Develop Bugs

[Q] No ROMs taking, keep getting no MD5 message, phone close to bricked.

I apologize in advance if any of this makes you roll your eyes at my stupidity.
Good Afternoon
I have an ATT samsung galaxy s3, Because of the glitches with 4.3 I was experiencing I decided to install custom software on my phone. So I looked up guides and got everything I needed. I did manage to get root access, and verified with super user. I also installed TWRP and CWM because each kept giving me errors when I tried to install CM 11 onto my phone. I tried CWM first, and when that didn't work I tried TWRP. It says there was no MD5 information found when I try to install any mod. how ever I have used the md5 file checker program and the MD5 matches up to what was listed in this one for example.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=2518998
Download:
CM 11.0 Unofficial Beta 7 for d2tmo and d2att
MD5: ef93957db1e6704f23f9015231a82826
So the MD5 matches, yet when I try to install it keeps giving me errors. I also tried other versions of CM that I found on here via links. Right now my phone has no OS as another guide I read some where also said to wipe system data (sorry if that was stupid, I was just following a guideline) And even more stupid, no I don't have a backup because in my naivety and stupidity I didn't think I'd need one as it seemed so simple from all the guides and videos I'd seen.
Yesterday a friend of mine knowledgeable with tech stuff took one of the original stock Image ROMs I'd downloaded and using linux and some program he managed to do some crazy stuff I can't even describe on here. All I saw was a lot of typing of command lines and it got my phone working again, how ever it wasn't exactly the stock image I guess because the phone would not make or receive calls/texts.
Since my phone was powering on again and the android OS was loading I figured I could connect it to my computer and use KIES to download the official latest update so my phone would be back on the legit software. But trying to do that...well broke my phone again. So I'm at a loss now of what to do. Right now I can still get to download mode on my phone, but when I try to get into recovery mode I get an error that "firmware upgrade encountered an issue. Please select recovery mode in KIES & try again." Which I've tried, and every time I try it gives me an error message.So I'm at a loss of what to do next.
So I'd like to get a working OS on my phone asap so I can get calls and texts.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. And being new I'm sorry if I broke any taboos or did not give some information that is typically given when describing a problem.

gvazquez82 said:
I apologize in advance if any of this makes you roll your eyes at my stupidity.
Good Afternoon
I have an ATT samsung galaxy s3, Because of the glitches with 4.3 I was experiencing I decided to install custom software on my phone. So I looked up guides and got everything I needed. I did manage to get root access, and verified with super user. I also installed TWRP and CWM because each kept giving me errors when I tried to install CM 11 onto my phone. I tried CWM first, and when that didn't work I tried TWRP. It says there was no MD5 information found when I try to install any mod. how ever I have used the md5 file checker program and the MD5 matches up to what was listed in this one for example.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=2518998
Download:
CM 11.0 Unofficial Beta 7 for d2tmo and d2att
MD5: ef93957db1e6704f23f9015231a82826
So the MD5 matches, yet when I try to install it keeps giving me errors. I also tried other versions of CM that I found on here via links. Right now my phone has no OS as another guide I read some where also said to wipe system data (sorry if that was stupid, I was just following a guideline) And even more stupid, no I don't have a backup because in my naivety and stupidity I didn't think I'd need one as it seemed so simple from all the guides and videos I'd seen.
Yesterday a friend of mine knowledgeable with tech stuff took one of the original stock Image ROMs I'd downloaded and using linux and some program he managed to do some crazy stuff I can't even describe on here. All I saw was a lot of typing of command lines and it got my phone working again, how ever it wasn't exactly the stock image I guess because the phone would not make or receive calls/texts.
Since my phone was powering on again and the android OS was loading I figured I could connect it to my computer and use KIES to download the official latest update so my phone would be back on the legit software. But trying to do that...well broke my phone again. So I'm at a loss now of what to do. Right now I can still get to download mode on my phone, but when I try to get into recovery mode I get an error that "firmware upgrade encountered an issue. Please select recovery mode in KIES & try again." Which I've tried, and every time I try it gives me an error message.So I'm at a loss of what to do next.
So I'd like to get a working OS on my phone asap so I can get calls and texts.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. And being new I'm sorry if I broke any taboos or did not give some information that is typically given when describing a problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
same error happened to me yesterday and spent the whole day figuring it out. get into download mode. boot up ODIN and reflash your preferred custom recovery. after that, i couldn't find anything else to restore my phone with so i installed 4.3 leaked from here. doesn't matter which one you select. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2498233. place it on your sd card and head into recovery mode, wipe data/factory reset and cache. head to install zip from sd card and select the 4.3 zip you downloaded. reboot system and it should work. the at&t boot screen takes a while so be patient

