Database Users

Efs backup -- important !!!!

For those of you that don't think you need to read this - you are wrong! I have flashed 100's of ROM's with no issue until the end of last week.
MODERATORS PLEASE STICKY THIS IN A PLACE WHERE EVERYDAY USERS THAT FLASH ROMS WILL SEE IT
I uneventfully flashed a ROM (not important which one because I don't think it has anything to do with particular ROM) and all went well. I went to bed with a working phone and the somehow a reboot happened and awoke with a phone with no signal. The error was saying that there was no SIM card and / or No Network Available.
I finally used HC-kTool app on the Market (used latest version) to Restore an efs.tar file and my phone started working but I had a generic / fake IMEI number -- 004999010640000
If you have backed up your /EFS folder on the root of your phone then all is well. The easiest way is to use Hellcat's HC-kTool to back up your EFS and save a copy on your sdcard and your PC and that way you will not have to go through my misery.
However if you have not BACKED UP your EFS files then you will have issues like I did
Ok so here is what I can tell based on my experience:
Look for any files or folders on your sdcard that have EFS in the name. You might get lucky and look in the /EFS folder on your phone. If the nv_data.bin file has been corrupted the .nv_data.bin.bak might still be OK. If that is the case you may be able to follow this guide: http://forum.gsmhosting.com/vbb/f606/samsung-android-repair-efs-imei-repair-without-box-1348192/
What won't work is any sort of simple copying nv_data.bin from the sdcard to the /EFS folder using Root Explorer - I spent almost an entire weekend trying this.
If your /EFS folder .bak file has been corrupted then in my case I found a folder on my sdcard named EFS_BACKUP that I assume that Clockworkmod has created during some of my ROM flashes (somebody correct me if I'm wrong because otherwise I have no idea how it got there).
In the EFS_BACKUP folder I have a number of files form different dates (I assume of flashes) labelled efs_xxdate.tar.gz
btw you can use these or any .gz file when using HC_kTool tool simply by renaming the file (long press with Root Explorer) to just a .tar file (delete the .gz). HC_kTool uses a file named efs.tar on the root of the sdcard to restore.
In my case I had to extract one of these files by long pressing in Root Explorer and choicing extract. I then went to the extracted folder on the sdcard (using Root Explorer) and found a folder named efs_xxdate and within that a folder named EFS
... again don't get mislead -- simply copying and pasting that file or any other to the root /EFS folder will not work!!
I noticed that there were multiple files in the extracted/efs_xxdate/efs folder but the dates were different. The nv_data.bin and the nv_dat.bin.md5 files were dated the same as the date of the folder BUT the .nv_data.bak file was dated Dec31, 2010
Here's how I restored that file:
1) I extracted the .tar.gz file as above
2) Went to sdcard\extracted\efsxxdate\efs folder and copied the older dated .nv_data.bak to the root of the sdcard using Root Explorer (long press, copy, then paste)
3) Then renamed the .nv_data.bak file to nv_data.bin on the root of the sdcard
3) Then followed these instructions from line 14 on in this post .. http://forum.gsmhosting.com/vbb/f606/samsung-android-repair-efs-imei-repair-without-box-1348192/
14 = at command prompt [ C:\adbtools\ ], type adb shell
15 = type su
16 = type cp /sdcard/nv_data.bin
17 = type rm -rf /efs/nv_data.bin.md5
18 = type exit & exit
19 = REBOOT YOUR PHONE
I'm not sure why this works but EVERY combination of copying and pasting nv_data.bin , .bak, or entire EFS folders suing Root Explorer does NOT work but this above technique did work for me ! Somehow having the .md5 file recreated is the key ??
I hope this helps someone.
BACKUP YOUR EFS -- Hellcat's HC_kTool seems to work great
Thank the DEVELOPERS

Already been highlighted a few times
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1068193&highlight=efs

Can you please clarify....I always keep a weekly copy of clock work mod backed up. Is this not enough? A lille confused about the need for efs backup...
Sent from my SGS2

Thx for this post. Anyway, i got stuck at 17, it says "-rf: not found". What does that mean? Am i unable to mount efs?

