Xiaomi Mi Band 2 transfer to another phone: full instructions with solutions to typical problems

The Xiaomi Mi Band 2 fitness bracelet, despite its age, remains a popular gadget due to its reliability, long battery life and a basic set of functions to track activity. However, when changing a smartphone, many users face difficulties: the bracelet refuses to connect to the new device, the data is not synchronized, and the Mi Fit application gives errors, the reason lies in the binding of the gadget to the Xiaomi account and the features of the Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) protocol.

In this article, we will discuss three key steps: properly disconnecting the bracelet from the old phone, preparing a new device (including settings). Android/iOS) And we're going to focus on the "Device is already linked to another account" error, which is the most common problem when you reconnect Mi Band. 2. The instruction is relevant for all versions of the firmware bracelet and modern smartphones on Android 8.0+ iOS 12+.

Why is Mi Band 2 not connecting to a new phone?

Connection problems are usually due to one of four reasons:

• 🔗 Link to your old account: The bracelet remembers the last connected Xiaomi account and blocks access from other devices without first resetting.
• 📱 Mi Fit version incompatibility: An outdated app (before version 4.6.0) may not support current Bluetooth protocols.
• 🔄 Bluetooth cache: On Android smartphones, the accumulated data about connected devices sometimes interfere with the correct synchronization.
• 🔋 Battery discharge: At a charge level below 10%, the Mi Band 2 goes into energy-saving mode and ignores connection requests.

Before you start setting up, make sure that:

1. The bracelet is charged to at least 30% (the charge indicator lights up when connected to the charger).
2. The new phone has the latest version of Mi Fit (you can download from Google Play or App Store).
3. Bluetooth is enabled and all necessary permissions for the application (geolocation, notifications) are provided.

⚠️ Note: If you are selling or transferring the bracelet to another person, be sure to reset to factory settings via the Device Profile menu. → Untie it in Mi Fit, otherwise the new owner will not be able to connect it.

Step 1: Untie the bracelet from the old phone

To avoid conflicts when connecting to a new device, you need to properly remove the Mi Band 2 binding from your old smartphone, a process that is different for Android and iOS.

For Android:

1. Open the Mi Fit app and go to Profile → My Devices section.
2. Select Mi Band 2 from the list and click on three dots (⋮) top-right.
3. Tap to untie the device and confirm the action.
4. After unbundling, go to Settings → Bluetooth on your phone, find Mi Band 2 in the list of associated devices and delete it ("Forget the device").

For iOS:

On the iPhone, the process is similar, but with a nuance: after the detachment in the Mi Fit, you need to manually restart the Bluetooth module.

1. Open Settings → Bluetooth.
2. Find Mi Band 2, click on the "i" icon and select Forget this device.
3. Return to the basic settings of the iPhone, turn on Flight Mode for 10 seconds, then turn it off.

If the old phone is unavailable (lost, broken), perform a hardware reset of the bracelet:

Charge the bracelet to 50% |

Press and hold the touch button for 10 seconds until vibrations appear.|

Release the button and wait for the "OK" icon to appear |

Confirm the reset with another tap

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⚠️ Warning: Hardware reset removes all the data from the bracelet, including the history of steps and settings of alarm clocks, it is impossible to recover them after resetting.

Step 2: Preparing a new phone

Before connecting Mi Band 2 to the new smartphone, you need to configure the environment:

On Android, additionally:

• 📌 Open the Settings. → Annexes → Mi Fit → Permissions and enable all available options.
• 📌 B Settings → Bluetooth disable the Dual Audio Audio feature (on Samsung) or Dual Connection (on Xiaomi) if it is active.
• 📌 Make sure the phone is off. VPN — It can block Xiaomi synchronization servers.

On the iPhone:

• 🍎 Go to Settings. → Confidentiality → Geolocation Services and select Mi Fit Mode When using.
• 🍎 B Settings → Bluetooth check that Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Sharing is enabled.

💡

If Mi Fit doesn’t see the bracelet, try temporarily turning off battery saving for the app. On Xiaomi, this is done in Settings → Battery → Application Energy → Select Mi Fit and set “No Limits”.

Step 3: Connecting Mi Band 2 to a new phone

Now, let's move on to direct synchronization. It's a three-step process.

1. Activation of the pairing mode on the bracelet.
2. Search the device in the Mi Fit app.
3. Authorization through Xiaomi account.

Step-by-step:

1. Charge the bracelet to 100% and place it next to the phone (no more than 1 meter away).
2. Open Mi Fit and click Add Device (+ icon in the upper right corner).
3. Select from the Mi Band 2 list (if not, update the app).
4. On the bracelet, press the touch button once - a Bluetooth icon (blinking indicator) should appear.
5. In the application, confirm the connection and wait for the synchronization to be completed (it can take up to 2 minutes).
6. Enter Xiaomi account details (if requested). Use the same account you had on your old phone to save your data history!

If the connection error “The device is already linked to another account” appears, follow the following steps:

⚠️ Note: If you use different Xiaomi accounts on your old and new phone, the activity history and bracelet settings will not be transferred.

Step 4: Setup the bracelet after connecting

After successful synchronization, it is recommended to perform a basic setting:

• ⏰ Alarms: Go to the Device Profile → Alarm clocks and set the time (up to 10 alarm clocks).
• 🔔 Notifications: Include alerts for calls and messages in Notifications → Management of notifications.
• 🏃 Activity goals: Set a daily step rate (8000 default) in the Goal → Steps.
• 🔒 Screen unlock: On Android, you can configure unlocking your phone with a bracelet in Additional → Screen unlocking.

Fewer features are available for iPhone due to iOS limitations:

• 📱 Notifications of calls and SMS will be duplicated on the bracelet, but not supported notifications from messengers (WhatsApp, Telegram).
• 🔋 Phone Search only works one way (you can find an iPhone from the bracelet, but not vice versa).

💡

On the iPhone, the Mi Band 2 does not display notifications from third-party apps (Viber, Instagram, etc.) – this is a restriction of Apple, not a bracelet.

Solving Typical Connection Problems

Even if you follow the instructions correctly, you can have some problems.

If the bracelet is connected but does not display notifications:

1. On Android, check that Mi Fit is added to the list of Special Access → Notifications.
2. On iPhone, go to Settings → Notifications → Mi Fit and turn on the option to Show on the lock screen.
3. Make sure that the Mi Fit app itself includes notifications for the right applications in the Notifications section.

Transferring activity data to a new phone

If you use the same Xiaomi account on both phones, your steps, sleep and workout history will automatically sync to the cloud and be available on the new device once you connect.

• 📊 Data is only stored in the cloud for 30 days. Older records require backup.
• 🔄 When you change your account, the entire story is deleted without the possibility of recovery.
• 📱 On iPhone, sync can take up to 24 hours due to application background activity limitations.

To manually export data:

1. On your old phone, open Mi Fit and go to Profile → Data Export.
2. Select the period (e.g., “Last Year”) and the format (CSV or Google Fit).
3. Save the file and transfer it to a new phone (via cloud or cable).

⚠️ Note: Data export is only available in the Chinese version of Mi Fit (the Huami logo app.

FAQ: Frequent questions about connecting Mi Band 2