[Moto G8 Play Guides, News, & Discussion] zLucasKkj:
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THE ARTICLE ABOUT MOTOROLA MOTO G8 PLAY​

The AIO thread about Motorola Moto G8 Play on XDA.​

Table of contents

📝INTRODUCTION

IMPORTANT NOTES

INITIAL STEPS

⚙️DEVICE SPECIFICATIONS

🔓DEVICE UNLOCKING

UNLOCK BOOTLOADER

DISABLE DM-VERITY/VBMETA

ROOTING PROCESS

Rooting with Magisk

Patching Boot Image to be flashed

Flashing the Magisk Patched Boot Image

PATCHING ANDROID

🗑️DEVICE DEBLOATING

🎨DEVICE CUSTOMIZATION

Generic System Images (GSIs)

Custom ROMs

Customization Apps

📲DEVICE RECOVERING

Start Android in different Safe Modes

Partitions Recovery

🚩KNOW ISSUES

Hard-Bricked/Dead Device

Dm-verity Corruption

Validation image failed

Cannot Load Android system. Your data may be corrupt.

Device with wired audio issues

Device boots up but is stuck in Motorola's logo

~ Created by @zLucasKkj and maintained since 2022 in 🔗Recife, Pernambuco - Brazil🇧🇷.

🔗Thread Source Files on Google Drive​

📝INTRODUCTION​

Hello, my name is Lucas, and I've been working on this thread since 2022 to assist people with their problems and contribute to the community, the pillar of humanity. Before writing this thread, I struggled a lot, especially with my addiction to rooting devices, which often resulted in me bricking my Motorola Moto G8 Play and gain knowledge. On May 16, 2022, my grandmother gave me this smartphone before she passed away from metastatic cancer during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In her memory, I've decided to keep and preserve this device for as long as possible. Ironically, I was in need of a smartphone at the time because my Motorola Moto E4 (woods) had a broken screen.

The Moto E4 has been a reliable device for me by more than half decade (yes, it still works to this day!), but what makes it even better is the community support it receives, even if not a huge one. This community support has made managing the device much easier, same I'm trying to do right now with Moto G8 Play.

Do you see how crucial community support is for any device? Unfortunately, the Motorola Moto G8 Play lacks such support. Please contribute any knowledge you have about this device to help expand its support.
​

IMPORTANT NOTES​

🟥CRITICAL NOTE | 🟨IMPORTANT NOTE | 🟦INFORMATION | 🟩HINT | 🔗EXTERNAL PAGE

🟥ALTHOUGH THIS ARTICLE IS THE RESULT OF SERIOUSLY RESEARCH BY MYSELF; I DO NOT ASSUME ANY RESPONSIBILITY BY YOUR ACTIONS, EVEN IF YOU FOLLOW EVERY SINGLE STEP MENTIONED IN THE ARTICLE, PLEASE CONSIDER THIS ARTICLE AS IF IT MAGICALLY APPEARED IN YOUR MIND, AND PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK.

🟥DO NOT FLASH FILES FROM ANOTHER DEVICE MODEL INTO YOURS. THEY WILL NOT WORK, I'M SPECIALLY TALKING ABOUT MOTOROLA ONE MACRO (XT2016).

🟨THE MAIN RESEARCH IS BASED ON XT2015-2. PLEASE BE AWARE OF ANY DIFFERENCES OR INCOMPATIBILITIES WITH OTHER XT2015 MODELS.

🟨MAKE SURE TO READ AT LEAST ALL NOTES. JUMP TO CERTAIN PART ONLY IF YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHAT YOU ARE DOING!

🟨THIS THREAD IS WORK IN PROGRESS; CONSIDER READING CAREFULLY.