Nice post. Not happened to me *yet* but you never know.
Here is the direct link to Hellcats K-tool
Backing mine up now

jcrompton said:
However if you have not BACKED UP your EFS files then you will have issues like I did
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You had the EFS image file already, all you had to do was rename the file then use ktool and you were done within seconds..
You probably could've done it via pm as I don't think it was a good idea to try any suggestion that was thrown at you in public forum...
btw, this is original development section.. someone move it to general please..

s2d4 said:
You had the EFS image file already, all you had to do was rename the file then use ktool and you were done within seconds..
You probably could've done it via pm as I don't think it was a good idea to try any suggestion that was thrown at you in public forum...
btw, this is original development section.. someone move it to general please..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually i don't understand how he made it: ktool doesn't use a tar file like posted, but an img file, and you can only find tar.gz files in the backup folder. How do you get an img file out of those?

s2d4 said:
someone move it to general please..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorted
Used K-Tool since the method mentioned via terminal never worked..

stylez said:
Sorted
Used K-Tool since the method mentioned via terminal never worked..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good for you
But what did you do exactly? How did you obtain the img file for ktool to flash it? I only have the tar backups from the Efs_ backup folder...

s2d4 said:
You had the EFS image file already, all you had to do was rename the file then use ktool and you were done within seconds..
You probably could've done it via pm as I don't think it was a good idea to try any suggestion that was thrown at you in public forum...
btw, this is original development section.. someone move it to general please..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did not have a new efs image file
All the files I had had been corrupted
I spent four days PMing all the big wigs re this. It's not as simple as you think unless you familiarize yourself with EFS backup BEFORE you need it!
Clockwork mod and nandroid backups do not alter the efs folder when a backup is restored! It must be backed up separately
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium

vnvman said:
Good for you
But what did you do exactly? How did you obtain the img file for ktool to flash it? I only have the tar backups from the Efs_ backup folder...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did not have an image file either. Look above at my post where I describe how to do it from step number 1 forward
I didn't use the tool to fix it
I just suggested getting the tool and learning how to use it
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium

jcrompton said:
I didn't use the tool to fix it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just to make the whole thread clear, is your IMEI now the original IMEI or the default U1 IMEI of 0049...?

Hmm..in the end i fixed this by flashing the efs from the official kh3 firmware through odin (clear efs checked). Now my imei changed to a generic one but i don't really care: i have my baseband back and the phone works. I just hope the FBI or something isn't after me now.

vnvman said:
Hmm..in the end i fixed this by flashing the efs from the official kh3 firmware through odin (clear efs checked). Now my imei changed to a generic one but i don't really care: i have my baseband back and the phone works. I just hope the FBI or something isn't after me now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you have an EFS_BACKUP folder on your sdcard? And if so do you have any compressed files with older (mine was dated Dec31 2010) .nv_data.bak files?
If you do then that's what I ultimately used to restore my IMEI (not the generic one)

jcrompton said:
Do you have an EFS_BACKUP folder on your sdcard? And if so do you have any compressed files with older (mine was dated Dec31 2010) .nv_data.bak files?
If you do then that's what I ultimately used to restore my IMEI (not the generic one)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, i'll try that right away.

vnvman said:
Actually i don't understand how he made it: ktool doesn't use a tar file like posted, but an img file, and you can only find tar.gz files in the backup folder. How do you get an img file out of those?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
kTool does both, raw .IMG dump and filebased .tar.gz backup.

Does K-Tool work with CF-Root kernel?

