[Xiaomi Mi 5 Guides, News, & Discussion] littlecaten:
Hello ladies and gentlemen,

This is my first looong post here. This is my journey with the new Mi5. I own it for 3 days now and I desperately need help with Android Auto.

After 2 weeks of waiting, I finally received my White Mi5 Pro from AliExpress. I love everything about the phone, the design, the build, the weight, the ceramic glass... For your information, I have been a fan of OnePlus and I'm currently using OnePlus 2 as my daily driver. It runs Hydrogen, because I hate the OxygenOS. In the past I flashed MIUI6 into my OnePlus 2 and I absolutely love the UX. I think this is the how all Android ROM should go for. So I didn't want to buy the OnePlus 3 when it came out, and ordered a Mi5 Pro instead.

My Mi5 Pro came with a Chinese stable ROM of course with loads of useless Chinese bloatware. After booting it up, I immediately checked for ROM update and did upgrade to the latest version (MIUI 7.5 | Stable 7.5.6.0 MAACNDE). Then I realized I need Google Play Store to download all my apps. As an Android developer, my life has been with Google since forever.

So of course I searched everywhere on the internet for ways to install Google Play Services. I did find the package that would allow me to use Google Play Store. The package is at http://en.miui.com/thread-285420-1-1.html. I managed to install it successfully and got all my regular apps downloaded from the Play Store. So far so good. The ROM still has the some Chinese in there but that's OK, as long as I have all the apps I want.

Did I mention I'm an Android developer? I need to go to work to pay for this wonderful device if they come out with another model next years right? I can't live without Android Auto and this is the main reason I bought the Civic. So I got in my car, a new 2016 Civic EX-T (T is for the Turbocharge FYI) and wait for the ANDROID AUTO to come up. It never came. OK, maybe the permission issue? I granted all permissions to Google Play Serivces, Android Auto, Maps etc. Didn't work. I turned off Permission completely. No hope too.

To debug more, I notice that Android Auto works with the OnePlus 2 when the device is connected in the USB MTP mode. By default, when I plug my phone to my laptop, the default connection mode is USB charging only. I knew I needed to change the default USB connection mode. I searched around and found this wonderful app MIUI USB Settings https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=co.vincze.usbsettings&hl=en as it is highly suggested by a lot of people. Plugged in the phone to my Mac, launched the app, it showed a white screen when it's supposed to show a Setting page for me to select the USB connection mode. Nice, I guessed MIUI7 changed this page to another URI so the app couldn't find it. I searched again and found that for Android 6 device, the USB Configuration is inside the Developer mode. I went in there and changed it to MTP protocol. But after I selected if from the list, it came back to charging only. Is this the bug right there??? I tried to select PTP, and it came back to Charging only too. Looks like MIUI7 likes to be charged so much. This is why everytime I plug the phone to my car, Android Auto can't launch because it's always in charging mode, meaning no data communication between my phone and the car. Why are we not able to set the default USB connection mode to MTP?

I then decided to manually change to MTP after connecting to my car. The car shows "Loading...' (yes! it recognized there's an Android Auto device connected) but that's it. Android Auto was not loaded in my car's touch screen. I looked back to the phone and saw "Google Play services has stopped".

Being an engineer, I did not give up. I thought it's due to the ROM issue. I went back to the download sitehttp://en.miui.com/download-299.html#435 and downloaded the Developer version (which is MIUI 8). Re-installed all the Gapps and restored all data. Everything worked. However I Android Auto didn't show up in the car touch screen when connected. I saw the "Android Auto connected to car" notification on the phone but that's it. I thought the cable had problem so I tried with the OnePlus 2 and the car show Android Auto after 1 second.

Again, I refused to give up. In the past I flashed so many ROMs onto the OnePlus 2 so I wanted to flash the global version onto Mi5 to use the gapps coming with it with the hope Android Auto would work. I researched more and knew that my Mi5 Pro came with a locked bootloader therefore I can't flash anything nor root it. So I searched more and knew that the only way to unlock bootloader is to apply for it and wait for the approval. Seriously Xiaomi, why do you make the process so hard? I applied a few days ago and now I had to wait for the approval? Why can't you automatically approve it and not manually? If the Xiaomi team is reading this please could you approve my request? My UID is (catennacio UID: 3262109).

So I'm stuck now, can't do anything with the locked bootloader. All the Gapps I tried (including the ones with Google Installer v2) crashed when connecting to the car. Then I searched more and found this http://en.miui.com/thread-299790-1-1.html . Huraaayy! I can still flash Global ROM to a bootloader locked device? Nice. I read the article just to know that I need a god darm Engineering cable!!!! Where can I get it? On AliExpress! When will I get it if I order? Another 3 weeks!!! Oh god why!! Why do you make my life so miserable?

So I'm really stuck now! I go back to my OnePlus 2 and it still works with the car. The Mi5 is not bricked but it's sitting on my table as a brick to keep my papers from flying. I can't use it without Android Auto working. All I can do is to wait (which I hate) for the bootloader to be unlocked, flash the global ROM and pray that Android Auto work.

With the new MIUI 8 Global Public beta coming out on Jul 11, I hope the dev team could take a look at this before releasing it, because I can't wait for another 1 month for the Stable release:

1. Please fix the USB default connection mode to be MTP, or at least allow people to change to. In MTP it's still charging. For a developer like me it's very annoying to see ADB doesn't recognize the phone because it's in the wrong mode and I have to manually change it to MTP.

2. Please really take a look into the Gapps you are puting in. I've been through a hellish experience trying to find a good Gapps package that has proper contact sync, supports multiple Google accounts well, and has PlayStore download apps on LTE. I have an unlimited package data but somehow the Gapps I use "Waiting for LAN to download because of the package size". More importantly, could you please test and assure that Android Auto will work? Because if not, after my bootloader is unlocked, I will have to install another ROM that supports Android Auto properly.

I'm sorry if this is too long, but my original excitement with the new device is now gone. I have to go back to my OnePlus 2. If you want to help, please approve my bootloader unlocking application so I can still keep trying...

If anyone knows a way to make a locked Mi5 work with Gapps and Android Auto please let me know!

Thanks for reading. Peace!