Manually Update US Retail Moto G7 Power to May 1st Security Update.

[nucher]

Update: 2nd post now has a way to update the Moto G7 without erasing user data. Method uses most of this tutorial but now you unzip image and select a file within in the unzipped image. Either way still backup your phone just in case. User MrCamby let me know about the "Lenovo MOTO Smart Assistant" for backup.

Yesterday I updated my US Retail version Moto G7 Power to the newest firmware build# PPO29.114-108 with the May 1st Security update manually. My previous build with the March 1st security update was PPO29.114-63-2. I have the Retail US Model with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of Storage. DO NOT flash the Moto G7 Power international version with 4gb RAM and 64GB storage, it will probably brick it.

This process will delete everything on the phone as it flashes all the phone's partitions. The phone will be as it was when you first bought it having to re-enter your account info and download all your extra apps not included with the stock phone. Please backup everything if you decide to update the phone using this method. On my phone most things were stored on the cloud but I did forget I had some unimportant things on the phones download folder.

Thanks to user MrCamby for letting me know bout the "Lenovo MOTO Smart Assistant" which will backup the phone on your PC (Windows only) before you flash it. I haven't personally used it but from it's .pdf guide it will backup your phone before you flash it preserving images, SMS, Contacts, etc... Link to Lenovo Moto Smart Assistant

https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/downloads/ds101291

The first step is to download Motorola RSDLite6.2.4.zip software used to flash the firmware file.
The software is available at: https://mirrors.lolinet.com/software/windows/Motorola/RSDLite/6.2.4/
Unzip and Install the RSDLite software and move to step 2.

Step 2 is to download and install the MotorolaDeviceManager_2.5.4.exe Software/Drivers at:
https://mirrors.lolinet.com/software/windows/Motorola/Drivers/

Step 3 is to download the 1.9GB firmware. Be sure the file downloads completely! Flashing an incomplete image could damage the phone. The MD5 checksum is 8bb8f13ec0fe23c977b57c86f2033db9 MD5 Checker attached.
Choose the Firmware dated 2019-06-05 and Named:
XT1955-5_OCEAN_RETUS_9.0_PPO29.114-108_cid50_subsidy-DEFAULT_regulatory-DEFAULT_CFC.xml.zip
https://mirrors.lolinet.com/firmware/moto/ocean/official/RETUS/

With the two pieces of software installed and the firmware downloaded it's time to install the firmware.

Warning this process will completely erase your device and reinstall the new firmware. only attempt this
process if you have a US Retail G7 Power with 3GB RAM and 32GB of storage. Do not interrupt the process
once the flashing has begun or you may have a brick(dead phone). Please continue at your own risk.

1) You'll need a USB C cable and be sure the computer is plugged in to power if a laptop. The phone should have at least a 60% charge.
2) Shut off the phone. Once the phone is completely off, Hold the volume down and press the power button still holding the volume down button.
3) The phone should boot into the boot loader mode, release the power & down volume button. See bootloader.jpg attached to see what screen looks like.
4) Plug the USB C cable into the phone and into a USB 2.0 port(black colored) on your computer. On my computer the phone didn't show up in RSDLite program when plugged into a blue colored USB 3.0 port. Others online reported the same problem.
5) Launch the RSDLite program and click show device. (Figure_1 Picture attached to post)
6) If everything went right you should see your phone listed on line 1. The program doesn't list any specific info just that a device is connected. See Figure_1 Picture attached to post.
7) Click the box on the top and select the firmware image still zipped. (The RSDLite program will unzip the firmware) and then click on the start button. See Figure_2 picture attached to post for box to load firmware and start button.
8) This is your last chance to not ERASE your phone and load the new firmware. After clicking start in last step a menu will pop up with three options. Choose the middle option "Uncompress and Start Flashing" See Figure_3.jpg attched to the post. During the firmware flash DO Not unplug your phone or allow your laptop to sleep. The process took about ten to fifteen minutes. The program will update the files it's flashing i.e. flashing 1 of 32, 2 of 32, etc....
9) When the flashing is done RSDLite will reboot the phone and you'll be prompted to choose your language like a new phone.

Troubleshooting: If line 1 in the RSDLite program is blank after plugging in the phone and doesn't show a device then you'll need to try a different USB port on your computer. For some reason the phone only shows up on my black colored USB 2.0 ports and not my blue colored USB 3.0 ports. Also try a different USB cable if it doesn't show up. These are common issues with the RSDLite program from my research.

 

[nucher]

Update Moto G7 Power without erasing device.

Follow the steps in the post above but stop at step 6 and start here.
7) Unzip the firmware image you downloaded in a folder you create.
8) Open the RSDLite program and click the box on the top and then select servicefile.xml in the folder you created in step 7.
9) After selecting the servicefile.xml click start and flash your phone. This should not erase your data.
10) Some forums reported it is better to erase the phone per the top posts but no reason was given.

