The pairing of Xiaomi’s Mi Band, Xiaomi Watch, Redmi Watch smartwatches with Honor phones is often a question for users. Although both brands belong to the Huawei ecosystem (before the separation of the companies), their software is not always perfectly compatible. In this article, we will examine all the ways of connecting, including the official Mi Fitness and Zepp Life apps, bypassing restrictions through third-party utilities, and solving typical errors like “Cannot Find the Device” or “Communication interrupted.”
The peculiarity of the process is that Honor, unlike pure Xiaomi smartphones, can block the background activity of applications to save battery — this is a common cause of synchronization failures. We will dwell on the details of the configuration of permissions, optimization of Bluetooth connection and even consider alternative methods for older watch models that are not officially supported after the updates of the Honor firmware.
If you have a problem where Xiaomi watches are defined by the phone but not connected — or connect but not display notifications — you can find step-by-step solutions with illustrations and screenshots of the interface, and for owners of devices with EMUI 13+ or MagicOS, we have prepared a separate section with the characteristics of these shells.
Xiaomi Watch Compatibility with Honor Phones: What You Need to Know Before Connecting
Before you start pairing, it’s important to make sure your Xiaomi watch model is officially supported by the Honor phone.Although most Mi Band devices (starting with the Mi Band 3) and Xiaomi Watch are Android compatible, there are nuances:
- 📱 Honor phones on EMUI 10 and below: Support Mi Fitness without restrictions, but may require manual permissions for background work.
- 📱 Honor with MagicOS 7.0+: Use Zepp Life (formerly Mi Fit), but some features (such as Mi Pay) may be blocked.
- ⚠️ Old watch models: Mi Band 1/2 Not supported by modern versions of apps and not connected to Honor on Android 12+.
Also consider the Bluetooth version: Xiaomi watches require Bluetooth 4.2 or higher. Older Honor smartphones (such as Honor 7A or Honor 8 Lite) may have Bluetooth 4.1, which will lead to unstable communication. Check the version in the Settings menu → About phone → Software information.
⚠️ Note: If your Honor is running on Google Mobile Services (GMS), There won't be any connection problems, but for models with Huawei Mobile Services (HMS) (For example, the Honor 50 for the Chinese market will need to install Mi Fitness APK — Read about this in the section on alternative methods.
2. Preparing Honor phone for connection
To avoid pairing errors, you need to set your smartphone correctly. Follow this checklist:
Enable Bluetooth in the Quick Settings Panel
Install Mi Fitness or Zepp Life from Google Play
Allow the application to access the location (required!)
Turn off the power saving mode for the Mi Fitness app
Reboot your phone (recommended for stability)
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Pay special attention to permissions. Honor with EMUI/MagicOS, by default, restricts the background activity of applications, so that Xiaomi watches correctly synchronized:
- Go to Settings → Applications → Mi Fitness.
- Select Permissions and enable: 📍 Location (necessary to search for Bluetooth devices) 📱 Phone (for call notifications) 📝 Storage (for backup copies of data)
Battery → Allow background activity
Critical setting: Honor with MagicOS 7.1+ additionally needs to disable battery optimization for Mi Fitness.
- Open Settings → Battery → Launch applications.
- Find Mi Fitness and select Manual Control.
- Turn on AutoRun switches, Secondary Start and Background Activity.
Mi Band 7/8
Xiaomi Watch S1/S2
Redmi Watch 2/3
Another model
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3. Step-by-step instruction: connection via Mi Fitness
The official Mi Fitness app (formerly Mi Fit) is the most reliable way to connect Xiaomi watches to Honor.
- Start Mi Fitness and sign up (or sign in to your Xiaomi account).
If QR-The code is not scanned, use an alternative method:
- In the Mi Fitness app, select Manual Connect.
- Make sure the search mode is turned on on on the watch (the Bluetooth icon is displayed on the screen).
- On the phone, select the name of your watch in the list of detected devices (for example, MIBAND7_XXXX).
| Problem. | Reason. | Decision |
|---|---|---|
| The clock is not in. | Bluetooth is off or the clock is dead | Charge the clock to 50%, turn on Bluetooth on your phone |
| The “failure to connect” error | Conflict with another device | Forget the clock in your phone's Bluetooth settings and reconnect |
| The application freezes at the synchronization stage | Limitations of background activity | Turn off battery optimization for Mi Fitness (see section 2) |
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If Xiaomi watches were previously connected to another phone, reset them to factory settings: Settings → Reset → Confirm.This will delete all data but resolve pairing issues.
Connection via Zepp Life (for new models)
From 2022, Xiaomi will be bringing support for new devices to the Zepp Life app (formerly Amazfit).If you have a Mi Band 8, Xiaomi Watch 2 Pro or a newer model, use this method:
- Download Zepp Life from Google Play.
- Register (you can use your Xiaomi, Google or Facebook account).
- Click + Add the device and select your model.
- Follow the instructions on the screen (similar to Mi Fitness, but with an updated interface).
Honor models with MagicOS 7.0+ (e.g. Honor 70, Honor 90) may require additional customization:
- Open Settings → Wireless Networks → Bluetooth.
- Find your watch in the list and click on the gear next to the name.
- Enable Auto Connect and Audio for calls (if call notifications are needed).
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If neither method worked, try connecting the watch to another phone (at least for a while), and then go back to Honor. Often this resets the Bluetooth module's cache and solves the problem.
6. Set up notifications and additional functions
After successful connection, configure notification display and other features:
- Notifications: Open Mi Fitness/Zepp Life → Device Profile → Notifications. Turn on Call Notifications and Notifications from Apps. Select apps that must be duplicated on the clock (e.g. WhatsApp, Telegram).
Lock screen:
Unlocking the phone
Payment:
Mi Pay
Mi Fitness
Honor phones with MagicOS may require additional permission settings for notifications:
- Use Notify & Fitness (for Mi Band): This third-party app supports Mi Band 3-7 and works without Google Services. Download it from the official website. In the app settings, select Use Mi Band 5/6/7 protocol (depending on the model).
Older watches (Mi Band 2 or Amazfit Bip) may require the Amazfit app (available in AppGallery for HMS).
- ⚠️ Functionality will be limited (for example, there will be no notifications of calls).
- ⚠️ Health data will not be synced with Google Fit.