Moto Z Play Working Unbrick Solutions and Updated Files
Before you dive deeper into this page, let us do a bit of the device intro so that you may know if it is the same device for which you seek to unbrick.
Moto Z Play was released in September, 2016. It is a GSM, CDMA, HSPA and 4G-LTE supported smartphone though, the supported bands may very by region. Shipped with android 6.0.1 (Marshmallow) out of the box and upgradable up to Android 8 (Oreo), the device is powered by Qualcomm MSM8953, Snapdragon 625 and comes with up to 64Gb ROM and 3Gb RAM with support for dedicated microSD slot. It is also commonly called Moto Z Play Droid or MZP.
| Brand | Model |
|---|---|
| Motorola | XT1635 |
| Other Name | Moto Z Play |
| Code Name | Addison |
| Variants | |
| XT1635-01 | Verizon |
| XT1635-02 | RETAPAC, RETEU, RETEU-NL, RETGB, ALTMX, ATTMX, TKPCA, TIMBR, TIGCA, TEFMX, RETUS, RETLA, RETCA, RETBR, RETAR, OPENMX, OPENLA, OPENCL, BWACA |
| XT1635-03 | RETCN |
| XT1635-XX = variant/carrier specific-id | e.g RETGB = OEMs bearing that ID |
A number of Moto Z Play Android smartphones are abandoned hardbricked because there seem to be no solutions for their problems but there actually exists a few solutions that could resurrect hardbricked Moto Z Play.
For example, depending on how the device got bricked and what Android versioon was running on it prior the issue, you can use blankflash files to unbrick the device. Another option are the test points or the liveSD methods which are hardly explored, for a good reason I guess.
Regardless, this page shall focuse on how to unbrick and revive Moto Z Play devices.
Meanwhile, the test points and liveSD methods which are hardly explored would be left out on this page, leaving us to focus on the blankflash method that is considered less sophisticated but equally proven to work.
- You can find all the unbrick files including the firmware, latest blankflash and other system images required to unbrick the Moto Z Play device towards the end of this page.
- If you favour either of the liveSD or test points methods, use the contact us link.
But I Have Used Moto Z Play Blankflash Before, It Failed
Yes. That is possible. Some MZP reddit claims. Blankflash method will always fail for these reasons;
- Blankflash files are not only device specific but also, version specific. Blankflash files that was developed for Motorola devices running Android 6.0.1 cannot work for devices running Android 7.0.
- Meanwhile, Android 7.0 Blankflash files would very well work for and resurrect devices that was running Android 6.0.1.
In other words, not only that you need your specific device blankflash files, you always need to get files that match your device's Android version or, a higher Android version than yours.
Above is the reason most Moto Z Play unbrick files are not working, if that method uses the blankflash method.
MZP Not to Be Confused With:
- Moto Z
- Moto Z Force
- Moto X Play
- Moto X
Signs of A Bricked Moto Z Play
To identify that your device is hardbricked or not, here are what to look out for;
- The phone displays Qualcomm HS-USB QDLoader 9008 in the COM ports when connected to a PC.
- Other times, it could also display HS-USB Bulk in the COM ports when connected to PC.
- Flashes blank screen of dead usually in grey or black anytime you attempt to power it on.
- Only LED-light flashes when you connect to the PC.
- Responds to no key at all.
If some or all of the points listed above apply to your device, it is most likely already hard bricked.
With that said, hard bricked android devices almost always seem like they are powered off and with a dead battery in.
So, what can brick Moto Z Play?
What Are the Possible Encounters that May Brick or Hardbrick Android Devices?
There are a number of things you can do that will expectedly or accidentally brick any android device. I have listed a few of the things you could do that will make a dead phone out of your android device, turning it into a complete paper weight in the list below:
- Interrupted Software Update: either you are upgrading your phone OS via OTA update or you are loading factory image firmware on your phone using tools such as QPST QFIL, RSD Lite or other similar service tools and you accidentally encounter an error caused by something like power-loss on phone or from PC, that abruptly cancels the process halfway-through, you may end up with a dead phone.
