What first?

[truelutti]

Ok so i ordered a k20 pro from ali and it's going to be my first xiaomi phone. I was hoping someone can give me a good guide on how am i to get a good rom into it that is updated regularly OTA.
Give me any info i should know about the roms and what are my options? Seems like there is miui 10 and miui 11. I have heard there should be stable roms with miui 11 but it says stable only after miui 10 up there so just help a noob out. Also what is this 20 days wait i hear about to be able to flash a rom into the phone? Sounds really weird. So just give me all the info i need. Thank you all in advance and hope this is a helping community worth joining.

 

[frofa]

Please do your homework - all the answers to your questions are here in the forum, many of them over and over again. Feel free to ask any specific question that remains after searching the forum for obvious things, and reading the relevant threads.
A "helping community worth joining" is one that builds on the initiative of the members, but it won't lead you by the hand and "give you all the info you need". Remember, you pay no one for support, and every minute someone spares to help you out is one that he cannot do something else. It's all voluntary work, and you are not entitled to support.

 

[truelutti]

Please do your homework - all the answers to your questions are here in the forum, many of them over and over again. Feel free to ask any specific question that remains after searching the forum for obvious things, and reading the relevant threads.
A "helping community worth joining" is one that builds on the initiative of the members, but it won't lead you by the hand and "give you all the info you need". Remember, you pay no one for support, and every minute someone spares to help you out is one that he cannot do something else. It's all voluntary work, and you are not entitled to support.

Well i see that at least you are not a helping part of this community. I hope you do not represent the whole community.
I understand that you might feel like "another noob with the same questions" I can tell you i have felt the same on another forums but you have it all wrong. The idea is to spread your knowledge. If you can help someone understand things why wouldn't you be willing to? If your time is so expensive that you can't use it to help others it's fine but do you think you are helping by being somewhat rude here? Do you think it's better for the community here to drive people away or to welcome them in?

I know every question has been asked and answered before. I'm not entitled to anything. If i was modding things around here i would have made a sticky about all the noob questions everyone comes here asking for the first time they join. That would be helpful and beneficial to the likes of you so you might not need to put out answers like you just did here.
The ability to search for information comes from understanding what to search for. It runs smoothly from there. The first step is to know little to get started. That's all i'm asking here. As i said this is my first xiaomi phone and i don't even have it yet. I just ordered it. So while i wait for it to arrive i was hoping to get to know some people here and get a head start finding out some things.

So if anyone on this forum is helpful i would appreciate some assistance to get me going. Like this guy said. "lead me by the hand and give me all the info i need" ...just like a friendly and helpful community would.

 

[truelutti]

Maybe i have to ad that i come from OnePlus forum because OnePlus One was the first flagship killer. I'm sure there are some others of you here also.
I was there from the times One wasn't even launched yet and we built the community up with the idea of sharing the knowledge. So i hope to see at least some of that here.

 

[frofa]

Haha, I kind of expected your answer - word for word. Rest assured that I do help people a lot, here and on other forums. I am more than willing to answer any specific question you might have. But they MUST be specific.
As for starters, read the very first post in the very first thread of the very first forum ("MIUI ROM Releases"), it tells you step by step what to do to install the Xiaomi EU ROM. This week the link is this: https://xiaomi.eu/community/threads/9-9-26-27-v2-miui-11.52341/

 

[truelutti]

Haha, I kind of expected your answer - word for word. Rest assured that I do help people a lot, here and on other forums. I am more than willing to answer any specific question you might have. But they MUST be specific.
As for starters, read the very first post in the very first thread of the very first forum ("MIUI ROM Releases"), it tells you step by step what to do to install the Xiaomi EU ROM. This week the link is this: https://xiaomi.eu/community/threads/9-9-26-27-v2-miui-11.52341/

Well nice to see you agreening to my points ...in a way.
I asked questions that were specific as i could make them though. Like what is up with that weird wait period for the rom flashing? Seen it pop around in few conversations but it doesn't make any sense to me.
Also by the link you gave me i see that you are saying i should go for the miui11 rom. The latest of that i suspect(?) That's the one getting updated OTA? That's also stable even though it's missing that info?
See it's hard to be more specific than that without knowing about these things.

 

[truelutti]

Is there at least two separate strands of OTA updates going with 10 and 11? ...you see i'm trying to get the idea on how this all works. What's the known good way of doing things. Is the latest not the safest and all that? I am going to have this as my only phone so i need it to work for me so i can't go into anything too beta.

 

[frofa]

Is there at least two separate strands of OTA updates going with 10 and 11? ...you see i'm trying to get the idea on how this all works. What's the known good way of doing things. Is the latest not the safest and all that? I am going to have this as my only phone so i need it to work for me so i can't go into anything too beta.

