Recovery mode on Xiaomi: how to enter recovery, exit, reset to stock

Let's understand the settings of the engineering menu of Xiaomi smartphones!

Xiaomi smartphones are an excellent example of exactly how Android differs from iOS (firmware from Apple). Android gives you the opportunity not only to use your device comfortably, but also provides a huge field for experimentation with your smartphone. Essentially, you are free to do whatever your heart desires with your device.

However, any experiment also has a downside - various errors if they are performed incorrectly. After actively exploring the settings section or incorrectly deleting an application, the smartphone may suddenly begin to “show its temper”: either the proximity sensor malfunctions, or the battery begins to work unstable.

Especially for such cases, Xiaomi smartphones have a special section built into them – the engineering menu. This section serves to more accurately determine the source of the problem on your smartphone, as well as to conduct a clearer analysis of the operation of the device. How to get to the engineering menu on Xiaomi smartphones? Let's find out.

What is Recovery ROM and Recovery Mode

Xiaomi Recovery Mode is a special system recovery mode that, in some cases, allows you to correct the situation if the smartphone does not want to boot. Most often, a factory reset is used to solve the problem.

There are two types of Recovery:

Stock (official) is a recovery pre-installed on a smartphone by Xiaomi developers (Mi, Redmi, POCO). It is installed along with the standard MIUI firmware. There are not very many functions, so it’s easy to understand it even without knowing English. This is what we will talk about next.
Custom (unofficial) - this often means custom TWRP recovery. This is a powerful tool for installing patches, mods and firmware on your phone. To install such a recovery you need to have certain skills.

There is a Recovery ROM - this is a special type of firmware for installation in stock recovery mode. Fastboot bootloader mode is not suitable for this type of firmware. Recovery ROM is always in ZIP format.

Attention! When working with recovery, you need to be careful and strictly follow the instructions. If you do something wrong, you can lose all user data and even damage the operating system.

There is no need to confuse Recovery ROM with OTA updates - they are different things. You can read in detail about their comparison in the material about OTA updates.

If you can't open

If a user entering the Xiaomi service menu cannot gain access in standard ways (through settings or using a secret code), they have to look for alternative options.

Programmers advise installing special utilities on your smartphone.

The following programs are in demand.

The powerful Mobile Uncle Tools application makes many system operations available on your mobile device. The disadvantages include the need to have root rights to use the software. In addition, some functions cannot be performed without the MTK processor, which is not available in all versions of Xiaomi phones.
MTK Engineering allows you to call up the engineering menu, which is slightly different from the diagnostic program opened in one of the standard ways. The list of tested components does not coincide with the list of modules tested by the previous application.

To check the functionality of your Xiaomi smartphone using Mobile Uncle Tools, you need to follow these steps:

find, download and install the utility on your mobile device;
open the program;
in the “Engineering mode” section, activate the option that launches the service menu;
perform testing of problematic components.

You can log in through the Mobileuncle Tools application.

The application was developed in China, so translation from Chinese or English will be required. Finding the program will require some effort, because... it is not in the Google Play Store.

The MTK Engineering utility is less powerful than the previous one. You can enter the engineering menu through the Engineer Mode section.

How to enter Xiaomi recovery

There are two simple ways to enter recovery:

Using smartphone keys - the method works on all versions of MIUI.
Through the MIUI menu - starting with MIUI 12, this option has been removed.

Logging into recovery on all Xiaomi smartphones follows the same algorithm. To do this, you do not need to navigate through the MIUI settings or have any special skills.

Instructions on how to enter recovery on Xiaomi:

Turn off your phone completely.
Press the Power and Volume Up buttons at the same time.
Do not release the buttons until the Android logo appears on the screen.
Wait 10 seconds.
The phone will vibrate and the recovery menu will appear on the screen.

When starting the mode, the power and volume buttons must be held until the logo appears on the screen.

On MIUI 11 firmware, it is possible to enter Recovery mode directly from the settings.

Launch the Settings app.
Go to “About phone” → “System update”.
Click on the three dots in the top right corner of the screen.
In the menu that appears, select “Reboot to Recovery Mode.”

MIUI 12 removed the ability to open recovery through three dots. Apparently, people often accidentally got into it, but couldn’t get out of recovery mode themselves... Perhaps Xiaomi will return this functionality in MIUI 12.5 or MIUI 13, but there is little hope.

What is the Xiaomi engineering menu for?

The developers have provided for the possibility of violating the correct settings due to user negligence, so the built-in service menu is protected from unauthorized entry. It is designed for self-diagnosis of Xiaomi functional modules, which helps to identify the source of system failures.

The program is installed on all Android devices from the manufacturer by default, and there is no special need to do this. To enter the hardware part where the engineering registry is located, you need to enter a special code. Free access to diagnostic software is closed.

Using the application, the user of an Android smartphone can check the functionality of the device. For this purpose, the options declared by the manufacturer are tested. However, the settings cannot be changed without a special service program.

Thanks to the engineering menu, you can determine the source of the malfunction without contacting a service workshop. The problematic module is identified after a performance check. Most often, the causes of problems lie in incorrect changes to the initial settings made by the owner of the phone. Based on the testing results, the user decides to either return to the previous parameters or involve a specialist from the service organization.

