How to transfer contacts from SIM to phone on Xiomi

Changing your smartphone often becomes stressful not because of getting used to a new interface or screen characteristics, but because of the fear of losing important data. POCO Often have to move the phone book from an old device or SIM-This is a critical step, as the loss of numbers can lead to serious problems in business and personal life.

Modern shells MIUI And the new HyperOS provides powerful tools for working with contacts, but their interface is not always intuitive for beginners. Many users mistakenly believe that numbers are stored only on the most secure site. SIM-It's a very limited memory storage medium, and it doesn't support saving additional fields, such as addresses or email, and it's a basic skill that's going to keep your data secure.

In this article we will analyze in detail the process of importing contacts, consider the nuances of working with the SIM-We'll use maps of different formats to explain why storing numbers in the Google or Mi Cloud cloud is a more reliable solution than using a physical operator chip.

Preparation of SIM-card and compatibility check

Before any manipulation of data begins, it is necessary to make sure that the medium is physically healthy. SIM-cards, especially those that are more 5-7 In the years that have passed, you may have damaged contact memory or you may use an outdated recording standard that modern smartphones misread. If you haven't changed your SIM from the operator in a long time, it makes sense to visit the service office and replace it with a new one with support. 4G/LTE and redesigned chip.

It is also important to understand the difference between storage formats. SIM-The phone number is usually written in a 16-character format, often without a plus sign before the country code.When imported to Xiaomi, these numbers may not display correctly, leading to problems with the number detector or messengers. Before transferring, it is recommended to check the contents of the SIM on another device, if possible, or be ready to manually edit the formats after importing.

⚠️ Attention: If yours SIM-The map is very old (released before 2010), it may not support the storage of Cyrillic names, in which case, after transferring the names, you will see a set of numbers or empty fields that you will have to fill in again.

Make sure the smartphone is fully charged.The memory reading process SIM-While the risk of disconnection is minimal, interrupting the process of writing to the contact database can lead to corruption of the phone book file, after which recovery becomes a difficult task.

Modern Redmi and POCO smartphones often use a combined SIM tray and microSD card. Make sure the SIM card is installed in the correct slot (usually Slot 1) if you have a dual-sim device, so that the system will prioritize reading data from it.

Standard method of import through the Contacts app

The main and most reliable way to transfer data is to use an embedded system application. MIUI And it's called Contacts, and it has an orange icon with a human silhouette, and it's the tool that has full access to the phone book and the phone book. SIM-map, bypassing the limitations of third-party downloaders.

To start the process, open the app and go to the control menu. Depending on the shell version, it can be a three-dot button in the corner of the screen or a swipe to the right to open the side menu. You need to find the data management section, which is often hidden in the Settings or Import/Export submenuity.

After selecting the item “Imports with SIM-The system will tell you to choose a destination. Here lies the important point: do not choose an option «SIM-If you can choose a Google account, save to a phone, and link your contacts to a particular device, and if you break or lose it, you risk losing the entire book.

The copying process takes anywhere from a few seconds to a couple of minutes, depending on the number of records. During the operation, a progress bar may appear on the screen. Do not turn off the screen or run heavy applications to avoid loading the processor, although modern Snapdragon and MediaTek chips easily cope with this task in the background.

If you have a dual-sim phone, the system will ask you which card to read data from. Choose the slot carefully, especially if you use SIM cards from different carriers, and one of them is the main one for business contacts.

Import through system settings and Mi Account

An alternative route is through the general smartphone settings, which is useful if the standard Contacts app is not working properly or has been removed by the user.The path to the desired feature may vary depending on the Android version, but the logic remains the same across the Xiaomi ecosystem.

Follow Settings → Apps → All apps → Contacts. In the menu that opens, look for “Storage” or “Memory.” This often hides the cache clearing button, but we need the management features. However, a more direct path in newer versions of MIUI is in the Settings menu → Passwords and Security → Privacy → Special Permits, although this is more for access control.

The most effective system method is related to Mi Cloud. If you use the Xiaomi ecosystem, synchronization with Mi Account allows you not only to transfer, but also to secure data. → Mi Account. → Synchronize and make sure that the slider opposite the Contact is active. SIM-maps at the first time synchronization is activated.

