Optimizing MIUI

Now I own a few phones with different specification and rom running on each one. The Lenovo A766, Xiomi Note and Xiomi 1S are running different version of MIUI, a highly customized Android.

Since 50% of my blog readers are from chinaphonearena, the chances of you, the readers are already or had or considering of flashing MIUI are very high. So, Im going to share one simple and fast method of improving the MIUI,which are known to be a little bit laggy (even with a quad-core processor and 1GB of RAM).

Disclaimer - As usual, you are responsible if anything bad happened to your phone. I had tested this methods on all the three models stated above with success.

What you need

1. A rooted smartphone running a MIUI rom (in my case, the 1S, with JHCMIBF37 firmware).
2. Any backup software capable of freezing apps (especially system apps) such as the Titanium Backup Pro (TB). I would recommend you to freeze the apps first before deleting them. If your phone behave normally (and with better performance), go ahead and delete the apps, if necessary.

I was inform that the App Freeze can also get the job done for free but untested by me.

Steps

Lets freeze so apps!

1. Reboot into your custom recovery (CWM or Carliv or TWRP) and do a nandroid backup. Safety first. You can fall back on this backup if anything goes wrong.
2. Boot into MIUI and launch the TB app.
3. If you are connected to the Xiomi Cloud service, go ahead and log out of the Xiomi account.
4. Search for "Mi Cloud Framework" and press on it. A popup menu will be displayed with various options. Select the Freeze option.
5. Repeat the freezing process for "Sync with Mi Cloud" and "Xiomi Assistant".
6. Reboot your phone.

Find and freeze those apps

Optional apps to be frozen

1. All the live wallpapers & live wallpaper picker (if you dont use them).
2. Home screen tips.
3. System (MIUI) launcher - make sure you have other launcher such as the Nova/Apex Launcher installed and set the them as the default launcher first!
4. Other apps that you dont really use (such as Google Play Movie, in my case, at least)

Before freezing the apps - 17+++ mark

Good luck!

Porting MIUI Rom

Im a bit disappointed with the quality of the custom roms available for my son's Lenovo A766.

They are either very laggy or unstable enough to be a daily driver. As a result, he was stuck with the stock rom, which are not very responsive.

I had read numerous articles on porting miui roms. To be frank, i wasn't sure that I can accept the idea of bricking a phone. But enough is enough, I need to brave myself and take the first step forward.

I went ahead and downloaded a miui rom for the Lenovo S820. Why that one? a. Its the same manufacturer so, there must be some kind of similiarity. b. They're both have almost the same hardware specificatios, especually the chipset used.

After about 15 minutes if getting the stock rom dump and another 30 minutes or so copying file between the base and stock files, I flashed the new rom onto the phone.

After a long 5 or so minutes at the boot screen, I was greeted with the familiar welcome screen of miui V5. What a relief.

The default home screen & wallpape

With everything working good (signal detection, Wi-Fi, screen size and touch feedback), I decided that I should stop thinkering too much with the rom. There are still some minor ignorable glitches, but overall its far better than the other custom roms available out there for the A766.

 

About phone information. Need to edit the build.prop

Download link on Mega. This is a trial rom for me, so dont expect miracles. Flash it on your own risks. Normal procedures, wipe data, cache, system & dalvik. Flash rom, gapps for 4.2, UPDATE-SuperSU-vX.XX.zip and reboot.

Next, porting miui for the THL T6S.. maybe..

Graphic rendering glitch. But, I'll use it as it is.