[ZTE ZMAX Guides, News, & Discussion] mingolianbeef:
Yep, you read that right and I'm not trolling. THE ZMAX IS ROOTED!!

Discaimer and N00Bproof warning:

We have root, yes, but that doesn't mean get hasty. At the moment, there are partition images (system, boot and recovery) in my and other users' possession (free of access to all), but we don't have a working recovery at the moment and this process involves deleting the stock recovery (it will make sense later). So, if you screw up and get root-happy, there's no way to recover until we get a recovery and a custom rom, and even then you might be screwed because we don't have access to the bootloader to use fastboot. Things may change, but root-use with caution.​

Also, once you root, DO NOT TAKE ETAs from T-Mo and ZTE!!!!!!! Now that we have root, we can capture the OTA and make it root-friendly. To make a long story short, the updater-script (thing that tells your recovery where and how to flash stuff) has a list of stuff it has to... well... flash. If you, for example, delete the stock ZTE Music app, and the ETA replaces the app with a new version, it's going to stop (because the script requires a REPLACEMENT and not a PLACEMENT, computers don't have the best common sense), then it will interrupt and you will likely be bricked. This shouldn't be a problem because you don't have a recovery to begin with, but I'm not taking chances here.

NOW! Let's Root. This is a long process, so don't expect to do anything for a good 10-20 minutes.

FIRST: KINGROOT​

This is one of those things where your mileage may very, there have been many different ways to get KingRoot (not King"O"Root, two different apps) to work, but this one was the one that worked for me. I'll also place alternate KingRoot methods in the second post if you wanna try those. Just for the sake of knowledge, this was run on a T-Mobile ZTE ZMAX, Android 4.4.2, build 22. I don't know if it makes a difference that I factor reset my phone before doing another round of root attempts (not this one specifically, maybe a couple hours worth of attempts).

Credits to [MENTION=2233713]fire3element[/MENTION] for this method.

If you did it correctly, the screen from a successful root will have a green checkmark. Run RootChecker to verify root status.

SECOND: PERMA-ROOT​

Now you need to permanently root the phone. This method was all [MENTION=2376614]jcase[/MENTION], and simplified by another user. I encourage you to read JCase's original G+ post to learn something, as this guy is the master of exploits, and we are on XDA to learn.

Credits to [MENTION=6545437]xtremeasure[/MENTION] for the simplification of JCase's process.

Now, you are rooted! If you did everything right, you should be good. Now people are going to ask, "Is there a script for this?" The short answer is No, don't hold your breath for something immediate. There was a user that said he would be happy to make one for the second half, but the writing, testing and verification of success alone on that will take some time, as the wrong line of code can make you end up with a good old fashioned paperweight. I can verify Xposed works fine, Viper4Android works fine, and if you try to delete system apps, they will just reinstall themselves (I recommend using "System App Remover (ROOT)" on the play store, as it will actually tell you which apps are and aren't safe to install. If you have any questions, after searching of course, feel free to ask. If I can't answer, some freaking body can lol.

CREDITS:

[MENTION=5885045]tech_yeet[/MENTION] for showing us the KingRoot

[MENTION=2376614]jcase[/MENTION] for his amazing work

[MENTION=6545437]xtremeasure[/MENTION] for his method

[MENTION=2233713]fire3element[/MENTION] for his method

[MENTION=4733574]the z[/MENTION]MAX Community for staying dedicated when the going got tough, it's been a long road. Here's to custom roms and a TWRP recovery!

Please share this with others, as there is a big community of people begging for this info, let's share the love :). If I forgot to credit you, let me know and I'll fix that!

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

If you by some chance flash the TWRP Recovery Image (found in post 2), and would like to revert back to root ability (being able to write to system). Please follow the steps below:

1. cd /dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name

2. su

3. dd if=/sdcard/recovery.img of=recovery

4. reboot recovery

Please make sure you have the recovery in your sdcard root folder.