This story was originally published and last updated .
You should think that Xiaomi has learned its lesson when it comes to Android updates as the manufacturer has long been battling faulty releases that brick or otherwise affect phones left and right. But that doesn’t seem to be the case. Over the holidays, the company tried to roll out Android 11 to the Xiaomi Mi A3 running Android One, and owners report on Reddit and the company’s own forum that it bricks their phones. Now the company has released a revised version of the update, though that comes with problems of its own.
Gadgets 360 reports that the new update ships as version 12.0.3.0 in in India. It arrived shortly after the original Android 11 rollout was completely stopped, and it appears that it was a pretty rushed launch. While there aren’t reports of completely botched phones anymore, many Mi A3 owners have taken to social media to complain about other problems, like a slow charging bug, no Wi-Fi calling, no chat bubbles, random reboots, and touchscreen issues — in short, you might be better off sticking with Android 10 for now if you haven’t updated already.
The original problem with bricked phones seemed to affect many people who attempted to update their Mi A3 to Android 11. It looks like a lot of phones remain completely bricked, which means that they can’t be turned on properly anymore and get stuck on the boot screen. Some owners even report that they don’t get to the boot screen at all and can’t access fastboot, which usually helps reset borked phones.
Xiaomi is advising those affected by the bricked hardware to visit service centers, which isn’t really a sensible solution amid a pandemic — not to mention people who don’t have a Xiaomi shop nearby at all. Files saved to phones might be (partially) lost, though we don’t know if service centers could retrieve some or all of it.
A Xiaomi India spokesperson provided the following statement:
We are aware of the issue on some Mi A3 devices following a recent Android 11 update. We have since halted the rollout.
We kindly request users who experience this issue to visit any of the 2,000 plus service centers across the country nearer to you wherein a solution will be provided for free unconditionally (within or beyond warranty).
We regret the inconvenience this has brought about. As a brand committed to offering the best possible user experience, we will continuously improve our products and services.
This isn’t the first time Xiaomi made Mi A3 owners question their purchase — the Android 10 update was already repeatedly pushed and pulled until the company finally managed to release proper stable software. Let’s hope that Xiaomi can fix the remaining issues without further delays.
