[GUIDE] All in one beginner's guide to the K20 Pro - Redmi K20 Pro / Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro Guides, News, & D

Considering this guide was written before the Mi 9T Pro was released, it's time to rewrite it and make it more relevant.
THE BASICS
GETTING PREPARED
-----------------------------------
If you want to tinker with your phone then you'll need some ground work.
If you don't yet have a Mi account, go to https://account.xiaomi.com/pass/register and create a new account. It is important, when unlocking the bootloader, to have your correct phone number registered on your account, so either choose to create the account using a phone number or add the phone number in the security settings of your Mi account afterwards. Make sure the number is verified by the OTP that will be sent.
Make sure you have adb and fastboot tools installed on your PC. These are part of the Android development tools. You can either install the official Android SDK Platform Tools which can be found here https://developer.android.com/studio/releases/platform-tools
Or you can install only adb and fastboot from this xda members project, called minimal adb and fastboot. https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2317790&p=42407269
If you want to know more about these tools then read the minimal adb and fastboot post, you'll find a couple of links that explain both tools in detail.
Install the Mi Unlock Tool. You can find this in the guide I've linked to in the bootloader unlock section below.
Install the Mi Flash Tool. This can be found in the guide I've linked to in the MIUI fastboot flashing section.
Install the drivers for the phone. This is done automatically the first time you connect the phone to PC, so go ahead and connect your phone to your PC and wait until it says the phone is ready for use. At this point the computer should identify the phone correctly as a Redmi K20 Pro.
UNLOCKING THE BOOTLOADER
-------------------------------------------------------
I'll point to 2 guides, both on the new, official Mi Community Forums.
https://c.mi.com/thread-2262302-1-0.html
This first guide is somewhat incomplete, but it does give some good extra information about the bootloader unlocking and has direct links for the Unlock Tool and previous versions. Sometimes using an older version of the tool will resolve unlocking issues.
https://c.mi.com/thread-1857937-1-0.html
This second guide is more complete, but not so well written. Again there is some useful extra info included.
CUSTOM RECOVERIES
---------------------------------------
If you want to flash a custom ROM or root the phone, then you'll need to install a custom recovery. Your only realistic option here is TWRP, however TWRP comes in many flavours. (Before anyone corrects me and says what about Orange Fox? This is, underneath it all, still a heavily modified version of TWRP) For a brief overview of what TWRP is, I'll point you to the official TWRP page which answers that very question https://twrp.me/faq/whatistwrp.html
I should point out that MIUI will check on every boot whether the recovery partition has been modified. If it thinks it has, then the boot process will automatically restore the system recovery. In order to keep TWRP you will need to either flash a custom ROM, or make MIUI stop restoring system recovery on boot up. The most common way to keep TWRP with MIUI is to install Magisk.
If you are planning on using custom ROMs, then I would recommend the official TWRP, or the current 'dev' version from the official maintainer both are found here.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/k2...icial-twrp-xiaomi-redmi-t3944363/post79823568
If you plan on sticking with MIUI, then there are a number of TWRP options that have additional functionality specific to Xiaomi devices - e.g. MIUI debloat scripts.
Many of these tend to be from Chinese, Russian and Indian developers, where Xiaomi phones are most popular. A selection of them can be found here.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/k2...irmware-10-3-8-0-9-6-13-t3939647/post79726515
Personally I don't use MIUI so haven't used these much, however OrangeFox seems to have some unique extra functions, like being able to survive OTA updates. So I would guess OrangeFox should be the one to recommend for those that choose to stick with MIUI.
ROOT
----------
Magisk has become the main choice for rooting, so use it. If you have problems with root and you're using something other than Magisk, you're going to struggle to get any help.
Magisk also does so much more than root. Check out the very good official documentation here for all you need to know.
It includes flashing instructions, which is the same whether you stick with MIUI or have a custom ROM. https://forum.xda-developers.com/ap...v7-universal-systemless-t3473445/post68966662

---

INSTALLING THINGS
From here I will assume you have some basic knowledge. I will not list every single step/command. The instructions won't be high level but at mid level giving enough details for those with basic knowledge. Many links in the previous post should give most of the knowledge needed, so there's no need for me to repeat things too much.
Where fastboot commands are given, I will assume you know how to use them i.e. you will open a terminal/command prompt/power shell window and also navigate to the appropriate directory if required.
I will assume you have checked the phone is connected with the
Code:
fastboot devices
command
INSTALLING TWRP
------------------------------
- Put the phone into fastboot mode (power and vol-) and connect to a PC
- On the PC
Code:
fastboot flash recovery TWRP.img
here you will need to replace TWRP.img with the actual file name of the TWRP image file, including the full path details if necessary.
At this point you have successfully installed TWRP, but if you boot into MIUI it will be lost. From here you need to boot immediately into TWRP in order to perform further steps to persist the TWRP installation.
- Whilst still connected to the PC
Code:
fastboot reboot
- Now as soon as you send the above command press and hold volume up on the phone
- Keep holding volume up until TWRP boots.
Now you are ready to do the next step. Depending on what you are doing this is likely to be flashing a custom ROM, installing Magisk or installing Orange Fox.

