Powered with Qualcomm MSM8996 Snapdragon 821 chipset, Xiaomi Mi Mix is not only a powerful smartphone but also a cool one. Thanks to its almost-bezel-less design and hence it is Xiaomi’s first smartphone to inherit such feature. Moreover, the phone comes powered with Quad-core CPUs (2×2.35 GHz Kryo & 2×2.19 GHz Kryo processors) and with Adreno 530 Graphic Processing Units. All of those are backed up with a massive 4GB RAM making the device not only good in design but also powerful in performance. However, being a monster phone itself is not enough to most of Android users. Its true potential can only be unleashed if the users have gained root access on it.
In this article you can find a step-by-step tutorial to guide you on how to easily flash TWRP, root Redmi Mi Mix, and install GApps in a Windows PC using a tool called Flasher Toolkit. The tool is designed to reduce the pain feeling of flashing TWRP and obtaining root access. TWRP is so far the best custom recovery for MIUI ROM because of its features and user interface. Thanks and credit belong to Feds64 for the creation of the TWRP Flasher tool.
Objectives
- Flash official TWRP v3.0.2-0
- Flash SuperSU to gain root
- Flash Google Apps (Gapps)
Requirements
- A Xiaomi Mi Mix device with unlocked bootloader.
- A USB cable – just use the one came shipped with your device.
- A Windows-based computer / laptop. A 64-bit Windows 7, 8, 8.1, 10 operating system is recommended.
- Make sure you have disabled Windows driver signature enforcement.
- Make sure your phone still have 60% battery power.
- Download Flasher Toolkit v3 for Lithium – extract it.
- Download Minimal ADB and Fastboot v1.4.1 – extract it.
- Download latest version of SuperSU root package – do not extract it.
- Download DM-Verity and Forced Encryption Disabler – do not extract it.
- Download Google Apps for Android 7 Nougat (Play Store, etc) – do not extract it.
Stage 1 – Flashing TWRP
Step 1 – Install Minimal ADB & Fastboot into your computer.
Step 2 – Plug in your device into your computer using its USB cable. Now transfer the SuperSU .zip file, GApps .zip file, and DM-Verity Disabler .zip file into the internal storage or SD Card of your phone especially in the “Download” folder.
Step 3 – Assuming your phone is still connected to the computer and is still turned on (ON state), open up the extracted Flasher Toolkit folder in Windows Explorer.
Step 4 – Now right-click on “FLASHER TOOLKIT NikelV3.bat” file and then choose “Run as administrator“. This action will execute the script and open up the tool.
Step 5 – Press 1 key on keyboard followed by pressing the Enter key. That way you have chosen menu #1 and opted to execute the command to flash Official TWRP v3.0.2-0.
Step 6 – Just follow on-screen instruction and wait for the tool to complete the flashing process. Once the process is done, your phone will reboot into TWRP automatically.
Step 7 – The first section of TWRP you’ll seen is “Unmodified System Partition“. In this section you have to confirm that you allow TWRP to make some modifications to the system. Just do the “Swipe to allow modifications” action. You may also wish to enabled the “Never show this screen during boot again” option.
Step 8 – The next section you’ll see is the main menu of TWRP. There are mainly 8 menus there including Install, Wipe, Backup, Restore, Mount, Settings, Advanced, and Reboot (as shown above).
Stage 2 – Root Mi Mix Lithium & Install Play Store
Step 9 – Now choose the “Install” menu, locate and install one by one the SuperSU .zip file, GApps .zip file, and DM-Verity Disabler .zip file.
Step 10 – Just wait till the whole flashing process complete and then choose Reboot System. Your phone will then reboot into normal mode and this time the Mi Mix phone has been rooted. You can confirm the root state by installing “Root Checker” app from Play Store.
Congratulation, your Mi Mix is now rooted and TWRP custom recovery has also been installed. On top of that, you have Google Play Store and any other Gapps installed. Enjoy!