How to view photos from the Xiaomi cloud: all ways for 2026

Xiaomi Cloud (or Mi Cloud) cloud storage has become an integral part of the brand’s smartphone ecosystem, offering users 5GB of free space to back up photos, contacts and other data. However, many owners of Xiaomi, Redmi or POCO devices face difficulties in trying to access their pictures – especially if you need to download them to a new phone, computer or restore them after a reset.

In this article, we will look at all the current ways to view photos from the Xiaomi cloud in 2026, from the standard Gallery app to the web version of the service and third-party tools, focusing on the hidden sync settings that often cause images to disappear from the cloud, and also explain how to circumvent the restrictions when changing your account or region. If you are looking for a way to transfer photos from the cloud to another phone or save them to a hard drive, here you will find step-by-step instructions with illustrations and tips for correcting errors.

1. How to enable synchronization of photos with the cloud Xiaomi

Before you try to view photos in the cloud, make sure they get there at all. By default, the snapshot backup feature is disabled on new Xiaomi devices.

1. Open the Settings app on your smartphone.
2. Go to Accounts and Sync → Mi Cloud (or Xiaomi Cloud on new firmware).
3. Sign in to your Xiaomi account if you are not already logged in.
4. Click on the Gallery and turn on the photo sync switch.
5. Select Download Quality – Original (saves original resolution) or Compressed (saves space in the cloud).

Sync will start automatically, but it can take anywhere from minutes to hours, depending on the number of photos and the speed of the Internet. Importantly, the process only works when you connect to Wi-Fi (by default), if you want to upload photos over the mobile Internet, turn on the option of Sync over the mobile network in the cloud settings.

⚠️ Note: If you have previously disabled sync or changed your Xiaomi account, old photos may not be saved to the cloud. → gallery → Storage management, where the amount of occupied data is displayed.

2 Viewing photos through the standard gallery

The easiest way to see photos from the cloud is to use the built-in Gallery app on Xiaomi smartphones, which automatically combines local images and those stored in the Mi Cloud, if synchronization is enabled. Here's how it works:

• 📱 Open the Gallery app (icon with multi-colored squares).
• 🔍 At the top of the screen, select the Cloud tab (or Mi Cloud).
• 📂 This will show all the albums synced to the cloud, and the photos are sorted by date or folder (e.g. Camera, Screenshots).
• 🔄 If no pictures are available, pull the screen down to update the data.

In the new version MIUI 14/15 The interface of the cloud gallery has changed: now photos from the cloud are marked with a special icon ☁️ In the upper right corner of the thumbnail, to distinguish them from local files, turn on the tags in the gallery settings (Settings) → Showing cloud tags).

Is synchronization enabled in Mi Cloud?

Is there access to Wi-Fi or mobile internet?

Is the data in the Gallery app updated?

Is there enough space in the cloud storage?-->

If photos in the gallery are not displayed, sync is enabled, try the following steps:

1. Sign out of your Xiaomi account and log in again (Settings → Accounts → Mi Cloud → Sign out).
2. Clear the cache of the Gallery app (Settings → Applications → Application Management → Gallery → Clear the cache).
3. Update the Mi Cloud app via the Play Market or App Store.

3. Access to photos via the web version of Mi Cloud

If you don't have a Xiaomi smartphone on hand, or if you want to download photos to your computer, use the web version of cloud storage. It works in any browser and does not require additional software installation.

1. Go to the official website: https://i.mi.com/ (for global version) or https://cloud.mi.com/ (for Chinese firmware).
2. Sign in with the same Xiaomi account as you do on your phone.
3. In the main menu, select the Gallery (or Photos) section.
4. Here you will see all the synchronized albums. To download the photos, tick them and click Download.

The web version supports high-resolution preview, but the download of originals can be limited in speed (especially for free accounts), and basic editing functions are available: rotate, crop and add filters.

⚠️ Note: When you log into the Mi Cloud web version from a new device, the system may request confirmation via a new device. SMS If you don't remember the linked number, restore access to your account through the recovery page.

4.Move photos from Xiaomi cloud to another phone

If you switched from a smartphone (e.g., Xiaomi to an iPhone or other Android), you can transfer photos from the cloud in several ways.

