Help - Recently bought Mi 8 EE

[rumd3x]

Hello everyone,

I've always been pretty crazy on custom roms and mods on every phone i ever owned, my last one before was a galaxy S7, but i decided i wanted to go more stock for once. I never owned a xiaomi so i'm quite a noob with it.

So, i recently bought an used xiaomi mi 8 explorer edition, and im starting to wonder if the previous owner was such an ethusiast as much as I were.

I got the phone, logged in google account, downloaded my apps. Everything seemed to work fine until i finished configuring all my settings.

After that i started noticing that the screen was lighting up randomly, like if i have pressed the power button. I turned off every setting, uninstalled every app, revoked all possible permission from apps. Nothing did it. It is still doing that as I type this thread. It's really annoying. I also started noticing it wouldn't register on network sometimes, won't backup whatsapp to google account, wouldn't respect some of my settings, all sorts of weirds.

It is currently running on ROM "MIUI 10.3 by xiaomi.eu 9.3.14 | Beta" whence how i got here. I noticed an update was available "xiaomi.eu_multi_MI8Explorer_9.3.21_70aa093b0b_v10-9.zip" so I went ahead and tried to install it. It rebooted, and came back to MIUI, no update for me. This is were i started wondering.

While I was trying to figure out why it wouldn't update i did several reboots and I noticed the "Unlocked" text right below the Mi Logo. I went ahead to know why it was there and this is when I discovered the last owner probably screwed it, so that's why he selled it.

So I tried entering recovery mode. But was unable.
I also tried entering "Fast Boot" mode, it shows the logo for a while then reboots, don't know what this is and if that's the normal behavior.

So, I need help. Is the phone screwed or it is just me seeing thing were there isn't anything to see?

Can i save it? All I want for now is a stock working phone, with official, stable MIUI. I need guidance.

Thank you.

 

[Karpfenhai]

Hello everyone,

I've always been pretty crazy on custom roms and mods on every phone i ever owned, my last one before was a galaxy S7, but i decided i wanted to go more stock for once. I never owned a xiaomi so i'm quite a noob with it.

So, i recently bought an used xiaomi mi 8 explorer edition, and im starting to wonder if the previous owner was such an ethusiast as much as I were.

I got the phone, logged in google account, downloaded my apps. Everything seemed to work fine until i finished configuring all my settings.

After that i started noticing that the screen was lighting up randomly, like if i have pressed the power button. I turned off every setting, uninstalled every app, revoked all possible permission from apps. Nothing did it. It is still doing that as I type this thread. It's really annoying. I also started noticing it wouldn't register on network sometimes, won't backup whatsapp to google account, wouldn't respect some of my settings, all sorts of weirds.

It is currently running on ROM "MIUI 10.3 by xiaomi.eu 9.3.14 | Beta" whence how i got here. I noticed an update was available "xiaomi.eu_multi_MI8Explorer_9.3.21_70aa093b0b_v10-9.zip" so I went ahead and tried to install it. It rebooted, and came back to MIUI, no update for me. This is were i started wondering.

While I was trying to figure out why it wouldn't update i did several reboots and I noticed the "Unlocked" text right below the Mi Logo. I went ahead to know why it was there and this is when I discovered the last owner probably screwed it, so that's why he selled it.

So I tried entering recovery mode. But was unable.
I also tried entering "Fast Boot" mode, it shows the logo for a while then reboots, don't know what this is and if that's the normal behavior.

So, I need help. Is the phone screwed or it is just me seeing thing were there isn't anything to see?

Can i save it? All I want for now is a stock working phone, with official, stable MIUI. I need guidance.

Thank you.

Hey there, first of all, it's nearly impossible to “screw“ the phone

1. Unlocked is just fine and exactly what we want, try not to change that!

2. Fastboot will always reboot after some time if not attached via USB, all good with that too.

3. If there is no recovery, it's not a big deal, read with care, find the right one, download and flash it, while in Fastboot mode.

4. There is absolutely no need to use a stable Rom, except you like the lack of Features? Betas with Xiaomi are usually rock solid and good as a daily driver.

So, read, get familiar with Fastboot and such, prepare a laptop / PC with adb and usb drivers and let the fun part begin.

Regards.

Sent from my MI 8 Explorer Edition using Tapatalk

 

[rumd3x]

Hey there, first of all, it's nearly impossible to “screw“ the phone

1. Unlocked is just fine and exactly what we want, try not to change that!

2. Fastboot will always reboot after some time if not attached via USB, all good with that too.

3. If there is no recovery, it's not a big deal, read with care, find the right one, download and flash it, while in Fastboot mode.

4. There is absolutely no need to use a stable Rom, except you like the lack of Features? Betas with Xiaomi are usually rock solid and good as a daily driver.

So, read, get familiar with Fastboot and such, prepare a laptop / PC with adb and usb drivers and let the fun part begin.

