Enabling Developer Options in Xiaomi Redmi and Mi3 for Android Development and USB Debugging

I hope many of us in India were able to grab the Xiaomi Mi3 or Redmi throught the flash sale on Flipkart. If you haven't, I would highly recommend to get this value for money phone.

Anyways, for me, the primary purpose of buying this phone was to use it for Android App development. To my surprise, I couldn't find the USB Debugging option in the Settings. I was utterly confused and so I did the obvious - Googled it.

It turns out, the Developer Options are hidden by default in the MIUI - the custom UI that comes installed on Xiaomi phones. And to show these hidden options is like finding an easter egg.

To enable the developer options follow the steps as below -

1. Open Settings -> General Settings -> About Phone (Screenshot 1)
2. Tap on the item "Android version" (Screenshot 2). As you tap on it, you will see a toast message saying "x more clicks from Developer Options"
3. As you keep tapping, finally you will see a toast message confirming "You are now a developer" (Screenshot 3)
4. Thats it. To confirm the Developer options are enabled, go back to General Settings and find Developer options under System settings group (Screenshot 4)

This phone have host of Developer options ranging from the basic of keeping phone awake to doing some basic profiling. I haven't checked out all of them yet, but hope to do so soon. Happy coding.

Screenshot #1

Screenshot #2

Screenshot #3

Screenshot #4