[Moto E5 ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Develop] connectingthedots:
SUMMARY OF POST/REPLY

(ANDROID ON BACK WITH GUTS OPEN NOT A PROBLEM)

(ANDROID ON BACK A CRICKET/MOTO TRICK)

[ANSWER 1 BELOW]

(UNLOCK CODE FROM OTHER SAME MODEL NON CRICKET PHONES WORKS ON CRICKET MOTO E5 PLAY TO SOME DEGREE)

[ANSWER 2 BELOW]

(NOT THER YET, BUT SOLUTION MAY LIE IN INTERRUPTING SYSTEM REBOOT AFTER FASTBOOT "ERROR 7" OEM UNLOCK)

[COMMENT 1 BELOW]

--end summary--

[print] ANSWER 1 - RE: ANDROID ON BACK WITH GUTS OPEN

The android laying on his back with his guts open...that's depressing... that's a screen to thwart people from getting into recovery tools mode (adb sideload, factory mode, QCOM Processor access, etc.).

You need to push and hold the power button two seconds and then add on pushing the volume up button and keep both pushed for about six or seven seconds. It is finicky so do it a few times in a row making sure not to hold them too long. Do not push both buttons initially at the same time. The power button is the initial button and the volume up button is the after-button but they are both held for about 7 seconds.

If you hold the power and volume up buttons constantly the screen will oscillate between the moto logo and being black. Right as it goes black you can always just push and hold the volume down button real quick and that will get you back to the basic fastboot admin (not the real RECOVERY MODE) screen without the main RECOVERY tools.

[print] ANSWER 2 {PREPATORY} - RE: UNLOCK CODE FROM OTHER SAME MODEL NON CRICKET PHONES WORKS ON CRICKET MOTO E5 PLAY TO SOME DEGREE

Put your phone in fastboot mode with SDK COMMAND "adb reboot bootloader" or "fastboot reboot bootloader" (or manually power off, then press the power and volume down buttons simultaneously).

On your desktop, open a command prompt or terminal, and go to the directory where you installed the Android SDK tools (or make sure fastboot command are being made from correct directory.

Download and install Motorola drivers and ADB drivers.

Download sdk fastboot and extract it anywhere on your computer.

Put your device in bootloader mode – Turn off your device and turn it on while pressing volume down key.

Connect your device to the computer.

Open extracted folder. Press and hold the shift key and right click on empty space in that folder.

Click open command window here.

[print] ANSWER 2 {FULL IMPLEMENTATION} HOW TO DO A fastboot command adb OEM unlock on CRICKET MOTO E5 PLAY THAT TEMPORARILY WORKS AND THEN SCREWS UP ON SYSTEM REBOOT BUT HAS A CHANCE OF WORKING SOMEHOW

1. (After placing your phone in USB debugging with MTP/PTP checked under USB configuration, and tuning on the option for "allow OEM unlock" in settings) Confirm your device is connected to adb command shell framework by using COMMAND: "adb devices" or "fastboot devices".

2. Put your device in fastboot mode (power off, then press the power and volume down buttons simultaneously) or use commands "fastboot reboot bootloader" to get to fastboot screen.

3. At the prompt, type the COMMAND "fastboot OEM unlock ZJC56EZ44C54LDSPXGQ5" (this is an unlock code from Motorola website for some Motorola non-cricket phone but it works. it made my phone data erased to where it asks to sign up for google and all that again and deletes the apps.)

It will warn you on your PC Command prompt and you need to do the identical command again to confirm.

[print] COMMENT 1 - RE: NOT THERE YET, BUT SOLUTION MAY LIE IN INTERRUPTING SYSTEM REBOOT AFTER FASTBOOT "ERROR 7" OEM UNLOCK

"I used the above method using an OEM unlock key for a different Moto E5 on my Cricket Phone and it basically unlocked my bootloader and then relocked it on reboot from what it appears."

Now the problem is that the phone is showing the setting option for "Allow OEM unlock" as greyed out. (Update: connecting phone to wifi fixed greyed-out OEM option issue almost immediately.) What I've read in general is that for phones that are troublesome like this you have to get into fastboot and recovery/tools mode before the phone totally reboots after doing an OEM unlock.

That way the phone does not relock the bootloader on you before you can flash patched magisk.img or twrp.img by adb sideload or fastboot flash. It may be that you flash some non-cricket moto firmware prion to the twrp/magisk flashing bc if you don't you will probably get the unsigned/incorrect footer error which is the hidden cricket firmware stopping the flash transfer. So in theory there is a way to do this.

see also

https://xdaforums.com/t/rom-10-0-0_r41-lineageos-17-1-for-moto-e5-play-james-recovery-64bit.4194161/

for other method that seems way better to upgrade/root Android

PS : It will say "error 7" so just ignore that.