I finally found a few minutes to write up a short how-to on getting your Chinese Xiaomi Mi3 Smartphone rooted, westernized, and cleaned up!
To make your life much easier, I have actually written a couple of scripts that can be used to remove all of the Chinese bloatware from the phone, install the Google Play Store, and a separate script if you want to root your device.
Now, there are already several pre-packaged roms available that come somewhat cleaned up and with the Play Store pre-installed and are even rooted… however these are all based on development (dev) releases of roms from Xiaomi. In my experience, the dev roms tend to be a bit unstable and a bit sluggish compared with Xiaomi’s production releases. I have also found that the primary method Xiaomi promotes for flashing ROM’s, while very easy, isn’t the best and tends to result in bugs and issues. However there is another Xiaomi supported method using a feature called “fastboot” which is very easy and results in a solid install of Android.
A ROM is simply a type of software/firmware that is installed on special Read Only Memory. In this case the ROM files contain the operating system, Android, and other pertinent files that are required to make the phone work. The installation process is called “flashing” and the terms ROM and Firmware and usually interchangeable.
So the beauty of my method is that you get to use a production rom from Xiaomi which is stable and fast, but you get the advantages of a cleaned up dev rom in that it is totally stable, with a working, minimalist install of the Play Store and you can even root the device you choose. I am not a big fan of the MIUI launcher, nor will many western users be who are used to the advantages that come with using the Google Now launcher and its variants on other phones. Once you are finished with this tutorial you will have the latest features that Google is offering in Kit-Kat including voice actions (saying “OK Google” to your phone which tells it to listen to you and then you can ask for stuff or give commands).
So here is a high-level of what I will be walking you through in more detail.
- Installing Xioami “MiFlash” rom installation tool on your PC
- Flashing a stock production ROM from Xiaomi for the Mi3 WCDMA version of the device using Fastboot (the WCDMA version has the Snapdragon 800 Chipset).
- Running my first update package which will clean out the device and install the Play Store and Google Keyboard
- Setting up the Google Experience Launcher (Google Now) and Google Keyboard.
- Enabling the Google Experience Launcher, Google Keyboard, and setting up the Play Store.
- (Optional) Running the second update package which will root the stock rom I provide
The whole process above should take less than 45 minutes.
What you will need:
- A computer running Windows 7
- The phone with at least 75% battery charge
- The Micro-USB Data/Charging cable
- Patience
A Few of Disclaimers:
- Flashing roms always comes with some inherent risk (i.e. especially if your device’s USB data cable comes unplugged during the flashing process). I am not responsible. This is a safe/tested method supported by Xiaomi for installing a rom on your device and this is their ROM so we aren’t doing anything crazy here, but it has to be said.
- The root script package I provide is ONLY for the Mi3 and ONLY for the ROM I provide. It may work on other roms but isn’t recommended as the method of rooting a production ROM from Xiaomi involves replacing the build.prop file which is specific to the rom.
- This method will completely wipe all personal data and settings from the phone. It will be more or less like a brand new unit fresh out of the box.
Okay, lets get started… Using Fastboot to Flash a ROM on the Xiaomi Mi3
Remove your device’s SIM card until we are finished and power off your phone.
You need to download this package and unzip to a folder on your PC:
DOWNLOAD: Kiloroot-Super-Mi3-Clean-Westernize-Gapps-Root.zip
Unzip the package you downloaded above to a new folder on your Computer’s desktop.
Open up the folder: “Step 1 – Flashing” and run the “MiPhone20140509.exe” to install the Xiaomi Flashoot flashing app and required drivers. You may get some kind of red warning from windows about installing the drivers, just proceed through.
Noe, on your computer, go to the start menu and start the “MiFlash” program. A box will pop up. In the upper-left-hand side you should see a “browse” button, click it. Browse to the folder on your desktop where you unpacked the package you downloaded above. Inside of there, browse to the “Step 1 – Flashing” folder and finally select the “cancro_images_KXDCNBE18.0_4.4_cn-fastboot” folder and highlight it. Click “OK”. You will be returned to the main screen of the MiFlash program.
Next, next to the “browse” button, should be a little “down arrow”, click that, choose “advanced”. You will be shown a list of files with a “browse” button to the right of each. The very top file is a line called “fastboot script”, click the “browse” button next to it. Select the “flash_all.bat” file and then click “open”. You will be returned back to the screen with the list of files, click “ok”, you will be returned to the main screen.
