Xiaomi Mi Max - rooted

[Old Croc]

Being a half blind, old codger I thought the big screen on this phone would solve many of my squinting and subsequent swearing problems.

I bought one through Lazada, but it came direct from China. It was a little concerning that there wasn't any written directions (not even in Thai) to get it going, but I managed. I also discovered the phone itself didn't have clear instructions inbuilt on how to use its features. I struggled through and came to appreciate what the phone offered, up to a point..

 

The other day, it decided to lock itself off from me and the world.  I knew I hadn't forgotten the swipe pattern password, but it wouldn't accept any of my attempts to get it going again.  It now shuts itself off for 119 minutes every time I try. Several, so called, phone experts and professionals have tried to get it going without success.

I  then resorted to that great teaching tool, YouTube. Judging by topics there, it is quite common for these phones to refuse to have further contact with their owners and the solution apparently does exist, if you have a degree from MIT and are aged somewhere between 15 and 28.

Firstly you have to learn a number of new words and terms, and then spend about two days downloading and shuffling around strange and incomprehensible programs on to your PC. Finally using some sort of flashing (?) device  to unroot your phone.

 

It's all very well making a device theft proof, but it tends to belie the intent if you can't use it either.  The lack of instructions or service centres in Phuket and seemingly even Bangkok make the task of resetting it onerous to say the least.

Xiaomi does have some sort of on-line club for owners where you can get technical support, but as it seemed to be populated by 15yo Asians talking in incomprehensible code,  I gave it a miss at the time.  I tried to join now, in my time of need,  but it seems you  have to have a working phone for them to scan to be accepted.

Catch 22!  (Google it 15-28ers)

 

Finally, to the point. Is anyone here familiar with the problem, and know of a solution an idiot can follow?

I'm not far away from tossing the device in the pool and buying something not from China.

[Forkinhades]

http://www.hardreset.info/devices/xiaomi/xiaomi-mi-max/

Sent from my SM-G935F using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[RichCor]

from the visihow website:

 

How to unlock the password pattern on my Xiaomi phone?

Hi, I have completely forgotten what pattern I drew as my password pattern on my Xiaomi phone. Now I cannot enter my phone and access even the main settings since my phone always asks me to draw the pattern which I forgot. Please help.

 

 

If you have forgotten the lock screen pattern password on your Xiaomi phone, you have a couple of things you can try to unlock your phone. First, enter the wrong pattern up to 20 times until your phone asks for your Google account information. When you enter it, your Xiaomi phone will unlock. You can then remove or change the pattern to something you can remember. If you have forgotten your Google account password and username, too, you can use this online Google tool to try to retrieve them. Unfortunately, if you are unable to recover your Google account information, your Xiaomi Android phone doesn't ask for the information, or if you never logged into a Google account in the first place, you will need to perform a Factory Reset on your phone to unlock it. This will wipe all of your phone's data. To learn how to perform a proper Factory Reset on your Xiaomi Android phone, follow the step-by-step instructions in this great VisiHow how-to article. Once the reset is complete, be sure to draw your pattern password on a piece of paper so you can refer to it in the future if you forget it again. Keep this piece of paper in a safe and secure location so nobody can find it and you don't lose it. In addition, be sure to log your phone into a Google account to which you know the information so you can use it to unlock your Xiaomi Android phone if you forget the pattern in the future.

[Old Croc]

Thanks guys, some interesting suggestions.

The wife took my phone to the village headman's son (he's probably 15) as he is yet another expert, apparently.

When it's returned I will try the above and report back.

[Phuket Man]

I have one and think it is a great phone.

Never bothered with screen locks or anything so never had a problem.

[Henryford]

I never bother with screen locks just asking for trouble. If i lose it then it's my fault.

[dddave]

All your interactions with your Xiaomi phone and it's Android operating system is done through the MIUI interface, probably MIUI-8 in your case.  There are many MIUI tutorials on YouTube as well as a MIUI forum on the internet.  This section is dedicated to the MiMax:  http://en.miui.com/forum-94-1.html

 

[Gary A]

The phone should have asked you for a backup password just in case you got a glitch. Put in the password and you can change from simple swipe, pattern or password. That phone may have a fingerprint option also. 

[Old Croc]

An update.

The headman's son knew just enough to be dangerous. He managed to wipe the phone clean, but was unable to reload it. I decided not to expend the time and effort in trying to restore it myself as the guy had recommended a phone repair shop in Phuket Town. The owner there managed to get it all going again, although it did take him several days to do so. Cost was 800 baht. I was happy to pay.

