Many users are faced with the need to transfer all the data accumulated over the years when buying a new smartphone, especially for owners of Xiaomi and Redmi devices, where the menu structure may differ from the usual interfaces of other brands. If you have just unpacked your Redmi 9, the first thing to do is to take care of the phone book.
Modern gadgets allow you to store information in the cloud, but often old records are left dead weight on a plastic SIM chip. The process of transferring data on a device with a MIUI shell does not require complex manipulation or installing third-party programs.
In this article, we will take a look at each import step in detail, and also address the issues related to name encoding and duplicates. Properly performing the procedure ensures that no important number is lost during the migration process.
Preparation of the device and checking the SIM card
Before you start importing, make sure the SIM card is correctly defined by the system.Put the plastic media into the appropriate slot of your Redmi 9. Make sure the tray is tightly closed and the device is switched on without SIM read errors.
After turning on, check if the phone sees the card itself, lower the notification curtain and see if the operator's network icon appears, and if the operator's name is marked "No network" or "No SIM installed", it will not be possible to import contacts.
It's also worth checking if the memory in the device is enough to create new records. Although text takes up the minimum amount of space, a crowded cache can cause crashes. It's recommended to clear a few megabytes if the storage is full.
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Before starting the procedure, make sure that the battery is at least 20% so that a sudden shutdown does not interrupt the recording process.
It's important to understand that older SIM cards have limited storage capacity, which is usually 250 or 500 records, and if you have more, some of them may not show up when you import.
Step-by-step instructions for import through the contact menu
The basic method of data transfer is built directly into the standard Contacts app, which is the most reliable and doesn't require an internet connection. Open the app menu and find an icon with a picture of a man or a phone handset.
When you start the app, you can look at the three dots in the top right corner of the screen, and if you click on that, you'll see the drop-down menu with the extra options, and that's where the data management function we want to use is hidden.
☑️ Algorithm of actions for import
In the list that opens, select Import/Export. The system will request confirmation of the action, as this change affects system data. Click OK or Allow if the permission request appears.
Then you'll be asked to choose the source of the data. SIM-Once the source is selected, the system will prompt you to specify your destination. For Redmi 9, the best choice is a Google account or device memory.
⚠️ Note: If you choose to import into your phone memory, if you reset your settings or break your device, the numbers may be lost.
You can select individual records or click "Select All," and then you can start the copying process, which takes a few seconds, after confirmation.
Working with multiple SIM cards
The Redmi 9 supports two SIM cards at the same time, which creates a little confusion for beginners, because the system must know which chip to read information from. When choosing the source of import, you will be asked to specify SIM 1 or SIM 2.
If you use two numbers, you'll have to do it twice. First, import the data from the first card, then repeat the algorithm for the second card. Don't try to find the "Import All at once" button, because there's no such feature in the standard MIUI shell for reading two cards at once.
When working with two cards, be careful not to create duplicates. If the same number is recorded on both SIM cards, it can appear twice in the phone book, and later we will consider how to combine such records.
Sometimes the system may not see the second SIM card in the list of available sources, in which case, try temporarily disabling one of them in the network settings, import, and then switch the active card.
Better to save: Google, Phone or Mi Account
The choice of storage location is critical, and it's what keeps your data safe in the future, and you'll be presented with a few options on the screen to select the location, and you'll see the pros and cons of each.
Save Google Contacts is the preferred option, and it automatically syncs to the cloud, so if you lose your phone or buy a new one, just type in your username and password, and the entire book will recover instantly.
| Storage area | Availability | Risk of loss | Synchronization |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google account | Everywhere (Android, iOS, PC) | Minimum | Automatic. |
| Phone memory | Only on this device. | High-pitched | Absent. |
| Mi Account. | Xiaomi devices | Low. | Automatic. |
| SIM-map | Any phone. | Medium (low memory) | Hand-held |
The Phone or Device option stores data locally, which is convenient if you don't want to link numbers to your Internet accounts, but if your motherboard breaks, it's hard to recover them.
Mi Account is Xiaomi's ecosystem, and it's good if you're planning on using other Xiaomi gadgets, like a tablet or a laptop, but it's still more versatile for cross-platform Google.
What if your Google account is not listed?
Solving problems with coding and duplicates
Often, after the transfer, users are faced with a nuisance: instead of names, they display incomprehensible characters or question marks. This is a problem of encoding. SIM cards often use old standards for text encoding, which modern Android interprets incorrectly.
Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to fix the encoding of already imported Krakozyabr, and if the names are not readable, the easiest way to rewrite important numbers is to manually or try importing them through a third-party app that can convert encodings on the fly.
The second common problem is duplicates. When importing from a SIM card, numbers can be added to those already in memory. MIUI has a built-in cleaning tool. Go to the contact settings and find "Combine repetitive contacts."
⚠️ Warning: Automatically merges, the system can get the wrong number and glue the numbers of different people with the same names.
You can use the filter function for manual cleaning. In the contact app, click three dots and select Contact Filter, where you can choose to display only duplicates or only unnamed numbers.
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The best way to avoid encoding problems is not to store names in a SIM card, but to keep only numbers there, saving full data in the Google cloud.
Alternative methods and third-party applications
If you can't move data with standard tools, you can use third-party tools. There are a lot of backup apps on the Google Play store. One of the most popular and reliable is "Copy My Data" or "Super Backup."
These programs often have more flexible settings, so you can create a backup file in.vcf format, which you can then upload to your computer or send to your own mail, which creates an additional recovery point.
Using aggregator applications like Yandex.Disk or Google Drive also allows you to back up your phone book, and these apps have a "Contact Backup" feature that works regardless of your phone's system settings.
But it's important to keep security in mind, because by giving your phone book to third-party developers, you're risking privacy, and you're only using proven applications with high ratings and millions of installations.