How to restore IMEI to Android after flashing the phone?

Smartphones of even the most reliable and trusted brands can be prone to damage. And one of the most unpleasant when the phone gets lost IMEI.

How to restore IMEI phone on Android

Sometimes there are situations when your favorite smartphone began to fail and you, in order to save money, decided not to carry it to a service center (SC), but to do the firmware upgrade yourself. But it also happens that the firmware was installed normally, and everything works, but you can’t call from the device. So, you have lost IMEI. What is it, and how to restore IMEI to "Android" after the firmware, we will analyze a little lower. But all that you are going to do with your gadget, you do at your own peril and risk.

What is IMEI Phone

IMEI is an abbreviation of the English term International Mobile Equipment Identity, which literally means International Mobile Equipment Identifier. Simply put, this is a special code used to detect and identify a phone on a mobile network. Of course, not just the whole phone, but just its radio module. Without this 15-digit number, the phone cannot receive or send calls. Learn IMEI is very simple. It is enough to type the combination * # 06 # on the telephone keypad and it will be displayed on the screen. If instead of normal numbers you see some kind of “gibberish”, then your IMEI has fallen off due to a “curve” firmware or your inept actions. No problem. In most cases, IMEI can be restored. About how to restore IMEI on Android smartphones of various models, and is described in this article. The procedure depends on the specific manufacturer and the processor installed in the device.

Root rights

For some software methods to restore the IMEI of your smartphone, you may need the so-called root-rights. They make it possible to change the system settings of the phone at a deeper level, up to the removal of system applications. Initially, the “superuser” mode is disabled in all smartphones, and if you decide to receive it, you should remember that the current guarantee (if any) will then become invalid.

MTK processor based devices

Each manufacturer has in its arsenal devices based on MTK processors. If you have just such a device, then consider that you are very lucky. Because the question of how to restore IMEI to Android after firmware for MTK is not relevant. Everything can be easily done there with several commands from the engineering menu. So what do we need to do?

Step-by-step instruction

Step 1. Enter the code of the engineering menu. By default, this is * # * # 3646633 # * # *. This code allows you to access the phone’s engineering menu, through which it is quite possible to delve into its previously inaccessible system functions. Including restore IMEI.

Step 2. Enter the IMEI repair command. It is not so simple. Each manufacturer has its own code.

- ## 8255 ## or ## 4636 ## are replacement commands for Samsung.

- ## 3424 ##, ## 4636 ##, ## 8255 ## - this is for HTC smartphones.

- ## 7378423 ## - this character set for Sony Xperia.

- ## 3646633 ## - this team approaches smartphones of three manufacturers at once: Philips, Alcatel and Fly.

- ## 2846579 ## - and this will replace IMEI on Huawei devices.

Step 3. After entering the necessary commands, you must reboot the machine for the changes to take effect.

If after a reboot the phone began to search for a mobile network, found it and successfully registered in the network, then everything was done correctly. If not, then this method is not for you. There are some “problematic” smartphones with which such a focus will not work.

Repair IMEI on Samsung Galaxy S3

There are some “problematic” devices on which there is protection against intrusion into the factory settings. Therefore, with such phones without "dancing with tambourines" you can not figure it out. One of them is Samsung Galaxy S3. Repair IMEI on it is a big problem. "Problem" is his only Apple product called the iPhone. First, we need to download and install the EFS Professional program on the computer. It allows you to backup IMEI, as well as recover lost. But it can only be restored from a backup copy. If you do not have it, then you have to do everything manually.

1. We find the EFS folder in the system folder of the phone’s firmware (note, the phone must have root-rights). Copy the contents of the folder to the computer.
2. The following files should be in the EFS folder: .nv_data.bak, .nv_data.bak.md5, .nv_core.bak , .nv_core.bak.md5. If they are in place, then we “roll back” to the previous version of the firmware, which was installed by default.
3. After successful firmware, remove the .bak extension in the copied files and move them to the EFS folder located on the phone.
4. Reboot device.

IMEI should recover. If not, then your device has only one way - to the service center. On your own, you can’t do anything else with him. Although the attempt is not torture. You can try to search for information on how to restore IMEI to Android after Samsung Galaxy S3 firmware. It is very possible that there may be some other recovery methods.

Repair IMEI on Lenovo devices

The phones of the famous Chinese company Lenovo also have some problems with the restoration of IMEI, although not as serious as those of Samsung. Here the Chinese are ahead of the Koreans. To restore, you need only one program called MobileUncleTools. It is free, you can find and download it without any difficulty. Alternatively, you can use the Maui Meta 3G program. But MobileUncleTools is much more popular, so we’ll analyze the option with it. So, how to restore IMEI on Lenovo Android smartphone?

1. Install the MobileUncleTools program and all the necessary drivers for your device.
2. We start the program, press the Engineer Mode button, then MTK Engineer Mode, and finally find ourselves in the engineering menu of the smartphone. It is very important that in the process of all the phone manipulation is not disconnected from the computer ahead of time!
3. We write off the IMEI of the phone. To do this, open the back cover and remove the battery.
4. We connect the phone to the computer, look for the CDS Information tab in the program, click Radio Information and Phone 1.
5. At the command line of the program, enter the command AT + EGMR = 1.7, "imei", where imei is the IMEI of the phone you just wrote off.
6. Click the Send AT Command button and wait.
7. After successful completion, reboot the device and check IMEI.