Regards.

Sent from my MI 8 Explorer Edition using Tapatalk

Hi @Karpfenhai , thank you for the reply.

Coming from a person that managed to successfully brick and then unbrick every single phone he ever owned, I kinda understand the "impossible to screw" part. I'm just very noob to xiaomi's, and at this point i'm all skeptical and a little scared

Also, thank you for the information, i'm a little more positive now. I just found the collection of bugs i'm facing quite odd, and am I right, right? The last owner definitively did something with it, didn't he?

So now, what is is the best place to search for recoveries, and which one should i pick? Stock, TWRP? I could really use a hand at this first time. Also, which ROM should I choose for a smooth, balanced MIUI experience?

 

[Karpfenhai]

Hi @Karpfenhai , thank you for the reply.

Coming from a person that managed to successfully brick and then unbrick every single phone he ever owned, I kinda understand the "impossible to screw" part. I'm just very noob to xiaomi's, and at this point i'm all skeptical and a little scared

Also, thank you for the information, i'm a little more positive now. I just found the collection of bugs i'm facing quite odd, and am I right, right? The last owner definitively did something with it, didn't he?

So now, what is is the best place to search for recoveries, and which one should i pick? Stock, TWRP? I could really use a hand at this first time. Also, which ROM should I choose for a smooth, balanced MIUI experience?

Stock is useless.. You need twrp the official one from twrp.me should be fine.

I recommend Xiaomi.eu beta

Sent from my MI 8 Explorer Edition using Tapatalk

 

[rumd3x]

If anyone ever find themselves on the same situation as I did, i want this thread to be of help.

I'll try to keep this post updated.

First of all these links were extremely helpful to me:
- How to get ADB on Windows
- How to flash images using fastboot
- How to flash ROMs using MiFlash tool

Here's what i did so far:
- I was able to find a working customized twrp recovery for mi 8 EE (ursa): here.
(Also found this one, I flashed it, and it works, but seemd too modded and fully in chinese, so I couldn't really use it)
(There's this one too, but I did not test it)

- After that i was able to flash the pending update thru the MIUI menu. Now i'll wait to see if the previous mentioned oddities keeps happening.
Update: At this point, the networking problem persists. Screen randomly turning on still persists. Bluethooth disconnects persists too. Backup Sync started working.

 

[Karpfenhai]

If anyone ever find themselves on the same situation as I did, i want this thread to be of help.

I'll try to keep this post updated.

First of all these links were extremely helpful to me:
- How to get ADB on Windows
- How to flash images using fastboot
- How to flash ROMs using MiFlash tool

Here's what i did so far:
- I was able to find a working customized twrp recovery for mi 8 EE (ursa): here.
(Also found this one, I flashed it, and it works, but seemd too modded and fully in chinese, so I couldn't really use it)

- After that i was able to flash the pending update thru the MIUI menu. Now i'll wait to see if the previous mentioned oddities keeps happening.
Update: At this point, the networking problem persists. Dunno about the rest yet.

At this point I would recommend to start fresh, wipe data after flash, otherwise you can never be sure.

Regards.

Sent from my MI 8 Explorer Edition using Tapatalk

 

[rumd3x]

At this point I would recommend to start fresh, wipe data after flash, otherwise you can never be sure.

Regards.

Sent from my MI 8 Explorer Edition using Tapatalk

Yeah, I agree. That's what I'll do as soon as I get some time to spare.

Also, the ROM received another update yesterday that seems to fix the screen turning on randomly problem and some of my configurations not being respected. But still the network won't talk to to Mi Cloud for activation, and I still get some random bluethooth disconnects, but that's more bearable.

EDIT: The screen randomness is back. It seems to only happen at night, and I still have no clue what is causing it.

 

[Karpfenhai]

Since I own the same device, using the same Rom (magisk 19 currently), I'd say it's something with your setup causing this, or a theme.

Regards, it's up to you now

Sent from my MI 8 Explorer Edition using Tapatalk

 

[rumd3x]

Since I own the same device, using the same Rom (magisk 19 currently), I'd say it's something with your setup causing this, or a theme.

Regards, it's up to you now

Sent from my MI 8 Explorer Edition using Tapatalk

I figured it wasn't a ROM problem since it is considered really really stable, with weekly updates. I'm also not using any themes, the system is pretty stock.

I'm trying to figure out a root for it, so I can try to detect the source of the issue with wakelock. I really don't feel like wiping everything and/or switching ROMs.

Not sure if I can flash official Magisk, can I? Latest v19.0 will work?

Edit: Turns out I installed Magisk Manager App, and through it, downloaded the Magisk zip (v18.1), flashed it and on TWRP. Works like a charm.

Now to see if Wakelock will find anything.

Edit: Can't get Wakelock detector to work with root. Problem still occurs, I'll have to wipe everything and flash the ROM back when I get the time.