[ZTE Nubia Z18 Questions & Answers] rup7ur3:
Hello all,

Mirroring through miracast works fine now! I managed to fix the issue I faced with trying to mirror the phone with miracast.

The phone I bought from China came with apparently some manually altered rom. It didn't have much of the bloatware of the Nubia stock firmware. Also, it did not come with the "screen projection" app of Nubia. This app seems to be integrated into the phone. I couldn't find any .apk of it online. I tried a bunch of different apps, none worked. Also, factory resets, did not reinstall that app either.

The solution was simple. I used TWRP to wipe the phone and install the latest (v2.23) rom from the official nubia website: http://ui.nubia.cn/rom/detail/56

After installing it, the app was there and worked instantly.

At the moment now I have some issues with TWRP. I will fix it and see if the build.prop presisted through all of this, I doubt it.

If it did, and any changes are still required, I will update the post.

Kind regards,

Rup7ur3

---- initial post ----

Dear folks,

I'm trying to fix miracast on the Nubia Z18 (NX606J). Currently when I try mirror with the use of wi-fi direct, it doesn't show the miracast dongle I use (anycast).

I've not any experience in this and am trying to google for solutions. Online I have found some answers, but it's not yet working.

Hopefully I'm on the right path, but if anyone can help, it's greatly appreciated.

Why

The reason I want to use miracast, is to stream content to a portable display without the use of internet (so by cable or with WIDI). I don't think this phone supports hdmi/display port. If someone manages to get mirroring to work over cable, please let me know. As for WIDI, I think miracast is the only option? So, my bets are on this horse and I'm trying to make it run. Also, I'm new to this forum. If I post this at the wrong place, please forgive me. I created this thread for this specific model, because the manufacturer, Nubia, creates it's own (quite elaborate) UI on top of stock android. I suspect this could be part of the issue.

Summary so far

What I tried so far, is to install the custom recovery image of TWRP on my smartphone and adb + drivers on my windows 10 pc. Next I used the "mount" option in TWRP to enable adjustments of system files. The file I changed is the /system/build.prop file. I pulled the file using adb commands. Then changed the file on my pc and pushed it back to the phone. I will describe it in detail below. Yet, the sad thing is: it does not work. On another, older, model of the Nubia Z line, the Z9 mini, it did work.

Details

I installed drivers & adb/fastboot and twrp.

TWRP: https://xdaforums.com/nubia-z18/development/recovery-twrp-nubia-z18nx606j-t3882098

Drivers & adb/fastboot: https://bbs.app.nubia.cn/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=1412934 (in chrome download didnt start for me, had to use firefox)

Once the above were installed, I connected my phone with the pc. I put phone settings in developer options to

enable usb debugging.

I got a notification to let my pc debug the phone, and accepted. Next I enabled

"wireless display certification"

,

"OEM unlocking"

and set usb configuration to

"MTP"

instead of charging.

The adb on my pc was installed on my C:\adb\ folder. In the folder hold shift & right click, select open powershell or adb. I checked if my phone was connected using "adb devices". It listed my phone. So I went on and put it in fastboot mode (hold power + decrease volume). I checked if adb recognized fastboot with "fastboot devices". It listed my phone. Then next I unlocked the phone and installed TWRP with the help of this guide, from step 2 onwards: https://bbs.app.nubia.cn/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=1412934

Once TWRP installed. I created a backup of the phone through there. Then I selected the tab "mount" and enabled the system folder. Back to adb, I ran the command "adb devices" to see if my phone was listed, it was. Then I ran the command "adb pull /system/build.prop" that copied the build.prop file to my c:\adb folder. I made a reserve copy of the file and adjusted it with notepad++. These are the lines I added or enabled:

Then I pushed it back with the adb command: "adb push build.prop /system/build.prop". Rebooted the phone, tested the mirroring option, no luck. The phone runs on android 8.1.0, has the nubia V6.0 UI and the build number is NX606J_CNCommonV2.23. Any app whatsoever with a miracast option, will redirect to the system miracast settings. The following screen will appear: https://imgur.com/a/Otf1YO0

The Struggle

I read online several forums where they claimed that setting these was helping other phones to enable miracast. For the Z18 it did not work. I tried this with the Nubia Z9 mini. Miracast did not work on there before, now it does. The build.prop seems to persist fine now. For some reason, the first few attempts (attempt 1 & 2) wiped TWRP and the adjustments on the build.prop. Third time it kept working. TWRP however, still is wiped after a few reboots, but the build.prop file remains intact with the changes I made.

The Nubia Z9 mini has a few stock apps: "screen projection", "screen projection services" and "projection sink". It loads the screen projection app and allows to chose from project/receive and works flawlessly after the build.prop changes. The Z9 mini runs on android 5.1.1 and as Nubia UI V4.0 with build number: NX511J_INCommon_V4.0.4.

I read online that:

and

Yet, I've seen people make it work, by adjusting the build.prop, for later versions also. Not seen one working with android 8.0 or 8.1. Is it impossible for some reason / a hardware thing? If it's a software issue, surely it can be overcome?

I found that the build.prop in the Z9 mini contained the following lines:

I believe it's coupled to those apps I mentioned screen projection apps which are on the z9 mini. It had no effect adding these on the Z18. Now I'm attempting to find those apps and install them on Z18. Or looking for ways to downgrade the Z18 to android 5x. Ideally I do not want to downgrade the android. Any help, advice or questions are greatly appreciated.