I've spent time today re-establishing themes, contact numbers, etc. and have learnt several new features in the process. I've now registered with the on-line club and have password backups coming out of my backside.

It is an excellent phone, I'm glad I didn't toss it in the pool!

 

Thanks all for the input.

  

Edited May 12, 2017 by Old Croc

[Gary A]

8 hours ago, Old Croc said:

An update.

The headman's son knew just enough to be dangerous. He managed to wipe the phone clean, but was unable to reload it. I decided not to expend the time and effort in trying to restore it myself as the guy had recommended a phone repair shop in Phuket Town. The owner there managed to get it all going again, although it did take him several days to do so. Cost was 800 baht. I was happy to pay.

I've spent time today re-establishing themes, contact numbers, etc. and have learnt several new features in the process. I've now registered with the on-line club and have password backups coming out of my backside.

It is an excellent phone, I'm glad I didn't toss it in the pool!

 

Thanks all for the input.

  

My wife is hard on phones because she is addicted to Facebook, line and some other social crap. She seldom ever has the phone to her ear, she uses the speaker option. She was using a Galaxy S5 until the mainboard died. I then bought her a Xiaomi Mi5. She didn't like it until I downloaded the Google Now launcher from Google Play Store. Now she loves that phone. When the S5 came back from repair, I asked her if she wanted it back and I would use the Xiaomi. She patiently explained to me that her Xiaomi has a better camera, is faster has a much better speaker plus more memory than the S5. After the S5 had four trips back and forth to the repair shop in Bangkok via EMS, I am now using it. The next time it dies will result in the phone being slammed on the floor and the pieces going in the trash.

[gaff]

On 5/8/2017 at 8:01 AM, Henryford said:

I never bother with screen locks just asking for trouble. If i lose it then it's my fault.

 

You do not have many girlfriends and mia noi...

 

 

[gaff]

5 hours ago, Ceciclia Garcia said:

As you know, it is risky to root Xiaomi phone. After getting ROOT permission on your phone, it may result in system instability. And then mobile phone system is likely to crash under improper uses of superuser permission. In addition, during the rooting process, viruses may invade and damage your Xiaomi device. Apart from these, after successfully rooting your phone, your smart phone will be outside the scope of free warranty. Thus, if you want to root your Xiaomi smart phone, please think carefully before you act.

 

 

Why it would be different to root Xiaomi than any other phone ?!

 

 

[2008bangkok]

16 hours ago, Ceciclia Garcia said:

As you know, it is risky to root Xiaomi phone. After getting ROOT permission on your phone, it may result in system instability. And then mobile phone system is likely to crash under improper uses of superuser permission. In addition, during the rooting process, viruses may invade and damage your Xiaomi device. Apart from these, after successfully rooting your phone, your smart phone will be outside the scope of free warranty. Thus, if you want to root your Xiaomi smart phone, please think carefully before you act.

Iv rooted every one of my phones and that includes 4 different Xiaomi phones and never had any system instability or anything like that. the positives far outweigh the negatives (remove bloatware, system wide ad blocker, custom rom, full system backups).

Recommend it to anyone but of couse you will lose warranty, thats if you actually can get warranty.

[gaff]

hello,

 

Any reliable tutorial to root a Xiaomi A1 ?

 

Thanks.

[2008bangkok]

On 8/24/2018 at 4:21 PM, gaff said:

hello,

 

Any reliable tutorial to root a Xiaomi A1 ?

 

Thanks.

First of all you need to get permission from Xiaomi to unlock the bootloader which you can do from here https://en.miui.com/unlock/ and follow the instructions to unlock bootloader.

 Once you have done that you need to get TWRP for your model and download minimal ADB which you can do from here https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2317790

The you need to enable Developer option which you can do by clicking the About or model section 7 times, when you have developer options enable usb debugging.

Then easiest way is to copy and rename  TWRP to recovery.img into same folder as the minimal adb and run these commands. 

adb reboot bootloader

and then from fastboot

fastboot flash recovery recovery.img

That should install TWRP and then you copy SuperSU to phone and boot to  TWRP flash Supersu also.

If the phone is already encrypted you probably wont be able to see the supersu file from within TWRP so if that happens the easiest way is to copy supersu.zip to adb folder, go into TWRP>Advanced Options>Enable Sideload (or similar wording) and run...

adb sideload supersu.zip

Done.

 

Thats the rough guide what you need to do

Edited August 27, 2018 by 2008bangkok