In this guide, we will show you the steps to install the Android 12 ROM onto your Mi A2 device. While the devices from this Chinese OEM provide the absolute value for money, however, its underlying OS skin has always been a cause of concern. One major reason why users wished to maintain a safe distance from these devices was due to the bloated MIUI experience that also has in-baked ads. In this regard, the Mi A series was a perfect option for those who wanted a clean stock OS experience but didn’t want to leave the Xiaomi brand.
The second iteration in this lineup was probably the most popular Android One device to date. Not only for the general users, but it had plenty in store for the tech enthusiasts as well. Moreover, while the device has already been blessed with its fair share of updates, but you could still get a taste of the latest OS build via the custom ROM route. And in this guide, we will help you with just that. Given here are the detailed instructions to install the latest Android 12 ROM onto your Xiaomi Mi A2 device. Follow along.
Table of Contents
What’s New in Android 12?
Just to recap, the Silicon Valley giants have introduced a plethora of new and interesting features in the twelfth iteration of the OS. These include the massive UI revamp thanks to the Material You design. Likewise, there’s a Wallpaper-based UX Theming that will pick up the major color from the wallpaper and theme it across various device components (such as the Notifications panel and Settings menu). Then there is an addition of the Privacy Dashboard as well.
This will tell you the date and time when an app asked for the location, camera, and microphone permissions. Moreover, there are some new accessibility features as well. These include the likes of Camera Switch that allows you to take full control of your device via your facial gestures. And you could now welcome all these features onto your device. Given here are the detailed instructions to install Android 12 ROM on Xiaomi Mi A2.
How to Install Android 12 ROM on Mi A2
The below instructions are listed under separate sections for ease of understanding. Make sure to follow in the exact same sequence as mentioned. Droidwin and its members wouldn’t be held responsible in case of a thermonuclear war, your alarm doesn’t wake you up, or if anything happens to your device and data by performing the below steps.
STEP 1: Install Android SDK
First and foremost, you will have to install the Android SDK Platform Tools on your PC. This is the official ADB and Fastboot binary provided by Google and is the only recommended one. So download it and then extract it to any convenient location on your PC. Doing so will give you the platform-tools folder, which will be used throughout this guide.
STEP 2: Enable USB Debugging and OEM Unlocking
Next up, you will also have to enable USB Debugging and OEM Unlocking on your device. The former will make your device recognizable by the PC in ADB mode. This will then allow you to boot your device to Fastboot Mode. On the other hand, OEM Unlocking is required to carry out the bootloader unlocking process.
So head over to Settings > About Phone > Tap on MIUI Number 7 times > Go back to Settings > System > Advanced > Developer Options > Enable USB Debugging and OEM Unlocking.
STEP 3: Unlock Bootloader on Xiaomi Mi A2
Next up, you will also have to unlock the device’s bootloader. Do keep in mind that doing so will wipe off all the data from your device and could nullify its warranty as well. So if that’s all well and good, then please refer to our detailed guide on How to Unlock Bootloader on any Xiaomi Device.
STEP 4: Download Android 12 ROM
First off, let’s make you aware of the ROM features and the underlying bugs. This will then help you in deciding where you wish to install it onto your device or not.
Features
Pixel Experience is an AOSP based ROM, with Google Apps included and all the Pixel goodies. These include the likes of Pixel launcher, wallpapers, icons, fonts, boot animation among others.
What’s Working
Wi-Fi
RIL
Mobile data
GPS
Camera
Flashlight
Camcorder
Bluetooth
Fingerprint reader
Lights
Sound/vibration
WFD
Bugs
– Encryption is broken can’t/don’t encrypt from settings
Download Android 12 ROM
- Name: Pixel Experience
- GApps: Included in ROM
- Download ROM: Link
- Credits: XDA Senior Member immanuel-raj
Download TWRP
STEP 5: Install TWRP on Mi A2
- To begin with, transfer the twrp.img file to the platform-tools folder on your PC. On the other hand, transfer the twrp.zip file to your device. Likewise, transfer the ROM ZIP file to your device as well.
- Then rename the TWRP Recovery to twrp, so that the complete name becomes twrp.img
- Now connect your device to the PC via USB cable. Make sure USB Debugging is enabled.
- Then head over to the platform-tools folder, type in CMD in the address bar, and hit Enter. This will launch the Command Prompt.
- Type in the following command in the CMD window to boot your device to Fastboot Mode
adb reboot bootloader
- After that, execute the below command to boot your device to TWRP:
fastboot boot twrp.img
- Now go to the Install section of TWRP, select the TWRP ZIP file, and perform a right swipe to flash it.
STEP 6: Install Android 12 ROM on Mi A2
- First off, go to the Wipe section of TWRP and select Advanced Wipe.
- Then select Dalvik, System, Vendor, Cache, and Data partitions and perform a right swipe to flash it.
- Now go to Reboot and select the inactive slot. Then reboot to Recovery for the change to take place.
- You will now be on the inactive slot. Again wipe the Dalvik, System, Vendor, Cache, and Data partitions.
- With this, we have wiped the partitions on both slots. Since we haven’t wiped the Internal Storage, your ROM file should still be present on the device. However, if you are unable to find it, then transfer the ROM ZIP file to your device via TWRP.
- Then go to Install, select the ROM ZIP file and perform a right swipe to flash it.
- Once done, go to Reboot and select Recovery. Your device will boot to TWRP.
- That’s it. You may now boot to the newly installed OS via Reboot > System.
So these were the steps to install the Android 12 ROM onto your Mi A2 device. If you have any queries concerning the aforementioned steps, do let us know in the comments. We will get back to you with a solution at the earliest.
