Through this post, you can download Xiaomi Mi A3 stock firmware fastboot images. We will also guide you on how to install Xiaomi Mi A3 stock firmware to unbrick, unroot, and fix software-related issues. This guide is compliant with both, the Global and European variants of the Mi A3.
Restoring the stock firmware (Also referred to as “Stock ROM”) on your Xiaomi Mi A3 could come in handy in various situations. First and foremost, it is the most important thing to do when selling your phone or submitting it for a warranty claim (Also known as “RMA”). In the case of the Mi A3, Xiaomi will not cover the device under warranty if it has third-party firmware or mods (like Magisk Root, TWRP, Xposed, etc) installed. This is why you must always make sure to restore the stock firmware on your Mi A3 before you submit it for a warranty claim.
Apart from that, there are several other situations where you might find the need to roll back your Xiaomi Mi A3 to stock firmware. For instance, you don’t like the custom ROM that you installed and want to go back to the stock firmware. Or you rooted your Mi A3 and installed TWRP on it to flash mods. Not to forget, if you want to receive official OTA updates (monthly security updates or major Android version updates) from the Xiaomi, then you must have the stock firmware installed on your Mi A3 (with or without root, that is another matter).
In either of the above situations, simply performing a factory reset wouldn’t do the job and you will need to manually install stock firmware on your Xiaomi Mi A3. Installing the stock firmware (fastboot image) is quite easy and doesn’t require any special tools like the Mi Flash Tool (although you can use it), as in the case on other Xiaomi/Redmi devices running MIUI. The instructions in this guide will take you through the steps in detail.
Table of Contents
Before You Begin
Before you begin following the instructions below, there are a couple of things that you should do to ensure that safety of your data, as well as for
Make sure that you fulfill all the requirements stated below before you head to instructions to restore/install Xiaomi Mi A3 stock firmware.
- Take a backup first! Restoring the stock firmware will erase all downloaded apps, along with their associated data, system settings and more. Although the procedure mentioned below will allow you to optionally save the data stored on the internal storage. However, if you’re planning on performing a full restore, all the data on the internal storage will be wiped too. In either case, we strongly recommend you to take a full backup of all the data stored on your Mi A3.
- Charge your Xiaomi Mi A3 to a sufficient battery level to avoid any sudden shutdowns during the firmware restoring instructions.
- Download the latest USB drivers for your Xiaomi device and install them on your PC.
- Install an archive utility on your PC like 7Zip or WinRAR.
- The process of restoring the stock firmware involves using ADB and fastboot. So, download the latest Android SDK platform-tools package and extract it to a suitable location on the PC (example: ‘C:\platform-tools‘).
Download Xiaomi Mi A3 Stock Firmware (Fastboot Images)
The stock firmware for Mi A3 (codename: laurel_sprout) is available as “fastboot images”, which includes image (.img) files of various partitions of the device. We strongly recommend that you download the latest version of the fastboot image linked below for your specific variant.
For Global Variant
- V11.0.16.0.QFQMIXM (June 2020 Security Update): laurel_sprout_global_images_V11.0.16.0.QFQMIXM_20200623.0000.00_10.0_c335869d35.tgz
- V11.0.15.0.QFQMIXM (Android 10 May 2020 Security Update): laurel_sprout_global_images_V11.0.15.0.QFQMIXM_20200507.0000.00_10.0_f654641437.tgz
- V10.3.16.0.PFQMIXM (March 2020 Security Update): laurel_sprout_global_images_V10.3.16.0.PFQMIXM_20200324.0000.00_9.0_4a60d662bd.tgz
- V10.3.13.0.PFQMIXM (January 2020 Security Update): laurel_sprout_global_images_V10.3.13.0.PFQMIXM_20200115.0000.00_9.0_71958a08b1.tgz
- V10.3.9.0.PFQMIXM (November 2019 Security Update): laurel_sprout_global_images_V10.3.9.0.PFQMIXM_20191107.0000.00_9.0_706b4d7f01.tgz
