How to transfer information from one Xiaomi to another: a complete guide

Buying a new Xiaomi smartphone is always a pleasant process, but it is often overshadowed by the need to transfer a huge amount of data from the old device. The owner of the gadget is faced with the question of how to quickly and without loss transfer contacts, photos, correspondence in messengers and installed applications to the new device. The MIUI and HyperOS ecosystem offers several built-in and third-party solutions to make this process as automated as possible.

Modern synchronization techniques allow you to clone your phone almost one-to-one, even keeping the icons on your desktop. It is important to choose the right way that will be relevant to your situation: the presence of Wi-Fi, Internet speed or internal memory can play a crucial role. In this article, we will discuss all the nuances of data migration so that you can start using the new gadget immediately after unpacking.

Before you start technical manipulation, you need to prepare both devices, make sure that the batteries of both smartphones are charged at least 60-70%, as the process of transferring large amounts of data can be energy intensive, and also check the availability of space on the new device, which should exceed the amount of information occupied on the old phone.

Using the Mi Mover app for quick migration

The most effective and official way to transfer information between the brand’s devices is to use the Mi Mover app, which is designed specifically for the Xiaomi ecosystem and allows you to transfer data over a local Wi-Fi channel without using Internet traffic, but the transmission speed is limited only by the wireless module and is usually between 10 and 40 MB / s.

To start the process on both smartphones, you need to open the application, which is often in the Tools or Services folder. If you can not find it, you can search by settings, entering the name of the utility. The program interface is as simple as possible and offers you to choose the role of the device: sender or recipient.

• 📲 On the old phone, select the “Sender” option, and on the new one, select “Receiver” (New Phone).
• 📡 The new device will create a Wi-Fi hotspot, which you need to connect to the old smartphone through the list of available networks.
• 📂 After connecting, select data types to copy: contacts, messages, gallery, applications and system settings.
• 🚀 Click the “Send” button and wait for the process to be completed without leaving the application or blocking the screen.

⚠️ Note: During the operation of Mi Mover screens of devices may go out, but to interrupt the process or switch to other applications is strictly impossible, as this will break the connection and lead to a transmission error.

The Mi Mover feature is the ability to port not only files, but also folder structure, as well as some system settings such as alarm clocks and wallpaper. However, it is worth considering that Android versions on devices may differ, and some system settings may not be compatible when switching from a very old version to the latest.

Sync with Mi Account and Google

An alternative and highly reliable method is cloud synchronization, which doesn't require both phones to be physically present at the time of transfer. If you've been using Google and Mi Cloud services, most of your digital life is already stored on servers, ideal if your old phone is already given away, lost or faulty, but the data has been reset.

To do this, you just need to log in to the same accounts on your old device, and when you first set up Android, it will prompt you to restore data from your Google Drive backup, which includes your contact list, your call history, SMS-Messages and list of previously installed apps from the Play Market.

Separately, synchronization via Mi Account is worth noting. If the old device was enabled synchronization of the gallery, notes and voice recorder with the Xiaomi cloud, then after entering the username and password on the new smartphone, this data will appear automatically. This is especially convenient for users who store important documents in the standard Notes application.

• ☁️ Go to the settings of the new phone and select the section "Accounts and sync».
• 🔑 Enter the login and password from your primary Google account used earlier.
• ✅ Check against all items that need to be restored (Contacts, Calendar, Chrome).
• 🔄 For Mi Account, log in to the appropriate app and enable sync for Gallery and Notes.

The main advantage of the cloud method is its independence from the state of the old device. Even if the phone is broken or not turned on, you can access your contacts and photos just by logging in from any other gadget or computer.

Transferring data through a computer and USB-cable

For users who prefer full control of the process or do not have a fast Wi-Fi connection, the best option is to use a personal computer. USB-cable and allows you to manually copy any files, including heavy video files and archives, which can cause problems when wireless transmission.

Connect your old smartphone to your PC with a cable and select from the menu USB-(a) the option of "file transfer" or MTP. The computer will open a conductor window where you need to find the device's internal memory. DCIM (Photos and videos), Download, Music and Documents on your computer’s hard drive will take some time, depending on the amount of data you have.

Once you've finished copying, disable your old phone and connect a new one. You need to move the copied folders to similar directories in the internal memory of the new device. It's important to follow the folder structure so that the media files are displayed correctly in the gallery and player.

Using a wired connection guarantees the stability of the process, as it eliminates the risks of communication breakdown, typical for Wi-Fi. In addition, the write speed to the internal drive of a new phone via USB 3.0 can be much higher than with wireless transmission.

⚠️ Note: When copying your Android folder manually, make sure you don’t overwrite the system files of the new phone, but only add the contents of the folders with the media files of the applications.

Transportation of messengers: WhatsApp and Telegram

Special attention should be paid to transfer correspondence in popular messengers, as standard methods of synchronizing contacts do not save the history of messages. For Telegram, the situation is simple: all data is stored on the server, and you just need to enter a phone number on a new device to access all chats and channels.

WhatsApp is more complicated because the history of the correspondence is stored locally on the device or in a backup copy of Google. Drive/iCloud. When using Mi Mover, chat history is often transferred automatically, but for reliability, it is better to back up inside the app itself before changing your phone.

To create a backup on WhatsApp, go to Settings → Chats → Chat Backup and click “Create a Backup.” Make sure it has downloaded to your Google Drive. When you install the app on your new phone, the system will find that copy and prompt you to restore messages.

• 💬 On WhatsApp, create a manual backup on Google Drive before transferring data.
• 📸 In Telegram, just log in to your account, all messages are automatically downloaded.
• 🔐 For Viber, you also need to make a backup in the application settings in advance.
• 📱 Make sure your phone number is tied to the same SIM-card on which the account is registered.

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If you are changing your operating system (like iOS to Android), use the official “Move to iOS” app or WhatsApp portability when you first set up your new device.

Transfer of banking applications and authenticators

Financial security requires a special approach when changing devices. Banking applications such as SberBank, Tinkoff and others have a higher level of protection and do not transfer login data through normal synchronization tools. SMS-code.

A particular challenge is authentication applications like Google Authenticator or Microsoft Authenticator, which generate codes for two-factor authentication. If you just move the application, the codes may not be saved, and you risk losing access to important accounts.

To properly port authenticators, use the export/import function within the app itself. In Google Authenticator, click on the profile icon or menu, select Move accounts» -> «Export accounts, scan the accounts QR-This will keep all the anchors intact without having to reset the security settings on the sites.

It is recommended to prepare a list of important services that use two-factor authorization in advance, and make sure that you have access to backup recovery codes, which will avoid blocking your account at the most inopportune time.

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Banking applications and code generators require manual re-authorization and biometrics setup on the new device for security purposes.

Frequent problems and their solution

Although processes are fine, there may be technical failures when transferring data, and users are more likely to experience errors when transferring large numbers of small files or when Wi-Fi Direct is unstable. Understanding the causes of these errors will help to quickly resolve the problems.

If the process is stuck at a certain percentage, try turning off the power saving mode on both devices and breaking the connection to start over, sometimes by cleaning the Mi Mover app cache or reinstalling it through the GetApps store.

In case some apps don’t work after the transfer, check their compatibility with the Android version on the new phone. Older versions of the programs may not work properly on new systems, requiring an update through the Play Market.