Your phone should be powered off completely. Hold down the Volume Down key and hold the power button. You can release the power button once the device starts to boot but continue holding the volume down key until you see the Xioami logo with the word “fastboot” underneath. You phone is in “flashboot mode” now and is ready for flashing. Plug in the USB Data cable from your phone to your pc.
In the MiFlash application, hit the “refresh” button and you should see your phone appear in the white area down below. If it has appeared, click “flash” and wait for it to finish installing the firmware. Once the progress bar at the bottom has completely finished out you can unplug your phone (which will start to boot on its own).
The worst is over… Loading and Running the Update Files on your Xiaomi Mi3
On your phone, you should get the Xiaomi first time launch program once everything has booted up. If you phone went to sleep, just tap the power button once to wake it up. Do the following:
1. Choose English as the language
2. Skip Setting up Wifi
3. Skip setting up the SIM card and if it complains about the SIM just tell it you want to go ahead and start using the device (i.e. don’t shutdown).
Now, plug you phone back into your computer and wait for your computer to recognize it. Once it does, go to “My Computer” and find it (should show up like a media player device). Double click it and you should then see “internal storage”. Double-Click “internal storage” and wait a moment and you should see a bunch of folders. Leave this open for a moment.
Going back to the unzipped folder you downloaded from here, open up the “Step 2 – Update Zips” folder. You will see to zip files inside. DO NOT UNZIP THESE FILES. Just copy and paste them directly into your phones internal storage which should be open in the other window. Once they are both done fully copying, you can disconnect your device from your PC. We are done with your computer and everything else from here on out will be done on the phone.
On your phone, you should see a “settings” icon on one of the home screens, tap it to open your settings menu. There are two settings panels, “quick settings” and “general settings”. You need to slide your finger over to go to the “general settings” menu. Scroll all the way to the bottom of the menu. Tap “about phone” which will take you to a new screen. At the bottom of the “about phone” screen is a button with an up arrow on it called “system updates”, tap it. If it starts to try to check for an update (you should not have a wifi connection setup at this point) just tap anywhere on the screen to bypass the check. On your phone, tap the capacitive “menu” button (three capacitive touch buttons on the bottom front face of the screen that light up whenever you are using the phone, the button on the left that is three horizontal lines is the “menu” button). A menu will pop-up on the screen, tap “Select update package”. You will be taken to a screen showing your file system, scroll to the bottom and find the “cleanupANDgapps.zip” file that we copied to the device earlier and select it. You will be taken to a new screen, choose “update” and then wait for it to finish updating. You should be prompted to reboot the device at the conclusion of the update, please reboot the device. If you aren’t prompted, please go ahead and reboot the device.
You phone is now cleaned up and the Google Play store is installed.
A few final items once your phone reboots. Setting up the Google Keyboard, Google Now Launcher, and Play Store on your Xiaomi Mi3
Setup the Google Keyboard:
There should be an icon on one of your phone’s home screens for the “google keyboard”, tap it and walkthrough setting it up as your main keyboard. If for some reason the device still isn’t using the Google Keyboard by default as it should, then go to the settings menu –> general settings –> scroll down –> language and input –> tap “google keyboard” and “ok” at the prompt that comes up. All done!
Setup the Google Play Store and then Finally the Google NOW Launcher:
1. From your phones home screen, tap the “play store” icon and walkthrough the setup. You will need to setup a wifi connection and login to the store with your google account.
2. Once you get into the play store, search for “google now”. “Google Now Launcher” should be one of the top results, select it. It will show installed. Uninstall the launcher and then reinstall it (this was a bug with the update script I couldn’t work out and it has to be reinstalled to function properly).
3. Once it finishes installing go back to the play store and search for “google search” – Google Search should be one of the top items that shows up, tap on it. If it needs to be updated, update it, then tap “open”. You will be guided through setting up “Google Search” on your device, complete the setup.
4. Finally, set the Google Now launcher as your default launcher. To do this, go to the “settings” menu again on the phone and then: general settings –> apps –> at the bottom of the screen tap the “default app settings” button –> tap “launcher” –> select “Google Search” –> hit the capacitive “home” button on the front face of your phone (bottom, three buttons, home key is the one in the middle) –> You will be walked through setting up the Google NOW launcher. Once you are done doing that you are ALL DONE!
Enjoy!
PS – If you want root, go back to the settings menu –> general –> about phone –> capacitive “menu” button –> “select update package” –> find and tap on the “enable-root.zip” –> run the update –> reboot the device. THEN:
Go to your app drawer –> Find the xiaomi “security” app and open it –> tap “permission” –> tap the little slider next to “root permission” –> ALL DONE!
