For those who are stuck in the Brickloop after restoring a backup in TWRP. See Edit 2...
Edit : This seems to be the fix.. Worked for me and others who have tried .. :thumbup:
1. Install Stock firmware via Odin, then re-run auto-root (to regain root of course)
2. Install TWRP 2.6.3.2 via odin, reboot to recovery.
3. Do an adb shell when phone is in recovery mode to run commands via TWRP.
From the ADB shell: Wiped the EFS partition with the following command:
mke2fs /dev/block/mmcblk0p12
mkdir /efs
mount -t ext4 /dev/block/mmcblk0p12 /efs
(the last two commands probably did nothing, but thats what I did anyway)
Do a factory reset, reboot system
Afterwards, no more boot looping, the phone successfully registered on the mobile network, and my IMEI is there and correct. Seems like the EFS partition can rebuild itself now I guess...
Edit 2
You can also try just running Commands via TWRP before using Odin to revert to stock, re-rooting etc..Worked for me while I was doing some restore testing with Jovys modded kernel ..Just trying to save you some time..
Using TWRP Terminal Command To Complete this evolution...
1. Reboot to recovery
2. Hit Advanced Select Terminal Command
3. Hit Select (lower right corner)..Do not select any specific folder, just hit select..
4. keyboard will open, type in the following commands, make sure you put the spaces and / where they need to be, it needs to look exactly as outlined..
mke2fs /dev/block/mmcblk0p12
Hit Go - The command will run.
Clear the box, type the following command
mkdir /efs
Hit Go - The command will run.
Clear the box, type the following command
mount -t ext4 /dev/block/mmcblk0p12 /efs
Hit Go - The command will run.
You can now back out of the terminal command, and follow the rest of the directions.
Also, if you plan on flashing custom ROMs after getting out of the loop, use TWRP ver 2.6.3.1.
you try this to help you http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0U3x9...AHc7vQ&index=1