Contacts are not saved on Xiaomi: causes and solution of the problem

Did you add a new number to Xiaomi's phone book, but it disappeared after a reboot or update? Or did contacts stop saving altogether and old ones disappear without a trace? This problem is familiar to many owners of Redmi, POCO and Mi smartphones, especially after a MIUI update or account change. 80% of the time, the sync settings, the contact app malfunction or the account conflict are to blame.

In this article, we’ll look at all the possible reasons why Xiaomi doesn’t keep contacts, from the trivial (Google syncs are disabled) to the rare (system file corruption). For each reason, we’ll give you a step-by-step solution with screenshots and commands, and how to recover lost numbers. If you’re in a hurry, use the table of contents to get to the right way.

⚠️ Important: Before any manipulations with settings, make a backup of contacts through MI Cloud or export them to a file VCF (instructions in the section "Prevention"). This will save you from irretrievable data loss when resetting settings.

1. Check sync with your Google account

The most common reason for contact disappearance is that you have disabled sync with your Google account, and even if you add a number manually, it can only be stored locally (in your phone's memory), and erased when you reset or update it, to check your settings:

1. Open Settings → Accounts and Synchronization.
2. Select your Google account (if not, add it).
3. Make sure the slider opposite Contact is on (blue).
4. Press Sync manually.

If the sync has been disabled, the contacts can be restored within 5-10 minutes after activation.

• 🔄 Update the Contacts app on Google Play (sometimes bugs are fixed in new versions).
• 📶 Check your internet connection – synchronization only works with a stable connection.
• 🔒 Make sure that there is no two-factor authentication on your Google account that blocks sync (rare but rare).

⚠️ Note: if you use multiple Google accounts on the same phone, contacts may be saved to the wrong profile.To avoid confusion, leave only one primary account or manually transfer contacts between profiles through Settings → Contacts → Contact management.

2. Resetting cache and data of the “Contacts” application

If sync is enabled but contacts are not saved, the problem may be in the damaged cache or data of the com.android.contacts application. This method helps in 60% of cases and does not delete the contacts themselves (if they are synced with Google), but only resets the display settings.

Instructions:

1. Go to Settings → Applications → Application Management.
2. Find the Contacts app (or Contacts on English firmware).
3. Press Warehouse. → Clear the cache.
4. If it didn’t work, go back and select Clear Data (this will reset your sorting settings, but won’t delete contacts if they’re synchronized).
5. Reboot the phone.

💡 Useful tip: After resetting the Contacts app, you may need to reconfigure the display of numbers (such as name format or grouping.

3.Problems with MI Cloud and Xiaomi account

Xiaomi owners often use MI Cloud to back up contacts. If sync with Google is disabled and MI Cloud is not working correctly, contacts may disappear or duplicate.

1. Open Settings → Xiaomi Account → MI Cloud
2. Make sure the contact slider is on.
3. Press Sync manually.
4. Check if an error notification has appeared (e.g. Synchronization error: server is unavailable).

If MI Cloud does not sync your contacts:

• 🔄 Update the app MI Cloud in Google Play.

⚠️ Note: If you have previously used Chinese firmware MIUI (For example, on Xiaomi Mi 6 or Redmi Note 5), MI Cloud may not work without being tied to a Chinese phone number, in which case go to the Google method or local save.

4.Contacts are retained on SIM-card

Many users do not notice that new contacts are saved by default. SIM-Not a card or a Google account. SIM-The cards have two critical limitations:

• 📱 Limited number of records (usually 200-250 contacts).
• 🔤 There is no support for Russian symbols in names (they are displayed as «???»).

To check where the contacts are kept:

1. Open the Contacts app.
2. Press + (add contact).
3. Check the box to save in - if there is a selected SIM-Change the card to a Google Account or Device.

If the contacts are already saved on the SIM:

1. Export them to your phone memory: Contacts → Settings → Import / Export → Export with SIM.
2. Remove the SIM duplicates to avoid confusion.

💡

Never keep in touch with the SIM-It's an outdated method with character and record limits.

5. Failure after MIUI update or reset settings

After major MIUI updates (e.g. 12-on-13 or 13-on-14) or factory reset, contacts may disappear due to:

• 🔄 Conflict of Contact Database Versions.
• 📱 Incorrectly linking accounts after resetting.
• 🚫 Blocking synchronization with new security policies.

Decisions:

1. Update rollback: If the problem appears immediately after the update, try rolling back to the previous version of MIUI via Settings → About Phone → System Update → Three Points → Select the Service Pack.
2. Manual sync: Go to Settings → Accounts → Google and manually start sync.
3. Resetting the Contacts app settings: as described in Section 2.

If the contacts are missing after discharge:

• 🔍 Check the Backup folder in internal memory – sometimes MIUI Creates backup copies automatically.
• 📥 Restore from MI Cloud (if synchronization was enabled): Settings → Xiaomi account → MI Cloud → Restore.
• 💾 Use third-party utilities like Dr.Fone or Tenorshare to recover (works if contacts aren’t overwritten with new data).

6. Damage to system files or virus attack

In rare cases, contacts are not maintained due to:

• 🦠 Viruses or malicious applications that block access to the database.
• 🗄️ File damage /data/data/com.android.providers.contacts/databases/contacts2.db.
• 🛠️ Incorrect permissions to access system folders (for example, after manual editing via Root).

Diagnosis and solution:

1. Virus Check: Use Malwarebytes or a built-in scanner MIUI Security (Settings) → Security → Scanner).
2. Restoration of access rights: if you have Root, run to Termux or ADB: su chmod 660 /data/data/com.android.providers.contacts/databases/contacts2.db chown system:system /data/data/com.android.providers.contacts/databases/contacts2.db
3. Reinstall the firmware: If nothing helps, reflash the phone via the Mi Flash Tool (instructions for 4PDA or Xiaomi Community).

⚠️ Warning: If you suspect a virus, do not connect your phone to your computer until it is completely cleaned – some malware spreads through the Internet. ADB or MTP.

7. Alternative ways of restoring contacts

If the contacts are missing and standard methods do not help, try these options:

💡 If you lose contacts often, set up automatic backups via Google Drive or Google Drive. MI Cloud. Go to Settings for that. → System system → Backup and enable the option.

Prevention: How to avoid future contact loss

To avoid the problem of contact disappearance, follow these rules:

• 🔄 Enable automatic sync with Google and MI Cloud (even if you only use one service, duplicate data will save you when you crash).
• 📱 Don't keep in touch with me. SIM-Map – only use Google account or device memory.
• 📅 Export your contacts to.vcf (once a month) regularly and send them to the cloud or mail.
• 🚫 Do not install modified firmware (e.g. Custom) ROM), If you are not sure of their stability.
• 🔍 Check the permissions of apps that request access to contacts (especially messengers and social networks).

⚠️ Warning: If you sell or transfer a phone, be sure to delete all accounts and reset to factory settings, otherwise new customer contacts may sync with your Google account!

FAQ: Frequent questions about contacts on Xiaomi