MrHaPpY66 said:
same error happened to me yesterday and spent the whole day figuring it out. get into download mode. boot up ODIN and reflash your preferred custom recovery. after that, i couldn't find anything else to restore my phone with so i installed 4.3 leaked from here. doesn't matter which one you select. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2498233. place it on your sd card and head into recovery mode, wipe data/factory reset and cache. head to install zip from sd card and select the 4.3 zip you downloaded. reboot system and it should work. the at&t boot screen takes a while so be patient
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First of all thank you for trying to help me, I hope you are having a good Thanks Giving.
I used the thread you linked to, and downloaded the version with out knox. I followed the instructions
transferred ROM and flashed kernel file to SD card
used odin to flash TWRP,
used twrp to flash rom and kernel file.
and it takes the file thankfully, there's only one issue. My phone can't make or receive calls/texts. Is yours able to?

I messed up and was playing with things That I had no business playing with and decided that I should do a restore of a backup (TWRP) I made as soon as I rooted the 4.3 OTA. well it has soft bricked my phone. it was a TWRP 4.3 Nandroid and has me messed up a little.
so far I tried My nandroid (no dice now a soft brick) cleared cache and dalvik, It was booting as far as the white at&t spinning thing,
Factory reset same on booting,
Tried a format of the internal sd this is where it gets sketchy it now goes as far as the second samsung screen(the one that says Samsung GALAXY S III)
4.3 OTA .zip (no dice TWRP wont flash it) same on the booting 2nd samsung boot screen
Tried the files in the link above and got a Hard brick
Used the debricking .IMG file and got TWRP and download mode back
Any suggestions?
Looks like I might need a JTAG/RIFF BOX for this one. If nothing else I spent many Hours of darkness discovering the darkness of android 4.3
If I get recovered from this and with a different rom like 4.1.2 I will be happy. the 4.3 OTA was very stable but I did miss wifi tether and the whole hardbrick thing was kind of a bummer. it would be real nice to have an ODIN file to fix this (AHEM samsung) or atleast perhaps stopped the progression of it to a hard brick.
New update
I got my phone booting up again however there is a catch. That unbrick.img file on my 16GB sd card is still required to boot the phone and I have no cell service what so ever. Tried to check apn settings because at home I sometimes get poor service and I run net10 so I was going to fix my apn and it says insert sim??? the sim is properly inserted???
Next Update
the bootloader I flashed apparently flashed to the external sd card? I flashed another one and it is booting from the internal sd. I had to flash a different modem the one in the bootloader/modem file I flashed from the link above didnt take? I got most everything sorted out, but im getting tired, it has been an all night adventure. its 08:23 est now
sorry for the delay in updating this I had to get some rest.

theramsey3 said:
I messed up and was playing with things That I had no business playing with and decided that I should do a restore of a backup (TWRP) I made as soon as I rooted the 4.3 OTA. well it has soft bricked my phone. it was a TWRP 4.3 Nandroid and has me messed up a little.
so far I tried My nandroid (no dice now a soft brick) cleared cache and dalvik, It was booting as far as the white at&t spinning thing,
Factory reset same on booting,
Tried a format of the internal sd this is where it gets sketchy it now goes as far as the second samsung screen(the one that says Samsung GALAXY S III)
4.3 OTA .zip (no dice TWRP wont flash it) same on the booting 2nd samsung boot screen
Tried the files in the link above and got a Hard brick
Used the debricking .IMG file and got TWRP and download mode back
Any suggestions?
Looks like I might need a JTAG/RIFF BOX for this one. If nothing else I spent many Hours of darkness discovering the darkness of android 4.3
If I get recovered from this and with a different rom like 4.1.2 I will be happy. the 4.3 OTA was very stable but I did miss wifi tether and the whole hardbrick thing was kind of a bummer. it would be real nice to have an ODIN file to fix this (AHEM samsung) or atleast perhaps stopped the progression of it to a hard brick.
New update
I got my phone booting up again however there is a catch. That unbrick.img file on my 16GB sd card is still required to boot the phone and I have no cell service what so ever. Tried to check apn settings because at home I sometimes get poor service and I run net10 so I was going to fix my apn and it says insert sim??? the sim is properly inserted???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Go into Settings, About Phone, Status and check to see if your IMEI and Serial Number are present. If you only lost your IMEI there's a guide on how to inject it back (I'm not sure where the guide is). However if you've lost your serial number and don't have a Nandroid that can restore it I don't know what to do.

