Xiaomi Android 8.1 Oreo update to Mi A1: Don’t update if you want to keep your SMS’s

Xiaomi has started rolling out Android 8.1 Oreo to its Mi A1 smartphone which is a part of Google’s Android One program. The update is packaged with Android’s June security patch. The update is being made available to the users via two methods – OTA (over-the-air) and a Fastboot ROM which the users will need to flash. The OTA update is being rolled out in phases and is yet to reach the devices we tried to update. Whereas the Fastboot ROM is available on Xiaomi’s official website for users to download. However, we recommend that you wait a while before updating as there is a bug in this update which wipes off the smartphone’s SMS history. The update is said to be around 1.28GB in size.

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Users have been reporting that the SMS history wipe bug appears when the Messages app is swiped out from the ‘Recents’ tab for the first time after the update. Xiaomi is yet to release a fix for the situation. But until that happens, we recommend that you hold off from updating. The update is currently rolling out in two countries – Philippines and India.

Coming to the specifications, the Xiaomi Mi A1 sports a 5.5-inch LTPS Full HD with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. It is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor paired with the Adreno 506 GPU. It comes with 4GB of RAM along with 64GB of internal storage expandable up to 128GB via a microSD card. All of this is backed by a 3,080mAh non-removable battery. In terms of connectivity, the phone supports dual-band Wi-Fi, 4G VoLTE, Bluetooth 4.2. It features a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner.

As for the optics, the Xiaomi Mi A1 features a dual camera module with a 12MP wide-angle sensor and a 12MP telephoto sensor on the back, with dual-tone, LED flash and phase detection autofocus (PDAF). On the front, it sports a 5MP camera sensor for selfies.