---

Reserved 2 - coming soon ish

---

Reserved 3 - hopefully not too long to wait

---

Thanks a lot for your time! New to this, because usually i buy Global phones, first time i buy a 100% Chinese one...

---

Interested in what ROM's you would recommend!

---

Indian K20 Pro has NFC Chip?
I thought they removed the NFC hardware from the device

---

Kalp3sh S1NGH said:
Indian K20 Pro has NFC Chip?
I thought they removed the NFC hardware from the device
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Initially that was what many people thought. But after people have flashed the Chinese ROM on an Indian phone, they have found that they've got a working NFC chip.

---

Sealed Chinese ROM works well after switching the language to English.
1) Update to the latest MIUI
2) Make sure Google Services is enabled
3) Install Google Play from APKMIRROR
4) Install Calendar Sync (make sure set it to autostart)
4) Install Contact Sync (make sure set it to autostart)
5) Install Google Pay, Google, Gmail, Drive, Google Keep, Photos etc
5) Install an English keyboard (I don't think you will like Sogou keyboard)
6) Delete all other bloatwares.
You can almost remove almost all bloatwares without ADB or root, except those of Xiaomi's.

---

Kalp3sh S1NGH said:
Indian K20 Pro has NFC Chip?
I thought they removed the NFC hardware from the device
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Robbo.5000 said:
Initially that was what many people thought. But after people have flashed the Chinese ROM on an Indian phone, they have found that they've got a working NFC chip.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There seems to be conflicting evidence here. Indian users have reported that they got a working NFC after flashing an official China ROM, but there's a new teardown of an Indian phone which appears to show that the NFC chip is missing.
It may be that some Chinese built phones were shipped over to India to cope with the initial demand, but that's a pure guess.

---

Robbo.5000 said:
There seems to be conflicting evidence here. Indian users have reported that they got a working NFC after flashing an official China ROM, but there's a new teardown of an Indian phone which appears to show that the NFC chip is missing.
It may be that some Chinese built phones were shipped over to India to cope with the initial demand, but that's a pure guess.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just installed MIUI MS because I was facing some deep sleep issues on the stock ROM.
And there is a setting for NFC but if I enable it, it just turns back off. So maybe my particular device doesn't have the NFC chip.

---

Hello, in your provided link(second link in bootloading ) it is stated that you don't need TWRP to change ROM. So if I buy a Chinese version of K20 pro and I don't want a custom ROM, just MIUI 10 stable ROM ( I've seen a stable version released in Xiaomi.eu if I understand correctly) from a trusted source, do I need to follow your guide or can I just flash rom or even do it via updater app? This would make it much more easy. Thanks in advance

---

NoobRookie said:
Hello, in your provided link(second link in bootloading ) it is stated that you don't need TWRP to change ROM. So if I buy a Chinese version of K20 pro and I don't want a custom ROM, just MIUI 10 stable ROM ( I've seen a stable version released in Xiaomi.eu if I understand correctly) from a trusted source, do I need to follow your guide or can I just flash rom or even do it via updater app? This would make it much more easy. Thanks in advance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Xiaomi.eu is a custom rom you need twrp to flash it.

---

NoobRookie said:
Hello, in your provided link(second link in bootloading ) it is stated that you don't need TWRP to change ROM. So if I buy a Chinese version of K20 pro and I don't want a custom ROM, just MIUI 10 stable ROM ( I've seen a stable version released in Xiaomi.eu if I understand correctly) from a trusted source, do I need to follow your guide or can I just flash rom or even do it via updater app? This would make it much more easy. Thanks in advance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you are on an official MIUI stable ROM and checking for an update says you have the latest version, but you know there is a newer version, then you can manually update by following that guide, using the section for updating via the updater app.
If you want to install anything that's not official MIUI, then you need to install that with TWRP.

---

One last dumb question:if I buy the factory sealed version of the phone with Chinese Rom, will I be able to change it to Global official Rom when it comes out? Or will I just get OTA updates and that's it, no possibility of changing official roms?