- Failed Bootloader Unlock: if you ever need to unlock your android device bootloader, ensure that you always use the officially recognised method or at least, a method that has been confirmed to work 99.99% of the times because a failed attempt at such may brick your phone or, even hardbrick the phone.
- Aggressive Root Method: the use of some root methods such as root applications like Kingoroot or Magisk, if care is not taken, can brick your phone; essentially making the phone inoperable.
- Flashing of Wrong Image Files: often times, flashing of wrong
.img.mbnor.binand similar other android system files on your phone could brick the phone. - Write and Re-write of IMEI: the path to change or write an IMEI on android devices is not always straight and usually comes with risks that could softbrick or hadbrick the device. In the event that you need to re-write your device IMEI, always excersice caution.
- Changing of Phone Bands: another thing you could do that may possibly brick your phone is an attempt to modify the phone's acceptable or supported bands.
Meanwhile, depending on individual's experiences, a number of things outside the list above could brick the device, generally, anything or activity that severely alters the phone system files would brick or even hard brick the phone.
How to Unbrick Moto Z Play and Revive the Phone
Before we proceed to the step by step guides on how to revive the device, below here are the prerequisites;
- Download latest Motorola USB drivers and install it on your PC. This is included in the MZP unbrick files.
- Download Qualcomm HS-USB QDLoader drivers from here and install it on your PC.
- Download blankflash that matches your device Android version or the latest one and extract it onto a folder on your PC.
- See the instruction for setting up minimalADB and Fastboot and do the needful.
- Download stock firmware for your device and extract it onto a folder on your PC. You can download the firmware from within the unbrick files here.
- Charge your phone battery to a minimum of 50% and above.
Now, let us proceed.
Now, I will assume that you have;
- Installed Motorola USB drivers and it is working as should be on your computer.
- Installed Qualcomm HS-USB QDLoader drivers on your computer.
- Setup minimalADB and Fastboot tool on your computer.
- Downloaded and extracted the blankflash onto a folder on your PC.
And that is where I will start from:
Run Moto Z Play Blankflash.bat File
The blankflash.bat simply breaths life back into your dead MZP so that you may be able to flash either stock official Motorola firmware or a custom ROM onto the device, depending on your device bootloader lock status.
For all hardbricked Motorola devices, without accomplishing this stage, the blankflash stage, you would not be able to use any Motorola unbrick tool for the devices.
Even if the Motorola flash tool was to start from scratch, what the blankflash.bat does is what to start with.
How to Flash or Run Blankflash?
- Download the blankflash files from the unbrick files package. I recommend that you use the latest but, if you have never upgraded your device beyond its initial major android version, you may use any of the blankflash files and it will work just fine.
- Unpack the downloaded blankflash file onto a folder on your PC using 7zip file extractor or similar programs.
- Connect your Motorola device to the computer using its compatible USB cable and press the power button. Now, open Windows Device Manager to see if the device has been identified in EDL mode. If you see Qualcomm HS-USB QDLoader 9008..., you are good to go otherwise, whilest the phone is still connected to the PC, press and hold
power + vol_downbuttons until Windows Device Manager refreshes and displays your device in Qualcomm HS-USB QDLoader 9008.... - Now, open the folder into which your blankflash files was extracted, locate
blank-flash.batand double-click on it. - Double-clicking
blank-flash.batopens a new command prompt window and automatically flashes the necessary files. - Finally, Motorola device should now automatically reboots into bootloader screen.
- Leave the device connected to the PC, wait for the drivers to install and proceed to the next step below.
If all the blankflash operation completed successfully, the device should now have its life back and you can now flash a custom ROM or factory firmware onto the device.
I recommend that you flash stock firmware on the device but that is your decision to make.
