How to add a photo to your favorites on Android Xiaomi: 5 proven ways

Saving your favorite photos to a separate Favorites folder on Xiaomi smartphones is a simple but not always obvious task. Users often find that standard actions (such as a long tap on a photo) do not work due to the features of the MIUI shell or installed alternative galleries. In this article, we will discuss all the current ways to add pictures to your favorites, from basic to hidden functions that are not written about even in the official documentation.

It’s important to understand that Xiaomi can store favorites in three different places: in the standard MIUI gallery, in Google Photos (if installed), and in the Mi Cloud service. Each option has its advantages: for example, MIUI Gallery syncs with Xiaomi account, and Google Photos allows you to access photos from any device. We will consider all scenarios, including solving problems when the Add to favorites button suddenly disappears.

If you use custom firmware or an alternative launcher (like Nova Launcher), some features may work differently. At the end of the article, you'll find an FAQ answering common questions, including recovering randomly deleted photos from your favorites and porting tags when you change your phone.

1. Method: Standard Gallery MIUI (Basic Method)

The most obvious way is to use Xiaomi’s built-in gallery, which is pre-installed on all of the brand’s smartphones and supports Favorites without any additional settings. Here’s how it works:

1. Open the Gallery app (a icon with multi-colored squares).
2. Find the right photo and tap it to open in full screen mode.
3. In the bottom menu, click on the heart icon (or asterisk on older versions of MIUI). If there is no icon, tap the ⋮ icon (Three dots) and select Add to your favorites.

After that, the photo will appear in a special album to find it:

• 📁 Go to the Albums section in the gallery.
• 🔍 Scroll down — Favorites folder is usually located at the top of the list.
• 🌟 On some models (e.g. Redmi Note 12 or POCO X5), the album may be called "Favorite".

An important nuance: if you use MIUI 14 or later, the heart can be hidden behind a long tap through the photo. Try holding your finger in the picture for 1-2 seconds, and a context menu will appear with the option to Add to your favorites.

2. Method: Google Photos (Sync with the Cloud)

If your Xiaomi has Google Photos installed, you can use its built-in Favorites feature, and the main advantage of this method is that photos will be available on all devices where you are logged in under the same Google account, which is handy if you often switch between your smartphone, tablet and computer.

Instructions:

1. Open Google Photos (an icon with a multi-colored “fan”).
2. Pick a photo and tap it.
3. In the lower menu, click on the heart icon (or the flag in some versions).

To find all the tagged photos:

• 🔎 Go to the Search tab (the magnifying glass at the bottom of the screen).
• 📌 In the search bar, type Favorites and an album will appear with all the tagged pictures.
• ☁️ If sync is enabled, these photos will be available at photos.google.com.

Warning: If you have autosynchronization disabled in Google Photos, your favorite photos may disappear when you reset your phone or reinstall your app.

⚠️ Warning: Go to Settings → Backup and Sync in Google Photos and make sure that the Backup option is enabled. Otherwise, the selected tags will only be saved locally.

Make sure you are logged in to your Google | account

Enable backup in the settings |

Check that the app has access to the storage |

Update Google Photos to the latest version-->

3. Method: Through Mi Cloud (Xiaomi Cloud)

Xiaomi’s Mi Cloud service allows you to not only reserve photos, but also manage selected photos via a web interface, which is useful if you often use other devices in the Xiaomi ecosystem (for example, a Pad 6 tablet or a Mi Notebook laptop).

How to add a photo to your favorites via Mi Cloud:

1. Open your Settings → Xiaomi Account → Mi Cloud.
2. Make sure that the gallery sync function is enabled.
3. Return to the Gallery MIUI, select a photo and click ⋮ → Add to Mi Cloud Favorites.

To manage the chosen ones through the web:

• 🌐 Go to i.mi.com and log in.
• 📷 Select the Gallery → Favorites section.
• 🔄 Here you can delete or add a photo to your favorites directly from your computer.

Limitation: a free Mi Cloud account only provides 5GB of storage. If you actively use sync, the space quickly ends, in which case it makes sense to use Google Photos (15GB free) or local storage.

4. Method: Alternative galleries (Simple Gallery, QuickPic)

If the standard Xiaomi gallery doesn’t suit you, you can use third-party apps like Simple Gallery or QuickPic. They offer more flexible settings to manage your favorite photos, including creating multiple folders with different tags (for example, “Vacation”, “Family”, “Work”).

