Pokémon Go is banning users with Xiaomi phones after recent MIUI update

The phone most affected is the Redmi 5.

What you need to know

• Pokémon Go players on Xiaomi phones are being suspended or banned.
• The phone most affected is the Redmi 5 and users believe it started with the 10.3.2 update or is being caused by Xiaomi's Game Booster feature.
• So far, there is no official response from either Xiaomi or the developer of Pokémon Go Niantic.

Pokémon Go first launched back in 2016 to much fanfare, taking the world by storm. The game amassed millions of users within months, in no small part because of its unique AR-based gameplay.

While the Pokémon Go craze may have settled down somewhat, it still has millions of players worldwide. In fact, July 2019 was its biggest month since the height of the craze began three years earlier. Unfortunately, some of these players are having their accounts suspended or even worse banned, and all because of their choice of phone.

Recently, a thread on Reddit has grown in popularity as users of Xiaomi phones are reporting they have been suspended or banned from the game. At this time, the phone most affected is the Redmi 5, but there have also been reports of other Xiaomi phones having issues.

Most of the users report the trouble starting after updating to MIUI 10.3.2. Others have pointed to Xiaomi's Game Booster feature which is meant to help speed up game performance. However, some have experienced troubles with Pokémon Go even with the feature disabled.

Like all games, cheating is always an issue and Niantic is famous for its heavy hand in banning or suspending accounts. With Pokémon Go's unique play style, which combines Augmented Reality with real-world locations, spoofing your location or using modded versions of the app is a huge concern.

It's no surprise that Niantic wants to protect the integrity of the game, but sadly hundreds of innocent Xiaomi customers have been caught in the crosshairs.

Users have reached out to both Xiaomi and the developers of Pokémon Go but have yet to receive an explanation or fix for the issue. A Google spreadsheet has been created by users to help track the issue and at the time of writing, it has over 400 entries.

Hopefully, with the number of users continuing to add up it will force Niantic and Xiaomi to start paying attention and work out the root cause of the issue soon.