So, just a heads up guys (and gals); it looks like ATT blocked my device (reported it stolen) and now I'm locked out of the wireless network.
I still need to call them to see if I can resolve this issue, but it happened after I flashed the latest nightly CM10 and was running it all weekend with no problems, wake up this morning and I can't text, get no data. Try making a call and it states; "This device has been blocked". After using Google, that message is one that happens when a device is reported stolen.
Since I've had this device for it's entire life, there is no chance someone else reported it stolen.
I'll keep this thread updated with what ATT does, if they re-enable my device, etc.
Somebody else had this happen to them on CM10, and it was because their IMEI became generic overnight. You can read about it in the Helly Bean thread.
korockinout13 said:
Somebody else had this happen to them on CM10, and it was because their IMEI became generic overnight. You can read about it in the Helly Bean thread.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Huh. How does it overwrite the IMEI on it's own?
I did have a backup of my IMEI from last october (the entire EFS folder) I used ES File explorer to copy it over... But forgot to fix permissions... SLAP forehead.
(Fixed Permissions)
Now I'm back on ATT, guess it wasn't there fault.
:cyclops:
So after reading the other thread, I have to wonder if changing /System to RO mode (via SGS Toolbox) will prevent the EFS folder from being overwritten again? Or am I going to run into this again? The problem seems pretty clear, the EFS folder for some reason has R/W privileges, when it should be RO.
The second part of the equation, is _what_ in JB is deleting that folder?
scythekain said:
So, just a heads up guys (and gals); it looks like ATT blocked my device (reported it stolen) and now I'm locked out of the wireless network.
I still need to call them to see if I can resolve this issue, but it happened after I flashed the latest nightly CM10 and was running it all weekend with no problems, wake up this morning and I can't text, get no data. Try making a call and it states; "This device has been blocked". After using Google, that message is one that happens when a device is reported stolen.
Since I've had this device for it's entire life, there is no chance someone else reported it stolen.
I'll keep this thread updated with what ATT does, if they re-enable my device, etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This same exact thing happened to me, but I'm on CM9 Stable... Still trying to figure out why my IMEI is the generic one...
I had this happen to me also,,and when I called att customer service they told me that the emei belonged to an iphone that was stolen,,in my case this actually happened three times,,I finally flashed back to stock to reset the emei and it seems to be holding,, I was running helly bean v24 and had been on the rom for a day or something ( well since that version came out ) in fact I have two captivate handsets and one was on v23 and they both switched the emei to the same one,,I have no idea what caused the emei to change but it sure caused some hair pulling on my part lol,, all seems well now
wilson735 said:
This same exact thing happened to me, but I'm on CM9 Stable... Still trying to figure out why my IMEI is the generic one...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here, but on CM 7.2.0 RC2. I'm not sure if the IMEI just now changed or if it was this way since I flashed CM and AT&T is now cracking down.
The above posts, kind of confirm what I'm sensing is ATT doing something that flashed a stolen IMEI onto rooted android devices.
1) What was the timing of your problem? - For me this happened yesterday morning, or Sunday night after 9 PM PST. I restored my IMEI about 9 AM, and the service restored itself around 13:32 8/20/2012 PST
2) It makes me wonder IS this the custom ROM that changed the IMEI to a stolen iPhone? Why would the ROM choose an iPHONE IMEI? I think this was pushed by ATT. Was it a mistake or was it intentional? Proof? CM 7.2, CM9, CM10 and HellyBean (which is based on CM10 with custom kernel, partitioning). ALL of them set the IMEI to the stolen iPhone THIS last weekend though?
For those of you still needing to restore your IMEI and you don't have a backup, use this thread;
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=881162
EDIT:
You can also flash back to stock via ODIN to restore your IMEI.
So it looks like the CM10 flash I did Saturday did muck up my IMEI. I was logging into the Google Play store to try and restore my apps from the web, and found out I have two captivates registered.
One with the correct IMEI, the other with this bogus IMEI:
IMEI: **********640000
Here's the whole story:
On Sunday, in the course of 5 hours: 3 times AT&T blocked my device, I called them and got in unblocked. In one of those times, the guy says that the system logs say that my sim card was in an iPhone 3gs that was reported stolen. They also credit me with $25 for each of the 1st 2 times I called.
