Skip to main content

How to unlock and install custom recovery on Mi 5 (Gemini)

 

Make sure your Mi 5 is running stock MIUI and is updated to the latest.

 

Obtain permission from Xiaomi to unlock the bootloader of your device here. Once approved you’ll land at the unlock tool download page. Download the MI unlock tool from there or here is a direct link. Unzip it at a convenient location on your PC. You can download it without permission from Xiaomi, but without permission it won’t do what it’s supposed to do; unlocking will fail after reaching certain percentage. Also after obtaining unlock permission there will be a wait time of 72 hours, when you try to unlock with the tool it’ll fail and show your how much time is remaining. After expiry of the wait time use the tool to unlock it and it’ll work.

 

Download Google USB driver from here. Install it using the procedure given at here.

 

Make sure ADB is installed on your PC, if not, download the Google ADB from here and unzip it at a convenient location on your PC.

 

To unlock, power off the phone, keep volume down button pressed and press power button until the word “Fastboot” appears on the screen with a picture. Now connect the phone to the PC using its cable. Unlock tool will detect it then click the button to unlock.

 

The custom recovery I installed is TWRP. Download it for your device from here and save it in the same directory as ADB. Rename the file to ‘twrp.img’ for convenience.

 

On your phone go to Settings > About Phone > Tap MIUI Version several times until you see the message “now you are a developer”. Then go to Settings > Additional Settings > Developer Option and add the MI account that you’ve got unlock approval for. Then look for an option named ‘USB debugging’ under ‘Developer Option’ and enable it.

 

On the PC open the folder where you had extracted ADB earlier, keep ‘Shift’ pressed and right click inside the window and click ‘Open Command Prompt Here’ (In case of Windows 10 click ‘Open PowerShell Window Here’).

 

Reboot the phone into ‘Fastboot’ mode again and connect to the PC. Once connected go to the command window and run ‘adb devices‘, it should show the serial number of the phone. If nothing is shown then the device is not recognised, validate that all previous steps are done successfully. Or just kill the adb server and redo this step.

 

Once ‘adb devices’ is successful, run below command to flash TWRP recovery to the phone (assuming twrp.img is saved in the same directory):

 

fastboot flash recovery twrp.img

 

*Important: The next command is going to reboot your phone, make sure to immediately hold the volume up button depressed as soon as the phone’s display goes blank for reboot. Else the TWRP recovery you just flashed will be overwritten by the stock recovery and then you’ll have to go through the process all over again. The next command to run is:

 

fastboot reboot

 

If you kept the volume up button depressed in time then after some time you’ll see the TWRP screen after which release the button. Once in TWRP it’ll ask you to modify the partition or keep it read only, choose to keep it ‘read only’ so that you can revert to stock ROM later if required.

 

You’ll now see a screen like this:

 

Then this:

 

Congratulations, you just successfully unlocked the bootloader of the phone and installed custom recovery TWRP on it. You may now go ahead and install any compatible custom ROM on your phone if you want.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My Addiction to Technology.

  I keep hearing everyday within my family, my friend circle and everyone else that I meet regularly, about my addiction to tech gadgets. Let’s give it some thought to see how true is that. Oxford dictionary quotes “ The fact or condition of being addicted to a particular substance or activity “. Cambridge dictionary days “ An inability to stop doing our using something, especially something harmful “. Look at the second definition, it also says “something harmful”, which is a very relative thing. Horse riding can be very harmful for some whereas it’s the bread and butter for a jockey or a Polo player. Operating the blast furnace of a steel plant can be extremely dangerous, but it’s the job for the operator. A priest goes to temple everyday and spends most of the day there, is he addicted to it? My father used to go to work everyday, was he addicted too? Nope, they were doing their jobs. Fair enough, then how can anyone call m...
Post a Comment
Read more

Benefits and side effects of Green Tea

  Health Benefits Of Drіnkіng Grееn Tea Millions оf реорlе around the wоrld enjoy a hot сuр оf tea еvеrу day. Today, tea is considered аѕ thе most wіdеlу соnѕumеd bеvеrаgе іn thе world, ѕесоnd tо wаtеr. Tеа соmеѕ іn three varieties nаmеlу ооlоng, blасk and grееn tea. Amоng thеѕе, grееn tea hаѕ the hіghеѕt соnсеntrаtіоn оf the роwеrful аntіоxіdаnt called catechin polyphenols. Drіnkіng green tеа еvеrу dау іѕ hіghlу rесоmmеndеd tоdау to kеер bоdу healthy and hеlр рrеvеnt certain dіѕеаѕе. Thеѕе аntіоxіdаntѕ hеlр fіght frее rаdісаlѕ that are knоwn tо bе a mаjоr соntrіbutіng factor tо аgіng аnd сеll degeneration. Green tea is mаdе frоm fresh unfеrmеntеd leaves оf Cаmеllіа sinensis; іt has lеѕѕ amount оf саffеіnе соmраrеd tо blасk tеа and oolong tea. Hеаlth bеnеfіtѕ of drіnkіng tеа wеrе dіѕсоvеrеd аѕ еаrlу аѕ 4000 уеаrѕ аgо in Chіnа, аnd іt wаѕ initially knоwn tо сurе gеnеrаl bоdу aches аnd раіnѕ, constipation and dерrеѕѕіоn. Rеѕеаrсh ѕhоwѕ that drinking tea іѕ mоrе thаn juѕt еnjоуіng a ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Teachings from The Mahabharata #001

In Mahabharata yuddha Bheem killed Duryodhan by hitting his thigh as per the suggestion of Lord Krishna. Duryodhan was deciple of Lord Balarama, the mightly elder brother of Lord Krishna. Hence Balarama became furious when he heard this news and rushed in to kill Bheem. However Lord Krishna intervened and told him - "Brother, if you're so worried about the rules being broken": 1. Then where were you when Dusashana pulled Draupadi into the Kuru Sabha by her hair? 2. Where were you when Dusashana tried to take her Saree off? 3. Where were you when Duryodhana was bursting out in laughter on above act of Dusashana? 4. Where were you when Duryodhana denied to give even 5 villages to the Pandavas? If you didn't speak a word on any of the above occasions, then you've no right to kill Bheem now. Moral of the story - you must take a side in a "Dharma Yuddha", can't just sit on the fence and later shout 'injustice'.
Post a Comment
Read more