How to display all your contacts on Xiaomi: hidden, duplicated and lost

The problem with displaying contacts on Xiaomi, Redmi or POCO smartphones is familiar to many users, as the phone book only shows part of the numbers, duplicates them, or hides some of the entries after the MIUI update. 80% of the time, the sync settings, the contact cache or the account conflict are to blame. This article will help bring all the numbers back to place, from basic methods to hidden firmware functions.

Most often, users find that not all saved numbers are displayed in the contact list, and the reasons can vary from a simple filtering error to a malfunction of Google Contacts or Mi Account. For example, after resetting your settings or flashing your phone, some records disappear when they don't actually sync with the cloud. Other typical scenarios are duplicate contacts after importing from the cloud. SIM-Cards or numbers hidden due to privacy settings in MIUI 14/15.

Before you start taking drastic measures (like a phone reset), check simple settings. In 60 percent of cases, it's enough to turn on all contact sources or clear the app cache. But if the problem is deeper - for example, it involves damage to the contacts2.db database - more complex manipulations will be required.

1. Verification of contact sources in MIUI

The first thing you need to do is make sure that the phone shows contacts from all available sources. MIUI may hide numbers associated with certain accounts (e.g., SIM-card).

Open the Contacts app and click on the three dots in the top right corner. Select Settings → Contact Management → Display Contacts from. All available sources should be marked here:

• 📱 Device (local contacts)
• 🌐 Google (if you use Gmail)
• 🔄 Mi Account (Xiaomi Cloud)
• 📞 SIM-card (if the numbers are saved on it)
• 💬 WhatsApp/Messenger (if integration is enabled)

If a source is disabled, turn it on and wait for sync (it can take up to 5 minutes). SIM-You can also check if some numbers are manually hidden, select Hidden Contacts in your contact settings and uncheck the boxes.

⚠️ Note: If you have previously used the “Contact Connection” function in MIUI, Some records may have been automatically hidden as duplicates. To return them, go to Settings» → «Combine and fix" and click "Separate all».

2. sync with Google and Mi Account

If contacts are lost after a phone reset or MIUI update, the problem is most likely the lack of sync with the cloud.

For Google Contacts:

1. Go to "Settings» → «Accounts and synchronization».
2. Select your Google account.
3. Make sure the Contact Switch is on.
4. Click on Sync (Icon) ⚙️ top-right).

For Mi Account:

1. Open "Settings» → «Mi Account».
2. Go to the Cloud» → «Synchronization of data».
3. Turn on the “Contacts” and wait for the process to be completed.

If the synchronization is not started, try the following steps:

• 🔄 Leave your account and log in again.
• 📶 Switch from mobile to Wi-Fi (or vice versa).
• 🛠️ Clear the cache of the Contacts app (more on this in the next section).

3. Clearing the cache and data of the Contacts application

A cache or a corrupted app data can cause contacts to be displayed incorrectly, to reset settings:

Go to Settings → Apps → Application Management. Find Contacts (or Contacts) and select:

• 🧹 «Clear the cache (this is safe, does not delete contacts).
• 🗑️ «Clear the data" (remove all local settings, but not the contacts themselves, if they are synced with the cloud).

After cleaning, restart your phone and wait for the sync to re-sync. If the problem persists, try removing updates for the Contacts app (the Remove Updates button in the same menu) and this will return it to the factory version, which sometimes resolves bugs after MIUI updates.

4. Recovery of hidden or remote contacts

If the contacts were not lost due to the settings, but were accidentally deleted, you can try to restore them.

Recovery from Google Contacts:

1. Open the website contacts.google.com on your computer.
2. In the left menu, select “Basket” (basket icon) 🗑️).
3. Mark the contacts you need and click “Restore”.

Remote contacts in the basket are stored for 30 days, and then they are permanently deleted.

Recovery from MI Cloud:

1. Go to i.mi.com and log in.
2. Select “Contacts» → «Basket».
3. Restore the required records (storage period - up to 15 days).

If contacts are not synced to the cloud, try using data recovery software (such as Dr.Fone or EaseUS MobiSaver), but their effectiveness depends on whether the data on the phone was overwritten after deleting.

⚠️ Note: When using third-party recovery software, turn off internet access on your phone to avoid overwriting deleted data with new ones. Also, don’t save restored contacts back to your device — export them to.vcf first.

5. Solving Duplicate Contact Problems

Duplicate contacts are a common problem after importing from the SIM-maps or syncs with multiple accounts. MIUI There is a built-in tool for combining duplicates:

Open Contacts → Settings → Combine and Fix. Here you will see all possible duplicates. There will be a "Combine" button opposite each contact. Press it to merge the records into one.

If the automatic connection does not work:

• 🔍 Check if duplicates are different in small things (for example, a space in the number or a letter in the name).
• 📤 Export all contacts to a.vcf file, edit it manually (e.g. via Excel) and import it back.
• 🛠️ Use third-party apps like Simpler Merge or Contacts Optimizer.

To avoid duplicates in the future:

6. Problems with displaying contacts on the lock screen

Sometimes contacts are not displayed on the phone book, but on the lock screen (for example, in the quick access widget).

Go to Settings → Lock screen → Widgets. Make sure the Contacts widget is on. If you have one, it doesn't work:

• 🔄 Reboot the phone.
• 📱 Remove the widget and add it again.
• 🛠️ Clear the Launcher app cache (in the application settings).

If the contact widget is not listed at all, it may mean that it is disabled in the MIUI settings. Try changing the theme to the standard ("Default") in "Settings" → "Themes".

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If not all contacts are displayed on the lock screen, check your privacy settings: some MIUI firmware hides numbers marked as “personal” or “hidden.”

7. Resetting the settings of the “Contacts” application to factory

If none of these methods worked, the last option is to completely reset the Contacts app settings, which will return all settings to the post-purchase state, but will not affect the contacts themselves (if they are synced to the cloud).

For this:

1. Go to Settings → Applications → Application Management.
2. Find “Contacts” and click “Storage”.
3. Select “Reset” (or “Delete all data” if you don’t have such an option).
4. Confirm the action and restart the phone.

Once reset, you'll have to reconfigure the mapping of contacts, groups and other parameters, and if that doesn't work, there are two radical options:

• 🔄 Firmware rollback (if the problem has appeared after the update) MIUI).
• 📱 Reset your phone to factory settings (pre-save all data!).

⚠️ Warning: Before resetting your phone, be sure to export your contacts to a.vcf file via Settings» → «Import/Export in Contacts app, also make sure all important numbers are saved to Google or Mi Account – local contacts will be deleted!

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If a contact problem occurs after the MIUI update, try first rolling back to the previous firmware version via Recovery Mode.This often helps with bugs related to the operation of system applications.

FAQ: Frequent questions about contacts on Xiaomi