How to make a folder on the desktop of Xiaomi phone

Arranging the space on your smartphone screen is not just a matter of aesthetics, it’s a necessary measure to make your device comfortable. As the number of apps installed grows, finding the right icon becomes increasingly difficult, especially if you use dozens of services daily. Owners of Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO devices face this issue immediately after buying a gadget, because the standard shell of MIUI or the new HyperOS offers its unique grouping algorithms.

Creating folders allows you to structure your desktop by merging applications into categories like social networks, games, banking apps or tools for work. File systemization speeds up access to the right programs and frees up space on the screen, making the interface cleaner and more understandable. In this article, we will discuss in detail how to create a new folder on your phone’s desktop, and also look at the nuances of how to customize the appearance and behavior of application groups.

Xiaomi’s Android folder process is intuitive, but it has a few hidden features that not everyone knows about. Icon management is implemented through long-press and drag-and-drop, which is common for most smartphone users. However, there are differences in the behavior of the system with different versions of the firmware, which we will definitely consider.

It's important to understand that folders can only be created on the desktop (Home Screen), not on the menu of all applications, unless a special mode is enabled. This is a fundamental interface limitation that dictates the logic of organizing your space. Next, we'll move on to a step-by-step instruction that will help you bring order to digital chaos.

Workspace preparation and basic principles

Before you start grouping, you need to make room or choose the area where the new folder will be located. Xiaomi screens with the shell MIUI and HyperOS have two main modes of display of applications: classic (all icons on the desktop) and mode with the application menu (App Drawer).

If you have an app menu mode enabled, the desktop can be full of widgets and shortcuts that you use most often. To create a folder, you need a free space at least one cell in size. To move the icons is done by simply touching and holding your finger. If there are no free cells, the system will automatically move adjacent elements or suggest creating a new page.

It’s worth noting that some system applications may have movement or grouping restrictions, although in modern versions of Android, such restrictions are becoming less and less.The interface responds to touch with a small delay to avoid random actions, so clicking must be confident and lengthy.

The ease of navigation depends on how logically you distribute items. Don't try to fit too many apps into one folder if you plan to use them often. The optimal number of items in a group is three to nine to keep visual readability without having to scroll inside the folder.

Step-by-step: creating a folder by drag and drop method

The most common and reliable way to create a new folder is the drag-and-drop method. It works equally stable on all models, whether it is a budget Redmi Note or a flagship Xiaomi 14. First, find on your desktop two app icons that you want to combine into one group, for example, Telegram and WhatsApp.

Press one of the icons with your finger and hold the touch until the icon sticks away from its place and there's a slight vibration or zoom visual effect. Without letting go of your finger, start moving the icon directly over the second icon you chose to combine. When the cursor is over the second icon, you'll notice that it's slightly changing the transparency or there's a backlight around it.

At that point, release your finger. The system will automatically create a container, put both programs in there, and assign the folder a standard name based on the application category (e.g., Social or Tools). The animation of creating a folder may vary depending on the theme of the design, but the principle of operation remains unchanged. If the folder is not created, make sure that you hold the icon long enough and do not make sudden movements.

⚠️ Warning: If you drag and drop the icon at the bottom of the screen or disappear, you may have accidentally activated the widget or basket, in which case, just return the icon to its original location and try again, making the movement smoother.

Once you've created it successfully, you'll see that both icons are now inside the new container, and clicking on the folder will open the contents of the folder, showing the incoming apps, and that's the basic mechanism that underlies the entire organization of space in Android, and then we'll look at how to manage the content and appearance of the group that you've created.

Alternative methods and work with the application menu

There is another way to create folders that can be useful if the drag and drop method seems uncomfortable to you or if you are working with a lot of elements at the same time. In some versions of the MIUI shell and when using certain themes, desktop editing is available. To activate it, you need to pinch two fingers on your desktop or keep your finger free for a long time.

In the edit menu that opens, you can see the Add button or the plus icon, however, Xiaomi’s standard tools for creating an empty folder from scratch without dragging it out are usually not provided. The system is sharpened to the “unification” logic. However, if you have the Application Menu mode on, you can drag and drop icons from the general application list (App Drawer) directly into the folder you create on the desktop, which greatly speeds up the filling process.

