How to change notification sound on Xiaomi Redmi: 5 ways to MIUI 12-14

The standard notification sounds on Xiaomi Redmi are boring quickly — especially if you’ve been using your smartphone for years. Fortunately, MIUI offers flexible audio settings that allow you to personalize tunes for SMS, messengers and system alerts. But not everyone knows that in addition to built-in options, you can set custom sounds from files or even record your own.

In this article, we will discuss all the current ways to change the sound of notifications, from basic MIUI settings to advanced methods using themes and third-party utilities. We will pay special attention to the nuances for different versions of firmware (MIUI 12, 13, 14) and Redmi models (including Redmi Note 10/11/12, Redmi 9/10 and flagship series).

🔹 Important: Instructions in the article are relevant for Xiaomi smartphones based MIUI 12 and newer. On older versions (MIUI 11 and below: some menu items may differ.

1. Standard method: change through MIUI settings

The easiest method is to use the built-in MIUI tools, which are suitable for most Redmi models and do not require additional applications.

Open the Settings app and go to the Sounds and Vibrations section, and here you'll see a few categories:

• 🔔 The sound of notifications is the main melody for all alerts
• 📱 The sound of the call is the melody of the incoming call
• ⚡ The sound of the alarm clock – a signal for timers and reminders

We're interested in the first item. You tap it, and you'll be taken to the MIUI sound library.

• 🎵 Standard tunes (about 20 variations)
• 🎧 Sounds from established topics (if you downloaded themes from the Topic)
• 📁 Local files (if you have added your sounds to the Ringtones folder)

Choose your favorite option and click OK. Changes apply immediately - check by running a test notification (for example, via Settings → About Phone → MIUI version, tap 5 times in a row).

💡

If the list doesn’t have a suitable tune, try downloading free notification sounds from the Zedge app (available on Google Play), which automatically adds files to the Notifications system folder.

2. Installation of custom sounds through the file system

If you don't like the built-in tunes, you can upload your own sounds.

1. File in.mp3,.ogg or.wav format (up to 30 seconds, up to 1 MB in size).
2. File Manager (e.g., embedded Explorer or Solid Explorer)

Instructions for addition:

1. Connect your smartphone to your PC or download the sound directly to your phone.
2. Move the file to one of the system folders: 📂 /storage/emulated/0/Ringtones/ — call-in 📂 /storage/emulated/0/Notifications/ — notice-in 📂 /storage/emulated/0/Alarms/ — alarm-box

Reboot your phone (optional, but sometimes helps to update the sound list).

Settings → Sounds and vibrations → Sound of notifications

Note: Some Redmi models (e.g. Redmi Note 10 Pro) may not have Ringtones/Notifications folders, in which case you can manually create them through the file manager.

⚠️ Note: Not all audio formats are supported MIUI. If your file doesn’t appear in the list, convert it to.ogg with a bit rate of 128 kbps through online services (e.g. Online-Convert).

3. Use MIUI themes to change sounds

One of the little-known ways is to install themes from the official Topics store, and many themes include unique notification sounds that you can't find in the standard set.

Steps to Change Sound Through Themes:

1. Open the Themes app (icon with brush).
2. Go to the Sounds section (the tab at the bottom of the screen).
3. Select your favorite theme and click Apply.
4. Back to Settings → Sounds and vibrations – new sounds will appear on the list.

4. Separate sound settings for applications

MIUI allows you to assign individual sounds to each application, which is convenient if you want to distinguish notifications from WhatsApp and Telegram, or highlight important alerts (for example, from a banking application).

How to set up:

1. Go to Settings → Applications → Application Management.
2. Select the application you want (for example, Viber).
3. Tap Notifications. → Categories of notifications.
4. Turn on the Sound switch and select the melody from the list.

Limitations of the method:

• ❌ Not all apps support custom sounds (depends on developer).
• 🔕 Some messengers (for example, VK) Ignore system settings and use their sounds.

Tip: For Telegram and WhatsApp, notification sounds are customized directly in the apps themselves:

• 📌 Telegram: Settings → Notifications and sounds → The sound of notifications.
• 📌 WhatsApp: ⋮ → Settings → Notifications → The sound of the notification.

5. Advanced Methods: ADB and Third Party Applications

If you want advanced audio customization capabilities (like dynamic tune change or.flac format support), you'll need to use third-party tools. Let's look at two proven ways.

Method 1: Appendix Ringtone Maker

Method 2: ADB commands (for power users)

If you want to replace system sounds (such as lock or charge sound), you will need access via ADB. Here is the basic instruction:

1. Turn on USB Debugging in Settings → About Phone → MIUI version (shap 7 times, then go back to Additional Settings → For Developers).
2. Connect your phone to your PC and execute the command: adb pull /system/media/audio/notifications/ to download standard sounds.
3. Replace your files with your own (with the same names!) and download back: adb push your file.ogg /system/media/audio/notifications/
4. Reboot the phone.

⚠️ Note: Modifying system files through ADB You can crash your firmware. Before you experiment, back up through Settings. → Additionally. → Backup and reset: On models with a locked bootloader (Redmi Note 11 and later), this method may not work.

Frequent problems and their solutions

When you change the notification sounds, Xiaomi Redmi users encounter common errors, and let's look at the most common ones and how to fix them.

Problem 1: Added a file to Notifications, but it doesn’t show up in the settings.

• 🔹 Check the file format (should be.mp3,.ogg or wav).
• 🔹 Make sure the file does not contain any special characters in the name (e.g. sound#1.mp3 → rename sound_1.mp3).
• 🔹 Restart your phone - sometimes MIUI Does not update the list of sounds in real time.

Problem 2: Notifications are reset after the MIUI update.

• 🔹 This is a well-known firmware bug. Solution: once you update, re-apply your theme or reassign the sound manually.
• 🔹 If you use custom files, check if the system has deleted the Notifications folder.

Problem 3: Some apps (like Instagram) don’t change the sound.

• 🔹 Some apps ignore system settings. Try to tune the sound directly into the app itself.
• 🔹 For Facebook Messenger and Slack, notification sounds are customized in the web version of the account.

💡

If after all the manipulations, the sound of the notifications has not changed, check whether the phone is worth it in the Do Not Disturb mode (Settings → Sounds and vibrations → Do Not Disturb).

FAQ: Answers to popular questions