[UPDATE 01/02/16] WARNING: Locked Bootloader

[johnHooke]

hi. is it still safe to flash dev rom 6.1.7 ? hope it will not lock bootloader. just got my mi4c today. i want to flash dev rom for root acces and then twrp. thx
LE: nevermind. i followed the tutorial here http://www.beritahuaja.com/2015/10/how-to-root-xiaomi-mi4c.html?en
worked fast and smooth . root and TS CM13 .
thx for all the info i found here guys

 

[Logic_]

Yeah I also didn't need to flash a dev build to get root. The unlocked bootloader it comes with just lets you push a recovery through adb, the default way. I had read many times that you needed to flash a dev rom first but once you get twrp on there you're good to go

Pffff i didn't know about minideal... I ordered from gearbest... I will wait a lot more to arrive... And the price is just a little more than what i payed...

For what it's worth mine took quite some time to arrive as well.
It came with most Chinese apps removed and full language support. Honestly it seemed like a perfectly good functional rom, charging on it even seemed markedly faster, but that's hard to tell. But it had a weird build number, one you won't find much info about and some link it to spyware, so after looking through it a bit I decided to flash the stock rom.

Most importantly, it came with the default recovery and bootloader unlocked, which makes flashing new images simple as ever.

 

[johnHooke]

For what it's worth mine took quite some time to arrive as well.
It came with most Chinese apps removed and full language support. Honestly it seemed like a perfectly good functional rom, charging on it even seemed markedly faster, but that's hard to tell. But it had a weird build number, one you won't find much info about and some link it to spyware, so after looking through it a bit I decided to flash the stock rom.
Most importantly, it came with the default recovery and bootloader unlocked, which makes flashing new images simple as ever.

Mine took 16 days to arrive but it has worth the wait . also had a strange miui number, like 55.11.99, so i changed it imediately. i like it till now. i am testing cm12.1 . cm13 didn't work for me.

 

[ice-it]

Unlocking procedure now in English, check the first post...

 

[qtotter]

There are so many people who try dev ROMs only for rooting the device...

Anyway, Xiaomi might release OTA updates for stable ROMs with locked bootloader in the future as well. Personally, I guess the possibility is high.

People who want to keep unlocked bootloader should stay away from official ROMs and install xiaomi.eu ROMs or other custom ROMs such as cm.

Most companies expect users to use their devices as shipped from factory or officially updated. Not many companies recommend users void warranties. As for this case of Xiaomi locking bootloader, they should have announced widely before proceeding this policy change.

Glad this mess happened before my mi4c arrives although I'm sorry for the guys who got their bootloader locked by accident.

Watching on miui.com forum, it looks like many people even with diamond status are rejected for unlocking approval after waiting for weeks. I applied for approval just in case, but my chances will be really little...

 

[Pumpino]

Mine was rejected, and there's no way of re-applying. I won't be buying Xiaomi again.

"No soup for you. Come back one year!"

 

[qtotter]

A bootloader unlock tool for redmi note 3 was developed (because of mtk?) in xiaomi.eu. We might have a chance??

Anyway, you can apply for approval again later. I'm sure Xiaomi would change the process if many skilled users complain a lot and stop buying their products in the future. HTC did a similar thing, and we all know what has happened to HTC...

 

[Prettygrim]

just wanted to update you all.
i received a txt message this morning at about 11:30. the message had been sent at 18:00 on 30/Jan. it told me that i had been given permission to unlock the bootloader on my Mi-4c! i was very happy until i read that the permission was only valid for 1 day! anyhow, i went ahead and successfully unlocked it. that was when the issues started. i couldn't get into the phones settings to alter anything and i had got no keypad. this is something i reported after enforced update 6.1.21. anyway, after pulling a bit more hair out, i found that i had done a backup of the phone before the lock happened, and had forgotten. just as well, because the phone is now working as at least it was prior to the lock. the downside is that it is an official rom, miui_MI4c_5.12.31_5d6537a0b8_5.1.zip. i really want to get an eu miui unofficial rom on to the phone to remove any possibility of getting locked out again. which rom is recommended and what is the procedure for installing it safely?

would welcome ahy help

TIA

 

[ice-it]

just wanted to update you all.
i received a txt message this morning at about 11:30. the message had been sent at 18:00 on 30/Jan. it told me that i had been given permission to unlock the bootloader on my Mi-4c! i was very happy until i read that the permission was only valid for 1 day! anyhow, i went ahead and successfully unlocked it. that was when the issues started. i couldn't get into the phones settings to alter anything and i had got no keypad. this is something i reported after enforced update 6.1.21. anyway, after pulling a bit more hair out, i found that i had done a backup of the phone before the lock happened, and had forgotten. just as well, because the phone is now working as at least it was prior to the lock. the downside is that it is an official rom, miui_MI4c_5.12.31_5d6537a0b8_5.1.zip. i really want to get an eu miui unofficial rom on to the phone to remove any possibility of getting locked out again. which rom is recommended and what is the procedure for installing it safely?