Shew! That was a lot! Once you are finished though your device should be in really good shape, run a lot like a Nexus 5 device and overall FLY!
A few parting words…
1. OTA updates should still work if you didn’t root your device. If you did root your device, you can still get OTA updates but once flashed, they will probably remove root. Don’t re-run the root update package once you have installed an OTA update as it is no longer applicable. You can, it will probably work, but you are replacing your phones build.prop with an older one which may cause issues. If you don’t know what I am talking about, just don’t bother rooting the device in the first place and/or don’t root it again once you have installed an OTA update.
2. This roots the running OS on the phone and root permissions work just fine. I tested ES File Explorer and ROOT functions work great. However this doesn’t allow for you to elevate ADB connections to ROOT. I am not sure why. If you don’t know what an ADB connection is, don’t worry about it.
3. OTA Updates may install a bunch of the chinese junk I removed with my script. If that is the case, it should be safe to re-run that initial script again to clean everything up. I can’t account for what apps Xiaomi might ADD to their builds in the future so it might not completely clean up the device anymore as I have to delete each package file by name in the script.
4. If you like to tinker… which I do… I included an “extras – Update-package-manager-creator” folder. Inside or some tools. These are not applications I created and the source link/author escapes me at the moment. Suffice to say, it can be used to make update packages like the ones I created. Feel free to play about and ask questions in the comments if you have them, I am not going to go into detail on the usage of the program here.
5. Several Xiaomi apps were left in place. There was good reason for this… the explorer app must remain as it is needed if you want to install update packages, the Mi Store is actually a very useful app store once you get an account and don’t mind ignoring the Chinese character (unless you can read Chinese in which case more power to you :)…). Other apps like the security app work really well an are quite useful, I could go on…
UPDATE 08/14/2014 – Tinkering about yesterday with contacts and I realized I had forgotten to include the “google contact sync” application that runs in the background and allows you to sync contacts to you phone/dialer from your google account. Never fear! I did leave the Xiaomi Market application place. Open the Xiaomi Market app, search for Google, install the first app in the results from developer Eric (it is a google program installer), open up that app, install google contact sync, all done! I will probably include it if I make a future release of the script! Cheers!
good job!tnx
Thus far I have been running my my modified stock rom (using methods outlined in the article) for a few weeks now and I actually got my phone activated with AT&T two days ago so using it as a phone for the last two days… All I have to say is wow! I have my device loaded with apps and use it heavily during the day, everything works great all the time! Never the slightest hint of sluggishness… and I am running on moderate/low power mode 🙂
I will wait a few weeks/months before updating firmware, when I do I will probably update the scripts and particularly the root script as well.
Cheers all!
I want to clean it from MIUI and use your method. Will audio enchancer settings work in this method as in MIUI ? and different pulse notification LED colors?. Thanks in advance.
The method outlined in the article involves flashing a base MIUI rom. Anything you can do from a standard MIUI rom should be possible, the only thing is that once you run my cleanup script and follow the article you are going to change out launchers. The Audio Enhancement effect settings for headphones should still be present and working though and you can change LED colors but that is depending on the app that is making use of the LED (whether or not the developer included the ability to customize the LED notification for their app).
Hope that makes sense 🙂
Nathan
That ROM you provided here… is it multilanguage?
Tnx in advance
Unfortunately not. I just checked on my device and it looks like only English, Chinese, and Simplified Chinese (I am guessing here) are supported. I guess Xiaomi strips out other languages from their roms so I would need to produce a regional variant. I will google around though and see if I can find an update package that is just for adding additional language support. I will update this post if I get lucky and come across anything. What language are you looking for?
Kind Regards,
Nathan
One good piece of news though – as I recommend replacing the stock keyboard with “google keyboard” (I remove the stock keyboard with my update file included in this article download package) you can set the google keyboard to a variety of languages. The default is to use the system language but you can override that by going to: app drawer –> Google Keyboard –> input languages –> untick “use system language” –> select your language of preference
Thank you for your answer. I will give it a try.
English language is excellent. I just wanna have keyboard in Croatian.
I’ll let you know the outcome of “operation”.
Regards
Davor
I just ordered a Xiaomi Mi3 phone. I had this page bookmarked before it arrived. I followed the instructions in the article and was able to flash the phone. Although I ran into an issue with space in the file and folder names, after removing the spaces, the flash application was able to locate the resources required to flash the phone. Every other thing went smooth afterwards.
