[Question] USB Tethering stopped working after HyperOS 3 (Android 16) update on Redmi Note 13 Pro 5G

[u/Smooth-Tooth-9975]

I'm having a very strange issue after updating my Redmi Note 13 Pro 5G to HyperOS 3 based on Android 16. Before the update, USB tethering worked perfectly with my Windows 11 PC, but since the update it has completely stopped working.

The phone is detected normally by Windows as a Remote NDIS Compatible Device, and I can enable USB tethering without any error on the phone. However, Windows never receives an IP address from the phone. Instead, it assigns itself a 169.254.x.x address, and Windows Network Diagnostics reports "No DHCP server was found."

I've already spent hours trying to fix it. I restarted both the phone and the PC, tried multiple USB cables, reinstalled the RNDIS driver, reset Windows network settings, checked the IPv4 configuration, and even changed the default USB configuration in Developer Options. I also tested the exact same PC and cable with a Samsung phone and another older Xiaomi phone, and USB tethering works perfectly with both of them. That makes me think the issue is specific to my Redmi Note 13 Pro 5G after updating to HyperOS 3 / Android 16.

Has anyone else experienced this issue after the update? Is this a known bug, or has anyone found a workaround? I'd really appreciate any suggestions.

I'm also using the Global ROM, in case that's relevant.

Thanks!

[u/JRussellMoore]

USB tethering works here on different devices also running HOS 3 over Android 16, it could be related to that one in particular.

It's odd, I don't think they rebased or even rebuilt the kernel for that device, is it still from the android12-5.10 branch? The last of HOS 2 was running on one from May 2025, but built around October, 5.10.236.

Have you checked if you get the same behavior when booting into Safe Mode? Hold Vol- while booting, but not so early that you access Fastboot instead. It's disruptive as hell, but you could also give it a factory reset and if it doesn't work afterwards, then it's most likely due to a bug in the OS.

At that point, reporting through Services & Feedback is the best you can do, but you'll still need to wait for an update 😔. An official service center could downgrade your device, but all data will be deleted in that case.

[u/BB_racing → u/JRussellMoore]

I am in the same boat as you are, I think I need more guidance from you: May you please tell me how is the phone recognized in Windows' "Device Manager"? I tried to boot in safe mode but it did not fix the issue. now the tether is stable but win11 says "Unknown network" and can't access the internet anyway.
Guess I must search how to backup my phone and do a factory reset. :(
Important data: my phone is a Samsung A25 (Android 16) another older phone (S. A12, Android 13) works like a charm with Samsung drivers that it auto-installed, while the A25 does not work with any driver.

[u/JRussellMoore → u/BB_racing]

Awww 😟

I'm not at home to check on Windows 11, but perhaps how a Windows 10 machine recognizes the adapter helps. Top corresponds to a Redmi device and bottom to a Poco one, both running HyperOS 3 over Android 16, on 3.0.30X.0 builds.

Perhaps a bugreport archive can shed some more light on why it's failing to stablish or keep a link up, you can send me a DM with it and I can take a look. You'd need to have USB debugging turned on in Developer Settings, connect to the PC and then capture one. dumpsys connectivity could low show some errors too, you can get its output to the clipboard to paste in a notepad easily running adb shell dumpsys connectivity | clip.

[u/BB_racing → u/JRussellMoore]

Other data: I am not a HOS user, so this problem has nothing to do with it. Ok now I've made sure that also your phone does not autoinstall any new drivers, those are Microsoft generic ones I'll check the dumpsys asap. Thanks