[Joe Bloggs]

Well, I still have an R6 with me as parting gift from the company (update: I'm now back with the company ). Thought it might be interesting to update it to 8.1 myself. My update went pretty much all according to plan but I tried to document it as much as possible anyway:


1. What you’ll need

a. HiBy R6 (on any version of firmware) well charged
b. The (1) (2) and (3) zip files downloaded from here: https://drive.google.com/drive/fold...z7uL12kmlkGFJKsiJ5NM-TNuQB_nYtfbvxX92ZOvskr1s . There’s also a “Manual V1.0.pdf” but I struggle to understand its contents and HiBy will direct all people with questions to disregard this manual…
c. [update: please skip this step if you're running a windows 10 computer.]A windows computer RUNNING ON TEST MODE. Inside the (2) zip there is a batch script in testmode_bat called testmode_open.bat to put your computer into test mode, but the actual things required to actually put your computer into test mode varies by computer. Do not try to proceed, until you have something like these letterings on the lower right corner of your desktop:

. Google "Windows (your version) Test Mode"​

2. What to do—pre-installation:

a. Right click on each zip file and select Extract All… to a common directory you can easily refer to. FROM HERE ON REFERENCES TO dir(1), dir(2) and dir(3) refer to the extracted contents of the 3 zips respectively. YOU MUST EXTRACT the zips and NOT try to use the contents of the compressed files directly.
b. [update: please skip this step if you're running a windows 10 computer.]Run Setup.exe in dir(1). Press Next or Install in answer to everything. The only thing you have to change from default is from “I do not agree…” to “I agree with the license agreement…” to light up a Next button.
c. If prompted to restart your computer, restart the computer as directed.​

3. What to do—connection:

a. Connect the R6 to the computer using a good USB cable (no intermittent connections please!) while powered OFF. Wait until the HiBy logo passes and the charge animation shows up. Then press and hold the volume + and – buttons, then, while still holding those two buttons, start holding the power button as well. (Official instruction is simply to press and hold these three buttons at the same time. But if you press the power button before the volume buttons are held down, the device may not enter the right mode.) If successful, the R6 screen should flash the logo quickly and then go completely dark. Now you may release all buttons.
b. On your computer, press the windows key and type Device Manager and then enter. In Device Manager, look for the following (if your computer is in English):

and clicking on the arrow to the left should reveal:

where ? is a random COM port number. If you do not see this, or the device that appears reads as anything else (in particular it must read “9008” and not any other number), I don’t know what to do because I haven’t had the unluck to come across the situation personally and so haven’t had the chance to decipher what the manuals have to say on the matter…​

4. What to do—setup:

a. Go into dir(2) (as per step 2a) and run QCOM_MultiDnload(Inner)(SMT)(vc10).exe .
b. Your Win10 computer may refuse to run the program. There no “run anyway” or “yes” button in this screen that I forgot to capture the only time it appeared. You click on the highlighted text that says “read more…” or something like that to reveal the “run anyway” link.
c. After a HiBy logo, this is what you *should* see:

If instead the window looks cut off, it has been reported (by Howard Sto on Facebook HiBy User Group) that changing the high DPI settings thusly should help:

(right click on the program name->choose Properties->choose Compatibility tab->tick Run this program as an administrator, then click Change high DPI settings…
Click OK on all windows when done. (and close and rerun the app)​

5. What to do—flash proper

a. Go back to Device Manager and look at this again:

Note the number after “COM”. If you could find this before but can’t find it now, it may be because the Download mode on the R6 has some kind of timeout. Disconnect the R6, hold the power button for 15 seconds until it restarts and boots into Android, turn it off again, connect to the computer again, wait for battery animation to show up, hold volume +, - and power button together again to enter download mode again. Look for the pictured COM number again.

b. In this screen,

click “software version” and navigate to your dir(3) (as per step 2a) and from there go into 8917_bin and then msm8917. Select msm8917 and press OK.

c. Make sure that one and only one of the 16 checkboxes on the left is ticked, then click the dropdown box “COMxx” to its right and select the COM number that’s the same as seen in step 5a.

d. Press Start to its right. The progress bar in the middle will go to 100% several times and then start moving slowly. At the end the light to its right should turn green and your R6 should reboot into the new OS.

