{"id":9785,"date":"2019-05-07T15:36:49","date_gmt":"2019-05-07T15:36:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/journal.hovatek.com\/?p=6083"},"modified":"2022-08-15T22:11:30","modified_gmt":"2022-08-15T22:11:30","slug":"how-to-fix-invalid-imei-on-android-phones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hovatek.com\/blog\/how-to-fix-invalid-imei-on-android-phones\/","title":{"rendered":"How to fix Invalid IMEI on Android phones"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">How much do you know about the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI)? For starters, IMEI is a unique 15-digit number which GSM service providers use to identify your device. You can check your IMEI by dialing <strong>*#06#<\/strong>  on your phone. When you have a null or invalid IMEI on your Android phone, you&#8217;ll be unable to make \/ receive calls or dial USSD codes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What is Invalid IMEI?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While an IMEI has a specific format (you could use an online IMEI checker to verify), most mentions of invalid IMEI you&#8217;ll come across refer to a null IMEI. In some cases, its a strange IMEI in place of the original. In other words, the IMEI has gone missing or replaced by an undesired one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What are the causes of invalid IMEI?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While you might have encountered tales of  invalid IMEI after a factory reset, the root cause boils down to a corrupted or wiped NV partition. This is common after formatting or flashing the phone. You&#8217;ll come across talk of NVRAM for Mediatek or Spreadtrum phones. For Qualcomm, it&#8217;ll be EFS and QCN.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How to fix invalid IMEI<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When faced with null or invalid IMEI, there are two important things to find out:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The device&#8217;s chipset i.e Qualcomm, Mediatek, Spreadtrum etc . Use <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hovatek.com\/forum\/thread-13054.html\">this app<\/a> to check <\/li><li>Whether Baseband is valid. check using <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hovatek.com\/forum\/thread-21069.html\">this guide<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Its important you know the chipset as this will determine the ideal IMEI repair tool to use. You should have a valid baseband before going ahead to try write IMEI else your attempts will keep failing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you have an unknown baseband then re-flash the firmware to regain baseband. I should mention that some firmware are region-specific so its possible to have a valid baseband and IMEI with such firmware yet get no network signal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now that you know your chipset and baseband is valid, you&#8217;re ready to fix null IMEI. There are several techniques you could use for each chipset depending on your skill or situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Fixing invalid IMEI on Mediatek (MTK) phones<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We already have a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hovatek.com\/forum\/thread-116.html\">collection of MTK invalid IMEI repair methods<\/a>. Some methods mentioned include SN Writer, Maui Meta, Miracle box, GSM Aladdin, Infinity CM2, NCK box, SP  flash tool, Chamelephone, Tool hero, ADB and Engineering mode.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"mce_24\">Fixing invalid IMEI on Spreadtrum (SPD) phones<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You should check our list of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hovatek.com\/forum\/thread-664.html\">SPD invalid IMEI repair methods<\/a>. Methods covered include WriteIMEI tool, Infinity CM2, Miracle box, NCK Pro box, Engineer mode and Shortcut master.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"mce_26\">Fixing invalid IMEI on Qualcomm (QLM) phones<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We&#8217;ve also compiled <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hovatek.com\/forum\/thread-27590.html\">Qualcomm invalid IMEI repair tutorials<\/a>. For Qualcomm, having an EFS, QCN or Modem (from TWRP) backup makes things a lot easier. Methods covered include QMSL IMEI &amp; SN, QFIL, Miracle box, Infinity CM2, NCK Pro and UMT box. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How do I change IMEI?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You&#8217;ve probably been scouting the internet for how to change IMEI number or an IMEI changer.  I should tell you that the process for fixing invalid IMEI is the same for changing it, the only difference is what IMEI you write.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Its considered illegal to change your IMEI in some countries given that its an identifier used to blacklist stolen phones. You are entirely responsible for you actions. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How much do you know about the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI)? For starters, IMEI is a unique 15-digit number which GSM service providers use to identify your device. You can check your IMEI by dialing *#06# on your phone. When you have a null or invalid IMEI on your Android phone, you&#8217;ll be unable [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":9654,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[818],"tags":[338,435,192,534,535,567,181,109,660],"class_list":["post-9785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tutorials","tag-efs","tag-invalid-imei","tag-mediatek","tag-null-imei","tag-nvram","tag-qcn","tag-qualcomm","tag-spreadtrum","tag-unknown-baseband"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hovatek.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hovatek.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hovatek.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hovatek.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hovatek.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.hovatek.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9785\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hovatek.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hovatek.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hovatek.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hovatek.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}