Anyway, on the 3rd time I ask to speak to a floor supervisor. She is able to tell me that because my phone is reporting an IMEI of a stolen phone, she'll forward it to the Stolen Devices team/department, and that they would get back to me on Tuesday. She can unblock it again on the spot, but eventually it'll get read by the system and blocked again.
I confirm with her that the IMEI that my phone software is showing is the Generic one (004999010640000), and not my actual one that I read to her from underneath the battery.
I was reading through the forums all day on Monday and came to the following conclusions:
1) That Generic IMEI may be what a ROM is mistakenly putting in place, it must use this as a failsafe of some sort, so it can have an IMEI, any IMEI. In reality it should be reading the hardware's IMEI.
2) Our IMEI's did not necessarily get changed this weekend. Last time I flashed, it was when CM9 Stable was released, and that was a couple of weeks ago. So, we may have had this IMEI for weeks, if not months. I know I may have. 1 month ago, my phone got blocked. They said that someone reported it stolen. I called, got my $25 credit, and the service reinstated. I may have had that Generic IMEI at the time.
Last night a technician from the Stolen Devices team instructed me to remove my SIM card from the device for 24 hours so that the network can refresh the IMEI (his exact words, I don't know exactly how the network works, but...) and that this was necessary. Yes, I could ignore him and put by SIM card back into my Captivate, but eventually it would get blocked again. So leave it out of the Cappy, he said, use it in any other device, and after 24 hours you can slip it back in. He said that recently (in the past day or two), many users had been calling about the same problem.
Anyway, just to be on the safe side, I'll be following fohdeesha's instructions here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=30563493&postcount=1780
Flashing back to stock 2.3.5, and seeing if I can get the correct IMEI. If so, I'll backup that EFS folder in 10 different places, revert back to ICS or JB, and if the IMEI is messed up there, I'll restore my EFS backup.
wilson735 said:
Here's the whole story:
On Sunday, in the course of 5 hours: 3 times AT&T blocked my device, I called them and got in unblocked. In one of those times, the guy says that the system logs say that my sim card was in an iPhone 3gs that was reported stolen. They also credit me with $25 for each of the 1st 2 times I called.
Anyway, on the 3rd time I ask to speak to a floor supervisor. She is able to tell me that because my phone is reporting an IMEI of a stolen phone, she'll forward it to the Stolen Devices team/department, and that they would get back to me on Tuesday. She can unblock it again on the spot, but eventually it'll get read by the system and blocked again.
I confirm with her that the IMEI that my phone software is showing is the Generic one (004999010640000), and not my actual one that I read to her from underneath the battery.
I was reading through the forums all day on Monday and came to the following conclusions:
1) That Generic IMEI may be what a ROM is mistakenly putting in place, it must use this as a failsafe of some sort, so it can have an IMEI, any IMEI. In reality it should be reading the hardware's IMEI.
2) Our IMEI's did not necessarily get changed this weekend. Last time I flashed, it was when CM9 Stable was released, and that was a couple of weeks ago. So, we may have had this IMEI for weeks, if not months. I know I may have. 1 month ago, my phone got blocked. They said that someone reported it stolen. I called, got my $25 credit, and the service reinstated. I may have had that Generic IMEI at the time.
Last night a technician from the Stolen Devices team instructed me to remove my SIM card from the device for 24 hours so that the network can refresh the IMEI (his exact words, I don't know exactly how the network works, but...) and that this was necessary. Yes, I could ignore him and put by SIM card back into my Captivate, but eventually it would get blocked again. So leave it out of the Cappy, he said, use it in any other device, and after 24 hours you can slip it back in. He said that recently (in the past day or two), many users had been calling about the same problem.
Anyway, just to be on the safe side, I'll be following fohdeesha's instructions here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=30563493&postcount=1780
Flashing back to stock 2.3.5, and seeing if I can get the correct IMEI. If so, I'll backup that EFS folder in 10 different places, revert back to ICS or JB, and if the IMEI is messed up there, I'll restore my EFS backup.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good information. I've restored my EFS from a backup I made last october when I first rooted and flashed CM7.
