Xiaomi and Redmi smartphone owners often face a situation where, after buying or updating the system, the standard calendar app displays the days of the week and months in Chinese or uses an unusual date format. This problem is especially relevant for devices imported from China or equipped with global firmware with residual traces of regional settings. The Chinese calendar in the interface can significantly complicate the planning and use of widgets on the desktop.
Fortunately, you can fix the display of dates and holidays without flashing the device and complex manipulation of the code. Just set the system settings and synchronize accounts. In this article, we will discuss in detail how to make a calendar in Russian in Xiaomi Redmi, so that it displays the weekend in red and takes into account public holidays.
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The main reasons for the failure of localization
Before you start fixing, you need to understand the reason for the characters, and most often the problem lies in the mismatch between the regional settings of your phone and your Mi Account. The system can automatically pull data from a server that believes you are in China or another Asian region.
Also, some Xiaomi Redmi models come with a pre-installed Chinese version of the MIUI shell, where Russian may not be fully embedded or require manual activation.
⚠️ Note: If you have changed region in settings but your calendar is in Chinese, don’t rush to reset. Often you need a full device restart to apply changes to all system widgets.
Another reason could be a third-party application that has seized the rights to display the date, or a version conflict after an operating system update, and understanding the source of the problem will help you choose the most effective method of solving it.
Setting up the region and the language of the system
The first and most important step is to check the basic settings of the smartphone, which determines which language the system interface and embedded applications will use, go to the settings menu and find the Advanced Settings section.
In this section, select Language and Input (or simply Language) to make sure that the listing includes Russian, and if it is not on the list, you may need to switch the region to Russia or Ukraine, which will automatically add the required language packs.
Select the Russian language of the interface
Establishing the region of Russia
Check the time format (24 hours)
Reboot your smartphone-->
After a region change, the system may suggest a reboot, which is a mandatory procedure, since many system services, including the calendar, only update their resources at start-up. Without a reboot, desktop widgets can continue to display old data.
If the menu is left in English or Chinese after changing the language, try clearing the Settings cache. Go to Apps → All Apps → Find Settings → Memory → Clear the cache. This is a secure operation that will not delete your personal data.
Setup of the built-in Calendar application
The system calendar itself in MIUI has its own display settings, which may differ from the phone's general settings. Open the Calendar app and click on the three dots or menu icon at the top of the screen.
In the menu that opens, select Settings. You are interested in Holidays or Holiday Display. Make sure that the checkmark is in front of "Russia" or the corresponding region. If you choose "China", the holidays will be marked according to the Chinese lunar calendar.
You can also change the beginning of the week in the app settings. By default, in many global firmwares, the week starts on Sunday, whereas in Russia and Europe it is customary to start the week on Monday.
How to hide unnecessary calendars?
Be sure to check the year format. In some versions of MIUI, you can choose to display only the last two digits of the year or the full four digit value.
Synchronization with Google account
Often, Xiaomi’s built-in calendar doesn’t work correctly or doesn’t display Russian month names due to a conflict with Google’s synchronization.It’s recommended to use Google Calendar as the main source of events, as it’s better integrated with the Android ecosystem.
To set up, go to Settings → Accounts and Sync. Find your Google account and make sure the switch opposite Calendar is activated. If sync is already on, try turning it off, wait a few seconds and turn it on again.
| Parameter | Importance for the Russian Federation | Default value (China) |
|---|---|---|
| Interface language | Russian | Chinese/English |
| Beginning of the week | Monday. | Sunday |
| Holidays | State holidays of the Russian Federation | Chinese Lunar Calendar |
| Date format | DD.MM.GYG. | MGGG-MM-DD |
Once you set up the sync, open the calendar app. In the side menu (left-to-right swipe or menu button), you'll see a list of connected calendars. Make sure your Google account displays with the correct name and color tag.
⚠️ Note: When two calendars (Mi Cloud and Google) are synchronized, events may be duplicated. To avoid this, in the display settings, only one event source for each type of record is active.
Use of widgets on the desktop
Once the application’s internal settings are in order, you need to properly configure the widget on the home screen. Widgets in MIUI have their own settings, independent of the application itself.
Press and hold your finger on the empty desktop, then select Widgets (or Tools). Find Calendar. There are a number of options: a standard MIUI calendar, a Google Calendar, or a classic widget.
Add a widget to the screen. If it displays Chinese characters, click on the widget itself (or hold it and select settings) to change its type. Choose the Google Calendar or Classic option, which is usually better adapted to Russian localization.
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If the calendar widget on your desktop shows characters, try removing it and adding it again, changing the region in your phone's settings to India or Russia, and then returning it back. This updates the widget's cache.
The size of the widget also affects the display. In compact mode (4x2), the names of the months can be hidden, leaving only the numbers. Deploy the widget to a size of 4x4 for a full display of the Russian grid with the holidays.
Installation of alternative applications
If the standard Xiaomi Redmi app continues to work incorrectly or its interface seems inconvenient to you, you can always install a third-party solution from the Google Play store.
One of the best solutions is the Google Calendar app, which is completely free, has no ads, and is guaranteed to display all dates in Russian if the language is set correctly. Just download it and assign it to the default app.
Other popular alternatives include Business Calendar 2 and DigiCal, which offer advanced functionality such as task scheduler, weather widgets and more flexible look and feel configurations that fully support Russian and are independent of regional MIUI settings.
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Using Google Calendar as the main widget on the desktop is the most reliable solution for getting rid of Chinese characters in Xiaomi.
After installing an alternative app, be sure to remove the old calendar widget from your desktop to avoid confusion with notifications and events.The new app can be configured as the primary for all appointment notifications.