yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] hypnz:
You must have modemst1,2 from unlocked device.

1st TAKE BACKUP EFS, MODEM, MODEMST1,2

2nd reboot to bootloader

3rd fastboot flash modemst1 modemst1

fastboot flash modemst2 modemst2

4rd reboot

*I'm not responsible for any damage you do.*
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] Steadfast888:
Please provide modem files

I knew the solution would work through file flashing, I just never had an unlocked sprint variant to do any dumps from. Would you be willing to upload the modem files for the unlock please.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] jashenberner:
I'm muddling my way through this right now. I just figured out how to backup the EFS (I hope) and as soon as I'm done copying those file to my computer I will start with my unlocked phone.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] Steadfast888:
Please provide modem files

Perfect, so you will provide files for flashing once you finish with yours, I will be waiting, much appreciated.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] jashenberner:
I don't have permission to post links yet. You can find the modemst1,2 files on my dropbox. Obviously, remove the spaces from the link.

https:// www. dropbox. com/sh/oii1j88wa6g7boy/AAC8Yy0W6MxJ8fWelssv9d3Ha?dl=0
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] Steadfast888:
Many Thanks

I have the files, I won't be able to test til I get home from work, but, I appreciate your willingness to help. Was thinking, now that theres a solution, someone should create a new thread with a step by step, a link to the files, and, a donate button. Should be worth something. I know this is all open source but I will donate.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] jashenberner:
It worked just fine on my other Essential phone. It is unlocked and on Verizon.

HOWEVER, when I went to relock the bootloader on my Sprint unlocked phone I ended up in a boot loop. I get an error the the device is corrupt and will not boot.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] Caltinpla:
How did you get out of the bootloop? Did you flash the factory image to make it boot?
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] hypnz:
Sorry guys I didn't provide the files. I hope all you can understand that without permission from the owner I can't give. I don't want any donations. I get them free I give them free. Now about bootloader think I have it unlocked so I can't tell anything. Njoy your unlocked phones.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] slikerhael:
I get "FAILED (remote: Flashing is not allowed for Modem Partitions)" when trying to flash the modem images, how do you unlock them for flashing?
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] Tech_Savvy:
Has nothing to do with modemst1 and modemst2 partions u flashed....most likely u weren't completely stock on slot a or b and thats what did it...
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] ggh95:
it really works??

EDIT:

THAT WORKS!!! thanks very much
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] jashenberner:
Yes, Tech_Savvy was correct. I still had TWRP as my recovery when I locked my bootloader. Turning off the phone and holding volume (up or down? I don't remember) and power got me back to the bootloader and I just reflashed the official 7.1.1 software. Gave myself a worry there but it all worked out.

---------- Post added at 01:37 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:33 PM ----------

Try unlocking your critical partitions?

fastboot flashing unlock_critical

But don't forget to relock it

fastboot flashing lock_critical
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] slikerhael:
I've done unlock_critical when I unlocked it. When I put in unlock_critical it says it's already unlocked.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] sabi95190:
If i do the oreo beta update it will remove the sim unlock ?
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] jashenberner:
This process came from hypnz, so give him the credit. Here is a step by step for anyone that needs it. I may have missed some steps with all of the re-enabling of developer options and USB Debugging. Basically, do that every time the phone is erased.

1	Enable Developer Options

2	Enable USB Debugging

3	Enable OEM Unlocking

4	Reboot into bootloader

a.	adb reboot bootloader

5	Unlock bootloader

a.	fastboot flashing unlock

6	Reboot

7	Copy Magisk to phone

8	ReEnable Developer Options

9	Enable USB Debugging

10	Reboot into bootloader

11	Flash TWRP

a.	fastboot flash boot NMI81C-TWRP.img

12	Reboot phone

13	Reboot into recovery

a.	adb reboot recovery

14	Install Magisk

15	Reboot phone

16	Install Partition Backup and Restore from PlayStore

17	Backup partitions

18	Copy backups to computer

19	Reboot to bootloader

a.	adb reboot bootloader

20	Flash new modemst files

a.	fastboot flash modemst1 modemst1.img

b.	fastboot flash modemst2 modemst2.img

21	Reboot phone

Stop here if you want to stay rooted and with an unlocked bootloader.