would welcome ahy help

TIA

If you wanna stay in Miui you can use sMiui or Xiaomi.eu Miui, both don't lock your booatloader and can be flashed through TWRP

 

[Prettygrim]

tnx for the reply, ice-it. when i first opened my phone after unlocking it today, it was obviously on an official rom. that was when i started having issues, as i said. i tried to put a different rom on the phone via TWRP but although they were installed, as far as i know, the issues didn't get any better. that's why i am on the rom stated after installing my luckily found back up.
if i go about installing an 'unofficial rom', i dont know which one of those released is best. any idea? when reading, it seems as if different people have different issues on the same phone. i am tempted to go to the latest official rom, but am concerned that the bootloader will again be locked. if it happens, i am assuming i would have to go through all the moaning and swearing to get yet another unlocking permission, so am skeptical of doing that. i didn't have too much in the way of problems with the official rom, just that i couldn't run some bits i wanted to, so would prefer to stay unlocked and the unofficial rom seems like the best bet, if i knew which one.
also, will it be best to flash through TWRP and will it go over the top of an official rom?

 

[kafadar-42]

Xiaomi doesn't look like to unlock the phones. we are tired of waiting. smart one should solve this problem.

 

[Prettygrim]

If you wanna stay in Miui you can use sMiui or Xiaomi.eu Miui, both don't lock your booatloader and can be flashed through TWRP

hi again, ice-it. i guessed i could do that but my uncertainty is, because i have an 'official; rom atm, do i have to go through installing other roms before i install an 'unofficial' rom? i read where a Chinese rom needs to be installed, then another rom then eventually the rom wanted. as my phone now has the bootloader unlocked and is rooted my aim is to prevent official roms back on to the phone to mess it up again.
also, i dont know what installing an unofficial rom will do to the installed bits. will it wipe everything out, so i lose all my apps and phone contacts, for example? if so, i can make a backup with TWRP just for those bits, leaving the system files not backed up. i just dont want to be in the position of having the phone locked on me again, but dont want to screw up what i have atm.
my questions may well seem daft, but when you dont know, you have to ask. every question is easy when you know the answer!

 

[Logic_]

hi again, ice-it. i guessed i could do that but my uncertainty is, because i have an 'official; rom atm, do i have to go through installing other roms before i install an 'unofficial' rom? i read where a Chinese rom needs to be installed, then another rom then eventually the rom wanted. as my phone now has the bootloader unlocked and is rooted my aim is to prevent official roms back on to the phone to mess it up again.
also, i dont know what installing an unofficial rom will do to the installed bits. will it wipe everything out, so i lose all my apps and phone contacts, for example? if so, i can make a backup with TWRP just for those bits, leaving the system files not backed up. i just dont want to be in the position of having the phone locked on me again, but dont want to screw up what i have atm.
my questions may well seem daft, but when you dont know, you have to ask. every question is easy when you know the answer!

Once you have TWRP up and running, you are good to go.
It is indeed a good idea to steer clear of the official roms, although for now only some dev builds will lock you.
As you seem to wanna stick to miui, smiui is great, as suggested. Just flash it through twrp.

It is always advised to do a full wipe before flashing different roms. Only if your specific rom allows it, should you flash newer versions over the existing rom. Flashing different roms over each other can cause a myriad of problems and could explain some of the issues you stated earlier.

If you're concerned about your contacts, I'm sure Google sync restores those no problem, however if your rom's framework currently is already messed up, or if you're concerned with other app settings; Titanium backup is an app that will let you back up nearly everything and store the backups externally, or keep them on your phone's internal 'sd-card' partition. Then just install the app again on your new rom and you can choose what to restore.

 

[Prettygrim]

tnx for the reply, Logic. my concern more than anything is completely screwing the phone up whilst updating it to an 'unofficial rom'.
so, you are saying i can ignore all the steps i mention in my previous post and go straight ahead and update via TWRP to a rom of my choice? i haven't even seen a smiui rom and not heard of any issues. is it a recommended rom? which one is the latest any issues stated?
i have backed up my contacts and apps on to my pc with piece of software which seems to work ok, however, you mention doing a 'full wipe'. shows my stupidity, is that done through TWRP and will it take everything off the phone, giving a full, clean install of the chosen rom? if so, will i have to put my apps, contacts etc back on through TWRP or by using the software i mentioned above?

sorry for more questions but i need to be sure what to do. i know i could get back to the position i am in atm with the phone. i haven't even opened the internet on it since i unlocked it for fear of going back to being locked!

