Trainers that are playing on Redmi devices (Redmi 5 most frequent) have recently received shadowbans and warnings despite playing legitimately and with no cheating mechanism present on the device. In an ongoing effort to understand and remedy the issue, Niantic Support has tweeted that “they are continuing to investigate these reports, and revising punishments and Strike counts where appropriate”. In other words, bans and suspensions were lifted for Xiaomi Redmi users and your Strike count was revised (current amount unknown).
The underlying issue is still not fixed, but at least affected players are able to play again with no fear of triggering a shadow ban or a “ban strike”. Niantic has a three strikes policy in place, which will ban your account if you are banned three times.
According to online reports, account age and Trainer level were not a factor for receiving a strike. A large number of Trainers using Xiaomi devices with MIUI version 10.3.2.0 were banned / suspended for up to 30 days after updating their devices to the latest MIUI version. Despite early suspicions, MIUI’s Game Booster feature is seemingly not the one to blame, as players have received suspensions even when the feature is completely turned off.
The investigation continues, but Niantic has luckily reverted their decision for most players who have been accidentally banned. AnetUA, one of many banned users, is maintaining an online spreadsheet with more than 500 players who reported getting bans / suspensions after updating to MIUI 10.3.2.0.
Do note that the issues are present for Ingress Prime and Wizards Unite as well.
A small recommendation
We don’t usually do this, but I simply have to recommend one of Xiaomi’s devices I’ve tried recently: Xiaomi Mi 9T (also known as Redmi K20). The device is a beast, it’s hard to describe how much value you get for the money. As a typical OnePlus fanboy, I was annoyed by early reports that it’s a “OnePlus killer”, but after using it for a while I have to agree. The phone barely gets hot after playing for hours, the AMOLED screen is beautiful, the edge to edge screen makes gaming much better than on my notched OnePlus 7 and battery life is insane. If you’re thinking of upgrading to a better Android device and don’t want to spend a lot of money, absolutely go for the Mi 9T – you won’t be disappointed. If you want more power go for the Pro version, but I don’t feel like it’s necessary for playing Pokemon GO, Ingress Prime and Wizards Unite in the next 1-2 years.
Original tweet
As an update to our investigation into players using Xiaomi devices, we are continuing to investigate these reports, and revising punishments and Strike counts where appropriate. Thank you for your patience. https://t.co/W8ZYbKYlnR
— Niantic Support (@NianticHelp) October 5, 2019