Not sure what leaving the SIM out does? Does it correct the IMEI folder on it's own?
Sooo, I ended up having this situation for first time last night.
What I did was:
1) One click kk4 stock
2) Flash Devil's kernel to get CWM
3) Flash Helly Bean 8/13.
4) Flash ugjk4 modem.
Bam wrong IMEI.
Did the whole thing again, this time using ugjk3 modem - bad IMEI again.
Then I just copied back my efs folder, chown to radio:radio, chmod to 0700 and reboot - IMEI got fixed.
What is really shady is when is this happening? After the initial devil kernel flash? Or the initial helly bean flash when it does the partitions and reboots you back into recovery?
scythekain said:
Good information. I've restored my EFS from a backup I made last october when I first rooted and flashed CM7.
Not sure what leaving the SIM out does? Does it correct the IMEI folder on it's own?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Leaving the SIM card out cannot change, reset, or fix your imei, it can't effect it at all.
Leaving the sim card out simply blocks your phone from being able to "phone home" to att, and report the incorrect imei to att. Because when att sees this, that is when they block your device.
This is why I suggested in other posts that when you are flashing a new rom, leave your sim card out. This way if the rom flash does reset your imei, you can repair it and THEN put your sim card back in, without the phone automatically phoning home to att with the wrong imei right off the bat and getting your phone blocked
Ok I have a quick question. I copied my entire EFS folder and copied it into my external SD card. Do I need to do anything else to back it up? I have the correct IMEI and want to make sure it stays that way. I noticed one person mentioned the need to fix permissions. Is that all I need to do. Thanks.
I would make a copy and put it on ur computer as well.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using xda premium
Has this been figured out yet? Anyone have any idea why this is happening to some people and not others? What's the common factor here? After several initial failed flash attempts I went from one click froyo, to several cm9 nightlys, to hellybean 8/13 , to cm10 nightly 8/18, to cm10 nightly 8/22. So far I've had zero imei issues. My number still matches the back of the phone. Is this something att is sending out, an app, or one of the ROMs being flashed? I just checked and the permissions for my efs folder are set to rwx r-x r-x. It may help if everyone lists their history.
Sent from my SGH-I897 using xda app-developers app
rickneworleansla said:
Has this been figured out yet? Anyone have any idea why this is happening to some people and not others? What's the common factor here? After several initial failed flash attempts I went from one click froyo, to several cm9 nightlys, to hellybean 8/13 , to cm10 nightly 8/18, to cm10 nightly 8/22. So far I've had zero imei issues. My number still matches the back of the phone. Is this something att is sending out, an app, or one of the ROMs being flashed? I just checked and the permissions for my efs folder are set to rwx r-x r-x. It may help if everyone lists their history.
Sent from my SGH-I897 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1) I used one click root, to root my phone back in October, then backed up my EFS.
2) Odin CM7 CWM.
3) Flashed CM 7.1 stable, got fed up with the /datadata limitation pretty quickly. Tried Miui. (had same problem)
4) November, flashed last available nightly for CM 7.1 (till march of this year) this change the structure of /datadata to have about 400 Megs and to warn when it's getting full.
5) January, started flashing nightly kangs weekly.
6) Mid March, flashed CNA 4.0.3 - Horribly laggy.
7) Flashed AOKP, CM9 nightlies etc. Ended up sticking with CM9 nightlies.
8) 8.18 flashed CM9 nightly.
9) 8.18 flashed UXKH2 modem (awesome voice quality)
10) 8.20 no wireless data/signal - device blocked.
According to the Google Play store, the incorrect IMEI was registered on Monday. Which means something deleted it Sunday night Monday morning while I was sleeping.
