Flashing the Xiaomi mi4i (July-2018)

[Sharif]

I wanted to create this little post for people who try to flash the Xiaomi Mi4i 

 

FIrst thing first, if you don't own this phone, keep it that way and stay a mile away from xiaomi phones that aren't stock, damn things are filled with ridiculous amount of bloatware.  (which led me to flash it, first time btw) 

 

The steps are pretty straight forward like any other ROM but keep few things straight and it'll save you hours.

(I am not responsible for bricking your phone) 

1. Get your hands on this toolkit to save you the trouble - https://forum.xda-developers.com/mi-4i/development/tool-mi-toolkit-v4-root-twrp-stock-t3170607.
2. Put your phone into USB debugging mode and fastboot (The info out there is outdated). 
3. Get your hands on Xiaomi stock ROM 6.5 or less (In my case I have version 9 and went through over an hour of bootloop figuring out what did I do wrong, all because I lazied out to install the older version). 
4. Connect your phone to your computer with device manager open and make sure it's detected properly (If not, look into it and get the right drivers or use a USB 2.0 port). 
5. Get twrp on your phone (Option 2, use the batch file made for you) remain within OS, let the toolkit boot your phone into fastboot for you (In my case doing it myself resulted the app from not detecting my phone, just like some videos stated, again outdated info). 
6. After successful TWRP installation your phone will still remain in fastboot, hold the pwr button for it to restart when it does for the split second make sure to press PWR + Vol Up to get into the new recovery mode (Another place I needed to spend over an hour figuring it out, for some reason MIUI was overwriting the new recovery mode every single time it booted (It will be fine after first successful attempt to get into new recovery mode).
7. SAVE A BACKUP before doing anything, the option will be available within TWRP 
8. Under the wipe option do a factory reset (It will be the slider) go on installing the old MiUI rom, after installation do the factory reset again.
9. Make sure to remain in TWRP and not setup the older MIUI that was flashed. 
10. Finally install the ROM you want to along with the Gapp files. 
11. You are set (I probably saved you hours of debugging and annoying bootloop). 

 

Gapp - ARM64, your ROM version of android and something smaller than stock. Stock or higher result in insufficient size error

Root - Wasn't required 

[Sharif]

11 hours ago, huilun02 said:

You should post on the XDA forum for this device, not here.

People don't come here for rooting instructions, let alone having this particular budget phone...

Also you're using a toolkit someone else made, which is a lazy way to do things.

 

And then your guide falls apart after step 6...

Save a backup? How do we do that?

Step 8 tells us to install MIUI again? wtf? That will overwrite root and TWRP...

Step 9 is impossible after step 8 because TWRP needs to be flashed again

Also no indication of Gapps type, flashing root, or flash sequence

 

I understand this might have been your first successful root after hours of fumbling around.

You want to help others and that is good. But instructions has to be detailed else the people who follow it will end up bootlooping which is what you were avoiding in the first place.

Regarding reinstalling MIUI, I should have clarified to not reboot the system and remain in TWRP.

Backup procedure is pretty straightforward forward in TWRP, which is why I didn't clarify. Though as my target audience in mind is me, I should have put more info.

 

I can't deny the other things said but my main purpose was to leave the information floating somewhere out there on the internet. Hopefully helps whichever curious soul stumbling on this, as all the information I found on it usually date back years.