As you can see, we did not have to rack our brains for a long time on how to restore IMEI. Lenovo did not block access to the file system of their smartphones. For what they honor and praise. In general, the MobileUncleTools program is suitable for all devices based on MTK processors. So if you didn’t succeed with the engineering codes from the first method, and you don’t know how to restore IMEI to Android after firmware, then you can try MobileUncleTools. This program should help. Moreover, using it is quite easy. The main thing is to follow the instructions exactly, otherwise you can get a "brick", which alone can no longer be revived.

If everything is done correctly, then the device will still please you a certain number of years. But if not, then the service center can not be avoided. Although few SCs agree to undertake the repair of telephones in the system of which someone has already “rummaged”, and if they do, they don’t bother much and instead just restore the entire motherboard. And this is completely different money.

Recovery on Explay smartphones

Now we’ll look at how to repair an Explay’s IMEI phone. This Russian company has long been known in the mobile device market. Their devices combine high quality and attractive price. Here, almost everything is like the Chinese. In general, there is a certain similarity between Lenovo and Explay smartphones. How to restore IMEI device? Yes, just like a smartphone from Lenovo. Both companies use MTK processors. Therefore, you can use both the Lenovo method using the MobileUncleTools program, and the second method: using the original Maui Meta 3G program.

1. Download and install the Maui Meta 3G program. Install the necessary drivers for the device (if not installed).
2. Run the program. In the Action tab, click the Open NVRAM Database File button and select a file called BPLGUInfoCustomAppSrcP_MT6582 from the previously downloaded firmware for your gadget.
3. Then we press the Disconnect button, turn off the phone and connect it to the computer.
4. Click the Download IMEI button and in the window that appears, enter the previously written-off IMEI without the last digit. She will appear later herself. Click Download To Flash and wait.
5. At the end of the process, disconnect the device and start it. Check IMEI, and if everything is fine, close the program window.

As you can see, in the process of restoring IMEI on Explay smartphones, there is also nothing complicated. The process is very similar to Lenovo smartphones. Only Samsung was greedy to open its phone system to users. On the one hand, this is correct - there is less danger that the phone will be "killed" by those who, inadvertently, got into its firmware. Perhaps this is precisely what Samsung was calculating. Restore IMEI on it on their own is almost impossible. So you have to pay a tidy sum to specialists from the SC.

Recovering IMEI in Purebred Chinese

First, we need to understand the term "purebred Chinese." Such a phrase is usually called cheap copies of expensive smartphones, assembled by hardworking Chinese from cheap components. Such a smartphone differs in a “crooked” translation of the system into Russian, and the presence of unnecessary functions. And in very frequent cases, smartphones have a television receiver. Screens are generally not capacitive. They have to "poke" something subtle so that they work normally. But nevertheless, they also sometimes install an “Android”, albeit a rather “curvilinear" one. And this means that the question of how to restore IMEI on Android smartphones is also relevant for these crafts.

It should be noted separately - Repair IMEI the Chinese phone is not in Huawei or Lenovo, everything is much more complicated here. If there is at least some logic in building the system folders of “normal” smartphones, then in this case it is completely absent. And the desired file is much easier to download from the Internet. But even if the necessary firmware for the smartphone is found, the difficulties do not end there.

The fact is that the "gray" Chinese smartphones are connected to the computer using a USB cable. But for phone firmware you need a cable with a completely different pinout! So you have to solder yourself. The correct wiring diagrams for a particular smartphone model can be found on specialized resources. After the firmware is found and the cable is soldered, the task is greatly simplified.

Now you can use the IMEI repair method, following the example of Explay and Lenovo smartphones. Oddly enough, the "purebred Chinese" also installed MTK processors. So, download MobileUncleTools or Maui Meta 3G and follow the instructions for Lenovo and Explay. If the first method did not help, use the second. The percentage of success in restoring the Chinese IMEI, of course, is small, but in most cases, these two methods can help bring the phone out of the “brick” state.

In general, in order to avoid frequent problems, it would be better not to purchase such smartphones at all. But if this still happened, then in no case do not try to flash them yourself. Since then problems will be immeasurable with them. However, if this has already happened, the IMEI recovery method described in this article will help return your phone to a healthy state.

Warranty

It is also important to remember that if the phone started having problems with IMEI, and the warranty has not expired yet, then it can and should be handed over for service to the warranty service center. If this is not done, then after some software or hardware actions with the phone, the warranty may become invalid.

Conclusion

So, what did we learn about how to restore IMEI on Android smartphones? IMEI recovery is possible. The complexity of the process depends on the phone manufacturer. Samsung is having serious problems with the ability to independently repair IMEI. And smartphones from Lenovo and Explay are pretty malleable in this regard. If you work hard, you can revive the gray Chinese smartphone. The main thing is to follow the instructions exactly, and everything should work out.

Of course, this article is just a general guide. In some cases, it is necessary to turn to specialists from the service center, especially if during some manipulations the smartphone no longer turns on, and the emergency mode message is displayed on the screen.

And finally, advice. Whatever you do with your smartphone, always back up the system. If you have a copy, then it will be much easier to restore IMEI after firmware.