spongdangly said:
Go into Settings, About Phone, Status and check to see if your IMEI and Serial Number are present. If you only lost your IMEI there's a guide on how to inject it back (I'm not sure where the guide is). However if you've lost your serial number and don't have a Nandroid that can restore it I don't know what to do.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i have my serial number showing but no IMEI number. So is that all that's needed for me to be able to call and text again?

gvazquez82 said:
i have my serial number showing but no IMEI number. So is that all that's needed for me to be able to call and text again?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I updated my post above and showed my soultion. I simply had to flash a new modem and almost everything was kosher. I also had to flasah a different kernel but that was for preference not because things werent working.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=47817339&postcount=23 Modem download
I used that modem, flash it and see if your problems go away. I use Net10 so after I flashed the Modem I had to create an APN aswell, but that is nothing new for me.

theramsey3 said:
I updated my post above and showed my soultion. I simply had to flash a new modem and almost everything was kosher. I also had to flasah a different kernel but that was for preference not because things werent working.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=47817339&postcount=23 Modem download
I used that modem, flash it and see if your problems go away. I use Net10 so after I flashed the Modem I had to create an APN aswell, but that is nothing new for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I will give that a shot, but what's an APN, sorry. And how do I create one, and is it needed for me to do so?

gvazquez82 said:
i have my serial number showing but no IMEI number. So is that all that's needed for me to be able to call and text again?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It should be, I'm working right now so I don't have time to fine the guide on how to inject your IMEI. If I remember correctly it involves using QPST. If you have an old (or any) working Nandroid backup that should fix the problem.
FYI, make sure you don't use the guide for the international S3 as it has different hardware and folder structure/contents.
As for the APN, it should automatically fill itself in since it reads it off the SIM Card (I might be wrong).

theramsey3 said:
I updated my post above and showed my soultion. I simply had to flash a new modem and almost everything was kosher. I also had to flasah a different kernel but that was for preference not because things werent working.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=47817339&postcount=23 Modem download
I used that modem, flash it and see if your problems go away. I use Net10 so after I flashed the Modem I had to create an APN aswell, but that is nothing new for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried it and it work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
67 texts just came in. Sir, I thank you oh so kindly. You have made this gloomy rainy day oh so joyous.

No problem. Glad I could help you.
The real credit should go to -Mr.X-, loserskater and anyone else(no disrespect there were alot of files) whose stuff I tried to flash lastnight thank you all in the dev community who contribute.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app

So I guess the next question, do I try again to install kit kat on my phone.
I've already made bucks of my existing working phone haha....but I'd still like to have kitkat in place. I believe the issue of my phone not reading MD5 confirmations would still be in place, does anyone know how to remedy that situation?
At the same time I'm more than happy to leave my phone as is.

gvazquez82 said:
So I guess the next question, do I try again to install kit kat on my phone.
I've already made bucks of my existing working phone haha....but I'd still like to have kitkat in place. I believe the issue of my phone not reading MD5 confirmations would still be in place, does anyone know how to remedy that situation?
At the same time I'm more than happy to leave my phone as is.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Pretty sure you can turn off MD5 checks in TWRP. Probably in CWM too. Sorry if this has been mentioned. Didn't have time to read the whole thread. Just skimmed through.
2nd, there is a major difference between an IMEI that reads 0 and an IMEI that shows unknown. If it shows an unknown simply reflash your ROM and modem and you will be good to go. Sometimes a reboot is all you need. If your IMEI is showing a 0 on the other hand its gone and will require that it be injected back in which is a messy situation that usually results in tour phone being stuck on EDGE.
3rd, as someone mentioned on the previous page, restoring a working nandroid will NOT reinject your IMEI if it shows up as 0. No amount of flashing anything will get it to come back. Not even stock. It needs to be reinjected manually.