🟦THE MOTOROLA MOTO G8 PLAY LACKS OF SUPPORT. IF SOMETHING GOES WRONG OR GOES SUCCESSFUL, IT NEEDS TO BE DOCUMENTED SOMEHOW! PLEASE HELP WITH THE RESEARCH, AND YOU'LL BE MENTIONED.
​

INITIAL STEPS​

This is a category because there are mandatory and highly recommended steps to execute anything from what this thread offers.​

Make sure you can recover your device by owning a copy of your ROM distributed by Motorola or some mirror like lolinet. You can

🔗download XT2015 Stock Roms in lolinet

.

🟦IF SOMETHING GOES REALLY WRONG, YOU ALSO NEED TO DOWNLOAD THE BLANKFILES OF YOUR DEVICE TO FLASH DIRECTLY INTO YOUR CPU, PLEASE, REFER TO DEVICE RECOVER CATEGORY.

🟦PLEASE, CONTRIBUTE TO THE COMMUNITY AND UPLOAD THE STOCK ROM IN SOME OTHER PLACE, I DON'T KNOW WHEN LOLINET WILL STOP TO DISTRIBUTE THESES XT2015 ROMS.

Download and Install

🔗Motorola Device Manager

;

🟨THE ANDROID USB DRIVERS FROM SECOND AND THIRD PARTIES HAVEN'T BEEN CHECKED! YOU TAKE ON THE RISKS IF YOU USE THEM.

🟦DO NOT FORGET TO WRITE DOWN AND DOCUMENT IF YOU DO!​

Download

🔗Android SDK Platform-Tools

or any distribution of ADB and Fastboot of your choice that was released in 2019 or earlier;

🟩YOU CAN ALSO

INSTALL

BY ADDING THE FOLDER CONTAINING THE ADB AND THE FASTBOOT BINARIES

INTO PATH SYSTEM VARIABLE

FOR

FAST AND EASY ACCESS

.​

Make sure your important data is stored in another place, can be even in the SD Card if you not pretend to do anything deeper with your device;​

Make sure any device protection is disabled to avoid mismatching encryption keys by removing the associated google account (Factory Reset Protection, FRP) from the device and removing android lock screen security methods mainly;

🟦THIS IS JUST NEEDED IF YOU WANT TO FLASH

THIRD PARTIES PARTITIONS

COMPATIBLE WITH YOUR DEVICE,

SECOND PARTIES

ARE USUALLY SAFE TO FLASH WITH PROTECTIONS ON.​

⚙️DEVICE SPECIFICATIONS​

Release: Announced in October 2019 and released in the same month.

Dimensions and Weight:

• Dimensions: 157.6 x 75.4 x 9 mm (6.20 x 2.97 x 0.35 inches)

• Weight: 183.6 g (6.49 oz)

Build: Glass front, plastic back, plastic frame.

Display:

• Type: IPS LCD

• Size: 6.2 inches

• Resolution: 720 x 1520 pixels, 19:9 ratio (~271 ppi density)

• Screen-to-body ratio: Approximately 80.7%

• Operating System: Android 9.0 (Pie), upgradable to Android 10.

• Operating System Information:

• XT2015:​

- Android 9: TBR.​

- Android 10: TBR.​

• XT2015-2:​

- Android 9: TBR.​

- Android 10:​

• ROM: LIMA_32_QMDS30.47_33_5_subsidy_DEFAULT_regulatory_DEFAULT_CFC.xml​

• BUILD NUMBER: QMDS30.47-33-5​

• REDISTRIBUTION: RETBR​

Processor: MediaTek MT6771 Helio P70M (12nm), Octa-core (4x2.1 GHz Cortex-A73 & 4x2.0 GHz Cortex-A53).

GPU: Mali-G72 MP3.

Memory:

• 32GB internal storage.

• 2GB RAM.

• microSDXC card slot (shared with second SIM).

Main Camera(rear): Triple: 13 MP, f/2.0 (wide), 1.25µm, 8 MP, f/2.2, 117˚ (ultrawide), 1.12µm 2 MP, f/2.2 (depth)

• Features: LED flash, HDR.

• Video: 1080p@30fps

Front Camera(selfie): 8 MP, f/2.2

• Features: HDR

• Video: 1080p@30fps

Audio: Mono loudspeaker and 3.5mm headphone jack.

