How to update MIUI manually on your Xiaomi phone?

There were times when you are waiting for the MIUI update on your Xiaomi device. But, due to some reasons, you might not get an update on time. Or you wanted to try beta/developer ROMS, but don’t know how you would do that? In this article, I will show how you can update MIUI manually, using the updater app included in your device.

Like all the other articles on our website, this one is also going to be an in-depth detailed view of how you can update MIUI manually.

But, before going into the procedure, let me tell you why you might need to manually update MIUI:

  • Xiaomi pushes updates in batches, due to which sometimes a user needs to wait for the device to receive it.
  • Due to some modifications at the system level like rooting, it sometimes breaks the OTA (over-the-air) update on your device.
  • Sometimes a user might need to test MIUI DEVELOPER ROM for enjoying new features & faster updates.

Update MIUI manually on your Xiaomi Phone!

In any of the mentioned cases, you might need to update MIUI manually. So let’s begin with the process:

  • Make sure that your phone has at least 50% of charge left before continuing so that it won’t die in the process & brick your device.
  • Now visit Mi Community & download the required file ROM.zip update file for your device. After downloading it, place it in your phone’s storage.
  • Now open the ‘Updater‘ app on your device, which is generally inside the ‘Tools‘ folder in the MIUI launcher.

  • Inside the ‘Updater‘ app, tap on 3 dots on the top to see more options & from those options tap on ‘Choose update package‘. This will open your default File manager & from there navigate to the place where you have copied your ROM file. (.zip format)
  • Now tap on the ROM file & hit ‘OK’ at the bottom, this will get you back to the updater app & will start verifying the ROM file to see if it’s okay to continue or to abort the installation, in case of a corrupt file.

  • After successful verification, the file will start ‘decrypting’ (extracting), which should take around 15 minutes. Once it’s done, you will be asked to ‘Reboot & update‘ the device to complete the installation part.

  • On rebooting, you will see a black screen with the MI logo in the center & ‘installing MIUI’ text at the bottom, which means that your phone is installing the decrypted file. This should take another 15 minutes to complete & after that, your device will automatically reboot for the final task.
  • This final reboot will rebuild caches for the apps that are already installed. This time around the screen will show a blank progress bar at the bottom with the MI logo in the center. This process will take another 15-20 minutes to complete & after that, will show you your device’s lock screen.
  • Congratulations you have successfully updated MIUI manually.

NOTE: There are a few things that you should keep in mind before updating MIUI manually, which are as follows:

  • Always download ROM/update files from the official sources, such as Mi Community. A ROM file download link with start with ‘bigota.d.miui.com’ & will end with the ‘.zip’ extension.
  • Due to slow MIUI servers, the file might get corrupted if you are downloading it on an unreliable network. To avoid this, use a fast & reliable internet connection to download the file & after downloading it, keep a copy saved in some other storage device.
  • Always backup your device data (media files) on a PC or external storage, to avoid any mishap.
  • You can use the same guide for updating to developer ROM from Stable ROM. However, updating from MIUI Stable ROM to MIUI Beta/Developer ROM will result in data loss, so be aware of that & keep your device backed up. [Since MIUI 8]
  • You can’t update to developer ROM with a newer android version than the stable ROM. In this case, first, update your device to developer ROM with the same android version, then update to the latest developer ROM. [Since MIUI 8]
  • The full update process should take around 45-50 minutes, so be patient. And also during the update, your phone might heat a bit.

I hope this guide will help you in updating your device without any issues. For anything, else do leave a comment down below.

About the author

Anubhav Bhatnagar
Anubhav Bhatnagar
He is your friendly neighbor who love learning and sharing it with everyone. A nerd who loves observing, exploring, and critiquing. He fancies good design, and it trying to find his way somewhere in between minimalism and essentialism.You can connect with him @AnooBav on all social platforms.

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