Database Develop

restore nv-data.bin

So. my IMEI is jacked up. I made a copy of /efs when I got the phone but instead of making an archive I did a straight copy, Seems like the fat filesystem owned the permissions.
I am trying to restore from that backup but I am not having luck. People say you can just drop those files into place but it seems that they are replaced after every reboot. What do the permissions need to be? I see that ownership needs to be 1001:1001. Also, can I do this on JH7 with any success?

If your flashed back to stock OTA JH7? Shouldn't need to have to restore them.
Only need to input that (if Android ID doesn't work) - you should be able to copy it using ADB shell and SU.
cp /dir/foo /dir/newfoo

I used the CWM flashable zip to get back to JH7, didn't use odin (im not at home yet, and this was eating away at me at work, heh).
Ill flash back with odin and then see where that gets me. For my own sanitys sake, could you tell me what the permissions are on your files in /efs?

i have a fix that worked for me posted in the dev section

bames said:
i have a fix that worked for me posted in the dev section
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm..my product id is correct (...AATT). Maybe my current files are only half borked. Ill try restoring to jf6 with odin and see where I get. Thanks for the reply

z28james said:
Hmm..my product id is correct (...AATT). Maybe my current files are only half borked. Ill try restoring to jf6 with odin and see where I get. Thanks for the reply
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
once in jf6 if your imei isn't corrected then delete everything but the nv_data.bin and .nv_data.bak.md5.
use android terminal emulator to execute following (must have busybox installed)
su
busybox chown 1001:1001 /efs/nv_data.bin
reboot

avgjoegeek said:
If your flashed back to stock OTA JH7? Shouldn't need to have to restore them.
Only need to input that (if Android ID doesn't work) - you should be able to copy it using ADB shell and SU.
cp /dir/foo /dir/newfoo
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
fyi android id is different than the device id. Device ID = IMEI.

I see my problem, the efs directory I have is from my OLD captivate. Arrrg....I have no backup of my current /efs. The random nv_data.bin it creates has the correct product code already.
There must be something in the phone that knows the imei as this is why it was not accepting my dropped in files (the files from my old phone).
Ah well...ill use it till ATT blocks the test IMEI "lose" mine and go get a refurb as I have insurance.
FYI, the stock original firmware does not create those .bak files from what I could see. I bet your files had jacked product IDs but perhaps the part that went with your IMEI was still intact. This would be why my phone wont accept my old phones nv_data.bin?

once your in stock
run the terminal emu commands you should have baks once your system reboots.
I can delete my baks
run the term commands reboot and they will generate again.
if you have both bin.md5 and bak.md5 delete the bin and run terminal commands.

bames said:
once your in stock
run the terminal emu commands you should have baks once your system reboots.
I can delete my baks
run the term commands reboot and they will generate again.
if you have both bin.md5 and bak.md5 delete the bin and run terminal commands.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
None of those files get generated for me or exist. If I remove everything, a generic nv_data.bin and .imei get created. Thats it. If I copy over the files from my old captivate, I believe they do get created but since the IMEI in that file does not match whatever is being checked in the phone, new files are created anyways.
I suppose nobody as of now knows how to generate the string that is in the nv_data.bin based on an IMEI so it seems that I am out of luck.
Perhaps some shady place in town can help me repair the IMEI or something

I ended up calling Samsung today. I described the problem (damaged IMEI) and they sent me a pre-paid shipping label to send it off to Plano TX to have them take a look (i'm in Austin).
I will let you guys know how this turns out.

My phone is on its way back to me. They ended up swapping the mainboard under warranty.
I suppose if you have a damaged IMEI and can deal with using an old phone for a week, consider sending it over to samsung.

did you have to pay for new mainboard? cause i got the same problem but i am not the orginal owner for the phone.

Jeez, that's wild. What is the correct way to go about backing up the necessary information while the phone is still stock? Planning on rooting (but not unlocking) my gf's Captivate and want to make sure I leave a proper trail of breadcrumbs.

Phateless said:
Jeez, that's wild. What is the correct way to go about backing up the necessary information while the phone is still stock? Planning on rooting (but not unlocking) my gf's Captivate and want to make sure I leave a proper trail of breadcrumbs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It was no cost. They could see based on the IMEI that it was still in warranty. My mistake is I forgot to make a backup of /efs. If you make a backup before doing the OTA update, the unlock code in in clear text

z28james said:
It was no cost. They could see based on the IMEI that it was still in warranty. My mistake is I forgot to make a backup of /efs. If you make a backup before doing the OTA update, the unlock code in in clear text
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So just back up that efs folder and that's it? Anything else?
This phone was purchased used on Craigslist so I don't there's any warranty remaining. It's a 1007 so it's older...