Connectivity:

• WLAN: Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n

Bluetooth: 4.2, A2DP, LE

• Positioning: GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO

• NFC: No

• Radio: FM radio

• USB: USB Type-C 2.0

Sensors: Fingerprint (rear-mounted), accelerometer, gyro, proximity.

Battery: Non-removable Li-Po 4000 mAh.

Colors Available: Black Onyx, Magenta Red.

View attachment 6092728View attachment 6092729

Base Price: About U$ 100.

Availability: Entire South America and Mexico

Internal pictures:

View attachment 6092723View attachment 6092725View attachment 6092727View attachment 6092726

Device disassembling: 🔗YouTube - Motorola Moto G8 Play Disassembly Teardown Repair Video XT2015

🔓DEVICE UNLOCKING​

This category offer methods to unlock certain features in the internals of your device.​

UNLOCK BOOTLOADER​

Unlocking the bootloader on your device allows you to manipulate with partitions. This means you can update your device with new versions of the Android operating system, install custom ROMs, or even root your device to gain complete control over it. However, unlocking the bootloader also comes with risks. With great power comes great responsibility.

Unlocking the Bootloader | Motorola Support US

Visit the customer support page to view user guides, FAQs, bluetooth pairing, software downloads, drivers, tutorials and to get repair and contact us information.

en-us.support.motorola.com

DISABLE DM-VERITY/VBMETA​

Disabling DM-Verity and AVB (Android Verified Boot) is often done when you want to modify system partition and make it persistent on your Android device.

DM-Verity is a security feature that checks if any partition has been tampered with every time your device starts up. AVB, on the other hand, prevents your device from booting if it detects that the device’s software has been modified by mismatches.

In Motorola Moto G8 Play is really accurate and helpful for fixing itself if there are any mistakes with over-the-air updates. For instance, if you delete a system app, it will automatically reinstall it, and your device will start up normally. Remember that, this feature isn't helpful if you want to customize your device, it's VERY annoying to be honest.​

Get Motorola Moto G8 Play stock vbmeta file;

Bring up a terminal;

Type theses commands into the terminal and flash the image in both vbmeta partitions;

🟥THIS STEP IS CRITICAL! MAKE SURE YOU REALLY WANT TO DO THAT.

🟨DO NOT FLASH SECOND OR THIRD PARTIES VBMETA.IMG FILE, JUST USE YOUR MOTOROLA DEVICE STOCK ONE.

🟦THE DEVICE ENFORCES VBMETA CHECKING IN FASTBOOT/BOOTLOADER MODE, EVEN WHEN VERITY AND VERIFICATION ARE BOTH DISABLED (POSSIBLE A BUG). THIS MEANS YOU CAN'T FLASH ANY PARTITION THAT DOESN'T MATCH THE CURRENTLY USED VBMETA. FOR INSTANCE, IF YOU FLASH A

🔗BLANK VBMETA PROVIDED BY GOOGLE

, IT WON'T SEEM TO CHANGE ANYTHING. HOWEVER, IF YOU ATTEMPT TO FLASH ANYTHING ELSE IN THE BOOTLOADER, AN ERROR OCCURS DUE TO A MISMATCH BETWEEN THE FLASHED FILE AND THE VBMETA.

🟦IF YOU ALREADY FLASHED A DIFFERENT VBMETA INSTEAD OF THE STOCK ONE, CHECK "VALIDATION IMAGE FAILED" AT COMMON ISSUES CATEGORY FOR SOLVING IT.

Now erase the userdata to discart encryptions;

🟦THE COMMAND fastboot -w OR fastboot erase userdata WIPES THE USERDATA PARTITION. IF YOU DON'T RUN THIS COMMAND AND REBOOT THE DEVICE FOR THE FIRST TIME, IT MIGHT APPEAR BRICKED. PLEASE REFER TO THE "CANNOT LOAD ANDROID SYSTEM. YOUR DATA MAY BE CORRUPT." UNDER THE COMMON ISSUES CATEGORY FOR A BETTER UNDERSTANDING.

