Android 10 on Xiaomi Mi A2 (Lite) or When Firmware Updates Go Wrong

I’ve been using Xiaomi Mi A2 smartphone since December 2018. At the time, it shipped with Android 8.0, but I soon got an update to Android 8.1, and later to Android 9.0. I’m quite satisfied with the phone as it receives (almost) monthly security updates, works reasonably faster, features a decent camera, and overall does the job.

The biggest complaint I have so far is about storage. It comes with 32GB eMMC flash and no MicroSD card slot, and it’s constantly full, so I have to clear the cache often, and sometimes I need to uninstall an app and reinstall it in order to install an update. Sometimes in January, I got a notification about Android 10 updates, but since I was out of space, I only installed it late February after some serious storage cleaning…

The update went smoothly, and after some adjustment to the settings I was back to a usable phone, but I soon noticed a warming on the lock screen: “Charging slowly“. I work at home and probably spent 90% of my time there, so it’s not that much of an issue since I can easily charge it. But yesterday, I forgot to charge it, and when I came home I had a 5% charge left. So I connected the charger, but when I woke up in the morning (8 hours later) it was still charging with a 95% charge. In Android 9.0, a full charge would take around 1h30. I forgot to take a screenshot, but as I charge again this morning, we can see something is wrong.

The first screenshot was taken at 10:36 with a 70% charge, and an estimated 1h30 left for a full charge. I turned off the display and came back 41 minutes later with only 79% charge, and an estimated 1h18 to go for a full charge. Something is clearly wrong, and I’m not alone with no workaround. It’s been nearly two months since Android 10, so a fix would really be nice…

I decided to write the issue this morning, as Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite model just got its Android 10 update (partial release), and an article on Notebookcheck recommends avoiding the update. Why? Because of the history of botched releases by Xiaomi including Xiaomi Mi A3 phone which they had to revert. But more worrying are some of the comments in the post:

This update entirely bricked my phone, and there’s widespread reports of the same issue!

…

My me a2 lite died alter it, 3 hour fight with restore rom failded:-/ domy do it..

This is confirmed in other reports on Reddit and MI forums. So if you own a Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite phone and thought updating your device to Android 10 would be a good idea, just be patient and wait until the company works things out.

Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)

Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.