yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] MissyVixen:
Additional question : would flashing this rom affect the camera quality? I've noticed that irrespective of the camera app everything is blurry looks like you are photographing through wax paper. Tried messing with all the settings and so forth but nothing really makes a difference. The stock Sony camera also looks to have terrible jpeg compression?

Is this just me or is it lacklustre?
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] AKToronto:
Soo, I recently recieved this phone, (the US version) and am looking to get to the UK firmware.. This seems to be the place to go! One question, will using the utilities in the original post (OP) disable the DRM stuff (TA)??? Should I back those up?
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] AKToronto:
Hello? Anyone know the answer? LOL... does installing new firmware unlock bootloader, etc?

Edit: never mind I figured it all out lol. So what firmware do people find to be the best for Canada? UK seem good?
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] MissyVixen:
I wanted to follow up with some things :

Solved my specific camera issues : the images were fine, just the Sony album app made them really blurry. Using Google photos as the photo album fixed it. I guess the album from Sony was only loading thumbnails based on posts elsewhere.

Additional : I don't know how it is for others but I have stability issues.

Phone randomly reboots occasionally, usually if connected to WiFi. I've not had a random reboot if connected to mobile data. [tried b/g/n]

Every so often the screen stops rotating when you rotate the phone. Toggling the setting does nothing and I have to reboot.

Sometimes I cannot swipe apps to the right to remove them from memory, others I cannot swipe left to remove them. Sometimes I can't swipe individual windows at all and have to clear all or reboot.

I'm not rooted, or on a custom recovery. I've made no mods via adb.
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] Angelouf:
Xperia X Compact finger print sensor won't work

Hi guys, I'm a complete noob at this and I tried following the steps from a Mac, I watched a video on how to do it and it shows this thread. Can anybody tell me the steps to do it on a Mac? Or could you guys post step by step on Mac. I get stuck on the part where I have to type mono XperFirm.exe into the Terminal app because after I do it, It says: no such file or directory. Thanks.
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] MissyVixen:
Exe files are Ms dos/windows binary files. So far as I know there is not a native way to run them on the bsd terminal of osx. I got out of the macintosh game back when they still used IBM power pc chips which had no ability to parse x86 code so I'm not much help here.

I'd say the easy way is to just do it in a virtual machine or failing that see if there are *nix scripts which for the most part should compile on osx with a few tweaks?

I've never had good luck with mono runtime or with wine for running windows stuff on Ubuntu, I don't expect it's better on a Mac.
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] 9h0s7:
All I do is flash only the system.sin from a fingerprint enabled Rom on top of my US firmware via flash tool. easy peasy.
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] Sean09:
I heard the USA firmware now has it enabled without having to flash after a recent update. Can anyone confirm whether it's now working fine?
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] piruzinho:
Wait, for real!?
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] Sean09:
A new Amazon review stated that.
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] piruzinho:
LOL, who will be the first person here to actually try it? Az reviewers aren't the brightest bulbs on the tree :o
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] Sean09:
I'll test it on mine when it arrives.
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] MissyVixen:
I am currently downloading it to try.

On t-mobile US i've been having a hell of a time with MMS flat out refusing to work a lot of the time no matter the APN settings or Messaging app with the UK Custom Firmware. So this will attempt to test both things.
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] MissyVixen:
Just flashed the currentus rom. No biometrics in the security settings.

Followup: following another user's suggestion in the thread yields vastly better signal coverage and significantly faster data speeds as a tmaybe customer.

Flash the US rom, then flash only the system.sin from the UK rom to enable the fingerprint scanner.

I've gone from 0 bar indicated at my home to 4, I've gone from 1 bar at work to 4 or 5. Network speed has jumped in both locations from less than 4mb/s to over 10mb/s. I now have 4g/lte indicated basically everywhere.
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] Sean09:
If I've got a USA ROM already i assume that i just flash that file? I'll have to do it after each update as well correct?
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] MissyVixen:
In theory, yes. Just flashing the system.sin from the UK firmware is all that's needed to have the fingerprint reader.

But each ota update I'd assume will update the system files and you will have to re flash it. This also resets all apps one may have installed as system apps <su granting app, busybox etc> and they will need to be updated. I mean, it is just wiping and re imaging it.

It does leave user apps, setting, cache and oddly kernel intact
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] delvirtud:
Can you give a detailed account of the procedure you used with example file names? For instance, did you use the 244 US then the 238 UK .sin? I think I understand what you are stating but I do not want to misconstrue anything.

Much appreciation.

del
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] MissyVixen:
I dirty flashed the entire current US rom <.244> and attempted to use that to check and see if biometrics was enabled. At this time I also re downloaded carrier mms and Internet settings through the phone.