Now your device should boot up and start as new with AVB Disabled.

🟩TO SEE IF YOUR DEVICE HAS DM-VERITY/AVB DISABLED, INSTALL THE 🔗GEMINIMAN ENCRYPTION CHECKER

ROOTING PROCESS​

Android Rooting refers to the process where users of the Android mobile operating system gain privileged control, known as root access, over various Android subsystems. Since Android utilizes the Linux kernel, this process grants administrative permissions akin to superuser permissions in Linux or Unix-like operating systems.​

Rooting with Magisk​

Magisk is a popular Android rooting solution which allows systemless root access while also maintaining the ability to receive OTA updates. It was developed by topjohnwu in 2016.

Magisk works by modifying the boot partition and not the system partition, which is referred to as a “systemless” method. This means it doesn’t change anything in the system files, which allows users to enjoy apps that block rooted users.

One of the main benefits of Magisk is the ability to hide root access from specific apps, which can be useful for apps that don’t work on rooted devices such as banking apps, certain games, or for using services like Google Pay. It also supports modules for adding features to your Android device, similar to Xposed Framework.

🟦TO FOLLOW ANY STEPS HERE, IS ESSENTIAL THAT YOU HAVE SUCESSFULLY UNLOCKED YOUR BOOTLOADER, PLEASE REFER TO THE "UNLOCK BOOTLOADER" UNDER THE UNLOCKING DEVICE CATEGORY FOR A BETTER UNDERSTANDING.

Patching Boot Image to be flashed

Get a copy of the stock boot.img file;​

Download and Install Magisk APK;​

In Magisk; (Magisk Section) Install > Select and Patch a File;​

Select the image file to be patched by Magisk;​

Press "LET'S GO" and wait the file to be patched.​

Flashing the Magisk Patched Boot Image

Get the patched boot.img file from "/sdcard/download" or download a already patched image;​

Get into fastboot mode using button combinations or adb reboot fastboot;​

Type fastboot flash boot magiskboot.img;

🟦IF YOU INTEND TO SYSTEM-ROOT YOUR DEVICE, IT'S ESSENTIAL TO DISABLE DM-VERITY/AVB BEFORE RESTARTING. YOU CAN FIND INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO DO THIS IN THE "DISABLE DM-VERITY/VBMETA" SECTION UNDER THIS CATEGORY. BE SURE TO READ THROUGH IT THOROUGHLY FOR GUIDANCE.​

Type fastboot reboot;​

Check Magisk App and see if everything is rooted fine!​

PATCHING ANDROID​

https://github.com/LSPosed/LSPosed/releases/download/v1.9.2/LSPosed-v1.9.2-7024-zygisk-release.zip

​

🗑️DEVICE DEBLOATING​

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🎨DEVICE CUSTOMIZATION​

This category offer general device customization with different methods also supporting non-rooted devices.​

Generic System Images (GSIs)​

A GSI is a system image built from the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) codebase. It's meant to be generic, so it can run on any device supporting the Project Treble framework, irrespective of the manufacturer. GSIs are essentially custom ROMs tailored for various devices.

Motorola Moto G8 Play is support by the treble project and the type of image require is: system-arm32_binder64-ab.img.xz

🟦YOU CAN CHECK IF YOUR DEVICE IS TREBLE SUPPORTED BY USING SOME TREBLE PROJECT CHECKER APP, IN THIS CASE, THE MOST USED IS

🔗TREBLE INFO

For some reason, based on all of my flashings, I noticied that all Android 12 GSIs does't work at all.

Check out for already researched GSIs by looking at

🔗XT2015-2 GSIs spreedsheet

​

and contribute to the article by testing more GSIs downloading from the 🔗Treble Experimentations GSIs list on GitHub.

🟦TO INSTALL GSIS SUCCESSFULLY, YOU NEED TO DISABLE DM-VERITY/VBMETA. PLEASE REFER TO THE "DISABLE DM-VERITY/VBMETA" SECTION UNDER THE "UNLOCKING DEVICE" CATEGORY FOR MORE INFORMATION.

