How to Change Time on Xiaomi: A Complete Guide to Setup

The modern smartphone has long ceased to be just a device for calls, becoming a digital center that coordinates our lives. The exact time on the lock screen and in the system interface is necessary for the correct operation of notifications, synchronizing messages in instant messengers and logging into banking applications. If your Xiaomi watch runs away or lags, this can lead to serious disruptions in the work of Android services, including the inability to log in to Google accounts.

With MIUI and its new version of HyperOS, time zone and display format configurations are flexible, but sometimes hidden from the user’s eyes. Often the problem is not a physical clock failure, but a software conflict or miscalculation of a region. In this article, we will discuss in detail how to change time on Xiaomi, force it to synchronize with the server, and what to do if standard methods do not help.

Usually, the system itself handles daylight saving time and time zone changes when traveling. However, there are situations when the automation fails and the user has to intervene manually, and understanding how synchronization works in the background will help avoid many problems with displaying the date in the future.

First of all, it is worth noting that the menu interface may vary slightly depending on the version of the shell. On older versions of MIUI 12 or MIUI 13 items may be called differently than on the fresh MIUI 14. However, the logic of the system settings remains the same for the entire line of devices, whether it is a budget Redmi or flagship Xiaomi.

Automatic synchronization through the network

The most reliable and easy way to get the exact time is to use automatic synchronization over the Internet. In this mode, your smartphone accesses the operator's servers or Google for current data. To activate this feature, you need to go to the settings menu by selecting Settings → Additional → Date and Time.

Here you'll see the Use Network Time switch (or Date and Time Autoset) when this option is active, the manual time input fields become inaccessible (gray) and this is done specifically to eliminate human error and network time, which is considered reference time because it adjusts for leap seconds and transitions.

⚠️ Note: If automatic synchronization is enabled, but the time is still incorrect, check if the time zone is correctly selected in the menu below. IP-The address is wrong, showing the time of the neighboring region.

It is important to understand that this feature requires an active Internet connection to work, if you are in an area where the network is unstable, or SIM-The card is locked, the phone can show the last known time until the time it reconnects, in which case the system usually marks the clock with a special icon or simply stops updating it before the network comes along.

Manual date and time setting

There are situations where automatic determination is not required or impossible. For example, you use a smartphone without a smartphone. SIM-maps as a media player or you are in a place where the network signal is completely absent. In this case, Xiaomi has the ability to manually set parameters. To access this feature, first turn off the Toolbox "Use Network Time" in the Date and Time menu.

Once the automation is disabled, the Time and Date fields will become active for editing, and clicking on them will open a dial and calendar where you can set exact values, which is also useful if you want to deliberately trick the system by setting a time in the past or future to test applications or games that depend on the date.

When manually adjusting, it is important to remember the time zone. SIM-maps, manual belt selection will allow you to see local time, even if the internal phone clock is in your home region. Just select the desired city from the list or specify the offset relative to the UTC manually.

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If you travel frequently between time zones, it is more convenient not to change the time manually, but to enable the “Auto-Time Zone” function in the same menu, leaving network synchronization enabled.

Some users deliberately knock down time to get around restrictions in games or access content that is not yet open in their region, but it is worth remembering that this can disrupt SSL security certificates, which will stop websites and many applications from opening.

Setting up the time and date format

Visual time is a matter of taste. Someone is used to a 24-hour format, someone closer to a 12-hour format with AM/PM. On Xiaomi smartphones, these settings are in the same Date and Time menu, but just below the main switches, and you can change not only the format of the watch, but also the order of the date display.

The available time formats are usually limited to two basic standards: 24-hour (e.g. 14:30) and 12-hour (2:30 PM).The choice depends on your personal preferences and habits. In some regions, the default format may be 12-hour, which sometimes causes confusion among users who are not used to counting from noon.

The format of the date is also customizable, so you can choose which one is the day, the month or the year, and this is especially true for those who work with documents or conduct business correspondence, where strict numerical ordering is important.

• 📅 DD.MM.GYG (the usual format for Russia and Europe)
• 📅 MM/DD/GYG (standard for the USA)
• 📅 GYYYY-MM-DD (International Standard) ISO)
• 📅 DD month of GYGG (full name of the month)

Changes take effect instantly, and are reflected not only in the status bar, but also in widgets on the desktop, in the call log and messages, allowing you to personalize the interface to yourself without installing third-party launchers or themes.

Time zone problems when traveling

Travelers often experience a situation where the phone time does not change automatically or changes with an error of one hour after arriving in another country, which may be due to the fact that in some countries the daylight saving time switch is canceled or changed, and the phone database has not yet been updated.

To solve this problem, Xiaomi can use the “Second Hours” feature, which allows you to display the time of the second time zone directly on the lock screen or in the watch widget, which is convenient if you need to constantly contact colleagues or relatives who are located on the other side of the world.

To add a second clock, go to the Watch app, select the World Time tab, and add the desired city, and then you can activate the second city time display in the lock screen settings (Settings → Lock screen) in the lock screen settings. This does not change the system time, but gives a visual landmark.

⚠️ Warning: When crossing the border, always check if the option is “Auto-Time Zone” enabled. If you forgot to do this, notifications from banks and two-factor authentication may come with a delay or not at all due to the time of the server and device being out of sync.

Sometimes it helps to just restart the device after changing the region, which causes modem to re-register on the local network and get the current time zone data from the carrier, and if that doesn't help, try temporarily turning on flight mode, wait 10 seconds and turn it off.

Table: The main time settings in MIUI

To make it easy to understand where the key time settings are, we've created a spreadsheet that will help you navigate the menu quickly, even if you have a specific version of the firmware.

As you can see from the table, all the major controls are concentrated in one section, which makes navigation easier and allows you to quickly make the necessary adjustments. Keep in mind that in global firmware, the path may be slightly different from the Chinese versions, but the keywords (Date, Time, Additional) remain unchanged.

If you can't find a item, search by settings. At the top of the settings menu, there's a search bar where you just type in the word "time" or "date," and the system will prompt you to go to the desired section.

Failures and ways of addressing them

Despite Android’s stability, software failures sometimes occur when time on the phone starts to “jump” or reset when it reboots, most often due to the discharge of the internal battery that powers the watch when it’s off, or errors in the cache of system applications.

The first thing to do when you detect strange behavior of the watch is to check for system updates. Xiaomi developers regularly release security patches and bug fixes that can affect system time. Go to Settings → About phone and click on the MIUI version to check for updates.

If the update didn’t work, try clearing the cache of the Watch app and Google Play system services. To do this, go to Settings → Apps → All apps, find the desired app, select Memory, and click Clear Cache. This won’t delete your personal data, but will reset temporary files that could have caused the conflict.

In more complex cases, a complete reset may be required.Be sure to back up all important data before performing a reset, as this procedure will remove all information from the device.Reset will return all system parameters to factory values, which often eliminates deep software errors.

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The most common reason for resetting time on older smartphones is the physical wear and tear of the internal battery that stores the BIOS/UEFI settings of the analogue in the mobile device.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)