[ZTE Axon 7 Guides, News, & Discussion] twilighttony:
Hello everyone this is my fist guide so be kind with the formatting, i will get better as I post more. I am writing this guide, because like you, the reader, I had installed lineageOS 14.1 and set up the phone and realized there was encryption on it, and with that tried to wipe it in twrp just to find out that it only wiped the encryption key, but not the encryption itself. Don't panic, it isn't all your fault, XD. Stay calm, the last thing you need is to be freaking out, flashing random zips in hopes of fixing it. I will give credit to all of the developers whose tools i am linking at the bottom.

Now that the introductions are out of the way, time for the complimentary dose of warning.

WARNING: Doing this won't guarantee that this will fix it, as every situation can vary. I am not responsible for any bricked devices, thermal reactors coming from your phone after this, or modding before it was cool.

Assuming you can still get into fastboot first you need to gather these files if you don't have them yet.

- Minimal adb and fastboot on windows after installing just drag to desktop to add files to it

- Qualcomm fastboot drivers for axon7tool.exe and for fastboot and adb

- TWRP 3.0.4-1 official for Axon 7

- B29 rollback modded zip on the second tab

- Nougat modem and bootstack

- Tenfar's axon7root.exe (just in case you can't use fastboot. that's what i used because i don't know how to use axon7tool.exe)

- Fastboot image to get fastboot working again flash it in twrp after getting twrp installed again through axon7root.exe

- Some time because this will likely take an hour of your time, assuming you have the drivers and files already downloaded, longer if not and slow internet.

- LineageOS 14.1

- GAPPS 7.1.1 ARM 64

- almost forgot, you also need a microsd card to store the files because we will be wiping your entire internal with this, so back up your lovely dank memes or forever hold the loss.

Step 0.5. if you don't have fastboot working flash the bootloader unlock file by drakenfx to get it working again. if you don't have twrp for whatever reason go to the guide for axon7root.exe linked above and reboot to edl mode by holding all buttons down and have your phone connected to computer to know you are there. there won't be a vibration to let you know, just your computer telling you it has a connected device. now flash twrp, by first renaming the recovery to recovery.img and putting it in the adb folder along with the the root exe and do 'axon7root.exe -p (insert your com number listed in device manager) -r' (without the ' obviously) and it should send the recovery. if it doesn't see your device. make sure you have the drivers installed and make sure you have put down your com number where i left the () at

Step 1. assuming your device boots to this beautiful screen. you need to go back to twrp and drag the B29 zip from your computer to your external sd card from mtp and go to mount and mount system read-only this is very important.

Step 2. flash the B29 modded and let it go through. this will take a few minutes. if the progress bar automatically jumps to the end, you didn't go read only.

Step 3. after it finishes reboot into system and let it set up your system, you can skip through because we will be resetting again anyhow.

Step 4. reboot back to recovery. you can do this by using that pesky bl unlocked message by pressing up on volume as soon as it shows and selecting recovery. there you can see you have stock recovery, don't panic this is what we need. select wipe data factory reset and let it do it

Step 5. go back and skip set up again and reboot to bootloader where you can now 'fastboot flash recovery recovery.img' to get back twrp.

Step 6. flash the nougat bootstack and modem i had you download. after flashing that, go to wipe: Advanced wipe. Select Dalvik, system, data, cache and swipe to wipe. this will format it as ext4 which is what is required to get to lineageOS

Step 7. flash lineageos 14.1 and your gapps category and wait to let it finish. Note, you don't have to flash the modem more than once after flashing lineageos, even for updating. just after leaving B29

Step 8. reboot to make sure your encryption problem is not there

Step 9. set up phone and profit.

If you have done everything right, you shouldn't have bricked and should be back to lineageos 14.1 with no further problems. If you skipped around and got yourself bricked, congratulations because i am not the best at fixing problems, and i can try to help, but you will be at the mercy of the Best devs this community has to offer.

Now to the part where I thank all the Devs who, without their tireless time and effort, would not have made this guide possible and development into this phone in the first place. [MENTION=4911249]Unjustified Dev[/MENTION] for the lineageOS build i use as my daily driver for now; you rock dude. ^^

[MENTION=3044858]DrakenFX[/MENTION] oh god where do i begin. for the bl unlock zip, B29 modded ota, inspiration to the rest of the community, etc.

[MENTION=540283]tenfar[/MENTION] for the axon7root.exe tool used

[MENTION=4745578]sixohtew[/MENTION] for his constant help and advice with not only this guide, but with teaching me to build android. if you are interest in learning how to compile android for any device, he can probably help. he has a very fair deal and is amazing at what he does.

Thank you all for your copious hours of time spent in the building of each great tool and to the community as a whole. Everyone, these guys are amazing, even if i have only talked to one of them. Be sure to stop by and donate.

If i have left anyone's name out, please hit me up and i will add you to the credits, and to that i apologize.

Happy flashing! :)