How to Find and Restore Remote Apps on Xiaomi: A Complete Guide

Have you accidentally deleted an important app on Xiaomi, Redmi or POCO and now you can’t remember its name? Or want to return a program that was uninstalled long ago but you don’t know how to find it in history? In this article, we’ll look at all the working ways to view the list of remote applications on smartphones with MIUI firmware — from standard system tools to hidden features and third-party services.

Unlike iOS, where installation history is stored in the App Store, Android (and MIUI in particular) does not have a single centralized log of remote programs. However, there are several workarounds: from analyzing the Google Play cache to studying system logs through ADB. We will look at methods of varying complexity from simple (for a beginner) to advanced (for advanced users).

Before you start, remember that you can only recover metadata (names, icons, deletion dates) and not the APK files themselves unless they were previously archived.

1. View installation history in Google Play

The easiest and most versatile way is to use download history in the Google Play Store, which works on all Xiaomi devices if you have previously logged in to a Google account and haven’t cleared the history.

To see the remote applications:

• 📱 Open the Google Play Store on your phone.
• 👤 Click on the profile icon in the upper right corner.
• 📋 Select Application and Device Management → Management.
• 🔍 Go to the Not Installed tab – it will show all the programs that have ever been downloaded to your device, but are now removed.

Note: the list may include apps installed on other devices under the same Google account. To narrow your search, use a filter by date or keywords in the search bar.

⚠️ Note: If you have previously cleared history on Google Play or used the Delete History feature in your account settings, this method will not work. MIUI may not appear on the list.

For convenience, you can sort the applications by the date of removal:

1. In the section Not installed tap on the icon ⚙️ (setting).
2. Select Sort by: Installation Date (new at the top).
3. Scroll down the list, the last deleted programs will be at the end.

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If the app is not in Google Play history, try logging in to the web version of the service on your PC at play.google.com/store/account – sometimes there are earlier records displayed.

2.Use Mi Account to restore the list

MIUI firmware stores some of the data about installed applications in the cloud service Mi Account. This method is suitable if you previously synced your device with a Xiaomi account and did not turn off backup.

Instructions:

• 🔄 Go to Settings. → Mi Account → Cloud. → Backup.
• 📄 Find the Apps and Data section and see if there is an archive called App List or User Apps.
• 💾 If a backup exists, restore it, it will return the list of installed programs (but not the programs themselves). APK-file).

Unfortunately, Mi Account does not provide direct access to the history of remote applications, but backups may store log files with information about installation / deletion.

1. Download backup to PC via i.mi.com.
2. Unpack the archive (usually in.mbk format) with the Mi Backup Extractor tool.
3. Find the file. app_list.xml or package_manager.log unpacked.

⚠️ Note: Mi Account backups are encrypted. They will require a Xiaomi account password and specialized software to decrypt them. Do not use third-party services to hack archives - this can lead to the blocking of the account.

3. Analyzing system logs through ADB

For power users, there is a way to view the installation/deletion history of apps through Android logs, which requires connecting the phone to a PC and using the Android Debug Bridge (ADB) tool.

Step-by-step:

1. 🖥️ Install Platform Tools on PC and enable Debugging USB on the phone (Settings) → The phone. → Version. MIUI → 7 times tap to activate the developer mode, then Settings → Additionally. → For developers → Debugging by USB).
2. 🔌 Connect the device to the PC and execute the command in the terminal: adb shell dumpsys package | grep "remove" This will display a list of packets that have been removed from the device.
3. 🔍 For more information (including dates), use: adb shell logcat -d | grep -E "PackageManager|pkg removed"

The results will look something like this:

05-10 12:34:56.789  1234  5678 I PackageManager: Removing package:com.example.app




05-10 12:35:01.234  1234  5678 D pkg     : Package com.example.app removed

To convert package names (e.g. com.example.app) into readable app names, use APK Mirror or Google Play database.

