How to transfer data from one Xiaomi phone to another: 5 proven ways

Moving to a new Xiaomi smartphone is always an exciting moment, but data porting often turns into a headache. Contacts, photos, messages and app settings have been accumulating for years, and losing them due to the wrong action is scary. Fortunately, Xiaomi has several built-in tools for secure porting, as well as universal methods that work on any Android device.

In this article, we'll look at 5 ways to migrate data, from official Mi Mover to manually copying through a PC, how to transfer not only media files, but also SMS/MMS, call records, Wi-Fi passwords, and even desktop settings, and why Mi Account transfers are sometimes blocked on custom firmware and how to get around it.

1.The official way: Mi Mover by Xiaomi

Mi Mover is a proprietary data portability app preinstalled on all Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO smartphones since MIUI 9. It works on a point-to-point basis via Wi-Fi Direct, without requiring an Internet connection. The main advantage is the preservation of folder structure and metadata (for example, the date of creation of a photo).

To take advantage of it:

• 📱 Install Mi Mover on both phones (if it’s not on the menu, download from Google Play or App Gallery).
• 🔄 On the old phone, select "I am the sender" and on the new one, "I am the receiver".
• 📶 Connect to a single Wi-Fi network (or create an access point on a new device).
• 🔍 Scan it. QR-code from the screen of the new phone old.
• ✅ Select data types for transfer (contacts, SMS, Applications, multimedia) and confirm.

Make sure that both phones have a charge of ≥30%.

Connect both devices to charging (the process can take 1-2 hours)

Free up ≥5GB of memory on your new phone

Turn off VPNs and firewalls

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The speed of the transfer depends on the amount of data: 10 GB of photos are copied ~20-30 minutes. Important: don't interrupt the process - if the connection breaks, you have to start again.

• 🔒 Passwords from applications (Wi-Fi only)
• 🎮 Save Games (Exception: Cloud Synchronized Games)
• 📁 System files and APK Applications (only user data)

💡

If Mi Mover doesn’t see the second phone, restart both devices and turn on File Transfer mode in the notification curtain.

2.Move over Mi Cloud (Xiaomi Cloud)

The Mi Cloud service allows you to sync data between Xiaomi devices automatically, which is convenient if you already had a Mi Account tied on your old phone.

• ☁️ Data is available from any device after authorization.
• 🔄 Synchronization works in the background (no waiting for completion).
• 📱 Supports Notes, Calendar and Mi Browser Transfer.

Instructions:

1. On your old phone, go to Settings → Mi Account → Mi Cloud.
2. Turn on synchronization for the desired categories (contacts, gallery, records).
3. On the new phone, log in to the same Mi Account.
4. Go to Mi Cloud and select Sync.

The limitations of Mi Cloud:

• 🚫 Free storage – only 5 GB (for photo / video this is not enough).
• 🔄 Application synchronization works only for system utilities (Mi Browser, Notes).
• 📵 On custom firmware (e.g. Pixel Experience) it may not work.

Mi Mover|Mi Cloud| OTG/PC|Google Account|Another way-->

3. Transfer via OTG cable or computer

If you don’t have access to Wi-Fi or data is too large (for example, if you don’t have access to Wi-Fi, 4K-And this is a universal technique that works even on phones with a damaged wireless module.

Option 1: Direct connection via OTG-adapter

• 🔌 Buy it. OTG-cable (Type-C) → Type-C or MicroUSB → Type-C depending on ports).
• 📱 Connect your old phone to your new phone via an adapter.
• 📁 Explorer will open on the new phone – select files to copy.

Option 2: Through a computer (Windows/Mac)

1. Connect your old phone to your PC in File Transfer (MTP) mode.
2. Copy the data into a folder on your computer (for example, D:\Xiaomi_Backup).
3. Disable the old phone, connect the new one and transfer the files back.

💡

When copying via PC, use the original Xiaomi cable - cheap analogues can limit the transfer speed to 10 MB / s.

What can be transferred in this way:

• 📸 Photos and videos in original quality (without compression).
• 🎵 Music and podcasts (including playlists).
• 📄 Documents (PDF, DOCX, XLSX).
• 🎮 APK-Application files (but not their data!).

⚠️ Note: Do not copy the entire Android folder, as this can lead to conflicts in these applications. DCIM, Download and Documents.

4. Transfer through Google Account (for non-system data)

If you use Google services, some of the data can be transferred through your Gmail account, which is suitable for:

• 📇 Contacts (synchronization with Google Contacts).
• 📅 Calendar (Google Calendar).
• 📰 Mailboxes (Gmail).
• 📍 Location History (Google Maps).

How to set up:

1. On your old phone, go to Settings → Accounts → Google.
2. Turn on synchronization for the right services.
3. Add the same Google account on your new phone and wait for the sync.

Limitations:

• 🚫 Not tolerated. SMS, MMS call-recording.
• 📱 Photos are synced only if the “Backup” function in Google Photos was previously enabled.
• 🔒 Wi-Fi passwords are not portable (unlike Mi Cloud).

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To transfer Wi-Fi passwords, use the WiFi Password Viewer app (root rights required) or take screenshots QR-Network codes from an old phone.

5. Transfer applications and their data (including games)

Standard methods do not always copy application data (for example, progress in games or settings of messengers).

Method 1: Helium (Old but Working)

• 📱 Install Helium on both phones (Android 5.0 required)+).
• 🔗 Connect your phones to one Wi-Fi.
• 📤 On your old phone, select backup apps.
• 📥 On the new one – restore data from the backup copy.

Method 2: Swift Backup (for root users)

• 🛠️ Root rights are required on both phones.
• 📦 Backup your applications and data in Swift Backup.
• 🔄 Transfer the backup file to the new phone and restore.

Method 3: Integrated game tools

Many games (e.g. Genshin Impact, PUBG Mobile) support cloud-based saves to bring progress:

1. On your old phone, link your game account to Facebook, Google Play Games, or Mi Account.
2. On the new phone, install the game and log in through the same account.
3. Download save from the cloud (usually offered automatically).

⚠️ Note: Some applications (e.g. banking) block data transfer due to security policies, and you will have to reconfigure them.

6. transfer of hidden data: Wi-Fi, system settings, wallpaper

Few people know, but along with the obvious data (photos, contacts) you can transfer hidden settings:

Wi-Fi passwords:

• 📡 Use the WiFi Key Recovery app (root required) or export the network list through ADB:

adb pull /data/misc/wifi/WifiConfigStore.xml

Wallpaper and themes:

• 🎨 The wallpaper file is on its way. /storage/emulated/0/MIUI/wallpaper/ — Copy it to a new phone.
• 📲 The theme is synced via Mi Account (if installed from Themes Store).

Notification and gesture settings:

• ⚙️ Export the configuration through ADB:

adb backup -f settings.ab -shared -all -apk

Then restore it to the new phone:

adb restore settings.ab

Sound profiles and alarm clocks:

• 🔔 The alarm clock data is stored in /data/data/com.android.deskclock/ — root-transfer.
• 🎵 The custom alarm clock tunes are in /storage/emulated/0/Ringtones/.

Frequent mistakes and their solutions

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

Additional advice:

• 🔋 Charge both phones to 100% before transferring – the process can take several hours.
• 📡 If you use mobile internet for synchronization, disable traffic restriction in the settings.
• 🔐 After transferring, reset passwords from important accounts (banks, social networks) on the new phone.

FAQ: Answers to popular questions