Should i get the Mi 8 Global ROM or Global Version? - Xiaomi Mi 8 Questions & Answers

Hello! I want to get a Mi 8 soon but unsure which version of the phone i should get. As i want to make sure that all the Google Play Services are working and also Google Pay. Would i be fine getting the Global ROM Phone or will i need to get the Global Version Phone. I do also play to add a Custom ROM for the phone as well when it starts rolling out.
Note: I am in the UK and want to get the Black/6GB/128GB Model
I would also prefer to get the Global ROM due to the fact of it being much cheaper than the Global Version but want to make sure everything will work before I do.

The current status is quite simple for the Global ROM.
1. The Global Rom is out;
2. You can flash it. but you need to unlock the bootloader first, which usually requires you to submit a request and wait around 360 hours.
3. Once you've unlocked the BL and flashed the Global Rom, all google services would function normally.
the convert is: you CANNOT re-lock the bootloader (at least as of now)
someone says Gpay won't work with unlocked bl.
personally I don't make any payments with my android so I'm not sure.

ATiGr said:
The current status is quite simple for the Global ROM.
1. The Global Rom is out;
2. You can flash it. but you need to unlock the bootloader first, which usually requires you to submit a request and wait around 360 hours.
3. Once you've unlocked the BL and flashed the Global Rom, all google services would function normally.
the convert is: you CANNOT re-lock the bootloader (at least as of now)
someone says Gpay won't work with unlocked bl.
personally I don't make any payments with my android so I'm not sure.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Google Pay will NOT work with any phone with unlocked bootloader, there are tweaks to get it working but i haven't tried.

Does google pay work on global version?

Install magisk and gpay will work on unlock BL. Should be common knowledge.

Related

What to do first when I receive the phone?

Hey everyone,
I was just wondering what I need to do when i receive the device. I am in Australia and the phone might be the Chinese model.
So is there anything I have to do with the phone to make it usable as I've heard you need to flash on the global ROM.
How do I properly set up my device for use?
Thanks
MrMoistWalrus said:
Hey everyone,
I was just wondering what I need to do when i receive the device. I am in Australia and the phone might be the Chinese model.
So is there anything I have to do with the phone to make it usable as I've heard you need to flash on the global ROM.
How do I properly set up my device for use?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not easy.To flash the global version miui,you need to unblock your boolloader, then download the global package,and flash it with the miflash.But to unlock the bootloader,you need a mi account and make a Application.
MrMoistWalrus said:
Hey everyone,
I was just wondering what I need to do when i receive the device. I am in Australia and the phone might be the Chinese model.
So is there anything I have to do with the phone to make it usable as I've heard you need to flash on the global ROM.
How do I properly set up my device for use?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you bought from a chinese-based online store, most likely your device has a fake ROM. To get rid of that ROM, you need to unlock bootloader. No matter if you want to flash an official ROM or unofficial xiaomi.eu. You can try to change ROM with MIUI Updater app, but most probably it will not work from a fake ROM.
To unlock bootloader you need at least a couple of things: a xiaomi account you can create here Mi Account -> account.xiaomi.com
After you create your MI account you need to request unlock here MI Unlock en.miui.com/unlock and wait several days to be approved for unlocking. In my case it took 4 or 5 days before I received an SMS of approval.
Then download MI Unlock app (Windows) and search a manual for unlocking device (you need to activate developer options).
In order to unlock bootloader you need a Chinese ROM (stable or dev) but If I'm not wrong all 'fake' devices come with a chinese-based ROM, otherwise wouldn't be a fake ROM?
After you achieve unlocking you can flash any ROM, Global or China, unofficial like xiaomi.eu, etc..
Flash global rom without unlocking bootloader
There is a way to flash global rom without unlocking bootloader using special USB cable that you can make yourself if you still want to do so i'll gladly show you how I did with my phone.
If you are tired and irked by MIUI, I would strongly recommend you to quickly apply for Bootloader unlocking permission on the official Miui site. Afterwards, unlock your bootloader and install official TWRP recovery and a ROM of your choice such as CM14.1. That way, you will be able to experience the true "openess" and magic of Android!
You can install CyanogenMod ROM, but unfortunately you will get no updates, since project has been discontinued on Dec 31 . Their successor is http://lineageos.org/ but there's nothing on their web yet.
Do create a MiAccount.. and do remember your security pattern... what ever you intend to do next do those two things
no need to unlock bootloader.
Xiaomi flash ROM came with 2 method.
you can flash not only from fastboot mode ( bootloader mode ) but also from edl mode ( QDloader 9008 mode ).
- fastboot method need to unlock bootloader.
- EDL method not need to unlock bootloader .
EDL method even can unlock bootloader with unofficial method

