Backup and Restore EFS and IMEI Partitions on your Galaxy S7

You have just bought a brand new Samsung Galaxy S7 and I bet that one of the first things that you have in mind is rooting it and installing a custom recovery. This means that you can start tweaking your handset to your liking, that you can find the perfect custom ROM and install it on your phone, but be prepared for the unexpected!

Your Galaxy S7 phone reboots, but this doesn’t mean that you are safe from any errors. On the contrary, errors such as “Can’t connect to network” or “Unable to connect to the internet” start appearing and you are in a strange position as you cannot call anyone, message anyone or even connect to the internet with the help of your card’s data.

I’ve heard about many Galaxy S7 owners requesting a solution of a problem that makes them unable to make a call, send a message, access internet or any connectivity related thing. Imagine a mobile phone without a network connection at all and you’ll immediately understand how serious the situation really is!

When you go to Settings > About Phone, you notice that Baseband Version is unknown and even more, there is no IMEI number. How did things end up in such a way? It seems that during the installation of the new custom ROM, the EFS folder or partition becomes corrupt and you have to take action.

The EFS folder is the one that has important information about your phone’s connectivity details and IMEI number. When this folder goes corrupt, you cannot do anything that it related to the SIM card, your Galaxy S7 is no longer capable of its GSM connectivity, it won’t be able to make any calls, won’t send any text messages, it will not detect the SIM card and it might end up changing your phone’s IMEI to null.

In such a situation, after rooting your Samsung Galaxy handset (make sure that you’ve rooted your device before you proceed with this application, so use these guides: How to Root your AT&T Galaxy S7, How to Root Samsung Galaxy S7 Exynos Variant on Marshmallow, How to Root your Galaxy S7 Edge Exynos Model), you must immediately backup the EFS and all other sensitive partitions and then you’re free to do anything of your choice.

How to Backup and Restore EFS and IMEI Partitions on your Galaxy S7:

  1. Download the Partitions Backup and Restore app by using this direct link;
  2. Open the app on your smartphone;
  3. Then, grant SuperSu rights;
  4. From the partitions list, select the EFS and Radio partitions;
  5. Click on the download button to backup the EFS partitions on your device;
  6. Now choose the backup location and the backup format for the EFS format;
  7. To restore the EFS partition, tap on the menu icon in the top-right corner and select the Restore a Partition option;
  8. Select the backup you want to restore and wait until the restore is completed;
  9. At the end, you have to reboot the device once restore is completed.

Let me know if you need additional help as I will do my best to find a solution for any of your problems.

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1 Response

  1. Corrado says:

    Ciao Loredana,
    I am in the situation of having a corrupted efs parrition with null imei and not having done a back before installing custom rom. Any advise?

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