**February UPDATE**: Once again Xiaomi screwed it up. As reported by other users, the screen is over saturated, screen flickering is there when there is a dark background, some people still have issues with the bootloop on Android One logo. The Cam2API still wasn’t enabled, slow motion bug is still there, frontal and back cameras have issues with image distortion.
**Update**: They have halted the deployment of the update. I’ve triple checked the System Update section and it doesn’t say there is a new update or it can’t install.
Reports are coming from both Miui forums as well as XDA that the phone will be stuck in Android One logo and restart.
Recovery or any other command WILL NOT work if your bootloader is locked.
– MIUI Forum reports: http://en.miui.com/forum-205-1.html
– XDA: https://www.xda-developers.com/xiaomi-mi-a2-bootloop-january-2019-update/
If you’re with an unlocked bootloader, flashing the previous ROM 10.0.2 will restore access, but you’ll lose everything.
If **OEM UNLOCK** was enabled and you have an unlocked bootloader, enter fastboot and change the current slot from A to B or B to A.
> fastboot getvar current-slot
If you get b/B, set it to a and viceversa.
>fastboot set_active a
Luckily enough, my phone was rooted, unlocked and the update is now frozen.
Another problem is my dad’s A2 is not charging properly after the update
Edit: after factory reset it is completely bricked, the phone started boot loopo
As always, make a backup and factory reset it. That’s the best thing you can do. Or, create a backup, unlock bootloader which will reset the phone as well.
Oh God damn, I lucked out. I updated without even thinking, maybe I should unlock it from now on.
Does this affect the A2 Lite?
Pretty much yeah!
I couldn’t see any reports about the A2 Lite.
Wow, I’ve been questioning myself if I should update today but I didn’t wanted to, I guess that’s luck.
But even if Xiaomi releases an fix update, and I have the first update in queue, how can I update to the fixed one before the bugged one? (Not sure if that’s how things work)
Updated here and it’s all fine. No root, locked bootloader and stock ROM.
Wow, was planning on updating when I got home tonight. Thanks for letting us now!
edit: word
Locked bootloader here. Updated without issue. But I might unlock my bootloader for the future.
Reminder that it will wipe your phone, so take a backup first.
I’ve been complaining steady about the Mi A2 December Android Pie update and the January update. I’ve been putting them on blast on Twitter commenting on every tweet I possibly can tagging many of the top executives of ShameMi.
It’s sad that mainstream media outlets haven’t or won’t pick up the story about bricking phones. Thankfully mine hasn’t bricked.
What about people in emerging markets who save for a smartphone and now it’s bricked? Most of them probably can’t immediately run out and drop a chuck of money down on a new phone without saving a bit for it. (sorry of my generalizations if I am wrong)
JayJits on twitter (Private so I have to let you rad my tweets)
Is it me, or do the Android One phones from Xiaomi have a lot more issues than their other lineups?
The pictures look blurry to me until I click on them, that didn’t happen before
Does this happen to Mi A2 Lite phones, too?
Because they dont do anything about the bugs in there. So many problems since Pie came out. Whole phone went to shit. And they dont even respond to complaints. All they do is update their shitty MIUI that most of the people replace with custom roms.
Question. I bought an A2 for my mother. It just got delivered today. She’s probably updating it and stuff. She says it is on Oreo right now. If she gets the first update the phone shows it won’t be this patch right? It would be the Pie update?
I feel picture quality overall has diminished overall since the December Android Pie update. Portrait Mode often doesn’t focus on the subject you select. Bugs that ShameMi has to fix.
I couldn’t agree more with what you said!
Right! And then January update will appear.
Funny enough after I updated it got stuck on the logo for some time then I held down power button and it restarted and it works fine now
Glad it’s working!
While I also hate MIUI, I’m fairly confident the majority of people don’t run custom ROMs on Xiaomi phones. And it’s where the money is at for them.
