I bought myself a Xiaomi Redmi 1s on the Big Billion Day sale on Flipkart, which got me an e-gift voucher for Rs. 300, making the whole deal even sweeter. I am not really a MiUi fan, or stricly speaking, any rom that doesn't adhere to the Vanilla Android feel - the one you find on Nexus, GPE and on Android One devices. That is why I decided to root the Xiaomi Redmi 1s and to install an AOSP based stock rom. While you don'tneed to be rooted in order to install a custom rom on the Redmi 1s, this guide will let you root your phone in case you are planning on sticking with the MiUi rom that came pre-installed with your device but want to have access to the superuser privileges.
Disclaimer:
- Following this guide will have no impact on your warranty status - because Xiaomi allows its users to have superuser access on their Xiaomi devices.
- We won't be held responsible for anything bad that happens to your device by performing the steps mentioned in this guide. To make it sound a less scary, in 99.9% cases, nothing will happen. In the other 0.1% cases, flashing the stock rom will solve any problem that might occur. So don't panic.
Requirements:
- 1 piece - Xiaomi Redmi 1s
- Internet connection on your phone, with speed according to your taste
- No PC required
How to root Redmi 1s without losing manufacturer warranty
- Download this file (name: update.zip, size: 1.27 MB. Mirror link here.) on your phone.
- By default, this file will be downloaded to the Download folder in your internal storage. Move this file from that folder to the root of your internal storage i.e. outside any folders in your internal storage.
- Boot into your Redmi 1S' recovery mode. You can do so by either of the following ways:
- Power off your phone (or pull out the battery directly, if you are too impatient). Now, press and hold the Volume Up and Power keys together till your phone enters the recovery mode.OR
- Launch the Mi-Updater app. Find that among the flood of icons present on your phone's home screen. Press the menu button and select the "Reboot to recovery" mode.
- Inside the recovery mode, you will be asked to select whatever language you can understand the options in. Select the "English" option.
- Select the "Install update.zip to system" option and confirm your action. Once you do so, the update.zip file will be flashed to your device.
- When the flashing completes (normally takes less than 5 seconds), select the reboot option inside the recovery to boot your phone normally.
- When your phone starts up, go to Settings > Security > Permission and switch the "Root Permission" toggle to on state.
Root Permission toggle should be switched to on. - That's it. Install any root application you want, or edit any system file the way you want! If anything goes wrong, you can always flash the stock rom to revert your Redmi 1S to the factory state.
The procedure above has been tested working on 3 different Redmi 1S WCDMA devices, all running on the Indian firmware, though that doesn't mean that this wouldn't work on toher firmwares out there.
If you face any problems during the rooting procedure (the procedure is really simple, we don't expect people to face any hiccup. But still.), feel free to place a comment below and we shall try to respond to your query and help you out of any situation that you manage to get your smartphone into.
