Mi Home: How to add Xiaomi user and manage access

Xiaomi’s ecosystem has long outgrown the smartphone to become a full-fledged home management center, where every gadget requires fine-tuning. When a new smart device comes into the home, whether it’s a robot vacuum cleaner, an air purifier, or a smart lamp, the first question is how to provide access to management to other family members. Mi Home offers a flexible profile system to avoid constant re-linking of accounts and loss of usage statistics.

Adding a new member to a smart home network may seem simple at first, but there are many nuances that affect the stability of the entire system. Incorrectly issued access rights can lead to households being unable to start cleaning or change the temperature of the air conditioner at the right time. In this guide, we will detail the access architecture, device sharing methods and typical problems that users face when setting up a family account.

It's important to understand that the centerpiece of this design is your primary Mi Account, which is the administrator, and that's where you go, including choosing the server region, which is critical to the application's performance. The region of the owner's account and the user you add must match, otherwise the devices won't show up on the sharing list, and ignoring this rule is the most common reason for failure when trying to create a unified management network.

Account preparation and region selection

Before you start adding a user directly, you need to make sure that both smartphones are prepared correctly, not only for installing the latest version of the Mi Home app from the official store, but also for setting the system parameters of the phone itself. Often users forget that geolocation must be enabled constantly, since the application uses it to find devices and confirm the location of the owner.

The key is server choice: in the Mi Home app, the region is selected in the user profile, and this choice determines which physical server your device data will be stored on. If you bought equipment intended for the Chinese market but registered on a European server, the functionality may be limited, and adding users from other regions will become impossible.

• 🌍 Make sure that the same region is selected in the profile of both users (for example, Russia or China).
• 📱 Update the Mi Home app to the latest available version via Google Play or App Store.
• 📍 Enable geolocation services and give the app permission to access the location “Always».
• 🔐 Sign in to your Mi Account and make sure that two-factor authentication is active for security.

It's worth noting that changing the region of an app can cause previously added devices to disappear if they were tied to another server, so regional configuration is best done at the initial installation stage of the app, before buying and connecting the first gadgets, and if you need to change, you have to remove the devices and re-attach them, which takes time.

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If you plan to use devices purchased in China, create a separate account with the China region and use a second profile on your phone or a second smartphone to manage them so as not to mix ecosystems.

Instructions: How to add a family member through sharing

The most common and secure way to provide access to devices is sharing, which allows the device owner (administrator) to send an invitation to another user, who will receive management rights after acceptance, which does not require passwords from the account and saves the separation of personal data, which is especially important for security.

To start the process, open the Mi Home app and go to the Profile tab. In the list of found devices or in the "My devices" section, select the specific gadget you want to provide access to. In the upper right corner of the device settings screen, click on the three dots or settings icon to open the additional menu.

In the menu that opens, find General Settings or Access to Device (the name may vary depending on the translation version). Click Add User or Share. ID Mi Account (this can be the phone number or email to which the account is registered) or scan QR-code that the second user must generate in their profile.

Once the data is entered, the system will send a notification to the host device, and the user must open the application, go to the message or sharing section and click "Accept." From that point on, the device will appear on its list and it will be able to manage it within the scope of the authority you have granted.

⚠️ Note: When sharing a device through the global Family menu, rights may be distributed automatically, but when sharing a particular device (for example, a camera), the owner must explicitly confirm the transfer of rights, otherwise the invitation will remain in the Waiting status».

Creating and Setup a Family Group

For those with more than a dozen devices, managing access through a customized sharing of each gadget can be tedious, and in such cases Xiaomi offers the creation of a “Home Management” — a virtual group where all devices are added and then users connect to this group — a centralized approach that makes it easier to administer.

To start a family, go to the app profile and find the "Management of the House" or "Family" section, click the "Creating a New Family" button and give it a clear name, such as "Apartment on Lenin" or "Home," and once you're created, you'll become the owner of that family and be able to add devices from your list to it.

