[Asus ZenFone 3 Deluxe ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, &] sebastiandg7:
Zenfone 3 Deluxe ZS550KL / ZS570KL / ZS570KL PRO

How to change device SKU to WW​

Disclaimer

/*
* Your warranty is now void.
*
* I am not responsible for bricked devices, dead SD cards,
* thermonuclear war, or you getting fired because the alarm app failed. Please
* do some research if you have any concerns about procedures,
* tools or terms in this thread before proceeding! YOU are choosing to
* make these modifications, and if you point the finger at me for
* messing up your device, I will laugh at you.
*/

The are two main reasons to change our SKU from TIM, CN or JP to WW. Firstly, the WW firmware is apparently getting OTA updates first. In second place, Marshmallow 6.0 Bootloader Unlock process requires 4.12.40.1698 firmware version and above, but only WW got the update (you may find this useless as 7.0 update is here, but some 6.0 users may need it). This will guide you in the process.

Warning!

Always have your original firmware, recovery and boot files in case things don't go as expected

Backup all of your personal data!

PLEASE MAKE SURE you are using the respective files for your CPU (ZS570KL SD820 2.15Ghz - ZS570KL PRO SD821 2.3GHz)

Prerequisites

Adb and Fastboot installed. I recommend you to install it from HERE.

Drivers installed. Try using these or Universal ADB Drivers

Python 2.X or 3.X installed.

WW target firmware. You can download it from the ASUS official website or from AndroidFileHost mirror: ZS570KL SD820 or ZS570KL PRO SD821.

Respective firmware stock recovery. You can download it from here: ZS570KL SD820 or ZS570KL PRO SD821

sdat2simg toolkit (you can find img2simg linux binary in second post).

Guide

In this case we are going to change a ZS570KL using the UL-Z016-WW-4.12.40.1698 firmware (the version needed to unlock the bootloader in Android 6.0) and it's respective recovery.

1. Extract the sdat2simg toolkit

Extract the sdat2simg_toolkit.rar and you will have this folder structure:

- sdat2simg_toolkit/

|-> bin / > necessary tools

|-> input/ > input system files

|-> output/ > output system files for flashing

|-> sdat2simg.bat > tool execution​

2. Extract system files from firmware

Open the firmware zip and extract system.new.dat and system.transfer.list into the input folder.

View attachment 4247756
​

3. Run the tool

Now open the sdat2simg.bat file. There must no be trouble if you have properly installed python.

The tool will first convert the system.new.dat and system.transfer.list into a raw ext4 image, then it will be converted into a sparse flashable image.

View attachment 4247757View attachment 4247758

When the process has finished, check the output folder. The system.img file is what we are interested in. This is our flashable system image.
​

4. Flash the WW system image

Now we need to reboot into bootloader mode. Turn off the device and press Volume up + Power button. Or by using adb command:

adb reboot bootloader

Now open a terminal inside output folder and flash the system image by using the fastboot command:

fastboot flash system system.img

5. Flash the WW recovery image

Then we are going to flash the WW recovery image. Open a terminal where you placed the recovery image and flash it by using fastboot command:

fastboot flash recovery Z016-WW-4.12.40.1698_recovery.img

5.a. (Optional) Flash WW boot image

You can optionally flash the WW boot image contained inside the firmware zip. Extract it, open a terminal next to the boot.img file and flash it by using the fastboot command:

fastboot flash boot boot.img

View attachment 4247759

(Not tested)​

6. Factory reset

Reboot your device by using fastboot command:

fastboot reboot

Wait until it boots up and power it off. Then boot to recovery mode: Volume down + Power button, wait for the "No command" sign

and keep pressed power button + tap Volume up to show the recovery menu.

To factory reset the device choose the following options:

Wipe data/factory reset
Wipe cache partition

7. Reboot!

Now you are all up! You can Reboot your device by choosing the Reboot device now option

and you will boot into your new WW firmware. If you changed to WW to unlock the bootloader now you are able to do it.

You can also download OTA updates for WW firmware or you can manually download it and place the firmware in the internal storage, reboot and a window will prompt asking to install the new firmware.​

Special thanks

[MENTION=5132229]xpirt[/MENTION]

[MENTION=2976903]A.S._id[/MENTION]