- V10.3.8.0.PFQMIXM (October 2019 Security Update): laurel_sprout_global_images_V10.3.8.0.PFQMIXM_20191012.0000.00_9.0_d099f2839b.tgz
- V10.3.4.0.PFQMIXM (August 2019 Security Update): laurel_sprout_global_images_V10.3.4.0.PFQMIXM_20190815.0000.00_9.0_00838b4c0e.tgz
For European Variant
- V11.0.3.0.QFQEUXM (June 2020 Security Update): laurel_sprout_eea_global_images_V11.0.3.0.QFQEUXM_20200611.0000.00_10.0_a0fc54b57d.tgz
- V11.0.2.0.QFQEUXM (Android 10 May 2020 Security Update): laurel_sprout_eea_global_images_V11.0.2.0.QFQEUXM_20200512.0000.00_10.0_7398439b7e.tgz
- V11.0.1.0.QFQEUXM: (laurel_sprout_eea_global_images_V11.0.1.0.QFQEUXM_20200424.0000.00_10.0_9c5f95ef79.tgz
- V10.3.14.0.PFQEUXM (January 2020 Security Update): laurel_sprout_eea_global_images_V10.3.14.0.PFQEUXM_20200116.0000.00_9.0_2ab620c230.tgz
- V10.3.13.0.PFQEUXM (December 2019 Security Update): laurel_sprout_eea_global_images_V10.3.13.0.PFQEUXM_20191211.0000.00_9.0_5fc7a0fc2d.tgz
- V10.3.12.0.PFQEUXM (November 2019 Security Update): laurel_sprout_eea_global_images_V10.3.12.0.PFQEUXM_20191113.0000.00_9.0_eefa5b3bf3.tgz
- V10.3.7.0.PFQEUXM (August 2019 Security Update): laurel_sprout_eea_global_images_V10.3.7.0.PFQEUXM_20190814.0000.00_9.0_d75b3ef45d.tgz
Instructions to Install Stock Firmware on Xiaomi Mi A3
- Download the stock firmware fastboot image for Xiaomi Mi A3.
- Extract the downloaded package (.tgz) to a suitable location on your PC.
- Next, extract the resultant tar package on the PC.
- You shall now have a folder containing the firmware’s partition image files and flashing scripts.
- Move all these files to the folder on the PC where the Android SDK platform-tools are installed (Example: “C:\platform-tools”).
- Hold the SHIFT key of your keyboard and right-click on any empty space inside the folder.
- Select the ‘Open PowerShell window here’ option from the contextual menu that appears on the screen.
- Now, power off your Xiaomi Mi A3 completely.
- Hold the Volume Down and Power buttons together to boot your phone into Fastboot Mode.
- Connect the phone to the PC while it is in Fastboot Mode.
- Now, there are three different types of flashing scripts available, which are as follows:
- flash_all.bat/sh: This will flash the stock firmware and erase the internal storage
- flash_all_except_data_storage.bat/sh: This will flash the stock firmware while preserving the data on the internal storage
- flash_all_lock.bat/sh: This will flash the stock firmware, erase the internal storage, and relock the phone’s bootloader
- Simply double-click on the desired flashing script to install/restore stock firmware on Xiaomi Mi A3.
The flashing process could take a few minutes to complete and the progress will be shown in the PowerShell windows. During this time, make sure that you do not disconnect the phone from the PC or disturb the USB connection.
Once the flashing process finishes, your Xiaomi Mi A3 will automatically reboot into the system (OS). You can now close the PowerShell window on the PC. The stock firmware has now successfully been restored on your phone. Once your phone boots, you can set it up by following the on-screen instructions.
Important Note:
If the device fails to boot into the OS and keeps bootlooping, connect it to the PC while in fastboot mode, and execute the following command:
.\fastboot set_active a
The reason is that when you flash the stock firmware, the “system.img” installed to the “b” slot/partition is actually a dummy image. And so the device fails to boot. To fix this you need to set the phone’s active slot to “a” (see the command above), where the actual system.img has been installed.
That’s it! This was our guide on how to install Xiaomi Mi A3 stock firmware and restore it to unbrick, unroot, or fix software related issues. If you have any questions regarding the instructions or the process on a whole, feel free to let us know via the comments.
Belarmino
Hello Dhananjay, is it safe to perform this procedure to downgrade from Android 11 to 10?
Dhananjay Bhardwaj
No, please don’t try that. Several users over at XDA and someone here have already bricked their Mi A3 while attempting the downgrade.