Thank you
Lucky You
My first and last Xiaomi phone. I get the whole they don’t make money scheme because it’s a clean OS and has no spyware and ads but come on, this is just pathetic…
I agree. My first and last one as well. Their customer suport and general user support is the lowest possible.
They don’t even acknowledge the bug and you want testing? Come on, it’s xiaomi. Morons.
Is it just me or do I always miss stickied posts on subreddits? I don’t know why, but my brain always seems to turn a blind eye towards the top-most post lmao
Me to, first and last one. The problem is that I recommended to two friends of mine (Mi A2 Lite), and here in Brazil we have no official sale, imagine support. I hope they have no problems with Lite.
Anyone knows how to disable auto update? My A2 downloaded the update and now if i turn off it will install, has anything i could do to cancel this?
I feel like their MIUI updates are much more better than their Android One updates.
Settings > About phone > Developer options and disable ‘Automatic system updates’
To enable Developer Options Settings > About Phone > Keep tapping on “Build Number” until Developer Options Enabled
Soooo,should i update my a2 lite?
It is already disabled, my fear is that the notification says it has already downloaded, just restarting to install. Can I delete the downloaded files? Or if it is disabled it will not install?
Well, as someone who has his smartphone being repaired for almost a month now (longer since I first reported the issue), I can tell you that doesn’t make any difference with Xiaomi.
In fact, their “Global Service” will vehemently deny doing any repair under warranty, regardless of what is written in the warranty terms set by Xiaomi itself. Mind you, this is a phone bought in the eurozone, directly from one of Xiaomi’s official retailers in my country.
Is the A2 Lite affected ? Are the software of these phones related or it’s just a marketing name ?
Not being pedantic, but: could not as not able to? Or did not?
Did not, sorry.
What did it cost you?
e v e r y t h i n g
Check their forums and especially the BUGS section.
Every motherboard maker’s download page says, “don’t update the BIOS if you have no issues”. Phones should be no different.
Any news what’s causing the bricks?
Updated without any issue here. Why is this happening? Does anyone have a clue? All editions affected?
Oh man I was so looking forward to this phone. My mom told me to never buy Chine phones and I should’ve listened to her.
Well, can anyone recommend another brand for android one phones?
Same here. Updated my Mi A2 with no issues. For those who are curious, mine’s the 4GB/64GB Global variant. In addition to that, I updated my phone to Android Pie using the VPN trick before updating to the January 2019 patch. I suspect that the bricking issue might be related to the variant and the ROM version installed prior to the update.
Even Google’s own Pixel phones aren’t safe from these kind of fuck-ups.
No issues here. I updated the first day it was out.
Mine updated fine, but I immediately disabled automatic updates.
Wrong! I just updated like it should be and my 4GB/64GB is dead.
Sure, however Google does have proper support in-place when said “eff-up” happens, while Xiaomi’s “Global Service” will just tell you to go eff yourself (in more polite words).
Everyone reported issues with the A2. The Lite version doesn’t seem to be affected.
Sure they’ve stopped the update and people with unlocked bootloaders can flash and switch A to B or B to A, and use 10.0….
That all means nothing to your average person who now have a bricked phone.
There is tech support for xiaomi here in Brazil, although not official.
My friend updated his A2 and got no problem.
Should he unlock his bootloader to be safe?
Or the issue is only when updating?
MIUI isn’t shitty and most people don’t remove it.
Will unlocking the bootloader mess with the warranty in Europe?
I have it unlocked as well and I am under warranty in EU. I really don’t know.
If he doesn’t care about warranty and such, yeah, unlocking the bootloader is the way to go, plus you can install GCAM using temporary root.
No, the LITE is different. There are no reports regarding this version.
There needs to be a class action lawsuit to wake Xiaomi up.
I updated it with no problem
I have a 6gb/128gb and updated before knowing about this situation and… Nothing happened, thankfully.
Is this happening on the A2 Lite as well?
How do I check if the update has been halted? When I check for update under Settings-System-System Updates it’s still shows the Android 9 OTA ready for download and install.
