Losing your smartphone or accidentally resetting your settings can be a nightmare if you don’t take care of your data in advance. It’s especially frustrating to lose the correspondence history, important documents and family photos that have been accumulating on WhatsApp for years. Owners of Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO devices often face features of the MIUI and HyperOS shells that require a specific approach to backup.
Fortunately, today’s ecosystems offer a variety of tools to protect information, from cloud storage to local archives on a memory card. The right setup of automatic backup will allow you to restore access to dialogues on a new device at any time without losing a single message. In this article, we will discuss all available methods, paying special attention to the nuances of the messenger on smartphones of the Chinese brand.
Preparing for backup: what you need to know the owner of Xiaomi
Before you start creating an archive, you need to make sure that your smartphone is ready for this task. The Android system on which Xiaomi phones run requires certain permissions and free space for the correct operation of the data storage mechanisms. Ignoring the preparatory stage can lead to the fact that the process is interrupted halfway or the archive is broken.
First, check for a stable Wi-Fi connection. While local copying is possible via the mobile internet, uploading heavy media to the cloud can quickly exhaust your data plan. Also, make sure there is enough space on your Google account balance or phone storage.
- 📱 Make sure that the device has an up-to-date WhatsApp installed from the official Google Play store.
- ☁️ Check the authorization status in the Google account to which the copy will be linked.
- 🔋 Charge your smartphone battery to at least 50% or connect it to a power source.
An important aspect is the choice of storage method: you can use the built-in Google Drive cloud that is integrated into the system, or create a file manually and transfer it to your computer. For Xiaomi users, the issue of synchronization with Mi Cloud is also relevant, but native support for the backup of messenger chats there is limited compared to Google solutions.
⚠️ WARNING: If you use two-factor authentication on WhatsApp, be sure to remember or write it down. PIN-Without it, it will be impossible to restore access to chats from a backup on a new device, even if the archive file itself is intact.
Also, don't forget about app permissions. In the latest versions of MIUI and HyperOS, the security system can block the messenger's access to the file system to create a backup. Go to your phone's settings, look for the Applications section, and make sure WhatsApp has the rights to write to the device's memory.
Create a cloud backup through Google Drive
The most convenient and reliable way for most users is to use the Google Drive cloud service, which automatically saves your correspondence history in the background without requiring your constant intervention, and links the data to your inbox, ensuring that it is safe even if your smartphone is physically broken.
To set up, go to the messenger menu by clicking on the three dots in the top right corner of the screen. Select Settings, then go to Chats and find the option "Backup Chats." Here you will see the "Backup" button and process automation settings.
In the frequency settings, select the optimal interval for you: daily, weekly or monthly. It is also recommended to enable the option “Add video” if you want to save video messages and videos sent, but this will significantly increase the size of the archive.
- 📅 Select the frequency of automatic copy creation depending on the intensity of communication.
- 🎥 Decide whether to save the video material, as it takes up a lot of space.
- 📶 Set the condition “Only through Wi-Fi” to avoid wasting mobile traffic.
After setting the settings, click the Create button to start the immediate process. The download speed will depend on the amount of data accumulated and the speed of your Internet connection. In the process, you can turn off the application, but it is not recommended to close it completely or lock the screen for a long time, as some versions of MIUI can aggressively save energy by stopping background processes.
Local backup to a memory card or phone memory
Not all users trust cloud storage or have limited space on Google Drive. In such cases, creating a local copy is a great solution. WhatsApp defaults to save daily backups in the device's internal memory, but they can be manually transferred to a safe place or to an external drive.
Backup files are in the hidden file system folder. The path to them can vary depending on the version of Android. On modern Xiaomi smartphones with Android 11 and above, use the file manager to navigate along the path: Android/media/com.whatsapp/WhatsApp/Databases. On older models, the folder can be located at the root of internal memory along the WhatsApp/Databases path.
☑️ Checking before hand-held backup
The files are msgstore-DATE.1.db.crypt14, where the numbers represent the encryption version and the date is the day of creation. The most recent file is usually simply called msgstore.db.crypt14. You can copy this file to your computer, external hard drive, or send it to a secure storage facility.
| File name | Description | Action. |
|---|---|---|
| msgstore.db.crypt14 | Current active database | Copy for quick recovery |
| msgstore-2023-10-25.1.db.crypt14 | Archive for a specific date | Keep it as a historical archive |
| wa.db | Contact and settings database | Keep it separate |
To automate the process on Xiaomi phones, you can use the built-in Explorer app or third-party folder sync utilities. Configure the task so that the contents of the Databases folder are regularly copied to the SD card or to the Mi Drive folder if you use the Xiaomi ecosystem.
⚠️ Note: When you manually copy encryption files, the keys remain on the device. If you lose your phone and don't save the encryption keys separately, you won't be able to recover the correspondence from the copied file on another device.
Using Mi Mover to Transfer Data Between Xiaomi
If your goal is not just to save data, but to transfer it to a new Xiaomi, Redmi or POCO smartphone, the best tool will be the proprietary Mi Mover utility. This application is pre-installed on all devices of the brand and allows you to transfer data over a high-speed Wi-Fi channel without using the Internet.
Run Mi Mover on both devices. On the old phone, select the role of "Sender" and on the new one, "Receiver." QR-Go to the data selection section, where it is important to choose the right categories to transfer not only the messenger itself, but also its data.