22	Reboot to bootloader

a.	adb reboot bootloader

23	Run flashall.bat

24	After reboot enable Developer Options

25	Enable USB Debugging

26	Reboot to bootloader

a.	adb reboot bootloader

27	Lock bootloader

a.	fastboot flashing lock

Here is a link to my dropbox with all of the files.

https:// www. dropbox. com/sh/oii1j88wa6g7boy/AAC8Yy0W6MxJ8fWelssv9d3Ha?dl=0

If anyone sees a mistake or missed step let me know and I will edit this message.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] runderekrun:
Thanks man. Mine officially got unlocked this morning but you just helped a bunch of people out. I quoted your post with the link to the dropbox.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] Steadfast888:
Just unlocked mine, so everyone knows, I did it from bone stock, didn't have to root anything, of course I didn't get any back ups but I don't need them. I just want to thank everyone who contributed on this thread. I know I spent countless hours trying to figure this out and so did alot of you. It ended up being alot easier than I thought. So, hopefully they don't find a way to patch this awesome exploit.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] DrvLikHell:
Has anybody had any side-effects from flashing the modemst files? No changes in IMEI or anything? Does your OMADM menu still say it's locked?
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] whymoo:
This. Once it is confirmed that IMEI is not changed I will update the OP with instructions and change the title. Unless hypnz or jashenberner want to create their own thread. Thanks jashenberner and hypnz for the files, method and instructions. Sorry I gave up on this since Sprint unlocked my phone and I didn't have enough time to work on this. Ideally we would have a dev look through the modemst1,2 partitions to make sure there's nothing "dangerous" with flashing one from a different phone, but just checking that the IMEI isn't changed should be good enough. You can find IMEI of a phone on a CDMA network by looking in Settings>System>About phone>Status>IMEI Information and same place for a phone on GSM or just dial *#06# if before flashing the partitions and after flashing they are the same then we are good.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] zswielder:
I don't think flashing modem files can change IMEI (if it was that easy, it would be abused all over the place). I've had to flash modem files to restore my other Android phones in the past, so I'm pretty confident that it won't mess with IMEI.

---------- Post added at 04:36 AM ---------- Previous post was at 04:34 AM ----------

Can you share the steps you took to unlock it without rooting?
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] lcpham:
ok just did it by restore my phone back to NMJ81C, and flash the 2 modem files. BOOM unlocked!!! no need to root or twrp. same imei, verified work with att sim.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] DrvLikHell:
I think you only have to root so you can back up the partitions before you flash the modemst files. If you don't want to back them up then it looks like you can bypass rooting. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] whymoo:
I just want be sure this phone has been known to do things differently.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] zswielder:
Modems are updated frequently for all phones. It really doesn't make any sense for IMEI to change based on modems.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] runsoverfrogs:
Does this mean flashing stock after unlock would relock the phone? Or at least require you to do another uicc unlock
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] zswielder:
Did you mean NMJ88C? I don't see 81 anywhere.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] whymoo:
I think the actual modem is stored on the modem partition not the modemst partitions.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] whymoo:
No modemst1,2 partitions are not in the stock files.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] lcpham:
PH1-Images-NMI81C.zip from essential website.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] sabi95190:
Unlocked but wifi not working
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] zswielder:
Oh, gotcha. I was looking at builds posted on XDA.

So, you just flashed that and did fastboot to flash the modemst files? Is your wifi working? Also, once you did that and put in a non-sprint sim, were you able to do a system update and still retain unlock?
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] longthuy:
How to Copy Magisk to phone? Please help me
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] jashenberner:
Make sure your phone is in file transfer mode, not usb charging by swiping down from the top of the screen. Then just drag the magisk file to the root of your phone.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] longthuy:
Thanks, how to Flash TWRP?
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] wolfu11:
https://xdaforums.com/essential-phone/how-to/guide-rooting-essential-ph-1-magisk-t3701976

You better read through this tread before you try anything.

If you brick you're on your own there are no files to fix.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] zswielder:
Hmm, odd. I tried what others reported, but my phone doesn't boot afterwards. I'm able to flash stock (NMJ81C), but if I flash the uploaded modemst1&2 files, my phone gets stuck at power by android screen.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] avd:
actually I bet half of them are going to start with "My Opp3" or "My pixel 2 XL"...
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] zswielder:
Did you ever figure this out? I'm facing the same situation. I get "Flashing is not allowed for modem partition."
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] avd:
basic troubleshooting:

do you have a PH-1? (sorry I've never seen a "powered by android" splash in a long time...)

Did you use TWRP to flash the stock boot image?

I would hold off on magisk until i had a stable boot.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] zswielder:
lol yes, I have the right phone. Powered by android is at the bottom of the screen when you start the phone (under PH logo). I'm not even rooting (never have on this phone). I think I figured out what the problem is though. I'm about to try something right now.

Update: Yep. I knew it was some silly mistake. When I had Moto X Pure, I could flash modemst1 and modemst2 while flashing everything else at once. But, with this phone, I had to flash everything else first, reboot, re-enable USB debugging, and then flash modemst1 and modemst2. Now my phone is unlocked. Woohoo!
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] jaminw:
You guys are awesome! Now I can finally use my essential as an actual phone.

