How to Backup and Restore EFS on Samsung Galaxy Note 5, S6 Edge Plus

Planning to root and modify your Galaxy Note 5 or S6 Edge Plus? If so, the very first thing that you should do immediately after rooting your Galaxy Note 5 /S6 Edge Plus is to backup its EFS partition. Before you apply any changes to your new handset’s system, backing up some important data like EFS, Modem, Nandroid is pretty essential. Just in case the modification that you’re going to apply messes up the EFS partition of your phone and damages the networking capabilities of your device by resulting in making its IMEI null, flashing a backup will fix it and your device will be safe and sound once again. In case you’re wondering what is this EFS partition we are talking about, we will go through an over-view to clear it up.

EFS partition stands for Encryption File System. This partition in your phone carries all the information of your device’s radios, Bluetooth and WiFi mac addresses, IMEI etc. This partition is way sensitive. If you mistakenly flash an invalid file i.e. an incompatible custom ROM, custom kernel or any other such file or MOD, that might result in making your EFS partition corrupt. Once the EFS partition goes corrupt, it makes the IMEI of your device NULL. It also results in making your handset a phone without any calling and messaging capabilities. That means you no longer can use the phone app to make any calls as your SIM will be giving you “No Service” error. There’s a lot more to be understood about the EFS partition, but I guess for newbies this much over-view is more then enough. We will put the explanation to an end here and head towards the EFS backup guide.

Now that the Note 5 and S6 Edge Plus have already been rooted, you can easily backup its EFS partition. After trying the method, I have compiled it up here for all of you. Let’s go ahead and learn the instructions to backup or restore EFS on our beloved Galaxy Note 5 and S6 Edge Plus.

How to Backup EFS/IMEI partition on Samsung GalaxyNote 5 or S6 Edge Plus

Make sure that you’ve rooted your device. To root, check out: Root Galaxy Note 5, Root Galaxy S6 Edge Plus.

1. Now download and install Wanam’s Partitions Backup application on your device.
2. Open the application now and grant SuperSu rights.
3. Now click the small tool settings button at the top besides the information button and select the format in which you want to backup the EFS partition. (select .tar and .img formats)
4. Now from the partitions list select EFS and RADIO  partition.
5. Now tap the small arrow in the circle at the lower right corner.
6. It will prompt a confirmation message, tap BACKUP here.
7. That’s all. You will have your EFS files in the “Partitions Backup” folder located in your internet storage.

How to Restore EFS/IMEI partition on Samsung Galaxy Note 5 or S6 Edge Plus

1. If you have accidentially corrupted your EFS partition, you can simply restore it using the same application.
2. Make sure that you have already backed up the EFS partition in .img or any other format.
3. Now open the partitions backup application and tap the small options button at the top right corner.
4. Select restore a partition, and then select your radio and efs.img files from the partitions backup folder inside your internal storage.
5. Once you’ve selected the files, follow on-screen instructions to restore your lost IMEI.
6. That’s all.