[Moto Z Play Questions & Answers] johncarson0:
Hi everyone! I am new here in XDA Developers.

I have been snooping around since 1 year ago or so, and I found this site when I hard bricked my phone.

Well, let's start the story:

I bought an used Moto Z Play from a friend, excellent phone, 10/10 functions and aesthetics.

Once i had the phone in my hands I wanted to ROOT it, because I wanted to hack games and stuff. The phone was in Android 8.0 (Oreo), but since there was no root for my phone and OS, y proceeded to search the latest OS that could be rooted. I found out that it was the android 7.1, I think. Well, since I wanted a "clean" installation in my phone I downloaded the original ROM, and wanted to update it like many people do, via OTA. I installed 6.0 (since it is it's original ROM, from factory), all good. The update notification showed up, I accepted; it updated to 6.1 or sth, then the 7.0 update, updated, AND finally came the 7.1. Once I updated, it bricked. HARD BRICKED. I panicked, since I wanted to give away this phone to my dad. I found out that I needed a blankflash. I searched through a lot of forums, some even in russian, and chinese. I found out and accepted that the blankflash for the android 8.0 never came out. I gave up.

Since then, I learned that I MUST NEVER UPDATE VIA OTA. I learned it the hard way. I'm sorry for my stupidness.

Then I bought another motherboard from another Moto Z Play. I installed it and discovered that the ROM wasn't STOCK. That's because when I turned on the phone it started in bootloader everytime. The new motherboard came with Android 8.0 (Oreo) but I'm sure that it is a custom rom.

Well, the phone is now working perfect, but NOW, I have a problem.

I want to use 2 SIM cards in it. The first SIM card works fine, calls, mobile data, Wi-Fi... everything is good.

BUT the second one, from a different service provider, does not work. I inquired and found out that it was a problem because my phone wasn't, apparently, unlocked for other providers. I tested the SIM card with other phone, it worked. In the Moto Z Play, I saw that the APN info was correct, it detected all the info, but could not make calls, no mobile data. Wi-Fi was good though. The SIM card is fine, but the phone is locked.

I need the IMEI, MY IMEI, lol, but it is a problem. I tried calling to *#06#, the message shows

┐

IMEI

0

└

and in the settings -> system -> about phone -> status -> IMEI info, it shows nothing, BLANK!!!

that's why I think it is a custom room, and I have a problem.

The phone works fine with the first SIM card though, and I really like it. But I wabt to use the other one too.

My question is, should I install another ROM in the phone? I'm very afraid that it could HARD BRICK AGAIN.

What do you guys recommend? Should I try it or leave like this?

Now I don't really care if I can ROOT the device or not, I just want it to be functional and solve the "unlock line providers" problem. It could be fine with the 8.0 oreo or 9.0 pie, I don't mind, although I saw in other forums that I should not downgrade again, even if my phone has a custom rom and the new one is custom as well, so, i think the 9.0 pie could be good, but the oreo 8.0 is fine as well.

A guy in another forum could recover his IMEI with a somehow, interesting, process.

I will try to translate it since the original is in spanish:

┐

I experimented with several ROMs, and I tested one with android 9, the name is "The XPerience Project", but the Wi-Fi didn't work, so I decided to go back to the Stock one. I tried a multime times and days to restore my IMEI, but I failed at all. I decided to try another custom rom with android 9. I noticed that this one had the IMEI and it worked perfectly. An idead popped out of my head: a backup. In test mode, I entered in recovery mode and make a security backup of the MODEM and EFS folders in a MicroSD. Once the process finished, I instaled the stock rom agin in my device. Once it started, it had the same problem: the IMEI was 0 and had no signal. I installed the recovery TWRP again and made a restoration of the backup thet I saved in the microSD. The MODEM folder could not be restored (it showed an error), but the EFS was restored. I started the device once more and it automatically foun the signal and the IMEI number was re-established. My Moto Z Play is DualSim, version XT1635-02. I hope that I could help with my solution. Cheers!

└

My Moto version is the same: XT1635-02

Has anyone recovered their IMEI?

If someone could tell me what should I do, I would be very thankful.

Cheers! :highfive::highfive::highfive: