Xiaomi has a love-hate relationship with Android updates. Keeping aside the MIUI feature backports and different numbering scheme, they often stumble on issues while performing an upgrade on the underlying Android layer, e.g. from Nougat to Oreo.

redmi_5a_front_back
Redmi 5A: They re-released the Oreo update almost four months after they pulled back the initial buggy build

Not only the entry level devices, but Xiaomi’s flagships are also victimized of this practice. Owners of both Mi 6 and Mi MIX 2 recently experienced the pull-back-then-re-release drama with the stable Android Pie update.

Perhaps the most disastrous situation is going with Redmi 6/6A users. The lower tier Redmi phones from 2018 were launched with Android Oreo, but both were selected for internal testing of Pie update pretty quickly.

poco_f1_android_q_miui_beta
Internal beta testing Android Q (10) for Poco F1 and Android Pie for Redmi 6/6A began simultaneously

Both Redmi 6A and Redmi 6 received Android Pie based weekly beta builds in China during the first week of July. The stable channel got the same love around a month later, followed by full-fledged global rollout. Well, Xiaomi packed a nice surprise.

First of all, they did not update their official download portal with the Pie based MIUI build. In fact, the update (MIUI 10.4.1.0) got vanished after the initial roll out phase. Turned out, Xiaomi pulled them back for undisclosed reasons and released August patches with a new set of Oreo based software updates.

redmi_6a_miui_10.3.6.0_ota
Changelog of the new Oreo based MIUI 10.3.6.0 OTA

The whole situation is a mess for end users, as there is no easy way for them to go back to the semi-baked Pie build from Oreo based MIUI. The Chinese OEM has not issued any official statement so far about the whole withdrawal saga.

Readers may find it real fascinating, as the phone duo is now getting August security patches in China via another Pie based OTA. We are not sure whether Xiaomi will push the same for international users or not, but I would suggest to wait a bit and gather user feedback regarding the stability of these builds.

redmi_6a_china_miui_10.4.4.0_ota

The combined changelog of the new update, i.e. MIUI 10.4.4.0 for Redmi 6A and MIUI 10.4.3.0 is as follows:

System

– Updated Android Security Patch to August 2019.

– Increased system security and stability.

As always, you can find the download links of the full update packages in the following section. Don’t flash them right away, as the little excitement may bring further damage on your Redmi 6A/6.

  • Device: Redmi 6A
  • Codename: cactus
  • Channel: China Stable
  • Version: V10.4.4.0.PCBCNXM
  • Android: 9.0
    • Type: Recovery
      • Download: Link
      • MD5: bc994c3619c6b664dc1fd2d253029512
redmi_6a_black_front_back
Redmi 6A
  • Device: Redmi 6
  • Codename: cereus
  • Channel: China Stable
  • Version: V10.4.3.0.PCGCNXM
  • Android: 9.0
    • Type: Recovery
      • Download: Link
      • MD5: 5149257674a13f2e1eabf406385afbf7

Credit goes to yshalsager and the Xiaomi Firmware Updater project for tracking the OTA update URLs.

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Kingshuk De
896 Posts

I came from a mixed background of Statistics and Computer Science. My research domains included embedded computer systems, mobile computing and delay tolerant networks in post-disaster scenarios. Apart from tinkering with gadgets or building hackintosh, I like to hop on various subreddits and forums like MyDigitalLife and XDA.

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