How to sort your contacts on Xiaomi by Russian alphabet: a complete guide

Why are Xiaomi contacts not alphabetically displayed?

You open a phone book on your Xiaomi Redmi Note 12 or POCO X5 Pro, and the contacts are randomly arranged, either in English letters, then in Cyrillic, then in numbers at all? This problem is familiar to many users of Xiaomi smartphones on MIUI firmware — especially after updating or resetting the settings. The fact is that by default the system sorts names by the Latin alphabet, ignoring Russian characters or placing them at the end of the list.

The reason for this behavior is because of localization and encoding, and even if your smartphone is fully Russified, the Contacts app can use an internal database with priority for the Latin alphabet, and fortunately, you can fix this in 5 minutes, without root rights or complex manipulation, and the key is to know where to look for the right parameters.

In this article, we will discuss 3 working ways to return the Russian alphabet to the first place in the phone book, and also tell you what to do if the settings are reset after the MIUI update. All instructions are relevant for models 2020-2026 based on Android 11-14.

Method 1: Change the sorting language in the contact settings

The easiest method is to change the display settings directly in the Contacts app. It works on most Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO devices with MIUI 12 firmware and later.

Open the Contacts app, then:

Slip on three dots in the upper right corner (menu).
Select Settings → Display contacts.
Find the Sort by and select the Name (if the Surname was standing).
Below will be the option Sort Language – install Russian or Cyrillic.
Restart the application to make the changes effective.

If you don't have a Language Sort, don't panic, which means your version of MIUI uses an alternative setup method (see Method 2). Also check if you have multiple languages installed at the same time, which can be confusing.

Make sure that the system has Russian as the main language.

Check the MIUI version in your phone settings

Close all background applications before changing settings

Make a backup of contacts (in case of failure)-->

Method 2: Configure the regional parameters of the system

When standard contact settings don't help, the problem goes deeper, into Android regional settings, because Xiaomi uses global localization profiles that prioritize Latin to fix this:

Go to Settings → Additional → Language and input.
Choose a Region and set up Russia (or another Russian-speaking country).
Go back and open the additional settings → Language.
Make sure that Russian is at the top of the list. If not, drag it up.
Reboot your smartphone.

Important: After a region change, some system applications (like Weather or Calendar) can reset, and that's okay, they adapt to a new localization profile.

If contacts are sorted incorrectly after the reboot, try the additional trick:

📱 Remove the app cache Contacts in Settings → Annexes → Application management.
🔄 Reset the Contacts app settings (Reset button in the same menu).
📲 Reinstall updates for Contacts via Google Play (if available).

Redmi Note Series Series Series

POCO F/X series

Mi 11/12/13 series

Another option-->

Method 3: Manual editing of contacts (for persistent cases)

If the first two methods fail, you have to use "heavy artillery" to edit the records themselves, and sometimes the system misidentifies the encoding of the names, especially if they were imported from the original code. SIM-A card or an old phone. Here's what you can do:

Open the problem contact and click Edit.
Remove all symbols before the name (spaces, dashes, brackets).
If the name is written in English, add the Russian version in the name or Nick field.
Save the changes and check the sorting.

To speed up the process, use batch editing:

📋 Export contacts to.vcf file via Settings → Imports/exports.
💻 Open the file on your computer in a text editor (e.g. Notepad)++).
🔍 Find the lines with FN: (full name and make sure they contain Cyrillic.
📤 Import the edited file back to your phone.

Why import from the country SIM-map breaks sorting?

When transferring contacts with SIM-The card is used with outdated encoding GSM 7-bit, So the solution is to import contacts through a Google Account or a.vcf file, where the names are saved in a cropped form, and the system perceives them as Latin characters. UTF-8.

Table: Compatibility of methods with MIUI versions

Method	MIUI 12	MIUI 13	MIUI 14	Notes
Sorting in the contact settings	✅ Yes.	✅ Yes.	✅ Yes.	On some models, the item is hidden in Additional settings
Change of region to "Russia"	✅ Yes.	✅ Yes.	⚠️ Partially.	MIUI 14 may require additional cache resetting
Manual editing of contacts	✅ Yes.	✅ Yes.	✅ Yes.	It is very difficult but works 100% of the time.
Import/export via.vcf	✅ Yes.	✅ Yes.	✅ Yes.	Recommended for mass correction

If your version of MIUI is not listed in the table (e.g. MIUI 11 or beta firmware), try the combination of Method 1 + Method 2. On older versions, it also helps to install an alternative launcher (e.g., Nova Launcher) with its own contact module.

What to do if the settings are reset after the update?

Many users complain that after the MIUI update, contacts are sorted again in Latin, because the system resets regional settings to standard settings, to fix the changes:

⚠️ Warning: Before updating your firmware, always back up your contacts via Google Account or Mi Cloud, which will allow you to quickly recover data if the sorting breaks.

🔄 After updating, do not launch the Contacts app immediately:

MIUI

Settings → About the phone → System update

Magisk

MIUI Optimizations

On some models (such as the Xiaomi 13T or Redmi K60), a rollback to the previous version of MIUI and subsequent manual update helps, but this method is risky - it can lead to data loss.

💡

If you frequently encounter bugs after updates, turn on Contact Backup in Google Account.It automatically syncs your phone book to the cloud, allowing you to restore the correct sorting by two clicks.

Alternative Contact Applications

If none of these things worked, consider using third-party apps that don't depend on MIUI system settings and often offer flexible sorting settings.

📱 Google Contacts — automatically sorts alphabetically based on the language of the system. Supports backup and synchronization.
📇 Truecaller, in addition to sorting, blocks spam calls.
🔍 Simple Contacts is a minimalist, open source application that allows you to customize the display to Cyrillic.
📊 Contacts+ — Advanced filters and contact groups. Supports manual sorting.

Note: In MIUI 14, surname sorting may not work properly if multiple languages are installed.

Why are the letters "e", "y", "c" not in their place?

This is an encoding bug that comes from MIUI using a simplified sorting table for Cyrillic. To fix: Edit the contact and replace the problem letters with analogues (e.g., "e" instead of "e"). Or install a third-party contact app (e.g., Google Contacts) where sorting works correctly. Future MIUI updates promise to fix this bug, but at this point (2026) it's still present.

How can you make sure that new contacts are automatically sorted correctly?

To do this: Set the Russian sorting language (see Method 1). In your phone settings, select the "Russia" region (Method 2). When you add a new contact, always fill in the Cyrillic Name field (even if there is a Latin transliteration). If you often add contacts with English names, create a separate group for them (for example, "International") so that they do not interfere with the main list.

Can I return the old one if I don’t like the new one?

Yes, but you'll have to: Reset the Contacts app to factory settings. Or roll back MIUI firmware to a previous version (risky!) or use a custom-sorted third-party app. Keep in mind that after resetting, all user groups and favorite contacts will be deleted.