I can also confirm that I was able to upgrade to NMK24B and have the sim unlock persist, still works perfectly with my att sim.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] Steadfast888:
Just wanted to add here......The rooting process seems to disable wifi for some reason.....its very frustrating. It seems best to root this phone the oreo way no matter what firmware you are on. Obtain a patched stock boot image and flash it in twrp after flashing magisk before booting into your os. This is the only way I have found to not break anything in the rooting process. So, no, you won't have twrp, but your wifi should work. These patched boot images can be found in the rooting forums. Still for now, I think it's best to do the unlock without rooting, but thats my opinion.

---------- Post added at 03:57 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:22 PM ----------

I Have a question for everyone. Has anyone flashed one of the custom roms onto their phone after the unlock? Before unlocking, I flashed los and resurection remix. It always asked for an unlock code at boot up, so I was wondering if it would read the phone as unlocked now.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] wolfu11:
Well...... Back on topic has anyone tried an international sim after using this method?

Any success?
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] sabi95190:
Yeah i live in France and i had an Sprint variant now my sim works
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] wolfu11:
That's great news the less we have to deal with Sprint the better lol.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] Steadfast888:
This is why I have been a member for 2 years and have 9 posts.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] DrvLikHell:
What does it look like when it asks for an unlock code? I've always seen it just say invalid sim when a phone is unlocked. Possibly is it reading a lock code from the sim itself? I have one that does that.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] Steadfast888:
No, when I flashed the custom os, upon boot it would ask for an actual sim unlock code. Before the unlock was discovered, I had some hope that might be a way to unlock. Of course, the modem flash was a much better solution since we don't have to pay for a code.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] wolfu11:
That comment wasn't directed toward you sorry if it offended.

It was in response to earlier comments not relating to SIM Unlock.

After you did the sim unlock does your phone still ask for an unlock code on custom roms?
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] Steadfast888:
No worries, thanks for clarifying, I haven't done anything to the phone since the sim unlock, been busy with other commitments, but, I have always been a resurrection remix fan, so when I get a chance to flash it, I will, and if no one else does it and reports back, I will let you all know if the unlock sticks.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] avd:
I'm getting FAILED (remote: Flashing is not allowed for Modem Partitions

)

finish

too... any advice?

---------- Post added at 11:08 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:58 PM ----------

hmmmm....
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] tech_head:
unlock_critical?
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] atrac88:
Wow! I haven't checked this thread in a week and what a surprise to come back to!! Not being the most technically proficient, I have to admit I am a bit confused. There seems to be two concurrent methods being discussed to unlock -- with and without rooting. I can clearly see the instructions posted for rooting and doing it. But a few have posted they don't mind losing their data and starting fresh so they just flash the two modem files and didn't have to root. That is the method I would like to try since I don't need anything and can start clean. Can anyone post instructions on doing it without rooting? I've tried piecing together posts from the past few days discussing it but either I'm just tired at the moment or I'm missing something obvious.

Thanks everyone -- you guys essentially rock!
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] avd:
They are already unlocked.

Tonight I'll lock and reunlock.

---------- Post added at 12:58 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:56 PM ----------

I strongly suggest you back up before flash these partitions. That requires root.

If you are not unlocked, the unlocking process will wipe userdata so make sure you put your backups of the device.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] Steadfast888:
I know that I spoke about unlocking without rooting, but, I must clarify that I did it with an unlocked bootloader. I have not tried the unlock without unlovking the bootloader but I would be surprised if that worked. So, I don't know if you unlocked the bootloader before you flashed the modified modem files or not but that could be why the permission denied error comes up.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] avd:
You are right. I'm out of order with my advice.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] slikerhael:
Ive re locked and unlocked and relocked and unlocked critical again with no success in any of it. I've tried flashing modem files on my sim-unlocked essential and I get the same results. It's driving me insane that there is no consistency with this phone at all.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] avd:
I use Ubuntu to do my ADB flashing. Are you also on Linux?
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] slikerhael:
I'm on arch Linux, gnome shell. I'm having to use a USB 2.0 hub so adb works without the usb 3.0 bugs. It seems to be sending the image like it should but it seems something on the phone is blocking the flash.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] avd:
Hmm.... Maybe not a coincidence. I'm going to hate to spin up the windows partition.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] slikerhael:
I don't even have a windows partition, I'd have to borrow my roommates to try it on windows.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] tech_head:
So I can't update my modems either:

> fastboot flash modemst1 modemst1.img

target reported max download size of 536870912 bytes

sending 'modemst1' (2048 KB)...

OKAY [ 0.092s]

writing 'modemst1'...

FAILED (remote: Flashing is not allowed for Modem Partitions

)

finished. total time: 0.093s

I have absolutely no issues flashing anything else on my phone.

My phone is an unlocked Sprint variant.

Is it possible their unlock updates permissions that prohibits remote flashing?