Phateless said:
So just back up that efs folder and that's it? Anything else?
This phone was purchased used on Craigslist so I don't there's any warranty remaining. It's a 1007 so it's older...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, the warranty period is a year and so since its been less than a year since the captivates release, you should be good. It would seem the only way it would be out of warranty would be if samsung for some reason deemed it to be at some point. Im sure you could call samsung with the IMEI and verify.
In my case, my product ID had become damaged. My problem is although I had a backup of /efs, it was for my first captivate, not my current. I deleted /efs and moved the backup into place. Seeing that it was the nv_data.bin for some other phone with another IMEI (the IMEI is encrypted inside that file) it instead replaced the files with a generic set of files and the dreaded test IMEI.
Since nobody had a good way to write the IMEI to that file as it expects, I was SOL.
If I could do it again, I would make a .99 cent jig (I did this using a wonderful thread here labeled something like "make a jig without cutting up USB cable) which gets you into download mode if odin or something soft bricks your phone, root, make a backup of /efs and then take a nandroid backup. I THINK I remember reading that sgstools can backup /efs for you but in the sticky there is a method on how to make a .tar of /efs (good as this will retain permissions/ownership as if you straight copy them to the sd card with fat32, the filesystem does not understand linux permissions and blows them away).

Master-Clear did the trick 4 me
OP I had the same exact same problem here. I spent many hours looking for a fix, N/G, nothing I tried would work. Didn't want to go to AT&T so I took a big chance and went into the efs folder and started deleting files one at a time. When I was through the efs was empty, did this with Root Explorer. When I did a reboot I wound up with a different IMEI, had NO data connection, NO APN, but wifi worked fine. I then did a factory reset from CW which did nothing, still no data connection. More time down so I loaded up ODIN3 One-Click and did a Master Clear. This was the last thing I was going to try before a trip to your friendly AT&T store. Well low and behold after the Master Clear and a reboot everything is back to normal! My IMEI is correct, APN is back, 3G working, wifi working. TITS! What a rush!

TommyZee said:
OP I had the same exact same problem here. I spent many hours looking for a fix, N/G, nothing I tried would work. Didn't want to go to AT&T so I took a big chance and went into the efs folder and started deleting files one at a time. When I was through the efs was empty, did this with Root Explorer. When I did a reboot I wound up with a different IMEI, had NO data connection, NO APN, but wifi worked fine. I then did a factory reset from CW which did nothing, still no data connection. More time down so I loaded up ODIN3 One-Click and did a Master Clear. This was the last thing I was going to try before a trip to your friendly AT&T store. Well low and behold after the Master Clear and a reboot everything is back to normal! My IMEI is correct, APN is back, 3G working, wifi working. TITS! What a rush!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you know where I can find this ODIN3 one-click and how to do a master clear?

[Q] Deleted root folder (/, not /sdcard)

Update 2:
So now I can see most of the files with ES, but OI file manager isn't seeing them. What the heck is going on? Ghost files?
Alright, so I'm in a bit of a pickle.
I was having problems with Rdio and wanted to wipe all traces of it from my phone to install an older version. Using ES File Explorer, I searched for all the files related to the app in "/" and once I found them, I foolishly used select all and delete. Problem is, it seems "select all" actually selected all the folders in / and not only those found using the search function.
The odd part is I can see all the folders in / when I use OI file manager (though some are empty, namely /data and /datadata), but not when I use ES.
Does anybody have an idea as to what I can do? Odd thing is the phone is working fine and not all files on it have been deleted (the files inside EFS seem to have been though, but I still have signal). I'm afraid to reboot it since I figure it might become bricked. I've got a recent Nandroid backup which wasn't deleted, so I'll be fine if I can get to recovery, but is there any chance of that not happening?
Anyways, I'm feeling really dumb and stressed out.
Thanks for looking and/or helping!
Cheers!

Update
Making a call seems to have restored the files (.bak and others) in the efs folder and some other files seem to be reappearing. Maybe if I just wait it out all the files will come back from the dead? Files that weren't showing 10 minutes ago are back and are dated earlier than today.
Again, I'm mainly looking to know if I can reboot into recovery (or normally?) without many problems.
Thanks!

