How to connect Xiaomi smart watch to the phone: full instructions with photos

Xiaomi smartwatches are not just accessories, but full-fledged assistants for health, sports and everyday tasks. But to realize their full potential, you need to connect the device to your smartphone correctly. Many users face difficulties at this stage: the app does not find the watch, the synchronization is interrupted, the functions work incorrectly. In this article, we will analyze all possible ways of connecting, from standard synchronization through Mi Fitness to solving atypical errors.

The Xiaomi watch (including the Mi Watch, Redmi Watch, Xiaomi Watch S3, and others) requires a binding app, without which you won’t be able to receive notifications, track activity, or update firmware, and we’ll look at the process for both Android and iOS operating systems, and give you tips on how to fix common problems.

What Xiaomi Watch Can I Connect to My Phone?

Not all Xiaomi smartwatches are compatible with smartphones equally well, but here are the key points to know before connecting:

• 📱 For Android: Most models (Mi Watch Lite, Redmi Watch 3 Active, Xiaomi Watch 2 Pro) work without restrictions.
• 🍎 For iOS: only a watch with Global firmware or EEA. Some features (such as answering calls) may not work on iPhones. iOS's minimum version is 12.0.
• ⚠️ Excluded: Xiaomi Mi Watch Color (first generation) and some Chinese versions (CN) may require additional manipulation to connect to foreign smartphones.

Before buying, check the compatibility of a particular model on the official Xiaomi website. If you have already bought a watch, but it is not determined by the phone, you may need to change the firmware region (we will talk about this in the error section).

Preparing the phone and clock for connection

To avoid synchronization issues, follow these steps before you start connecting:

1. Update the firmware of the watch. Outdated software can cause pairing errors. Check the version in the clock settings (Settings → About the device).
2. Install the official app. For most models, it's Mi Fitness (formerly Mi Wear) and download it from Google Play or the App Store.
3. Turn on Bluetooth and geolocation. Without that, the watch won't be able to find the phone. On Android, also activate the Precise Location Resolution for the Mi Fitness app.

If you connect the watch for the first time, it will automatically go into pairing mode when it is turned on. If it has already been tied to another phone, reset to factory settings (Settings → Reset).

⚠️ Note: iPhone after installing Mi Fitness may require a restart of the phone.This is due to the peculiarities of Bluetooth in the background on iOS.

Step-by-step: how to connect Xiaomi Watch to Android

The process of connecting to your Android phone consists of 5 main steps.

1. Open the Mi Fitness app. When you first start, you will be asked to sign up or log in through your Xiaomi account (required!). If you don't have an account, create one.
2. Click on Add Device. Select the Watch category and find your model in the list. If it's not available, select the one that's closest (for example, Redmi Watch 2 is the best Redmi Watch 3).
3. Activate Bluetooth on your watch. Press the power button for 3 seconds or go to Settings → Bluetooth. The watch should appear in the list of available devices in the application.
4. Confirm the pairing. The watch will show a code -- compare it to what's shown in Mi Fitness. If the codes match, click "Confirm."
5. Set up the basic parameters. Once connected, the app will tell you to specify gender, age, weight and activity goals, and this data is needed to make the sensors work correctly.

It takes no more than 5 minutes to complete the process, and if there's an error at some point, restart the clock and the phone, then try again, and 90 percent of the time, it helps.

Connection Xiaomi Watch to iPhone: features and limitations

Syncing with the iPhone has a few nuances due to Apple's limitations.

• 🔄 Limited functionality: iOS doesn’t work on phone answers, quick text responses, and some widgets.
• 📱 Official software only: you can not use alternative firmware (for example, Amazfit) - this will lead to a lock of the watch.
• 🔋 Fast battery discharge: due to the background work of Bluetooth on iOS, the watch can discharge on the Internet 20-30% faster than Android.

Instructions for iOS:

1. Install Mi Fitness from the App Store and log in.
2. Turn on the watch pairing mode (Settings → Bluetooth → Device Search).
3. In the app, select Add Device and wait for the watch to appear on the list. On iPhone, this process can take up to 1 minute.
4. Confirm the connection on both devices. If the watch doesn't connect, try disabling the VPN (it can block Xiaomi servers).

⚠️ Note: On iPhone 15 and newer with a chip A17 Pro may require additional permission to access LANs in Mi Fitness's privacy settings. Without this, data synchronization will be incomplete.

Setup of notifications and data synchronization

Once you've successfully connected, you need to set up notifications and automatic synchronization, otherwise the clock will work like a pedometer.

1. Notifications of calls and messages

• 📞 Open Mi Fitness. → «Device profile» → «Notifications».
• 🔄 Turn on the “Call Notifications” switch and select the apps (WhatsApp, Telegram, etc.) you want to receive alerts for.
• 📵 Android 12.+ additionally allow Mi Fitness to access notifications in system settings (Applications) → Special access → Access to notifications).

2. Synchronization of health data

To have your steps, pulse and sleep displayed in the app:

1. In Mi Fitness, go to Profile → Settings → Data Synchronization.
2. Turn on automatic synchronization (recommended interval - every 30 minutes).
3. To export data to Google Fit or Apple Health, use the “Connect Account” option in the same section.

💡

If notifications are late, turn off the power saving mode for the Mi Fitness app in the phone settings. On Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO, this is done in the Battery → Application Selection section.

Common mistakes and their solutions

Even with the right connection, there can be failures, and we've collected the TOP-5 errors and how to fix them:

1.The watch is not in Mi Fitness

• 🔄 Reboot Bluetooth on your phone and watch.
• 📱 Remove the Mi Fitness app cache (Settings) → Annexes → Warehouse → Clear the cache).
• 🌍 Check the region of Xiaomi account: if it is different from the region of the firmware watch (for example, the account Russia, and watch China), pairing will not be possible.

2. Synchronization interrupted

Reasons:

• 📶 Weak Bluetooth signal (maximum distance – 10 meters without obstacles).
• 🔋 Low battery power on a watch or phone.
• 🛡️ Background blocking of the Mi Fitness application with a battery optimizer (on Xiaomi, Huawei, Samsung).

3. Notifications are not working.

Decision:

1. Check if notifications for Mi Fitness are included in your phone settings.
2. Update the watch to the latest version.
3. Reconnect the watch to your phone (remove the device in Mi Fitness and add again).

💡

If neither method worked, try connecting the watch through another app (like Notify for Mi Band for Android).This is a temporary solution, but it will help diagnose the problem.

Additional functions after connection

After successful synchronization, you can configure:

• 🎵 Music control: From the clock you can switch tracks and adjust the volume on the phone. To do this, in Mi Fitness, turn on the option "Music control».
• 🏃 Sports modes: add the right activities to the menu of the watch through the app. for example, for Xiaomi Watch S3 More than 150 modes are available.
• 🔒 Unlocking phone: on Android, you can set up automatic unlocking of the smartphone when the clock approaches (you need to turn on Smart Lock in the security settings).
• 🌦️ Weather and widgets: Add a weather widget or calendar to the watch screen via Settings → Screens.

For models with NFC (for example, Xiaomi Watch S2 Pro) is available to link bank cards via Mi Pay.

1. Open Mi Fitness. → «purse».
2. Add a card of the supported bank (Sberbank, Tinkoff, etc.).
3. Confirm the binding via SMS or push notification.

⚠️ Note: Mi Pay only works in countries where Xiaomi is officially supported.In Russia, payment through the clock is only available for cards tied to Mir Pay or SberPay.

FAQ: Frequent questions about Xiaomi Watch connectivity