yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] crossix:
Did you change the Preferred network type to 4G/LTE? My phone was set to CDMA/3G until I switched it manually, after that I had no problems connecting to Cricket. It's found under Settings -> Network & Internet -> Mobile Network -> Advanced -> Preferred network type.

I've had some issues in the past using USB-C adapters and crappy cables flashing phones (some phones seem to be more picky than others about the cable you use). If you already had the preferred network type set, you might try a different sim, but not Sprint... see if you can get it to register then swap back to the mint. You may also want to invest in a decent quality usb a-to-c cable and try to re-flash the modems.

On a side note... I wouldn't stick a Sprint sim in the phone once it's unlocked for fear it'll be re-locked to their network and then you'd have to do the process all over again unless of course someone can confirm for 100% sure without a doubt that it won't get locked again.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] ziddey:
I can confirm it won't relock
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] strictlyphat:
same here, got in on the slickdeals post. i left essential back in december, but now that it has 8.1 and alot of issues seem to be fixed, i cant wait. im hoping this unlock goes smoothly. hoping it doesnt have much issues on verizon any more, i used to have terrible signal and call quality issues. worst case can flip easily. will report back once i unlock. phone scheduled for delivery on saturday
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] singhsta:
Same here. Got it from SD post. Coming in Saturday. Excited!!!
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] DrClaw:
a few more hours spent trying to get this work and still no luck. Ive tried re locking re unlocking, critical unlock and flashing the modemst1 img and st2 images again but no luck. im trying to use the guide in post 314 https://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=75681830&postcount=314 but i dont understand the step where to download the magisk file and how to transfer it to the device.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] jacobee1:
OK folks --- doing an easier step-by-step right up real soon
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] ElfinJNoty:
i just wanted to report that.... while on build NMK24B i was being told by Sprint that my device had already been unlocked. although putting any other sim in would display "network locked" and only a sprint sim would see any network connectivity. I had tried going back n forth between sprint specific firmware and international gsm version firmware. no matter what i did, the phone was reporting that it was network locked, and Sprint was zero help since their system showed the device as carrier unlocked.

Anyways.... again, NMK24B.... bootloader was already unlocked, flashed the modemst1 and modemst2 files.... put in my tmobile sim, viola!!!

the collection of flashing instructions in this thread has me with my Black Friday special Essential Phome from Sprint, sim unlocked and working perfectly fine out of the box on Tmobile. Thanks to all who played a part in discovering these modem files. damn good phone for a total investment of $185 for the Essential Phone and free 360 Camera. SOOOOOOOOO GLAD TO BE OFF OF SPRINT! Tmobile in my area (Southern Utah, USA) is far superior to crappy Sprint, and even though it was a pain in the arse to port over to Sprint for a month to take advantage of the Black Friday deal, then back to TMO asap, and then months of BS from Sprint.... Finally able to use my Essential as my DD with fully functional data/cellular. ONLY because of threads like this! Thanks to all involved in finding this workaround
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] bryanus:
Magisk is for rooting, which isn't a requirement to get it SIM unlocked.

What build are you currently on? It's been confirmed so far that the phone needs to be on either 32F or 24B. Maybe try downloading invisibleks' back-to-stock 32F which will flash both slots, then flash the modemst files to both to see if that unlocks it. Apparently unlock_critical is not required as well, but I don't think it hurts to run that command.

Mine is coming later today, so I hope to give it a shot soon.

Good luck.

---------- Post added at 12:08 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:03 PM ----------

Congrats! As Team Mgr, is Bliss coming to Essential now??!!!
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] DrClaw:
Can I sideload the stock image?
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] jacobee1:
Thanx to Alu_Potato for nice directions. I have simplified this even more. No need to flash modem files seperately.

Take SIM out.

Pre-Reqs

1. Install Windows Device Driver for Essential Phone from here: https://storage.googleapis.com/essential-static/Essential-PH1-WindowsDrivers.exe

2. Install ADB/Fastboot from here: https://androidfilehost.com/?fid=746010030569952951

3. Download my Minimal ADB Fastboot folder, unzip, it includes unzipped build NMK24B & official 8.1beta & platform tools: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1pyOlQvkSGQWfrFHot_-avWnLee9r2jGR

3b. Put entire contents of my minimal adb folder (keeping things looking identical) into your Minimal ADB folder, located under Programs. Overwrite if asked.