Per another user who suggested this, I flashed the. 238 UK system.sin only using flash tool. I unchecked all other sin files, did not clear cache or perform any resets/wipes.

Upon completion, reboot to recovery and push/install su and busybox, if you don't they will be missing when you reboot as it overwrites /system/

This should leave all you user data, accounts, and so forth intact. This also now shows LTE as a network option if you set custom Apn or network limits. This also preserves the north American 5segment signal indicator, preserved the emergency broadcast system app, and so forth.
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] delvirtud:
Thank you much. Just to clarify, you flashed the "system_S1-SW-LIVE-D553-PID1-0006-MMC.sin", correct?

Also, no issues with the dirty flash? I really do not want to set up all my apps again.
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] MissyVixen:
I'd have to look on my PC. I just used the flash tool, and did not manually flash the system.sin through the command line, as such I'm not sure the exact file name.

I did not have to set up anything again, email still worked, my Google accounts were set up etc.
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] delvirtud:
OK. Thanks again.

Cheers!

I wonder. Instead of flashing US then the UK .sin, would it work to replace the US .sin with the UK .sin before creating the ftf.
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] delvirtud:
After multiple avenues, it is a wash. I tried a dirty flash with US 244 with system.sin from UK 238. Stuck at SONY logo.

Went back to CE1 228 (LTE, 4 bars, fingerprint reader enabled). :(

Might try more scenarios later. If anyone has anymore ideas to try, shoot.
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] MissyVixen:
It took my phone about 20 minutes to reboot after the dirty flash. Im not really sure why, but it eventually got going.
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] delvirtud:
Was it stuck on the white SONY for that period? I only waited about 5-10 minutes. If so, I will try it again.
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] MissyVixen:
it was stuck on the Sony for quite some time, then stuck on the xperia logo for quite some time. Somewhere for 20-30 minutes between the two. The phone also turned into a wonderful handwarmer during this time.
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] AKToronto:
I wonder if flashing the UK system.sin over the US version works for those who have unlocked their bootloader. I have kept mine locked for now. When I tried it stayed on sony logo for over an hour. ... Tough choices as I dont want to loose the DRM with the bootloader unlock... The US version is more up to date than UK and does seem to work better for some... LOLZ
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] MissyVixen:
So back up your ta partition and have keep them elsewhere for Rolling into kernels later. I did back up my ta/drm information and unlock the bootloader, flash recovery, and roll my ta info back into the genesis kernel. It takes less than 5 minutes.
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] SuperMcPyro:
Trouble

I currently have the US version Sony Xperia XZ Premium G8142 and I'm having issues flashing my phone so that I could use the fingerprint scanner and it's stating that Device is connected with USB debugging off and under that it says for 2011 devices line, be sure you are not in MTP mode. What am I supposed to do to fix that? When I try to flash, it doesn't pull up the downloaded file. I downloaded the Central Europe file. If anyone could help it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!!
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] makingmark:
Like AKToronto, flashing an EU system.sin (I used CE1) did not work for me - phone stuck at Sony logo on boot for over an hour.

Based on this thread, I instead flashed CE1, but then reflashed only the US OEM.sin. This gets me the 5 signal bars of US firmware. It might enable VoLTE too based on my reading of that thread, but I wouldn't know as I'm on AT&T (I don't think AT&T allows VoLTE on unlocked phones, not sure). Delvirtud opines here that X Compact doesn't work with VoLTE on TMobile. And this site agrees: http://www.spectrumgateway.com/compatible-phones#unlocked
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] ondrejvaroscak:
You need to conenct your phone in "Flash Mode" ... it means, pull the USB cable out, power the phone OFF. Then in Flashtool select the file you want to flash (Flashmode), select the options you want to exclude and wipe (basically you want to wipe all but USERDATA and exlude none). After a while when Flashtool finishes preparing the file, it will tell you to connect the Phone in Flash Mode. To do so, tak the switched off phone, push the VOLUME DOWN button, hold it pushed and connect the phone to USB. The greed LED should lit up and the Flashtool starts flashing the files to the phone. After finished, disconnect the phone and power it on. The first boot can take up to 10 Minutes.
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] Speedwagon98:
I'm having the same issue with an XZ Premium in the US.

I power off, hold down volume down, plug in until green light comes on. But I only get the "connected with USB debugging off" and "2011 devices..." messages.
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] Magdy Yassen:
guys i installed us version and fingerprint not found if i back to Customized MEA version fingerprint will work again ?
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] MrCalyx:
Anyone with a solution to the 'Unable to connect to the server, please try later' error? I tried to update my java to no luck.
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] mystycs:
If i install the UK fingerprint version. Will the update still come to my phone? I see they have new updates now and oreo 8 is coming. Will i be able to install those from within the device or will i run into issues?