Instructions for Simple Gallery:

1. Install the app from Google Play.
2. Open the photo and tap the icon "star" in the top menu.
3. To create a new folder for your favorites, go to Settings → Favourites → Favorites and add a category.

Advantages of third-party galleries:

• 📂 The ability to create multiple favorites folders (for example, separately for personal and work photos).
• 🔒 Support for hidden albums with passwords.
• 🛠️ More sorting options (by date, size, color, etc.).

Important: When using third-party galleries, selected photos are only stored locally (unless you have cloud sync set up). When you reset your phone or delete your app, tags may disappear. To avoid this, regularly export your favorites to a separate folder:

⚠️ Warning: In Simple Gallery, go to Favorites → ⋮ → Export and save copies of the photo to a safe place (e.g., a memory card or a cloud).

5. Method: Using a file manager (for power users)

If you need to manually manage your Favorites folder (for example, to transfer it to another phone or make a backup), you can use a file manager, which is suitable for users who prefer full control over their data.

How to find a folder with favorite photos:

1. Open any file manager (e.g., Mi File Manager or Solid Explorer).
2. Go to /storage/emulated/0/Pictures/Favorites or (on some firmware): /storage/emulated/0/DCIM/.favorites
3. Copy or move the desired photos to this folder.

Table: Paths to Favorites folders on different versions of MIUI

Warning: Do not rename the Favorites folder or change its location, which can cause the Xiaomi gallery to stop recognizing the selected photos. If the folder is accidentally deleted, reboot the phone, the system will restore it automatically.

💡

If you often transfer photos between devices, create a MyFavorites folder at the root of the storage and add it to the cache clearing exceptions, so your photos will not be deleted when using the MIUI garbage cleanup function.

6. Problem Solving: Why doesn't Add to Favorites work?

Sometimes the Favorite button disappears or doesn't respond to the clicks, and here are the most common reasons and ways to eliminate them:

• 🔄 Update MIUI: After major updates (e.g., from MIUI13 to MIUI14), gallery settings may reset. Try resetting the app cache: Settings → Apps → Gallery → Storage → Clear cache
• 📱 Conflict with other galleries: If you have multiple galleries installed (e.g., Google Photos and MIUI Gallery), they can block each other's functions. Try disabling one of them in your app settings.
• 🛠️ Damaged data: If photos are not added to your favorites for specific shots, check for integrity. Damaged files (e.g., with the.jpg.pending extension) can cause crashes.

Checklist for diagnosis:

Check if sync with Mi Cloud| is disabled

Update the Gallery app via Google Play|

Restart your phone (sometimes helps with temporary crashes)|

Try adding another photo to your favorites (possibly a problem in a particular file)-->

If nothing helps, you can reset the settings of the gallery to the factory:

⚠️ Warning: Go to Settings → Apps → Gallery → Storage → Delete Data. This will delete all local settings, but will not affect the photos themselves. Once you reset, the Favorite button should appear again.

💡

If the problem only occurs with photos downloaded from instant messengers (Telegram, WhatsApp), try first to save them to the Camera folder - sometimes the MIUI gallery ignores files from folders like Telegram Images.

7. Transferring selected photos to the new Xiaomi phone

When you change your Xiaomi smartphone (for example, from Redmi Note 10 to Xiaomi 13T), you can transfer your favorite photos in several ways. The most reliable is to use Mi Cloud or Google Photos, but if the cloud does not fit, use the local method:

Method 1: Mi Mover (official software from Xiaomi)

1. On your old phone, install the Mi Mover app (available on Google Play).
2. On the new phone, when you first turn on, select the option Data Transfer.
3. Connect both devices to the same Wi-Fi network and follow the instructions. In the data list for transfer, mark Gallery and Favorites.

Method 2: Manual transfer through the Favorites folder

1. On an old phone, copy /Pictures/Favorites to your computer or memory card.
2. Insert the card into a new phone or connect it to a PC.
3. Copy the Favorites folder in the same way on the new device.
4. Restart your phone – the gallery should automatically recognize your favorite photos.

Method 3: Google Photos (if sync was enabled)

• Sign in to a new phone with the same Google account.
• Set up Google Photos and wait for sync.
• All photos from the favorites will appear automatically.

Important: If you're transferring photos from your iPhone to Xiaomi, use Google Photos or iCloud for export. Direct transfer via Mi Mover with iOS is not supported.

FAQ: Frequent questions about favorite photos on Xiaomi