HELP - CM10 upgrade and lost IMEI

Need some help here, hopefully without having to go back to JF6 (that is a little scary at this point). Was pretty happy with CM9 and updated through most nightlies. Just today I upgraded to CM10. All seemed to be working well except that I received a warning of invalid IMEI. I pushed through it and had the phone working on CM10 (with low memory /data isses - that could later be rectfied) then realized that the IMEI issue would mean AT&T would likely shut my phone down. The invalid IMEI is generic and has been flagged as invalid. I also ran into a few issues where I could not download from the Play Market App and think this was the reason.
I nandroid backed up CM10 and restored CM9 but still no dice. As I learned later it doesn't touch the efs folder which somehow the CM10 upgrade modified or had the effect to change it. Uuughh. many others were having the issue.
Anyway, I have verified that there are no /efs backups anywhere on my phone or SC or emmc cards. There are no backups within the efs folder. So, I am hosed. Any way to edit the nv_data.bin file a la this process for either CM9 or CM10?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=881162&highlight=restore+imei
This seems to be the only way I can see that would get me back with no IMEI EFS backup. But, going back to Android 2.1 Eclair or 2.3.5 Gingerbread would be a time killer and have to go through rerouting (?), upgrading, etc.
Any thoughts or direction?

tonyo123 said:
Need some help here, hopefully without having to go back to JF6 (that is a little scary at this point). Was pretty happy with CM9 and updated through most nightlies. Just tpday I upgraded to CM10. All seemed to be working well except that I received a warming of invalid IMEI. I pushed through it and had the phone working well then realized that this is an issue where AT&T will likely shut my phone down. The invalid IMEI is generic and has been flagged as invalid. I've also run into a few issues where I cannot download from the Play Market App although not sure if this is the reason.
I backed up jCM10 and restored (CEM NANDROID) CM9 but still no dice. As I learned it doesn;t tough the efs folder which somehow the CM10 upgrade modified or had the effect to change it - although I understadn the ROM is not supposed to do this but I see many having the issue.
Anyway, I have verified that there are no efs backups anywhere on my phone or SC or emmc cards. There are no backups within the efs folder. So, I am hosed. Any way to edit the nv_data.bin file a la this process for either CM9 or CM10:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=881162&highlight=restore+imei
This seems to be the only way I can see that would get me back with no IMEI EFS backup. But, going back to Android 2.1 Eclair would be a killer and have to go through rerouting (?), upgrading, etc.
Any thoughts or direction?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Go Stock with rooted KK4 and flash what ever rom you want after.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1358180

Okay
silvertag said:
Go Stock with rooted KK4 and flash what ever rom you want after.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1358180
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All right it was a long painful night and day. Found and downloaded Heimdall One Click .jar with UCKK4 GB. Ran it and it restored the correct IMEI. It was unrooted and stock.
Then what was previously easy became an adventure to root and and load a kernel with CWM. I must have bricked the phone 10 times havimg to redo the Heimdall to Gingerbread 2.3.5 numerous times including reloading samsung pc drivers. Eventually with Odin, I found the right sequence using Corn Kernel for UCKK4 703 injected with CWM (not 705 or 706 versions which kept failing) which allowed me to get CWM loaded onto the phone.
I still could not restore my CM9 nandroid backups as the /data restore kept failing having to redo things from scratch. So, then I copied the latest CM9 nightly .zip onto the internal SD then loaded it from the Corn-CWM restore. CM9 booted and things were better but phone nad none of the settings and things still not right. Then rebooted into CWM recovery and restored the last CM9 nandroid backup. Now things worked and everything was back to normal with the correct IMEI.
Man that was a long stressing and scary day...
Made multiple copied of EFS for the future.
Will hold off on CM10 until the /efs issue is resolved as well as the memory management is better understood (while on CM10 I immediately ran into /data out of memory problems (I know I needed to move things to SD but never got around to it once the IMEI issue came up).
So, all is back to CM9 and finally working fine

odin to stock, then you will get imei back, backup efs folder, and flash back to cm10.

I have the same problem, but i'm om Rogers and 5 days now and no problems yet. I have a backup of my efs folder can I just copy paste?

master2828 said:
I have the same problem, but i'm om Rogers and 5 days now and no problems yet. I have a backup of my efs folder can I just copy paste?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes just make sure you set the correct permissions on the files. BTW You won't have a problem on Rogers. Canadian providers have all their black listed (lost/stolen) imei separated. They don't share it so a black listed imei on Rogers will work on Bell or Telus and vice versa. Only thing is that your phone can no longer be tracked by imei in case of emergency since its not the correct information but E911 will still locate you via GPS if you ever place a call.