---

NoobRookie said:
One last dumb question:if I buy the factory sealed version of the phone with Chinese Rom, will I be able to change it to Global official Rom when it comes out? Or will I just get OTA updates and that's it, no possibility of changing official roms?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes you can change ROMs. You can flash an official Indian ROM using the Mi Flash Tool. See this post about flashing the Indian ROM https://forum.xda-developers.com/k2...king-flashing-india-rom-t3955129/post80025306
Nobody will know for sure that you can flash an official global ROM until its released, but best guess is that you would be able to.

---

Well I'm reading this from a galaxy note 4... a sh*t ton has changed, or at least it is very different with non-global phones.
If I understand correctly, the best, most safest way is to buy chinese factory sealed version so you can unlock the bootloader in case you lock it.
Which colour do you guys prefer, I like blue but I watched Frankie Tech video(s) and the red colour looks sick. Oh if you buy blue version will camera light also be blue lol. Gonna check out the other colour in another video.
Btw great guide, will try to stick with this note 4 for one more year as it just works fine!
Can anyone in UK confirm their experience with the signal/bands/carrier.

---

Windroid-user said:
Well I'm reading this from a galaxy note 4... a sh*t ton has changed, or at least it is very different with non-global phones.
If I understand correctly, the best, most safest way is to buy chinese factory sealed version so you can unlock the bootloader in case you lock it.
Which colour do you guys prefer, I like blue but I watched Frankie Tech video(s) and the red colour looks sick. Oh if you buy blue version will camera light also be blue lol. Gonna check out the other colour in another video.
Btw great guide, will try to stick with this note 4 for one more year as it just works fine!
Can anyone in UK confirm their experience with the signal/bands/carrier.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's more a case of Xiaomi doing things different. They have an awkward bootloader unlock process. It needs to be done through their unlock tool, where you need to log in to a Mi account to use it, and that Mi account must already be bound to the phone you want to unlock, and you must have already registered, on the phone, to unlock the phone, using the same Mi account.
I've got the blue phone and yes the lights around the pop-up are blue.
I've not used it in the UK, but it should be fine on EE, Three and Vodafone.
O2 may be hit and miss depending where you are. Originally O2 only used band 20, which is missing from the phone, but a while back they added extra bands, this was in major cities and large towns. I'm not sure if O2 have rolled out these extra bands across more of the country since then.

---

Robbo.5000 said:
It's more a case of Xiaomi doing things different. They have an awkward bootloader unlock process. It needs to be done through their unlock tool, where you need to log in to a Mi account to use it, and that Mi account must already be bound to the phone you want to unlock, and you must have already registered, on the phone, to unlock the phone, using the same Mi account.
I've got the blue phone and yes the lights around the pop-up are blue.
I've not used it in the UK, but it should be fine on EE, Three and Vodafone.
O2 may be hit and miss depending where you are. Originally O2 only used band 20, which is missing from the phone, but a while back they added extra bands, this was in major cities and large towns. I'm not sure if O2 have rolled out these extra bands across more of the country since then.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply. I have done a bootloader unlock before with the Sony xperia z3 using the official website, but there was no need to have an account linked to it kind of like apple icloud nightmare. Thanks for the info luckily I don't use O2 only Vodafone and three so far (8gb for £9 with three! Secret/hidden deal, no cashback bull). I would probably also go with blue.
That being said... the only benefit of stock China rom is OTA updates compared to "global" rom? I know there are custom roms but want to try out stock first, least bugs and only fair to give it a chance. Just want to build up my knowledge on this before I decide to say goodbye to my note 4. Also the actual global rom is on its way as far as we know?

---

Windroid-user said:
Thanks for the reply. I have done a bootloader unlock before with the Sony xperia z3 using the official website, but there was no need to have an account linked to it kind of like apple icloud nightmare. Thanks for the info luckily I don't use O2 only Vodafone and three so far (8gb for £9 with three! Secret/hidden deal, no cashback bull). I would probably also go with blue.
That being said... the only benefit of stock China rom is OTA updates compared to "global" rom? I know there are custom roms but want to try out stock first, least bugs and only fair to give it a chance. Just want to build up my knowledge on this before I decide to say goodbye to my note 4. Also the actual global rom is on its way as far as we know?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
At the moment there is an official Indian ROM, which is more or less the same as a global ROM, the jury is still out as to whether OTA works OK when flashed on a Chinese phone. It 'should' be OK, but there hasn't been an update to the Indian ROM yet, so nobody has been able to find out for definite.
MIUI isn't without it's bugs. The week I used it there were a couple of issues, and there's a thread just for collating bugs on the Indian ROM.
The global version of the phone, the Mi 9T Pro, should be released in the next couple of months. It's been seen on a Dutch online shopping site in the last week. It was only showing the 2 6GB models, but I've been expecting that, as the Mi 9 never came with 8GB RAM globally. It's €480 for 6/128 GB, so a huge mark up on the Chinese price. Once that's released then official global ROMs will become available