You can flash stock ROM using any Motorola flash tool such as QPST or RSD Lite flash tool and you can also manually flash the stock firmware on Motorola devices using the step by step guide below:
How to Manually Install or Flash Stock Factory Firmware on Motorola Devices?
- Download the factory image firmware for your Motorola device. Unless you have an unlocked bootloader, be sure to download the firmware that is exactly for your device variant else, you will encounter some issues and errors flashing the firmware. Also, download latest factory firmware or the process may fail.
- Unpack the downloaded firmware and extract it onto a folder on your PC using 7zip file extractor or similar programs.
- Now, open minimalADB and Fastboot tools folder, copy everything therein and paste them into the extracted firmware folder.
- Now, click anywhere inside the extracted firmware folder and press
Shift + Right-clickto open CMD in this folder. - In the CMD window, first check if your device is recognised by typing the command:
fastboot devices
and press the enter key. If CMD returns device and serial number, you are good to go otherwise, check that your drivers are properly installed and working. - Supposedly, your device is recognised in fastboot mode, now, one after the other; type each of the commands below in CMD and press enter key after each command:
fastboot oem fb_mode_set
fastboot flash partition gpt.bin
fastboot flash bootloader bootloader.img
fastboot flash vbmeta vbmeta.img
fastboot flash radio radio.img
fastboot flash bluetooth BTFM.bin
fastboot flash dsp dspso.bin
fastboot flash logo logo.bin
fastboot flash boot boot.img
fastboot flash dtbo dtbo.img
fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
fastboot flash super super.img_sparsechunk.0
fastboot flash super super.img_sparsechunk.1
fastboot flash super super.img_sparsechunk.2
fastboot flash super super.img_sparsechunk.3
fastboot flash super super.img_sparsechunk.4
fastboot flash super super.img_sparsechunk.5
fastboot flash super super.img_sparsechunk.6
fastboot flash super super.img_sparsechunk.7
fastboot flash super super.img_sparsechunk.8
fastboot erase carrier
fastboot erase ddr
fastboot oem fb_mode_clear
- In CMD window, check and confirm that each of the commands from above returns an [OKAY] after it is executed.
- If all the commands return an [OKAY] in CMD, you are good to go. Now in CMD, enter this command:
fastboot reboot
and press the enter key. - Your device should now rebbot into android.
- Note that the first boot may take up to several minutes. Just hold on.
- Also note that, Motorola devices img_sparsechunk files vary in number. Some devices have upward of fiften (15) img_sparsechunk files. Be sure to flash all of the img_sparsechunk files accordingly.
- Once your device displays the first setup screen after booting, you may now disconnect your device from the PC.
- Done! You have successfully manually reloaded stock factory firmware onto your Motorola device.
| Variants | Unbrick File Details | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| XT1635-02 | XT1635-02_ADDISON_IUSMX_6.0.1_MPN24.104-44_cid50_subsidy-IUSMXLA_regulatory-DEFAULT_CFC.xml | |||
| Android 6.0.1 | .7z | 1.18Gb | Download | |
| XT1635-02_ADDISON_IUSMX_6.0.1_MPNS24.104-44-7_cid50_subsidy-IUSMXLA_regulatory-DEFAULT_CFC.xml | ||||
| Android 6.0.1 | .7z | 1.18Gb | Download | |
| XT1635-02_ADDISON_IUSMX_7.1.1_NPN26.118-22-2_cid50_subsidy-IUSMXLA_regulatory-DEFAULT_CFC.xml | ||||
