Friday 25 January 2019

[Solved] Mi Box 3 software update

Android TVOS (Oreo)
The Mi Box 3 (MDZ-16-AB) comes with Android TVOS 6.0 installed, but the over-the-air (OTA) update may leave you hanging. Here is what I did to update to Android TVOS 8.0:

What you will need:
  • A desktop computer with an internet connection
  • A FAT32 formatted USB drive with at least 1GB capacty
  • About 20 mins + download time
  • Moderate or better hand-eye co-ordination
  • Moderate or better computer skills (if you don't have those, see if you have a helpful friend or relative)
  • To be mentally prepared for the fact that you have probably lost any software or settings you installed on your Mi Box 3

On your desktop computer
  1. Format your USB drive if you haven't already done that (in Win10, plug the drive in, wait for it to appear in explorer, then right click and select format)
  2. Download this stable build (Oreo build 2167)
  3. Unzip the file "once-8.0-2167.7z" and you should see two files
    • update.zip (~645MB)
    • xiaomi_update (~34KB)
  4. Copy those two files onto your USB drive
Now let's go back to the Mi Box 3
  1. Remove the power plug from the Mi Box
  2. Insert the USB drive into the Mi Box (there is only one place it will fit)
  3. Now the tricky part - a manual recovery process
    • On the remote control, press and hold the BACK arrow and the OK button at the same time and don't let go (and don't press any other buttons)
    • Still holding those two buttons, reconnect the power plug to the Mi Box (some people suggest this is a two person job)
    • Don't let go of the buttons until you see a message on the screen telling you the Mi Box is updating
    • If you get a recovery menu, select 'Apply update from EXT' then select 'Update from udisk', then select the 'update.zip' file and hopefully it will hopefully update from there.
      • Some users report that the remote is very sensitive and won't let you easily navigate to these options - a suggested trick is to put the remote behind your body to weaken the signal - this worked for me, so I guess it's true that I am real in this universe).
      • Some users report getting stuck in a recovery mode loop (i.e., you keep rebooting into recovery mode every time you power off and power on) - a suggested method is to ensure that your USB file has the tiny 'xiaomi_update' file on it, which forces an automatic update
  4. If everything went to plan, you should now have Android TVOS Oreo build 2167, which many users report to be stable and fully functional. Some say magical, but I don't go that far.
You want more? The above stable build will keep hassling you to get the next OTA update, but that too may leave you hanging. In that case you can
  1. Go back to your desktop and download this build, which is the most recent at the time of writing (and which worked for me)
  2. Unzip this file, and copy the file 'update.zip' (~630MB) onto your USB file
    • You can simply over-write the previous update.zip file containing build 2167
    • The important part is to keep the tiny 'xiaomi_update' file on the USB drive so that the Mi Box will automatically update
  3. Now repeat the procedure in Step 3 above, the manual recovery process
  4. Hopefully this worked - the subsequent OTA update worked, and the only problem is that the Android TV Remote on my phone will not pair

Next we may list our starter pack...

Further Info:
Mi Box 3
Odroid XU4Q
Kodi Settings
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