Also are there any issues using the UK rom over the US rom?

Also are there any better ways to enable the fingerprint sensor without install the UK version?

Does it also void warranty?

Thanks!
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] MechaBouncer:
It's been a year since I did it, but I'm pretty sure I installed the Central Europe version instead of UK. My icons show "LTE" when connected to it instead of "4G" like some other regions do. Haven't noticed any real problems with it aside from sluggishness after the Nougat update. I still get monthly firmware updates over the air from Sony. Usually a couple weeks behind when they send me an email notification. It shouldn't void the warranty as it's still an official firmware from Sony.
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] mkarps:
I have been flashed to CE1 and have received all updates including Oreo and August security patch just fine. However is anything new with Oreo and being able to flash the U.S. rom for the signal bars, then flash part from CE1 or UK to get the fingerprint reader but also keep the 5 signal bars? Does this guide still work with oreo?
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] mkarps:
Will this work on oreo? If I am on CE1 oreo now is there a way I just flash the US oem.sin without wiping data etc?
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] ScallywagginIT:
I am also curious if flashing the US OEM.sin is possible while keeping the UK customized firmware? If the Sony Xperia X Compact is not certified by T-mobile though, I'm guessing VoLTE still will not work. I at least want the US signal bars and band 12 support if this would work.
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] mkarps:
Did you end up trying? I just haven't had time yet. I am on Att but I believe that your right, since not certified you will not connect to band 12 which is needed for volte.
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] ScallywagginIT:
I was able to successfully flash the OEM.sin file from the US Customized firmware bundle onto my stock CE1 firmware. The signal bars changed from a depiction of 4 bars to 5 bars and it now says LTE rather than 4G. Because I have CE1 firmware, the fingerprint reader is still working perfectly. I am on MetroPCS in CO, USA and where I live the phone uses Band 2 for service. I haven't moved to a better location yet to see if it uses Band 12 or not. VoLTE does NOT work after flashing the OEM.sin as I believe the feature is not allowed via the firmware Sony uses. Dialing *#*#4636#*#* to access the special menu shows "VoLTE Provisioned" as greyed out and disabled completely which leads me to believe that something in most firmwares for this phone do not allow the option whatsoever per Sony's decision.

To do this, I downloaded XperiFirm v5.3.7 and Flashtool v0.9.25.0 (even though I guess that XperiFirm is now included within Flashtool, I used them separately). Through XperiFirm I downloaded the US Customized firmware. I then used Flashtool to create a bundle with only the OEM.sin file and also clicked Yes to include the offered 34.fsc script into the firmware bundle. I then enabled Developer Options within the phone by going to System->About phone and clicking on Build number multiple times. Within Developer Options I enabled USB Debugging. Then I turned the phone off, connected it to my computer through USB while holding down the volume button on it, made sure it was detected in Flashtool using Flashmode and then flashed the firmware bundle I made. Please let me know if there are any questions. This has been done using firmware version 34.4.A.2.118 / R2E (Oreo).
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] everdred:
Visually there is 1 less bar for cellular (4 instead of 5) but I'm getting the same service (based on signal data) so visually it looks like it is worse but it's the exact same.
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] ericwasser:
Drivers error

Hi, when I plug my Xperia X Compact Flashtool says there's an error due to some driver problems. It's the first time I use the program and I've never flashed a cellphone before. Can Anyone help me?
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] lbafia63:
can someone help me I want to do this but I want to make sure my stock/original firmware is backed up. I tried using Xperia Companion and pulling the files from the folders but its not working.
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] ericwasser:
Works like a clock!

I was able to do it. Very easy and the fingerprint reader works great, very fast.! thank you
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] evang3los:
I am unable to get part 4 to work. The area for typing in my phone model is grayed out. is there something i can do to fix this ? or can someone make a video of this?
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] drrobo:
Yes, you just have to double click the box, even though it's grayed out. It'll open a window to choose your phone model.
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] 44alexsmith:
After the UK firmware install, are you able to use the Sony Beta app?
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] viitwiinfoto:
My drivers are updated (installed xperia companion to make sure and tried to manually update driver from sony site also). I have the most recent flashtool installed. When I hold the down the DOWN arrow and plug in device, I get:

ERROR - Drivers need to be installed for connected device.