5. Go to settings in your phone>about phone> and tap build number 7x to unlock developer mode.

5a. Go into developer mode and turn on OEM unlock and USB debugging.

The Process

1. Connect the phone to the computer.

2. Authorize the computer for USB debugging on your phone.

3. Turn phone off. Hold volume down and power simultaneously, until you enter Fastboot Mode.

4. Go inside your new Minimal ADB folder (in programs), hold shift key and right click (away from items, in white space) select "Open command..."

4b run "fastboot flashing unlock"

6. When the phone reboots go through the setup and redo pre-req #5

7. Repeat step 3.

8. Run "fastboot flashing unlock_critical"

9. Repeat steps 6 and 7.

10. Open Minimal ADB program folder. (Your phone is in Fastboot Mode). Now run the "flashall" file (not flashall.sh) by just double clicking the file. Will reboot when done. Scripts and commands are generating/running.

****Not taking flash? Restart bootloader (vol up), Try again****

10b. You have just flashed NMK24B.

11. Repeat step 6.

12. Repeat step 3.

12b. Hit volume up key until it says "Recovery mode" select power key. You now see a dead Android with his belly open. Next step.

13. Hold down the power button for a two seconds (keep holding) then press the volume-up button one time. When the menu appears, select Apply update from ADB.

13b. Open command line in your minimal adb folder. Run "adb devices" See that its recognized.

13c. Now sideload install by running - adb sideload "location of the Android 8.1 Beta zip" - Important: the quotation marks around the file location need to be there for this to work.

14a. Find location name by going into Minimal ADB folder. Right click PH1-OTA.zip, select properties, select security tab. *File Path is there at the top next to "object name"

14b. Type adb sideload "

14c. Then paste your file name (that you highlighted and copied) and add another " hit enter.

Go thru setup, connect via wifi, phone accepts sim!

***********Connect to WiFi & UPDATE TO OFFICIAL OREO BEFORE LOCKING BOOTLOADER************

Locking Bootloader after taking ota update:

1. Redo step 9 of "The Process"

2. Open command line in your Minimal ADB folder. Run "fastboot flashing lock"

That's all
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] kaivoria:
Do I follow the same steps if I'm on 8.1 Oreo or it doesnt matter? Apologies as I am new to this
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] c19932:
thank you so much for the guide. I was planning on buying a used unlocked essential phone on ebay but its about $100 more than the sprint version. I will now buy the sprint version, unlock it using you guide, and use it on t-mobile.

1 question.. what's the point of relocking the bootloader?
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] jacobee1:
Relocking is supposed to be safer. Need it unlocked for custom recovery and Rom's.

******If you are on 8.1 on a locked Sprint Essential Phone, you do need to downgrade your O.S. in order to upgrade to the Unlocked version of 8.1*******

P.S. please let me know if my links & instructions work for you. Hey, at least my post is 95% grammatically correct :P

ENJOY
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] jacobee1:
CRUCIAL EDIT: Should say Run "adb devices" under step 13b. Oops. We gotta get adb sideload recognized this way before it will let us sideload install a zip.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] DrClaw:
I'm having trouble with step 10. Running the flashall.bat.

Is correct process to set phone into fastboot mode then didn't click the flashall.bat? Doesn't seem to be working for me. Thought? Do I need to run install as admin somehow? What occurs when u install correctly? Does phone restart? How do you know that step is executed correctly?

Since I've flashed a few different builds, tried flashing modem messages eetc. What's the best way to stay over?
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] Jaxidian:
I got two of the $185 phones from the Ebay deal. Both of them seemed to unlock for me by performing the following steps:

0) Have phone running 7.1.1 powered off (if you already have 8.1, this won't work - I don't know about betas)

1) Insert T-Mobile SIM card

2) Boot phone up

3) Observe "invalid SIM" message

4) Connect to WiFi

5) Take OTA update to 8.1

6) Reboot to finish update

7) Observe functional LTE+ connection, able to make phone calls and everything!