flexfulton said:
Pretty sure you can turn off MD5 checks in TWRP. Probably in CWM too. Sorry if this has been mentioned. Didn't have time to read the whole thread. Just skimmed through.
2nd, there is a major difference between an IMEI that reads 0 and an IMEI that shows unknown. If it shows an unknown simply reflash your ROM and modem and you will be good to go. Sometimes a reboot is all you need. If your IMEI is showing a 0 on the other hand its gone and will require that it be injected back in which is a messy situation that usually results in tour phone being stuck on EDGE.
3rd, as someone mentioned on the previous page, restoring a working nandroid will NOT reinject your IMEI if it shows up as 0. No amount of flashing anything will get it to come back. Not even stock. It needs to be reinjected manually.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
do you know of a good stable kit kat like ROM I could use for the s3? And any speculation as to why the ROMs werent taking for me?

[Q] No Network or IMEI number, :-S

Hi there guys of XDA,
I have a major problem with my NOTE 2, after playing around with some ROMs, Cyanogenmod 11 4.4 NIGHTLY, 10.2 4.3 and Omni 4.4.1 NIGHTLY. I used CWM to load these ROMs with SUPERsu?. This is the first time i have flashed any ROMs onto my phone.
CM 11 was the first ROM i flashed on my NOTE 2 and that's when it started it couldn't detect my sim, It doesn't show me my IMEI number and my Baseband version. I didn't make a back-up of the stock because i didn't need one.
Now i'm stuck with a phone i can only use on Wifi is there anyone that can help? or if its happened to someone else? how did you sort it out?
Also can i restore this through KIES?

shirazi15 said:
Hi there guys of XDA,
I have a major problem with my NOTE 2, after playing around with some ROMs, Cyanogenmod 11 4.4 NIGHTLY, 10.2 4.3 and Omni 4.4.1 NIGHTLY. I used CWM to load these ROMs with SUPERsu?. This is the first time i have flashed any ROMs onto my phone.
CM 11 was the first ROM i flashed on my NOTE 2 and that's when it started it couldn't detect my sim, It doesn't show me my IMEI number and my Baseband version. I didn't make a back-up of the stock because i didn't need one.
Now i'm stuck with a phone i can only use on Wifi is there anyone that can help? or if its happened to someone else? how did you sort it out?
Also can i restore this through KIES?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had this exact issue last week when flashing Kitkat AOSP ROM. Even restoring back to 4.3.1 no network connection was available, except for WiFi. Restoring your EFS will not even work. You just have to re-root your phone.
Not to worry, your phone is OK, perfectly OK. But just quite a bit of work needs to be done. Here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2032849
1. Download original stock firmware for your country and telco
2. Download mode that firmware back to your phone using Odin
3. Download mode to install recovery, this will re-root your phone above steps will un-root your phone
4. Re-flash ROM of your choice, not Kitkat for now
After all i've gone through, and as much as i want to try Kitkat, i think this issue is recovery-related. Both TWRP and CWM needs updating for Android 4.4. I will wait until then.
All the best!

Gandicela said:
I had this exact issue last week when flashing Kitkat AOSP ROM. Even restoring back to 4.3.1 no network connection was available, except for WiFi. Restoring your EFS will not even work. You just have to re-root your phone.
Not to worry, your phone is OK, perfectly OK. But just quite a bit of work needs to be done. Here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2032849
1. Download original stock firmware for your country and telco
2. Download mode that firmware back to your phone using Odin
3. Download mode to install recovery, this will re-root your phone above steps will un-root your phone
4. Re-flash ROM of your choice, not Kitkat for now
After all i've gone through, and as much as i want to try Kitkat, i think this issue is recovery-related. Both TWRP and CWM needs updating for Android 4.4. I will wait until then.
All the best!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanx for getting back to me at least someone can help. After i followed the things you told me to do. It didn't put the stock ROM back on there so i'm stuck with omni.
After Odin loaded everything to the phone it just keeps going into recovery mode? is that normal or am i doing it wrong because the link you posted up doesn't mention anything about that :-s and i followed everything that link said to do.