The flexibility of the system allows you to add new applications to the folder simply by dragging them into an existing group. You don't have to create a new folder for each new category. Just drag the third, fourth and subsequent icons into an open or closed folder. The limit on the number of applications in a single folder is large enough and is limited by usability rather than technical capabilities.

It's also worth mentioning the possibility of creating folders inside folders, although this depends on the Android version and the specific modification of MIUI. In some cases, the system allows you to put one group of applications into another, creating a multi-level structure, but most often when you try to drag one folder to another, they will simply merge into one large flat group.

Customization of appearance: renaming and resizing

Once you create a folder, the system assigns a name to it automatically based on the type of applications inside. For example, if you combine Chrome and YouTube, the folder can be called the Internet or Google. However, you can change that name to any other one that you can understand personally.

You'll have a keyboard, and you can type in new text, it can be any character, it can be letters, numbers, emoji, it's a popular trend to use emoji in folder names, which allows you to visually identify a category without reading text, for example, a folder with games can be called «🎮», and banks — «💰».

Changing the size of the folder on the desktop is also possible, but depends on the widget. The standard folder takes up one cell (1x1). However, if you add the folder widget through the widget menu (long tap on empty space → Widgets), you can stretch it to a size of 2x2 or 4x2 so that you can see the application icons without having to open the folder. This turns the folder into a functional tool for quick access.

Visualization is important for quick search. If you use large fonts or you have poor eyesight, expanding the folder to the size of a widget is the best solution. A standard folder that folds up only shows the four main icons, the rest are hidden under a digit, which is not always convenient.

Content Management: Adding and Removing Applications

Editing the contents of the folder is a simple process, but it requires precision. To remove the application from the folder, open it, click and hold the icon of the unwanted application, and then drag it outside the folder to the free desktop space. If there are no free spaces on the screen, the icon can be dragged to the top of the screen, where the Remove button or the basket icon is usually located (but be careful not to delete the application itself!).

To add new applications, act like creating a folder: find an icon on your desktop, press it and drag it inside an open or closed folder. Sorting inside the folder is done automatically alphabetically or by frequency of use, but you can manually change the order of the icons by dragging them inside the open folder.

⚠️ Attention: Removing the app icon from the folder does not remove the app itself from the phone. It just moves to the desktop. To completely uninstall, click "Delete" or drag the icon to the cart with the appropriate label.

If you want to delete a folder completely, you have to remove all the applications from it. Once there is one application left in the folder, the system automatically disbands the folder, leaving only that one icon on the desktop, a security mechanism that prevents empty containers from being created, and the space is cleared instantly after the penultimate element is removed.

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The folder disappears automatically when there are fewer than two apps left in it, and there is no dedicated Delete folder button.

Problems in creating folders and their solution

Despite the simplicity, users sometimes face difficulties. One of the common problems is locking the desktop. If you can't move icons or create folders, check the screen settings. In MIUI, there is a feature called Lock Home Screen Layout that prevents accidental changes in structure, and you can find it in the settings: Settings → Desktop → Layout Lock.

Another problem is that the screen is crowded: If there is no free space on the desktop and no automatic creation of a new page occurs (which is rare), try removing unnecessary widgets or moving some of the applications in the application menu if you use the classic mode. Conflicts can also occur when using third-party themes that are not fully compatible with the current version of the firmware.

If a folder is created but disappears immediately or the icons fly away, try restarting the device, which will clear the launcher's cache and restore the normal operation of the interface, and in rare cases, resetting the launcher settings helps, but this will return the desktop appearance to the factory state.

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If standard methods don’t work, install a third-party launcher (like Nova Launcher or Microsoft Launcher) from the Play Store, which provides advanced folder creation capabilities, including nesting and transparency.

Also, it is worth considering that on lock screens or in special modes (for example, “Child Mode” or “Second Space”), the functionality of creating folders can be limited to developers specifically, in such cases, creating folders on the main desktop will work normally, but in isolated spaces it will not.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)