I'm not sure if this works with other SIM cards but I've now followed this process twice with identical results.

Additionally, I've taken one of those two phones, flashed back to NMJ32F in order to flash the two modem files (which gives me a carrier-unlocked phone on 7.1.1) and the end result appears the same. In all three cases, the phone behaves the same such that the "Brand" property is not in the About -> Status screen if I have the T-Mobile SIM card in the phone but that property is there if I pull the SIM card out.

---

All of the above are reports of what I've seen after lots of flashing and testing with these devices. The remainder of this post is speculation, where I very well could be wrong. I'm out of my league to prove this but it's my running theory.

What this tells me is that there is something in the hardware of the Sprint version of the phone that identifies them as Sprint but that the carrier lock isn't a true and proper carrier lock - instead it's just a gimped OS install that can be ungimped by simply flashing a non-Sprint OS (assuming it comes bundled with a modem img file). If this is the case, then most of us are working way too hard to carrier-unlock a Sprint phone!

---------- Post added at 11:47 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:45 PM ----------

I always flash in a command prompt window elevated to administrator privileges. I can't say if it's required but that's what I always do.

Can you elaborate when you say "Doesn't seem to be working for me"? What's the error message you get?
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] jacobee1:
Maybe it doesn't matter, to flash multiple Os' but I want to make sure that I can switch to Verizon's Total Wireless someday if I need to...need to make sure modems for all carriers are flashed properly.

--- As for you sir, having trouble with "flashall.bat" --- Make sure you have opened command prompt properly (did previous steps, work for you? did you turn on developer mode this time, before going into fastboot?). You do not type "flashall" - all that you do is double click fashall batch file...NOT the one that says flashall.sh. Then you will see commands & processes running in your fastboot, command line window.

****MY ORIGINAL POST OF INSTRUCTIONS HAS BEEN EDITED AGAIN******

*****PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF ANY OF YOU HAVE OTHER TROUBLES OR IF I SHOULD MAKE OTHER EDITS******
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] bryanus:
I've had an interesting experience with my ebay/Sprint PH-1 that I received today. First of all, I'd say the condition was physically very good, but had lots of very fine scratches on the back and a few on the screen. No signs of drops, though. Definitely not a 9/10, but maybe a 7 or 8 if it were up to me.

So the first thing I did when I got it was put in my spare Mint SIM, and to my surprise, I didn't get an invalid SIM error. The device was already pre-setup (i.e. no set up screens), on 32F, but was already SIM unlocked. I was able to make calls and surf, etc. I immediately got the 8.1 update notification, too, so I connected to WiFi and installed that. On reboot, everything was just fine and still working. So I then decided to a do a factory reset.

On reboot, I lost wifi and cellular. Couldn't get it working at all. I then flashed the back-to-stock images for 8.1, and still had no wifi or cellular. I then wiped and flashed 32F, rebooted, and got my wifi and cellular back! The 8.1 OTA popped up again, so I installed it, rebooted, then lost Wifi/cellular again! WTH? Went back to 32F, then for kicks tried to flash the modemst files since I hadn't had to flash them yet, but they error'd saying the modem partitions were not flashable. I then downloaded 24B and flashed it. I was then able to apply the modemst files, so it seems like 24B is the only version that allows modem partition flashing. On reboot, I had WiFi and cellular again (yay!), again I got the OTA notification and installed it. On reboot, Wifi and cellular were still active this time! Then for the final test, I factory reset the device and on reboot everything is still working.

I really don't know what was going on before, but now I'm finally on 8.1 restoring my apps and data.

Thanks again for everyone's help and good luck to anyone still working on theirs. You'll get there!
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] jacobee1:
Can any senior member comment on what I experience sometimes? Every now and then when I do "flashall" I noticed that it's flashing on system B. I would say 95% of the time flashall automatically does system a flash. I think the result is identical as well as the performance? Any comment on this? Also after OTA update I think everything goes back to normal?
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] bryanus:
Not sure if I qualify as 'senior', but IO think what flashall does is target the inactive slot, then flashes to it, and on reboot sets that slot as 'active'. If you looks at invisiblek's back-to-stock script, it sepcifically flashes to both slots, so they are matched.