ERROR - You can find them in the drivers folder of Flashtool.

but when I hold UP arrow and plug in usb I am able to get to fastboot mode. However, when trying to flash the UK firmware it gets stuck at "Preparing the files for flashing" then a prompt comes up saying to unplug usb from device, power off device, hold the DOWN arrow and plug in device. I do those steps and I'm back at the first predicament where I get the driver error. And I'm now in an endless loop. I've tried with two different usb ports and two different cables.
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] viitwiinfoto:
Ok I finally found where I went wrong. When I installed FlashTool I did not notice the directory in C drive but only another one in C:\Users\Admin\.flashtool which was where my ftf file went (but there was no drivers folder). After finding the flashtool directory in C drive, I installed Flashtool-drivers. After that I was able to connect my xperia X in fastboot mode by holding down the DOWN arrow and flash the firmware.

Upon turning my phone back on and waiting for it to load the updates, I was surprised to see that nothing has been deleted or device reset. Everything was still in tact but with the addition of my newly added fingerprint sensor.

Thanks everyone!
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] chenpengup:
Hi, thank you for the tutorial.

I just ordered a xperia xz from Amazon and it is a US model.

Do I need to root the phone first to do all this?

Thank you!
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] everdred:
No root needed. You are applying a legit Sony firmware to make it work.
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] rogowar:
Canadian firmware?

I've heard that the Canadian firmware also supports the fingerprint (US patent mess continues). Anyone worked with that?
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] hikihibiki:
Hmm, I can't find the Canadian firmware under XperiFirm.
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] everdred:
Unfortunately, no. I have tried UK and Noridic NOBA.
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] everdred:
I've just discovered that you get the LTE icon back if you flash the central Europe firmware.
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] hikihibiki:
How many signal bars are there?
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] everdred:
There are 4, 1 less than American I believe.
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] thefryguy:
I flashed the UK firmware, but i'm getting a significantly worse signal now. My dBm hangs out in the -107 range where it would be in the 60's. I have no other reason to think this was due to the UK firmware flash.

Is there any other way to keep my US firmware and maybe root the device and get the fingerprint reader to work?
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] peltruquin:
Under the wipe part on the flash tool, did you tick all the options? This new flashtool has more options to select as in the provided link, I have QNOVO not sure if I should select that one

---------- Post added at 05:39 AM ---------- Previous post was at 05:37 AM ----------

Which Carrier are you on?
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] senzubeanz:
I have the Sony Xperia X Compact and when I launch the flashtool and plugin my device it wants me to select my model from the drop down list and there isn't one for the x compact. If I cancel out, it tells me my device is locked and I can't use it. I went through developer options and unlocked the OEM setting, but this didn't help at all. Anyone know what I'm doing wrong here? I have the latest version of the flashtool from Sony's website.
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] Halftrack:
X compact isn't supported by Emma yet (unless that changed recently). Use Xperifirm.
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] senzubeanz:
Xperiafirm is the application used to grab the firmware, though. What do I use as the FlashTool? I thought that was Emma.
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] Halftrack:
Use the flash tool link on the first thread. It has Xperifirm built into it. You don't even have to do the separate DL of Xperifirm the flashtool has everything you need.
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] nialv7:
Will I lose my DRM keys if I flash the UK rom?
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] Nimda01:
No.

If you didn't mess with BLU button in flashtool, then your DRM keys will still exist.
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] Notchr302:
Anyone want to make some money by doing this for me..lol I'm a roofer .
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] pipspeak:
So are we sure the firmware is not activating/deactivating certain LTE or HSPA bands based on firmware region?
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] sman789:
I haven't read this whole thread but does this modify the bootloader or root it making Android Pay useless?
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] Notchr302:
Can you guys tell me if you are getting good signal or any issues for those running on T-Mobile?
[Sony Xperia X Compact Guides, News, & Discussion] Halftrack:
I don't think so. US/UK version both seem to use the same bands. At least I haven't noticed any difference. Will dig around a bit to double check though. The only band I know that you do lose on UK firmware is the emergency one. I can't remember which band that is but it's the one that sends your phone those emergency alerts at times about weather or a child abduction in the area.

P.S. Side note the screen shots in the article below show what changes between US and UK version so it should be all the same. The only change is from US-LTE3A to Global-LTE3A. Other than that is the customization version which is from R4B to R5B. I used the UK version on my old Z1 Compact for years (since it wasn't released in the US) and never had a problem on Tmo. Visually signal strength may look weaker but it appears to be all the same. US uses 5 bars to represent signal as to UK only using 4. So with a total 20% difference in representation of the signal strength icon someone on US version might show 2 bars vs the UK showing 1 but they both have the same signal. At least that's my thought on it anyway lol.

Other than contacting Sony themselves there is no real way of knowing 100% since the full info is kept in the modem software and is never offered up to the application processor. There are no apps that can tell you this information. The only information given on such network apps is the current band being used by the phone itself.

http://www.xperiablog.net/2016/10/05/confirmed-usa-xperia-xz-and-x-compact-owners-can-re-enable-the-fingerprint-sensor/