Update [June 10, 2017]: The TWRP recovery for Xiaomi Mi6 is now available officially. Well, that changes nothing as regards installation guide, but we’re changing download link below with the official one. So that you always get the latest version of the recovery when you follow the download link below.

If you were waiting for the opportune moment to root your Xiaomi Mi6 and flash custom ROMs, then there can’t be a better time than now. TWRP or Team Win Recovery Project has finally made its way to the Xiaomi Mi6, albeit through am unofficial channel, which is okay as this is what usually happens.

Of course, you will need to unlock your Xiaomi Mi6 to get any of this done. Unlike other normal OEMs, Xiaomi makes unlocking their devices a painful waiting process. Head over to Xiaomi’s website first to get this done with once and for all. After it is done, modding your device will be a lot more easier, thanks to XDA forums.

If you’ve already unlocked your Mi6, you can go ahead and follow the guide below to install TWRP recovery on your device first, and then use that to install the SuperSU file, which gets you root access.

How to flash TWRP Recovery on Mi6

Once you’ve downloaded the TWRP img file, you will need to ensure that you have the necessary drivers installed on your PC for everything to work smoothly. Another very important thing to do is to take a backup of all your important data, be it contacts, audio, video or documents. In case something happens to go wrong your data will remain safe.

→ Download Xiaomi Mi6 Drivers

Once you’ve successfully installed the drivers on your PC, we can begin:

  1. Download the TWRP recovery file for your Xiaomi Mi6 from here.
  2. Start by powering off your device.
  3. Next, press and hold the Volume Down and Power buttons for about 7 seconds till you see the Mi bunny mascot on the screen. (If this doesn’t work, try Volume down + Home + Power buttons together.)
  4. Then, connect your Mi6 to the PC with an USB cable (preferably the cable that came with your device).
  5. Next, setup ADB and Fastboot on your computer.
  6. Go to the ADB folder (in C drive usually) and now, int eh address bar of this folder on your Windows PC, type cmd, and hit enter key. Command Prompt window will open up with its location set to folder where ADB is.
  7. Copy the downloaded TWRP .img file to the ADB folder and rename it as twrp.
  8. Then type the following command to check whether fastboot is working or not: 
    fastboot devices

    Above would show fastboot ID. If not, disconnect phone, and re-install drivers on PC, connect again, and then try again this command again.)

  9. Now, install TWRP recovery using this command. 
    fastboot flash recovery twrp.img

    This would install the TWRP recovery file we renamed to twrp.img on your Mi6. However, in case you want to try the TWRP recovery first without installing it, use this command: fastboot boot twrp.img to start the phone in recovery mode using TWRP file, and you should see TWRP recovery in action without actually installing it. If you like it, use reboot menu to boot back to fastboot/bootloader mode, and then flash the above command to install it.

That’s it. TWRP recovery has been installed on your Xiaomi Mi6. To check it out, reboot into recovery mode. For that,

Note: You can use the Volume Down and Power button combo mentioned above to enter TWRP.

How to Root Mi6

  1. Download the SuperSU file from here.
  2. Copy the SuperSU file to your Mi6.
  3. Then, reboot to TWRP recovery. For this, press and hold the Volume Up and Power buttons for about 7 seconds till you see anything on screen. (If this doesn’t work, try Volume up + Home + Power buttons together.)
  4. Once in recovery, tap on Install.
  5. Head over to where the SuperSu .zip file is and select it.
  6. Simply swipe to confirm install.
  7. Once the process is complete, select Reboot » System.

The reboot will take a while and this is perfectly normal. It’s best to wait it out for 10 minutes or so.

With TWRP you will have a finer level of control on what files or ROMs to flash. TWRP also provides a built-in file manager with basic functionality like moving files to and from different locations. The user interface is pretty simple too and more user-friendly.

Xiaomi Mi6 Troubleshoot

In case anything goes wrong, and you wanna take your Mi6 back to working condition, you can do so simply by installing the official firmware back on your device. Installing the firmware, or stock ROM, would re-install all partitions on your device again, and would remove any wrong installation or anything. Once you are back to stock, your device will be new-like software-wise.