China box china rom

Hello guys im really interested with this phone. Bang for the buck. But many people are making a fuzz about global roms and china boxes.
Will it matter if i buy a china box with china rom? cant i just select english language on the china rom and flash a global rom myself? Im going to be flashing stuffs anyways
Could really get a good price with just china everything
There are 3 things you should be aware before buying:
1. You'll need to wait some time to unlock the bootloader and change rom (time may vary, it was 10-15 days, then 2 months, I don't know how much right now)
2. If you flash a global rom you cannot lock the bootloader again, unless you want to brick your device
3. There is an announcement by Xiaomi in which they say we will no longer be able to use global rom on china device: I believe nothing really changed and you just have to unlock bootloader to be able to flash anything you want.
Anyway, I have the china version on which I installed the globa rom without trouble, it's working perfectly. Just avoid fake global version, since you need to own the MI account used to unlock the bootloader in case you have troubles with your device.
How many days did you wait to unlock bootloader? So to be safe i need to have a locked bootloader device which is the china version? Because some seller are flashing the global ROM on their own.
I waited 10 days because I installed China beta (otherwise it was 15 days, you don't need to unlock the bootloader to flash same region beta), now it may be different. The answer to the second question is yes, go for China and unlock it yourself. It's gonna be longer but it's safer.

K20 PRO ROM - which stock MIUI to stick with

Hi!
I recently bough a K20 PRO from a local european reseller (it is infact the Chinese version and not the India one).
Since state law doesn't allow them to sell the phone with its stock ROM, they unlocked the bootloader and flashed some MIUI 9T PRO beta rom (they said that this was done by their chinese supplyer and not by them, but it could be either way).
Yesterday, eager to get my hand to the new MIUI 11, I wanted to recovery flash the recent official global release of it, but screwed the TWRP wipe and got stuck on fastboot with locked bootloader. My only option was fastboot flashing the official chinese release of K20 PRO MIUI 11 ROM via MiFlash.
I don't really like all the bloatware, uninstalled all the chinese apps, but I still get some text from time to time. the fact that I must install Gaps by myself and that google account implementation is missing from the phone settings (with all its backups to gdrive, contacts etc.) made me a bit angry.
I can not unlock the bootloader at the moment (MI Unlock app gave me the famous 168 hours wait time and as far as I researched, there were some methods to bypass it, but they were all patched) witch leaves me in a 7 days "flying in space" period.
My initial thougts were to flash the EEA/GLOBAL version of the MIUI, but since I can not do it in the next 6 and a half days, I was wondering if there are any downsides of the chinese rom. I see that some Themes are payed, but I can live with that.
What is the actual difference, should I reflash the global/eea version as soon as I can unlock the bootloader or just live and stick with the chinese rom?
If you're on to custom roms based on MIUI then you can go with Xiaomi.EU rom, its the Chinese ROM but without bloatware and with google services and apps. I am stuck with Global 10.3.3.0 but I got 5 and a half hours to wait for bootloader unlock, this last 7 days have been boring.. being stuck rootless
PetritH said:
If you're on to custom roms based on MIUI then you can go with Xiaomi.EU rom, its the Chinese ROM but without bloatware and with google services and apps. I am stuck with Global 10.3.3.0 but I got 5 and a half hours to wait for bootloader unlock, this last 7 days have been boring.. being stuck rootless
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
do the ROMs on Xiaomi.EU get OTA updates?
dem0baza said:
do the ROMs on Xiaomi.EU get OTA updates?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes Sir.
Is there state law prohibits them from selling ? I am pretty sure stock China rom on China set are easily accessible to buy ,you even have to pay extra for seller to install Google play store?
Aimara said:
Is there state law prohibits them from selling ? I am pretty sure stock China rom on China set are easily accessible to buy ,you even have to pay extra for seller to install Google play store?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
State law requires the phone to have local language installed, which is missing from the Chinese ROM

