[Moto Z Play Guides, News, & Discussion] lichking21st:
[HOWTO] Moto Z Play Unlock/Root and Optimization

Firstly: I am not responsible for damage to your phone through this guide, follow at your own risk.

That being said, I have attempted the following and much more, without hard bricking my phone :).

What is this?

Currently this is a guide to :

Unlocking

Attaining Root

Flashing Xposed

Restoring back to stock for OTA

Battery optimization

Audio Mods

Using the 'hidden' Notification Light

I just got my Moto Z Play two days ago and was very enthusiastic about its hardware. Getting root on this phone was a different story however, as the normal SuperSu zips do not work, and bootloops happen when the normal systemless SuperSu is installed. Finally I have found a method that should work consistently after searching through all the forum posts here and my previous rooting experience.

BOOTLOADER UNLOCK

Mentions: [MENTION=2791414]copkay[/MENTION]

WARNING: You cannot re-lock your bootloader without signed images from Lenovo, as of right now, these are not available.

At this stage, I would recommend you to the official Moto unlock guide from Lenovo, as you need the unlock key sent to you.

https://motorola-global-portal.custhelp.com/app/standalone/bootloader/unlock-your-device-a

Important note:

Remember that when you run the unlock command, your /data/ partition excluding /data/media will be WIPED. Either use the built in Google backup service to keep a copy of your data or you could try the following adb backup method. This should work for Android M but I have not tested it:

http://xdaforums.com/galaxy-nexus/general/guide-phone-backup-unlock-root-t1420351 by [MENTION=2791414]copkay[/MENTION]

ROOTING

Mentions: [MENTION=6001738]FreedFromDeath[/MENTION], [MENTION=2479447]bricky23[/MENTION], [MENTION=7831939]aeestrada21[/MENTION], /u/CollateralFortune

Thanks to the people on the other rooting guide along with the redditor in the mentions, I've managed to put together my own rooting steps that should work reliably. Obviously I haven't been able to test on more than one device.

Requires fastboot.

Important note:

You need to set up a pin on your device to change the unknown encryption password, otherwise your /data/ partition will not mount in TWRP, so you must have booted to system and set that up.

I recommend taking a nandroid backup before you mount system as r/w, so follow the guide below to step 5, without flashing recovery and backup the appropriate partitions (usually /system, /boot, /data). You might want to back up your /efs as well, and put that somewhere safe.

Apparently there's still instances where the below method gets stuck somewhere. If it doesn't work, you can attempt the same process a second time after the first failure, or restore back to stock and attempt it again.

METHOD #1 using Chinese TWRP - Everything working (nothing's broken... yet)

Hold POWER and VOL DOWN on the phone to access the fastboot mode. Try to release the power button first before the VOL DOWN in case you trigger the system boot accidentally.

Connect USB cable to PC.

Boot or flash the Chinese TWRP from this thread or from this (MEGA) mirror.

fastboot boot recovery.img

or

fastboot flash recovery recovery.img

Press the button on the right to change language, and enter your encryption PIN/Password.

If TWRP asks to mount system as read only, swipe to allow modifications.

Open the Advanced menu and open the Terminal.

Type the following lines:

echo "SYSTEMLESS=false" > /data/.supersu
echo "BINDSYSTEMXBIN=true" >> /data/.supersu

Exit the terminal and go back to Advanced.

Install SU from TWRP.

You can now flash other ZIPs.

Reboot.

METHOD #2 using patched boot.img - Mobile Data doesn't work (for me, apparently works for some others)

Edit: Method 2 removed, just use the first one as it's more reliable.

XPOSED

One of the more popular android flashables, the only caveat here is that you must use the system ZIP with arm architecture, SDK 23. Systemless does not seem to work on our device. You should be rooted with TWRP from above, if not, please do that first.

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=3034811

Unbricking / Stock Restore

Mentions: [MENTION=6150228]Khanov[/MENTION]

Thanks to [MENTION=6150228]Khanov[/MENTION], we now have a few (unsigned) stock images available for use should something go wrong. If you want to download these, I recommend using JDownloader.

EDIT: More available here.

RETEU version available here (MEGA) also.

---------------------------
Checksum information
---------------------------
Name: XT1635-02_ADDISON_RETEU-EMEA_MPN24.104-25_cid50_subsidy-DEFAULT_regulatory-XT1635-02_CFC_EMEA.xml.zip
Size: 1576594494 bytes (1503 MB)
CRC64: 71BAB4F5EB8032F0
SHA256: B539E9EFC07A0907E18A6F199585F574CFC539F0671BD251A851FE0ECE63123A

To restore these, you will need fastboot.

Restore for OTA

Extract folder on PC.

Hold POWER and VOL DOWN on the phone to access the fastboot mode. Try to release the power button first before the VOL DOWN in case you trigger the system boot accidentally.

Connect USB cable to PC.

Flash in the following order:

fastboot flash boot boot.img
fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
fastboot flash system system.img_sparsechunk.0
fastboot flash system system.img_sparsechunk.1
fastboot flash system system.img_sparsechunk.2
fastboot flash system system.img_sparsechunk.3
fastboot flash system system.img_sparsechunk.4
fastboot flash system system.img_sparsechunk.5
fastboot flash system system.img_sparsechunk.6
fastboot flash system system.img_sparsechunk.7
fastboot flash system system.img_sparsechunk.8
fastboot flash system system.img_sparsechunk.9
fastboot flash system system.img_sparsechunk.10
fastboot flash oem oem.img

Complete restore

WARNING: May wipe device, and has not been personally tested.

If you've never flashed over these before, it's likely you won't need to restore these.

Before flashing the above, flash these first:

fastboot flash partition gpt.bin
fastboot flash bootloader bootloader.img
fastboot flash modem NON-HLOS.bin
fastboot flash fsg fsg.bin
fastboot flash dsp adspso.bin
fastboot flash logo logo.bin