P.S. In case anyone updated to latest OTA updates and have issues serious and urgent enough to warrant an immediate rollback, this can be done by redoing the above to roll the R6 to the first Oreo update. You can even roll back to the last Marshmallow ROM by doing the same as the above but substituting the Oreo firmware with the following:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1T430gInJxYLzh7enRhI3by_rj_yxvrx2

 

[prophette]

Well, I still have an R6 with me as parting gift from the company. Thought it might be interesting to update it to 8.1 myself. My update went pretty much all according to plan but I tried to document it as much as possible anyway:


1. What you’ll need

a. HiBy R6 (on any version of firmware) well charged
b. The (1) (2) and (3) zip files downloaded from here: https://drive.google.com/drive/fold...z7uL12kmlkGFJKsiJ5NM-TNuQB_nYtfbvxX92ZOvskr1s . There’s also a “Manual V1.0.pdf” but I struggle to understand its contents and HiBy will direct all people with questions to disregard this manual…
c. A windows computer RUNNING ON TEST MODE. Inside the (2) zip there is a batch script in testmode_bat called testmode_open.bat to put your computer into test mode, but the actual things required to actually put your computer into test mode varies by computer. Do not try to proceed, until you have something like these letterings on the lower right corner of your desktop: . Google "Windows (your version) Test Mode"​

2. What to do—pre-installation:

a. Right click on each zip file and select Extract All… to a common directory you can easily refer to. FROM HERE ON REFERENCES TO dir(1), dir(2) and dir(3) refer to the extracted contents of the 3 zips respectively. YOU MUST EXTRACT the zips and NOT try to use the contents of the compressed files directly.
b. Run Setup.exe in dir(1). Press Next or Install in answer to everything. The only thing you have to change from default is from “I do not agree…” to “I agree with the license agreement…” to light up a Next button.
c. If prompted to restart your computer, restart the computer as directed.​

3. What to do—connection:

a. Connect the R6 to the computer using a good USB cable (no intermittent connections please!) while powered OFF. Wait until the HiBy logo passes and the charge animation shows up. Then press and hold the volume + and – buttons, then, while still holding those two buttons, start holding the power button as well. (Official instruction is simply to press and hold these three buttons at the same time. But if you press the power button before the volume buttons are held down, the device may not enter the right mode.) If successful, the R6 screen should flash the logo quickly and then go completely dark. Now you may release all buttons.
b. On your computer, press the windows key and type Device Manager and then enter. In Device Manager, look for the following (if your computer is in English):
and clicking on the arrow to the left should reveal: where ? is a random COM port number. If you do not see this, or the device that appears reads as anything else (in particular it must read “9008” and not any other number), I don’t know what to do because I haven’t had the unluck to come across the situation personally and so haven’t had the chance to decipher what the manuals have to say on the matter…​

4. What to do—setup:

a. Go into dir(2) (as per step 2a) and run QCOM_MultiDnload(Inner)(SMT)(vc10).exe .
b. Your Win10 computer may refuse to run the program. There no “run anyway” or “yes” button in this screen that I forgot to capture the only time it appeared. You click on the highlighted text that says “read more…” or something like that to reveal the “run anyway” link.
c. After a HiBy logo, this is what you *should* see:
If instead the window looks cut off, it has been reported (by Howard Sto on Facebook HiBy User Group) that changing the high DPI settings thusly should help:
(right click on the program name->choose Properties->choose Compatibility tab->tick Run this program as an administrator, then click Change high DPI settings…
Click OK on all windows when done. (and close and rerun the app)​

5. What to do—flash proper

a. Go back to Device Manager and look at this again: ​

Note the number after “COM”. If you could find this before but can’t find it now, it may be because the Download mode on the R6 has some kind of timeout. Disconnect the R6, hold the power button for 15 seconds until it restarts and boots into Android, turn it off again, connect to the computer again, wait for battery animation to show up, hold volume +, - and power button together again to enter download mode again. Look for the pictured COM number again.

b. In this screen,

click “software version” and navigate to your dir(3) (as per step 2a) and from there go into 8917_bin and then msm8917. Select msm8917 and press OK.

c. Make sure that one and only one of the 16 checkboxes on the left is ticked, then click the dropdown box “COMxx” to its right and select the COM number that’s the same as seen in step 5a.

d. Press Start to its right. The progress bar in the middle will go to 100% several times and then start moving slowly. At the end the light to its right should turn green and your R6 should reboot into the new OS.

