Xiaomi’s mobile devices are known for their flexibility in customization, which often requires tampering with software structure. Gadget owners are faced with the need to modify system files, remove preinstalled debris or install customized receptacles, all of which begin with one basic skill: the ability to properly unpack the firmware archive, and it’s not just opening a zip file, but working with a complex data structure hidden inside.
The process of extracting firmware components allows you to access the system, boot, vendor and other critical areas. Without this step, you can not deep customization or qualitative analysis of errors that occur after a failed update. It is important to understand that standard Windows or macOS archivers often do not cope with the payload.bin format used in modern versions of MIUI and HyperOS.
In this article, we will explore all the nuances of working with firmware images, from simple zip archives to complex binary containers. You will learn what tools are necessary to work safely with the file system of a smartphone. Modern Xiaomi firmware uses the payload.bin format, which cannot be opened by a conventional archiver without special utilities-converters. Get ready to dive into the technical side of Android.
Why you need to unpack firmware images
The main reason users are looking for a way to unpack Xiaomi firmware is to gain full control of the device. The standard operating system restricts access to many system folders. Retrieving the contents of the archive allows modifiers to remove undeleteable applications, replace fonts at the system level or implement root rights directly into the bootloader.
Developers and enthusiasts use this method to create custom builds, take the official clean version of MIUI, remove the redundant and optimize the code, and for the average user, it's the ability to recover lost system files if the phone is in a reboot cycle, or transfer specific drivers from one model to another when building a universal image.
Unpacking is also essential for security analysis, as experts check partition content for hidden miners or spyware modules, and understanding the firmware structure answers the question of what exactly changed after the next “over the air” update.
- 🔧 Modifying system files and removing bloatware.
- 🛡️ Security analysis and search for malicious code.
- 📱 Creation of custom recavers and restoration of sections.
- ⚙️ Removing drivers and libraries for (porting) to other devices.
⚠️ Warning: Any manipulation of system files risks turning the device into a brick.Be sure to have a working copy of the bootloader before you start, or know how to enter Fastboot mode.
Types of firmware and structure of Xiaomi archives
Before you start unpacking, you need to determine the type of file you have. Xiaomi's firmware architecture has changed over the years. Early versions of MIUI used a simple structure where all partitions were represented by separate files inside the zip archive. Modern versions have moved to a single binary container.
There are two main distribution formats: Recovery ROM and Fastboot ROM. The first is designed to be updated through the recovery menu and usually has the.zip extension. Inside it can lie another zip or set of img files. The second option is an image for firmware through a computer, often having the.tgz extension. It is in Fastboot ROM that the payload.bin file, which requires a special approach, is most common.
Inside the archive, you can find many sections: boot.img (kernel), recovery.img (restore menu), system.img (main system) and vbmeta.img (integrity check). Understanding the purpose of each file is critical so that you don't accidentally damage the bootloader when you modify it.
The differences in structure affect the choice of tool, and if you see a list of files with the.img extension right after you open the archive, you're lucky it's an old or simplified format, and if you have one huge file, a few gigabytes, called payload.bin, you're going to be ready to use special converters.
Necessary tools for working with archives
Windows Explorer won't be enough to run properly, you'll need specialized software that can handle large amounts of data and specific compression formats correctly, and the basic tool is a 7-Zip or WinRAR archiver, but they only open the outer shell.
The main tool for working with modern firmware will be the Payload Dumper utility, a console program that can read the payload.bin structure and extract individual img files from it. There are many versions of this utility written in Python or compiled in exe files for Windows.
Also, you can't do without a text editor that supports UTF-8 encoding if you want to edit the installation scripts. To verify the integrity of the extracted files, you sometimes need hash tools to make sure that no broken sectors occur when unpacking.
| Tool. | Appointment | Difficulty of use | OS |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7-Zip | Opening of external archives zip/tgz | Low. | Windows/Linux/macOS |
| Payload Dumper | Extract img from payload.bin | Medium | Windows/Linux |
| Simg2img | Convert sparse img to raw | Tall. | Linux/Android |
| Notepad++ | Script editing | Low. | Windows |
Step-by-step: classic ZIP unpacking
So, to start with, the simplest version of the.zip file, which is found in Recovery ROM or older versions of firmware, if you download a.zip file and you see a partition name or.img file inside, it's a trivial process. You don't need complex console commands.
First, create a new folder on your desktop and name it, for example, MIUI_Unpack. This will help avoid confusion if you unpack multiple versions of the firmware at the same time. Right-click on the downloaded firmware archive, select the item"7-Zip" and press "Unpack in...".
Specify the path to the folder you created. Once you've finished the process, you'll get access to the content. If you're back in the archive (often called firmware-update.zip or just a duplicate), repeat the procedure. You'll end up seeing files like boot.img, system.new.dat, or system.img.
In some cases, you may encounter.new.dat.br. files. This is a compressed Brotli format that is used to save space. Opening them will require an additional brotli converter that translates them into a readable.dat format, and then the sdat2img utility turns them into a full image.
Working with payload.bin in modern MIUI
It gets complicated when you find an image folder inside the archive, and there's a single huge payload.bin file. It's the standard for Fastboot ROM in MIUI 12/13/14 and HyperOS. Opening it directly won't do anything, because it's a binary container packed with a special algorithm.
To extract data, you need Payload Dumper. Download the current version (e.g. payload-dumper-go for speed), unpack the archive with the utility in a separate folder, put the payload.bin file in the same directory where the executable program is located.
Start the program. In the case of console versions, you need to open the command line in the folder and type in the command:
payload-dumper-go payload.binThe program will analyze the file header and begin to extract all the partitions contained inside. The process can take from 2 to 10 minutes depending on the speed of your SSD and the amount of firmware, and at the end you will get a set of.img files ready for analysis or firmware.
⚠️ Note: Do not interrupt Payload Dumper. Interrupting in the middle may cause temporary files to be damaged and you need to start the retrieval procedure.