Custom ROMs​

🟨DO NOT FLASH

UNOFFICIAL

CUSTOM ROMS WITHOUT MAINTAINER PROOFS, REFER TO "GENERIC SYSTEM IMAGES (GSIS)" IN THIS CATEGORY INSTEAD WHICH IS WAY MORE RECOMMENDED AND WAY LESS DANGEROUS.

🟦NEED MORE SUPPORT AS XT2015-2 LACKS OF IT. PLEASE CONTRIBUTE IF YOU TRIED SOME CUSTOM ROM IN DEVICE.

At time there's no official Custom ROMs to XT2015-2.​

Customization Apps​

GravityBox (Xposed), SystemUI Tuner (App), SystemUI Tuner (System)

​

📲DEVICE RECOVERING​

This category offer general device recovering to revert fails.​

Start Android in different Safe Modes​

Starting your device in different Safe Mods may be very useful and clever ideia after doing something deeper, simple methods that saves you a lot of time and pacience after a bootloop for example.​

With your device off; simply hit Power Button;

After a couple seconds you notice that you device will vibrate, soon as possible execute the next step;

To start in Android Safe Mode:View attachment 6096128

Hold VOL- util your device finished the Android Booting;

🟦You should get a bootanimation, screen brightness dim or some audio playing as a successful boot.

Now your device should boot in Safe Mode as legit device with all magisk modules disabled.

To start with disabled Magisk Modules (Magisk Safe Mode):

Hold VOL+ util your device finished the Android Booting;

🟦You should get a bootanimation, screen brightness dim or some audio playing as a successful boot.

Now your device should boot as legit device with all magisk modules disabled.

Partitions Recovery​

Partition recovery is the main way to revive devices, also known as "un-bricking." Partition recovery is quite clear by itself, which means it's not just used for unbricking devices but also to restore, remove, edit data, etc.

Recover through Rescue and Smart Assistant (RSA)

Rescue and Smart Assistant RSA | Motorola Support US

A full software update of your phone to help fix software issues, such as phone not powering up, stuck in fastboot mode and avoid a time-consuming repair.

en-us.support.motorola.com

Recover through Fastboot Method

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Recover through MTK EDL/BROM/BOOTROM

I'm sorry but there's no enough research about memory writing on this device, please, contribute.​

Custom Recovery​

A custom recovery on Android is a third-party recovery environment that replaces the default stock recovery. It provides additional options for easily modifying the internals of the device.
​

There's no custom recoveries at time to XT2015-2, don't try to flash anything incompatible.

Custom Recoveries is kinda useless nowadays, if something goes wrong, just flash your backup or fix using other method that is effective as well.

​

🚩KNOW ISSUES​

Hard-Bricked/Dead Device​

I'm sorry, but there's no FREE solving for that at moment.

In March 29, 2024, my Motorola Moto G8 Play hard-bricked after flashing an unofficial image of TWRP into boot_b partition and changing slots in fastboot. The device appears to now have a blown PMIC, I can't really figure out if it's really about the PMIC, leading a hardware issue or some other software fails.

Why I suppose the PMIC is broken; after the flashing, the device appears to bootloop, when I forced reset, the device shuts down and simply don't turn on at all, no fastboot, no download mode, no input, nothing, completely dead!

I've searched A LOT trying to enter the MTK EDL/BROM/BOOTROM, including researching device and device schematics, with no success in entering download mode. I also researched a bit about twin devices XT2016 and some other Motorola productions schematics to learn more. Here are some actual (and potentially illegal) screenshots of the XT2015 Keypad in Wiring Schematic and Keypad Testpoints in Component Schematic as well.View attachment 6092734

View attachment 6092735

For some reason, the device doesn't seems to have a conventional way to enter in EDL mode (for real, it seems to not exist, lol?), also, the "Force Download" mode just seems like just another mode of fastboot, which, is basically fastboot.

