Fixing “NVRAM WARNING: Err=0x10” in Android WiFi

Some of the Android smart phones running on Mediatek SoC (system on a chip) like MTK6582 or MTK6589 display an extra WiFi connection entry labeled “NVRAM WARNING: Err=0x10”. This is because of the misconfigured WiFi file inside the NVRAM folder of the Android system. You can easily fix this by modifying the WiFi file in your Android smart phone. After the fix, this entry no longer appears in the WiFi connection settings. Although removing this entry does not really improve the WiFi performance, but it is just an erroneous entry and should be removed.

Fix NVRAM WARNING: Err=0x10 in Android

Here is how you can fix this WiFi NVRAM WARNING error in Mediatek processor based Android devices (Note: The Android device must be rooted so that you can make changes to system. If your device is not rooted, you can try the Kingo Root for easily rooting your Android device):

  1. Open Android Settings, scroll down to the very bottom and touch About Phone or About Tablet followed by Status. From the Status screen, note down the WiFi MAC address – write it down on a piece of paper. For example in the following screen shot the WiFi MAC address is 00:08:22:3e:5a:08.Fix NVRAM WARNING: Err=0x10 in Android
  2. Turn off WiFi in your Android device.
  3. Install ES File Explorer in Android from Google Playstore. Launch ES File Explorer, touch menu button in Android and enable Root Explorer. Now open the folder Device/data/nvram/APCFG/APRDEB/ and locate a file named WIFI. Copy this file to external SD card. Connect your device to a Windows PC, copy the WIFI file from external SD card to somwhere on your Windows PC.Fix NVRAM WARNING: Err=0x10 in Android
  4. Download WinHex on your Windows PC, extract the downloaded ZIP to a folder and launch WinHex.exe. Open the WIFI file that you copied to your PC.
  5. In WIFI file opened in WinHex, type the MAC address that you noted down in the step1, in the first line and between column 4 and 9, the MAC address without using the colons (:). Our MAC address in step 1 was 00:08:22:3e:5a:08 so we typed 0008223E5A08. Save the WIFI file in WinHex and copy it back to your Android device.Fix NVRAM WARNING: Err=0x10 in Android
  6. Once again launch ES File Explorer in Android and copy the newly changed WIFI file in the folder Device/data/nvram/APCFG/APRDEB/. If you receive the overwriting warning then choose to overwrite. Select the newly copied WIFI file, touch on the More and select Properties. Change the file permissions to RW- RW- — as shown.Fix NVRAM WARNING: Err=0x10 in Android
  7. Turn on WiFi in your Android device. Now you won’t be able to see the “NVRAM WARNING: Err=0x10” anymore.

Conclusion: Poorly configured NVRAM data can cause some of the Mediatek bases Android smart phones to display an “NVRAM WARNING: Err=0x10” entry in the WiFi connections list. This can be easily fixed by making changes to the WiFi files inside the NVRAM.

19 comments

  1. root access is not install, functions are not available now, that was what i got when i tried to on the root explorer

  2. Thank you for the good info. I followed the editing of the WIFI config file, copied back to my phone where the file belongs, changed permissions to -rw -rw —, rebooted the phone, and turned the wifi on, and the NVRAM error is gone from the list of available wifi signals, thanks man !

  3. [Lenovo P780] “WLAN MAC Address” = “Unavailable” and As you wrote: “This can be easily fixed by making changes to the WiFi files inside the NVRAM”. How do I ?

    1. If the posted method fails – add this small step:

      Change the PERMISSIONS to READ ONLY.

      After many attempts where the MAC address would change after WIFI start & the NVRAM error reappearing the simple detail I missed was changing the permissions to Read Only on the edited WiFi file.

      BTW: Changing the permissions is simple when after you edit the WIFI File as described above using your Hex Editor of choice on your PC, save the file (allow over-write), RIGHT CLICK – select PROPERTIES – look at the bottom of the properties window – select the READ ONLY box & hit APPLY.

      As demonstrated above – Copy the edited WIFI file to your SD card or to your phone’s internal memory (where you can find it) and replace the WIFI file in the APRDEB Folder as shown above.

      >>> Sparky

  4. I have MTK6752. It fixed the issue until reboot. After reboot, “NVRAM WARNING: Err = 0x10” appears again. Is there any way to solve this problem permanently? Thanks

  5. Thank you very much for this tutorial.
    It fixed the issue smoothly for my Tab.

    Also note, there might also be a file call WIFI_CUSTOM, remove/rename that also.

  6. Hi! I did exactly like in the instruction but I still have the “NVRAM WARNING: Err = 0x10” in my list of wifi routers. Any ideas about what to change? The device is a FNF iFive Mini 3GS, MT6592.

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