Anyone tried flashing the modem with TWRP?
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] Steadfast888:
This is just a shot in the dark because its my first time working with one of these a/b partition phones, but, the forums are convinced that sprint alters this phone with the sprint sim card inserted. Maybe try removing your sim card. When I did the unlock I had no sim card inserted. This of course is just a thought, probably won't work, but, worth a try.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] tech_head:
During fast boot, there is nothing SIM related running.

My phone is unlocked.

I just wanted the modems that were not tampered with by Sprint.

Tried without any SIM in the phone with same result.

So a switch is set once unlocked it seems not to allow remote flashing of modemst1/2.

No big deal. Phone is unlocked.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] Steadfast888:
I'm sorry, I was under the impression that the modem files provided were files from sprint phone originally locked but then unlocked by sprint remote unlocking. My mistake, that does make sense about the sim and fastboot, though, thanks
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] NaterTots:
So, My Sprint Essential phone was Sim unlocked by Sprint 3 days after I paid it off.

It has an unlocked bootloader and also critical and is running Oreo Beta 3.

I just tried to flash the modems out of curiosity and I also get,

target reported max download size of 536870912 bytes

sending 'modemst1' (2048 KB)...

OKAY [ 0.167s]

writing 'modemst1'...

FAILED (remote: Flashing is not allowed for Modem Partitions

)

finished. total time: 0.168s

I hate to say that I wonder what would happen if I put the Sprint Sim back in. Although I don't have service anymore with them.

I just wonder if my phone would end up being internationally unlocked when Sprint unlocked a month ago.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] tom1283:
I came across the same error when I tried flashing. I then flashed Essentials' NMK24B build image off their support/developer section. Repeated the whole process with unlocking bootloader and it worked. No guarantees for anyone else, but worked for me.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] Quantumrabbit:
I'm on NMJ51B now and I get this:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Minimal ADB and Fastboot>fastboot flash modemst modemst1.img

target reported max download size of 536870912 bytes

sending 'modemst' (2048 KB)...

OKAY [ 0.125s]

writing 'modemst'...

FAILED (remote: No such partition.)

finished. total time: 0.141s

So I assume I have to be on later... would NMJ88C be enough? I'm flashing that now from here: https://xdaforums.com/essential-phone/development/stock-7-1-1-nmj20d-t3701681

Update, nope. I'm on 88 now, flash was successful, still locked.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] atrac88:
Did you sideload that particular image via ADB or did you do a full flash of it?
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] tom1283:
I ran it using the flashall.bat recommendation on the site. In hind sight it may have been the process of having to unlock the bootloader again that made the difference. I do remember the unlock option in settings looking different. Before everything said it was unlocked but in developer settings/oem unlock wasn't greyed out and could be toggled. Now the option is greyed out and says under it bootloader is already unlocked.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] rignfool:
You mistyped...

modemst1

modemst2
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] tech_head:
I'll try rolling back and see. I'm on Beta3 and something in flashing may have changed.

-Update

I tried various combinations of boot and modem and nothing worked that would allow me to write modemst1 and modemst2.

It appears that unlocking via Sprint, blocks the modemst1,2 from being written again without some other access.

So once unlocked, you can update the modem itself but it looks like the configuration (st1/st2) cannot be written.

So it looks like the unlock is permanent, at least from a flash point of view.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] Quantumrabbit:
Yea, I got that last night... I just did it again, just in case, even re-downloaded the files:

C:\Phone>fastboot flash modemst1 modemst1.img
target reported max download size of 536870912 bytes
sending 'modemst1' (2048 KB)...
OKAY [ 0.125s]
writing 'modemst1'...
OKAY [ 0.016s]
finished. total time: 0.141s

C:\Phone>fastboot flash modemst2 modemst2.img
target reported max download size of 536870912 bytes
sending 'modemst2' (2048 KB)...
OKAY [ 0.125s]
writing 'modemst2'...
OKAY [ 0.016s]
finished. total time: 0.141s

However, it's still locked in the UICC options. "Your device is locked to only support your carrier UICC."

Is there something I'm missing here? I'm on NMJ88C, magisk working, wi-fi working... all the things, just not carrier unlocked.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] sach8585:
Thanks for posting the method and sharing the files. It worked for me. I initially tried with the NMJ32F and failed. For some reason the Wifi stops working after flashing those files. I then flashed the EP to stock boot image and system image (NMI81C) from Essential website. Then rooted by flashing Magisk. Backed up using the Partitions Backup Restore. The backup took a long time, almost an hour. Finally flashed the two modem files, rebooted and my phone was working with T-mobile.

I had T-mobile sim in the phone all the time, don't know it that made any difference. unlock_critical is needed.

fastboot flashing unlock_critical

For some reason my phone was stuck in Sprint prepaid database and Sprint was not willing to move it back to the postpaid, so it would have been impossible for me to get this phone unlocked. I thank you jashenberner and hypnz.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] mprabs:
Could you please help with a step by step instruction for newbies? I'd really appreciate your help.