Are you a Xiaomi phone owner looking to unlock the full potential of your device? Then installing TWRP (Team Win Recovery Project) recovery might be the key.
TWRP is a custom recovery environment that grants you advanced control over your phone, allowing you to flash custom ROMs, root your device, and perform other modifications not possible with the stock recovery.
This guide, tailored for 2024, will walk you through the process of installing TWRP on your Xiaomi phone, whether it's a Redmi, Poco, or Mi model.
We'll cover both methods: using a PC and directly on your phone. By the end, you'll be equipped with the knowledge and confidence to customize your Xiaomi phone experience to a whole new level.
Important Note: Installing TWRP can void your warranty and carries inherent risks. Proceed with caution and ensure you understand the potential consequences before attempting this process.
Related: How To Unlock Xiaomi Bootloader
How to Install TWRP on Xiaomi Phones
Which Xiaomi devices support TWRP
- Xiaomi SDM439 Devices (mi439)
- Xiaomi MSM8917/MSM8937/MSM8940 Devices (Excluding Redmi Go) (mi8937)
- Xiaomi Redmi Note 11s / Poco M4 Pro (fleur, miel)
- Xiaomi Redmi K40/POCO F3/Mi 11X (alioth)
- Xiaomi Mi Max Pro (helium)
- Xiaomi Mi 10 (umi)
- Xiaomi Mi 10i / Mi 10T Lite / Redmi Note 9 Pro 5G (gauguin/gauguinpro/gauguininpro)
- Xiaomi Mi 10 Lite (monet)
- Xiaomi Mi 11 (venus)
- Xiaomi Mi 11 lite 5G (renoir)
- Xiaomi Mi 11 Pro (mars)
- Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra (star)
This guide should also work for other Mi, Redmi, and POCO branded devices, so do try it out.
How to Unlock the Xiaomi Bootloader?
To install TWRP, You should first unlock your Xiaomi device's bootloader. Unlocking the bootloader is usually simple on Android devices, but on Xiaomi phones, it's a bit more complicated. You have to pair your Mi Account with your phone and then unlock the bootloader with a computer for Xiaomi devices.
Note that unlocking your phone's bootloader will void the warranty. Also, make sure you have made a backup of your phone. Once you are set mentally, follow the below steps to unlock your Xiaomi phone bootloader.
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Step 1 Your Xiaomi smartphone should have USB Debugging enabled to unlock the bootloader. To do this, go to Settings > About Phone > Developer Options and press MIUI version 5-7 times.
- Go back and toggle on OEM Unlocking and USB Debugging under Developer Options.
- Step 2 Navigate back to Settings and permit Sync options. You can do this by, tapping on Mi Cloud and browsing through the Turn on Find Device option. Scroll down and tap on Sync Details.
- Step 3 Choose Sync All Items from the drop-down menu. All of your documents will be linked as an outcome.
- Step 4 Now, turn on your data on the phone. Please remember that you must activate cellular internet from the same SIM that you used to register your Mi account.
- Step 5 You can now tap on the Mi Unlock status. From there, hold down the Agree option.
- Step 6 Then pick Add Account and Device from the selection.
- Step 7 Inspect to see whether your SIM card indeed has loaded Then, refrain from the security warnings presented on your monitor.
- Step 8 Thereafter, turn your Xiaomi Mi or Redmi phone down.
- Step 9 Then once, put your phone in Fastboot mode.
- Step 10 Connect your Xiaomi mobile to your other device like your personal computer through a USB cable the moment you have successfully launched Fastboot mode.
- Step 11 Install and transfer the Mi Unlock Tool to your personal computer.
- Step 12 Enter the saved document, then choose Agree from those in the miflash unlock submenu.
- Step 13 Then, login into your Mi Account that has been associated with your mobile phone.
- Step 14 Next, pick Unlock out from the options list.
- Step 15: When prompted, select Unlock Anyway and keep on going.
- Step 16 Your unlocking operation would therefore start immediately; sit tight for the Unlocked Successfully confirmation to display.
And that is, you have unlocked your Xiaomi device's bootloader. Unless you encounter an alert notification saying Couldn't unlock during the unlocking stage, you must be patient to wait 168 hours which is a whole week to try again.
But after, continue the guidelines established here to activate your Xiaomi bootloader on your cellular phone.
How to Install TWRP on Xiaomi Phones
Now that you have unlocked your bootloader, your phone is ready for TWRP installation. There are still some things you need to install TWRP. You need ADB and Fastboot tools installed on your computer.
