Quick start guide, tips and tricks for Xiaomi Redmi phone

Last update date: March 15, 2014

Welcome to your new Redmi phone. If this is your first time owning a Xiaomi phone, here are the articles to help you learn about the basic features of the Redmi and answer some FAQs.

You’ll also find some tips for advanced features.

Quick Start Guide

Basic

Contacts and Communication

Media and Entertainment

Web and Network

Apps

[More links will be added here in the coming days]

Comments

shanmuganathan.s says
March 14, 2015 at 5:10 pm
irecharge 3g airtel netcard but do not work 3g net work only indicate 2g simple my place also 3g full net work covarage area whatdoing my redmi1s phone settigngs
- Ethan says
  March 18, 2015 at 10:32 am
  1. Make sure you have SIM card slotted into the 1st slot.
  2. Go to the phone’s Settings menu > Mobile networks > Preferred network type and set it to Prefer 3G networks.
Akash says
September 10, 2014 at 12:24 pm
My battery back up is less than 1 day ..how can i increase it.. some tips for saving battery
- vidya says
  September 10, 2014 at 6:15 pm
  I just bought a Redmi phone yesterday through Flipkart and am unable to send SMSs. I can make calls and receive messages but I am not able to send any message. Can you pls advise on how to fix this?
Sudip says
September 9, 2014 at 1:03 pm
Excellent tutorial Ethan… extremely helpful.
Vikas says
September 9, 2014 at 11:00 am
I just purchased Redmi 1s. Will it work for my CDMA sim(Tata) in india?
- Ethan says
  September 10, 2014 at 9:38 am
  Sorry Vikas, I’ve no idea about Tata carrier in India. Best check with them, show them your phone specifications which you can get it easily online.
Akash says
September 9, 2014 at 9:20 am
Thnxx Ethan For This Tutorial….Appreciate Ur Help
Renaldy says
September 8, 2014 at 1:21 pm
Hi Ethan,
I need ur help
I just bought this redmi 1S 3 days ago and start to installing all apps I needed like Facebook,bbm,instagram,twitter,whatsapp and Line
But there is a problem, some apps is so slow , and i Check in Apps ~> Running and i found that BBM, Whatsapp,Facebook, is always restarting, I check my RAM is about 120MB++ Free
so I close Facebook, but still had this problem.
so if I open another apps like playstore,twitter,instagram or whatsapp there must another apps will restarting and cause the notification not come.
Like for example, my BBM is connected and I open Whatsapp or twitter. And voila my BBM ICON in notification tray is missing so (BBM is Restarting) I no use another launcher or themes. I’m so desperate now, please help me
btw, I’m from Indonesian sorry if my english not good 🙁
- Ethan says
  September 10, 2014 at 9:13 am
  I guess you meant slow notification here rather than the app slow. Correct me if I’m wrong. Slow notification is kind of known issue with MIUI rom. You can check out the MIUI forum for more information. Read this thread. One user suggested the following:
  1.open Security
  2.go to Permission
  3.auto start management
  4.add such apps on which you need push notifications.
Kenny says
September 4, 2014 at 9:43 am
Hello,
Am using the Redmi and it is working fine till recently, I can’t use the camera function. It displays an error message ‘Connected as USB’ and I can’t take any photos with it.
Appreciate any help on this.
Thank you.
- Ethan says
  September 6, 2014 at 6:15 pm
  Your issue seems a bit unique. Sorry, I can’t advise you further. It’s better you report this issue in MIUI forum.
JT says
September 3, 2014 at 9:21 am
I forgot my password on my redmi note, when i click on the forgot password button and enter the password, it shows invalid username and password entered but i can login to my xiaomi account in website using the same password, am I missing some steps?
- Ethan says
  September 4, 2014 at 1:08 pm
  As far as I know and I’ve tried, when you’ve Google account signed in, it will prompt you to login Google account, else only Xiaomi account. And your phone need Internet access for such password recovery. Read this.
Jagroop Singh says
September 1, 2014 at 6:34 pm
Hi Ethan,
