How to return deleted notes to Xiaomi: a step-by-step guide

Why are the notes disappearing from Xiaomi and can they be returned?

Deleting important notes on Xiaomi, Redmi or POCO smartphones is a situation that one in five users encounter, and the causes of data loss can range from accidentally clicking Delete to crashing Notes or MIUI system errors. Fortunately, 90% of records can be restored — if you act quickly and correctly.

Modern versions of MIUI 14/15 automatically save deleted notes in the cart for 30 days, and also back up in the Mi Cloud. Even if you cleared the cart or turned off synchronization, there are alternative methods - from recovery through adb to using third-party utilities. In this article, we will discuss all the working methods, including hidden Xiaomi features that are not written in the official documentation.

Important: speed is critical. The longer you delay recovery, the greater the risk of overwriting data with new files, for example, if you installed a MIUI update or formatted memory after deleting notes, the chances of success are reduced to 30%.

Method 1: Recovery from the Application Recycle Bin Notes

The easiest and fastest method is to check the cart in the standard Notes app, which is available on all Xiaomi smartphones with MIUI 12 and later, including the Redmi Note 12, POCO F5, Xiaomi 13 and others. Deleted notes are stored here for up to 30 days, after which they are automatically erased.

To get the record back:

1. Open the Notes app (an icon with a pencil on a yellow background).
2. Put the badge on. ⋮ (three points) in upper right corner.
3. Select the basket (Trash in the English version).
4. Find the desired note and press it with a long tap.
5. In the menu that appears, select Restore.

If the note does not appear in the cart, check:

• 🔍 Date filter: It is possible that the record was deleted long ago and has already been automatically cleared.
• 📱 Mi Account: the cart is linked to the account. If you logged out, the notes could have "disappeared".
• 🗑️ Manual cleaning: Some users manually clean the cart through Settings → Warehouse → Clean the basket.

⚠️ Attention: B MIUI 14 and newer cart is hidden by default. If the Recycle Bin item is not on the menu, update the Notes app via Google Play or App Gallery.

Method 2: Recovery via Mi Cloud (Xiaomi Cloud)

If notes have been synced to Mi Cloud, they can be returned even after cleaning the cart.

• 🔄 On the smartphone was enabled synchronization of notes (Settings) → Xiaomi account → Mi Cloud → Notes).
• 📶 The device had access to the Internet at the time of removal.
• 🕒 No more than 60 days have passed since the deletion (retention period of backups in Mi Cloud).

Instructions for remediation:

1. Go to i.mi.com and log in to your Mi Account.
2. In the menu, select Notes.
3. Find a deleted note in the list or through a search (magnifying glass icon).
4. Open it and press Restore on the device.

If the note doesn’t appear in the cloud, try:

• 🔄 Update the page (sometimes the data is loaded with a delay).
• 📱 Check another device: If you have multiple Xiaomi gadgets under one account, a note could be saved on one of them.
• 📧 Export backup: Mi Cloud can download the.zip archive of notes via Settings → Export of data.

Log in to Mi Account on the same device where the notes were created|Check the synchronization enabled in the Settings|Make sure there is an internet connection|Try to open notes on the web version of i.mi.com-->

Important: Mi Cloud only stores the latest versions of notes. If you edited a record before deleting, the old version may be lost. To avoid this, regularly export notes manually through Settings → In-app Export.

Method 3: Use of MIUI backups

System system MIUI automatically creates local backups of data, including notes, if Backup is enabled. MIUI/Backup/AllBackup internal memory or SD-You can recover backup notes even without an Internet connection.

How to find and restore the backup:

1. Open Settings → About Phone → Backup and Reset.
2. Select Local Backups.
3. Find the backup created before deleting notes (orientate by date).
4. Slip it and choose Restore it.
5. Check the Notes and confirm the recovery.

If there are no local backups, check:

• 📁 Hand-held folder: Connect your phone to your PC and find the Internal Storage path → MIUI → Backup → AllBackup.
• 🔄 Cloud backups: Mi Cloud also stores backups. go to Settings → Xiaomi account → Mi Cloud → Backup.
• 📱 Older devices: if you changed your smartphone, the backup could stay on the previous Xiaomi.

⚠️ Note: Backup recovery will overwrite current data. If you add new notes after creating the backup, they will be lost.

Method 4: Recovery through ADB (for power users)

If notes are not saved in the cart or cloud, you can try extracting them directly from the device’s memory using Android Debug Bridge (ADB), a technique that requires technical skills and only works on non-root devices with USB debugging enabled.

