How to turn off contact sync on Xiaomi: all ways for MIUI 12-14

Contact sync on Xiaomi smartphones is a useful feature that automatically saves your phone books to Mi Cloud, Google or other cloud services. SIM-However, many users face problems such as duplicate records, leaking personal data or unnecessary traffic consumption. If you want to completely disable synchronization, this article will help you understand all the nuances of the matter.

Depending on the version of MIUI (12, 13 or 14) and the smartphone model (Redmi Note 12, POCO X5, Xiaomi 13T, etc.), the process may be slightly different. We will look at all the current ways, from standard settings to hidden options for power users, you will learn how to avoid losing contacts when you turn off sync and what to do if the system ignores your settings.

Why you should turn off contact sync on Xiaomi

Automatic sync seems convenient, but in practice it creates more problems than it solves, and here are the main reasons why Xiaomi users prefer to turn it off:

• 🔒 Privacy: Your contacts are stored on Xiaomi or Google servers, which increases the risk of data leakage (especially for corporate phones).
• 📱 Contact Duplicates: when synchronized with multiple accounts (e.g. Mi Cloud) + Google creates repetitive records that are difficult to delete.
• 📶 Traffic Consumption: Background sync consumes mobile internet, even if you don’t add new contacts.
• ⚡ Battery discharge: Constant checks of changes to the phone book increase the load on the processor.
• 🔄 Conflicts when changing the device: when you switch from Xiaomi to a smartphone of another brand (for example, Samsung), synchronized contacts may be displayed incorrectly.

In addition, some users note that sync is automatically enabled after the MIUI update, even if it was previously disabled, due to Xiaomi’s policy of linking users to the Mi Account ecosystem.

Method 1: Disable synchronization via Mi Account (Mi Cloud)

If your smartphone is linked to a Xiaomi account, the contact sync is enabled by default to turn it off:

1. Open the Settings app (cog icon).
2. Go to Mi Account (or Xiaomi Account in new MIUI versions).
3. Select Mi Cloud → Synchronization.
4. Find the Contact point and move the slider to the off position.
5. Confirm the action by clicking Disconnect in the pop-up window.

After that, the contacts will no longer sync with the Xiaomi cloud, but will remain on the device.If you want to delete the already synchronized data from the Mi Cloud, follow the additional steps:

• 🖥️ Visit i.mi.com from your PC or phone.
• 🔑 Sign in with the same Mi Account.
• 🗑️ Go to the Contact section → Management → Delete everything.

💡

Before removing contacts from Mi Cloud, export them to the VCF file via the cloud settings, which will allow you to recover records if necessary.

⚠️ Warning: Disabling sync via Mi Cloud does not remove contacts from the device, but new changes (add/edit) will not be saved to the cloud.If you reset the phone to factory settings, reconnecting contacts from Mi Cloud will become impossible.

Method 2: Disabling sync with Google account

Many Xiaomi users use Google Contacts to back up.To disable this feature:

1. Open Settings → Accounts and Sync (or Passwords and Accounts in MIUI 14).
2. Select your Google account.
3. Click on account sync.
4. Find the Contact Point and turn it off.
5. To completely disable, uncheck all other checkmarks (unless you use other Google services).

If you want to remove your already synced contacts from Google:

• 🌐 Go to contacts.google.com.
• 🔍 On the left menu, select More → Delete contacts.
• ⏳ Specify the date range (e.g. All the time) and confirm deletion.

Make a backup of contacts in the file VCF|Remember which accounts are linked to the phone|Check if contacts are used in other applications (WhatsApp, Telegram)|Make sure your phone has enough memory to store local contacts-->

Method 3: Locally Storage Contacts (without Clouds)

If you want to completely abandon cloud sync and only keep contacts on your phone, follow these steps:

1. Open the Contacts app.
2. Press three points (⋮) in the upper right corner and select Settings.
3. Go to Contact Management. → Imports/Exports.
4. Select Export to file and save contacts in.vcf format to internal memory or SD-map.
5. Return to Contact Settings and select Default Account → Phone (or Local Storage).
6. Turn off sync for all accounts (as described in Methods 1 and 2).

Now all new contacts will be stored only in the memory of the phone, to avoid data loss when resetting:

• 📁 Export contacts to.vcf file regularly and copy it to PC or flash drive.
• 🔄 Use apps like Super Backup to automatically back up.
• 📱 Do not keep your contacts only on SIM-The map is easy to lose or damage.

⚠️ Note: When choosing local storage contacts, their recovery after a phone reset will become impossible without prior backup. Xiaomi does not provide tools to restore local contacts without a backup.

Method 4: Disable synchronization via ADB (for power users)

If standard methods do not work (for example, synchronization is turned on itself after a reboot), you can use the ADB debugging bridge. This method is suitable for advanced users and requires connecting the phone to a PC.

Before we start:

• 🖥️ Install Android SDK Platform-Tools on the computer.
• 📱 Enable Developer Mode on Xiaomi: Settings → The phone. → Version. MIUI (press 7 times).
• 🔧 Turn on Debugging. USB In Settings → Additionally. → For developers.

Next, run commands in Command Prompt (Windows) or Terminal (macOS/Linux):

adb shell


pm disable-user --user 0 com.miui.cloudservice




pm disable-user --user 0 com.xiaomi.account




pm disable-user --user 0 com.google.android.syncadapters.contacts

These commands are completely shutting down:

• 🔗 Synchronization with Mi Cloud.
• 🔗 Synchronization with Google Contacts.
• 🔗 Background processes related to accounts.

⚠️ Note: Disabling system applications through ADB This can cause the phone to run in an unstable way, such as the widget or the notifications from Mi Account will stop updating. To get it back, use the command: pm enable com.miui.cloudservice

Problems and Solutions: If the synchronization is not turned off

Sometimes Xiaomi users find that the synchronization of contacts is turned on itself or ignores the settings.

Problem 1: Synchronization is enabled after the MIUI update

After installing a new version of MIUI (for example, from 13 to 14), the settings are reset.

• 🔄 Re-disable sync via Mi Cloud and Google (as in Methods 1 and 2).
• 📵 Turn off automatic updates MIUI In Settings → The phone. → Updating the system → ⋮ → Settings → Auto-update.

Problem 2: Contacts are duplicated even after synchronization is turned off

This is because of the conflict between on-premises and cloud contacts.

1. Export all contacts to the.vcf file.
2. Remove all contacts from Mi Cloud and Google Contacts (via the web version of the services).
3. Delete all contacts from your phone.
4. Import the saved.vcf file back by selecting the Phone as the storage location.

Problem 3: You can't turn off synchronization because of corporate policy

If the phone was issued by the employer and linked to Google Workspace or Mi Enterprise, the administrator can block the change.

• 📞 Go to the IT-company department with request to disable synchronization.
• 🔧 If it is a personal phone, delete your corporate account in Settings → Accounts.

💡

If none of these methods worked, try resetting the Contacts app through Settings → Apps → App Management → Contacts → Storage → Clear the data. This will delete all local contacts, so pre-backup!

How to check if the synchronization is actually disabled

To make sure that contacts are no longer synchronized:

1. 📱 Add a new test contact (e.g. Test 123).
2. 🔍 Check if it shows up: In Mi Cloud (if you had a Xiaomi account attached.

📵 Restart your phone and check again – sometimes sync is delayed.

Settings → Accounts and Synchronization → Data Use

Contacts

Mi Cloud

If the test contact did not appear in any of the cloud services, the synchronization is successfully disabled.

FAQ: Frequent questions about synchronizing contacts on Xiaomi