Thanks for a wonderful post, it came just in time.
Thanks! I kind of love my Mi3 at this point – It is the best phone I have ever used by a long shot.
I just wrote up a full review of it on a sister site as well if you are interested in more reading:
https://www.topnotchtablets.com/xiaomi-mi3-review-1
I will take a look at the file-name spaces issue and try to address it in the next package release. Thanks for the heads up! Have fun with the phone!
-Nathan
I just want to ask …
Can I do that root using windows 8 64bit ??
Because my laptop is windows 8 64bit
Thankyou for kindly reply my question
As long as the Xiaomi Flashing utility will run on Windows 8 then I think you will be fine. Your best bet is to just install it and see if it run and sees your phone when you plug it in.
If it works, please reply back on here and I will update the post above to include windows 8. Thanks!
Kind Regards and good luck!
Thanks for the great tutorial… I have some questions, If I want to install a fresh firmware to Mi3, will I lose everything inside the virtual storage (photos, music, videos, etc)? Any way to salvage these if i no longer have access to both system?
Awaiting your reply… just had a failed nandroid backup restore and lose both system during the process. No choice but to use fastboot since I dont have the rom package inside the storage. 🙁
Fastboot flashing method wipes everything. However you can choose to use the BAT file that doesn’t do a whole device wipe (that is the bat file selected by default). I don’t remember if I removed this bat file though from the package to simplify things. If I did, then you will need to get the update package from a different site and it should be included.
As long as you aren’t using the “flash_all.bat” file, I don’t think you will lose everything. That might at least get your phone functional again. Once you can boot your device again, I would plug in a USB cable and copy off all of your data to your PC. (If you phone is currently functional I would go ahead and do this). Then you can go through and use the MIUI flash utility again and use the “wipe everything” bat file specified above.
Buddy, need help, I am getting unspecified error when I click on flash, since last 20 hours I am struggling with it.
I have given physical path of every file through advance, need your immediate assistance. I have chinese phone in my hand, which cannot use
Log file details:
[00000064]CreateManagedObject(1261): Unspecified error(0x80131604)
[00000064]GetFactoryObject(1305): Unspecified error(0x80131604)
[00000064]CreateManagedObject(1261): Unspecified error(0x80131604)
[00000064]GetFactoryObject(1305): Unspecified error(0x80131604)
[00000064]GetFactoryObject(1326): The specified service does not exist.(0x800704db)
[00000064]GetSearchPath(1381): The specified service does not exist.(0x800704db)
[00000E4C]524c6c98 0.00 execute C:\Program Files\Xiaomi\MiPhone\cancro_images_KXDCNBE18.0_4.4_cn-fastboot\flash_all.bat
[00000E4C]524c6c98 0.03
[00000E4C]524c6c98 0.03 $fastboot -s 524c6c98 getvar product 2>&1 | findstr /r /c:”^product: *MSM8974″ || echo Missmatching image and device
[00000E4C]524c6c98 0.06 Missmatching image and device
[00000E4C]524c6c98 0.06
[00000E4C]524c6c98 0.06 $fastboot -s 524c6c98 getvar product 2>&1 | findstr /r /c:”^product: *MSM8974″ || exit /B 1
[00000E4C]524c6c98 0.09
[00000E4C]CScriptReport::DoWork(418): Unspecified error(0xffffffff)
[00000E4C]GetFactoryObject(1326): The specified service does not exist.(0x800704db)
[00000E4C]SaveFlashResult(1347): The specified service does not exist.(0x800704db)
Thank you bud
Regards
Kamlesh
Are you flashing a Xiaomi Mi3 WCDMA? Next question, are you sure your Mi3 is not a fake?
The reason I ask is that part of your error is that it says there is a “device mismatch” and I am guessing that is a mismatch between the phone fastboot/flash utility is detection and the rom.
Mi3 is original, I have receipt from MI which is in Chinese
I am flashing 64GB TD-SCDMA /GSM phone, I need help buddy, a clean global ROM on my phone.
Regards
Kamlesh
Hey Kamlesh,
Therein lies your issue. the TD-SCDMA is a different version of the phone. The TD-SCDMA uses an Nvidia Tegra 4 processor and is considered only for use in China as they are only country that uses that type of network.
The above mods are for the WCDMA version of the phone only.
Kind Regards,
Nathan
Hi Nathan,
Thank you for the insight that helps, but now is there any alternative or any global ROM available for these devices, another problem I noticed they don’t support 3G network outside of China.