silvertag said:
Yes just make sure you set the correct permissions on the files. BTW You won't have a problem on Rogers. Canadian providers have all their black listed (lost/stolen) imei separated. They don't share it so a black listed imei on Rogers will work on Bell or Telus and vice versa. Only thing is that your phone can no longer be tracked by imei in case of emergency since its not the correct information but E911 will still locate you via GPS if you ever place a call.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cool, thanks, what are the correct permissions? if i run fix permissions from kernel will that do the trick?

master2828 said:
Cool, thanks, what are the correct permissions? if i run fix permissions from kernel will that do the trick?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That should do
EDIT: Checked my settings on nv_data.bin and its 777 (everything checked in RootExplorer)

silvertag said:
That should do
EDIT: Checked my settings on nv_data.bin and its 777 (everything checked in RootExplorer)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So where exactly do i put the efs folder? I looked on the root of my phone and i dont see a efs folder currently, i tried to put the backup i have there but it didnt work still go the error. i dont even know how i got the backup i have actually lol, i just copied my whole phone contents to my pc before i wiped just in case and there is an folder /backup/efs...lucky i guess

master2828 said:
So where exactly do i put the efs folder? I looked on the root of my phone and i dont see a efs folder currently, i tried to put the backup i have there but it didnt work still go the error. i dont even know how i got the backup i have actually lol, i just copied my whole phone contents to my pc before i wiped just in case and there is an folder /backup/efs...lucky i guess
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It sounds like you have the backup that is sometimes made in the /sdcard (or /mnt/sdcard) folder, which is the internal storage you see when it's connected to your machine.
To see the /efs folder (assuming it exists), you would need to use either shell commands from inside ADB, or a root file explorer. If it's not there, you should just be able to dump the contents of that backup folder to a directory called /efs and go from there.

correct IMEI, but NO EFS folder --> no service

Hello guys, a friend of mine just gave me his phone because "it has got a problem" he said. He just flashed a ROM from CMW, but he noticed that there was no service. the problem is that, if I dial *#06# there is the CORRECT IMEI, but if I search for the EFS folder, there is no trace of it. how is this possible? the IMEI shown in the phone also corresponds to the IMEI wrote on the back of the phone... so it's clearly correct. how this could be possible? I tried adding manually the EFS folder using root explorer (and mounting it as R/W), but after the reboot the phone automatically delete the folder I created.. any idea? thank you!

blak24 said:
Hello guys, a friend of mine just gave me his phone because "it has got a problem" he said. He just flashed a ROM from CMW, but he noticed that there was no service. the problem is that, if I dial *#06# there is the CORRECT IMEI, but if I search for the EFS folder, there is no trace of it. how is this possible? the IMEI shown in the phone also corresponds to the IMEI wrote on the back of the phone... so it's clearly correct. how this could be possible? I tried adding manually the EFS folder using root explorer (and mounting it as R/W), but after the reboot the phone automatically delete the folder I created.. any idea? thank you!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Look in My Android Solutions
But First powerdown, pull out Battery, SIM CARD, and EXT.SD card, press power button for a minute, than powerup without SIM and Ext.SD Card, after flashing and reboot , insert them back
Tips before Flashing:-
Backup all your important files, contacts, SMS, game data, images etc to PC or Ext SD card. or make Nanadroid Backup If you have CWM
Backup your EFS Folder to PC or Ext SD card
Enable USB Debugging on Phone. Touch menu> Settings> Applications> Development>
Charge your battery to more than 50% before you attempt any sort of flashing.
Disable Samsung KIES when using Odin. Kill Kies.exe, KiesTrayAgent.exe, & KiesPDLR.exe using Task Manager on PC
Use only ROM and solution for your model and Wipe x3

nothing worked for me.. I tried to flash an earlier version of android, gingerbread, and the EFS folder was recreated but was incomplete. there were no "imei" folder into efs folder, and also there were no nv_core.back files, ecc... despite this, the IMEI number was shown correctly in the phone, but no signal/data... :S

blak24 said:
nothing worked for me.. I tried to flash an earlier version of android, gingerbread, and the EFS folder was recreated but was incomplete. there were no "imei" folder into efs folder, and also there were no nv_core.back files, ecc... despite this, the IMEI number was shown correctly in the phone, but no signal/data... :S
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried restoring the original firmware and checked? If not you should do that.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1102881
:fingers-crossed:

no network service issue with jelly bean
I have a similar issue here.
First of all I flashed usin this guide:
thehelptimes.com/install-jelly-bean-on-galaxy-s-i9000-how-to-official-rom-android-4-1
provider is congstar (T-Mobile reseller)
*#06# gives me the correct IMEI
/efs folder exist
/efs/imei too
I tried killing the nv_data.bin in order to have the phone recreate it. That happened, now the phone asked for a pin at reboot but the pin doesn´t get
accepted. It also doesn´t get locked after 3 attempts. It just doesn´t get accepted.
Then I noticed that the rights of the nv_data.bin are different than the other files. I changed that but it got changed back after reboot and the pin still isn´t accepted.
I have no idea whats wrong. Next attempt back to gingerbread :-/

