Mi Flash Pro

How to use MiFlashPro

MiFlashPro is easy to use. After installation, you just need to log in to your “Mi” account, connect your device and you are ready to go to work.

First run of the program

Immediately after installing MiFlashPro, you must log in to your Mi account the first time you run it. If you do not have one yet, you can register. For convenience, you can also change the language here (most likely, initially it will be set to English) by clicking on the “Select Your Language” button (as in the screenshot).

To log in to your existing account, simply enter your username and password. The registration process is also simple, just follow the instructions on the screen.

Let’s look at the process of reflashing on the example of the Xiaomi Mi 9.

Connecting the phone to a PC

After authorization, the main screen of the program will open. Before you start flashing it is necessary to get the initial information: the recommended method of flashing, the manufacturer of the processor. To do this, go to the tab “Home” and in the line “Select Device” find your model.

For example, after selecting “MI 9” the following lines will appear on the screen: “Chip: sdm855”, “Recommended: RECOVERY”. It is the last one that will help you to correctly determine the firmware method. The value “sdm855” means that the processor manufacturer is Qualcomm Snapdragon, which means that flashing through SP Flash is not an option. This is what the value “RECOVERY” says about. This means that in order to flash the device, you need to put it into the recovery menu and use the “Recovery” tab in MiFlashPro. If this line says “FASTBOOT” (can also be “EDL”), then reboot to the Fastboot menu. How to do it?

• To restart in Recovery: Turn off the device, press and hold the power and volume up buttons for about 5 seconds;
• To reboot in Fastboot: Disconnect the device, press and hold the power and volume down buttons for about 5 seconds;
• On MTK devices: disconnect the device, connect it to your computer via USB and press the volume down key.

Choosing the right firmware

After we found out which method is recommended to flash our device (SP Flash/Recovery) and which menu to use (Fastboot/Recovery), we need to find the firmware itself. You can do it on the 4pda forum, where you can find almost any firmware for most devices. But the program itself has the necessary functionality. To choose the firmware do the following.

• Go to the “ROM Packages” section, choose the device model (Mi 9, which we selected earlier), click on the “Refurbish” button and wait for the results in the form of the MIUI firmware list;
• After searching for available firmware, choose one so that the value in the “Method” column coincides with the one that was recommended for the device when we connected it in the paragraph above. In the recommended value was “Recovery”, so here we choose the firmware with the same method;
• Select the appropriate file and click on the “Download” button. You will be able to follow the progress in the section “Downloading”;
• Create folder on system disk, where we move the downloaded firmware. The firmware file itself will be located along the path, which can be viewed by clicking on the “Setting” button in the “ROM Packages” tab.

Flashing via Recovery

After we have decided on the firmware we need and downloaded it. The very process of flashing Redmi or other devices from Xiaomi is quite simple in this way. You just need to follow the instructions below:

• Put the device in Recovery mode;
• Connect the smartphone to the computer;
• In the program will appear the button “Flash in recovery” – click on it, or independently go to the tab “Recovery”;
• In the line “Current version:” select the downloaded firmware package, which we downloaded earlier;
• Wait for the verification of the checksums and other data. The line “Verified successfully” will inform about the successful verification;
• Press “Wipe user data” (format internal memory) to delete various programs and data saved on the device, which could interfere with the new firmware (for reliability);
• We again wait for the verification and click on “Flash”;
• MiFlashPro will signal “Flashed successfully” and the smartphone will automatically reboot into the system.

Flashing via SP Flash

If in the case of Xiaomi Mi 9 the recommended method of flashing was exactly “Recovery” and the processor in the device is installed from the manufacturer Qualcomm Snapdragon, then there are other situations when you can flash only through SP Flash. To flash through SP Flash, you need to:

1. Download the firmware file as described in the section above;
2. For convenience, extract the files from the archive with the firmware and place them in an empty folder on the system drive;
3. In MiFlashPro go to the tab “SP Flash”, where you will go to the section “Options”. Here you need to go to the line “Download” and check the boxes to activate the items “USB Checksum” and “Storage Checksum”;
4. Click on the “Choose” button next to the line “Scatter-loading File”. A window will appear with the explorer, here go to the path, where the firmware is located. Open the file with the firmware, go to “images” and select the file “Android_scatter”;
5. A list of files will appear, find the name “PRELOADER” and uncheck this line;
6. A little lower in the drop-down list select the option “Download Only”;
7. Press the green button “Download” and turn off the device;
8. Connect the smartphone to the PC via USB port and wait for the flashing to complete. The status will be shown as a filling bar. After successful completion, a small window with a green checkmark will appear. Disconnect the device from the computer and start it up.

Flashing via Mi Flash

How to flash via Mi Flash? Unlike the methods of reflashing (through the tabs “Recovery” and SP Flash program) that were described above, flashing through Mi Flash Tool implies that the device has an unlocked bootloader (the process will go through the Fastboot menu).

1. Choose the appropriate firmware thanks to the repository in MiFlashPro (it should have the “.tgz” extension, make sure that when downloading from “ROM Packages” the method is set to “Fastboot”) or download the appropriate file from the official MIUI website or 4PDA;
2. Open the tab “Mi Flash”. A window will appear, prompting you to install all the necessary drivers. Click on the “Install” button and agree with the warnings of Windows, disabling the verification of the digital signature of the drivers;
3. Create an empty folder on the system disc and extract all the firmware archive contents there (only for convenience);
4. Reboot phone via Fastboot menu (see above for instructions on how to do this) and connect to PC via USB;
5. Press “refresh” button to have the device detected in the program (it will appear on the first line). If there are no changes, you can try to reinstall the drivers manually;
6. By pressing “select” we choose the path to the downloaded firmware;
7. In the lower right corner of Mi Flash select “Clean All” (completely deletes various user data). If it is important to save the data on the device, you can select “Save user data”, but this is quite risky. It is better to make a backup of the necessary files and applications in advance, and then select “Clean All”. If you want to lock the bootloader after flashing, select “Clean all and lock”;
8. Press “Flash” button and wait for the process to finish. The device will reboot automatically, you only need to disconnect it from the computer.

Conclusion

MiFlashPro for Xiaomi devices is a powerful multifunctional tool that even an inexperienced user can cope with by following instructions. The program provides 3 ways to reflash many Xiaomi devices. And you can change the firmware even on those devices that have a locked bootloader, regardless of the processor: whether it’s MediaTek or Qualcomm. Flashing through MiFlashPro is quite a simple process if you compare it with other methods.

Now you do not need to sit for hours on forums and read about what program to unlock the bootloader on your smartphone, what drivers to install, how and where to find the right firmware, and what to do next. All the necessary “content”, information and even instructions are in one place. That’s what makes the program Mi Flash Pro an indispensable assistant for almost every user when flashing Xiaomi devices. And for the stable operation of the program, it is desirable to use its latest version.