Update Moto G7 Power without using RSDLite.
Since some people have reported trouble getting to RSDLite to work so I decided to do it in a way similar to the way I updated my Pixel using Android Platform Tools.
1) Create a folder where everything will be kept. like a folder called android in C:\ like C:\android
2) Download the Android Platform Tools attached to this post and extract to the folder you created.
3) Download the Phone firmware in top post and UNZIP into the same folder you created with platform tools in it.
4) Download update_batfile.zip attached to this post and unzip into the folder you created with the phone firmware and Android Platform Tools in it.
5) Open a Windows command prompt in Start menu--> windows system or by holding the windows key + R and typing CMD.
6) Plug your phone into the laptop and go to Settings--> System-->Advanced-->Developer Options then toggle "USB debugging" to on. A screen should appear on the phone "Allow USB Debugging" press OK.
7) If you don't have developer options in your System-->advanced go to System--> about and tap the build number 7 times. Now try step 6 again. Developer options should be there.
8) Navigate to the C:\android folder you created or whatever folder you created with all the files in the Command Prompt. Something like cd \android
9) Turn off the phone, Once the phone is off, hold the volume down and then hold the power button. You should boot into the bootloader screen. Release the two buttons.
10) So you should have the phone in bootloader mode, all the files in one folder, have previously selected USB debugging when the phone was booted up, and the command prompt at the folder with all the files in it.
11) now type in the command prompt type either update_no_erase.bat or eraseandupdate.bat Obviously the update_no_erase.bat updates the phone without erasing it and eraseandupdate.bat erases the phone and then updates it. After typing the one of the two .bat filenames press enter and the .bat file will update the phone and then reboot it.
12) Good luck!

 

[Omar04]

Man I was wondering why nobody was updated yet since that firmware has been available for a while.. I flashed it about last week or less all good..

Man I forgot about RDS Lite damn it.. . I flashed it manually and was PITA since it has Patition A and B and a few times I messed up the commands and installed parts of partition B on partition A since everything installs by default to Partition A unless you specify System_b because I forgot to specify the partition..

T

 

[Omar04]

I weird thing about this May 1 lst Firmware and the one before after unlocking bootloader, in system updates it stated that my device is compromised so no more Ota but today out of nowhere that message changed back to normal System Up to date. So weird I did nothing at all.

 

[thaessential]

I knew there had to be a way a way to find that updated firmware. I just been too distracted having fun with a rooted phone finally to research it yet (my last 2 phones were sm-j727t-1's and before that some kyocera pos... I make bad decisions lol). so i take it we will have to reroot our devices after this as well...? we should be able to get all our other stuff back nearly identical using titanium with cloud storage though right? just slightly more of a headache than twrp...

 

[nucher]

You will definitely have to Re-Root the phone as this flashes all the partitions like it was when new. You may have to Unlock the bootloader again but I'm not sure about that. The bootloader may stay unlocked because that's a deeper setting I believe. With my Pixel 2 I would always have to Re-Root whenever I updated but that wasn't to difficult. If you do update report back on if the bootloader stayed unlock or not. You should be able to still unlock the bootloader again if it did lock, but again I don't think it will lock. You will be able to get everything back that's cloud based as you sign in with your google account. It will take a little time to reinstall some apps and change a few settings depending on how your phone is set up. I couldn't get the May 1st Security / phone fixes from system update so I went this route.

I knew there had to be a way a way to find that updated firmware. I just been too distracted having fun with a rooted phone finally to research it yet (my last 2 phones were sm-j727t-1's and before that some kyocera pos... I make bad decisions lol). so i take it we will have to reroot our devices after this as well...? we should be able to get all our other stuff back nearly identical using titanium with cloud storage though right? just slightly more of a headache than twrp...

 

[Omar04]

My PC ports are all 2.0 and RDSLite do not recognize the device. I belive is the other way around (Need 3.0 Ports) because of that.

 

[thaessential]

You will definitely have to Re-Root the phone as this flashes all the partitions like it was when new. You may have to Unlock the bootloader again but I'm not sure about that. The bootloader may stay unlocked because that's a deeper setting I believe. With my Pixel 2 I would always have to Re-Root whenever I updated but that wasn't to difficult. If you do update report back on if the bootloader stayed unlock or not. You should be able to still unlock the bootloader again if it did lock, but again I don't think it will lock. You will be able to get everything back that's cloud based as you sign in with your google account. It will take a little time to reinstall some apps and change a few settings depending on how your phone is set up. I couldn't get the May 1st Security / phone fixes from system update so I went this route.

yeah I'm definitely getting it done soon. these unsuccessful update warnings are super annoying. i keep trying to hide more google and moto apps and some other things but nothing seems to have any effect

 

[nucher]

I know on my Lenovo Thinkpad the USB 3.0 ports would not recognize the phone in RSDLite. I tried switching between 3.0 and 2.0 and it would only show up in the 2.0 ports. Be sure to install the MotorolaDeviceManager_2.5.4.exe listed in the thread and the phone will only be recognized when it's in the bootloader mode (power on holding volume down button). I had trouble initially getting RSDLite to see the phone and in a few forums people reported trying a different USB C cable and using the 2.0 USB ports. For me it was using the 2.0 ports. Getting RSDLite to see the phone can be the most difficult part of the whole operation. Good Luck!