Recovery Menu in MIUI and Android One

The menu in stock Recovery Xiaomi is divided into several levels. At each level there is a certain number of points in English. Therefore, it is worth taking a closer look at the translation and purpose of each menu item and tell us what it is used for.

Structure of the Recovery Menu and its translation into Russian:

Reboot —regular reboot of the device. There are 2 reboot options available: Reboot to System (reboot to MIUI) or Back to Mai Menu (return to the previous menu).
Wipe Data - allows you to clear all user data. It is the Wipe Data menu that is used if you need to reset your smartphone to factory settings. It also has 2 sub-items: Wipe All Data (delete all data) and Back to Main Menu (return to the initial screen).
Connect with MIAssistant - allows you to connect your smartphone to your PC to restore the system. You will need a USB cable, a special program on your PC and a downloaded firmware file. There are corresponding instructions for working in this mode. If interested, write in the comments, we’ll tell you more about it.

Main Menu home screen on Xiaomi with MIUI.
The image above shows the recovery menu of a MI brand smartphone, as indicated by the inscription Mi Recovery 3.0. If it were a Redmi phone, then we would see Redmi Recovery 3.0. Apart from this inscription, they are no different.

Navigation through the recovery menu is carried out using the volume buttons. To select one or another item, you need to press the power button.

In Mi A series smartphones - A1, MI A2 (A2 Lite), Mi A3, the recovery is different from the standard version of other Xiaomi phones. This is due to the fact that the A-series comes with pure Android One, while the rest of the devices use MIUI.

Structure of the Recovery Menu for Xiaomi A-series smartphones:

Reboot system now starts a reboot into the OS.
Reboot to bootloader - selecting this item will reboot the phone into Fastboot mode.
Apply update from ADB - starts a firmware update using a computer and a USB cable.
Apply update from SD card - starts an update from an external memory card. You can install firmware from a flash drive through recovery only on Xiaomi A-series smartphones. On other phones, installation is possible only from the internal memory of the device.
Wipe data/factory reset - reset to factory settings (Hard Reset).
Mount / system - mount the system partition for manual manipulation with it.
View recovery log - after selecting this item, recovery logs will appear on the screen. This is needed to diagnose errors.
Run graphics test - the command starts a test of the smartphone's on-board graphics adapter.
Run locale test - starts checking the phone's language and region.
Power off —the item is used to turn off the phone’s power.

Recovery Menu on the Mi A3 smartphone.
The recovery in Xiaomi A series is much more functional than that used in MIUI. You also need to enter this mode: hold down the power button and volume up. You need to release the buttons when a picture with a disassembled robot and a red triangle appears on the screen.

TOP 5 productive Xiaomi smartphones according to AnTuTu rating:

1 Black Shark 4 Pro
867578 points
2
POCO F3 Pro
821847 points
3
Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra
817225 points
4
Xiaomi Mi Mix Fold
815000 points
5
Xiaomi Mi 11 Pro
804210 points

Bottom line

The most important thing we would like to say at the end of the article is that please be very careful when fine-tuning your Xiaomi by calling up the engineering menu. If you suddenly need to check any of the phone modules or fix problems, you don’t need to immediately change the settings in the smartphone’s engineering menu, but rather look for useful information or an article on a specific topic for a specific case on our portal. For your convenience, we have translated the functions of the engineering menu:

Key – test of mechanical keys for functionality;
Blacklight – screen brightness test;
TouchPanel – phone sensor test;
Tflash – check the memory card;
Bluetooth – search for all devices in the access area;
SIM Card – testing SIM cards and checking their availability;
Vibration – testing vibration;
LCD – display color check;
GPS – search for various satellites;
Gyro – gyroscope;
G-sensor – testing speed sensors;
Proximity Sensor – this function is responsible for fading the display during a call;
Optical sensor – optical sensor;
Magnetic sensor – magnetic sensor;
RTC – clock (built-in);
Receiver – test of the main speaker;
Speaker – speaking speaker test;
LED – test notification indicators;
FM – radio operation test;
Headset – checking the headphone jack and sound playback
Camera – test the camera and its flash
Battery – battery charging and operation test;
Wi-fi – search for access points;
Torch – flashlight testing.

Xiaomi firmware via recovery

Through stock recovery you can only update the firmware. First, you will need to download the corresponding Recovery ROM package in ZIP format. To do this, go to the archive with official Xiaomi firmware, select your phone model and download the required update version.

Please note that the OS version is higher than the installed one, since new Xiaomi smartphones do not allow downgrading the system version.

How to install firmware via recovery:

Download the firmware zip file, rename it update.zip and move it to the root of your phone's internal storage.
Turn off your smartphone.
Press and hold the power button and both volume buttons at the same time.
From the menu that appears, select Install update.zip to System One.
Once the process is complete, return to the Back to Main Menu, select Reboot and reboot your phone Reboot to System to exit Recovery and boot into MIUI.

If you download the firmware and do not rename it to update.zip , then the Install update.zip to System One will not be in Recovery.