The only solution I consider viable for this problem is to obtain a new motherboard for about US$40 (in Brazil).

Great news; In April 19, 2024 my cousin just gave me a broken screen smartphone for fixing, when I take it I saw the exact same XT2015-2 model, I'm really lucky!

View attachment 6097282

It's 8:33 PM o'clock of April 19, 2024; I replaced the bricked motherboard and fingerprint sensor by the donor one and it's all good, working perfect! I noticed that PROBABLY the fingerprint is unique for each motherboard, by the way, other fingerprint sensor is recognized by the motherboard but for some reason they cannot share data each other, again, maybe my original fingerprint sensor is broken, contribute if you know something about fingerprint sensor replacement in XT2015-2.

See device specifications for some hardware internals documentations.
​

Dm-verity Corruption​

🟦NEED MORE RESEARCHING, PLEASE CONTRIBUTE!View attachment 6104510

🟥DO NOT TRY TO HARD FLASH ANY PARTITIONS, THERE'S NO NEED (in this case)!​

I'm not sure how DM-VERITY happens on the Motorola Moto G8 Play. I just remember flashing something and then seeing a "DM-Verity corruption" message suddenly appear. But even if this message shows up, you can just ignore it by pressing the power button. I haven't noticed any difference between a good DM-Verity and a bad one. I've tried flashing all permitted partitions multiple times, and the DM-Verity corruption was still there. However, strangely enough, when I was testing GSIs, the corruption suddenly disappeared as if nothing happened...​

Validation image failed​

This error occurs when you flash a second or third-party vbmeta image file into vbmeta partitions that are not the stock vbmeta image.

Even if the Android boots up perfectly, such as when using Google's blank vbmeta, the fastboot/bootloader refuses to flash any other partitions that don't match the currently used vbmeta. Ironically, this also includes the vbmeta partition itself.

The current solving for this error is re-flashing all permitted partitions, check Device Recovery category.​

Cannot Load Android system. Your data may be corrupt.​

This error is quite common, even if your device isn't unlocked at all. So, make sure to only perform a factory reset when absolutely necessary, or you risk losing all your data for no reason.

Common scenarios that trigger this error include Android crashes and the use of incorrect encryption keys in vbmeta partition.

Android Crashes:​

To resolve this error caused by an Android crash, simply hit "try again," and everything should return to normal.​

​

The reason for displaying this Android recovery screen can seem nonsensical, as it may make you believe that everything is lost and that you need to perform a factory reset, resulting in the loss of all your data for seemingly no reason.​

DM-VERITY/AVB Mismatches:​

To resolve this error caused by an encryption issue, ensure that you have flashed the stock vbmeta image from your device, even if you have disabled any dm-verity and vbmeta as well.​

​

If you've disabled verity from the stock vbmeta image and the error persists; that's completely normal. It's likely because you haven't erased the userdata partition. For security reasons, you can't use encrypted userdata when verity is disabled. To fix this, you'll need to perform a Factory Data Reset or run fastboot -w or fastboot erase userdata in fastboot mode to clear out the encryption keys.​

​

Then reboot and it should boot up as new device.​

​

Device with wired audio issues​

The audio issue is related about the wired audio (audio jack and loudspeakers) apparently in every XT2015-2 device when the device screen is off. some medias starts to stutter, fail, crack or stop during the playback by a unknown cause.

This error is highly not related with the hardware but in the software, in GSIs the audio issue is inexistent.

This issue need more research to solve this issue permanently.

The cause of issue may be associated with low-energy mode, motorola frameworks, wrong sample rates, glitchy libraries or many other causes, please, contribute with any informations about this issue.

Device boots up but is stuck in Motorola's logo​

This issue is noticeable when the device is in the Android Boot Flow. It occurs when the device successfully boots up and Android starts, but the screen behaves as if it's stuck in a boot loop, not "hiding" the boot animation of the Motorola brand.

The main issue is unknown, but there are various scenarios that could cause this problem.