I bought Xiaomi MI3 and the phone is very nice. I switched from LG-P690 and still love my small LG phone because flawless service that it provided my for 2.5 years. The MI3 is far superior than LG but there are few issues with it such as Problem with GMAIL auto sync. It sometimes show notification of email receipt and most of the times not. Please let me know how to resolve this problem. Secondly I cannot install regional fonts in it. Your inputs will be really helpful.
- Ethan says
  September 4, 2014 at 12:56 pm
  The notification isssue is a known bug that many have reported in the MIUI forum. You can search the forum and read up more on that. Sorry, I don’t get what you mean by regional fonts. This is the method I know when it comes to changing font on Xiaomi phone.
Tee says
August 31, 2014 at 7:27 am
i save a name in phone contact list. When i sent out sms, can see the name. But, when friend return sms, i cannot see the name, only can see the contact number +60xxxxxxxxx
- Ethan says
  September 2, 2014 at 5:43 pm
  It seems like a bug to me that Xiaomi hasn’t resolved. If the incoming calls or messages show prefixes, it’s better you save them with prefixes in the Contacts. Instead of adding prefix one by one, you can use the Number Fixer app to help you to do that in batch.
  - Tee says
    September 3, 2014 at 6:03 pm
    Do you notice that vibration for Redmi note is very weak…Even i set the vibration mode to “strong”, it still weak..some time i put in silent mode & keep inside my pocket, i can’t feel the vibration..Any method to improve the vibration?
Evan says
August 31, 2014 at 4:46 am
Hi, I need your help. My mum is using Redmi From Singapore. She told me her 1GB data plan drained very fast. I checked the data usage, mainly from FB and System Apps. I disabled the auto system update which drained about 200MB. I had stopped the photo sync as well. I thought this would help. When it connected to my computer shared WiFi, It is still draining the quota (I connect my lappy to my phone). I couldn’t find the root cause behind it, Is there anything I can check on or change the setting?
Another question: The phone default its camera photo saving to SD Card, which I do not know how. Now, the SD card is full, I do not know where to change the default to save in internal memory.
Thanks in advance.
- Ethan says
  September 1, 2014 at 10:18 am
  Here are some suggestions, (it may not be a complete list), use those that applicable to you.
  1. Update the phone to the latest firmware for stability and bug fixes.
  2. Make sure her phone is connected to home wifi for Internet when she’s not out.
  3. Go to the Security app > Data usage > Restrict to “untick” those apps that don’t need mobile data usage in the Data column.
  3. This user reported that after he has logout from Xiaomi, the data usage reduced significantly. You may want to do that if she doesn’t need to backup her stuff to Mi Cloud. Of course, you can remain sign in, but turn off those items that don’t need to sync with Mi Cloud or set them to sync only on Wi-Fi.
  4. You can go to the Settings app > General settings > Sync and turn on Wi-Fi only to allow account sync only when it’s connected to Wi-Fi. Of course, the risk is that you’ll not get the latest emails and stuff when the accounts are not syncing.
  5. Teach her how to toggle Data usage on/off on notification panel. Turn off when it’s not necessary.
  Currently, there isn’t an option in the Settings which allows users to decide whether to save the photos in SD or phone storage. If memory is full, I guess you can explore the following options:
  1. Reduce the size of the photos in the Camera settings.
  2. Copy/Backup the existing photos to somewhere else to free up some space.
  3. Use a bigger SD card. The max is 32GB.
  - dyana says
    September 4, 2014 at 4:03 am
    hi, i just bought redmi a week ago n my main concern is how to reduce mobile data usage.. i have done the 1,2,3,4,5 step above but i still facing some problems.. i have restricted data usage in security>data usage but i notice that the restriction didn’t always work… my apps like playstore, facebook, twitter n happy street(game apps) will be automatically refresh n updates (sometimes) even after restiction… eventhough this problems only occure sometimes but it cost me hundreds mb of data usage… 🙁 is this normal or there is something wrong with my phone…