MIUI 10 is basically dead when it comes to beta ROMs, but is the go-to ROM for stable builds (as there is no stable MIUI 11 build for any phone yet). You have to decide whether you want to install "beta" or "stable", and then it is the easiest to stay with what you have chosen. Of course you can always change at a later time is you so desire, but it is best practice (or even necessary) to delete all data when you do that - which is not what most people want.
The "latest" is always a beta, which means there will most likely be bugs in it. That having said, I use the beta ROMs for years on my "daily driver" phone, and NEVER had a really bad bug. On the other hand, I do have "stable" global (non-EU) ROMs on some phones - right now, for example, on my Mi 9T pro, because I still wait for the bootloader unlock, it will be possible tomorrow! - and they definitely also have bugs; and some really nasty ones! For example, it consistently loses custom lockscreen settings whenever it performs an automated backup to the Mi cloud. So, simply using "stable" instead of "beta" does not automatically spare you from disturbing bugs, unfortunately. Just with the "stable" it will take many weeks, even months, until the bug is fixed, whereas in the "beta" very often it is fixed the very next Friday.
One thing to consider, though, is that whenever you flash a new ROM (i.e. every week with a new beta release), you will have to flash Magisk again to re-root your phone. Not a big deal, one or two more minutes of "work", but nevertheless something important to know.

If I were to recommend one over the other, it would always be the beta for users with at least a bit of experience. For total Android newbies, who just want to use their phone, it would be "stable" - but these people hardly ever show up on a forum, so I imagine you are not one of them.

 

[frofa]

Like what is up with that weird wait period for the rom flashing? Seen it pop around in few conversations but it doesn't make any sense to me.

What can I say other than "it exists". Yes, you have to "apply" for permission to unlock your bootloader, and then you have a waiting time of 1 to 3 weeks before you can actually unlock. It depends on how old your account is, and sometimes it is unpredictable. My new Mi 9T pro that I got last Friday has a waiting time of 1 week, so I will be able to unlock it tomorrow. For my Mi Pad 4, the waiting time in the unlock program was shown to be three weeks, but I could actually unlock the bootloader after two weeks.
And YES, it doesn't make sense. Like NONE at all. But that's how it is anyway.

Also by the link you gave me i see that you are saying i should go for the miui11 rom.

I don't say you should go for that one, although it is indeed the one I would recommend. I could just as well have given you the link to the stable ROM in the same sub-forum. Check that one out, if you're interested. I am not.

The latest of that i suspect(?)

Every week (with few exceptions) there is a new thread with the new, latest weekly beta. When this thread opens (usually on Friday), all threads for older betas are closed, and remain only accessible for reading. There is also one thread around per stable ROM, if you prefer to install "stable".

That's the one getting updated OTA?

The Xiaomi EU-ROMs are not supposed to be installed as (small) OTA updates, they are always the "whole thing". Yes, the betas do receive OTAs, but almost everyone I know does not install by OTA but by flashing through TWRP. You need to enter TWRP anyway to re-install Magisk, if you want to root your phone, so it's faster, and in my hands much more reliable.

That's also stable even though it's missing that info?

The weekly ROMs are always betas, but they are stable enough for all practical purposes. Stable ROMs come every couple of months only.

 

[truelutti]

So i finally received the phone but it's already unlocked. Is that going to save me a step of unlocking it or give me some possible problems with flashing the new rom? The system tells me the device is mi 9T pro. Is that just because the global rom or a region i have selected or might there be some other reason for it?
If i'm all good should i just use twrp to flash in the new rom?

 

[frofa]

So i finally received the phone but it's already unlocked. Is that going to save me a step of unlocking it or give me some possible problems with flashing the new rom? The system tells me the device is mi 9T pro. Is that just because the global rom or a region i have selected or might there be some other reason for it?
If i'm all good should i just use twrp to flash in the new rom?

Interesting, I know that some Chinese vendors sell the devices with unlocked bootloader, because they install some weird custom ROM instead of the original one. So I guess you have an inofficial "global" ROM. It is HIGHLY recommended to replace this with an official one - no one can know what kind of additional software the vendor has installed before shipping the device to you!
Of course, the already unlocked bootloader saves you the waiting time, but the bootloader will always be "inofficially" unlocked (meaning your Mi Account will not have unlock permission, and you will not be registered as an official unlocker). This may create problems down the road, when you - by accident - re-lock the bootloader. In principle, when you install the EU ROM, this "cannot" happen, but I wouldn't 100% count on it.
The device is actually called Mi 9T pro in the global market, and Redmi K20 pro in the Chinese domestic market. Also, after installing EU ROM (which is based on the Chinese beta ROM) the phone will be renamed to Redmi K20 pro - something I don't really like, but we cannot do anything against it.
So, if I was you, I would install TWRP right away, and then the EU ROM. Keep in mind that the present MIUI11 and Android 10 of the EU ROM is brand new for both releases, MIUI and Android, and it is beta software. This means that you should first decide whether you can live with some bugs that will certainly be in the ROM. Having said this, I have to admit that for me the current version is running quite well. It has a bit high battery consumption, and QuickSnap for the camera doesn't work, but other than that: it is a good ROM, even as a daily driver.

 

[truelutti]

Thanks. I already went ahead and installed the miui 11.1 / 9.10.17. Just setting up everything for my liking again. That should take an evening. But other than that i had my doubts about that account thing and as i had installed the rom and was starting up the phone it asked me for verification via account that was tied to the phone. Well obviously i was little scared at that time but it appeared that it was my account and after i provided the password it all unlocked well and i haven't had any other bumps on the way at least for now. I'm so glad to have app drawer back you couldn't believe. But thanks for the info everyone provided. I'll be on my phone now for quite some time setting it up.

 

[frofa]

Good luck, and don't hesitate to ask again if you have any further questions.