I still have an issue with providing an unsigned driver and requiring people to go into test mode or figure out how to get into test mode if secure boot blocks it. I just don't think that (and providing instructions in only one language) is consumer-friendly. Nevertheless, I will say that if you'd posted this before I did my own upgrade, it probably would have saved me some time. Hopefully it will be helpful to others.

 

[Zachik]

Well, I still have an R6 with me as parting gift from the company. Thought it might be interesting to update it to 8.1 myself. My update went pretty much all according to plan but I tried to document it as much as possible anyway:


1. What you’ll need

a. HiBy R6 (on any version of firmware) well charged
b. The (1) (2) and (3) zip files downloaded from here: https://drive.google.com/drive/fold...z7uL12kmlkGFJKsiJ5NM-TNuQB_nYtfbvxX92ZOvskr1s . There’s also a “Manual V1.0.pdf” but I struggle to understand its contents and HiBy will direct all people with questions to disregard this manual…
c. A windows computer RUNNING ON TEST MODE. Inside the (2) zip there is a batch script in testmode_bat called testmode_open.bat to put your computer into test mode, but the actual things required to actually put your computer into test mode varies by computer. Do not try to proceed, until you have something like these letterings on the lower right corner of your desktop: . Google "Windows (your version) Test Mode"​

2. What to do—pre-installation:

a. Right click on each zip file and select Extract All… to a common directory you can easily refer to. FROM HERE ON REFERENCES TO dir(1), dir(2) and dir(3) refer to the extracted contents of the 3 zips respectively. YOU MUST EXTRACT the zips and NOT try to use the contents of the compressed files directly.
b. Run Setup.exe in dir(1). Press Next or Install in answer to everything. The only thing you have to change from default is from “I do not agree…” to “I agree with the license agreement…” to light up a Next button.
c. If prompted to restart your computer, restart the computer as directed.​

3. What to do—connection:

a. Connect the R6 to the computer using a good USB cable (no intermittent connections please!) while powered OFF. Wait until the HiBy logo passes and the charge animation shows up. Then press and hold the volume + and – buttons, then, while still holding those two buttons, start holding the power button as well. (Official instruction is simply to press and hold these three buttons at the same time. But if you press the power button before the volume buttons are held down, the device may not enter the right mode.) If successful, the R6 screen should flash the logo quickly and then go completely dark. Now you may release all buttons.
b. On your computer, press the windows key and type Device Manager and then enter. In Device Manager, look for the following (if your computer is in English):
and clicking on the arrow to the left should reveal: where ? is a random COM port number. If you do not see this, or the device that appears reads as anything else (in particular it must read “9008” and not any other number), I don’t know what to do because I haven’t had the unluck to come across the situation personally and so haven’t had the chance to decipher what the manuals have to say on the matter…​

4. What to do—setup:

a. Go into dir(2) (as per step 2a) and run QCOM_MultiDnload(Inner)(SMT)(vc10).exe .
b. Your Win10 computer may refuse to run the program. There no “run anyway” or “yes” button in this screen that I forgot to capture the only time it appeared. You click on the highlighted text that says “read more…” or something like that to reveal the “run anyway” link.
c. After a HiBy logo, this is what you *should* see:
If instead the window looks cut off, it has been reported (by Howard Sto on Facebook HiBy User Group) that changing the high DPI settings thusly should help:
(right click on the program name->choose Properties->choose Compatibility tab->tick Run this program as an administrator, then click Change high DPI settings…
Click OK on all windows when done. (and close and rerun the app)​

5. What to do—flash proper

a. Go back to Device Manager and look at this again: ​

Note the number after “COM”. If you could find this before but can’t find it now, it may be because the Download mode on the R6 has some kind of timeout. Disconnect the R6, hold the power button for 15 seconds until it restarts and boots into Android, turn it off again, connect to the computer again, wait for battery animation to show up, hold volume +, - and power button together again to enter download mode again. Look for the pictured COM number again.

b. In this screen,

click “software version” and navigate to your dir(3) (as per step 2a) and from there go into 8917_bin and then msm8917. Select msm8917 and press OK.

c. Make sure that one and only one of the 16 checkboxes on the left is ticked, then click the dropdown box “COMxx” to its right and select the COM number that’s the same as seen in step 5a.

d. Press Start to its right. The progress bar in the middle will go to 100% several times and then start moving slowly. At the end the light to its right should turn green and your R6 should reboot into the new OS.

