# IMEI?



## johnminator2468 (Mar 14, 2012)

OK ONE QUESTION YOO WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU LOSE YOUR IMEI


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## harosxcomp170 (May 12, 2012)

Spontaneous combustion! You phone will pretty much just catch on fire









Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2


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## MistaWolfe (Oct 10, 2011)

Nobody should tell you, for two reasons:

1) You didn't read the stickies/threads
2) You're screaming










Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2


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## Goose306 (Sep 12, 2011)

CLICK MAH SIG LINK IN BIGG LETTERS IT'LL TELL YOO

or just read the stickies. especially the one that has IMEI in the title


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## nhat (Aug 21, 2011)

Haven't seen a thread covering this yet. Glad you asked!


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## MistaWolfe (Oct 10, 2011)

nhat said:


> Haven't seen a thread covering this yet. Glad you asked!


Lol!

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2


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## brkshr (Jun 16, 2011)

While I agree that the OP should have searched better. I'm just gonna say that we are dangerously close to becoming a-holes like those on XDA. I noticed a couple months ago that some of us (myself included) have been getting a little too comfortable here on Rootz. I've toned my reactions to threads like this since then. Just post a bunch of links for the OP, they'll get the hint & they have been helped by the Rootz community. Many prefer Rootz over XDA because it's a lot nicer atmosphere here. I for one, would like to see Rootz stay on that path.

All I'm saying, is that we should set an example for others (especially those of us that post a lot here). I don't want to see everyone picking up others bad habits & continuing the downward spiral.

Not a personal attack on anyone here. Just food for thought. Been wanting to put this out there to the Rootz members for awhile now.


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## Goose306 (Sep 12, 2011)

I mean no offense... and I don't have a problem helping people. That's why I posted a relevant link. But the way in which the (really quite obvious) question was phrased deserved such a post. I just hope the OP takes it in good jest, as that is how I intended it.

Sent from my jellybeaned AOKP GSIII


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## nhat (Aug 21, 2011)

I'll help those that take the initiative to help themselves. I'm not going to hold someone's hand because what they do with their phone isn't any of our responsibility. All the information in the world is available to them if they would just open their eyes. I don't think it's fair to anybody when we enable members to be lazy. Someone will inevitably say that they don't have the time to look around and read, and to that I'll respond by asking if they believe their time is more valuable than my time or any other member's time.

It saddens me that people have steadily progressed towards safe guarding the world for all the morons and enabling all the lazy people out there.

If you start putting some money in my paypal account, my tune will change and you can continue on being lazy as long as you pay me for my time.


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## TenderloinShadow (Nov 4, 2011)

First of all, the OP should 100% have looked for this. I mean, I can understand if it was some stray piece of info buried in a 200+ page forum, but come on, it's AT THE TOP OF THE FREAKIN' FORUM. That being said, I've been on the other end of one of these before, and I know I don't like the abuse that those of us who feel that we know everything dish out. Remember, we were all noobs at one point. I've learned so much about rooting and ROMing android through the incredibly helpful people on this forum. While the OP should definitely be re-directed to the right post rather than the answer being re-written again, and he should also be instructed on how important it is to do just a little bit of reading before asking a question, we shouldn't abuse the poor kid. Then he won't learn anything, and will probably end up breaking his phone because he's too afraid to ask for help.

That's just my 2 cents.


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## nhat (Aug 21, 2011)

We were all noobs at one point, I know I still am. That's why I stick to "read more, post less" and "better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt".

I took responsibility for my devices and what might happen to them only after I did my research. I only ask questions when I don't completely understand something.

How would you all feel if someone asked you to help raise their child by putting the onus on you to provide the information and resources to do so?


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## ImaComputa (Sep 8, 2011)

I really want to make like a super Q&A thread with all of the info I have gathered. I feel for the new people because I was just one not long ago when my first flash was a froyo-rom-flashed-on-a-gb-kernel brick. Maybe it'd help keep things less cluttered (especially the bread and butter dev threads).


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## MistaWolfe (Oct 10, 2011)

ImaComputa said:


> I really want to make like a super Q&A thread with all of the info I have gathered. I feel for the new people because I was just one not long ago when my first flash was a froyo-rom-flashed-on-a-gb-kernel brick. Maybe it'd help keep things less cluttered (especially the bread and butter dev threads).