I’m going to take a wild guess and say thats the update that could cause issues with your phone if it’s the Android Pie update. I believe the bricking occurred with the January Android Pie Security/Update.
Some people have had great experience with the Android Pie update. Others terrible. Then some people have had so so experience. I’ve had some camera bugs, fingerprint lag and some other stuff.
Xiaomi hasn’t fixed the bugs that quickly and released a new and improved Android P or January update. They haven’t even officially said anything yet. Lack of communication with users is shameful of Xiaomi. There new name is “ShameMi”.
I had a Nexus 5x fail after an update (Google’s fault). Got replaced, hardbricked itself after two years, hardware this time (LG’s fault).
Additionally, to make sure you don’t update, go into your Wi-Fi settings, select the current Wi-Fi and set it as a limited connection. It will think that your Wi-Fi is mobile internet and won’t automatically download. Don’t know how to remove already downloaded update files, but you could try cleaning cache from Play Services?
Is this for the mi A2 Lite as well? Please let me know I don’t want to take any chances.
Check the thread. A2 Lite doesn’t seem to be affected.
Probably not.
Shucks…shame on me i guess. Should have stopped pursuing with Xiaomi devices when I had the Pocophone (died recently after a little water damage). Surprising that a device that should’ve been easier to manage like the Mi A2 is going through such experience. I should’ve known better.
Mine is bricked 🙁
Locked bootloader (didn’t touch it ever). I presume Xiaomi will solve this situation…
uhm, HOW? You can’t interfere with the phone or you’ll lose warranty. Send it to warranty!
Hopefully they have a Mi store in their area. I’m in Canada and ordered it from a 3rd party seller on Amazon. Which makes me wonder who would replace the MiA2 if mine had bricked.
Why I said that…
My phone is *sometimes* boot loop when I charge it. Does anyone have something similar?
Uh so I Just got mine yesterday andere updated fine. The only thing I’m noticing is that I’m not getting notifications for anything but Google Play and Whatsapp
Go into notifications section and enable them. If that’s not working, I donno, factory reset it.
I’m not a moron lol. But I’d honestly really like to avoid a factory reset.
Don’t take it the wrong way, just want to help but given the situation with the bugs in the Pie it becomes a custom habit to factory reset it. Just tryin’ to help!
On a side note, visit the options menu for all the apps you need and manually toggle the notification setting.
Thanks a lot for the advice. Problem is, my girlfriend’s unit is arriving tomorrow. I’m supposed to set it up for her. But every time I do the initial setup on an Android phone the first thing it does is check for updates. I don’t think I can get to enabling developer options and disabling automatic updates in time… 🙁
Hahaha, understandable. Tried manually toggling them off and on, but that didn’t seem to do anything.
You can configure the phone without Internet, I believe. Just don’t connect to Internet or connect, add the account and immediately disconnect and enable all the things you need.
Definitely don’t agree that MIUI is shitty.
This. I have the a2 lite, but I set it up without any internet or cell connection, then disabled automatic updates before switching either on.
I know this issue didn’t affect the lite model; I was just being cautious
I lost my GPS signal… The phone won’t get GPS anywhere I go… There is a fix for the GPS?
AFAIK, GPS manual configuration is available only for rooted phones. You best bet right now is to factory reset it.
Any news on this? Has Xiaomi removed the update? I was lucky and I didn’t even receive the update notification and not planning on checking manually. They will fix this and send a patched update these days, right? Or will I have to stay in December patch forever?
They haven’t publicly acknowledged that there is an issue with the Mi A2. There’s no media coverage from tech webpages, YouTubers, Instagrammers etc. XDA did a story on it and it went no where, no other media outlets picked up the Mi A2 problem. The December update was awful and full of problems and everyone hoped that the January update would fix the problems, instead some people got bricked phones and those that didn’t are still facing problems with the initial bugs. It’s very shameful of Xiaomi and media outlets not to report about it. If there’s a 100 people in this forum, or Reddit, or the Mi Forums then there’s those people who dont go to forums and they are bricked, the number is probably fairly high.
