A family member bought a Mi Tablet 4 a couple of years ago, un-boxed but un-used (surprise).
Spent a couple of hours helping to install Google services on the tablet without any luck. Basically we have found videos and forum posts talking about it, but all of them are broken links.
Is there a reliable/working way to either get GMS on the tablet or flash it to international ROM that comes with GMS? Where is the ROM?
Haha just realised the spelling, corrected.
I presume you meant Xiaomis's Mi Pad 4. This video should help you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izlSUCbQ63o
Mi Pad 4 isn't a couple of years old though
Maybe they meant the Mi Pad 3?
May be less than a “couple” of years, certainly felt like a long time.
It’s the 4.
Thanks mate, we saw that video, followed all the instructions to sign up and to get on to the forum, but search “google” returned zero results, as if all google discussions were removed.
The Mi Pad 4 has a massive community behind it with custom ROMs frequently being updated that offer a better experience over MIUI and include GApps.
I recommend Havoc OS out of all of them. There are other ROMs that still offer MIUI translated from the Chinese ROM if that's your preference.
Thanks for the recommendation, will look into that.
We are not so much into mucking about with custom ROMs, just want the damn thing to install Google apps so that it can be useful.
Funny enough Mi app store has “Google Play Store” app, but after installing it it doesn’t work. There’s a note saying the app requires GMS (Google Mobile Services) but that is not available in Mi app store, then why have the Play store app?
The reason why it's complaining about GMS is that the Mi Pad 4 never had an official global release and thus no international ROM that would include GApps was developed. What ended up happening was Xiaomi.eu (Xiaomi's outsourced translation team) released their own translated ROM of the Chinese version and most vendors load that. Other times they include dodgy ROMs.
We might have came across one of those ROMs downloadable from Source Forge, in fact we might have downloaded it. The process to load the new ROM seems straightforward, but there’s no going back, and probably breaks future automatic updates, means manual updates from then on.
Then again the tablet as is has very little use, so might as well…
@browser: Xiaomi released their MIUI 11 roadmap for devices moving forward back in September. Unfortunately the Mi Pad wasn't in their list so it's discontinued and no future updates will be released. Custom ROMs are the only updates you'll get from now on.
@Clear: Thanks for that info. Not that we are looking forward to MIUI 11, just that it's odd to see promo graphics of MIUI 11 on the Pad 4 after factory reset.
On a side note, What a process! After factory reset, it asked for activation, the family member had changed mobile number and had no idea what email (if at all) he used to sign up. After a lot of screwing around he found the old sim card, luckily still active to receive text. Far out! Tried to save money buying a cheapie tablet, the time, effort, and frustration have far exceeded any cost savings. Should have got an iPad from the get go.
The table I bought from fantastic furniture didn't even have a power button so I couldn't figure out how to turn it on let alone installing apps.