I firmly believe this is due to Xiaomi’s own anti-rollback protection.
Rishabh Shukla
I went through all the steps and now my mi a3 is not showing anything it’s bricked, I am not even able to access fastboot 🙁
Dhananjay Bhardwaj
Rishabh, were you running the latest Android 11 firmware and tried to downgrade to Android 10 by flashing the fastboot ROM?
Monu Patel
Hello Dhananjay sir
I am using miui 11 in my mi A3 on android 9 pie I want to
move on miui 12 what can I do ??
Please reply
Dhananjay Bhardwaj
Monu, the Xiaomi Android One devices (like the Mi A3) come with stock Android installed. It’s completely different than MIUI that’s found on the other devices by Xiaomi.
So, did you install MIUI 11 port on your Mi A3?
Or, are you asking if you could upgrade the phone’s software to Android 10?
IzZz
Hi Dhananjay,
I am trying this method to install the original system but am with mac computer and I can’t use the dat files.
So I tried to use the “flash_all_lock.sh” file by writing in the terminal ./flash_all_lock.sh and it gives me the following message:
laurel_sprout fastboot flash tools
usage: grep [-abcDEFGHhIiJLlmnOoqRSsUVvwxZ] [-A num] [-B num] [-C [num]]
[-e pattern] [-f file] [–binary-files = value] [–color = when]
[–context [= num]] [–directories = action] [–label] [–line-buffered]
[–null] [pattern] [file …]
Missmatching image and device
Maybe you have an idea of the problem? Is it possible to do this with a mac? I am a little desperate and I have the impression that with each problem a new one arrives …
Dhananjay
Hi. Please tell me if it’s the Global or the European variant of the Mi A3 you’re using? Also, please mention the filename of the fastboot ROM you have downloaded.
Robbs
Thank you for this post.
andres felipe
hola dhananjay como estas tengo un problema con mi xiaomi mi a 3 le instale una rom miui 12 pero instalo con errores cuando quise regresar a android one 10 se me quedo en el logo del conejo y no me avanza que puedo hacer me urge
Dhananjay
Hi Andres. Did you install the stock Android 10 firmware using the instructions above?
Vishal
Flash_all.bat file syntex error in line 5. Please help me
Dhananjay
Hi Vishal. Could you please share a complete screenshot of the error message you’re referring to?
Joan ocaña
Hola instalé el sistema pero queda en el bucle de inicio leí la nota de iniciar la partición en a pero no comprendo bien eso ¿podrías ayudar porfa?.
Dhananjay
Yes, sure I would try my best to help.
After step #12, the phone restarted automatically, yes?
Himanshu Das
HELLO. So I was trying to root my phone but something went wrong and I was stuck in fastboot mode. I thought going back to stock firmware might help. i followed all the instructions but i am stuck at this page. please help me with this.
Dhananjay
Hi Himanshu, that’s normal. Just give it more time and it will move forwards. Have you tried using a USB 2.0 port on your PC? USB 3.0/3.1 and fastboot don’t play well occasionally.
Dhananjay
That’s odd. Why is it showing “???????” when you enter fastboot devices command? Is your Mi A3 in Fastboot Mode when connected to the PC?
Amal Raj
Hi, Greetings..
I just came here searching a better simpler way to flash my Mi A3 with a stock ROM.
This post helps me a lot. Thanks for your works.
But, i have some doubts, for which reason I’m wanting to “downgrade my Android 10″ to Pie.
I’ve noticed a consistent battery drain after I’ve updated to 10 just recently (which i hadn’t given permission to install, but accidently updated, seeing a message stating to Install May security patch)
But, i strongly believe the battery drains a lot faster now.
Is there any work around..?
It was like the battery percentage was almost frozen when i was on Pie, and made me wonder to the extent that the phone might never deplete on battery…
But now I’m very much worried.
I’ve read above, reflashing to Android 9 would break the sensors etc.
I don’t want to get into that trouble also..
Hence, kindly suggest an idea for my battery drain issue.
Note: I ONLY USE MY PHONE FOR TAKING PHOTOS AND LISTENING TO MUSIC.
Because i have another device and ” i had taken this solely for the CAMERA “
Dhananjay
Hi Amal. Thank you for being in touch and for those kind words, you’re very welcome.