To install ADB and Fastboot on your PC, follow these steps,
- Step 1 Download the Latest ADB drivers from here.
- Step 2 Open the downloaded .zip file
- Step 3 Run the ADB Installer.exe
- Step 4 Type Y and press enter.
- Step 5 Type Y and press enter.
- Step 6 Type Y and press enter.
- Step 7 Click the highlighted Next button.
- Step 8 Click Always trust software from “Google Inc” and then click the Install button.
Driver installation is done without any problem if you see the following screen and the blue window will be closed after installation is completed. And that's its ADB and Fastboot tools are installed on your PC.
There are two kinds of devices that you need to know of when it comes to TWRP installation. A/B devices and non-A/B devices. A/B devices are devices running Android 7 and later are designed to install updates safely without the chance of breaking themselves.
So, these devices are better and safer when it comes to updates. But this also means they differ when it comes to TWRP installation. To check if your device is A/B or non-A/B, run the following command on cmd when your phone is connected to your PC.
If the output is true, then your Xiaomi phone is A/B, but if the output is blank then it is non-A/B.
We will explain the TWRP installation process for both types of devices below,
How to Install TWRP on Xiaomi Phones on Non-A/B devices
- Step 1 Download TWRP from here.
- Step 2 Copy the TWRP image to the Fastboot folder.
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Step 3 Now open Command Prompt and type
- adb reboot bootloader
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Step 4 Reboot the TWRP image to twrp.img and then type
- fastboot flash recovery twrp.img[[!!]]fastboot reboot
- Step 5 Wait for the process to complete.
That's it, you have successfully installed TWRP on your non-A/B device.
How to Install TWRP on Xiaomi Phones on A/B devices
If your Xiaomi phone has A/B partition system then follow these steps to install TWRP,
- Step 1 Download TWRP from here.
- Step 2 Copy the TWRP image to the Fastboot folder.
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Step 3 Now open Command Prompt and type
- adb reboot bootloader
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Step 4 Reboot the TWRP image to twrp.img and then type
- fastboot boot twrp.img
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Step 5 Now, copy the twrp.img file to the device by typing
- adb push twrp.img /sdcard
- Step 6 Go to the Advanced menu of TWRP and tap on Install Recovery Ramdisk.
- Step 7 Choose the twrp.img file on the device’s internal storage.
- Step 8 Swipe to install and then reboot.
Congrats, TWRP is now successfully installed on your device.
What Can You Do With TWRP on Xiaomi Phones?
So, you have successfully installed TWRP on your Xiaomi phone, what next? The next step is to reap the benefits of TWRP. Here are some of the best features you can access from TWRP,
Install Custom ROMs - The best feature of installing TWRP on your Xiaomi phone is the ability to install custom ROMs. You can easily run and install custom .zip and .img files to install ROMs. Customs ROMs can be used to tweak, customize and even run different versions of Android on your phone.
Wipe your Device - This is a factory reset tool but offers more control to you. Generally, you can only reset Network Settings, All Settings, and the entire device on a Xiaomi phone. But with TWRP installed you can select and wipe parts of your device like cache, data, and more.
Backup - Backing up with TWRP is simple and maybe even better than the implementation in Xiaomi devices. You can create complete backups that include home screen setup to app data.
TWRP Backup - If you are interested in modding and tweaking your phone extensively, then TWRP backup will make sure you don't lose anything important if something goes sideways. So make sure to have a TWRP backup of your Xiaomi phone.
Restore - The Restore feature allows you to restore TWRP backups. So if something goes wrong and you are stuck in a boot loop, use this feature to restore a TWWRP backup and fix your device.
Mount - Your Xiaomi device storage will be partitioned to handle cache, files, and OS efficiently. You can mount or unmount these partitions inside TWRP so that important partitions are not accessible to changes by TWRP. This is good for security.
Settings - The Settings function is similar to the Settings menu on your Xiaomi phone. It lets you change and control functions like time, vibration, navigation bar, brightness, language, and more.
Advanced - You can copy logs and error codes from this section. This lets you troubleshoot and fix any issues while modding and customizing your phone.
Reboot - Reboot is straightforward, this lets you reboot your Xiaomi phone when you have installed a custom file on your phone. You can also reboot into recovery or reboot into bootloader for easy access to them.
Conclusion
And that is it, you have successfully learned to install TWRP and its features. Hope this guide on how to install TWRP on Xiaomi phones explained everything you needed to know. Check out our other guides and articles to keep yourself updated about Xiaomi phones and products.
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