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Hi all,
I recently upgraded to JPM version of froyo, and wanted to change back the product code to the original. After restoring from the .bak files, I got back the original product codes. However, while copying to another location for backup, I deleted the contents of the /efs folder by mistake (atleast I think I did).
The /efs folder is empty, but the phone still works fine. Haven't rebooted the phone for fear of bricking it. Is there a way to recover deleted files? Or are those files just hidden from view?
Someone please help
Update:
Managed to get of copy of nv_data.bin from a folder used by sgstoolbox. Rebooted the phone and phone works fine. Checked the folder contents, has nv_data.bin, nv_data.bin.md5, .nv_state and a folder named .android. Is there anything else which should be there? How to restore?
Do you have a backup of your /efs folder?
Woah same happened to me just some Hours ago !
If you used SGS Toolbox to check, you are lucky because it automatically creates a backup.
-> I think SUFBS Explorer deleted the efs because i am sure i checked "copy" ... anyway !
If you have any backup file, you are lucky.
One question by the way:
I´ve also lost the "IMEI" Folder, but my IMEI is still correct. Is that because ne nv_bin is just enough for the system checks ?
EDIT: Go and check with SGS Toolbox, if it displays your code, it is still there + it creates a backup file on your sdcard (you should double-check that anyway)
I'd say that the best and easiest way of restoring your product code is by using this: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=787163
messing around with /efs folder is not a good idea, especially if you don't have a back up.
Just remembered that I have a titanium batch backup of system + apps taken a while ago when I was on stock firmware. Any way to restore the /efs folder from that? The shock of losing the /efs folder was enough to jolt me out of a beer induced haze ;-)
The phone still works, which is good news. But anyway to restore from Titanium backup?
fullerms said:
Just remembered that I have a titanium batch backup of system + apps taken a while ago when I was on stock firmware. Any way to restore the /efs folder from that? The shock of losing the /efs folder was enough to jolt me out of a beer induced haze ;-)
The phone still works, which is good news. But anyway to restore from Titanium backup?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Titanium does not backup /efs.. If you don't have a backup, you're basically screwed! Sorry to be the bearer of bad news
Like I said, the phone works fine after I restored the nv_data.bin file. I listed the files which were rebuilt by the system. Is there anything else missing? Can someone post a screen shot of the contents of your efs folder?
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
fullerms said:
Like I said, the phone works fine after I restored the nv_data.bin file. I listed the files which were rebuilt by the system. Is there anything else missing? Can someone post a screen shot of the contents of your efs folder?
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh, so you DID have a backup? Nice! Besides what you lited in the first post, there are the following things:
.imei (file)
imei (folder)
- .nvmac.info
- bt.txt
- mps_code.dat
Any idea what those files are for? Possible to check what they contain?
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
Like i said, my imei folder was deleted aswell...
No problems so far with that !
Use rootexplorer, dont use ASTRO. It's crap and does not show all files, including the whole /efs
My EFS folder is empty too...and I don't know why, I have only flashed a couple of time with odin and JM9....
But SGS Toolbox report my csc correctly as ITV....even if I used the HUI csc from my operator with odin....
Could it be a problem if the efs folder is empty? The phone is working well...the only problem is that it loses very often the wifi connection...but I don't think that it is csc related...
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!
Hi. I'm new to rooting and flashing ROM's. I have had a Samsung Captivate (Gingerbread) that I haven't been using for quite some time and I thought I might try to update it to KitKat. I have read that it would be important to back up the EFS file so that I can keep my IMEI info. I rooted my phone using the tutorial on these forums and tried to use EFS Pro, but was not able to get past "the device is not perm rooted". Various threads suggested changing adb status, but I could not find that information (though I was able to find the USB debugging selection). I know that the phone is rooted so I looked for an older copy of EFS Pro in case the newer versions had dropped support for the Captivate. I couldn't find one so I looked at other ways to back up the files, but most information was for other (newer) Samsung phones. I could not install Samsung Tools. I really don't want to proceed with installing KitKat before backing up the EFS information. How do I go about doing this? I have tried the search function on the forum for this device and couldn't find what I was looking for (or maybe I didn't understand the information). Any thoughts?
I hope flashing KitKat will be easier than this issue...
Thanks.
Curious D said:
Hi. I'm new to rooting and flashing ROM's. I have had a Samsung Captivate (Gingerbread) that I haven't been using for quite some time and I thought I might try to update it to KitKat. I have read that it would be important to back up the EFS file so that I can keep my IMEI info. I rooted my phone using the tutorial on these forums and tried to use EFS Pro, but was not able to get past "the device is not perm rooted". Various threads suggested changing adb status, but I could not find that information (though I was able to find the USB debugging selection). I know that the phone is rooted so I looked for an older copy of EFS Pro in case the newer versions had dropped support for the Captivate. I couldn't find one so I looked at other ways to back up the files, but most information was for other (newer) Samsung phones. I could not install Samsung Tools. I really don't want to proceed with installing KitKat before backing up the EFS information. How do I go about doing this? I have tried the search function on the forum for this device and couldn't find what I was looking for (or maybe I didn't understand the information). Any thoughts?
