Redmi 8A common issues and how to solve them

Xiaomi has a variety of devices for all price segments. One of the most interesting devices on the market in the low-budget division must be Redmi 8A. Great affordable entry device for all undemanding users out there. However, as with all of them, the Redmi 8A has a variety of bugs and common issues we run into on various forums.

We made sure to list all the more prominent issues below, along with applicable solutions.

Note: All the issues mentioned in this article are individually reported cases, which doesn’t mean any of the problems will occur on other devices. If you’re looking to buy this phone, DO NOT consider these problems.

Table of contents:

1. Slow and laggy performance
2. Redmi 8A overheating
3. Battery draining
4. Screen freezing and yellow tint issues
5. Low speaker volume
6. The screen stuck on the dialer
7. Bad touch response
8. Poor Wi-Fi and Mobile signal strength
9. Redmi 8A camera quality issues
10. Can’t set a lock screen wallpaper
11. The phone turns off on its own
12. IR Blaster doesn’t work
13. Common troubleshooting steps for Redmi 8A

1. Slow and laggy performance

With its Snapdragon 439 chipset and up to 4 GB of RAM, the Redmi 8A is quite a regular budget device. It would be unreasonable to expect anything amazing from a device at this price point. Especially from the 2/32 GB variation. However, users reported slow performance and UI lags even with the minimum load, which shouldn’t be the case.

Now, we all know that Xiaomi’s MIUI (Redmi is Xiaomi’s subsidiary FYI) sometimes works flawlessly while other times, due to a lack of proper optimization, it doesn’t hold up to expected standards.

We have a few things you can try to improve the performance of the Redmi 8A. Try these steps:

• Navigate to Settings > My device > System and check for updates. Install an update if available.
• Enable Developer options (Settings > My device > All specs and tap 7 times on the Build number). Then navigate to Additional Settings > Developer options and disable MIUI Optimization at the bottom.
• Get back in Developer options and reduce Animation from 1 to 0.5.
• Reset the device to factory settings (the procedure is explained at the bottom of this article).

2. Redmi 8A overheating

Overheating is never good. If the device is hot over prolonged periods, this might lead to fatal hardware damage and render it unusable. It happens rarely but it’s a possibility nonetheless.

Users reported that Redmi 8A is overheating, especially during charging. If that’s the case for you, consider following the steps below:

• Remove the protective case.
• Don’t use your device while charging.
• Turn on Airplane mode while charging.

3. Battery draining

Having consistent battery longevity is quite hard these days with streaming and gaming and whatnot. One of the selling points of the Redmi 8A is the enormous 5000 mAh Li-Po battery. Big enough to provide users with astonishing 15+ hours of Screen-on Time.

However, some owners of the Redmi 8A reported battery draining fast on the stock MIUI ROM. This is especially prominent after major updates. Follow these instructions to reduce battery draining and increase the SoT on your device:

• Turn off Wi-Fi and Mobile Data overnight.
• Disable Face Unlock.
• Disable unused apps from starting automatically. Navigate to Settings > Apps > Manage apps and individually disable Autostart on apps.
• Use manual brightness settings, it will save you a lot of battery.

4. Screen freezing and yellow tint issues

Again, for this money, it would be too much to expect miracles in any area, especially the display. However, some things can’t be overlooked, as there are reports about screens misbehaving and having a prominent yellow tint.

It seems that the screen has a yellowish tint with the Original setting in the Color Scheme options. What you can do is switch to Auto.

Follow these steps to switch to Auto Color Scheme and resolve issues with the yellow tint on Redmi 8A:

1. Open Settings.
2. Tap Display.
3. Select Color Scheme.
4. Choose Auto instead of the Original setting.

5. Low speaker volume

Low volume has been an issue in various categories and on different Xiaomi/Redmi-made devices. It seems that’s the case here, as well. The loudspeaker is not that loud, and the headphone sound is, although without crackling, not as loud as some users would like. Not to mention awful sound in the recordings with a bitrate that’s just subpar.

We can only hope that Redmi will address this with future patches, as there’s nothing else we can do to address it. That’s not completely true as there’s a way to tweak the volume on rooted devices. That’s a risky business so we suggest avoiding it unless you are perfectly comfortable with rooting your device.

6. Screen stuck on the dialer

Some users reported an unusual bug that renders the device unusable until it’s rebooted. Namely, it seems that the built-in Dialer app tends to crash and freeze the Redmi 8A for some.

This, of course, is something no one wants to see. Not even on a seldom basis. To address this, we suggest going for the Force stop in the Dialer app. After that, clear the data and cache from the app.

If the issue persists, resetting your device to factory settings should help. Just don’t forget to back up your data first.

