A brief Mi Box setup guide (fixed several issues I had)

by PalebloodSky

Grabbed one of these new $69 Mi Box and had some trouble with rebooting and acting weird with my USB drive. Got it configured perfectly now and wanted to share on Reddit what I did. It's a great little device...

  1. Perform Initial Setup
  2. Update: Settings > About > Update; complete the update and reboot.
  3. Reset: Settings > Storage & reset. Do Factory Reset. Then re-setup the device from scratch now that update is applied. This fixed several issues I had.
  4. Update Apps: many apps didn't update automatically. In Google Play, search for and update:
    • WebView, Google, Android TV Launcher, Text-to-speach, Live Channels, YouTube, Netflix, Spotify, VLC, etc. Please let me know if I missed any.
  5. If you don't like the added MiBox Launcher features it can be disabled in Settings > Apps > Running Apps
  6. Recommended Apps:
    • File Manager: more lightweight than ES, has a dark theme, no ads, simple layout, etc.
    • SPMC: fork of Kodi, a bit more fine-tuned for Android, includes added features like Android TV voice search.
    • RetroArch: excellent emulator app that lets you play all old NES, SNES, Genesis, Arcade, etc. games from the No-Intro Collection romset. Initial setup requires moderate configuration but plenty of good guides out there: https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/54qf9d/finally_found_a_use_for_the_old_nexus_7/d85u1kc/
  7. Mi Box, RetroArch, etc. all work great with a USB controller such as: https://www.amazon.com/Buffalo-Classic-USB-Gamepad-PC/dp/B002B9XB0E
firsthour

I installed RetroArch the other night but it doesn't recognize the remote at all. Haven't bothered setting up a controller yet but is this unusual?

gt5679a

I've had it since launch and it's been great. I basically did the same as you to set it up only I also uninstalled many of the preinstalled apps I didn't use/need. Not sure it was a necessary step, but I figured if I'm not going to use them I might as well get rid of them.

efuipa

Do you happen to remember specific problems that you think the Factory Reset fixed? I'm hesitant to Reset now that I've got everything to set up, but I run into a couple random issues every now and then (which I can't think of off the top of my head), and if it fixes some good problems I'm willing.

scoobydooxp

Is anyone else seeing stuttering (low FPS) when using Vue/Youtube/etc? I was hoping this would be the perfect box but even after following the setup guide above, the issue persists.

darknessgp

For #4, which apps should be default to be there? For example, I don't have text to speech, Google, or webview. And things like vlc and others were already up to date. Is there something I may be missing?

Sunny_Cakes

There's no app called 'mibox launcher'.

nextapp

did you get the mi box to configured USB drive as internal storage and migrate all pre-installed apps without the oops settings crash bug

FrankUnderwoodFU

Hi, I disconnected the XiaomiLeanbackCustomizer as you suggested, but instead now I get a spinning wheel saying "recommendations are being prepared" and then finally its says "no recommendations available at this time.

Am I supposed to also disable the "leanback Launcher" app in addition to the above app?

I have tried restarting a few time and it still searches for recommendations.