How to Change Contacts with Xiaomi: The Complete Guide

Xiaomi’s MIUI and HyperOS mobile devices offer users powerful personal data management tools. The phone book is one of the key applications through which basic communication takes place, so the ability to edit posts correctly is critical here. Often users are faced with the need not just to add a number, but to conduct deep editing: change the name, add a photo or fix erroneous data.

The editing process may seem simple, but Xiaomi’s ecosystem has its own nuances related to synchronization through a Mi Account or Google account. Wrong actions can lead to the fact that changes will not persist or, on the contrary, duplicate on other devices. Understanding the logic of the contact system will allow you to avoid chaos in the notebook and always have up-to-date information about the interlocutors.

In this guide, we will go into detail all aspects of contact listing, learn how to rename subscribers, combine duplicates that often occur when changing SIM cards, and how to properly configure the display of names in the call log, and also address security and backup issues so that your data is always protected.

Basic editing of name and phone number

The most common operation a smartphone user performs is changing a contact name or correcting a phone number, which is as simple and intuitive as possible in the MIUI interface, and you need to open a standard Contacts or Phone app and go to the subscriber list tab.

Find the entry you want in the list and click on it to open the detailed card. At the top of the screen, usually on the right or in the form of a pencil icon, there is an edit button. The interface may vary slightly depending on the version of the operating system, but the logic remains the same. Once you press the fields become active for text input.

• 📱 Click on the name to change it to more understandable or complete.
• 🔢 Edit the number by removing the extra characters or adding the country code.
• 🏷️ Add additional fields such as email address or job title.

Importantly, when you change a number, the system can automatically suggest that you format it to an international standard, a useful feature that ensures that messengers like WhatsApp or Telegram work correctly, and that you correctly identify the number when you call from abroad. Don't ignore the system's formatting suggestions if they appear.

⚠️ Note: If you edit a contact that syncs to a Google account, the changes will apply to all devices that log in to that account.

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Use the Comment box in your contact card to write down important details, such as “call only for work matters” or “duplicate office number.”

Managing duplicates and combining records

One of the most annoying issues when switching to a new smartphone or after recovering from a backup is the appearance of duplicate contacts. Xiaomi's system has built-in tools to solve this problem, which often remains underrated by users. Duplicates can occur because the same record is stored at the same time. SIM-card and phone memory.

To get started with duplicates, open the Contacts app and click on the menu (usually three dots or stripes). The option list should look for either Cleanup or Tools. This is where the "Combine Repetitives" function hides. The algorithm will automatically analyze the database and suggest merger options.

Menu → Tools → Combine Repetitive Contacts

The system will ask you to choose the contacts to join, and you can choose to automatically choose, or manually specify which records to combine into one, and when you combine information from different sources (for example, a photo from one record and a work number from another) is summarized into a single card.

Once the procedure is complete, it is recommended to go through the list visually to make sure that important data has not been lost. Sometimes an automatic algorithm can mistake and combine the namesake with different numbers, so user control is mandatory, and this is especially true for people with common names and surnames.

Setting up the display and sorting of the list

The comfort of using a phone book is directly dependent on how the display of names is configured. In different cultures and personal preferences, users can get used to different formats: “Name Name” or “Name Name”; on Xiaomi smartphones, these settings are flexibly adjusted in the settings menu.

To change the order of sorting, go to the Contacts app settings. Here you will find the "Sort Order" option. If you choose "Surname, Name", you will get a list sorted alphabetically by surname, which is convenient for quick search in large databases.

Special attention should be paid to the configuration of the display in the call log. Often, only the name is visible in the list of missed calls, and the surname is hidden, which creates confusion. In the section "Displayed names" you can force the format "Name and surname" for all screens of the system.

Changes take effect instantly, no device reboot is required. If you use your smartphone in multiple language modes, it is worth checking how the settings change when you switch the interface language. In some cases, the settings can be reset to default for the selected region.

Adding photos and personalization

Personalizing contacts is not just a matter of aesthetics, it's also a way to identify the caller more quickly. When a person's face appears on the screen, the brain responds faster than when reading text. At Xiaomi, adding photos is as simple as possible, allowing you to use both images from the gallery and photos taken through the camera in real time.

To set up an avatar, open a contact card and click on a round area for a photo or a camera icon. The system will suggest selecting an image from the Gallery or making a new one. After selecting a photo, a framing interface will appear where you can shift the frame and select a scale so that the face of the interlocutor is clearly visible.

Consider that the quality of the image display depends on the resolution of the screen and the version of the shell. On older versions of MIUI, photos could be cut into a circle too aggressively, cutting off important details. In new versions of HyperOS, framing algorithms became smarter.

⚠️ Attention: Contact photos take up space in cloud storage when synced. If you have limited space in Google Photos or Mi Cloud, installing avatars for hundreds of contacts can quickly exhaust the limit.

You can also assign ringtones to specific contacts, and this is done in the same editing menu, in the Melody section, where you can select the standard audio from the list, or download your own MP3 audio file, so you can recognize important callers without even looking at the screen.

Working with groups and tags

To manage large numbers efficiently, Xiaomi has a group (or tag) system, a powerful tool that allows you to send mass SMS, make group calls, or simply filter the list quickly, and typically creates favorites, friends, family, and colleagues, but the user can create their own.

To create a new group, go to the appropriate tab in the contact app and click the add button. Name a group, for example, "Get room" or "Projects." Once you create a group, you can add contacts to it in two ways: by selecting a subscriber from a common list and assigning a group to him, or by opening a group and selecting "Add contact."

• 📩 Sending. SMS all members of the group.
• 📞 Creating a conference call with multiple subscribers.
• 🔒 Privacy settings for certain contact groups.

Particularly noteworthy is the Favorites group, where the contacts added to it are displayed on a separate tab and often take priority when displaying widgets on the desktop, which is convenient for numbers that need to be answered first.

Synchronization and backup of data

Data security in today’s smartphone comes first. Losing a phone book can be a disaster, so it’s important to understand how synchronization works in Xiaomi devices. The main ways are two: through a Google account (standard for Android) and through the cloud service Mi Cloud (proprietary solution Xiaomi).

When using a Google account, all changes you make to your contacts are automatically uploaded to the Google Contacts cloud.This makes it easy to restore numbers when you switch to any other Android smartphone. To check status, go to Settings → Accounts and Sync → Google and make sure the slider opposite Contacts is active.

Mi Cloud offers similar functionality, but with deeper integration into the shell, allowing you not only to save numbers, but also to make full backups of the system. However, if you plan to upgrade to an iPhone or a smartphone of another brand, synchronization through Google will be a more versatile and reliable solution.

It is recommended to periodically make a local backup in.vcf format. This file can be saved to your computer or sent to your mail. In case of problems with the Internet or accounts, you can always import this file and restore all records manually.

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Double sync (Google + Mi Cloud) can lead to duplicates, and it is better to choose one main service for storing contacts and use it constantly.