    - Ethan says
      September 6, 2014 at 4:01 pm
      This could be a bug or something, I’m not too sure to be honest. It’s better you report this in the MIUI forum to acknowledge the moderator and also the developer.
Kasinath says
August 29, 2014 at 11:17 am
Hi Ethan,
My friend bought this mobile . i am wondering how to open the recent apps when i click the home button …. it just ask me to clean the recent apps …. i cant able to open.
- Ethan says
  August 31, 2014 at 3:31 pm
  By default, you can long tap the Menu button (next to the Home button), to open up the recent apps tray. Then flick left/right to find the recently opened app that you want to access.
  If long tapping Menu button doesn’t work, go to the Settings app > Buttons to check if the Menu option is set to do something else.
  Also, I hope this tutorial helps.
Jackson says
August 27, 2014 at 8:59 am
Hi there, I bought my Xiaomi Redmi 1s and want to use it in Toronto, the guy in Bell Canade told I cannot use Redmi 1s in
Toronto because the frequency that Bell use is not the same as Redmi 1s , is that sure? what can I do ?
- Ethan says
  August 29, 2014 at 8:17 am
  According to Wikipedia, both the CDMA and HSPA+ networks in Bell Canada uses the 850 and 1900 MHz frequencies. And if you’re having the Global version of Redmi 1S, its specifications should be like this:
  (2G) GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
  (3G) WCDMA 900/2100 MHz
  In that case, your Redmi 1S can only supports max. 2G network. Same problem with this user facing with Roger. Read this thread.
Koustubh says
August 22, 2014 at 1:28 pm
Hello,
I am using MI3 mobile, facing problem with Sync for Gmail, not able to find the option for sync schedule like in other mobiles synch – Auto – 5 – 10 min.
Can you please help with the same, Thanks
- Ethan says
  August 25, 2014 at 3:14 am
  I don’t think Gmail app has that setting… Gmail is “pushed”… it notifies and pushes new emails to our right away.
kris says
August 21, 2014 at 2:44 am
my gps doesn’t seem to function properly. Google Maps is able to detect my location and show the route to my destination, but it is unable to navigate to the destination.
appreciate some advice.
thanks
- Ethan says
  August 22, 2014 at 8:08 am
  Personally, I haven’t been using the GPS and Google map very much. But, I did see quite a few complaints about GPS not functioning properly in the official MIUI forum. Maybe you can find some suggestions over there.
Tan Chor Seng says
August 20, 2014 at 7:12 am
My xiaomi redmi away come out ( Security Warning Whatsapp is trying to read your contact list) ?
- Ethan says
  August 22, 2014 at 7:48 am
  I hope this helps.
Beatrix says
August 18, 2014 at 10:28 am
I got the redmi phone last Friday , I have been trying to play with it.
However there is one small problem occur , I tried taking pictures with phone camera but I am not able to retrieve any pictures , it just show no images.
How do u resolve this problem?
- Ethan says
  August 20, 2014 at 9:01 am
  Sorry to hear that, I don’t have such a problem with my Redmi (touch wood). Maybe, you can try reboot your phone and test it again or install the Google Camera app to see if you get the similar problem. If yes, report this problem on the official MIUI forum.
  - Marilyn says
    August 29, 2014 at 7:00 am
    try go to gallery, local images, tap on menu (right top), DCIM, Camera. Photos should be there. My problem is how to retrieve these photos from this location back to Gallery ‘Camera Roll’. All photos taken went to this folder after I did a power off and on again. Anyone can help on this?? Thanks.
    - Ethan says
      August 31, 2014 at 3:10 pm
      That should be the folder to save photos taken by the Camera app. And they will show up in Gallery ‘Camera Roll’ as well automatically. I don’t see any settings for this. Try update your firmware to the latest version
Papbear says
August 16, 2014 at 9:59 am
When I connect Redmi 1S to computer via USB it shows as read-only CD-ROM drive…cannot copy any files….can help Ethan? Thanks
- Ethan says
  August 17, 2014 at 5:06 pm
  http://en.miui.com/thread-35167-1-1.html
Badri says