Battery drain on Android 10 isn’t a known bug, which means it could be just specific to your unit. Have you tried performing a factory reset? A factory reset could fix the most unusual software problems like lags, or battery drains like in your case here.
Before you attempt to downgrade, I think it would be wise to consider a factory reset as an option. Of course, this would erase all the data on your phone, so, make sure that you take a backup of all your important data like photos, videos, music, documents, and everything stored on the phone’s internal storage.
Instructions for performing a factory reset on your Mi A3 could be found on this page.
As for the issue with sensors, I recently covered an article on how to fix it. However, that issue is primarily caused only when if you have installed and used TWRP custom recovery in the past. If not, then I don’t think downgrading should pose any problems to the sensors in normal cases.
Please do let me know how if goes.
Amal Raj
Hi Dhananjay,
Thank you so much for your reply. As of now i have a huge data of photos and videos mostly 4k on my device and a reset need to transfer those to my PC.
I’m a part Photographer, so i mainly depend on this device.
And i really appreciate how it handles every shots perfectly.
Added to that, i noticed recently the stock camera has been updated with more PRO features like, focus peaking etc.. and there’s an ev control with others.
Overall I’m satisfied with the camera performance with this update.
My only concern being the battery drain.
Let me see in future, if the case worsens, I’d consider a master reset and if that doesn’t work, I’ll try downgrading to Android 9.
Thanks for your time and help 😊👍
Dhananjay
You’re welcome Amal. I hope it resolves on its own. Please keep me posted if you try any of those things. Good luck!
Rodrigo
Thank you! All the others tutorials were confusing and yours clarified every doubt I had. The crucial thing for me was when you said that we had to extract the ROM, and then extract again, before copying it to the platform-tools. I was stuck on it, because no one explained step by step as you did. So again, thanks for helping the beginners, and for taking your time answering the comments!
Cheers.
Dhananjay
Hi Rodrigo. It makes me so happy reading your comment! I believe the small details always matter because people are often new to some things.
I am glad you had it working! Thanks for such kind words.
Pipe
Hello, I installed the stock firmware, before that I was on android 10 and the wifi failed me, so when installing your firmware the system works well, but the proximity, infrared and rotation sensors do not work, it does not rotate my screen, which I can do?
Dhananjay
Hi Pipe, so your phone was running Android 10 and then you installed the Android Pie firmware to downgrade it, am I correct?
Pipe
Yes it was in android 10, when updating it already recognizes the sensors, but in android 10 I have an error with the wifi, it only happens with my phone Mi A3, it is not an error of the router of my house.
So that’s why I decided to install android 9 pie with your guide, but the sensors fail me.
Dhananjay
Hi again. I’d suggest installing Android 10 again from fresh, using the fastboot ROM. After you flash it, see if the WiFi works, as well as sensors.
In case even after updating to A10, they do not work, then boot your phone into the stock recovery and perform a factory data reset.
Pipe
Hello, for the moment I am in android 9 stock, the sensors work in android 10, but my problem with android 10 is a wifi error when it is disconnected from the network I must restart the phone so that they re-identify the network, until the patch of the month of may this problem keeps happening to me when updating android 10.
Dhananjay
Hi Pipe. I would like you try something.
Please flash Android 10 stock fastboot ROM. Then boot up the phone and check if the WiFi works or not.
In case it doesn’t, boot your phone into fastboot mode, connect it to the PC, and flash the below-linked dtbo.img using the following command:
fastboot flash dtbo dtbo.imgLink: https://github.com/derflacco/Fenix-ALS-Mi-a3/releases/download/0.9.4/dtbo.img
Felipe
Hello, I successfully installed the stock firmware taking android 10, but I lost my proximity sensors and rotate the screen, what can I do.
Dhananjay
Hi Felipe. Did you install Android Pie firmware or Android 10? What was the phone previously running?
Pipe
Hello friend, when installing the stock firmware, I lost my sensors, now the screen no longer rotates horizontally, what can I do?
Dhananjay
Hi Pipe. Did you downgrade from Android 10 to Pie? If so, then this is caused due to an error in the /persist partition of the phone. For working sensors, you will need to upgrade back to Android 10 again.