I hope flashing KitKat will be easier than this issue...
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You could just manually backup your efs folder using a root explorer or through adb. Have that backup on your pc in case you lose your IMEI.
That being said, when it happens (which is fairly rare), a flash back to stock (KK4) usually fixes it and then you're fine to update/flash again.
Other EFS backup options would include:
1) EFS☆IMEI☆Backup by wanam >> his xda thread, his playstore listing.
2) [HOWTO]Comprehensive IMEI/EFS Backup lists two simple ways to permanently backup up IMEI on your phone. One is with adb, the other is with Terminal Emulator for those with rooted devices. The commands used are said to be based on "Samsung's built in backup." The thread is in the SGS3 forum, if nothing else is an excellent source of background information for backing up and restoring nvdata.
I tried to copy the efs folder using Root Browser because the adb method looked very involved. When I started Root Browser, it was able to see a Titanium backup that I had placed into the SD card even though I had formatted the SD card. I figured that the format didn't wipe the information so I proceeded to copy the efs folder over. However, after copying the folder, I stuck the card into my computer and did not see the folder and could not copy the folder over to my computer. Is it because the card is formatted differently than my computer or is it that the file is not compatible with Windows given that it is an Android folder?
Will copying the folder be enough for backing up? If it is this easy to restore the efs, why use EFS Pro? Is there something else with the folder that needs to be present in order to restore a phone that loses IMEI information?
Curious D said:
I tried to copy the efs folder using Root Browser because the adb method looked very involved. When I started Root Browser, it was able to see a Titanium backup that I had placed into the SD card even though I had formatted the SD card. I figured that the format didn't wipe the information so I proceeded to copy the efs folder over. However, after copying the folder, I stuck the card into my computer and did not see the folder and could not copy the folder over to my computer. Is it because the card is formatted differently than my computer or is it that the file is not compatible with Windows given that it is an Android folder?
Will copying the folder be enough for backing up? If it is this easy to restore the efs, why use EFS Pro? Is there something else with the folder that needs to be present in order to restore a phone that loses IMEI information?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you have it on your SD card, it should be fine. The idea is to have it on something else than your device's internal memory in case something goes wrong and can't get it there.
As for efs pro, some devices can't manually backup like the Cappy or is not enough. But once again, it doesn't happen very often that you lose your IMEI.
Okay. That's great. I guess I can try my first ROM flashing to KitKat. Thanks.
Hey Everyone,
I am new to XDA forums,(have used it for troubleshooting in the past but just registered today)
I am also new to android and linux, personally i don't use my phone for anything other than calls or games(i mostly do pc's), however my wife does a lot, she has written her own code, does mods, etc...., and we are both stumped. I am asking this on her behalf, due to a terminal illness she has lost the ability to do several things. On April 30th the lollipop update was pushed to her Note 4 (T-mobile US branded) and it wiped out all of her app data as well as her entire SD card. My question is in 2 parts one regarding the TWRP backup for this phone, and another regarding recovering the SD data from this phone(please let me know if i need to break this out into multiple sections of the site).
We have a TWRP backup that was compressed and loaded onto her cloud storage on 4/27/15, and we are unable to figure out how to get TWRP to recognize it without giving an error about the binary code or just not working period. Here is what we have tried(On advice not just from other XDA posts but various android forums as well)
Using TWRP(7zip for unpacking and repacking)
1. Downloaded the TWRP back up into windows
2. Renamed all files of the back up to be .tar, with the exception of boot which was converted to .img
3. Added Meta-Inf file from what was suppose to be stock ROM( she was not running a custom on this phone)
4. Re-archived everything back into Zip and sideloaded.
result : Error in binary code
Using Odin
1. Converted recovery (file only from backup) to md5 using Cygwin
2. Flashed using Odin
Result: Gained back a few programs but no app data or text histories
We have also tried varying versions of this, i.e. converting extra files or renaming extra files and receive the same issue. I am wondering if it is just an issue with the cloud stored compressed backup(or more likely i dont know what im doing)?
Second question comes from above, I was able to recovery all of the data from the SD card(everything was stored here, app data, recovery files, imgs, everything). When recovering the data it split everything up so all the sub peices of each recovery file are spread out is there a way to combine the individual file parts that were recovered from the SD card into functional android files again?
As i mentioned before i have never really dealt with this type of thing before but i want to try and fix this for her as between the 2 issues she has lost 5 years of data.
Thank you so much for your responses.
Hi, what you need to do is put the backup back into the exact same form it was before, an uncompressed, unzipped folder, then put it into the exact directory where TWRP puts backups when it makes them, and then in TWRP choose the option to restore. If you put the backup in the correct directory, TWRP will see it and allow you to choose it to restore it. Basically you just wanna put the backup back where it was before and then restore it in TWRP.
I wasn't sure if you had done this or not. If you have the backup folder with all the contents in their original form, it should work. I've even moved a backup from one phone onto another phone, exact same model of course, and then restored that backup onto the new phone!
I've never converted a backup into another form to be flashed another way, like Odin or as a zip in TWRP. Although I guess it could be possible it seems like it could be pretty messy.