Before flashing the firmware, check the update file for integrity, for example, through Total Commander. If the firmware file is damaged, the update process will not complete. As a result, instead of a working phone, you will end up with a brick with constant loading (Bootloop). It is quite difficult to restore it.

Checking and calibrating the phone via the cit menu

So we entered CIT. Next you need to test and calibrate the main elements of the gadget.

The items and names of the engineering menu in different gadgets and versions of miui differ significantly: Hardware test is found in Redmi 7A, mi 5, SIT in Xiaomi mi 9 SE or Engineering Mode in Redmi 5 plus, 4x, as well as the settings themselves.

In “Keyboard and vibration” you need to select the option to check this function on the device.

When testing, you will feel vibration for at least 10 seconds (Continuous vibration). Or will it be separate random vibrations (Start random vibration). If the function does not turn on, this indicates a device malfunction.

Led Test. This setting checks the flashlight function and the notification light.

In "Touchpad Edges" you need to paint all the squares green. If part of the screen remains unpainted, this indicates a lack of sensitivity in this place.

In LCM we check the screen for dead pixels with different backgrounds. Click Next to change the background color.

The “magnetic sensor” is calibrated by rotating the phone around its axis.

"Receiver" and "Speaker" test the sound. A woman's voice will say two numbers and you will need to press them in the correct order.

How to reset settings through recovery

Resetting Xiaomi to factory settings through recovery (Hard Reset) returns the operating system to its original state (as when selling a smartphone). Hard Reset removes glitches, eliminates errors and corrects lags.

How to reset your phone via recovery:

Turn off your phone completely.
Hold down the Power and Volume Up buttons.
In recovery, select Wipe Data.
Click Wipe All Data - this means erase all data .
Confirm the action by selecting Confirm.
The reset procedure will start, after which you will see the message Data wiped successfully - translated into Russian as data wiped successfully .

All you have to do is return to the main menu, select Reboot and click Reboot to System so that the first boot after resetting the settings may take from 3 to 7 minutes. You cannot turn off your phone during the process.

Attention! During a reset, all user files will be deleted: photos, videos, music. All applications except standard ones will also be deleted. Therefore, before performing this procedure, you should create a backup copy (if the smartphone starts and there is such an option).

Opening methods

To prevent inexperienced users from inadvertently violating the factory settings of Xiaomi smartphones, including Mi5, Mi6, Mi8, Mi Note, as well as Redmi versions, the developers have protected the service menu from unauthorized intrusion with secret encryption.

There are two ways to access the Main Menu:

using a special option in the basic settings of the mobile device;
by entering a special set of characters.

Both methods are universal and suitable for all phones with the Android operating system, including the Miui 8 series.

Through settings

The procedure involves the user entering the service menu through the smartphone settings. Procedure:

go to the engineering application;
select the “About phone” tab;
find the “Kernel version” section;
Press five times to open the diagnostic program.

The menu is entered through the phone settings.

Access to the engineering menu allows you to check the availability of all options declared by the manufacturer and test their functionality.

Special code

An alternative way is to use the standard call function.

Instead of a phone number, enter a special set of characters: *#*#6484#*#*. In some cases, this code does not work on Redmi 3S smartphones. In such situations, you can try replacing the numbers in the code with 4636 or 3646633.

If none of the versions are suitable, you will have to look for other login methods.

How to exit Xiaomi recovery

There are two ways to exit Recovery:

The simplest and most correct: select Reboot from the menu and click Reboot to System. This action will reboot the smartphone and initiate the start of the operating system.
If for some reason it is not possible to use the Recovery Menu, simply press and hold the power button. The phone will turn off, turn on again and begin loading the OS. But it is better to use this option as rarely as possible.

How to return stock recovery

After installing custom firmware, obtaining root rights and other similar actions, the stock recovery on the smartphone is replaced with a custom one. In order to return to stock, you will have to reflash the phone in Fastboot mode using the MiFlashPro program.

How to return stock recovery instead of TWRP:

Download the archive with the firmware and extract the contents to any location on your PC.
Launch MiFlashPro, go to the Mi Flash tab.
When you launch it for the first time, the program will prompt you to install the necessary drivers. Click the Install button.
After installing the drivers, click on the Select button and in the Explorer window, select the folder with the unpacked firmware.
Turn off your smartphone and then hold down the Power and Volume Down buttons at the same time to enter Fastboot mode.
Connect your smartphone to your computer using a USB cable.
In the program window, click Refresh.
Click on the Flash button.

If you also want to lock the bootloader, then before clicking the Flash button, check the Flash all and lock box in the lower right part of the window. The firmware process will take up to 10 minutes. Once completed, you will receive stock recovery.

Attention! In some cases, before using MiFlashPro you will need to install additional ADB drivers. For some phones, the same drivers offered by the program itself are not suitable. After installing the drivers, it is advisable to restart the computer and only then proceed with the firmware.

As you can see, it’s not difficult to remove custom recovery and flash stock.

There is also a utility called Xiaomi ADB Fastboot Tools, which is a command line with a graphical interface. Flashing a smartphone through it is even easier.