How to tie Xiaomi Mi Band 4 to a new phone

Changing a smartphone often turns into a real quest for wearable electronics owners, especially when it comes to synchronizing data with a fitness tracker. Xiaomi Mi Band 4 is one of the most popular devices in its class, but the process of migrating to a new gadget has its own technical nuances, ignoring which can lead to pairing errors or loss of accumulated statistics. Many users make the mistake of trying to immediately connect the bracelet through standard Bluetooth settings, which in 99% of cases leads to a dead end, since the device is rigidly tied to an account in the Mi Fit (or Zepp) application.

To successfully complete the procedure, you need to understand the architecture of the Xiaomi ecosystem, where the main control center is not the phone’s operating system, but a specialized application. The bracelet firmware stores key data about the last connection, and without prior unbinding, the old phone will block the new device’s attempts to establish a connection. Below we will consider a detailed algorithm of actions that will allow you to avoid typical errors and quickly activate the tracker on the new device.

Before starting work, make sure that your new smartphone has all the necessary system updates, and the battery charge of both devices is at least 50%. Connection stability is critical at the time of transferring the data archive, so it is better to be in the zone of confident Wi-Fi reception or use mobile Internet with a good signal.

Preparing an old smartphone for disconnection

The first and most important step is to properly disable the bracelet from the old device. If you just turn off Bluetooth or uninstall the app, the Xiaomi Mi Band 4 will remain in a state of "waiting" for the last host, and the new phone will not be able to initiate (pairing). Open the Zepp Life app on the old phone, go to the profile of the device and find the "Unbind" button.

⚠️ Warning: Don’t just try to delete the app or clear its data without first decoupling the profile menu.This will result in the bracelet remaining locked for new connections, and you will have to perform a hard reset of the tracker itself.

After a successful detachment in the application, it is recommended to go to the Bluetooth system settings of the old phone, find the Mi Band 4 device list and select the option “Forget device” or “Delete”. This action will clear the pairing cache at the operating system level, which will prevent possible conflicts. IP-Addresses or encryption keys when you try to connect again.The Bluetooth cache can sometimes store outdated data that interferes with a clean start.

It is also important to check whether the device search feature on the bracelet itself is enabled, although it is usually deactivated automatically after untieing. If you have the opportunity, back up your health data to Xiaomi's cloud account so that your step and sleep history is not lost during the transition.

Set up a new smartphone and clean Bluetooth

When you go to a new phone, the first thing you need to do is make sure that geolocation (GPS) is on, which is a requirement of Android and iOS operating systems for working with low-power peripherals (BLE). Without GPS enabled, the Zepp Life app simply won’t see the bracelet in search mode, and you’ll see the load indicator spinning endlessly.

Go to the Bluetooth settings of the new device and make sure that there is no record of Mi Band 4 in the list of saved devices. If such a record is present (for example, if you have previously tried to connect a tracker), be sure to delete it. The purity of the pairing list ensures that the phone will search for the device from scratch without trying to use the old authorization keys.

• 📱 Enable Bluetooth and Geolocation in the Notification Curtain.
• 🗑️ Remove Mi Band 4 from the list of previously paired devices in the system settings.
• 🔄 Reboot a new smartphone to reset Bluetooth services.
• 📶 Make sure the phone isn’t in power saving mode, which can limit the background performance of apps.

Once you reboot, install the Zepp Life app and log in to your Xiaomi account. If you used the same account on both phones, your historical data will be downloaded automatically after you connect. If the account is new, the data from the bracelet will start to be recorded from scratch, but this will not affect the functionality of the device. Authorization in the Mi Account ecosystem is a prerequisite for the tracker to work.

The process of pairing through the Zepp Life application

Now, to the direct connection, start the Zepp Life app on your new phone and go to the Profile tab. Click on Add Device and select Mi Smart Band 4 from the list. The app will request permission to use Bluetooth and geolocation, confirm all requests, otherwise the process will not start.