Unlocked bootloader from China, unsupported apps

Hello,
I've been sold the Mi 9 t Pro 256 GB (or k20 pro) by what I thought was a trustworthy store, Phone House.
It turns out the device was sent from China and comes with the bootloader unlocked and Global Rom:
MiUi Global 11.0.5
Stable
11.0.5.0 QFKEUXM
I've realised some apps don't work from Google Play Store (Netflix, Disney Plus and probably more) and apparently it's because the bootloader is unlocked.
What I want is an official ROM with locked bootloader, so I don't have to download official apps from third party websites which I don't necesarily trust.
However I've been told I will brick the phone, because I don't have access to the account they used to unlock the bootloader and install the Global ROM; at least if they forgot to unlink the phone from that account, which I'm told is really common. I just want to own the phone I paid for, which seems quite reasonable to me.
Is there any way I can check if my phone is still linked to the chinese account they used to unlock the bootloader? Has anybody gotten out of this situation and if they did, can they tell me what steps should i take?
Regards.
nandokin said:
Hello,
I've been sold the Mi 9 t Pro 256 GB (or k20 pro) by what I thought was a trustworthy store, Phone House.
It turns out the device was sent from China and comes with the bootloader unlocked and Global Rom:
MiUi Global 11.0.5
Stable
11.0.5.0 QFKEUXM
I've realised some apps don't work from Google Play Store (Netflix, Disney Plus and probably more) and apparently it's because the bootloader is unlocked.
What I want is an official ROM with locked bootloader, so I don't have to download official apps from third party websites which I don't necesarily trust.
However I've been told I will brick the phone, because I don't have access to the account they used to unlock the bootloader and install the Global ROM; at least if they forgot to unlink the phone from that account, which I'm told is really common. I just want to own the phone I paid for, which seems quite reasonable to me.
Is there any way I can check if my phone is still linked to the chinese account they used to unlock the bootloader? Has anybody gotten out of this situation and if they did, can they tell me what steps should i take?
Regards.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you link your phone with your Xiaomi account and number?
Most of us here wish unlocked bootloader , install twrp and magisk and most of your app problems go away.
nandokin said:
Hello,
I've been sold the Mi 9 t Pro 256 GB (or k20 pro) by what I thought was a trustworthy store, Phone House.
It turns out the device was sent from China and comes with the bootloader unlocked and Global Rom:
MiUi Global 11.0.5
Stable
11.0.5.0 QFKEUXM
I've realised some apps don't work from Google Play Store (Netflix, Disney Plus and probably more) and apparently it's because the bootloader is unlocked.
What I want is an official ROM with locked bootloader, so I don't have to download official apps from third party websites which I don't necesarily trust.
However I've been told I will brick the phone, because I don't have access to the account they used to unlock the bootloader and install the Global ROM; at least if they forgot to unlink the phone from that account, which I'm told is really common. I just want to own the phone I paid for, which seems quite reasonable to me.
Is there any way I can check if my phone is still linked to the chinese account they used to unlock the bootloader? Has anybody gotten out of this situation and if they did, can they tell me what steps should i take?
Regards.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If your phone is originally a Chinese K20 Pro then you can only lock the bootloader with the Chinese ROM. If you try and lock the bootloader with any other ROM you will brick the phone
It doesn't matter who unlocked the bootloader. You will be able to flash the Chinese fastboot ROM and lock the bootloader, without any problems. After which you can use the phone completely as normal.
If you decide you want to unlock the bootloader again, you will have issues if the phone is still linked to another Mi account. Some sellers have been good at removing phones from their Mi account, some have not.
If you flash a different region ROM and lock the bootloader and you haven't properly linked the phone to your Mi account before (which is done during the bootloader unlock process), then your bricked phone will be hard bricked and can only be recovered by flashing with an authorised Mi service account.
First job is to determine exactly which region model you have. This can be done with an online IMEI checker. Then download the correct fastboot ROM for the phone and flash it with the Mi Flash Tool, using the flash and lock option.

Question Change MIUI region version and lock bootloader

Hi,
I have a Chinese Mi 11 Ultra. I have used the Mi flash tool to flash the EU based version of the ROM but I did not lock the bootloader. This has brought in some problems, such as GPay not working, which I dont really mind but the Mcdonalds app with the coupons also wont start up.
I am wondering, if I get the EU miui13 fastboot rom (original from Xiaomi), and use the mi flash tool to flash it, can I also lock the bootloader? Will it be fine or will it brick the device?
I believe this answers your question: https://c.mi.com/thread-2584760-1-1.html
The TLDR is you can only lock bootloader in China devices if you flash the China ROM. Some people claim to have successfully flashed China ROMs on Glogal phones and locked the bootloader without any issues but you'd be taking a risk.
krolkrowa said:
Hi,
I have a Chinese Mi 11 Ultra. I have used the Mi flash tool to flash the EU based version of the ROM but I did not lock the bootloader. This has brought in some problems, such as GPay not working, which I dont really mind but the Mcdonalds app with the coupons also wont start up.
I am wondering, if I get the EU miui13 fastboot rom (original from Xiaomi), and use the mi flash tool to flash it, can I also lock the bootloader? Will it be fine or will it brick the device?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
do not close bootloader do not do it
you only close bootloader if your in CN version
i had to pay 70 $ to bring my mi 11 ultra from dead, after installing miui 13 EEA version and locked bootloader using flashmiui
alleshi said:
do not close bootloader do not do it
you only close bootloader if your in CN version
i had to pay 70 $ to bring my mi 11 ultra from dead, after installing miui 13 EEA version and locked bootloader using flashmiui
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, Thanks for the answer. Guess I cant lock the bootloader then. Do you know of anyway to get the services working that require a locked bootloader? Iirc it's to so with safetynet but I cant remember if it was possible to overcome this with magisk. I havent been on the rooting scene for a long time so I didnt follow any updates
krolkrowa said:
Hi, Thanks for the answer. Guess I cant lock the bootloader then. Do you know of anyway to get the services working that require a locked bootloader? Iirc it's to so with safetynet but I cant remember if it was possible to overcome this with magisk. I havent been on the rooting scene for a long time so I didnt follow any updates
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Magisk + safetynet fix
Done

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