The system settings also allow you to customize the display and sort format, so you can specify that names are sorted by surname, which is true for large corporate phone books, and these settings apply to all imported contacts automatically.

It is important to note that when importing through system settings, you may not be able to select specific contacts to transfer – usually all records are copied at once. If you need to transfer only selected numbers, you should use the method through the application described above.

Working with duplicates and combining records

A common problem with data transfer is the appearance of duplicates, which occurs when the same number is stored and on the same data transfer. SIM-It's in your card, in your phone's memory, or if you've synced with Google before, and now you've added the SIM data again, and as a result, one person can have two or three cards with the same number.

The MIUI shell has a built-in tool to solve this problem: Open the Contacts app, click on three dots (menu) and select "Combine duplicate contacts." The system will automatically analyze the database, find matches by phone numbers and suggest combining them into a single record, saving all fields (addresses, email, notes).

• 📱 Click "Unite" to automatically merge all pairs found.
• 🔍 Manually check the list before confirming, so as not to mix different people with similar names.
• 🗑️ After the merger, delete the original records from SIM-cards to free her memory and avoid future confusion.

If automatic pairing missed some pairs, you can do it manually. Open the contact card, click the menu (three dots) and select "Combine with another contact." This is useful when the numbers are written in different formats (e.g. 8900... and +7900...) and the system does not recognize them as the same.

Cleaning duplicates regularly makes it easier to search the phone book and cleaner, and it also prevents you from calling someone from one number and seeing a different name because the call comes from a “double” of the contact.

Comparison of Storage Methods: SIM, Phone, Cloud

Users often wonder where to store numbers? To make an informed decision, you need to understand the technical limitations and advantages of each method. Below is a comparison table that will help determine the storage strategy.

As you can see from the table, the storage SIM-The only scenario where this is justified is using a button phone without cloud support or handing over contacts to a person who does not have a smartphone. In other cases, keeping contacts in a Google cloud account is the gold standard for data security.

Local storage on your phone (in the memory of the device) is convenient if you want to maintain complete confidentiality and not trust data to third-party servers. However, remember that if the motherboard breaks or your phone is lost, it will be impossible to restore such data without prior backup (backup).

Cloud services offer an added bonus: the ability to restore remote contacts. Google Contacts has a shopping cart where deleted records are stored for 30 days. If you accidentally delete an important number or a virus erases it, you can easily return it back through the web interface.

Solving Common Problems in Transfer

Despite the simplicity of the procedure, users sometimes encounter errors, one of the most common is the message "Can not import contacts" or "Can not import contacts" or "Can not import contacts" or "Can not import contacts «SIM-This can be caused by a software failure in the contact service or physical contamination of the contacts themselves. SIM-map.

Try removing the SIM card, wipe it with a clean dry cloth (microfiber) and insert it back in. Make sure it sits tight. If the problem is not solved, restart your smartphone. In 80% of cases, a simple reboot (Reboot) eliminates the temporary conflicts of processes that block access to SIM reading.

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If the contacts are not read, try inserting them. SIM-The card to another smartphone and export the contacts from there to the.vcf file (vCard). Then transfer this file to Xiaomi via Bluetooth or messenger and open it - the system will prompt you to import all the records at once.

Another problem is encoding. Contacts can be displayed in knackers, and this is solved by changing the encoding when exporting/importing, but at the smartphone level, there is little that the user can do, and only manually editing the names of the most important contacts will help.

If you have a third-party launcher or call app (e.g. from Google if you upgraded the standard), access rights may be limited. Go to Settings → Apps → Contacts → Permissions and make sure that phone and SMS access (if required) is allowed.

In rare cases, cleaning the cache of the Contacts and Contact Storage app helps.This won't delete your numbers, but will reset temporary display settings files.Way: Settings → Apps → All Apps → Contacts → Storage → Clear the cache.

FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions

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The most reliable way to keep contacts is to sync regularly with your Google Account, which ensures that if you lose or break your Xiaomi smartphone, you will only lose your device, not your friends and colleagues’ numbers.