Xiaomi introduced its first Android One smartphone with the release of the Mi A1 last year in partnership with Google to introduce options that let customers opt for a stock version of the latest Android OS. While Android One devices have been known to receive regular updates and security fixes, Xiaomi hasn’t exactly been up to the mark in terms of its Android One initiative but did roll out the update Android 8.1 Oreo a couple days ago. But according to users on Reddit, the OTA update has been pulled back by the Chinese company.
Xiaomi is yet to confirm on having retracted the latest update to the Mi A1 but it’s believed that the company did so to avoid more phones to be affected due to the SafetyNet failure and deletion of texts. Alongside, Oreo features like semi-transparent Quick Settings panel, new Settings menu, batter icon for Bluetooth devices, the latest update induced two major bugs, hindering its unusable.
The first bug in the latest update erases the entire history of SMS on a user’s smartphone which occurs due to the swiping away go the messages App from the ‘Recents’ menu. Users who’ve already installed the update have to make sure they back up their texts if the bug is present on their device.
Another significant issue is the failure to secure the SafetyNet trigger. For those of you who don’t know, SafetyNet is what provides developers with your API so as to verify whether their devices have been modified with root access, custom ROMs or local malware.
While not officially commenting on the issue, Xiaomi has secured a pullback to its latest Mi A1 update and it might be a while till the company figures out a way to fix the issue in two channels, one for those installed the update and another for those who’d need to be ported to Android 8.1 Oreo securely. The latter might surely be the larger of the two. Users are advised to not sideload the update or flash the new ROM any other way if they wish their device to work properly.