Changing a smartphone always brings mixed feelings: on the one hand, the joy of a new device with advanced characteristics, on the other – the fear of losing important contacts, photos or settings of the familiar interface. Honor owners who move to the Xiaomi ecosystem often wonder how to migrate their digital luggage as quickly and without loss. Fortunately, modern technology allows you to make this process almost invisible to the user, preserving the entire data structure.
The process of transferring information between Android devices has become much easier in recent years. SIM-Now, if you're going to export your files one at a time, you have specialized immigrant apps that can move gigabytes of data in minutes, creating an exact replica of your old phone on a new one.
In this article, we will take a look at all available synchronization methods, from manufacturer utilities to cloud services, and learn what nuances exist when you switch from Magic UI to MIUI or HyperOS, and how to avoid typical errors that can lead to loss of information.
Preparing devices for data migration
Before any cloning operation begins, both smartphones must be pre-prepared, a critical step that can cause transmission failures or system freezes to be ignored, and make sure that both the old Honor and the new Xiaomi have at least 60 percent battery life.
It is also recommended to free up space on the receiving device if it is not new, and check for system updates. Often manufacturers release patches that improve the stability of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth modules, which are actively used in data transmission over the air.
⚠️ Warning: Do not attempt to start the transfer process if one of the devices is connected to an unstable power source or is in power saving mode.
Be sure to connect both smartphones to the same Wi-Fi network, preferably at 5 GHz for higher transmission speeds. If this is not possible, some methods allow you to create a direct connection between devices without the help of a router, but this will require the appropriate permissions in the security settings.
☑️ Ready for transfer
Using the Mi Mover application for portability
The most effective and preferred way to migrate is to use the official Mi Mover tool, which is designed specifically for users who are switching to Xiaomi, Redmi or POCO smartphones from other manufacturers, and supports the transfer of contacts, messages, call logs, photos, videos, music, documents and even installed applications.
The process starts with installing the app on your old phone. On new Xiaomi models, it’s already built into the system and is in the Tools folder or available through the initial setup menu. If you missed the initial setup step, run the app manually through Settings → About Phone → Mi Mover or find it in the program list.
Once the app is running, you have to choose the role of each phone on both devices, and on the new Xiaomi, you have to choose "I'm the recipient," and on the old Honor, you have to choose "I'm the sender." QR-code or connect through device search. Once you have established the connection, you will see a list of data categories available for copying.
- 📱 Contacts and messages: full copy of phone book and SMS correspondence.
- 📸 Media files: photos, videos, audio recordings and documents from internal memory.
- 📲 Annexes: list of installed APK-Files (data within applications may not be transferred).
- ⚙️ Settings: Some system settings, such as alarm clocks and wallpaper.
Why are some apps not portable?
Importantly, when you migrate apps, they are copied as installation files, which means that after migrating to a new phone, you may need a short installation or update procedure for each program, and the data inside games and social networks will only be stored if they are linked to an account.
Synchronization through Google Account
An alternative and equally reliable method is to use Google’s cloud infrastructure, which, since both operating systems are Android-based, your Google account serves as a universal key to basic data, a method that is particularly good for saving contacts, notes, calendar and browser history.
On Honor, you need to make sure that sync is enabled. Go to Settings → Accounts → Google and check if the ticks are right in front of the right boxes: Contacts, Calendar, Notes. Press the sync button to make sure all data has gone to the cloud.
When you first turn on a new smartphone Xiaomi system will offer to sign in to an existing Google account. After entering the username and password, the phone will automatically start to pull up information from the cloud. Contacts will appear in the phone book, events – in the calendar, and photos – in the Gallery app (if synchronization of Google Photos is enabled).
| Type of data | Google's method | Mi Mover Method | Speed. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contacts | Automatically. | Locally. | Instantly. |
| Photo/Video | Through the cloud (spending traffic) | Wi-Fi (no traffic) | Depends on the Internet. |
| Annexes | Only a list. | APK files | Medium |
| Settings | Partially. | Partially. | Quickly. |
| SMS messages | Third-party software required | Complete transfer | Quickly. |
The main advantage of the cloud method is that it is independent of physical proximity devices, so you can set up a new phone even if the old one is already sold or lost, the main thing is to remember the password from the account, but for large volumes of photos and videos, you may need to buy additional space on Google One.
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Use the Clean Device feature in Google Photos settings on your old phone after checking sync to free up space if you don’t plan to store copies in the cloud.
Transferring multimedia via PC and cable
For users who prefer full control of the process or do not have fast Wi-Fi, a personal computer is a great solution, which allows you to manually sort files, remove duplicates and free up space on the new device before you start using it.
Connect Honor smartphone to your computer via USB-cable and select the mode of operation "File transfer» (MTP). My Computer will open a folder of the device. Copy the folders. DCIM (Photos and video from the camera, Pictures (screenshots and images from the applications) and Download to the hard drive.
Then plug in Xiaomi and copy the stored data to the appropriate internal memory directories. Android folder structure is universal, so the new phone can easily recognize media files. This method also allows you to back up on an external drive in case of a crash.
- 💾 Reliability: Direct contact eliminates network errors.
- 🗂️ Sorting: the ability to remove garbage before copying.
- 🚀 Speed: USB 3.0 provides high speed transfer of large files.
Be sure to also check the Bluetooth and WhatsApp folder (the path is usually Android/media/com.whatsapp) if you've used these features to share files.Manual copying ensures that no important document gets lost in the back of the system.
⚠️ Note: When copying via PC, avoid interrupting the connection. Extracting the cable while writing data can damage the file system or make files unreadable.
The nuances of the transition from Magic UI to MIUI
Switching from the Magic UI shell (formerly EMUI) to MIUI or HyperOS comes with some interface features. Although under the hood is still the same Android, the visual part and logic of some elements are different. For example, the control panel in Xiaomi is called by a swipe from right to left at the top of the screen, while Honor often uses a top-down swipe.
Special attention should be paid to work with notifications. In the MIUI system, there is an aggressive energy saving system that can kill the background processes of messengers if you do not configure them. After transferring the data, be sure to go to the battery settings and for important applications (WhatsApp, Telegram, mail) select No restrictions mode.
The control center (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, flashlight) in the new versions of Xiaomi is put in a separate menu. Honor users will take a few days to get used to the new ergonomics, but the functionality only benefits from flexible customization.
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The main difference between MIUI and Magic UI is a more detailed system of permissions and control of autorun applications, requiring initial configuration for the correct operation of messengers.
Solving the problems of migration
Users may experience a number of common problems in the process of transferring data, such as the Mi Mover app can interrupt transmissions at a certain percentage, most often because the screen of the old phone goes off and the system saves energy by breaking the Wi-Fi connection.
To avoid this, on your Honor device, set the time to turn off "Never" or maximum value in your screen settings. You can also temporarily turn off the power saving mode. If the problem persists, try restarting both devices and starting the process again by selecting only a portion of the data for the first batch.
Another common problem is the lack of some system fonts or emojis. Because Honor and Xiaomi use different sets of graphic characters, some emojis may be displayed differently.This is not a mistake and is treated by updating the system or installing third-party fonts through the theme of the design.
- ❌ Connection Error: Turn off and turn on Wi-Fi on both devices.
- 📉 Slow speed: Move devices closer together, remove obstacles.
- 🔒 Lock: Make sure that no lock or password windows pop up on screens.
If none of the software methods work, the full manual PC copying option described above is the longest, but it gives a 100% guarantee of file safety, as it does not depend on drivers and compatibility of Android versions.