Also if the TWRP backup was for a kit at build it will not restore on the lollipop baseband. You will need to Odin back to the kitkat NK4 build them you should be able to take the data.
Sent from my SM-N910T using XDA Free mobile app
ShrekOpher said:
Also if the TWRP backup was for a kit at build it will not restore on the lollipop baseband. You will need to Odin back to the kitkat NK4 build them you should be able to take the data.
Sent from my SM-N910T using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
YrrchSebor said:
Hi, what you need to do is put the backup back into the exact same form it was before, an uncompressed, unzipped folder, then put it into the exact directory where TWRP puts backups when it makes them, and then in TWRP choose the option to restore. If you put the backup in the correct directory, TWRP will see it and allow you to choose it to restore it. Basically you just wanna put the backup back where it was before and then restore it in TWRP.
I wasn't sure if you had done this or not. If you have the backup folder with all the contents in their original form, it should work. I've even moved a backup from one phone onto another phone, exact same model of course, and then restored that backup onto the new phone!
I've never converted a backup into another form to be flashed another way, like Odin or as a zip in TWRP. Although I guess it could be possible it seems like it could be pretty messy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you both for the suggestions i will give them a try shortly and i will provide an update on how things go.
Yeah, if you put the backup folder in the right directory, which is either internal or external sdxard/TWRP/BACKUPS/serial #/, you could restore just the data at least and it ought to be mostly ok. You ,might need to clear data in an app here or there if they force close.... or if it's too much then yeah, Odin back to KitKat and restore the desired components of the backup.
YrrchSebor said:
Yeah, if you put the backup folder in the right directory, which is either internal or external sdxard/TWRP/BACKUPS/serial #/, you could restore just the data at least and it ought to be mostly ok. You ,might need to clear data in an app here or there if they force close.... or if it's too much then yeah, Odin back to KitKat and restore the desired components of the backup.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for this, i double checked we had it in the right directory, but it still failed. At first it said something about a missing md5, but i tried again and i was able to get the log for the failure though. (attached below)
Hmm, I looked at the logs trying to make sure you chose to Restore in TWRP and not Install. If so it's possible the backup could have gotten altered or corrupted in the transferring back and forth. If you get it intact as it was, it SHOULD work, but I'm but sure what else to do at the moment. I hope you get it working
Sorry for the delay
Hey Everyone,
Sorry for the delay its been a long week, bad thing after bad thing kept happening. I was able to try your suggestions and i put together some additional information in hope this might help us try and figure it out.
*I must figure out how to recover, texts, contacts, call locks. My default texting app was google messenger.
So I figured I would start with the phone
I am using a Samsung SM-910T on 4.4.4 (build *ANK4) It was pretty Vanilla -> rooted, but running the stock ROM
1. The phone was set to do a full internal backup nightly using the online nandroid backup (by H3r3T1L)
2. Backups were set to be in TWRP backup format and to save to an external SD card, then to compress before being uploaded to google drive
3. Backups were set to delete from SD card after the upload was finished.
What happened
1. When stock 5.0.1 firmware OTA came out i was trying to dismiss the notification but apparently hit "accept" by mistake, causing the system to crash.
2. While restoring the phone, i attempted to download the most recent backup from the google drive and flash the zip to restore my data.
3. This Zip would not install, and i noticed all of the backups uploaded had the same anomally-a few of the files were 0 bytes
4. I downgraded the phone to ANK4 based on the above recommendation but it has made no difference.
5. I still get updated binary error and each time i flash the zip, my OS gets wiped.
6. I have tried instructions to just unzip and flash , to put zips in twrp backup folder, to build new file with meta-inf, etc. and nothing seems to work.
When the SD card got deleted I was able to retrieve some data from the deleted SD card, but don't know where the text messages are located or how to combine them back into a usable format. Or at the very least be able to extract the SMS/MMS history.
I hope this extra information helps. In any way im am desperate to try and fix this for my wife.
I believe you can use Titanium Backup to extract files from a TWRP image. If you can't extract anything from the backup it's either corrupted, in the wrong place, or in the wrong form - that is due to the compression decompression not being compatible (all zip programs are not equal). Best of luck.
BTW, you must restore TWRP files not install them.
Sent from my SM-N910T using XDA Free mobile app
Hello everyone!
I'm trying to figure how to recover any kind of file lost from Nexus 6. The apps I've tried only looked for media types (audio,video,images) or standard docs (html,pdf,zip,doc,...). What I'm exactly trying to do is to recover files which have an uncommon extension. I've tried to do a nandroid backup, using the 1:1 copy of the mmcblk0p42 partition and then, using either Piricuva or PhotoRec, tried to recover the files from the raw image but none of them achieved to find any files.
I don't understand if the absence of results is to ascribe to some kind of encryption in the partition or if it does depends on the effectiveness of the used tools.
Did someone else experienced a similiar issue? Does anyone know how can I perform a correct and full scan of all files?
Thank you all in advance for your attention,
have a nice day
Try Dr.Fone
Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk
I've tried but somehow it isn't finding the ones I've been looking for. Most of the recovered files were thumbnails.. Thanks anyway!