[Xiaomi Mi Max 3 Guides, News, & Discussion] heartofalion:
I'd like to offer people the best solution so far. For people who have a fake global rom, either 9.6.4 or 9.6.6 and who have an unlocked bootloader, you won't be able to make any calls to other phones.

With the fake ROMs you also won't be able to use banking apps or Netflix, because your bootloader is unlocked. You also won't have OTA updates, because that requires a locked bootloader as well.

The best solution is to install the official China ROM from Xiaomi, lock the bootloader and change the language to English. Everything will work on your Mi Max 3 in this scenario.

Here's a step by step guide on how to properly flash your Mi Max 3:

1. In your fake rom, go to settings and log into your Xiaomi account. This is crucial. If you don't do this, you will brick your phone. If you don't have a Xiaomi account, create one.

2. Once you've binded your phone to your Xiaomi account, turn on the Developer Options in your settings. You can do this by going to Settings>About and then tapp 7 times on the MIUI version text.

3. Now that Developer Options are unlocked, find them in your settings and turn on the top most 3 USB options. Turn off the 4th USB option (4th USB option from the top)

4. Download and install the latest version of MiFlash, Xiaomi's official flash tool. It's available for Windows. Download link: http://api.bbs.miui.com/url/MiFlash

5. Download the latest fastboot version of the China ROM for your Mi Max 3. Extract the file using 7zip until it is extracted all the way to its files and folders. So you might need to extract it a few times. Link to the ROM:

https://en.miui.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=3661955

6. Put your phone in fastboot mode by turning it off and turning it on again using the volume down and power button of your phone. Press them long, until you see that you've booted into fastboot mode.

7. Open MiFlash and connect your phone to your PC. In MiFlash press the refresh button so that your device shows up. Also select your ROM file now. You will need to select the folder that contains all the individual rom files. And finally select "clean and lock". Now press Flash.

8. Flashing and booting your phone can take 10 minutes in total. Let the process of flashing and booting your phone complete fully.

9. Once fully booted you will see a screen in Chinese with 2 buttons. The first button allows you to log into your Xiaomi account. The second button allows you to connect to WIFI. First click the second button and connect to a WIFI source that does NOT require a password. To accomplish this set up a passwordless hotspot on another phone.

10. Now click on the first button and log into your Xiaomi account while being connected to WIFI.

11. Select English as your interface language.

12. Go to the Mi App store. It will be in Chinese, but you can search for 'Google'. The first result will be the Play Store installer. Install the Play Store by clicking 'install' for all of its seperate components. (Not on 'done', but on 'install')

13. Open the Play Store and download the Google Keyboard, so that you have a Westernized English keyboard on your phone and switch to it in your settings.

14. Uninstall the bloatware apps that only come in the Chinese language.

15. That's it. Your phone is now as a good as a Mi Max 3 with a global ROM. Everything works, calling, OTA updates, banking apps and more. The only downside is that you will only have English as a language option.

Currently this is the best option if you want everything to work on your phone.