? :S
Thanks for the reply!
Rawritsdan said:
Oh ok... What's with the path above my backup then? :S
Thanks for the reply!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A symlink. No files actually exist there.
Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk 4 Beta
najaboy said:
A symlink. No files actually exist there.
Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk 4 Beta
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I see! Never mind anyway as the backups I did have, didn't work when I flashed it (Must have been incomplete).
Thank you again for the quick responses, Dan.
I finally got fed up with reliability issues of CM (system crashing/freezing/etc) so I'm going back to stock (and I'm using the most current stable version). I took a stock backup in February using TWRP but find CWM to be more reliable so I use that now. I took a backup of the CM install today, using CWM, before doing anything, but I cannot find it. It doesn't appear in /sdcard/clockworkmod/backups although when using CWM, I can view past backups and even restore from them and it's saying it's coming from that directory. Any clues as to how to view these backups so I can copy them to my PC?
I granted my file manager root access so that shouldn't be the issue. It only shows a downloads folder under the clockworkmod folder, no backups folder with the actual backups in them.
Thanks for the help,
Spike
Did you check for any hidden files? Or maybe any other folder.
Sent from my GT-I9505G using Tapatalk 4
XxLordxX said:
Did you check for any hidden files? Or maybe any other folder.
Sent from my GT-I9505G using Tapatalk 4
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its in. /data/media/clockworkmod/backup/
--
Neal
He5aid said:
Its in. /data/media/clockworkmod/backup/
--
Neal
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes it was thank you so much for the help!