How to software update Xiaomi smartphones?

Xiaomi smartphones are very well sold all around the world, in particular in India and Eastern Europe (Romania to be more specific), unfortunately these phones do not receive automatic software update (especially the middle range ones running MIUI). Even if Xiaomi published new operating system versions, they do not download and install automatically on the smartphones. That is why it is very useful to know how to update the software on the Xiaomi smartphones, directly from the manufacturer’s site.

To update the software for the Xiaomi phones we must follow these easy steps:
1. Acces the Xiaomi site and download the software image for our model. We must be careful and select the global version (indian or chinese version, depending on our location) because most of the ROMs have the China version. If you download the chinese ROM everything will be written in chinese. You can find here a complete list.
2. Connect the Xiaomi device to the PC/laptop using a microUSB cable. Make sure the phone battery is charged. If the battery level is below 60% the update process will not work.
3. Access the phone on your computer and create in the internal memory a file named “downloaded_rom”. Copy the ROM image (which we downloaded from the Xiaomi site) in the file “downloaded_ROM”.
4. In the phone menu we access Settings – About Phone – System Update – select the Options button – Choose Update package – access the “downloaded_rom” file – select the downloaded ROM image.

The phone will turn off, reboot and the new software version will start installing.
In our case we made the software update for a Xiaomi Redmi Note 2 having the following changes:

Android 5.0.1 -> Android 5.0.2
MIUI version 7.0 -> MIUI version 9.2.4.0

After the update we noticed performance improvements and a much more elegant menu design plus the following:
-the phone works faster not only for the opening/closing/transition between apps but also for internet browsing and using apps as Facebook, Linkedin, Google Chrome; also, games run a little bit smoother;
-the phone’s stock apps run perfectly;
-video playing is done faster;
-battery charging stops when reaching 100%;
-the phone doesn’t heat up as much as before, it does only when playing games which is normal, before the software update the temperature was around 40-60 C degrees also when using normal apps;
-the battery life was drastically improved, before the software update I used to charge the phone even 5 times a day when using it intense and now it lasts a day without recharging; so, if you’re wondering how to solve the Xiaomi Redmi Note 2 battery problems, the upgrade can definitely be a solution;

In conclusion, the software upgrade has a lot of good parts, the only negative issue I found was some GPS problems, specifically when using taxi apps;
If you encounter problems with the software update for a Xiaomi phone, leave a comment with the model, the steps you followed and the description of the problem you’re encountering.

Update 20.01.2019: I got an automatic update for my Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 to MIUI 10.2.1.0, after a few days of usage I did not detect problems or bugs; We have a slight design change regarding the battery level which changes nicelly when the phone is charging;

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