shirazi15 said:
Thanx for getting back to me at least someone can help. After i followed the things you told me to do. It didn't put the stock ROM back on there so i'm stuck with omni.
After Odin loaded everything to the phone it just keeps going into recovery mode? is that normal or am i doing it wrong because the link you posted up doesn't mention anything about that :-s and i followed everything that link said to do.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mate, firstly this is the hard way of recovering from "Unknown Baseband" issue. Finally the simple solution was only to download and install an app called SELinux Mode Changer from PlayStore. Then using that app, change SELinux from Enforcing to Permissive resolved everything related to IMEI, EFS, and Unknown Baseband. So hard way I did; i didn't know any better then.
By the way the link is correct. Start from the procedure from the line that says "Installation Instruction [Mobile odin is now have support for NOTE2]"
You must be in download mode (Vol Down, Home, & Power button all pressed together) to flash the Stock ROM using Odin. But where is your status now? If in recovery, can you re-install a ROM? If u r able to reboot back up to OMNI, just install the SELinux app and u will be good to go.
Cheers!

shirazi15 said:
Hi there guys of XDA,
I have a major problem with my NOTE 2, after playing around with some ROMs, Cyanogenmod 11 4.4 NIGHTLY, 10.2 4.3 and Omni 4.4.1 NIGHTLY. I used CWM to load these ROMs with SUPERsu?. This is the first time i have flashed any ROMs onto my phone.
CM 11 was the first ROM i flashed on my NOTE 2 and that's when it started it couldn't detect my sim, It doesn't show me my IMEI number and my Baseband version. I didn't make a back-up of the stock because i didn't need one.
Now i'm stuck with a phone i can only use on Wifi is there anyone that can help? or if its happened to someone else? how did you sort it out?
Also can i restore this through KIES?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
can you try what i did? http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2567862&nocache=1
good luck.
"Just sharing my experience in solving this issue. Hopefully it will help solve those who have similar issues.
I flashed a file which messed up my EFS partition. I had a backup and tried to use the available programs to restore my EFS using my backup. None worked. I even brought it to the samsung store, but they said they would change the motherboard and reprogram, and replacement and service would cost more than half the cost of a new N7105. I purchased the phone in another country. The people who had stores to repair phones gave up on my phone. They also offered to replace the motherboard for US$175.00.
My phone was originally under a DMB2 rom (from Singapore I think). I flashed a DMC3 rom, and used this for five months, until i encountered the problem.
I initially gave up and got a note 3. But i could not believe the phone was junk and people in XDA (as I observed) do not seem to give up.
After two weeks, i found the solution below, which brought my phone to working condition.
1. I flashed the stock rom N7105ZHDMI2_N7105ZZHDMI2_TGY from sammobile.
2. I flashed a pit file using Odin. The pit file is found here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=2137008
This restored the baseband. But IMEI was no longer NULL. However, it was still 0.
3. I downloaded and used the EFS Pro from this link:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=1308546
Before using EFS Pro, make sure you dial *#7284# and change the setting of Qualcomm USB Settings to
"RMNET + DM + MODEM"
I will not hurt your phone if you do, but EFS Pro will just not work. If you don't do this, the EFS Pro will display "Phone not responding" or something similar.
NOTE: I couldn't find the option with RMNET, but i used the option that also had an "RM*** + DM + MODEM".
After the phone is read, change back the IMEI to what it was originally.
Dial *#7284# again to change back to "MTP+ADB".
It's all working now.
Hope this is able to help someone. Now i have two working versions of Note.
Thanks to the authors of the program i used, and the people who uploaded the files used.
Cheers!

