How to Unlock and Root the Zenfone Max Pro M1

The Zenfone Max Pro M1 was released earlier this year, and it’s a pretty handy mid-range device that packs 6GB of RAM, which you typically only see in premium-end devices. Paired with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 636, it’s a pretty snappy phone for gaming.

The bootloader comes pre-locked, but thankfully Asus does not have a bootloader unlocking program where you need to wait after filling out an unlock request. You simply need to download and flash a few things to unlock the bootloader, and then you can proceed to install a custom recovery, and root via Magisk.

In this Appuals guide, we will show you how to unlock and root the Zenfone Max Pro M1 – be warned that you should make a full backup recovery before proceeding, incase anything goes wrong.

Requirements:

• Unlock.rar
• TWRP or RWRP
• Magisk (Optional, for rooting)
• Enable Camera 2 API (Optional)

1. First download the unlock.rar and extract it on your computer.
2. Install the drivers according to your OS (they are separated by folder), then go to the Unlock folder.
3. Turn off your phone completely.
4. Reboot your Asus Zenfone Max Pro M1 to Fastboot Mode by pressing and holding Volume Up + Power at the same time.
5. Now connect your phone to PC via USB, and launch the Unlock.cmd file in the Unlock folder.

Now you can install TWRP or RWRP.

Installing TWRP

1. Download the TWRP image and save it on your computer.
2. Copy the TWRP image to your ADB pathway (see Appual’s guide How to Install ADB on Windows)
3. Launch an ADB terminal by holding Shift + Right click inside the main ADB folder, and choose ‘Open a Command Window Here’.
4. Boot into Fastboot Mode once again on your phone and connect to PC via USB.
5. In the ADB terminal, type: fastboot flash twrp-filename.img

After successfully flashing, you can immediately reboot into TWRP by typing: fastboot reboot

Rooting the Asus Zenfone Max Pro M1 via Magisk

1. Boot into TWRP, and go to Wipe > Format Data.
2. Now go to the Mount menu, and choose to ‘Enable MTP’.
3. Copy the Magisk .zip file to your SD card over USB connection.
4. Go to TWRP Install menu and flash the Magisk zip.

If your Zenfone Max Pro M1 fails to boot, such as encountering a bootloop issue, try to disable forced encryption as explained below.

How to Disable Forced Encryption

1. Download the decrypt.zip file and copy it to your SD card.
2. Now flash it in TWRP, and format your /data partition.
3. Reboot to System.