[Moto G5 Plus Guides, News, & Discussion] G5 Plus Mate:
Slightly modified

Hi.

first of all, thanks again, Manos 78, for the wonderful guide. Playing around with it for several days, I have come up with a slightly modified solution that might be easier to handle. However, it's based on your guide.

So, this guide is for people who (like me) want

- a rooted Moto G5 Plus (might work on other phones, too)

- an unencrypted data partition (e.g. to be able to backup it)

- a relatively easy way to do a system upgrade.

Also, this guide goes for categories of people who start from here with a phone

Cat-1

- with an unencrypted data partition (rooted)

Cat-2

- which is a blank new phone

Cat-3

- with an encrypted data partition

Instead of Magisk, you can probably use SuperSU as well. Also, it doesn't matter if you flash or load TWRP with fastboot. I would recommend flashing it like described below. I have tested it once with XT1687 only, and then with transferring images from my XT1685. Both worked.

So, first you should find yourself a stock-rom suitable for your phone. As for now (let's hope that this won't change) you need to download it once and then use it again for all upcoming future updates as we do the OTA-update.

I used for

XT1687 : POTTER_NPNS25.137-35-5_cid50_subsidy-DEFAULT_regulatory-DEFAULT_CFC

XT1685: POTTER_NPN25.137-35_cid50_subsidy-DEFAULT_regulatory-DEFAULT_CFC

After transferring from XT1685 to XT1687, the Dual-SIM handling app froze automatically and I am now on software channel reteu. However, as we update as described below, it doesn't matter.

Let's start with

Cat-1:

01. Disable PIN or any other lock procedure and TWRP-Backup of all partitions (precaution, but you will definitely need data, boot and logo!). Also backup all data of your internal SD-card as it will be wiped. External SD-card will stay untouched.

02. Flash latest elementalX Kernel (optional) and Magisk (14.0 or later) to be on the same version before and after the update (precaution).

Either

03a. Flash any valid old(er) Stock-Rom, fitting to the update channel of your phone. If one works, use it again each time you update.

03b. Perform OTA update (after reboot wait for the message saying it's done!)

or

04. Download and install latest Stock-Rom and install

05. Flash TWRP "twrp-3.1.1-4-GtrCraft.img"

06. Flash latest elementalX Kernel(optional, but recommended) and then MAGISK (14.0 or later)

07. Reboot to TWRP

08. Format data

09. Reboot to TWRP

10. Restore data, boot und logo

11. Reboot

12. In Developer Options disable automatic update

13. Install / upgrade Magisk Manager app

14. Flash logo.bin (optional to get rid of the ugly initial warning screen)

done.

Cat-2

Perform steps 03a/b, 5,6,7,8,9,12,13,14. Boot-loader needs to be unlocked, of course.

Cat-3

As you cannot backup an unencrypted partition (for now) you will have to backup your data conventionally. Titanium Backup and app's own functionalities might help. However, this needs to be done only once as you will be unencrypted afterwards.

After this, re-flash Stock-Rom and proceed like for Cat-2.

Note:

Once again: this is a system-less variant, so it doesn't touch the system partition. If you want to keep it that way, then in TWRP never swipe to allow modifications! Choose system partition read only.

The following might need to be confirmed, but I believe, that if you do it once, the device will recognize it and when you go into boot loader the device will from now on display the system to be modified. I haven't found a way to get rid of that again.

If you leave it untouched, then this message will not come up and after locking the boot loader again you will have a device like new again. I think you will not get into any warranty trouble once something is broken.

Maybe some one can comment on this to be right or wrong…

And, just in case you have similar problems:

On windows I was not able to unlock my boot-loader.. I got the message that the boot-loader cannot be unlocked. On Mint Linux it just worked fine. Also flashing logo.bin did not work on windows but on Linux.

On Linux again flashing the stock-rom does not work, but on windows. I am not sure if I want a comment on that. ;)