Shit, just ordered mine, it is about to arrive.
Anyone has some tips or how-to in order not to fuck my phone one I turn it on for the first time?
It’s not necessary to unlock the bootloader, but please turn “Allow OEM unlocking” in developer options ON immediately. It’s the first thing you should do on any stock Android phone. Sure, if it gets stolen they can just reflash it, but it’s not like you would see the phone again anyway if switch was off.
Xiaomi doesn’t have much quality control in general. Their products are super cheap, and sadly you have to cut corners to get things to be so cheap and saving up on testing and quality control can dramatically reduce the price of the product. Dealing with some more RMAs is still a lot cheaper than the extra hours of testing, hardware and software. I love their products and the brand, but – unpopular opinion – I don’t recommend buying a Xiaomi phone for more than €250. It’s just not worth the lottery after that price point. Or, since they’re still good values even past the €250 point (albeit you start to have other phones by other brands that are not complete shit compared to Xiaomi, that still has no competition in the budget segment), at least do yourself a favour and buy them from an official reseller listed on the mi.com website so you have warranty and you can avoid some headaches. Xiaomi’s official warranty is pretty chill really, they’ll even recover you from a soft brick if the bootloader was unlocked. It’s just not worth it to use Aliexpress and roll without a warranty for €50 savings.
Those who bricked a Mi A2 here and has OEM unlocking disabled now need to send the device in to warranty for an RMA, it’s basically hard-bricked. Those who don’t have a warranty have been basically screwed out of €200.
“What lottery?” – Something like this exact post.
Google never released a hard-bricking update, though.
Pray you have a Mi Store in your country, or an authorized repair center. If you do, their warranty is pretty chill and they’ll even help you if the bootloader is unlocked. If you don’t, do your phone a small funeral and go buy a new one.
I learnt this lesson with the Mi A1. I was under the impression the Mi A2 was finally good and with no issues, but apparently it’s even worse. At this point, a new or mint Pixel 1st gen is a better buy
Sweet, I just did it. Will this allow me to flash anything? Or just oem images?
Thanks for the tip though!
It allows you to run fastboot oem unlock in the fastboot. If this switch in off, fastboot oem unlock will do precisely nothing. While your bootloader is unlocked you can either
* Run the flash-all script contained in the firmware package you find on the MIUI download page (.bat for Windows, .sh for Linux/macOS/FreeBSD) to completely reinstall the stock software. Do it in like a year or two if you feel like the device has been slowing down after some updates, as this is a clean install and [it has its benefits](https://lifehacker.com/in-defense-of-the-clean-install-1726140915)
* Or flash TWRP, which allows you to flash custom operating systems
Nice! Thanks so much. I had a one plus one for about 4 years and had done a bunch of flashing, but I never really learned all the terms and abilities of everything. Thanks!
Is your advice of “clean install with the flash-all script” the equivalent of wiping system, data, cache and dalvik cache via TWRP and then flash a stock / custom rom zip?
That’s basically what it does, but it also goes a bit deeper. It’s essentially wiping all the partitions and reflashing them, so that’s mostly correct. You can always open the script with a text editor if you want to see exactly what the script does though! In the end it’s just a sequence of fastboot commands laid down in an easy, 1-click script that does all the work for you in the correct order. I don’t suggest editing and running the script, but it’s always a good idea to know what a script does before launching it
don’t update if you got redmi y2, battery experience will be worst
Of you don’t mind, did it arrive with Oreo and update to Pie, or it arrived with Pie already?
Yes, I finally used warranty. Waiting for the new one.
Hmm. What attracted me to Xiaomi phones in the first place was the Android One line – before the Mi A1 I had 0 interest in buying a Xiaomi *phone*, though I already had some Xiaomi something else. So this has a reason to personally turn me off from buying their phones. I’m still eagerly waiting for their laptops to ship globally though. Good Linux support, good Hackintosh support, good specs, good design, moderate price = yes please
I came upon this post today. I updated my Mi A2 exactly when the patch went out. I occurred some freezes, but nothing major at all. Other than that, it is running.
