[ZTE Axon 7 Questions & Answers] BoyA2017:
Good day to all. I know this question has been asked many times and I might frustrate some or many of you. Please accept my apology first and foremost.

Do allow me to tell you my side of the story. I bought a A2017 from AliExpress. I specifically told the seller to leave it stock as I want OTA and future support. By saying this, I am not condemning the Root Community or implying the mod ROM is any way inferior to stock. I believe and trust that the modded ROM is definitely a level or many level better than stock ROM.

Back to my plight, I knew changing imei is taboo here in this wonderful community. I agree and standby to the rules. But the joker seller not only flash my A2017 with A2017G ROM (to which I do not mind having) but that means I am losing the updates either over OTA or SD card upgrade (because his is not stock ROM); and more importantly I am definitely losing the security patches presently available or coming in future.

Now I have a wonderful A2017 which I like a lot, with an non-OTA A2017G ROM and a messed up IMEI. The IMEI as it is programmed is not invalid, but the 2 IMEI IDs found within my phone are identical. More excitingly, the protective sticker that came with the phone have 2 seperate IMEI for each SIM slot, and the box that they shipped to me contains another 2 separate IMEI. So in total I have 5 IMEI numbers!

To all the masters and gurus her, i really appreciate if you can kindly help me out. I would like to know the following:-

First, is it possible for me to fix my IMEI (to repair them exactly to what's with reference to the protective sticker that came on the back of the phone)?

Second, I do not know the term used within the community, but I would like to install the latest stock A2017G ROM into the phone on its base. Meaning if by chance I need to hard reset the phone in future, the one that comes up as base will be the latest ROM I were to install them today.

Third, and yes, among the all the works involved for first and second queries, I would like to know if there's a chance for me to lock everything done and to make the phone as if it is stock? Unroot back to normal if rooting is mandatory for above reworks.

Last but not least, I know the works involve may be tedious and very long winded and maybe highly likely offending one to type out all the procedures. I really thank you for your attention.

If the procedures is really long for you to type out, perhaps you can let me know in point forms and follow up with link. That's will definitely help me to understand step by step in fixing my phone. Also if there's any particular software to be used, perhaps the workable and stable name and version stated will be much appreciated.

Thank you all once again for your time.

P/S: The information on the web is so overwhelming that I lost in the sea of information. I honestly do not know and how to start but to come into the safe zone, the XDA family to seek guidance from.

Again changing IMEI is taboo here, but I am force to correct the issues one created on me, and not that I am doing it to get away with laws or anything. I just want a normal working phone that will behave normally.

Thank you again.

Best regards,

BoyA2017

Edit:

Or can any gurus here advise me the point below in steps. I will try to figure it out from here after.

1. Root (heard using Axon7ToolKit will be relatively user friendly).

2. Fix IMEI (I'll try to find my way around for this).

3. Place the G Nougat bootstack (This has something to do with TWRP?).

4. Backup (not sure if this will backup my IMEI).

5. Unroot (I would assume Axon7Toolkit should able to do this).

Is the above steps will work for my case or I should reshuffle the steps a little?

Please advise.

Cheers.