shirazi15 said:
Thanx for getting back to me at least someone can help. After i followed the things you told me to do. It didn't put the stock ROM back on there so i'm stuck with omni.
After Odin loaded everything to the phone it just keeps going into recovery mode? is that normal or am i doing it wrong because the link you posted up doesn't mention anything about that :-s and i followed everything that link said to do.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
karlonicolas said:
can you try what i did? http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2567862&nocache=1
good luck.
"Just sharing my experience in solving this issue. Hopefully it will help solve those who have similar issues.
I flashed a file which messed up my EFS partition. I had a backup and tried to use the available programs to restore my EFS using my backup. None worked. I even brought it to the samsung store, but they said they would change the motherboard and reprogram, and replacement and service would cost more than half the cost of a new N7105. I purchased the phone in another country. The people who had stores to repair phones gave up on my phone. They also offered to replace the motherboard for US$175.00.
My phone was originally under a DMB2 rom (from Singapore I think). I flashed a DMC3 rom, and used this for five months, until i encountered the problem.
I initially gave up and got a note 3. But i could not believe the phone was junk and people in XDA (as I observed) do not seem to give up.
After two weeks, i found the solution below, which brought my phone to working condition.
1. I flashed the stock rom N7105ZHDMI2_N7105ZZHDMI2_TGY from sammobile.
2. I flashed a pit file using Odin. The pit file is found here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=2137008
This restored the baseband. But IMEI was no longer NULL. However, it was still 0.
3. I downloaded and used the EFS Pro from this link:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=1308546
Before using EFS Pro, make sure you dial *#7284# and change the setting of Qualcomm USB Settings to
"RMNET + DM + MODEM"
I will not hurt your phone if you do, but EFS Pro will just not work. If you don't do this, the EFS Pro will display "Phone not responding" or something similar.
NOTE: I couldn't find the option with RMNET, but i used the option that also had an "RM*** + DM + MODEM".
After the phone is read, change back the IMEI to what it was originally.
Dial *#7284# again to change back to "MTP+ADB".
It's all working now.
Hope this is able to help someone. Now i have two working versions of Note.
Thanks to the authors of the program i used, and the people who uploaded the files used.
Cheers!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice, thanks!
For all others that might face "unknown baseband" with 4.3 to 4.4 flashing of ROMS, SELinux Mode Changer app from Playstore will fix that problem. Install the app and set SELinux from Enforcing to Permissive.

i hope your problem is fixed.
i'm not too familiar with CM roms, as i have been using stock since gingerbread. but you have to first do a full wipe before flashing from CM to stock. did you do that? perhaps you can go to recovery, do a full wipe, include Dalvik and Cache. Then go to bootloader and flash your rom.
by the way, my chipset is qualcomm yours may be exynos. if so, then i'm not confident about this solution because i have tried this several times, but only on note 2 LTE.
good luck!

ROM crash, Odin crash, partly saved, assistance needed

Hi there
FIrst of all sorry for the way i'm talking but well im a foreigner and sometimes make mistakes.
To the point. My Note 2 had Ditto DN4 flashed, it was working fine BUT today it just decided not to. It kept rebooting after 4 sec every time so i decided to reflash rom, i did it aaand still the same problem. Ok then, i grabbed this '3 files ROM with PIT file', sorry but i don't know the proper name. Either way, i tried to flash it using odin and thats when things started to go crazy. For some reasons it did not flashed and i was left with just DOWNLOAD MODE! I have no idea why but odin kept saying FAILED after NAND WRITE line. I panicked, flashed it like 45416165415 times but still did not work. After i read a few threads i thought, that i bricked the device BUT i thought what the hell, I'll flash recovery again aaand IT WORKED!
So now, what I'm asking for. Can anyone tell me what are the steps now? What ROM should i flash, if i had MJ5 bootloader? (well i think so, in Ditto thread they say that it works only on MJ5 but i don't really remember whether i did flash it or not). I'll be really really gratefull for any help. I just don't want to ruin it after that recovery flashed.

Unbelievable things happens frequently when using a custom rom or kernel ，especially on the device like N7105.......My pac-ROM got crashed when converting an app to system folder with Ti-backup and reboot，it blacked screen after the first logo screen， and failed enter recovery despite I pulled out battery. When I got crazy and was about to work it out with odin and it entered rec.....I think maybe the single tar.md5 file will help the most......If you a lucky enough

