Russian letters in Xiaomi contacts: why disappeared and how to return?

You added a new contact on Xiaomi, but instead of Cyrillic characters, the name displays Krakozabras, question marks or empty squares? The problem with Russian letters in contacts is one of the most common on Redmi, POCO and Mi smartphones running MIUI. Most often it occurs after updating the firmware, resetting settings or synchronizing with a Google account.

In this article, we will discuss 5 proven ways to return Russian letters to contacts, from basic system language change to manually editing encoding through ADB. You will also learn why the problem occurs on specific models (for example, Redmi Note 10 Pro or POCO X3 Pro) and how to avoid its recurrence. If you have already tried to restart your phone or reinstall the Contacts application, do not rush to reset the settings to factory: in 90% of cases, simpler solutions help.

Why are Xiaomi contacts instead of Russian letters Krakozyabr?

The problem lies in the incompatibility of encoding between the system. MIUI and the contact source (e.g. Google Account or SIM-Here are the main scenarios where Russian symbols are replaced by unreadable characters:

• 🔄 Google sync: when importing contacts from a Google account, encoding is used UTF-8, but MIUI trying to map them out in ISO-8859-1 (western).
• 📱 Update MIUI: After installing a new firmware version (especially on Redmi 9, Note 8 Pro) the regional system settings are knocked down.
• 📶 Import with SIM-maps: old ones SIM-cards (especially from operators MTS or Beeline 2010-2015) store contacts in encoding GSM 7-bit, non-Cyrillic.
• 🔧 Manual editing: If you typed in a contact name in an app from a third-party developer (like Truecaller), it could have been saved in the wrong encoding.

Interestingly, the problem is more common on Xiaomi smartphones with global firmware (EEA or Global), whereas the Chinese versions of MIUI (with China) have almost no such bugs, due to the fact that global builds by default use the Western Roboto font, which does not always correctly display Cyrillic.

Method 1: Change the language of the system to Russian

The easiest method is to check that the smartphone settings have Russian as the primary language, and even if the interface is displayed in Russian, sometimes the region of the system remains Western European (en_EU), which causes coding failures.

How to change the language:

1. Open Settings → Additional → Language and input.
2. Click on "Language" (first paragraph).
3. Select “Russian (Russia)” or “Russian (Ukraine)” (if the first one is not on the list).
4. Reboot the phone.

If the Russian language is not on the list:

• 📥 Download the language package through Settings → The phone. → Update MIUI → Three dots (menu) → Language packages.
• 🔄 Install the region of Russia in Settings → Additionally. → Region.

⚠️ Note: On some models (POCO F3, Redmi K40) If you change your language, you may reset your keyboard layout, save important texts or screenshots in advance.

Method 2: Synchronize your contacts with Google (proper import)

If contacts were imported from Google Accounts and displayed by Krakozabras, the problem is sync settings. Often users simply turn on sync without checking the source encoding. Here's how to do it correctly:

Step 1: Remove your current contacts from Google:

1. Go to contacts.google.com from your computer.
2. Select all contacts (the tick at the top of the list) and click “Delete”.

Step 2: Export your contacts from Xiaomi in the correct encoding:

1. On the phone, open the Contacts app.
2. Press. ⋮ (three-point) → Contact management → Imports/Exports → Export to file.
3. Select the format "vCard (.vcf)" and save the file to the phone.

Step 3: Import your contacts back to Google:

1. At contacts.google.com, click on “Import”.
2. Download the saved.vcf file.
3. Turn on sync on your phone: Settings → Accounts → Google → Contact Sync.

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Before importing to Google, open the file.vcf in the text editor (for example, Notepad).++) And check that the Russian letters are displayed correctly"Цифра", The file is stored in an incorrect encoding.

Method 3: Manual editing of contacts via ADB

If previous methods have failed, the problem may be at the contact database level, where manual editing via ADB (Android Debug Bridge) is suitable for advanced users, as it requires connecting the phone to a computer.

What you need:

• 🖥️ Computer with installed ADB and Fastboot.
• 📱 Included debugging by USB on the phone (Settings) → The phone. → Version. MIUI → 7 times to unlock the developer menu, then Settings → Additionally. → For developers → Debugging by USB).
• 🔌 USB-cable (preferably original).

Instructions:

1. Connect the phone to your computer and confirm the debugging permission.
2. Open the command line (cmd) in the adb folder and do:

adb shell


su




sqlite3 /data/data/com.android.providers.contacts/databases/contacts2.db




UPDATE raw_contacts SET display_name = replace(display_name,'??','Test') WHERE display_name LIKE'%?';




.exit

This command replaces all unreadable characters (???) with the word "Test." To return the original names, pre-export the contacts to the.vcf file (as in Method 2) and replace the "Test" with the correct names manually.

⚠️ Attention: Misuse of the right ADB Before executing commands, make a backup copy via adb backup com.android.providers.contacts.

Method 4: Reset the Contact App without losing data

If the problem occurs after updating the Contacts app or a malfunction, cache and data resetting will help. Unlike a complete phone reset, this method does not delete the contacts themselves, but only resets the application settings.

How to reset:

1. Go to Settings → Applications → Application Management.
2. Find the Contacts app** (or com.android.contacts).

After the reboot:

• 🔄 Sync your contacts with your Google Account (if they are saved there).
• 📱 If the contacts were stored locally, they will remain in the phone’s memory, but may be displayed with a delay (up to 5 minutes).

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Resetting the Contacts app doesn’t delete the contacts themselves, it only returns the settings to factory settings, but if you haven’t synced your data to Google, local contacts may temporarily disappear from the interface (they will remain in the system).

Method 5: Install an alternative contact application

If Xiaomi’s regular Contacts app ** stubbornly doesn’t want to display Cyrillic correctly, try third-party counterparts. They often work better with encoding and offer additional features (such as cloud backup).

Top.-3 substitute:

• 📌 Google Contacts – Google’s official app with support UTF-8 and automatic synchronization.

How to transfer contacts to a new application:

1. Export contacts from a standard application to a.vcf file (see Method 2).
2. Install the selected application from Google Play.
3. Import contacts through the app menu (usually Settings → Import/Export).
4. Disable the standard Contacts app** (if it interferes): Settings → Apps → Contacts → Disable.

The advantage of this method is that you can test different applications without losing data, for example, Google Contacts is guaranteed to support Cyrillic, because it uses the same encoding as Gmail.

How to avoid problems with Russian letters in the future

To prevent the problem from recurring after resetting or updating MIUI, follow these guidelines:

• 📱 Avoid importing from SIM-maps - old SIM-cards are not UTF-8.

If you often experience problems after updates, consider switching to custom firmware (like LineageOS or Pixel Experience).They are devoid of MIUI encoding bugs, but require unlocking the bootloader and may take you out of warranty.

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Before updating MIUI, check for feedback on forums (such as 4PDA or XDA-Developers) – if users complain about contact issues, delay installing the new version for 1-2 weeks until a patch is released.

FAQ: Frequent questions about Russian letters in Xiaomi contacts