A search animation will appear on the screen, at which point a vibration or Bluetooth symbol may appear on the bracelet screen, confirming that the device is in detection mode. The range of visibility of the tracker is limited, so keep the phone and bracelet no more than 1 meter apart while searching.

When the app finds the device, the bracelet will be asked to confirm the pairing (vibration symbol or tick). Click on this area on the tracker screen. Once confirmed, the process of synchronizing time and basic settings will begin. The firmware may suggest upgrading to the latest version, which is strongly recommended immediately for stable operation.

Once the procedure is completed, the main interface with the steps and pulse data will be displayed on the phone screen. If the data does not appear immediately, pull the screen down for forced updates. The initial synchronization can take up to 2-3 minutes depending on the amount of data accumulated.

Solving Device Detection Problems

Often, users are faced with a situation where the application does not see the bracelet, although it is charged and on. In most cases, the problem lies in the fact that the Xiaomi Mi Band 4 still “thinks” that it is connected to an old phone, or is in standby mode, waiting to reconnect with the previous host.

If standard search doesn't work, try resetting the network settings on your new phone or just turning off and turning on Bluetooth. Also effective is rebooting the bracelet itself: in the tracker menu, find System (or More) and select Reboot. A soft restart often clears the hung Bluetooth stack processes.

⚠️ Warning: If the bracelet is persistently not visible to the new phone, make sure it is not connected to the old smartphone via the background app. Double binding is not possible - the device can broadcast the signal to only one active client at a time.

In some cases, a hard reboot of the Bluetooth module through the engineering menu helps, but for ordinary users, a command in the terminal or a simple restart of the phone in air mode will be enough. Turn on air mode for 10 seconds, then turn it off and immediately start a search in the application. Fresh start of the communication module often solves the problem of suspended scanning.

Resetting the bracelet to factory settings

If the software’s unbundling methods fail and the bracelet continues to block the connection, the last and most radical method is Factory Reset, which will completely clear the internal memory of the Mi Band 4, removing all the data about the steps, dreams and, most importantly, the binding to the account.

To reset the bracelet itself, scroll through the menu to More, select Settings, and find Factory Reset. Confirm the action by tapping the touch area, and the bracelet screen will go out, and the device will start rebooting with factory settings.

• 🔄 All activity data will be deleted without the possibility of recovery.
• 🔗 The link to the Mi Account will be completely severed.
• ⏱️ Time and date will go wrong and require re-synchronization with the phone.
• 🎨 The dial will return to standard factory design.

Once reset, the bracelet will behave like a new one just removed from the box. Now you can safely tie it to a new phone, as described in the section above. Factory Reset is a guaranteed way to solve dead tether problems when other methods are powerless.

Set up notifications and synchronization

Once you've successfully connected, it's important to set up the right access so that the bracelet can display notifications from messengers and social networks. Go to your device profile in the Zepp Life app, select "App Notifications" and activate the right items (WhatsApp, Telegram, SMS, Calls). Without this step, the bracelet will only work as a clock and pedometer.

Pay attention to the phone's energy saving settings. Modern Android shells (MIUI, OneUI, ColorOS) aggressively "kill" background processes, which can cause the bracelet to be permanently broken. Find the Zepp Life app in the battery settings and select "No Limits" or "Outstart" mode.

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For stable operation, enable auto-start the Zepp Life app and add it to the antivirus exceptions. This will prevent connection breaks when you lock your phone screen.

You can also set up the widgets you can see on your bracelet screen. From the bracelet settings menu -> Order of elements, you can choose which data (weather, pulse, steps) will be displayed when you swipe. Personalization of the interface increases the usability of the device in everyday life.

⚠️ Note: If notifications are late or not coming at all, check if the phone is in Do Not Disturb or Quiet Mode. Also make sure that the Zepp Life app itself has the option to Display on the Lock screen".

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)