HellcatDroid said:
kTool does both, raw .IMG dump and filebased .tar.gz backup.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wtf, i got answered by Hellcat himself!
Thanks, i didn't notice that option, i would have gone much less nuts if i knew it, stupid me

nfribeiro said:
Does K-Tool work with CF-Root kernel?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, should work fine.
Should you find any missbehavings or issues though, please let me know and they shall be fixed
vnvman said:
Wtf, i got answered by Hellcat himself!
Thanks, i didn't notice that option, i would have gone much less nuts if i knew it, stupid me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lol xD
Well, but not necessarily stupid, the first few versions indeed only made the raw .IMG dump and the button still only says "backup to /sdcard/efs.img" (yeah, I should really change that text )
But since some 1.2x build it makes the .tar as well and when you hit the restore button it asks if you want to restore the .IMG or the .tar

Haha yeah right, i never hit restore because i didn't have an img dumped to the sd so i thought i had nothing to restore there

Cannot access the TWRP folder

I recently flashed the stock android lollipop tgz file on my nexus 7. I rooted it, and then wanted to restore my nandroid backup. But, the backup does not appear in the recovery menu. I couldn't also copy the backup files to the tarp folder (no such folder existed, and when I tried making one using es file explorer or root explorer, it gave an error message.) How do I fix this problem. Please help guys I am sort of new to the forum[emoji16]

Same problem here. It does show up but it's a 0 bytes file last modified in 1970 (start of unixtime)
This is on my Nexus 4 though. Flashed manually with official images from Google and rooted with SuperSU.

- make sure you're using the latest twrp recovery for your device. get the latest img file for grouper (nexus 7) and mako (nexus 4) here: http://techerrata.com/browse/twrp2
- if you look around the forums, you'll find that people have had similar issues since lollipop. forget about trying to access twrp folder in android/es explorer for now (BTW droiderrr18 is probably getting the error when trying to create the folder because it's already there, just doesn't look like a folder and can't be opened, it looks like the 0 byte file looking thing LooieENG mentioned).
What you want to do instead is boot into twrp recovery and connect to your computer. you should be able to access your folders and files in MTP connection from Windows and move to your old backup that way. if not you can always use adb push command. the backup folder for twrp is storage/sdcard0/TWRP/BACKUPS
you can also do a new backup and find it, then move your old backup there to restore.
(side note: twrp also has its own file manager where you can see and if necessary manipulate your files, but be sure you know what your doing in there)

dtg7 said:
- make sure you're using the latest twrp recovery for your device. get the latest img file for grouper (nexus 7) and mako (nexus 4) here: http://techerrata.com/browse/twrp2
- if you look around the forums, you'll find that people have had similar issues since lollipop. forget about trying to access twrp folder in android/es explorer for now (BTW droiderrr18 is probably getting the error when trying to create the folder because it's already there, just doesn't look like a folder and can't be opened, it looks like the 0 byte file looking thing LooieENG mentioned).
What you want to do instead is boot into twrp recovery and connect to your computer. you should be able to access your folders and files in MTP connection from Windows and move to your old backup that way. if not you can always use adb push command. the backup folder for twrp is storage/sdcard0/TWRP/BACKUPS
you can also do a new backup and find it, then move your old backup there to restore.
(side note: twrp also has its own file manager where you can see and if necessary manipulate your files, but be sure you know what your doing in there)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the same problem. I need to access its data.f2fs.winxxx files for restoring my backed up apps using Nandroid Manager, which cannot access the folder, even though the original folder (/data/media/0/TWRP) can be accessed from ROOT EXPLORER and TWRP recovery file system
Nandroid Manager looks for only /sdcard/TWRP directory i guess, thus is unable to get backup storage location. Changing the Storage location in Nandroid Manager also has no effect.
I need to restore my backup apps. Please help if u can!

Accidentally deleted my wifi.conf file. Pls help!

Hello and Happy New Year,
I made a n00b mistake and accidentally deleted my system/etc/wifi/wifi.conf file when I was trying to move/rename it and the wpa_supplicant.conf files in order to fix my wifi issue.
I'm unable to find this file anywhere. Is there anyone else using the SGH-i337M model handset that can send me theirs?
Please and thank you!

Just flash the latest stock firmware (if it's available) OR do a data factory reset in stock recovery and that should fix it. Of course you might lose everything so make a backup first.

