Xiaomi has begun to actively block smartphones illegally imported into different countries

Xiaomi does not interfere with the operation of smartphones imported into different countries by illegal or semi-legal means. For example, a person can order a cheap Chinese version of a smartphone and use it calmly in Europe if only the frequencies coincide and the user is satisfied with everything in terms of software. Occasionally, the company blocked devices used in one region but intended for another, but those were almost isolated cases until now.

According to the source, users in Cuba, Iran, Syria, North Korea (!), Sudan, and Crimea began to massively complain about the blocking of their smartphones. Reports on this can be found on the Reddit and XDA-Developers forums, Facebook, and other sites.

In most cases, the situation looks like this. After a few days of normal smartphone use, a lock message appears on the screen with the following content:

Xiaomi policy does not authorize the sale or provision of a product in the territory in which you attempted to activate it. Please contact sellers directly for more information.

There is an opinion that Xiaomi began to block devices only in the above-mentioned countries and regions, and users of other countries should not be affected by the blocking of smartphones. Nevertheless, it is impossible to say for sure here, since if Xiaomi has undertaken to actively block smartphones, then many more users could potentially suffer. However, there is a solution: the blocking does not affect smartphones with third-party firmware.

For the past few weeks, Xiaomi has been proactively blocking users from provisioning their phones if they live in Cuba, Iran, Syria, North Korea, Sudan, or Crimea, in order to comply with export regulations and stop resellers. https://t.co/51AdXIMgnW

— Mishaal Rahman (@MishaalRahman) September 9, 2021

Interestingly, Xiaomi's user agreement clearly states that the user cannot resell devices to another country if this is prohibited by law. That is, here we are talking about gray imports. But at the same time, there is nothing in the rules about blocking.