EMnEL said:
Have you tried restoring the original firmware and checked? If not you should do that.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1102881
:fingers-crossed:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yep I tried restoring gingerbread, and, as I said, the phone created the efs folder, but it was incomplete... there were no IMEI folder, other folders were missing, and there were NO nv_data.bin files. I tried reflashing jelly bean and the efs folder was, again, completely missing...

Alright, I am gone back to XJVP but this wasn´t much help.
No signal either.
IMEI still shown by dialing *#06#
as of forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=26827676&postcount=4512
I need to get into root to kill the efs folder.
So I am back to XXJVU (gingerbread) now to get it rooted.
Before root there is still no network yet but I still can display the IMEI 3547.... (which is listed in the settings too).
Alright now I am going to root it. Hope this helps somehow.
I have the strong feeling that this phone ends up as a mp3/mp4 player
UPDATE....
- Alright, according to this I better not kill the efs by ODIN ? I didn´t yet. forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1114958
- I checked the efs folder and noticed it is pretty much holding the same content as
in an efs offered for download "i9000 358001043596739 efs.rar" at 199.91.153.60/pa6q9c9bboog/eyyse638dh3kncn/i9000++358001043596739+efs.rar
So it looks pretty much like it should, I can see my perfect IMEI but it still doesn´t work. I am lost. No clue.
Back in my I9003 the SIM just works perfect so it is obviously not an issue of the SIM
UPDATE 2...
- flashed back to XXJP1 Froyo which was a bad idea now the IMEI is empty - F**K!
- going back to XXJVU now
UPDATE 3...
- Back to XXJVU still no signal however it detected at least T-Mobile at boot and gave me a radio box to select T-Mobile.
Sometimes the signal strength shows one bar (two bars when I am going to the window that points in direction of the sender)
though it should be fairly more here as other phones proof. No matter what that means anyway it says there is no service.
UPDATE 4...
- Compared the mobile settings with the i9003 and noticed that the i9003 shows EDGE, the i9000 GPRS

Alright, I got it back to GT_I9000_XXJQ3_XXJPY_DBTJS2 and made an official upgrade to the latest stock via KIES then. Nothing better.
I assume thise phone got a hardware defect then. Even though it doesn´t seem too logical

Where and how to put known IMEI in S1 i9000? efs file corrupt, MTK doesn't work 4me

workaround found - downgrade to stock Froy 2.2.1 - IMEI back - still no idea how to use backed up efs file(s)
(c&p or s.th. else)
Still open: where to download and which version of TWRP for stock? did not find any:cyclops:
Btw.: it is my own smartphone (o-bill) and should be not a solution of all those telling stories of the mobile of a friend of a friend
It took me hours to find the wright files and I had 5x soft bricks with boot loops...
BETTER would have been a solution how to reinstall efs (write protected) if you don't have TWRP or if you copied efs file obviously wrong like me (just c&p to desktop); edit single file(s) or rename or what ever
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi forum,
I'm hesitated: IMEI was replaced
Backed up my efs file and installed really good roms (Omni 5.1.1., Lineage OS 11 (=4.4.4), CM12, and others)
Then I tried to exchange the small 512 MB RAM with a 32GB micro SD. Card was actually recognized as a 8GB one.
So I took it away to use it somewhere else and formatted it therefore.
Since then my IMEI has been replaced with the general one for developers - however, I need my S1 back fully.
This is the assumed root cause - maybe also it just happens sometimes if triying different roms...
Back to the facts:
I do know my IMEI
I have 5 copies of the efs file since 2013
when tried to restore from backup TWRP did do but showed failure with the efs file
Tried mobileuncle and others - failed because MTK engineer mode cannot be used (not supporten cause of other chip maybe) AND therefor
this quick win actions via dialer (#*#....) also do not work for me
root rights? Yes
SU? YES
Hex editor? YES
Must I really go back to stock (Froyo) with Odin and this stuff I forgot how to deal with it?
Or does anybody here has a proper solution how to fix this IMEI-RE-ENTRY-issue that is not too much time consuming and save? I searched for hours here and in other forums as well as in the internet...
I appreciate smart solutions and thank you all in advance
KC