Sounds awesome, but you know they don't read stickies 

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2


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## JBO1018 (Jul 19, 2011)

MistaWolfe said:


> Sounds awesome, but you know they don't read stickies
> 
> Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2


This^^ is the problem. I have seen it all over the Galaxy S3 sections here and on XDA. (I don't spend much time in any other sections.) Even if someone spends all that time to make a sticky like that people still won't bother to read it. Maybe it's just me but pretty much the first thing I do on a forum is read the stickies. (especially when looking for answers)

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2


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## bgolden84 (Jun 28, 2011)

JBO1018 said:


> This^^ is the problem. I have seen it all over the Galaxy S3 sections here and on XDA. (I don't spend much time in any other sections.) Even if someone spends all that time to make a sticky like that people still won't bother to read it. Maybe it's just me but pretty much the first thing I do on a forum is read the stickies. (especially when looking for answers)
> 
> Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2


I'm with you bro. Makes me want to pull my damn hair out. Don't understand why someone would not do as much research as they can before doing something that could Bork a $600 phone. Just makes zero sense.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2


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## BrUhNiGGs (Apr 2, 2012)

Others have found a new method to backup the IMEI and never worry about it losing EVER. Just go into terminal and type:
su
reboot nvbackup


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## Goose306 (Sep 12, 2011)

BrUhNiGGs said:


> Others have found a new method to backup the IMEI and never worry about it losing EVER. Just go into terminal and type:
> su
> reboot nvbackup


Its untested. So I would be extremely careful in throwing around generalizations about "EVER" lol.

The Synergy backup IMEI zip has been proven ONCE.

QPST has been proven effective about 90%+ of the time. It has been tested likely 100+ times.

Synergy .zip has been tested once AFAIK.

The method you listed hasn't been proven yet. And it backups up the same stuff the Synergy stuff does (in fact its only about 2 parts compared to the Synergy which backs up an additional 3-4 sections). Synergy backup also backs up the backup you just made typing those commands into terminal.

Confused much yet? lol

Anyways. I'm just saying I'd be very careful making those generalizations. If someone tried it and lost their IMEI and couldn't get it back, that sorta stuff is hanging over your head as you are telling them it works 100% all the time.


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## Jaxidian (Jun 6, 2011)

Goose306 said:


> I'm just saying I'd be very careful making those generalizations.


Quite true! The one generalization I'm comfortable making is that we still don't fully understand the IMEI stuff yet. So this is a very big "at your own risk" situation.

Sent from my phone. Prepare for atrocious Swype typos.


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## dirtydroidx (Jul 4, 2011)

Now JMO , 100% go with QPST . Do those other methods work? Maybe. I know for me , maybe, is just not good enough. It is takes 5 min to download and backup. I have two backups in 2 safe spots. Would you go into a gun fight with mud in the barrel ? Probably not. So just take your time and do it once , that way you don't have to worry about it.

Sent from my SCH-I535 or XT913


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## Goose306 (Sep 12, 2011)

dirtydroidx said:


> Now JMO , 100% go with QPST . Do those other methods work? Maybe. I know for me , maybe, is just not good enough. It is takes 5 min to download and backup. I have two backups in 2 safe spots. Would you go into a gun fight with mud in the barrel ? Probably not. So just take your time and do it once , that way you don't have to worry about it.
> 
> Sent from my SCH-I535 or XT913


Also the other two backup methods are insanely easy and take less than a minute and no PC. The more the merrier when it comes to backups, at least till the issue is nailed down more.

Tapped from my jelly-beaned d2vzw


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## dirtydroidx (Jul 4, 2011)

Goose306 said:


> Also the other two backup methods are insanely easy and take less than a minute and no PC. The more the merrier when it comes to backups, at least till the issue is nailed down more.
> 
> Tapped from my jelly-beaned d2vzw


Agreed ! I have my own theory . I believe its something in CWR . I have nothing to backup up , mind you. The reason I say this is, I was making a backup one day . I thought I swapped out my batteries, and the phone died in the middle of a backup. After turning it back on I noticed a hour later I my NV was nuked . I restored from a back up qsn. So I was not flashing anything. That's the only thing I can think of that would of caused it.

Sent from my SCH-I535 or XT913


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## Jaxidian (Jun 6, 2011)

dirtydroidx said:


> Agreed ! I have my own theory . I believe its something in CWR . I have nothing to backup up , mind you. The reason I say this is, I was making a backup one day . I thought I swapped out my batteries, and the phone died in the middle of a backup. After turning it back on I noticed a hour later I my NV was nuked . I restored from a back up qsn. So I was not flashing anything. That's the only thing I can think of that would of caused it.


