Part of Xiaomi guides, Pixel Experience guides, 2023 guides.

You want the Pad 5 to feel like a big Pixel — clean launcher, Google apps you actually use, none of the extra software Xiaomi piles on. PixelExperience Plus is the build I keep coming back to on this tablet for exactly that reason.

Sideloading it is not hard. It is just unforgiving about sequence. Skip the wipe at the start and you will be staring at a black screen wondering which step went wrong. Follow the order below and it boots the first time.

What you need

• A PC with the ADB and Fastboot driver installed, so Windows can see the tablet.
• Platform Tools extracted on that PC, so you can run fastboot and adb from the folder.
• boot.img and vendor_boot.img pulled straight out of the ROM package. You need them as separate files, so keep the extracted zip around.
• The full ROM zip, untouched, ready to sideload.
• A charged tablet and a cable that holds a connection. This is not the place for the cable that only charges.

Step 1 - get the images out of the ROM package

Open the ROM zip and copy out boot.img and vendor_boot.img. Leave the zip itself intact, because that is the file recovery will sideload later. If you unpack the zip into a folder and lose the zip, go back to the download.

Step 2 - wipe before anything else

Boot the tablet to the bootloader and run:

fastboot -w

Do this first. Wiping after you flash is the single mistake behind most black screens on this device. The wipe clears the old system and the old data, and it gives the new build a clean surface to land on.

Step 3 - flash the two boot images

Still in the bootloader, push the images:

fastboot flash boot boot.img

fastboot flash vendor_boot vendor_boot.img

Both must match the ROM package you downloaded. Do not mix images from an older build with a newer zip. If they do not match, the tablet is likely to hang on the boot animation.

Step 4 - get into recovery

fastboot reboot recovery

Give it a moment. Recovery takes a few seconds to come up on the Pad 5. When you are in, confirm your PC still sees the tablet:

adb devices

You want a device serial and the word sideload or device next to it. If the list is empty, the driver or the cable is the problem, and sideloading will fail no matter how many times you retry.

Step 5 - sideload the ROM

Tell recovery to wait for a package:

adb reboot sideload

Then push the zip you kept from step 1:

adb sideload

Followed by the ROM zip name or its full path. The transfer takes a while, and the percentage on screen is not always accurate. Do not touch the cable. If it stalls, it is almost always the connection, not the ROM.

Step 6 - wipe data and reboot

When the sideload finishes, get a shell on the device:

adb shell

Then run:

recovery --wipe_data

That last wipe clears the data left behind by the flash. After that, exit the shell with exit and run:

adb reboot

The first boot on a clean flash is slow. Leave the tablet alone and let it work. Plugging something in or tapping the screen does not make it faster.

Where people get stuck

• Running the wipe after the flash instead of before it. Wipe first, then push the images. This is the one that costs people an evening.
• A cable that half-drops during sideload. The transfer stops mid-way and you start over. Use a cable you trust and a port straight on the PC, not a hub.
• Expecting a quick first boot. On a clean flash it takes a while. That is normal on this build, not a failure.

Notes from this build

SELinux is Enforcing, and SafetyNet passes, so banking and payment apps behave normally. The one thing to know is Xiaomi's keyboard and the pen will not work here unless you set SELinux to permissive. If you use the Pad 5 as a pen tablet, that is worth thinking about before you wipe MIUI off it.

For the driver and platform tools side, the free Rom Flasher tool on GitHub bundles the ADB and fastboot driver install so you are not hunting Device Manager. It is free, and the link is with the others on this page.

Full description from the video

PixelExperience Plus on the Xiaomi Pad 5 — Android 13, sideloaded through recovery, with the command order that gets it booting the first time.

This is the build I keep coming back to on the tablet. PixelExperience Plus sits close to stock Pixel, so you get the clean launcher, the Google apps you actually use, and none of the extra software Xiaomi piles on top. Sideloading it isn't hard, but the order matters. Skip the wipe and you'll be staring at a black screen wondering which step went wrong.

📱 Device : Xiaomi Pad 5 (Mi Pad 5)

🧩 ROM : PixelExperience Plus

🤖 Android : 13

👤 Credits : DT & kernel source — @dev_harsh1998 · build by @SummonHIM

🛠️ What You Need

• A PC with the ADB and Fastboot driver installed
• Platform Tools, extracted so fastboot runs from that folder
• boot.img and vendor_boot.img pulled straight out of the ROM package
• The full ROM zip, ready to sideload
• A charged tablet and a cable that holds the connection

📝 Steps

1. fastboot -w
2. fastboot flash boot boot.img
3. fastboot flash vendor_boot vendor_boot.img
4. fastboot reboot recovery
5. adb devices
6. adb reboot sideload
7. adb sideload (the ROM zip)
8. adb shell, then recovery --wipe_data
9. adb reboot

⚠️ Where People Get Stuck

• Running the wipe after the flash instead of before it. Wipe first, then push the images.
• A cable that half-drops the connection during sideload. The transfer stalls and you start over.
• Expecting a quick first boot. On a clean flash it takes a while — leave the tablet alone.

📌 Notes From This Build

• SELinux status is Enforcing
• SafetyNet passes
• Xiaomi's keyboard and pen won't work here unless you set SELinux to permissive

Common questions

More for Xiaomi Pad 5