I was able to install Google play through Mi Market some by app by Eric Xiang.
But I am looking for a fresh clean English ROM, do you have suggestions?, also very new to android.
Regards
Kamlesh
Yeah, that is the TD-SCDMA thing – that is why you can’t get 3G outside of china. Unfortunately I am not very familiar with the Tegra 4 / Chinese Variant of the phone.
The script I provided to clean things up may run just fine (it shouldn’t hurt anything) and that would at least get rid of a lot of the bloatware for you. You just can’t flash the rom or run the root script I provided. You can also check this site to see if any cleaner roms are made for your device: http://xiaomi.eu/community/threads/4-8-29.25549/
Unfortunately I don’t think that development group supports the TD-SCDMA variant of the phone 🙁 but you can dig around and see if you can find anything.
Need help, I have a Xiaomi 3 16GB, GSM, CDMA, WCDMA system. I have setup the MiFlash program in my Windows 64Bit Laptop.
Here is the problem I encountered:
From your instruction, when I get to the…
“In the MiFlash application, hit the “refresh” button and you should see your phone appear in the white area down below. If it has appeared, click “flash” and wait for it to finish installing the firmware. ”
I clicked “Refresh” first and appeared under the device: “8e4bcaf6” and when I clicked “Flash” it says: Unspecified error (0xffffffff:)
It did not do anything…
Hey Ddavid,
Does the last post in this thread look at all like what you are getting? http://en.miui.com/thread-17507-1-1.html
I had some questions for the user “Nani” below. Can you answer them for yourself as well?
I am not incredibly familiar with using the MiFlash utility but I will try to help diagnose as much as I can.
Kind Regards,
Nathan
Hello nbeam, All,
I have discovered that my Xiaomi 3 is a fake one.
It is exactly the same as the one in the Youtube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-62ppKJVE0
Please be careful before you buy.
Wow… that really sucks :(. Thanks for updating us and hopefully this bit of information will help anyone else that needs to file a claim. I hope you are able to get your money back. I really wish we could sell this device (the real Mi3) at Top Notch Tablets, unfortunately supply is hard to come by still.
Kind Regards and good luck.
-Nathan
Hi there I’m getting the error 0x80004005 error cannot load
Need some help thanks!
Hey Nani,
Does the discussion here at all apply? http://xiaomi.eu/community/threads/help-me-pls-emergency-miflash-error.21776/
Couple of questions:
1. What version of windows are you flashing from?
2. Are you sure you have an authentic Xiaomi Mi3 “WCDMA” smartphone?
Kind Regards,
Nathan
Hi nathan thanks for d quick reply. I am using Windows 7, as for the link, it is a different error from what i receive. Also i beliv ds is an authentic mi 3 unit. I even have d serial anr d box and whatnot. I bought it fron lazada.com which is a legit online store in our country. I also tried to boot the other bat file inside d folder but the same error appears. When i changed it to SH which i know is for Mac, i get a green progress bar until it completes but i am greeted that the file cant be opened. So I was thinking there might be something in the code thst doesnt work on windows 7 or do i havve to change some settings on my computer? By the way .bat files are opened via cmd by default. Rili want to wipe ds thing and start anew.
Lastly i found a link of d exact error i recv but hav no idea how the user was able to resolve it. Cant understand that the engrish
en.miui.dgmei.com/thread-30381-1-1.html
According to that link, the user didn’t extract the files from the zip/archive first. You have to open the file I have attached and drag the folder onto your desktop, not run things from inside the archive directly (not sure if this is what you are doing or not but that appears to be the issue on that thread). I am running on Windows 7, so I don’t think your computer’s operating system is the issue.
Hopefully this is helpful.
Regards,
Nathan
Now im really bummed out as i have extracted everything and followed it step by step.
1 extract zip file o desktop
2 install miflash
3 change fastboot to the .bat file inside step1
4 connect device while under fast boot then refresh miflash then flash
I rili dunno what could be wrong but do you have any other suggestions? Basically i just want to wipe my device clean and make it run faster and just install miui without much bloatware but wit all still intact
Hello,
Thank you for the nice and useful guide.
I run it using Windows 8 and it worked well (I only had to delete the spaces in the directories names)
Question – when I run MIUI update, which part of this guide do I need to rerun?
Hello, very good and useful guide, well done!
Question – when I update my MIUI do I need to repeat the whole guide steps from the beginning?