I just got my new A2, do we know how long until I can update it? I´m scared to even update it to the november update…
November is fine. January is problematic but it has been pulled out from deployment. Disable automatic updates and wait for further instructions here on this sub. Everyone is scared to update this phone right now.
November and December are fine, January is problematic but you won’t be offered to update anyway.
Thx mate!
You are welcome!
No you shouldn’t listen to her in that regard. I guess she has no clue about tech and just has a prejudice against China. Phones of all kinds of companies get fucked up. The biggest phone companies in the world except Apple and Samsung are all Chinese and they produce many great phones.
90% is alot, that’s normal for after 1 year of use.
Yes I wasn’t listening to her anyhow but with these big companies you get some sort of insurance, remember on the exploding Galaxy Notes they refunded every user that had that phone.
Of course, some chinese company getting exploding phones won’t make as much noise as a giant like Samsung. Hell, if Samsung bricked their phones with an update, I bet that would make more noise than exploding Xiaomi phones.
Of course, this doesn’t speak over quality (because phones like say OnePlus are still way better than those giants), but it’s just how the way it is. I personally bought an LG phone because since nobody buys them (lmao) they tend to reduce the prices a lot, making it an actual good alternative.
You need to approach this from an economic viewpoint. Warranty isn’t some magic can’t live without it thing. It has a value. If that value is lower than the price difference of a Xiaomi vs a comparably good Samsung (for example), it’s not worth the extra cost. It usually is way lower.
Let’s say you buy a Xiaomi for 300$, an equal Samsung costs you 400$ (=100$ difference). Chances that you need a warranty are maybe 10%. However, without the warranty you probably wouldn’t lose the full buying price of 300$, so let’s say you’d lose 200$. 10%\*200$ is 20$. That’s what your warranty is worth, assuming it really would restore these 200$ of worth without a big hassle.
Mind you that was very simplified, but I’d say the numbers are kinda realistic.
If you want full insurance, just buy it on Amazon or another good store in your country. It’s gonna be more expensive, but still better for its price than the rest.
Any more issues? I’ve also recently got the device and jammed through all the updates and everything has gone smooth thus far…
We need to wait for the next update from Xiaomi as the January one has been pulled from deployment.
Which January update? I’m on V10.0.3.0.
Have the fixed the issues cox i recieved no update (global version mi A2 with Android one) as Xiaomi seems to have cancelled the january update …
Actually, I haven’t had a single problem with the phone. It’s been the best one I’ve ever owned so I wouldn’t be able to give a one star review.
In fact, I’ve had multiple people comment about how great my photos are, and performance has been great. As long I don’t get any phone breaking bugs, this is a 5 star phone in my mind.
Care to elaborate, or are you just talking out your ass because you’re anonymous on the internet?
Look dude, I’m sorry if you’ve had a bad experience with this phone, but that’s not been my experience. It doesn’t mean I’m wrong.
Dude, you speak or understand English? You’re not even making coherent thoughts.
are you a moron? I said that I lucked out because my phone wasn’t bricked. I updated no problem and have had an awesome phone that is as up to date as possible. So my comments are for sure not off topic.
My comment is also the top comment of the thread, so maybe pull your head out of your ass. I understand that some people have had bad experiences with Xiaomi in general, but the majority of people are happy with their products.
Same situation with you (save variant, same VPN trick to get Pie), no brick fortunately.
I had bought 2 of these. One for myself and for my mom. Mine updated with no issue. My mom’s got the boot loop. I swapped our phones since the A2 wasn’t my primary phone. I’m going to have to try to fastboot flash an older version I guess.
Yea, this was my experience.
I think so. I always had it rooted and every time an updated was released I had to unroot and then update.
Hi!
Were you able to install the November security update?