Shubham Saini
Thankyou so much bro, I almost bricked my phone but you saved me…. Thanks again
Dhananjay
Hi Shubham, I am so glad it helped you! You’re most welcome.
Victor Hugo Reyes
Hi, how have I done the flash process, but when I finish the process and restart, it stays in a loop and it can only go into fastboot mode, if there is a solution, could you explain to me how to solve the problem,
Dhananjay
Hi Victor. This could be because your phone is trying to boot into slot “b” which only has a dummy system image installed. Please have a look at the yellow notes box right after the instructions on how to fix this.
Fanis
Hi Dhananjay
This guide is different from the other where we install the latest stock firmware (3 methods), isn’t? Here I wonder, is there any need to update with the latest stock as well or not?
Thanks!
Dhananjay
Hi Fanis. Yes, it’s different because we are only using the official fastboot images. Unlike some unofficial fastboot ROMs, the official ones include a flashing script which makes the job a whole lot easier, as shown in the instructions.
As far as I know, Xiaomi’s Anti-Rollback protection doesn’t apply to the phone, you can flash any fastboot ROM of your choice. But, it’s still recommended to install the latest one.
Matthew
Can I use this same set of instructions, merely change out the boot image or recovery image, and load a custom OS instead of the stock version?
Dhananjay
Hi Mathew. If you want to do that, please start here instead.
Follow the instructions to install TWRP recovery on the phone. Once you have that, you can easily install a custom ROM and further root your phone.
Robb
Hi, I wanted to congratulate you, and ask for help, I’m trying to follow this guide to recover my MIA3, but the moment I type: flash_all_lock.bat / sh to install the firmware, the terminal says to me: term ‘ flash_all_lock.bat / sh ‘not recognized as a cmdlet name. there are 3 problems related to this that I know: wrong name (I would exclude it), wrong path (possible), missing modules (possible), now in case 2 and 3, do you have any idea how it can fix it? 🙁
I would be very grateful to you.
-user from Italy
Dhananjay
Hi Robb! Could you share a screenshot of the error screen? And are you performing the restore on a Windows, macOS, or Linux PC?
Robb
http://www.mediafire.com/view/xllt1ko1ela57hz/Cattura.PNG this is the link of the screenshot,
be pacient, i need help, thank you guy
Dhananjay
Thanks for providing the screenshot. Okay, so the issue is that the command is incorrect. Since you’re using Windows, you do not need to use the PowerShell.
Simply double-click the “flash_all_except_data_storage.bat” file that’s included in the extracted firmware.
Perhaps, this isn’t your fault, but an error on my part for not being able to make the instructions much clearer and easy to understand. I will make sure to amend this and revise the instructions as soon as possible.
Robb
thanks you very much man, but now i have othet problem, http://www.mediafire.com/view/ftw77rnu7jyam8y/firmware.PNG , this is the result of “flash_all_except_data_storage.bat”. I think that is for bootlader blocked, but this is a problem, because, my mia3 is blocked in fastboot, and i don’t remember if AOM is active ore not, i have trying to use miflashunlock, but result is: couldn’t unlock (I THINK THAN IS FOR THE AOM DISACTIVE) how i can fix man? SORRY FOR MY BAD ENGLISH AND THANK YOU SO MUCH, YOU CAN SAVE ME :))
Robb
THANK YOU SO MUCH, BUT NOW I HAVE NEW PROBLEMS, THE RESULT OF flash_all_except_data_storage.bat / sh is THIS: http://www.mediafire.com/view/ftw77rnu7jyam8y/firmware.PNG, I THINK IT’S DUE TO THE BOOTLOADER LOCKED, BUT PROBLEM, BECAUSE MY MIA3 IS LOCKED IN FASTBOOT MODE, AND I DON’T REMEMBER IF THE OEM RELEASE IS ENABLED OR LESS, I TRY TO UNLOCK THE BOOTLOADER WITH MIFLASHUNLOCK, BUT THE ERROR THAT GIVES ME IS: COLUDN’T UNLOCK, (I THINK BE FOR THE OEM DISABLED) HOW CAN I RESOLVE, YOU CAN SAVE MY LIFE FRIEND;)) THANKS IN ADVANCE
Dhananjay
Yes, that’s right. It’s because the phone’s critical partitions weren’t unlocked. You have to connect your phone to the PC while it’s in fastboot mode and then use the following two commands in PowerShell:
.\fastboot flashing unlock
.\fastboot flashing unlock_critical
You can refer to this guide for the complete step-by-step instructions: https://www.thecustomdroid.com/how-to-unlock-xiaomi-mi-a3-bootloader/
The Mi A3 doesn’t support bootloader unlocking via the Mi Unlock tool, you need to use fastboot commands as mentioned above.