Method 1: Using the Mi Cloud app on a new phone

• 📲 Install the official Mi Cloud app from the Play Market or App Store.
• 🔑 Sign in to your Xiaomi account.
• 📂 Go to the Gallery section and select the photo you need.
• 💾 Click Download – the pictures will be saved to the local memory of the new device.

Method 2: Google Photos (for Android/iOS)

If you prefer Google Photos, download the photos from Mi Cloud to your computer first, and then upload them to Google Photos:

1. Download the photo archive via the Mi Cloud web version (as described in Section 3).
2. Unpack the archive on the PC.
3. Upload the photo to Google Photos via your browser or mobile app.

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If you are transferring photos to your iPhone, use the Files app to download the archive from Mi Cloud, and then import the photos to Photos via the Import feature.

Method 3: Synchronization through PC

For mass transfer, it is convenient to use a computer:

• 🖥️ Download all photos from Mi Cloud to the folder on your hard drive (via the web version).
• 📁 Connect the new phone to the PC USB And copy the files to the folder. DCIM/Camera.
• 🔄 If the photos don’t show up in the new phone gallery, restart the device or use the file manager to scan folders.

⚠️ Note: When transferring photos between different brands (e.g. Xiaomi) → Samsung's metadata (date of shooting, geotagged) can get lost. To avoid this, use specialized programs like ExifTool to save the original tags.

5. Solving Photo Access Problems in the Cloud

Sometimes, users experience photos disappearing from the cloud or not syncing, and here are the most common reasons and ways to eliminate them:

If none of these methods helped, check:

• 🔗 The status of Xiaomi servers – sometimes access issues are related to technical work.
• 📡 Account Region – If you changed country in Mi Cloud settings, some features may be limited. → Country/Region.
• 🔄 The firmware version - on older versions MIUI (Below 12) synchronization errors may occur. Update the system in Settings → The phone. → Updating the system.

6. Alternative ways to back up photos

While Mi Cloud is convenient for Xiaomi device owners, it has limitations: only 5 GB is free, no automatic sorting by person/place (unlike Google Photos), and access problems when changing region.

• 🌐 Google Photos: 15 GB free, automatic face and object recognition, cross-platform. Minus — photo compression with free storage.
• 🍎 iCloud: Perfect for iPhone users, but requires an extra seat (50GB per user) ~59 rub/mos).
• 📁 Cloud: 10-20 GB free, but there is no automatic download of photos from the phone (you need to manually configure).
• 🔗 Syncthing: Free of charge P2P-Photo Sync between Cloudless Devices (requires customization).

If you decide to switch to another service, remember to download all photos from Mi Cloud in advance, as if you turn off sync, they can be deleted from Xiaomi servers after 30–60 days (depending on the storage policy).

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For maximum reliability, use the 3-2-1 rule: store 3 copies of data (original + 2 backups), 2 different types of media (cloud + hard drive), and 1 copy outside the home (for example, in a bank box or with relatives).

7 Data Security in Mi Cloud: What You Need to Know

Many users worry about the privacy of photos uploaded to the cloud. Xiaomi claims that data is encrypted during transmission and storage, but there are nuances:

• 🔐 Encryption: Photos are transmitted by protocol HTTPS, It's stored in encrypted form on servers, but the encryption keys are managed by Xiaomi, not the user.
• 🌍 Server location: For global accounts, data is stored on servers in Singapore, for Chinese accounts in China, which can affect access speeds and legal aspects.
• 👁️ Third party access: Xiaomi may provide data upon request by law enforcement (in accordance with the laws of the country of storage).

To improve safety:

1. Use two-factor authentication for your Xiaomi account (Account settings → Security → Two-step verification).
2. Do not store documents or photos with personal data (passports, bank cards) in the cloud.
3. Check active sessions in your account (Settings → Devices and Activity) regularly and close suspicious ones.

If privacy is critical, consider local photo encryption before uploading to the cloud (for example, using Cryptomator or Boxcryptor apps).

FAQ: Frequent questions about photos in the cloud Xiaomi