Now Xiaomi buyers and users across the globe (well except China) always has this question at the back of their head whenever they purchase a MI or Redmi Phone, Is this loaded with the Original Rom?
Which finally leads us to this topic on how to identify wether or not your MIUI ROM is official or unofficial.
Okay, this topic is not about how to determine if your Mi Phone is authentic or fake, that topic was already covered by one of our former Device Team Member @soumya_2002 [MIUI DEVICE CLASSROOM] Lesson 19 - How To Spot A Fake Xiaomi Phone!
Our supermod @marcus_keong has also covered about the different types of ROM from Alpha to Beta and from Stable to Developer Rom, check it out [MIUI Device Team] A Comprehensive Guide: Understand More on MIUI Versions!
Okay, so much for intermissions, lets get to the main topic. Now, Let me show you how to spot if your using an Official Rom or Unofficial Rom, but first let us classify whats the difference between the two.
1. Official Rom - Authentic, Unadulterated, Unblemished ROM manufactured by the Xiaomi Developers. Normally comes with Xiaomi Units released by Xiaomi themselves.
2. Unofficial Rom - Fake, Tampered, Multilated ROM installed by third party resellers on Xiaomi Units before selling to customers.
Now everyone will ask so what if its Unoffficial ROM, Let me run you down with the PRO and CON of the two ROMS
OFFICIAL ROM: PROs
- Receives Official OTA Updates (Incremental or Full)
- Can Request to Unlock Bootloader
- No Bloatwares
- No Malwares
- Clean Original State out of the Box
- Supported by Mi Flash
UNOFFICIAL ROM: CONs
- No Updates for Life (Unless the Reseller makes one, which is highly unlikely)
- Cannot Request to Unlock Bootloader
- Full of Bloatwares
- Malwares Spotted
- Most of the Time there are defects while editing, I personally handled one without the Settings Icon and Wifi Icon of Redmi Note 3
- Unsupported by Mi Flash
- Void Warranty
Now how to spot if its Official or Unofficial,
1. Go to Settings -> About Phone -> MIUI VERSION
Stable ROM format is in 8.X.X.X, where 8 means MIUI 8 and X.X.X is the version of MIUI 8.
Developer ROM format is in X.X.X For instance, 6.7.14 represents year.month.day, means this developer version is released on 14th July of 2016.
In addition, we can identify which type of MIUI Stable version by checking 7 letters in MIUI version.
Let's acquire the 7 letters of Stable version from image above: "KHDCNDG" and "KHDMIDG".
The 4th and 5th letters are the indicator, where CN = China and MI = Global.
Official Stable ROM will have always 3 DECIMAL POINTS and official Developers (Beta) ROM will always have 2 DECIMAL POINTS.
For example Stable ROM will use 7.5.2.0 but never 7.5.2.0.0 and Developers (Beta) ROM will use 6.5.30 but never 6.5.30.0
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There are rare cases wherein the Unofficial ROM has the correct MIUI Version number but there is an additional letter to the 7 letters.
It should be KHDMIDG not OKHDMIDG
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Check MIUI Versions as well, the decimal is correct, the 7 letters are correct, but its MIUI V 7.9 (there is no such version).
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Or correct 3 decimal point but the numbers are crazily high like V 7.2.92.99
2. You can check what official release Xiaomi made for your specific phone here: en.miui.com/download.html
Lets take Mi5 and Mi5s as example
Mi5 has both China Rom and Global Rom released
Just Click on the Older Version and you will see all the previously released FULL ROMS, Incremental will be shown in Developers ROM only.
Mi5s on the other hand only has China ROM released at the moment, since it has not made a Global debut yet.
Click the Older Versions and you can see what was previously released
Now if you asked your favorite reseller and they tell you that Mi5s has Official Global ROM Installed, you know what your gonna get already. An Unofficial ROM, Great! You are learning fast! Give yourself a pat on the shoulder.
3. Tampered ROM "NORMALLY" comes on Global ROM (Especially on units still without Global ROM like Mi5s, Mi5s Plus and REDMI PRO) As of Press Time 10/25/2016.
People loves to have Global ROM, with Google Play, Facebook and Youtube ready. What they dont know is that the handset havent made a Global debut yet, hence no Global ROM. Now, 3rd party resellers would like to make a sale and make false statement that their unit already came with a Global ROM. Hence one classic example below.
Let me show you some Unofficial ROMS screenshots I have gathered, for illustration purpose only.
This leads us to the last question, when you have an Unofficial ROM, is there hope or is it the end of the world for you?
Answer is, there is still hope. As your author here as well as MIUI Device Team members has work hard enough to bring you endless tutorials on how to Flash, be it Locked or Unlocked Bootloader, be it Official or Unofficial ROM. Of course every unit has its own restriction on flashing.
One good read is by our resident Mi5 Moderator @MSB2016 on flashing from fake ROM: [Device Team] Locked Bootloader- Flashing Official ROM From Unofficial/Fake ROM
Some people like me go to the extent of making a DIY Flash Cable just in case you really cant get thru flashing, which works on ALL Xiaomi Snapdragon Devices (Sorry MTK fans) [MIUI DEVICE TEAM] How to Make your own DIY Deep Flash Cable for Mi5
Hope this topic has enlightened everyone, because knowledge is power.
Mitch002 Signing OFF!!!