Joe - great job (as usual...)!
I might try it out tonight, time permitting, but have a quick question regarding windows test mode:
Is it relevant for Win10 only? I am running Win7 on the laptop I intend to use...

 

[Joe Bloggs]

Joe - great job (as usual...)!
I might try it out tonight, time permitting, but have a quick question regarding windows test mode:
Is it relevant for Win10 only? I am running Win7 on the laptop I intend to use...

Good question... Well as far as I know Win7 would only put up a warning (that you can say "continue anyway" to) where Win10 would error straight out, so yes, you should be able to use a Win7 computer as is. Don't quote me on it though, even my Win7 computer has been put on test mode so I can't test (ha ha)

 

[Zachik]

Good question... Well as far as I know Win7 would only put up a warning (that you can say "continue anyway" to) where Win10 would error straight out, so yes, you should be able to use a Win7 computer as is. Don't quote me on it though, even my Win7 computer has been put on test mode so I can't test (ha ha)

Thanks Joe - will report back after I try it (hopefully tonight).

 

[davidcotton]

Well, I still have an R6 with me as parting gift from the company. Thought it might be interesting to update it to 8.1 myself. My update went pretty much all according to plan but I tried to document it as much as possible anyway:


1. What you’ll need

a. HiBy R6 (on any version of firmware) well charged
b. The (1) (2) and (3) zip files downloaded from here: https://drive.google.com/drive/fold...z7uL12kmlkGFJKsiJ5NM-TNuQB_nYtfbvxX92ZOvskr1s . There’s also a “Manual V1.0.pdf” but I struggle to understand its contents and HiBy will direct all people with questions to disregard this manual…
c. A windows computer RUNNING ON TEST MODE. Inside the (2) zip there is a batch script in testmode_bat called testmode_open.bat to put your computer into test mode, but the actual things required to actually put your computer into test mode varies by computer. Do not try to proceed, until you have something like these letterings on the lower right corner of your desktop: . Google "Windows (your version) Test Mode"​

2. What to do—pre-installation:

a. Right click on each zip file and select Extract All… to a common directory you can easily refer to. FROM HERE ON REFERENCES TO dir(1), dir(2) and dir(3) refer to the extracted contents of the 3 zips respectively. YOU MUST EXTRACT the zips and NOT try to use the contents of the compressed files directly.
b. Run Setup.exe in dir(1). Press Next or Install in answer to everything. The only thing you have to change from default is from “I do not agree…” to “I agree with the license agreement…” to light up a Next button.
c. If prompted to restart your computer, restart the computer as directed.​

3. What to do—connection:

a. Connect the R6 to the computer using a good USB cable (no intermittent connections please!) while powered OFF. Wait until the HiBy logo passes and the charge animation shows up. Then press and hold the volume + and – buttons, then, while still holding those two buttons, start holding the power button as well. (Official instruction is simply to press and hold these three buttons at the same time. But if you press the power button before the volume buttons are held down, the device may not enter the right mode.) If successful, the R6 screen should flash the logo quickly and then go completely dark. Now you may release all buttons.
b. On your computer, press the windows key and type Device Manager and then enter. In Device Manager, look for the following (if your computer is in English):
and clicking on the arrow to the left should reveal: where ? is a random COM port number. If you do not see this, or the device that appears reads as anything else (in particular it must read “9008” and not any other number), I don’t know what to do because I haven’t had the unluck to come across the situation personally and so haven’t had the chance to decipher what the manuals have to say on the matter…​