Last week I also bought the A2 and could not make the update work! I’m able to download it, but when it tries to install it get “Installation problem” error.
I didn’t have any issues with the November update and I’m really happy with the phone
Thank you! Gonna see if the seller can replace my phone!
Yeah, I checked and it popped up. Can’t update since I am rooted.
I have to reverse the root using magisk, but since I am gone for 3 days and don’t have a pc, it will take a while.
In February update (took 20 days to release) Xiaomi resolves a number of old bugs but introduces another new bug. They messed up with the display contrast. If you can live with it, go update.
And I was wondering why I still have the December patch only
Ohh damn! I was preparing to update. Guess i’ll have to wait .. again.
Wow I trusted my instincts of “xiaomi gonna fuck everything up again so I’ll wait for a bit before the update” and turns out it’s true lmaoo
At this rate I’ll just going to flash a custom rom. Which pretty much defeats the purpose of buying an android one phone..
Hi! I’m in Spain. Never had a problem with any update , screen or whatever. I use the 32Gb version.
Everything is ok with my a2 after update
Feb update mess up with Front facing camera and also back camera on low light.
I just bought an a2. Updated the device to february right out of the box. worked out great. I’m pleased with everything except the EXTREMELY bad wifi signal strength. Is this a known fault? Is it hw or sw fault? If its a known hw fault i’m think i will return the device.
I updated my mi a2 Yesterday and now mi screen flicker’s when i scroll through my pictures and in general . I hope it has something to do with this updated or otherwise my device is broken. Please share your experiences from the update
Yeah my screen flicker’s when i scroll through my feed. I hope they will fix this
It’s because of the update. Everyone on the A2 and February update has the same issues.
Here’s a question, which you probably won’t have time to answer to.
I bought the phone recently, and the latest system update was on February 5, 2019, it says I have Android version 9. Mind you, I am not very knowledgable about this stuff.
My issue is next: the colors on the display seem a bit pale and washed out. Especially the blue color, e.g. when I use Facebook. I would really like to enhance the contrast a bit, or turn up the warmth of the display. Is there any way for me to do this, except for installing other Android versions? Is there a chance they add this option in the next update?
If the answer to those questions is ”no”, what custom Android version would you recommend for me to install to deal with this issue?
I am sorry for bugging you with this, google searches don’t give me definite answers, and your comments suggest you know a lot about these things.
Got my A2 yesterday, keeping it on Oreo for now. I really hope March update fixes all this. Loving the device so far.
Hey preston, my phone is doing the same thing after this update. IT only arrived to Spain on Friday. FML! it only charges when I have it turned off. This phone has given me so many problems :/
Hey all, this update only arrived to Spain on Friday… I didn’t inform myself before updating it and just hit the “update” button… to my surprise my phone doesn’t charge now, unless it’s switched off.
In December when i updated from Android 8 to Android 9, my phone stopped charging too, I thought it as a USB-C issue therefore i went to a repair shop and got a new USB-C put inplace, the phone charged…. I can’t afford to buy a new USB-C everytime these guys update but it looks like they fucked up the battery drives or something…
FML
I’d just returned it for something with better customer support, like a Samsung or LG
Can’t return it anymore but that’s the last time I buy a Xiaomi for sure.
Yeah, I will probably never recommend a xiaomo phone again
Try to support other brands and companies and this is what we get lol Apple and Samsung deserve their success I swear…
I upgrade it and my phone if fine…
Yeah sure, the mods are “nice” here. after what happened a few months ago, I don’t like them xD but each to their own lol.
We should definitely make an effort to make them do something about it. This is ridiculous.. why do I have to now either buy a new phone or send this A2 that doesn’t charge back via warranty that will take like 2 months. So bad… I use my phone a lot for work and this is just terrible service from CrapoMi
Parece una loteria tio.. el mio se ha ido a la mierda xD
So, any news on the march patch?
Bricked my A2 today, stuck on the androidone page, after accepting to install some ‘security update’