Thanks, Moty
No, you don’t want to do the first step because that would flash you back to an older rom (pre-update). Also, you can’t run the “root” script because that relies on an older build.prop file which is specific to the rom.
The only thing you can re-use post-update is the cleanup script that also installs google services. I am going to update my phone eventually at which point I will write a new article with updated stuff. I am just too busy/lazy at the moment to mess with it :). Honestly I think I might wait until android 5.0 hits our phones.
Kind Regards,
Nathan
I got an OTA update notification some days after flashing my Mi3 phone and I proceeded to update the phone.
Everything remained the same expect that I noticed the installation of 3 apps. One of the app’s name is in Chinese while the other two are Biadu browser and Assist (Voice assistant operates in Chinese).
Other than the above, every other thing looks good to me. One major improvement for me was the Calendar app. The new one is a lot friendly than the previous one and the UI is nicer. The old calendar app is still available on the device in case you prefer it.
Are you still rooted? I switched over to using Google Calendar on my device a while back but that is interesting to note. Thanks for the quick update!
Thanks a lot for this awesome guide I am having hard time rooting my device, After a lot of googling i stumbled upon this site and the method worked like charm for me. Currently playing with the device with Xposed Framework.
Be careful messing about with Xposed framework. It has a lot of handy functionality but in my experience with it, it was a bit buggy and it did cause my device to crash/require a reflash at least once. This was on one of my other android tablets.
Hi i completed all the steps but i still see have chinese in some places like themes page. Can you please help.
There is still going to be chinese in several places. Particularly in theme pages as Xiaomi is a Chinese company and the theme pages are actually part of their application tied to their web store pulling content from them. Firmware changes and other hacks unfortunately can’t make those English. That is something Xiaomi would have to do.
Kind Regards,
Nathan
Thanks for this very helpful guide! I had to remove spaces from the folder name to get it to flash. Worked like a charm!
I might have spoken too soon… It’s rendered the location services non-functional, e.g. it can’t tell where I am in Google maps, even with wifi and GPS on. Any ideas?
Hi Cyn,
Unfortunately I had my Mi3 stolen a few weeks ago and can’t offer much in the way of support anymore. I can say that Google Maps was functioning without issue when I had my unit using the firmware and methods described in this post. I am not sure why it isn’t working for you. I would suggest trying to uninstall and reinstall maps and see if that helps. Also, try to find another app that can/will use/display your location and see if that works to see if it is just isolated to Google Maps or an issue with something on the device itself? I know Google also requires you opt-in to let them use your location and if those options aren’t ticked it might not work. There should be something called “google settings” in your app drawer, take a look at that. Kind regards and good luck!
-Nathan
I’m very sorry to hear the loss of your phone!
The problem seems to have sorted out itself when I did a system update to the latest version of MIUI. Now I have a different set of problems, Xiaomi seems to have gotten rid of many useful features in an effort to look more like an iPhone! Oh well…
Many thanks again!
Hi,
On my windows 8 PC, I have to choose the fastboot.sh and it shows flashing is successful.
After unplug the USB cable, the phone keeps on fastboot screen. I waited for more than 15 mins.
After Power + Vol Up key, the phone restarts and I can see a screen with 3 languages to choose from. English is 3rd. Unfortunately, I cannot choose anyone of them.
Hi,
Thanks for the step by step instructions. Very lucid. Last couple of days have been having a rough time with my Mi3. Updated to MIUI 6.5.3.0. Everything went well. Later I installed Dev ROM 5.6.11 (to get root access without losing OTA updates). The hassle is now I have lost all Google services (Play Store, GMail, Chrome etc). Have tried downgrading to 6.5.2.0 (down to 6.3.2.0) hoping that I would get Google back. No such luck. Now back to 6.5.3.0. Have done all this using the regular update path. Not the FastBoot method. Your article gave me the confidence to use the FastBoot method.
So I tried your procedure. But I get this error: Unspecified Error 0x80004005: error cannot load:’c:\Desktop\Fastboot\Step’:No error). What gives? Sorry for the rather lengthy post. Would appreciate any pointers. Thanks
PS: Running Win7 Home Premium 64
Followup on my last post.
Removed white spaces from the folder name “Step1…” etc. Worked like a charm. Now I have Google setup – keyboard,Play Store, GMail etc and alls well with the world. Now I just have to make Google Now the default launcher. Mi PC Suite is complaining that the MIUI version is very old. Now armed with my new found confidence I’ll update to 6.5.3.0 & remove the junk with your cleanup app. Hope it works out.
Once again thanks very much for a very informative article.