4. What to do—setup:

a. Go into dir(2) (as per step 2a) and run QCOM_MultiDnload(Inner)(SMT)(vc10).exe .
b. Your Win10 computer may refuse to run the program. There no “run anyway” or “yes” button in this screen that I forgot to capture the only time it appeared. You click on the highlighted text that says “read more…” or something like that to reveal the “run anyway” link.
c. After a HiBy logo, this is what you *should* see:
If instead the window looks cut off, it has been reported (by Howard Sto on Facebook HiBy User Group) that changing the high DPI settings thusly should help:
(right click on the program name->choose Properties->choose Compatibility tab->tick Run this program as an administrator, then click Change high DPI settings…
Click OK on all windows when done. (and close and rerun the app)​

5. What to do—flash proper

a. Go back to Device Manager and look at this again: ​

Note the number after “COM”. If you could find this before but can’t find it now, it may be because the Download mode on the R6 has some kind of timeout. Disconnect the R6, hold the power button for 15 seconds until it restarts and boots into Android, turn it off again, connect to the computer again, wait for battery animation to show up, hold volume +, - and power button together again to enter download mode again. Look for the pictured COM number again.

b. In this screen,

click “software version” and navigate to your dir(3) (as per step 2a) and from there go into 8917_bin and then msm8917. Select msm8917 and press OK.

c. Make sure that one and only one of the 16 checkboxes on the left is ticked, then click the dropdown box “COMxx” to its right and select the COM number that’s the same as seen in step 5a.

d. Press Start to its right. The progress bar in the middle will go to 100% several times and then start moving slowly. At the end the light to its right should turn green and your R6 should reboot into the new OS.

Nice write up Joe, thanks.

Apple users must be p***ing themselves laughing at this sort of rigmarole everytime they hear about android updates this way though.

 

[Qnapper]

Joe, one word......... RESPECT.

Thank you

 

[esm87]

Guys, this may be bit of an idiot question, how good is this mageball feature?? I have had my R6 a while now and all i have ever done is stream Tidal... can I somehow use this mageball feature with Tidal streaming? If it's kind of a big deal, I actually want to experience it lol. I don't have a computer where I load music on a memory card etc

 

[milesjunkie]

Well, I still have an R6 with me as parting gift from the company. Thought it might be interesting to update it to 8.1 myself. My update went pretty much all according to plan but I tried to document it as much as possible anyway:


1. What you’ll need

a. HiBy R6 (on any version of firmware) well charged
b. The (1) (2) and (3) zip files downloaded from here: https://drive.google.com/drive/fold...z7uL12kmlkGFJKsiJ5NM-TNuQB_nYtfbvxX92ZOvskr1s . There’s also a “Manual V1.0.pdf” but I struggle to understand its contents and HiBy will direct all people with questions to disregard this manual…
c. A windows computer RUNNING ON TEST MODE. Inside the (2) zip there is a batch script in testmode_bat called testmode_open.bat to put your computer into test mode, but the actual things required to actually put your computer into test mode varies by computer. Do not try to proceed, until you have something like these letterings on the lower right corner of your desktop: . Google "Windows (your version) Test Mode"​

2. What to do—pre-installation:

a. Right click on each zip file and select Extract All… to a common directory you can easily refer to. FROM HERE ON REFERENCES TO dir(1), dir(2) and dir(3) refer to the extracted contents of the 3 zips respectively. YOU MUST EXTRACT the zips and NOT try to use the contents of the compressed files directly.
b. Run Setup.exe in dir(1). Press Next or Install in answer to everything. The only thing you have to change from default is from “I do not agree…” to “I agree with the license agreement…” to light up a Next button.
c. If prompted to restart your computer, restart the computer as directed.​

3. What to do—connection:

a. Connect the R6 to the computer using a good USB cable (no intermittent connections please!) while powered OFF. Wait until the HiBy logo passes and the charge animation shows up. Then press and hold the volume + and – buttons, then, while still holding those two buttons, start holding the power button as well. (Official instruction is simply to press and hold these three buttons at the same time. But if you press the power button before the volume buttons are held down, the device may not enter the right mode.) If successful, the R6 screen should flash the logo quickly and then go completely dark. Now you may release all buttons.
b. On your computer, press the windows key and type Device Manager and then enter. In Device Manager, look for the following (if your computer is in English):
and clicking on the arrow to the left should reveal: where ? is a random COM port number. If you do not see this, or the device that appears reads as anything else (in particular it must read “9008” and not any other number), I don’t know what to do because I haven’t had the unluck to come across the situation personally and so haven’t had the chance to decipher what the manuals have to say on the matter…​

