[Update: Acknowledged] Poco X2/Poco M2 Pro Widevine L1 reportedly lost for some users after recent updates, but there is a possible fix

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

Original story (published on May 07, 2021) follows:

Widevine L1 issues on Xiaomi and Poco devices aren’t something new. They have been plaguing several models for years including the likes of Mi Note 10 Lite, Redmi Note 9S, Redmi Note 8 Pro, and the Poco F1.

The problem is particularly bothersome as a broken Widevine L1 certification automatically downgrades the device to Widevine L3 levels.

This means that you can bid farewell to full HD videos on streaming services like Prime Video and Netflix, and have to instead watch them on a measly 480p resolution.

While some of the devices victimized by this issue never really shipped with Widevine L1 to begin with like the Poco F1, there are several others that lost the certification following a bad update.

One such device is the Poco X2 which has been reported to have lost Widevine L1 after receiving the Android 11 update. Some have also opined that the bad update in question was in fact the security update rolled out in March.

@POCOSupport Hey after the Latest Update on my poco x2, i lost widevine l1 and now i can’t stream hd content. Is it a bug? Will it be fixed?
Source

Poco is downgrading its old models to promote new ones as for me using Poco X2 initially was Widevine L1 but now it is not L1 supported…it is L3.
Source

Either way, there hasn’t been any official acknowledgment to date which means the issue is likely to hang around for a while.

Moreover, judging by the number of complaints, the Widevine L1 issue hasn’t affected everyone that updated their Poco X2. Rather, it seems to have negatively impacted a select group of users, which is quite odd.

Also, if it means anything to you, the Poco M2 Pro is plagued by the same problem as well. So Poco X2 users, you aren’t alone.

Thankfully, there is a way by which you can possibly revive Widevine L1 on your Poco X2 or Poco M2 Pro. It requires an unlocked bootloader though so proceed with extreme caution:

The above procedure attempts to repair the ‘persist’ partition of your device. FYI, most of the Widevine L1 woes occur due to a messed-up persist partition.

To download the TWRP recovery mentioned above for the Poco X2, head here. And for the Poco M2 Pro, head here.

You can also try to repair your device by flashing its fastboot ROM. For a guide on how to do that, head here. Be sure to download the right ROM file according to your region though.

Do note that going through the above processes isn’t exactly encouraged as they haven’t been tested. Only proceed until you are absolutely sure of what you’re doing. A safer fix would be simply taking your device to the service center.

The broken Widevine L1 issue on Poco devices has now been acknowledged by a Xiaomi executive who has forwarded it to the developer team.

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