Step-by-step:

1. Turn on Developer Mode: Settings → About Phone → MIUI Version (shap 7 times)
2. Activate USB Debugging: Settings → Additional → For Developers → Debugging by USB
3. Connect your phone to your PC and confirm your trust in your computer.
4. Download ADB Tools and unpack it into a folder.
5. Open the command prompt (cmd) in the adb folder and execute: adb pull /data/data/com.miui.notes/databases/notes.db This command will copy the note database on the PC.
6. Open the notes.db file with DB Browser for SQLite and find the deleted entries in the note table.

Limitations of the method:

• 🔒 Developer rights and access to PCs are required.
• 📱 On some models (e.g. Xiaomi) 13 Pro) the path of the base may be different: /data/user/0/com.miui.notes/databases/notes.db.
• 🚫 Does not work on devices with a blocked bootloader (bootloader).

Critical information: On devices with MIUI 15 And the newer note database is encrypted, and it requires a key to decrypt it, which is stored in a key. /data/data/com.miui.notes/shared_prefs/notes_preferences.xml. Without this file, recovery through ADB impossible.

Method 5: Third-party programs for data recovery

If previous methods have failed, you can use specialized utilities to recover data on Android, these programs scan the internal memory of the device and find deleted files, including notes.

• 🛠️ Dr.Fone (Wondershare) - supports recovery of notes, messages and media files.
• 🔍 EaseUS MobiSaver – scans deep layers of memory, finds data even after resetting settings.
• 📱 DiskDigger – free application with the ability to restore text files (including notes).
• 💾 Tenorshare UltData – specializes in Xiaomi and Redmi devices, works without root rights.

Instructions for use (on the example of Dr.Fone):

1. Download and install the program on PC from wondershare.com.
2. Connect your smartphone to your computer through USB-cable.
3. Select the Android Data Recovery mode.
4. Mark the type of data Documents and notes.
5. Start the scan (may take 10-30 minutes).
6. After completion, select the desired notes and click Restore.

⚠️ Note: When using third-party programs: 🛡️ Download software only from official websites – fake versions may contain viruses. 🔒 Disable the antivirus while scanning (it can block access to memory). 📵 Do not install recovery programs on the smartphone itself – this can overwrite deleted data. 💡Before scanning through third-party utilities, put your phone in flight mode and turn off Wi-Fi. This will prevent writing new data to the disk and increase the chances of successful recovery. What if nothing worked? If all of these methods have failed, extreme measures remain: 🔄 Call for Xiaomi support: Link your Mi Account and describe the problem.In rare cases, engineers can recover data from Mi Cloud servers even if it doesn't appear in the web version. 📧 Check email: many users send themselves important notes by email. Check the Sent and Draft folders in Gmail or Mi Mail. 🔍 Search in other apps: sometimes notes are duplicated in Google Keep, Evernote or OneNote if you’ve used sync. 💽 Check old backups on PC: If you’ve ever connected your phone to your computer, it’s possible that the notes are saved in the backup folder. If the notes contained critical information (passwords, financial data), consider contacting specialized data recovery laboratories. For example, Cellebrite or Oxygen Forensics work with the physical memory of smartphones and can extract data even after full formatting. 💡The faster you start your recovery, the higher the chances of success. After deleting notes, avoid installing new apps, shooting photos/video and updating the system – this reduces the likelihood of successful data returns. FAQ: Frequent questions about note recovery on Xiaomi Can I restore notes after reset to factory settings? Yes, but only if sync with Mi Cloud was enabled before the reset or a local backup was created. → Backup → If the sync was disabled, the odds are minimal -- you'll need specialized tools like Dr.Fone or a service center. Why aren't my notes in the Mi Cloud even though the sync was on? The reasons may be the following: 🔄 The synchronization worked only on Wi-Fi, and at the time of deletion the Internet was disabled. 📱 You are logging out of your Mi Account – it interrupts sync. 🗃️ In the settings of Mi Cloud was disabled item Notes. 🕒 Over 60 days have passed, the cloud automatically clears old data. Try checking notes on another device with the same Mi Account. How to protect notes from accidental deletion in the future? To avoid data loss: Enable autosynchronization with Mi Cloud and Google Drive. Export notes to.txt or.zip files regularly through Settings → Export. Use third-party cloud storage apps (e.g. Google Keep or Simplenote). Set your password to the Notes app (Settings) → Security → Password protection. Can you recover notes from a broken Xiaomi screen? Yes, if the phone turns on and responds to touch. Connect the device to your PC through a phone. USB and use: 🖥️ Mi PC Suite for accessing files. 🔧 ADB to extract a database (as described in Method 4). 📱 Display to PC via Scrcpy (if the screen is responsive to the tolls). If the screen is not working at all, you will need to change the display or contact the service center. POCO And Redmi? Yeah, all of these things work on devices. POCO And Redmi, because they use the same firmware. MIUI. The exception is some models POCO global firmware (e.g, POCO X5 Pro, where the Notes app can be called Notes and have a slightly different interface, ADB) remain.