How to view blocked messages on Xiaomi: 5 proven ways

Have you accidentally blocked an important message in MIUI or disappeared from the chat after the update? Xiaomi smartphones (including Redmi, POCO and Black Shark) have several SMS filtering mechanisms and notifications that can hide content from the user. Unlike iPhone, where blocking messages is implemented through iCloud, in MIUI this process is controlled at the system and individual application level.

In this article, we will discuss all the current ways to view blocked messages, from the standard Security features to the hidden capabilities of MIUI 14/15. It is important to understand that some messages can not only be hidden, but completely deleted by the system after 30 days of storage in the archive (this applies to SMS blocked as spam).

If you use Google Messages instead of the standard Messages app from Xiaomi, the blocking algorithms will be different, as we will discuss below, and for owners of devices with HyperOS (the new firmware from Xiaomi), a separate section has been added, taking into account changes in the interface.

1. Check the spam archive in the standard Messages app

The most obvious way is to search in the Spam folder, which is automatically created in the Messages app on all Xiaomi smartphones, but many users do not know that this folder can be hidden if there are no new messages in it.

To find her:

• 📱 Open the Messages app (Icon with envelope).
• 🔍 In the top search bar, enter the spam request (without quotes) or scroll down to the Category section.
• 🗑️ Click on the Spam folder – this is where all messages that the system or user has marked as unwanted are stored.
• ⏳ If the folder is empty, try changing the filter by date (tap on three dots in the upper right corner). → Filter).

Important: Spam messages are automatically deleted after 30 days, and if more than a month has passed, you can't restore them through standard means, you will need methods from the following sections.

💡

If you don’t see the Spam folder, update the Messages app via Google Play, which may not be available in older versions (before 2023).

2. Recovery through Security (for MIUI 12-15)

MIUI firmware has a built-in Security tool that not only blocks calls, but also filters SMS messages. If a message was blocked through this module, it can be returned:

1. Go to Settings → Applications → Application Management → Security.
2. Select the Lock section (or the Blacklist in older versions).
3. Slip on the Messages tab - all blocked SMS are displayed here.
4. To unlock the message, click on it and select Allow.

If the list does not contain the desired message, check the filtering settings:

• 🔄 In the same Security section, go to Lock Settings.
• 📊 Make sure the option Show blocked messages is enabled.
• 🔍 If the option is disabled, the system can automatically remove spam without notifications.

3. Use of Google Messages (for GMS users)

If you use Google Messages instead of the standard Xiaomi app, the blocking algorithm is different, where spam is filtered through Google services, and you can only recover messages via the web version:

1. Open your browser on your PC or phone and go to messages.google.com.
2. Sign in with the same Google account as you do on your smartphone.
3. On the left menu, select Spam and blocked.
4. Find the desired message and click Unblock.

Restriction: Google Messages only stores spam messages for 7 days (versus 30 days in the standard Xiaomi app) and then deletes them without recovery.

4. Search through the file system (for power users)

All SMS on Android (including Xiaomi) is stored in the database mmsms.db, which is located on the path:

/data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db

To access it, root rights or ADB-Without them, you can't view the base because of the limitations. MIUI. If root access is available, follow the instructions:

1. Install any file manager with root support (such as Root Explorer).
2. Click the path above and copy the mmssms.db file to your PC.
3. Open it with a SQLite program (e.g. DB Browser for SQLite).
4. In the sms table, find the type column – messages with a value of 5 or 6 are usually blocked.

⚠️ Attention: do not edit the database directly without a backup! errors in mmssms.db can lead to the loss of all messages on the device, SMS Backup & Restore).

Make a backup of all messages through SMS Backup & Restore|Install ADB-drivers for Xiaomi|Download SQLite-editor on PC|Check for root rights (if required)|Disable antivirus while working with the database-->

5. Features for HyperOS (new models 2026)

In HyperOS (the firmware that replaced MIUI in 2026), the logic of blocking messages has changed, and now they are stored in a separate Privacy section, and you can access them like this:

1. Open Settings → Privacy → Privacy Protection.
2. Select Message Blocking.
3. Enter your password or confirm with a fingerprint.
4. In the list, find the desired message and tap Unblock.

HyperOS also introduced Hidden Notifications, which can mask the arrival of new SMS messages to disable it:

• 🔔 Go to Settings. → Notifications → Additional settings.
• 👁️ Turn off the option to hide the contents of notifications.
• 📵 Check the Notification Blacklist section – notifications from the Messages app may be blocked here.

⚠️ Note: in HyperOS, when you reset your settings to factory, all blocked messages are deleted without recovery, even if they were stored in the archive. → The phone. → Backup.

6.Alternative methods: backups and third-party utilities

If the standard methods do not help, there are two options:

1. Backup recovery: If you have previously backed up your data via Mi Cloud or Google Drive, try recovering your data: 📱 Go to Settings. → The phone. → Backup. 🔄 Select the last copy created before the messages go missing. ⚙️ Make sure that the item of the message is marked.

Third-party utilities.

SMS Backup & Restore

Droid Explorer

Droid Explorer requires:

1. Enable USB debugging (Settings → About Phone → MIUI Version → 7 times tap on version number → return to Additional Settings → For developers → Debugging by USB).


2 Connect the phone to a PC and start Droid Explorer.




3. Go to /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/ and scan the mmssms.db file.

Importantly, free versions of these utilities often have limits on the number of messages that can be recovered, for example, in SMS Backup & Restore, without a premium subscription, you can export no more than 50 SMS at a time.

💡

If messages were deleted more than 30 days ago, their recovery is unlikely - MIUI physically clears the memory of old data, in which case only a backup created in advance will help.

Comparison of recovery methods

FAQ: Frequent questions about blocked posts on Xiaomi