Adding users to a family is similar to sharing, but with broader implications: You send an invitation to an email or phone, and once accepted, the user has access to all the devices you put in that Family, which is convenient for situations where you need to quickly provide access to guests or temporary residents, and then just as quickly withdraw it.

• 🏠 Create a separate “family” for each physical space if you have a complex smart home structure.
• 👥 Add users to a group, not to each device separately, to save time.
• 🔒 Periodically check the list of family members and remove those who no longer need access.
• 📱 Use desktop widgets to quickly switch between different Families if there are more than one.

It is a powerful control tool that allows you to instantly respond to changes in the composition of residents or loss of trust in a particular network participant.

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Grouping devices in the "Family" is the only way to massively manage access rights without affecting the settings of each gadget separately.

Differences of access rights: Administrator and User

The Mi Home security system clearly delineates roles. The device owner (Administrator) has full control: he can delete the device, reset its settings, update the firmware and, most importantly, manage the list of those who are given access. The average user who received the device through sharing has a limited set of functions.

A user with sharing rights can usually turn the device on and off, change operating modes (such as vacuum suction power or lamp color), but cannot remove the device from the network or change its name. In the case of CCTV cameras, the rights can be even more detailed: some models allow the owner to prohibit guests from viewing the archive or using two-way communication.

The table below shows the key differences in capabilities between the owner and the guest user:

It’s worth considering that some complex automation scenarios tied to the owner’s geolocation (such as “turn on the lights when I walk up to the house”) won’t work for invited users, since their phone isn’t the “owner” of the device.

Common mistakes and ways to solve them

Despite the fact that processes are fine, users often encounter technical problems when adding members. The most common error is “Device not found” or “Invitation failed.” 90% of the time, this is due to desynchronization of server regions. Check again: if the device is on the server “Russia”, and the second user is logged in to “Singapore”, the sharing will not work.

Another common problem is that one device does not have internet access during setup, and both clients need to confirm the transfer of rights to the Xiaomi server, and if the host has a weak signal or ports are blocked (as is the case with corporate Wi-Fi or some providers), the data packet will not reach the destination.

You should also pay attention to the app version. Older versions of Mi Home may not support the new encryption protocols used to transfer access rights. If you haven't updated the app for a long time, the process can end up with an error without a clear message.

• 🔄 Try logging out and logging in again on both devices to update authorization tokens.
• 📶 Switch one of the smartphones to the mobile Internet (4G/5G), eliminating possible limitations of the Wi-Fi router.
• 🗑️ If the device was already in the sharing and there are problems, delete the user and invite again.
• 📲 Make sure that the receiving phone has the current date and time, the errors in which break. SSL-linkage.

⚠️ Note: If you change your Mi Account password, all active sessions and sharing may temporarily stop working before you re-authorize.Don't panic, just double-check accesses after you change your credentials.

Security and removal of access

Security in a smart home is particularly important, especially when it comes to security cameras and smart locks.You should always monitor who has access to your devices. Regularly auditing your user list is a good habit to avoid data leakage or unauthorized interference with the work of household appliances.

To delete a user, you don't need their consent. Go to your device settings or Family management, find a list of members, and select the right person. Click "Delete" or "Revoke Access." The device will instantly disappear from its Mi Home app, and they will lose the ability to control it.

In case of loss of a phone or compromise of an account of one of the family members, first of all change the password from Mi Account and forcibly terminate all sessions in the security settings of the account. After that, be sure to audit all sharings, as the attacker could have time to create backup copies of access.

Remember that removing a device from an app doesn’t always mean completely resetting it. If you’re selling an apartment or transferring the device to a new owner, you’ll need to perform a physical reset on the gadget itself, usually holding the power button or button combination for 5-10 seconds until the indicator blinks.

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The security of a smart home depends not only on passwords, but also on the timely revocation of access rights from former users and guests.