IMEI and the EFS partition are very important, especially while flashing a brand new custom ROM. Here is the scenario. You have just bought a brand new Samsung Galaxy S7, S7 edge or even a Samsung Galaxy Note 7, and the first thing you do is root it and install a custom recovery. Then, you find the perfect custom ROM and install it on your phone. Your phone then reboots only for you to find out that you are unable to make any phone calls or connect to the internet.
Errors such as “Can’t connect to network” or “Unable to connect to the internet” start appearing. You can’t call anyone, message anyone or even connect to the internet using your card’s data. When you go to Settings > About Phone, you notice that Baseband Version is unknown and there is no IMEI number. Why does that happen? Because during the installation of the new custom ROM, the EFS folder or partition becomes corrupt. The EFS folder contains 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.
To prevent this from happening, it is always a good idea to make a full backup of the IMEI and EFS partition on your Samsung Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge. All you need is a rooted phone, a Play Store app and you are good to go.
How to backup and restore EFS and IMEI on Galaxy S7 and S7 edge
- Note: This method also applies to other Samsung phones, such as the Galaxy Note 7, Note 5, Galaxy S6, S6 edge and more.
This tutorial works on every Galaxy S7 and S7 edge variant possible, on every carrier.
Carriers
- Sprint
- AT&T
- US Cellular
- T-Mobile
- Verizon
Samsung Galaxy S7
- G930F
- G930K
- G930L
- G930X
- G930S
- G930W8
- G930FD
Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge
- G935F
- G935FD
- G935X
- G935K
- G935L
- G935S
- G935W8
How to back up and restore the EFS and IMEI partition
- Download Partitions Backup & Restore from the Play Store.
- Open the app on your phone.
- When you open the app, you will see that EFS and RADIO are highlighted in yellow. Select both of them.
- Then click the download button. This will make a backup of the EFS folder
- To restore it, tap the three little dots at the top and select “Restore a partition”.
That is all. That is how you restore and backup the IMEI number and EFS partition on the Samsung Galaxy S7 and other Samsung devices.