AFAIK, an OTA also targets the inactive slot, so on reboot it's already installed and just boots.

Of course, someone please correct me if I'm wrong. The slots are definitely confusing for android ol' timers!
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] Jaxidian:
"so it seems like 24B is the only version that allows modem partition flashing"

Odd, I was finding that I could only flash it on 32F. I'm not sure what's going on there.

As to all of your craziness, I bet what happened is that one of your two OS slots were unlocked but the other one was not. I don't know this for a fact but I wonder if the factory reset somehow changes the active slot putting you back into a locked state or something like that? For this specific reason, I'm going to just flash the modem files myself before upgrading to 8.1 and doing a wipe. I have 3 of these phones that came in yesterday and today, so I want to get it right, even if it takes an extra hour. Supporting these when something funny happens in a month or so will be a major PITA since I'll have forgotten all of this.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] bryanus:
Well it wasn't that it was sim locked - it didn't see the sim at all (i.e. missing/not inserted) and wifi was not able to be activated at all.

If I were you I would try updating to 8.1 first without any flashing at all. Seems like a lot of people are getting it unlocked by just updating to 8.1 in the slickdeals.net thread.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] Jaxidian:
Yeah, I was the first person to bring that up in that thread (and posted the same thing above in this thread).

But two of these are going to family members moving to Florida (I live in Indiana) and they'll be impossible to support if a future security update changes the behavior, so I'm going to be super thorough with them. I already have all the bits and have gone through the process a few times to get to the point where I am now with understanding the behavior. All 3 "seem fine" after a naive update to 8.1, but I'm still going to flash those modem files just to be sure.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] GCymbala:
Y'all are awesome. I followed this procedure with minor modifications and got my Sprint PH1 SIM-unlocked with no problems and no 50-day wait.

I was already on NMK24B, so I skipped steps 10 and 11

Instead of running adb and fastboot from the SDK platform tools, I ran all commands from "c:\Program Files (x86)\Essential\ADB" which is installed with the Essential drivers.

At the end of most commands, I added -i 0x2e17 as a command line parameter.

For example, "c:\Program Files (x86)\Essential\ADB>fastboot flashing unlock_critical -i 0x2e17"

Instead of a beta build, I used the current Open-Market ROM (https://storage.googleapis.com/essential-static/PH1-OTA-OPM1.180104.092.zip).

I flashed modemst1.img (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/c...736368415&_notify_domain=www.dropbox.com&dl=1) and modemst2.img (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/c...544373512&_notify_domain=www.dropbox.com&dl=1) before flashing the Open Market ROM, right after step 9 of the process, I think.

fastboot flash modemst1 "modemst1.img" -i 0x2e17

fastboot flash modemst2 "modemst2.img" -i 0x2e17

Specify the fully qualified path to "modemst1.img" and "modemst2.img" if they're not in your current folder.

I did have to re-authorize my PC for USB debugging a couple more times than listed below, probably after steps 5 and 8, and during the

Locking Bootloader

steps.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] jacobee1:
Just out of curiosity, are the modems that you guys are flashing the same as the 24B 87MB sized modem file...from this other flashall approach?
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] bchokheli:
iQuote:

Originally Posted by jacobee1

Thanx to Alu_Potato for nice directions. I have simplified this even more. No need to flash modem files seperately.

Take SIM out.

Pre-Reqs

1. Install Windows Device Driver for Essential Phone from here: https://storage.googleapis.com/essen...owsDrivers.exe

2. Install ADB/Fastboot from here: https://androidfilehost.com/?fid=746010030569952951

3. Download my Minimal ADB Fastboot folder, unzip, it includes unzipped build NMK24B & official 8.1beta & platform tools: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1py...-avWnLee9r2jGR

3b. Put entire contents of my minimal adb folder (keeping things looking identical) into your Minimal ADB folder, located under Programs. Overwrite if asked.

5. Go to settings in your phone>about phone> and tap build number 7x to unlock developer mode.

5a. Go into developer mode and turn on OEM unlock and USB debugging.