That's kinda the reason this is so scary. If you weren't flashing anything, CWM shouldn't have been writing anything anywhere other than to storage for the backup. I really can't imagine CWM having a bug where it accidentally writes to the wrong partition during a simple nandroid. If something like that is the cause, then it could be something as flukey and random as whenever you're writing a lot of data to storage and it loses power, the last write attempt could have the command corrupted resulting in a write to a random location, sometimes the NVRAM (by no means a valid theory, I'm just making up something remotely plausible). So even if 100% of the cases have happened with CWM, it may not really be CWM's fault. And if Samsung has a backup mechanism that kicks in and hoses the valid IMEI (latest theory), this really is a Samsung bug then even though it tends to manifest when using CWM.


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## con247 (Nov 30, 2011)

It appears it is a samsung bug that occurs during the boot process. So I personally don't think CWM caused the loss directly. When you booted back up from the dead battery, that is probably when it got nuked.


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## dirtydroidx (Jul 4, 2011)

Yes I agree its not directly caused by CWM but is a internal R/W issue . With all the story's I read I would venture to say its in the realm of how are phones communicate and update the phones info . So basically when you flash a ROM when the "Android is activating" is taking place is all where your bad day starts. I think if your not in a strong network area , your possibilities are greater. It could be its receiving the wrong update info , then kicking to the right one . Just a dumbed down theory of mine. Cause it seams more apparent using AOSP ROMs ,so there could be leftover code from the port that it stems from. Or it could be just a random fluke that will never get figured out lol either way just make a backup and don't worry about it.

Tapped from i595 or xt913


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## Goose306 (Sep 12, 2011)

dirtydroidx said:


> Yes I agree its not directly caused by CWM but is a internal R/W issue . With all the story's I read I would venture to say its in the realm of how are phones communicate and update the phones info . So basically when you flash a ROM when the "Android is activating" is taking place is all where your bad day starts. I think if your not in a strong network area , your possibilities are greater. It could be its receiving the wrong update info , then kicking to the right one . Just a dumbed down theory of mine. Cause it seams more apparent using AOSP ROMs ,so there could be leftover code from the port that it stems from. Or it could be just a random fluke that will never get figured out lol either way just make a backup and don't worry about it.
> 
> Tapped from i595 or xt913


Happens on Touchwiz ROMs and while ODINing too, although its less common.

As con247 alluded to currently the best understanding is there is a backup of IMEI and nv data in a different partition however from the factory this is a bad backup - 0's or corrupted rather than being the correct IMEI information. In the boot process something triggers the restore from backup (its a safety feature) but because the backup is bad the 0 or corrupted data wipes out the good data on the normal modem partition. So I believe its a routine which should be happening (as far as the restore from backup) but since the backup is bad that's where the wiped IMEI is coming from.


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## dirtydroidx (Jul 4, 2011)

Goose306 said:


> Happens on Touchwiz ROMs and while ODINing too, although its less common.
> 
> As con247 alluded to currently the best understanding is there is a backup of IMEI and nv data in a different partition however from the factory this is a bad backup - 0's or corrupted rather than being the correct IMEI information. In the boot process something triggers the restore from backup (its a safety feature) but because the backup is bad the 0 or corrupted data wipes out the good data on the normal modem partition. So I believe its a routine which should be happening (as far as the restore from backup) but since the backup is bad that's where the wiped IMEI is coming from.


Yes I have read a few of your threads on the matter . Its a tricky little problem , that ppl need to relax a bit on and just make a backup. I think all development threads should have a link to your thread,. IMO it should be a damn law 
Tapped from i595 or xt913


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## TenderloinShadow (Nov 4, 2011)

dirtydroidx said:


> Yes I have read a few of your threads on the matter . Its a tricky little problem , that ppl need to relax a bit on and just make a backup. I think all development threads should have a link to your thread,. IMO it should be a damn law
> Tapped from i595 or xt913


I second that. Granted people still won't read it, but it should be included to help things along as much as possible.


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## j1n5t3r (May 22, 2012)

i know this is kinda off topic but my imei isn't matching the one under my battery. should i be worried? i flashed a jb rom the other day and it kept making me roam so i flashed another rom and it seems fine. The imei number under my battery starts with a 9 but when i check my phone my imeis like 000000123jdk.


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