August 16, 2014 at 4:19 am
Urgent; installed popular clip never give up Theme on my mobile. Unable to find how to unlock my screen 🙁 reset not working in this theme. Please help.
- Ethan says
  August 16, 2014 at 4:51 pm
  Sorry Badri, I don’t quite understand what’s your problem. Do seek help in the official MIUI forum regarding your issue. Do tell them what theme you’ve applied that caused this problem. Maybe a photo of your lock screen may help the moderators to have a clear picture of your problem.
Andy Pang says
August 16, 2014 at 2:28 am
Hi,
Seems the bluetooth in redmi note is not able to detect nearby bluetooth handsfree set.
Pls advice.
- Ethan says
  August 17, 2014 at 4:13 pm
  Sorry Andy, I don’t have a Redmi Note to test or anything. Better seek help in the official MIUI forum. Hopefully someone with the similar experience can help you.
Kiran says
August 12, 2014 at 4:37 pm
I have blocked a contact. The number saved in my phone is with the country code prefix but when this person calls me, there is no prefix as we are in the same country and the phone does not recognise this as the blocked number. How can I resolve it?
- Ethan says
  August 17, 2014 at 1:27 am
  As of now, Xiaomi phone performs an exact match against incoming numbers. If the incoming numbers include country code prefix on your phone display, you have to enter that as well in the blocklist. I hope Xiaomi can improve on the matching criteria in their future versions. Also, after playing around with a few SIM cards, I noticed that some carriers include country code prefix in the local calls, but some don’t. One way to fix all your numbers in the Contacts so that they match exactly how they’re shown on your phone is by using the Number Fixer app.
CY says
August 9, 2014 at 9:00 am
Hi, how do I change the lock screen layout in order to adapt to a phone casing with a transparent window on the upper part of the flip casing so that I can answer calls from the screen instead of flipping the case to answer the calls?
- Ethan says
  August 11, 2014 at 2:28 pm
  You’re probably referring to a feature that’s very similar to Samsung S View. I don’t think there’s such a feature built-in. I know that there are few apps on Google Play that let you do so. But, I’ve yet to try them out myself. Go ahead to give them a try.
Rick Bala says
August 5, 2014 at 2:42 pm
Hi Ethan
I just got the phone few days ago
It’s an excellent phone, but I wanna ask a simple question
How to modify the toggles menu?
Don’t need it to display so much stuff
- Ethan says
  August 5, 2014 at 4:31 pm
  I don’t think you can reduce the number of toggles. But what you can do it change the toggles to something you need. Go to the “Customize the quick setting buttons on the Toggles screen” section of this article to learn how to customize the toggle screen.
diana says
August 3, 2014 at 8:21 am
How could i use redmi note alarm clock,due to unfunctioning when touch. Kindly assist.tq
- Ethan says
  August 3, 2014 at 3:58 pm
  Did you mean you the alarm clock feature in the Clock app ? Which one is not responding: when you tap on the Clock app or the Alarm tab ? Anyway, you can try go to Settings > Apps > All > Clock and execute Clear data and Clear cache. Check if this helps.
SUBHA says
July 30, 2014 at 9:47 am
hi… i have saved my period calendar in my memory card from samsung s advance phoen… bt when i insert the mcard to xiaomi redmi note, i cant find the calendar,… but i can view photos n songs only… can u advice….
- Ethan says
  July 31, 2014 at 1:21 pm
  I wonder what format is the calendar in your memory card. Maybe (Just maybe) it’s only compatible with the Samsung calendar (S Planner) app. Would you want to try exporting this calendar to Google calendar so that you can get the same calendar in all the phones you sign in ? Here’s the guide on how to export local S Planner calendar to Google Calendar.
Ke says
July 29, 2014 at 9:04 am
Hi, how can I transfer all my SMS & contacts from my iphone 3 (OS 4.2.1) to xiaomi redmi.
Tks
Ke
- Ethan says
  July 31, 2014 at 11:06 am
  Hi Ke, here are the how-tos for transferring iPhone contacts and SMSs to your Xiaomi phone:
  1. How to transfer messages (SMS) from iPhone to Xiaomi phone ?
  