The Process

1. Connect the phone to the computer.

2. Authorize the computer for USB debugging on your phone.

3. Turn phone off. Hold volume down and power simultaneously, until you enter Fastboot Mode.

4. Go inside your new Minimal ADB folder (in programs), hold shift key and right click (away from items, in white space) select "Open command..."

4b run "fastboot flashing unlock"

6. When the phone reboots go through the setup and redo pre-req #5

7. Repeat step 3.

8. Run "fastboot flashing unlock_critical"

9. Repeat steps 6 and 7.

10. Open Minimal ADB program folder. (Your phone is in Fastboot Mode). Now run the flashall.bat file

10b. You have just flashed NMK24B.

11. Repeat step 6.

12. Repeat step 3.

12b. Hit volume up key until it says "Recovery mode" select power key. You now see a dead Android with his belly open. Next step.

13. Hold down the power button for a two seconds (keep holding) then press the volume-up button one time. When the menu appears, select Apply update from ADB.

13b. Open command line in your minimal adb folder. Run adb sideload. See that its recognized.

13c. Now sideload install by running - adb sideload "location of the Android 8.1 Beta zip" - Important: the quotation marks around the file location need to be there for this to work.

14a. Find location name by going into Minimal ADB folder. Right click PH1-OTA.zip, select properties, select security tab. *File Path is there at the top next to "object name"

14b. Type adb sideload "

14c. Then paste your file name (that you highlighted and copied) and add another " hit enter.

Go thru setup, connect via wifi, phone accepts sim!

***********Connect to WiFi & UPDATE TO OFFICIAL OREO BEFORE LOCKING BOOTLOADER************

Locking Bootloader after taking ota update:

1. Redo step 9 of "The Process"

2. Open command line in your Minimal ADB folder. Run "fastboot flashing lock"

That's all

i did everything like this but phone doesnot unloked. can somevan take video or help
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] jacobee1:
Only thing I could mention is the flashall part. Really both times your flashing operating systems they will reboot themselves You Don't Unplug until you see your phone actually loading

---------- Post added at 08:14 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:13 PM ----------

Please describe in detail the part that didn't seem to work. You're watching your command line window right?
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] strictlyphat:
so just quickly to confirm what worked for me...

bought a sprint locked device from ebay

arrived today with nmi81c firmware loaded, took my sim from iphone and popped in, but got invalid sim message

left sim in, unlocked bootloader, and flashed the 2 model files. rebooted phone still in nmi81c, and voila, sim unlocked

connected to wifi and checked for update, 8.1.0 update came up so i let it download. updated phone, waited for reboot, then relocked the bootloader.

phone went through setup again, this time restoring all my stuff form my pixel 2 xl from a month ago, and everything loaded up phone still unlocked.

just want to thank the community for such a wonderful find.

ONE BIG QUESTION I HAVE - HOW DO WE KNOW FOR SURE THAT THE PHONE WILL NOT SIM UNLOCK AGAIN.

i dont want to be stuck one day with a locked device with no way out. im on verizon.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] ziddey:
You don't have that guarantee but it's not likely. Just don't be the first to update until there's confirmation it won't relock
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] c19932:
im still waiting for my ebay sprint essential phone to come. so if I understood correctly, flashing the two modems should sim unlock the phone right? is there a sprint firmware vs an unlocked firmware? or are they the same with just different modems?
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] whymoo:
Oh wow thanks for pointing out the numbering I totally messed that up and didn't notice. I will work on making the steps more clear, there are images on the Moto x thread I will use those.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] NavySpark:
What Sprint can do is put a financial obligation against the IMEI # even if it's paid off. Mine had an auto unkock and I was able to use my Cricket SIM. However, when checking the IMEI, it now shows a financial obligation against it.

Probably due to canceling the service within 14 days and keeping the phone. I don't ever plan to put the Sprint SIM back in so I'll be fine but a fair warning for those trying to flip phones to others. I only bought one for my use.

---------- Post added at 03:18 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:15 PM ----------

I flashed the unlocked firmware and don't have this app anymore. Wonder if this is keeping some of us from relocking.