Finding a TWRP EFS backup for Sprint Samsung SPH-L900 (Note 2), IMEI gone

First root and thought I had everything covered, but of course something hiccuped and now I have Unknown IMEI, Baseband, Hardware version, Software version and can't connect to the network. All my apps and wifi are working.
Before installing TWRP I looked for a way to backup my entire device and could find nothing that would work before rooting or flashing a recovery to replace the stock recovery. I finally just went ahead and flashed TWRP and created a backup with that. There were errors that had to do with the Samsung calendar app data that made the backup fail. I excluded data from the backup and was able to complete what was reported as a successful backup. I did not allow TWRP to install root access before reboot.
I then installed via Odin the Chainfire SuperSU successfully and thought was free and clear. When I rebooted everything worked fine, except the phone would not connect to network and reported "Searching for Service."
Upon investigation into that I discovered the other issues that all seem to be tied to the EFS partition. I tried restoring the EFS partition from the TWRP backup I created immediately after installing TWRP, but that fixed nothing. It seems that the TWRP installation itself was what killed the EFS partition data.
If I understand correctly, flashing the stock Sprint ROM L900VPUCOH3, should fix the problem, but then I would still have to restore the IMEI, which I can't do without a rooted device. Also, even if it worked, I couldn't backup the EFS partition only, without a rooted device. So my logic is that if I could get a functioning TWRP EFS only backup for my device, I could restore that, reset the IMEI and be back in the ballgame.
Before I started down this path my phone was lagging badly and freezing up. I did a soft reset and got the speed back, but then the apps began crashing randomly and intermittently, both the native ones and the downloaded ones. I then did a factory reset and everything worked right. I reinstalled my downloaded apps and kept my speed and stability. It took several days for me to download, configure and add all my accounts back manually and everything remained fast and stable. I would really hate to have to start from scratch all over again.
Any assistance would be appreciated. Below is what I looked like before I got maimed:
Software Version
L900VPUCOH3
Hardware Version
L900.09
Model number
SPH-L900
Android version
4.4.2
Baseband version
L900VPUCOH3
Kernel version
3.0.31-3084104
[email protected] #1
Mon Aug 24 17:13:18 KST 2015
Build number
KOT49H.L900VPUCOH3
SE for Android status
Enforcing
SEPF_SPH-L900_4.4.2_0033
Mon Aug 24 17:29:53 KST 2015
This is what I look like now:
Software Version
Unknown
Hardware Version
(blank)
Model number
SPH-L900
Android version
4.4.2
Baseband version
Unknown
Kernel version
3.0.31-3084104
[email protected] #1
Mon Aug 24 17:13:18 KST 2015
Build number
KOT49H.L900VPUCOH3
SE for Android status
Enforcing
SEPF_SPH-L900_4.4.2_0033
Mon Aug 24 17:29:53 KST 2015
If there is another approach that would rectify the situation then I am all ears. I can fix a computer, but phones are an entirely foreign animal to me. I'll be the first to tell you I don't know enough and welcome the learning experience, I just wish it it wasn't under life or death circumstances.
**UPDATE**
While still investigating possible solutions, something has come to my attention. I do not have the original IMEI info anywhere!! I have the MEID only. I was able to get the serial number from a Samsung registration email, and was able to use a converter to calculate the ESN from the MEID. I tried tap dancing with Sprint to get the IMEI, but all I could get from them was the MEID info I already had.

First of all, please keep away from TWRP since it causes many problems on the N2 from installation to flashing roms.
I suggest you to :
1- Flash with Odin a FULL restore image of stock rom (to restore partitions table, modem, and rebuild your IMEI).
2- Flash with Odin "Philz custom recovery", especially this version.
3- Flash SuperSU flashable Zip with Philz recovery.
Normally, everything should be fine (a working phone with root privilege).

Clarification of Stock ROM Version
zlazaar said:
First of all, please keep away from TWRP since it causes many problems on the N2 from installation to flashing roms.
I suggest you to :
1- Flash with Odin (...too new to even quote an outside url) a FULL restore image of stock rom (oh well...) (to restore partitions table, modem, and rebuild your IMEI).
2- Flash with Odin "Philz custom recovery", especially (...ditto) this version (ditto...).
3- Flash (...ditto) SuperSU flashable Zip (ditto...) with Philz recovery.
Normally, everything should be fine (a working phone with root privilege).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The stock ROM you linked to SPH-L900_NE2 causes me a bit of concern as my phone is on L900VPUCOH3. I was already up to 4.4.2 KitKat.
Unless there is some specific reason I should use the NE2 version, I am going to locate an OH3 version and work with that.
Thank you for your help, that was pretty much the route I thought made logical sense with the lack of a patch to my issue, to go back to stock and start over. I wasn't aware of any TWRP issues, so that was also a big help and I already have SuperSU.
While I wait for a response I am going to go and try to do my due diligence to find out more about Philz Recovery, so that I can move on and get back in the game. No phone for New Years Eve will suck a big fat one!!

