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

Moving to a new Xiaomi smartphone is always exciting, but data porting often becomes a headache. Contacts, photos, messages, apps, and even screen settings all need to be saved to keep from starting from scratch. Fortunately, Xiaomi has several built-in tools that make migration easier, but not everyone is aware of their capabilities and pitfalls.

In this article, we’ll look at 5 ways to transfer data between Xiaomi devices, from the official Mi Mover to manually copying via cable. You’ll learn which method is the fastest, which stores the most information, and how to avoid typical errors (such as losing WhatsApp messages or syncing Google Account failure).

Whether you’re upgrading from the Redmi Note 10 to the Xiaomi 14 or upgrading from the POCO X3 to the Redmi K70, the instructions below are suitable for any Android model (including MIUI 14/15).

1.Official method: transfer via Mi Mover (without loss)

Mi Mover is a Xiaomi app that automatically copies almost all data from the old phone to the new one, pre-installed on all devices with MIUI, so no additional downloads are required, and it is considered the most reliable method, since it even saves system settings (wallpaper, brightness, sound profiles) and application data (for example, game progress).

To use Mi Mover, follow the following steps:

• 📱 On the new Xiaomi phone, select Data Transfer when you first turn on (if you missed it, find the Mi Mover app in the menu).
• 🔗 On the old phone, open Mi Mover and select “I am the sender” (on the new one, “I am the receiver").
• 📶 Connect both devices to the same Wi-Fi network or create an access point on an old phone.
• 🔍 Scan it. QR-code from a new phone on an old one to establish a connection.
• 📋 Select data types to transfer (contacts, messages, photos, apps, etc.) and click "Move".

It can take anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour, depending on the amount of data you have, and it's important that if you already have a Mi Account on your new phone, you can overwrite it, and you should back up to the cloud first.

⚠️ Note: If you have an old phone MIUI version below 12 and new version 14+, There may be compatibility issues, in which case update the firmware on the old device before transferring.

Both phones are charged at least 50 times%|Power saving mode is disabled on new phones|Free space on the new device exceeds the amount of data transferred|On the old phone enabled data transfer over Wi-Fi in the background-->

2. Transfer through Google Account (universal method)

If Mi Mover doesn’t work for some reason (for example, one of the phones is not from Xiaomi), you can use sync through Google Account. This method is suitable for transferring contacts, calendars, notes, photos (Google Photos) and some settings. However, it does not copy messages, call history and application data (except for those that support backup in Google Drive).

Instructions:

1. On your old phone, go to Settings → Google → Backup and turn on the option “Backup to Google Drive”.
2. Select the data to save (contacts, application data, device settings) and wait for the process to complete.
3. On the new phone, when you set up, log in to the same Google Account and agree to restore data from the backup.

The downside of this method is the 15GB free storage limit, so if you have a lot of photos or videos, you'll either have to pay for extra space or use another way.

Mi Mover|Google Account|Cable OTG|Cloud services (Dropbox, Yandex Disk)|Other-->

3. Transfer over OTG or USB-C cable (for files and APKs)

If you only need to transfer photos, videos, music or APK-The fastest way to connect your phones directly to the cable is to connect them directly:

• 🔌 Cable USB-C → USB-C (If both phones are modern, or adapter OTG + common USB-cable (for older models).
• 📁 On your old phone, turn on File Transfer Mode (MTP) connection settings.

Step-by-step:

1. Connect your old phone to your new phone using a cable.
2. On your new phone, open Explorer (or any file management application).
3. In the Devices section, select an old phone and copy the files you want (DCIM folders for photos, Download for downloads, etc.).
4. To transfer applications, copy APK-file /data/app (You will need root rights, or use apps like this. APK Extractor.

⚠️ Note: When copying APK-Note that some applications (e.g. banking) are tied to the device and may not work after the transfer, and you will not be able to transfer application data (cache, settings) - only yourself. APK.

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If you don’t have a USB-C → USB-C cable, you can use your computer as an intermediate: copy files from your old phone to your PC and then from your PC to your new one.