| Android 7.1.1 | .7z | 1.48Gb | Download | |
| XT1635-02_ADDISON_ATTMX_8.0.0_OPNS27.76-12-22-9_cid50_subsidy-IUSMXLA_regulatory-DEFAULT_CFC.xml | ||||
| Android 8.0.0 | .7z | 1.37Gb | Download | |
| XT1635-02_ADDISON_ATTMX_8.0.0_OPNS27.76-12-22-3_cid50_subsidy-IUSMXLA_regulatory-DEFAULT_CFC.xml | ||||
| Android 8.0.0 | .7z | 1.37Gb | Download | |
| XT1635-02_ADDISON_ATTMX_8.0.0_OPN27.76-12-22_cid50_subsidy-IUSMXLA_regulatory-DEFAULT_CFC.xml | ||||
| Android 8.0.0 | .7z | 1.37Gb | Download | |
| XT1635-03 | XT1635-03_ADDISON_RETCN_6.0.1_MCNS24.104-35.2-3_cid11_subsidy-DEFAULT_regulatory-DEFAULT_CFC.xml | |||
| Android 6.0.1 | .7z | 923.20Gb | Download | |
| XT1635-03_ADDISON_RETCN_7.0_NCNS25.137-24.4-4_cid11_subsidy-DEFAULT_regulatory-DEFAULT_CFC.xml | ||||
| Android 7.0 | .7z | 1.01Gb | Download | |
| XT1635-03_ADDISON_RETCN_7.1.1_NCNS26.118-32-1-11_cid11_subsidy-DEFAULT_regulatory-DEFAULT_CFC.xml | ||||
| Android 7.1.1 | .7z | 1.05Gb | Download | |
| XT1635-03_ADDISON_RETCN_8.0.0_OCN27.82-18_cid11_subsidy-DEFAULT_regulatory-DEFAULT_CFC.xml | ||||
| Android 8.0.0 | .7z | 1.11Gb | Download | |
| XT1635-03_ADDISON_RETCN_8.0.0_OCN27.82-24_cid11_subsidy-DEFAULT_regulatory-DEFAULT_CFC.xml | ||||
| Android 8.0.0 | .7z | 1.11Gb | Download | |
| Blankflash Files | MOTO-Z-Play-blankflash_NDN26.118-23-12-3 | |||
| *Android 6 - 7 | .7z | 1.50Mb | Download | |
| MOTO-Z-Play-blankflash_NDNS26.118-23-4 | ||||
| *Android 7.X.X down | .7z | 1.43Mb | Download | |
| MOTO-Z-Play-blankflash_OPNS27.76-12-22-10 | ||||
| *Android 7.X.X down | .7z | 1.44Mb | Download | |
| MOTO-Z-Play-blankflash_NDN26.118-23 | ||||
| *Android 8 | .7z | 1.43Mb | Download | |
| MOTO-Z-Play-blankflash_NDNS26.118-23-12-7-4 | ||||
| *Android 8 | .7z | 1.50Mb | Download | |
| MOTO-Z-Play-blankflash_NDNS26.118-23-12-7 | ||||
| *Android 8 | .7z | 1.50Mb | Download | |
| All the Blankflash files work for all variants including XT1635-01 variants | ||||
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Frequently Asked Questions:
-
Can I flash factory firmware if my bootloader is locked?
Yes. But you can only flash a later version of Android on a locked bootloader. I mean, if your device was running Android 7.0, you can flash the same version or a later version of Android such as Android 7.1 and beyond.
-
I get a "Preflash validation" error during flash. What caused it?
You get "Preflash validation" error because the firmware that was running on your Android device before it got bricked is more recent than the one you are flashing. To resolve the issue and get pass this error, you need to either get a more recent firmware or unlock your bootloader and flash a ROM.zip therefrom.
-
After flashing factory firmware images, phone gets stuck at boot up. Why?
First, ensure that you flashed all the 'sparsechunk' files that are contained in the firmware folder you used. And not just the ones mentioned in the tutorial above because some firmware contains more 'sparsechunk' while others contein less. Also, naming files incorrectly during flashing can also bring about this issue. An easier way to avoid these issues is to use the OneClickFlashAll.bat file that is contained in the firmware.
-
Fastboot commands not working in my linux PC
In linux, fastboot commands execution requires root access. So, instead of using
fastboot devicesusesudo fastboot devicesand everything should work just fine.
Have other Questions Not Answered?
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