zlazaar said:
First of all, please keep away from TWRP since it causes many problems on the N2 from installation to flashing roms.
I suggest you to :
1- Flash with Odin ... a FULL restore image of stock rom ... (to restore partitions table, modem, and rebuild your IMEI).
2- Flash with Odin "Philz custom recovery", especially ... this version[/URL].
3- Flash ... SuperSU flashable Zip ... with Philz recovery.
Normally, everything should be fine (a working phone with root privilege).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
(This response took such a long time because between the holidays, typing the original reply which was lost due to a badly placed refresh touch-button on this keyboard and subsequent issues with the phone, I'm just getting back to it now. This one is much less detailed than the original that was lost.)
As per my previous reply regarding flashing NE2 instead of OH3, I couldn't find a source for the OH3 stock ROM that I was comfortable with, so I just went with your instructions and viola!, all was working again, with IMEI, MEID and everything else back to functioning. I had connection to the carrier network, and after 2 OTA updates, I was back to the OH3 version.
The installation of Philz Recovery and Chainfire's SuperSU went fine. So as far as my original issue, my phone was back to normal, with custom recovery and root added.
Thank you zlazaar for your assistance. Seeing that you were the only one that responded, you truly were a lifesaver for both me and my phone, and though I may have eventually gotten to the process you described by hit, miss or frustration, you save me a lot of time and angst since at that point my biggest concern was a working phone, not the root.
From there it went downhill because I ran into different issues, the only part that relates to this thread is this, should I have used the working TWRP to wipe the ROM before flashing the new stock NE2 ROM to the phone with ODIN? I flashed OVER what was there which might have caused the problems I had later on down the road.
I will post the problems I had after this in another thread when I have a chance and put a link to it here. That way I won't have to retype from the beginning, and anyone this might help can see other issues they may encounter.
On the up side, I think I'm pretty practiced in rooting the SPH-L900 and rooting it. Also, since Sprint couldn't fix or replace my Note 2 after I was done with it, I'm getting a Note 4 as a replacement. (I managed to brick it leaving a KIES error message as the only thing it would do besides Download Mode at power up or starting to recovery.) Worst case, if I brick the new Note 4
On the down side, now I'm going to have a phone I'm going to have to start from scratch learning what can and can't be done to it, as well as deal with the stronger KNOX...and now I have all these Note 2 ROMS (Funny enough, the tech at Sprint said he wanted to try more but they are so restricted on the internet he couldn't download the files he wanted. I said to myself, betcha I have the files he was looking for!!)

IMEI unknown after full NAND erase - Any ideas how to recover?

Good evening you absolute legends!
After quietly reading along since 2013 and flashing a few phones over the years thanks to you, I'm now at a point where I can't think of anything to do with my problem.
So I bought my dad a used G960F for his birthday and wanted to install Lineage OS just as I did with mine a couple months ago. To make things short, in the meantime all ROMs I used where deleted, so I did the same procedure but with other ROMs, and well ... bricked the phone. After a week or so I finally got it working (didnt know about Samsungs bootloader hierarchy and couldn't flash a ROM with a lower BL), just to find out now that in the process the IMEI got deleted completely.
After seeing too many shady websites this is what I tried so far:
Flashing with a Pit-File + NAND Erase and Re-Partiton
Flashing stock rom (tried both Android 9 and Android 10)
Erasing everything or only parts of the efs/ folder, even though I only found that applied to other Samsung phones than mine
One ROM I tried back when the phone was bricked was from _alexndr, and I found one post where a user also lost IMEI after using it but got it back when he installed the ROM again. This one I will try out now.
So I have one G960F working but with empty IMEI. Not a bunch of zeros, its simply empty. I know one correct IMEI, since its printed on the OEM box three times. (Don't know why they dont print both numbers on the box....). I've seen a bunch of semi-(il)legal Apps that let you change the IMEI, but I dont feel like getting into that and it wouldn't help me with the second IMEI.
(Additionally, I have my own G960F completely working, if it helpes in any way.)
Does any of you have any ideas left or has experience with such a problem?
Either way, thanks for taking your time with me and everybody else!
Cheers Anthony

Hi guys!
I solved my problem and maybe my way can help some of you.
As I understood from _alexndr's thread [1] is that you can not only not go down a BL-Version when flashing, but you can't also go down in the CSC version. But while doing the first thing resolves in an error while flashing, the second one simply works but therefore can't detect the IMEI etc sometimes.
My solution in the end was to flash _alendr's kerlel, force my CSC module (maybe this parts isn't necessary) while flashing and and then installing the BL he provided [2].
Even though this thread stayed empty, I still wanna thank all of you for keeping up so much work!
[1] https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/...vbase-v7-4-encryption-support-may-09.3764822/
[2] https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/...support-may-09.3764822/page-151#post-84984391