4. What to do—setup:

a. Go into dir(2) (as per step 2a) and run QCOM_MultiDnload(Inner)(SMT)(vc10).exe .
b. Your Win10 computer may refuse to run the program. There no “run anyway” or “yes” button in this screen that I forgot to capture the only time it appeared. You click on the highlighted text that says “read more…” or something like that to reveal the “run anyway” link.
c. After a HiBy logo, this is what you *should* see:
If instead the window looks cut off, it has been reported (by Howard Sto on Facebook HiBy User Group) that changing the high DPI settings thusly should help:
(right click on the program name->choose Properties->choose Compatibility tab->tick Run this program as an administrator, then click Change high DPI settings…
Click OK on all windows when done. (and close and rerun the app)​

5. What to do—flash proper

a. Go back to Device Manager and look at this again: ​

Note the number after “COM”. If you could find this before but can’t find it now, it may be because the Download mode on the R6 has some kind of timeout. Disconnect the R6, hold the power button for 15 seconds until it restarts and boots into Android, turn it off again, connect to the computer again, wait for battery animation to show up, hold volume +, - and power button together again to enter download mode again. Look for the pictured COM number again.

b. In this screen,

click “software version” and navigate to your dir(3) (as per step 2a) and from there go into 8917_bin and then msm8917. Select msm8917 and press OK.

c. Make sure that one and only one of the 16 checkboxes on the left is ticked, then click the dropdown box “COMxx” to its right and select the COM number that’s the same as seen in step 5a.

d. Press Start to its right. The progress bar in the middle will go to 100% several times and then start moving slowly. At the end the light to its right should turn green and your R6 should reboot into the new OS.

@Joe Bloggs - gone for 8 months already and still the best asset Hiby has.

 

[superuser1]

@Joe Bloggs - gone for 8 months already and still the best asset Hiby has.

Couldn't agree with you more!!!

 

[hernandoco]

For those of you who are on the fence about the R6, keep in mind, most of the negative comments and complains here are justified but there's a bunch of people like me who aren't having any issues and aren't posting much because there isn't anything to complain about.

I pop in here and there to try and help where I can. If you have never flashed android firmware, the update process may not be that easy. However, I mentioned before, if the update does not work, it's more than likely user error or driver issues.

A few days with the Oreo update and I think it made the R6 better. More responsive, wifi and bluetooth is slightly better. The vanilla android UI is nice as I hated the old android look pre-material UI. This is how it should've been from the beginning. It's a crowdfunded product and it was cheap so can't really expect much.

If you don't want to tweak with android software, this might not be for you. I used to love flashing new firmware with various android devices. This process is actually one of the easier ways to update compared to some other non-major brand products. I'm glad we even had an updating software. Try updating via bootloader with zip files and praying that the developer packaged the zip file properly and didn't corrupt the bootloader. Those were the stressful days of android updating. It was refreshing to see they used a flashtool.

 

[superuser1]

Perhaps ADB command line would be better for some

 

[hernandoco]

Perhaps ADB command line would be better for some

lol. Oh man, that just raised my blood pressure slightly.

 

[zhubajie]

Well, I still have an R6 with me as parting gift from the company. Thought it might be interesting to update it to 8.1 myself. My update went pretty much all according to plan but I tried to document it as much as possible anyway:


1. What you’ll need

c. A windows computer RUNNING ON TEST MODE. Inside the (2) zip there is a batch script in testmode_bat called testmode_open.bat to put your computer into test mode, but the actual things required to actually put your computer into test mode varies by computer. Do not try to proceed, until you have something like these letterings on the lower right corner of your desktop: . Google "Windows (your version) Test Mode"​

I just followed the video and never ran any of the batchfiles.
I have a Windows 10 Home version that doesn't run in Test mode.
After the update it was automatically set to testmode.
This confused me a bit but a quick search on Google brought me the answer and a simple way to return to normal mode.

 

[Zachik]

Thanks Joe - will report back after I try it (hopefully tonight).

I have ignored HiBy's video, and just followed @Joe Bloggs step-by-step instructions.
Running Win7, I skipped all the "Test mode" related steps.
Went smoothly. Thanks Joe!