StoneyJSG said:
Just flash the latest stock firmware (if it's available) OR do a data factory reset in stock recovery and that should fix it. Of course you might lose everything so make a backup first.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've already done that. It hasn't shown up after any firmware flashes, stock or custom.
I've also tried just extracting it via the ext4 packages but can't find it.

jayton.okada said:
I've already done that. It hasn't shown up after any firmware flashes, stock or custom.
I've also tried just extracting it via the ext4 packages but can't find it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm having a very similar problem in that i think some files from my EFS folder got deleted somehow. I've done the same thing you have and no luck. I found a post once on XDA with a guy who shared his EFS folder but then the post was removed because you then got his IMEI number if you copied all the files over. I would love to get a copy of that zip folder.

xbbdc said:
I'm having a very similar problem in that i think some files from my EFS folder got deleted somehow. I've done the same thing you have and no luck. I found a post once on XDA with a guy who shared his EFS folder but then the post was removed because you then got his IMEI number if you copied all the files over. I would love to get a copy of that zip folder.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why? Flashing someone else's efs partition on your device will brick it.
Sent from my Nexus 9 using XDA Free mobile app

jd1639 said:
Why? Flashing someone else's efs partition on your device will brick it.
Sent from my Nexus 9 using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the zip file contained the "/efs" folder only, it wasnt his partition.
---------- Post added at 02:57 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:44 PM ----------
jayton.okada said:
I've already done that. It hasn't shown up after any firmware flashes, stock or custom.
I've also tried just extracting it via the ext4 packages but can't find it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
after multiple flashing and reading, i found out that you can only view the EFS folder with a file explorer that supports root (root explorer, root browser, es file explorer...), otherwise it always shows empty.

Trying to install Wear 2.0 developer preview 3 on Huawei Watch

I'm trying to install Wear 2.0 Developer Preview 3 on Huawei Watch. I'm currently using Developer Preview 2, so I thought I'd be familiar with the flashing process.
Anyhow, all the tutorials I managed to find include a part with running a flash-all.bat, which for some reason isn't included in the preview image package I downloaded from https://developer.android.com/wear/...ampaign=android_discussion_wearpreview_092916 .
Where can I get the flash-all.bat?
Edit: Umm, I decided not to go with DP3 at least for now. I thought I'd return to the official stock firmware, but how do I perform the flashing? Do I manually have to edit the file names in flash-all.bat to match the file name of the stock rom's name? Does it matter that the stock rom came as a .tgz even though the files mentioned in the flash-all.bat are .img and .zip? Damn this is confusing, and googling isn't helping at all...

This page is what I'm using as a guide. Worked fine though did take a bit to get the flash-all.bat to run. All files are included in the downloads. Top download is preview image. Bottom is to go back to stock.
https://developer.android.com/wear/preview/downloads.html
Sent from my SM-G935F using XDA-Developers mobile app

The stock download from that page does not contain a flash-all.bat.

I used stock download for flashing and ewerything goes just fine. Just extract all packages in same folder. But if you are interested use this link http://rootjunkysdl.com/files/?dir=Huawei Watch/Firmware. There is all revisions.

highaltitude said:
This page is what I'm using as a guide. Worked fine though did take a bit to get the flash-all.bat to run. All files are included in the downloads. Top download is preview image. Bottom is to go back to stock.
https://developer.android.com/wear/preview/downloads.html
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The downloadable files there are .tgz and do not include any .bats or .zips (I tried opening with 7-Zip).
cerisu said:
I used stock download for flashing and ewerything goes just fine. Just extract all packages in same folder. But if you are interested use this link http://rootjunkysdl.com/files/?dir=Huawei Watch/Firmware. There is all revisions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, I'll try that page :good:
Edit: Thanks @cerisu, the downloads on rootjunkysdl.com included the files I needed I wonder why they're not on the official Android development page...?

submin_ said:
The downloadable files there are .tgz and do not include any .bats or .zips (I tried opening with 7-Zip).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You have to extract .tgz file too. And all files has to be in same folder beore flashing.

Android Wear 2 Developer Preview 3- LGUrbane Watch 2
cerisu said:
You have to extract .tgz file too. And all files has to be in same folder beore flashing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Personally, I would be grateful if someone can provide me with the set of documents already downloaded and extracted; and, if I am not asking too much, to please give me a dumbman's procedure to get the Wear 2 software to work on my watch.
Having to now wait until early 2017 will surely drive me crazy!