My PC ports are all 2.0 and RDSLite do not recognize the device. I belive is the other way around (Need 3.0 Ports) because of that.

 

[Omar04]

I know on my Lenovo Thinkpad the USB 3.0 ports would not recognize the phone in RSDLite. I tried switching between 3.0 and 2.0 and it would only show up in the 2.0 ports. Be sure to install the MotorolaDeviceManager_2.5.4.exe listed in the thread and the phone will only be recognized when it's in the bootloader mode (power on holding volume down button). I had trouble initially getting RSDLite to see the phone and in a few forums people reported trying a different USB C cable and using the 2.0 USB ports. For me it was using the 2.0 ports. Getting RSDLite to see the phone can be the most difficult part of the whole operation. Good Luck!

Yes I know that. Thanks anyway I been playing this game since Android 2.2 ? In my case are the ports 95% sure about it.

 

[thaessential]

all my ports are also 2.0 and i couldn't get my phone to show up in RSDlite. probably just wait for TWRP at this point

 

[Omar04]

all my ports are also 2.0 and i couldn't get my phone to show up in RSDlite. probably just wait for TWRP at this point

Yeah man I test it in several laptops only being recognized on 3.0 Ports. Because of "USB Type C"

 

[Rondeau79]

Manually flash the firmware through terminal and fastboot. That will fix the issue!

 

[Omar04]

Manually flash the firmware through terminal and fastboot. That will fix the issue!

I been doing it for years manually no problems. I just wanted to try RSDlite once again has been years I have not use it. Still same issues as always ?

 

[nucher]

I was aware of the fastboot method but I figured this would be easier for some people who didn't want to install Android Tools Package and deal with the typing or copying fastboot commands in a terminal. Using RSDLite is a simple and foolproof method of updating our phones. I didn't have much trouble getting RSDLite to work but but it seems like others are. Once you have RSDLite working updating your phone would take less than a minute. I plan on updating my phone each time Motorola issues a System update. My phone doesn't receive them in a timely matter because I'm on Verizon who tends to postpone System updates.

I been doing it for years manually no problems. I just wanted to try RSDlite once again has been years I have not use it. Still same issues as always

 

[MrCamby]

FYI: Before you flash the update, you can use the Lenovo assistant to do a backup of your phone. Then you can restore from backup after the firmware flash.

Sent from my moto g(7) power using Tapatalk

 

[nucher]

Good to know. I'm new to the Motorola / Lenovo ecosystem. I've had Nexus and Pixels for the last 4 years. I'll add a link to the Lenovo Moto Smart Assistant Software in the main thread. Thanks!

FYI: Before you flash the update, you can use the Lenovo assistant to do a backup of your phone. Then you can restore from backup after the firmware flash.

Sent from my moto g(7) power using Tapatalk

 

[Omar04]

I was aware of the fastboot method but I figured this would be easier for some people who didn't want to install Android Tools Package and deal with the typing or copying fastboot commands in a terminal. Using RSDLite is a simple and foolproof method of updating our phones. I didn't have much trouble getting RSDLite to work but but it seems like others are. Once you have RSDLite working updating your phone would take less than a minute. I plan on updating my phone each time Motorola issues a System update. My phone doesn't receive them in a timely matter because I'm on Verizon who tends to postpone System updates.

Agree with you 100% RDSLite awesome once you have it up and running but a PITA to the power of 10 when not. I usually don't type any command at all I just open notelad write all commands there save as bat and then open cmd in working folder fastboot devices to make sure device is connected and drag and drop the bat to the cmd window hit enter to star and it does all the job automatically. ?

 

[nucher]

My 2nd post below the top will be a .bat file to use with ADB tools. Basically put the unzipped firmware, .bat file, and the adb tools all in one folder and run the .bat file. I just finished testing it now to type the post up.....

2nd Post is up now....

Agree with you 100% RDSLite awesome once you have it up and running but a PITA to the power of 10 when not. I usually don't type any command at all I just open notelad write all commands there save as bat and then open cmd in working folder fastboot devices to make sure device is connected and drag and drop the bat to the cmd window hit enter to star and it does all the job automatically.

 

[thaessential]

so i noticed there are also linux and mac versions of rsdlite. i have a linux pc running debian 10. was gonna try stuff out on that and see if i get different results. personally when it comes to stuff like this i would much prefer to use gui software than term. i only have one phone... well that's not quite true... i only have one new phone lol