⚠️ Note: Logs in logcat are stored for a limited time (usually a few days). If the application was deleted a long time ago, this method will not work.

Activate Developer Mode |Enable debugging by USB|Install Xiaomi drivers on PC| Download Platform Tools|Connect phone with original cable-->

4. File system recovery (root only)

If your Xiaomi has superuser rights, you can view the history of deleted applications directly in the system folders, which is the most reliable method, but also the riskiest method - wrong actions can lead to a system failure.

Where to look:

To view these files:

1. 📂 Use a root-enabled file manager (such as Root Explorer or Root Explorer) FX File Explorer).
2. 🔍 Go to one of these paths and find files with the extension.xml or.db.
3. 📋 Open the file in the text editor and find lines with remove, uninstall or package="...".

Critical information: /data/system/packages.xml contains records of all applications, even those that are deleted, but once you flash or reset the settings, this file is cleared. If you recently ran Wipe Data, the method will not work.

5. Third-party applications for tracking history

If standard methods don't work, you can use specialized utilities that keep a log of installing/deleting programs, and these applications need to be installed in advance, because they won't reconstruct the history retroactively.

Top.-3 monitoring tools:

• 📊 AppTracker logs all changes to the list of apps, including the date and time of deletion.
• 🔍 App Manager – shows the history of installations and allows you to export it to the CSV. Requires root for full functionality.
• 📈 Package Name Viewer – displays all packets, including remote ones (if previously scanned).

How to work with AppTracker:

1. Install the application and grant it permission to access Usage Data (Settings) → Annexes → AppTracker → Permits → Use data).
2. In the main menu, select History → Uninstalled Apps.
3. Export the list to a file or restore the app directly from the interface (if available on Google Play).

⚠️ Note: Some antiviruses (such as Avast or Dr.Web) may block the operation of such utilities, considering them suspicious.

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Third-party history tracking apps only work if they were installed BEFORE deleting the program they want. They won't restore data retroactively!

6.Restore from MIUI backup

If you regularly back up through Settings → Additional → Backup and Reset, there’s a chance to recover the application list from the archive. This method won’t bring back the APKs themselves, but will show which programs were installed at the time the backup was created.

How to restore:

• 📦 Go to Settings. → Additionally. → Backup and reset → Local backups.
• 🔍 Select the most recent copy (before the date of removal of the application).
• 📋 Click Restore and tick the App item and application data.
• ⚠️ Do not restore other sections (such as Contacts or Messages) unless you want to lose relevant data.

After recovery, check:

• 📱 Section Settings → Annexes → Application management – records of remote programs may appear here.
• 🗃️ folder /MIUI/backup/AllBackup/ In internal memory, backup files in.bak format are stored there.

If you don’t have local copies, try recovering data from the Mi Account cloud (see section 2). Note that cloud backups are stored for a limited time (usually 30 days).

7.A search by Google Play Services cache

Google Play Services stores a cache of data about installed apps that can sometimes be extracted even after uninstallation.This method does not guarantee 100% results, but can help in some cases.

Instructions:

1. 🛠️ Install a file manager with access to system folders (e.g. Solid Explorer).
2. 🔍 Cross the path: /data/data/com.google.android.gms/app_appsearch/ Files with the.db or.protobuf extension can be stored here.
3. 📤 Copy these files to your PC and open them with SQLite Browser or Protobuf Decoder.
4. 🔎 Look for lines from package_name or install_time.

Alternative path (for MIUI 13+):

/data/data/com.miui.systemAdSolution/app_appsearch/

These files may contain:

• 📦 Labeled package lists INSTALLED/UNINSTALLED.
• ⏱️ Time stamps for installation/removal.
• 🏷️ Category tags (e.g, GAME, SOCIAL).

⚠️ Warning: Modifying or deleting files in the com.google.android.gms folder may cause Google Play Services to crash!

Frequently asked questions