How to change system sounds on Xiaomi smartphones: 5 proven ways

The standard ringtone and notification melodies on Xiaomi are quick to get boring — especially if you’ve been using a smartphone for several years. Fortunately, the MIUI shell allows you to flexibly customize the sound, from changing ringtone to installing customized tunes for individual contacts. But not all users know that in addition to basic settings, there are hidden features and third-party tools for deep customization.

In this article, we’ll look at all the current ways to change system sounds on Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO, from official methods to advanced tricks with ADB and file system. You’ll learn how to get around the limitations of MIUI, where to download quality ringtones, and why some sounds don’t change through the standard menu. Instructions are checked on the latest firmware (including HyperOS) and are suitable for models from Mi 11 to Xiaomi 14 Ultra.

1. Standard sound replacement via MIUI settings

The easiest way is to use built-in shell tools, which do not require superuser rights and works on all Xiaomi devices regardless of the Android version, but it has a limitation: you can only select the sounds that are already uploaded to the system.

To change the basic system sounds:

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Go to the section Sound and vibration.
3. Select a category: 🔔 The call is the melody of an incoming call 📳 Notifications - sound for SMS, messengers and other notifications ⏰ Alarm clock - wake-up signal

Click on the current sound and select another from the list.

If you don't have the right tune on the list, you can add your own.

1. Download the audio file in.mp3,.m4a or.ogg format (maximum duration – 30 seconds).
2. Place the file in the Ringtones (for calls), Notifications (for notifications) or Alarms (for alarms) folder on the internal drive.
3. Update the sound list in the settings – your file will appear at the end of the list.

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For convenience, create folders with the names Ringtones, Notifications and Alarms manually on internal memory – MIUI automatically recognizes them as storage for custom sounds.

⚠️ Attention: MIUI It does not support.wav or 320 kbps or bitrate sounds. If the file does not appear in the settings, convert it through online services like Audio-Converter.

2. Set up sounds for individual contacts

MIUI allows you to assign unique call melodies to specific subscribers, which is convenient if you want to know who is calling without looking at the screen, and works for SMS notifications as well, but only if you use the standard Message app.

Instructions for setting:

1. Open the Contacts app.
2. Select the contact you want and click Change (pencil icon).
3. Tap on the Default Call (or Notice for SMS).
4. Select a tune from the list or add your own as described in the previous section.

Once a month

Six months

Only when buying a new phone

Never changed.-->

3. Hidden MIUI sounds: how to find and activate

Xiaomi’s firmware has more than 50 additional sounds hidden that don’t appear in the standard menu, including tunes from older versions of MIUI, sounds for service notifications, and even some ringtones from Google Pixel, which you need to temporarily change the region of the system to see.

Step-by-step:

1. Open the Settings. → Additionally. → Region.
2. Choose India (or Indonesia, which has more hidden sounds).
3. Reboot your smartphone.
4. Return to Settings → Sound and vibration – now new tunes marked (MIUI) will appear in the list.

Once you've selected the right sound, you can return the original region, and the list of hidden tunes depends on the firmware version, and here are some of the ones that are in all versions of MIUI:

⚠️ Note: When you change region, some features (such as Mi Pay or Theme Store) may become temporarily unavailable.

4. Third-party applications for deep customization

If the built-in MIUI capabilities are not enough, you can use specialized utilities that allow you to:

• 🎵 Install dynamic ringtones (changing depending on the time of day).
• 🔕 Assign different sounds to notifications from specific apps (e.g., a separate signal for WhatsApp and Telegram).
• 📁 Import sounds directly from cloud services (Google Drive, Dropbox).

The best apps for Xiaomi:

To set sounds through Zedge:

1. Download and install the app.
2. In the search bar, enter a query (for example, lofi ringtone).
3. Choose the sound you like and click Set as → Phone ringtone (or another type).
4. Confirm the replacement in the system window.

Download the application from the official source (Google Play)

Check reviews and rating (not lower than 4.0)

Backup of current sounds (optional)

Clear the cache of the Settings application after installation-->

Important: Some apps (e.g., Notification History) require permission to access notifications. Without that, they won’t be able to change the sounds for messengers. To issue permission, go to Settings → Applications → Special Access → Access to notifications.

5. Advanced methods: ADB and manual file editing

If you're willing to go beyond standard settings, you can replace system sounds at the file system level, a method that requires an unlocked bootloader and root rights (or temporary access via ADB), suitable for power users, as incorrect actions can lead to crashes.

The MIUI system sounds list is stored along the way:

/system/media/audio/


├── alarms/ #Alarms




├── notifications/ # Notifications




├── ringtones/ # Calls




└── ui/ # System sounds (unlock, charge, etc.)

To replace the sound with ADB:

1. Connect your smartphone to your PC and activate Debugging over USB (Settings → About Phone → MIUI Version → 7 times tap to unlock Developer Settings).
2. Download ADB Tools and unpack it on PC.
3. Open the command line in the folder with ADB Adb devices adb shell su mount -o rw,remount /system cp /sdcard/Download/my_ringtone.mp3 /system/media/audio/ringtones/ chmod 644 /system/media/audio/ringtones/my_ringtone.mp3 reboot

⚠️ Note: Replace files in /system can lead to bootloop if: The file is incorrect format or bitrate. 644 The file name contains Cyrillic or special characters. Before experimenting, back up the original sounds with the adb pull command. /system/media/audio/ ~/backup_audio.

6. Restoration of standard sounds

If you want to return the original tunes after the experiments, you can do this in two ways:

Method 1: Resetting the sound settings

1. Go to Settings. → Sound and vibration.
2. Slip on three points in the upper right corner → Reset settings.
3. Confirm the action - all sounds will return to the factory.

Method 2: Manual recovery of system files (if the sounds have been deleted)

1. Download stock firmware for your Xiaomi model.
2. Remove the system.img file from the archive and mount it via DiskInternals Linux Reader (Windows) or loop-device (Linux).
3. Copy the original sounds from /system/media/audio/ back to your smartphone (with 644).

If you used ADB to replace sounds but didn’t backup, you can download the original files from the MIUI repository:

• 🔗 Official kernel source (folder) media/audio).
• 🔗 Topics on XDA-Developers (search by smartphone model).

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Before any manipulation of system files, check their integrity. For example, the standard alarm sound in MIUI should be exactly 234 KB (for Mi 13) or 189 KB (for Redmi Note 12).

FAQ: Frequent questions about replacing sounds with Xiaomi