4. Transfer of messages, calls and WhatsApp (features)

One of the most difficult things to do when migrating is to save your message history (SMS/MMS) and chats from messengers like WhatsApp or Telegram. Standard tools (Mi Mover or Google Account) do not always cope with this task, so you have to use additional methods.

For SMS and call history:

• 📲 Use the app. SMS Backup & Restore (available on Google Play) backs up your.xml messages, which you can then restore to your new phone.
• 🔄 Mi Mover has a message port option, but it doesn’t work well on some models (e.g. Redmi). 9A).

To port WhatsApp:

• ☁️ Back up your chats in Google Drive (in WhatsApp settings) → "chat" → "Backup copy").
• 📱 On your new phone, install WhatsApp, log in to the same account and restore chats from backup.
• ⚠️ Important: Google Drive is only created when you connect to Wi-Fi. If it is not, chats will have to be manually transferred via Mi Mover (but this will only work between Xiaomi phones).

5. Data transfer from iPhone to Xiaomi (cross-platform method)

If you’re switching from an iPhone to Xiaomi, standard ways like Mi Mover won’t work, and Apple’s Move to iOS app (but it only works backwards) or manual methods will help.

• 📱 Contacts: Export them from iCloud in.vcf format and import them to Xiaomi via Google Contacts.
• 📷 Photos and Videos: Use Google Photos or iCloud for Windows (if you have a computer).
• 💬 Messages: Applications like iMazing or Backuptrans allow you to export SMS from iPhone to format compatible with Android.
• 🎵 Music: Transfer tracks via iTunes to your computer, then copy them to Xiaomi.

The main problem with moving from iOS to Android is apps, and many apps from the App Store are not available on Google Play, so you have to look for analogues, and you can't migrate Apple Pay data, iCloud settings, and some system files.

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When switching from iPhone to Xiaomi, be sure to untie your phone number from iMessage, otherwise SMS may not reach the new device. You can do this in the iPhone settings: "Messages" → "Send/receive" → delete your number.

6 Manual transfer via cloud services (Yandex Drive, Dropbox)

If you don't have a cable or Mi Mover doesn't work, you can use cloud storage, which is universal, but requires a stable Internet connection and time to download/download files, and is best suited for transferring photos, documents and music.

Instructions:

1. Install a cloud service app on both phones (Yandex Drive, Dropbox, Mega, etc.).
2. On your old phone, upload files to the cloud (you can use the auto-upload photo feature).
3. On the new phone, download files from the cloud to the device’s memory.

The advantage of this method is access to files from any device and the ability to selectively transfer, the disadvantages are the limitation in volume (usually free 5-15 GB) and long loading time with a large amount of data.

⚠️ Note: Some cloud services (e.g. Google Photos) compress downloadable images if you have a free rate.To avoid loss of quality, check your download settings or use paid options.

7 What to do if the data is not transferred or lost?

Even with official tools, sometimes you get a failure: contacts don't copy, photos or apps don't get recovered, and here's what you can do in these cases:

• 🔄 Repeat the transfer: Sometimes it helps to just restart the Mi Mover or reconnect the cable.
• 📡 Check Connection: If you use Wi-Fi Direct, make sure both phones are connected to the same network and don’t go into sleep mode.
• 📂 Manual File Search: If Photos Are Missing, Check Folders MIUI/Camera Pictures on a new phone – sometimes files are copied to unexpected places.
• 🔧 Resetting: In extreme cases, you can reset the new phone to factory settings and repeat the data transfer (but this will delete everything that it already has on it).

If you lose messages from messengers (for example, Viber or Telegram), check if they have a built-in backup function. For example, in Telegram chats are stored in the cloud, so they will automatically download to the new device after you log in to your account.

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Before resetting the phone to factory settings, be sure to check whether the Mi Account is tied to it. If yes, untie it to Settings → Mi Account, otherwise after resetting the device may be blocked!

FAQ: Frequent questions about data portability to Xiaomi