 

[Logic_]

There's little chance of you screwing up anything important once you have the custom recovery in place (TWRP). With that you should be able to get yourself out of any trouble, if you do mess things up. And the only way you could lose TWRP is if you deliberately flash over your recovery partition.
It's never a bad idea to read up on rooting in general so you know what you're doing though. But yes it is as simple as booting into recovery, wiping everything and flashing your rom of choice (you can keep the internal partition intact, that's probably also where you wanna flash your rom from). The important things to wipe are dalvik, cache and system.

Yes smiui is perfectly fine, it is basically the software as Xiaomi intended, with a few tweaks and optimizations for international use. Just go to their site and select the latest stable.

TWRP won't be able to restore any of your settings, it's basically just a tool to write to your phone's different partitions. The closest thing to a backup tool it does is copy what you have now to somewhere and so give you the ability to restore that later. Whatever software you use might be able to restore apps and contacts separately, I don't know. I've never needed or used anything other than Titanium Backup, so I have no clue what's out there.

 

[Prettygrim]

many tnx for taking the time to explain things for me, Logic. i have a better understanding now. as i said earlier, having put what i have on the phone at the moment from a backup, i can always fall back to that if i come off the rails. here's hoping all goes well

---------- Post added at 11:09 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:35 PM ----------

i have put the latest xiaomi.eu rom on the phone and wiped dalvik and cache. from what i can tell, the phone is working as it should. the one thing missing is root (and no supersu now). i have just put supersu back on the phone via TWRP which also gave me back root! atm, a happy bunny!

many tnx to those who helped

i just checked to make sure that the auto updating was turned off in rom 'Updater'. i was asked whether to have auto updates as well, to which i tapped on 'No'. i noticed while in the updater that the rom info said:

MIUI 6.1.28 Weekly, even though when looking in the 'About' section of the phone, it says 'MIUI 7 by xiaomi.eu 6.1.28 I Beta

i'm a bit concerned that the wrong info is somewhere, but where? should i go on to the internet and see what happens? i'm worried i may go back to the locked bootloader again!! what should i do?

 

[Logic_]

You're fine. The latest Xiaomi.eu uses the (weekly) dev build. These are only a bit different from stable builds and have different version notation. However Xiaomi.eu of course removes the bootloader lock.

Enjoy the phone

 

[Prettygrim]

i will do my best! before the maker got it's grubby little hands on it, i was well impressed with it!

what a shame a manufacturer thinks it has to do something that only it wants done and then lies about the reasons! i read where Google is going to try the same trick, making Android phones like iphones, locked down to hell so the owner cant do anything with what he's bought and the maker can glean as much personal info on every customer as possible! that wont be used, lost or hacked though. they said it will be safe and why should we ever doubt what we're told??

 

[xshadowhk]

Cannot Unlock Even If I Got the Code !!!

I have great problem now!

I bought my Mi4C some months ago, and I flashed the dev rom at the beginning, using the built-in root function.
I was using it happily, until one day, after flashing a new rom, I found that there is no root anymore.

So, I followed the instructions, apply for unlocking the bootloader.
After 3 weeks of using the phone without root, I got the unlock code finally.

Then I found that it's a nightmare.
I am in a deadlock.

To unlock, I have to sign in Mi account in the phone.
However, I have frozen the Xiaomi services already when I first used the phone.
Now, I don't have root permission to unfreeze the Xiaomi services.
So, I cannot sign in my Mi account, unless I hard reset my phone.

I find this really ridiculous!
At the first place the phone was not locked.
Suddenly it is locked, and I have no way to unlock!

What is the best way to solve my problem now?

 

[made-in-tirol]

I have great problem now!

I bought my Mi4C some months ago, and I flashed the dev rom at the beginning, using the built-in root function.
I was using it happily, until one day, after flashing a new rom, I found that there is no root anymore.

So, I followed the instructions, apply for unlocking the bootloader.
After 3 weeks of using the phone without root, I got the unlock code finally.

Then I found that it's a nightmare.
I am in a deadlock.

To unlock, I have to sign in Mi account in the phone.
However, I have frozen the Xiaomi services already when I first used the phone.
Now, I don't have root permission to unfreeze the Xiaomi services.
So, I cannot sign in my Mi account, unless I hard reset my phone.

I find this really ridiculous!
At the first place the phone was not locked.
Suddenly it is locked, and I have no way to unlock!

What is the best way to solve my problem now?

have you unlocked bootlader now? if yes try to root with twrp (flash via ADB) or factory reset or the last Option..... clean flash the rom

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