[Update: Free repairs] Android 11 arrives on Xiaomi Mi A3 but suffers from major issues

Damien Wilde | Jan 5 2021 - 2:11 am PT

The official Android 11 update is now rolling out for the Xiaomi Mi A3 but, as we saw with the Android 10 rollout last year, it’s not without some pretty sizeable issues.

[Update 01/05]: Xiaomi has now acknowledged the issues that some Xiaomi Mi A3 owners are facing after updating their devices with the Android 11 OTA update. Those that experience major issues such as a bricked handset or inability to use their device as intended will be able to seek free support from Xiaomi directly — no matter the warranty status.

Xiaomi released a statement (via XDA) that confirms the Chinese firm is aware of several issues affecting those that have inadvertently updated to buggy or faulty software:

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 where 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.

We applaud the efforts to help fix the problem of those affected, but Xiaomi really does need to take a look at how Android One updates are being treated internally. Clearly there are some miscommunication or process errors, especially given the firm has now managed to mess up three OS updates for their affordable Android One series devices. Let’s hope this is just a small bump in the road. For those affected, this is still a huge annoyance and potentially damaging experience.

For those unaware, the original rollout of Android 10 for the Xiaomi Mi A2 and A3 was fraught with danger as many people received mistaken Mexican firmware updates or encountered problems ranging from bricked devices to power issues. The update was pulled three times earlier in 2020, which is, frankly, a joke for such a lightweight update to a device running Android One.

The OTA update is a sizeable one — as you’d expect — at around 1.4GB. It brings with it all of the Android 11 features that we’ve come to know and love including enhanced privacy controls, conversation bubbles, improved Do Not Disturb mode plus much more:

Annoyingly, that trend has continued with the Android 11 update for the Xiaomi Mi A3 — although it doesn’t yet look like the update has been pulled at the time of publishing this piece. Some people are complaining over on Twitter that the update has bricked their Mi A3 handsets (via XDA).

@XiaomiIndia Today received A11 update to my Mi A3 and after installing it and restarting the device, phone is completely dead. Neither it is charging nor switching on. What the hell is this? My phone is completely dead on new year eve.@XiaomiSupport @manukumarjain
— Mohammad Mahefooz ⚡️ (@mahefooz) December 31, 2020

Now while we applaud the fact that such an affordable Android device is getting updated to Android 11, you would hope that issues like this would have been resolved before the trigger was pulled on the actual rollout process. Given that problems arose with the Android 10 rollout, Xiaomi should really have ensured their Android 11 update for the Mi A3 was effectively bulletproof before even thinking about sending it out to users.

Because of the inherent risks and problems with the Android 11 update for those with the Xiaomi Mi A3, we’d say that it might be worthwhile disabling automatic updates within Developer Options on your device and just holding out a little longer to see if fixes are pushed. If you are an intrepid Mi A3 owner, you can still install the update by heading to Settings > System > System updates > Check for update. We do strongly advise against doing so in this instance.