  2. How to export iPhone contacts from iCloud to (Xiaomi) Redmi ?
  Unfortunately, they might not be applicable to your iPhone 3 which can’t sync the contacts with iCloud. You can give the SMS transferring a try, but as for the contacts, I’ve no idea how to do that without syncing them to iCloud or a paid software such as CopyTrans.
  Sorry can’t help much.
  - Ke says
    September 1, 2014 at 9:20 am
    Hi Ethan, Many thanks for your help. I manage to transfer the SMS. However it can only be open $ view by (SMS Backup & Restore App) only. Is there a way to transfer all into the (Messages App) of the phone.
    B rgds
    Ke
dan says
July 29, 2014 at 1:32 am
Hi I bought the WCDMA version of this phone. I am using it in Canada with ROGERS network. i can only get 2G speed but I know this phone is compatible with Rogers 3G network. How do i enable 3G speeds?
- Ethan says
  July 30, 2014 at 10:51 am
  Make sure you’ve your SIM card in slot 1. Then, go to Settings > Mobile networks > Preferred network type and select Prefer 3G networks.
  - jake says
    August 21, 2014 at 2:18 pm
    Hi Ethan, my “Preferred Network type” is locked and i can’t seem to change it… what am i gonna do with this. I’m only getting 2g speed same as dan.
    - Ethan says
      August 22, 2014 at 6:13 pm
      Sorry Jake, I don’t have a clue of why your “Preferred Network type” option is locked. But, I would suggest that you give this alternate way of changing the preferred network value a try:
      1. Enter *#*#4636#*#* on the dial pad.
      2. Select Phone information.
      3. Look for the field that allow you to switch between the preferred networks.
      If the suggested method doesn’t help you at all, you should seek help in the official MIUI forum.
kelvin lee says
July 26, 2014 at 3:48 pm
Hi! I just got myself a redmi note, and it is not letting me access my contacts list for whatsapp even after I allow the WhatsApp at the permissions. Please help.
- Ethan says
  July 30, 2014 at 10:37 am
  It should work after you allow WhatsApp to access your contacts. Tap the Refresh button on WhatsApp contact screen or restart the phone might help to refresh the settings.
Yap says
July 26, 2014 at 2:15 pm
Hi!
I am not sure if i selected or deselected anything in setting, but the pictures/images r not loading automatically on the webpages that I open. I need to tap on the pictures individually to load them. Grrrr……save me.
Thanks.
- Ethan says
  July 30, 2014 at 10:08 am
  You might have the “Reduce data usage” feature turned on. This feature will stop the images loading automatically. Go to Browser > Settings and tap Use data normally to turn it off.
Natalie says
July 24, 2014 at 3:40 pm
what do i do to be able to see my notifications on my lockscreen!!!>????
- Ethan says
  July 28, 2014 at 2:38 am
  This is as far as i know about having notifications on the lock screen.
Mary says
July 20, 2014 at 4:52 am
Hi! I transferred my 32g microsd card to my xiaomi note. Even if I can see my SD mounted I cannot see my files in there. What to do? How to access my songs? 🙁
- Ethan says
  July 22, 2014 at 10:29 am
  Try to do a reload. It works for me when I put in my SD card from Samsung to my Redmi, it didn’t show many existing folders. After reload, those folders are visible.
isk says
July 18, 2014 at 1:40 am
Hi, my internal storage is full. I’ve 32gb SD card. How do I transfer apps to SD?
- Ethan says
  July 18, 2014 at 11:42 am
  Officially, Redmi doesn’t support it. In that case, your phone has to be rooted. Quite a number of people asked this question in the MIUI forum, so go ahead to look around for the solution there.
Spencer says
July 13, 2014 at 1:02 pm
Hi there, I’m currently using redmin note. I having problem downloading apps from playstore whenever I want to download apps using my mobile data “around 3-5MB” it unable to install. Only when I’m using WiFi it able to. Is it only able to download apps using WiFi only???
