Poco F1 users report borked APN config with MIUI 10.2

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New updates are being added at the bottom of this story…….

Thanks to Xiaomi Firmware Updater, tracking Xiaomi’s software development is pretty easier nowadays. For end users, they can easily spot the updates and skip the regular queue effortlessly.

MIUI 10.2 is currently rolling and its an incremental update on top of original MIUI 10. Reportedly the development of MIUI 11 has already been started, and Xiaomi is probably holding off a bunch of software features for the next major update.

For Poco F1 (alternatively Pocophone F1), the most current update on the Global Stable branch is V10.2.2.0.PEJMIXM. Xiaomi’s OTA servers started the public distribution of this update few days back.

Now there are reports of losing the ability to change the APN settings after this update, particularly from UK users (as far as we can see):

https://twitter.com/Cybewave/status/1087827649282617349

We have taken another look and noticed that similar incidents are reported on Xiaomi’s own forums as well (example).

Going back little further, there are threads on various forums about exact APN related glitches among UK users:

Pocophone f1 will not allow me to change the APN settings manually. spent 4 hours trying to do it even spent an hour on phone to network provider. i am on talkmobile in uk

(Source)

Hi all,

This is a strange problem I don’t find anywhere. In summary, I cannot create or modify APNS. This is the relevant information:

– I have a Pocophone Global version with MIUI 10.1.3.0.
– I’m using a Lebara UK SIM card with an active data plan.
– Data are available when in the UK but not when roaming in Europe (Spain in particular)
– Data are available with a different phone and the same SIM card and plan.
– It only does not work with the pocophone.
– All solutions I see are to add a new APN with the right configuration.
– In my pocophone there are two APN set by default, and none of they work when roaming (Vodafone UK and Vodafone UK Prepay). The configuration seems fine, although the APN type is set to “default,supl,mms”

– I CANNOT modify the existing APNs.
– I CANNOT create a new APN.

– In the APNs menu the only option is to “Reset to default” but there is no “New APN”. I can see the “New APN” button when using a different SIM card, from a different company.
– With other SIM cards in my pocophone I can actually create or modify APNs. In that case I can create or modify APNs, but not with the Lebara UK SIM card.

The only solution Lebara is suggesting is to create a new APN with the correct settings, but I cannot do that in my pocophone. I would really appreciate if someone has some clue on how to deal with it, or if there is an alternative way to create APNs.

Thank you very much to everyone in advance.

Cheers.

(Source)

As a matter of fact, for both cases users are running V10.1.3.0.PEJMIFI – the version before the latest one. Similar incompatibilities were reported earlier (example: here, here) with MIUI 10.x and Fido Solutions, a Canadian cellular provider.

There are some unofficial workarounds to overcome the issues, such as forcefully show the ‘Add APN’ intent or manually add the required APNs via ADB.

Judging from the user feedbacks, the situation seems to be an older unresolved issue with certain carriers which pops up again as a regression.

Are you using Poco F1 and having issues with APN configurations? Comment below.

Update

Alvin Tse, Head of Pocophone Global, reached out to users and confirmed that the above issue is known to them. It should be fixed in next beta build.

Xiaomi usually releases beta builds in every week. There is no ETA given for stable builds however.

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