Robb
OKAY, THANK AND SORRY FOR DOUBLE COMMENT, LAST ANSWER, IN WICH FOULDER I MUST OPEN POWERSHELL?
Dhananjay
In the same folder where the Android SDK platform-tools (like adb.exe, fastboot.exe, etc) are present.
Yonier
.\flash_all.bat
g@e
This procedure saved my A3. Thanks from Italy 🙂
Dhananjay
Hi! Thanks a lot for confirming! And you’re most welcome 🙂
theo
Hello Dhananjay,
I bricked my boot img trying to install magisk with an old soft version (v10.3.17) after a software update (v10.3.20) and thanks to you I was able to completly restor it to the 10.3.14.with flash_all.bat/sh and the command line for the bootloop.
So I reinstalled the magisk manager, rerooted the phone, no problem. But when I install Magisk module they install fine but never appear after the reboot (was working before the brick). So my question is what in the stock firmware installation process can cause this problem and how to solve it ?
Thanks !
Hamid
Hello,
First, thanks for your free training. I have downgraded from Android 10 to Android 9, but those aforementioned sensors have stopped working. How can I fix that?
Dhananjay
Hi Hamid. This is primarily caused if your had TWRP installed on your phone in the past. Please check out the fix here.
Edgar
good day where I have to put this command fastboot set_active a ????
since it still keeps leaving me in fastboot mode
krol
why always missmatching image and device. help please
Dhananjay
Hi Krol. Please elaborate on your problem so that I can help. I cannot exactly figure out through your current comment.
Dweep
I installed the latest global rom and my gyroscope, accelerometer, proximity, magnetic and optic sensors stopped working
Dhananjay
Hi Dweep. Have you tried performing a factory reset manually after restoring the firmware?
Madhur
After I installed the firmware none of the sensors are working plz help
Madhur Thakkar
I have installed the latest rom and all the sensors have stopped working( I haven’t factory reset my device manually)plz help
Dhananjay
Hi Madhur. Which one of the included flashing scripts did you use to install the stock firmware?
Dhananjay
Hi again, Madhur. It seems to be a known issue. Did you install Android 10 and had TWRP prior to installing it?
MrSOLO
i downgraded from android 10 to this stock version, after some minutes, my phone said “the system has been destroyed” and no OS installed
Dhananjay
Hi MrSOLO. Did you switch the phone to slot ‘a’ after the downgrade process finished?
Fanis
Your last important note means that we must reinstall the stock image in the slot a, or simply execute the command above and the phone will automatically reboot into the system (OS)?
Dhananjay
Hi Fanis. No, you do not have to flash the stock image, it has already been flashed. You just have to execute that command only if your phone fails to enter the OS after the flashing is complete.
Johan
I followed this guide and it worked like a charm. Thank you.
On XDA they say som system got destroyed when using the relock command if you have a unlocked bootloader.
By misstake i also used this command and got a “System destroyed” text on my phone, then it rebooted to bootloader again. When trying to reflash it said i couldn´t be done because of locked bootloader.
I managed to unlock it again via ADB, but i think i was lucky. Some people couldn´t and ended up with a hard brick.
Best regards Johan
Dhananjay
Hi Johan. I am happy that it proved useful to you.
That message you mentioned in your comment shows up when the phone is not completely stock, which means either of the two slots has some sort of modification.
You tried the relock command after finishing this tutorial?
Joao Batista Soeiro
para mim só funcionou depois que depois que antes de qualquer procedimento executei o comendo “fastboot set_active a” antes tentei varias vezes e nenhuma deu certo
Dhananjay
Hi Joao. So, it worked after issuing the “fastboot set_active a” command at the end? Please try and reply in English so that I can understand better.