Unroot & Re-pack firmware?

I had 50pc japan version of s5(sc-04f), installed rom 'G900F.STOCK.FOR.SCL23.FULL.MINHQUAN'. The downside of this rom is that its pre-rooted. I managed to unroot it by goin in supersu & click 'full-unroot'. But i had multiple devices to flash, so is there a way for me to re-pack this firmware again after i unroot it? So that i could flash it to my other devices without root.

wee2000 said:
I had 50pc japan version of s5(sc-04f), installed rom 'G900F.STOCK.FOR.SCL23.FULL.MINHQUAN'. The downside of this rom is that its pre-rooted. I managed to unroot it by goin in supersu & click 'full-unroot'. But i had multiple devices to flash, so is there a way for me to re-pack this firmware again after i unroot it? So that i could flash it to my other devices without root.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your best bet is to post this question within the following Q&A thread that's specific to your device.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2700073
Good Luck!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I DO NOT provide support via PM unless asked/requested by myself. PLEASE keep it in the threads where everyone can share.

ok done, thx 4 the info

just in case if i missed the reply there, hope someone could reply me here?
when i extract the ZIP file, i got
METE-INF folder
boot.img
system.img

just in case if i missed the reply there, hope someone could reply me here?
when i extract the ZIP file, i got
METE-INF folder
boot.img
system.img

wee2000 said:
just in case if i missed the reply there, hope someone could reply me here?
when i extract the ZIP file, i got
METE-INF folder
boot.img
system.img
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Should we search for this firmware or you can provide a link to its thread?

the link is here : https://choimobile.vn/threads/6-0-1-scl23-stock-rom-g900f-full-port-v3-by-huaminhquan93.37412/

wee2000 said:
the link is here : https://choimobile.vn/threads/6-0-1-scl23-stock-rom-g900f-full-port-v3-by-huaminhquan93.37412/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Generally, if it's 6.0.1 and rooted systemlessly, you need to replace boot.img with a stock one and remove SuperSU app from system.img.
This ROM intended to be flashed from TWRP, so it's an ext4 image.
You can mount it to a linux system on your PC and remove anything you want.

I havent done anything like this before. Could u give me some links or guides? My PC is running Windows 10.

wee2000 said:
I havent done anything like this before. Could u give me some links or guides? My PC is running Windows 10.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, here' a simpler way:
1. Make changes on one phone.
2. Make a TWRP backup of boot and system partitions.
3. Restore this backup on other phones. They must have TWRP installed, a 6.0.1 bootloader and modem.
You'll have to rename backup's folder path and to wipe cache/data/system before restore.

can i use winrar to extract & compile the rom, without linux? So that i will have a much faster flashing process for all other units..

wee2000 said:
can i use winrar to extract & compile the rom, without linux? So that i will have a much faster flashing process for all other units..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, I've managed to download that ROM at last.
The things look even simpler.
To prepare an "unrooted" ROM:
1. Download the zip form this post and unpack updater-script somewhere.
2. Make a copy of V3.G900F.STOCK.FOR.SCL23.FULL.MINHQUAN.zip, open it with Windows Explorer and replace V3.G900F.STOCK.FOR.SCL23.FULL.MINHQUAN.zip\META-INF\com\google\android\updater-script with the file you've unpacked from the attachment.
3. Try to flash ans see if it's what you need.

thx so much, already passed all units to the buyer. ill try that on next batch restock, may iknow if there's a way to get the service menu shortcode *#0*# to work again? This rom doesn't has the service menu.

bbsc said:
Ok, I've managed to download that ROM at last.
The things look even simpler.
To prepare an "unrooted" ROM:
1. Download the zip form this post and unpack updater-script somewhere.
2. Make a copy of V3.G900F.STOCK.FOR.SCL23.FULL.MINHQUAN.zip, open it with Windows Explorer and replace V3.G900F.STOCK.FOR.SCL23.FULL.MINHQUAN.zip\META-INF\com\google\android\updater-script with the file you've unpacked from the attachment.
3. Try to flash ans see if it's what you need.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've replaced the updater-script in the zip file, but supersu is still there