7. Bad touch response

Ghost touch and “screen bleeding” are two things that users with IPS displays might run into. Now, it seems that there is a small screen bleeding on the top and bottom of the display. It’s barely visible, mostly with the dark wallpaper and on high brightness levels. Nothing too serious.

However, bad touch response is more of a problem. Some users on a dedicated forum have had a hard time with the touchscreen responsiveness. There’s only so much you can do if this issue occurs and here’s what we suggest:

• Turn the “Double tap to wake or turn off screen” off.
• Remove the screen protector.
• Clear the screen with a wet cloth.
• Reset your device to factory settings.

8. Poor Wi-Fi and Mobile signal strength

These fall in the category of most frequently reported issues on the Redmi 8A. If you were wondering if the Redmi 8A supports the 5 GHz wireless band, the answer is no. In addition, some users have a hard time with the bandwidth speed in the 2.4 GHz band as well.

Moreover, the network coverage is not all that great for some users. Not only that bad network coverage/signal affects voice calls and mobile data speeds, but it also, due to repetitive searching for network, depletes battery much faster than usual.

Follow these instructions to troubleshoot connectivity issues on the Redmi 8A:

• Reset APN settings to default values.
• Remove your SIM card and re-insert it again.
• Reboot your phone and router.
• Reset Network Settings.

9. Redmi 8A camera quality issues

The main camera is not all that great to start with (of course, we must consider the price point here), but it can be better. The problem, like on most Xiaomi phones, lies in the subpar image processing software.

You can mitigate that and make the camera better than expected with a GCAM port. Camera ports brought from Google Pixel devices have much better processing capabilities and will do the best with the hardware you have.

There are not many ports for this device at the moment (and it’s not all that likely there will be many of them). That doesn’t mean that there are none.

Here’s how to get yourself a GCAM port for the Redmi 8A:

1. In a browser on your handset, navigate to the Gcam Hub and download one of the versions (one is for MIUI 11 on Android 10 and one is for Android Pie-based MIUI 10/11).
2. Allow installation of apps from third-party sources when prompted.
3. Install Gcam and that’s it. You can tweak some options in Settings to your liking. Enjoy.

If you want to learn more about Gcam ports on your Redmi device, we have a detailed piece on it.

10. Can’t set a lock screen wallpaper

This, so to say problem, is frequently reported for many MIUI-based devices out there. Users are just unable to change the lock screen wallpaper. And the solution is rather simple.

All you need to do is download the wallpaper to your local storage. Once there, navigate to Settings > Wallpaper in the main menu. Select the Local photos, choose a photo from an album, and tap OK. Then just tap Apply and choose Lock Screen. As simple as that.

11. Phone turns off on its own

This is a serious problem and, unless you’ve meddled with custom ROMs, we highly recommend taking your device for a repair or asking for a replacement. In most reported cases we are looking at a factory defect and thus there’s nothing you can do to resolve it on your own.

Contact your retailer or carrier and return the device for repairs or, preferably, ask for a new handset.

12. IR Blaster doesn’t work

The Redmi 8A, like many other Xiaomi/Redmi devices, comes with a built-in IR Blaster that allows you to remotely control TVs, stereo devices, and even some appliances. This might come in handy. However, it seems that users are unable to utilize this nifty hardware feature on their devices.

First of all, make sure that your device is supported in the Mi Remote Controller app. If it is supported, remove it and try pairing it again. Alternatively, you can reinstall the app and give pairing with the Mi Remote controller another go.

13. Common troubleshooting steps for Redmi 8A

Boot the device into Safe Mode

1. Turn the device off.
2. Press and hold the Power button and then, once the Xiaomi logo appears, release the Power button and press and hold the Volume Down button.
3. To exit Safe mode, just reboot your device again.

Wipe cache partition

1. Power off your device.
2. Press and hold the Power button + Volume Up until the MI welcome screen appears. Let go of the Power button and keep holding the Volume Up button.
3. Once you get into Recovery mode, use the Volume buttons to get to the Wipe Cache Partition option. Press the Power button to confirm the selection.

Reset the device to Factory Settings

1. Backup all important data to Google Drive, your PC, or external storage.
2. Open Settings.
3. Choose My Device.
4. Open Backup & reset.
5. Choose to Erase all data (factory reset).
6. Tap Erase all data and confirm the selection when prompted.

Side note: If you find MIUI too much bloated (too many unnecessary system apps), learn how to debloat it and make it both faster and cleaner while significantly improving battery life.

With that said, we can wrap up this article. Thank you for reading and don’t forget to add additional issues we possibly overlooked as we might be able to help you out. The comments section is below.

Editor’s note: This article was initially published in January 2020. We made sure to revamp it for freshness and accuracy.