(if you want to you can view your account history and registered devices here
https://www.google.com/dashboard/
IMEI
this recently happened to me over the weekend. I simply flashed back to stock KK4 and i had my IMEI number back to what its supposed to be. I never had to call AT&T to unblock it. once I got my IMEI back, I flashed a custom corn kernel and installed root. while I still had the original IMEI I downloaded an app called Galaxy S Unlock and in this app there is an option to back up only your efs folder and its contents. after making two back ups I decided to flash the latest Helly Bean from Der Teufel whilst leaving my SIM out. once all was said and done I still had my stock IMEI number with CM10 Helly Bean. the only number that I notice changed is the IMEI SV. it went from 00 at stock KK4 to 05 on cm10. I don't know what that number represents but it doesn't seem to affect me. good luck to anyone with this issue.
cheeesboiger said:
this recently happened to me over the weekend. I simply flashed back to stock KK4 and i had my IMEI number back to what its supposed to be. I never had to call AT&T to unblock it. once I got my IMEI back, I flashed a custom corn kernel and installed root. while I still had the original IMEI I downloaded an app called Galaxy S Unlock and in this app there is an option to back up only your efs folder and its contents. after making two back ups I decided to flash the latest Helly Bean from Der Teufel whilst leaving my SIM out. once all was said and done I still had my stock IMEI number with CM10 Helly Bean. the only number that I notice changed is the IMEI SV. it went from 00 at stock KK4 to 05 on cm10. I don't know what that number represents but it doesn't seem to affect me. good luck to anyone with this issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The "SV" is the Software version, it doesn't affect your IMEI (your device identifier).
http://imeimobile.blogspot.com/2009/11/structure-of-imei-and-imeisv.html
Your sim card has been blocked after put in the lose/stollen AT&T phone .
Your sim card has been blocked after put in the lose/stollen AT&T phone .
Hi everyone,
Hope you can help me solve this, cuz I'm way out of my knowledge..
My phone broke the lcd and was out of action for a few months.. After I finally got a replacement screen, the phone wasn't working and said IMEI unknown, I've tried to flash a few roms via recovery but nothing. So I just went crazy and flashed it via kies. It worked, the imei appeared but the phone was locked again..
Back to the shelf a few weeks until I could afford to pay for unlock.. When I picked it up, it was unknown IMEI again and the guy at the shop basically told me he couldn't help.
Was he right? I refuse to believe I can't recover the phone.. Can you please help?
Thanks!
Anyone?
Are you sure is that phone imei is not blocked, because provider may block if it is stolen reported.
I had the same problem after changing display IMEI unknown
But somehow it was saved from 'unknown IMEI' I don't know how.
restored efs from previous backup (twrp & philz recovery)
- no imei
I flashed stock
- no IMEI
asop
- no imei
tried different modems
again stock
- suddenly its worked
(some users reported flashing different modems worked for them)
Yes I'm sure imei is not blocked by network. Have a friend that bought a phone which he discovered the hard way it was stolen, anyway, blocked imei by network behavior is completely different.
This is what happened to me first time only valid imei after kies rom update.
madz78 said:
Yes I'm sure imei is not blocked by network. Have a friend that bought a phone which he discovered the hard way it was stolen, anyway, blocked imei by network behavior is completely different.
This is what happened to me first time only valid imei after kies rom update.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you see imei again, Make a backup using pc, there is a guide in development section. So, you can easily restore again.
Hello
I recently lost my s10 and now got my hands on a new one (exact same model)
I thought i was smart and restored a TWRP backup from the lost phone on the new one
I guess the mistake was that there was also the efs partition included in the backup
The rom (newest beyond) works without problems but the sim card is not recognized and baseband and IMEI both show unknown
so i flashed the original samsung firmware with odin but even then i have baseband and IMEI unknown
Did i just screw my new s10 or does anyone have an idea?
any help much appreciated
Anyone has an idea what I could try?
Or did I really kill my phone for good
My guess is that you may have wiped out the new phone specifics, such as IMEI and other things. I'm not sure if you can recover that in some way, or if you need to just find a way to get your old IMEI back. I would probably try to restore my old IMEI if I can (see if you can identify the old one from your carrier's website or something, for example).
schwinn8 said:
My guess is that you may have wiped out the new phone specifics, such as IMEI and other things. I'm not sure if you can recover that in some way, or if you need to just find a way to get your old IMEI back. I would probably try to restore my old IMEI if I can (see if you can identify the old one from your carrier's website or something, for example).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know the original imei, it's printed on the phone but how could i flash that to my phone? Seems to be impossible
There are ways, but they are not allowed to be discussed here on XDA. I've seen Youtube videos that cover it as well.