- Ethan says
  July 16, 2014 at 12:07 am
  Is there an error message when you’re having the problem of downloading the apps using mobile data connection ? Make sure you didn’t accidentally restrict the Play Store from using the mobile data on the Data usage app. Launch the Security app, tap Data usage > Restrict > Apps, and then make Google Play Store is set to allow for mobile data. Here’s the guide on how to use Data usage.
Anthony Dee says
July 13, 2014 at 4:23 am
Hi Ethan,
The search box in my mi3 disappears by itself without me removing it. If I try putting it back through widgets or just try to open it from the menu button it doesn’t work. What causes this and how can I fix it.
I’ve tried doing a hard reset and it worked for a while but happened again. Pressing the Browser for searching the web works fine though. Is this normal? Hope you can help me. Thanks.
Anthony
- Ethan says
  July 13, 2014 at 2:55 pm
  Kindly check if you’ve uninstall the Google Search app by accident. If yes, you can download it from Google Play. Read this.
Stella says
July 8, 2014 at 2:11 pm
Hi,Any speed dial function on Redmi phone? .
- Ethan says
  July 10, 2014 at 2:17 pm
  Unfortunately, there isn’t such a feature on Redmi phone at the moment. Anyway, here are some suggestions to quickly call your favorite contacts.
Julie says
July 8, 2014 at 2:47 am
Hi, appreciate your help on the following probs I’m facing:
– why some of my contacts auto shut the moment I click on it? Meaning once I click on the contact, it will disappear and get directed to the homescreen.
– some of the default apps such as notes and mail are not working. Same thing, it will disappear and get directed to the homescreen once clicked.
– unable to update firmware.
Thanks.
- Ethan says
  July 9, 2014 at 3:55 pm
  This problem very similar to yours.
  1. Try clear data/clear cache on the App info page of the affected apps.
  2. If that doesn’t work, I guess you should factory reset your phone.
  3. If nothing else works, I guess you should send your phone to the nearest Xiaomi service centre.
Jun says
July 3, 2014 at 2:26 pm
Hi, i have just bought a 32GB Class 10 Sandisk Micro SD for my redmi. i wanted to transfer files into my phone but have permission problems. i have tried it using cable and using FTP.
but the following problems occured so i hope to seek some help here.
I have some questions
1) When i connect my redmi through cable to my desktop. My phone doesn’t appear in “My computer”. My desktop is running on windows XP.
2) I could copy pictures into my phone. but im having troubles copying music into my phone as they kept prompting that i do not have permission. May i know how do i bypass this problem? i have tried formatting my SD in the phone but it doesn’t help.
3) I am using iphone previously, so i have tranferred my pictures including videos into the file. but only pictures appear in “local images”. Where do i find the videos?
4) And how do i transfer iphone notes to xiaomi?
Thanks for your help.
- Ethan says
  July 8, 2014 at 3:40 am
  Here are my suggestions, However, they might not be the best ones 🙂
  1. Ensure you’ve the Xiaomi USB driver installed. This thread has the link to download the Xiaomi USB driver.
  2. One way to isolate which one is causing the problem is by using another SD card and computer (preferably not XP).
  3. You can use the Explorer app to look for the folder that has all the videos. Tap on them to play them.
  4. There isn’t a straight forward method to export, then import the iPhone Notes to Xiaomi Notes. You can sync your iPhone Notes with iCloud, open them on the web, and then copy/paste them on Xiaomi Notes on Mi Cloud (open 2 tabs side by side). Alternatively, if you’ve sync your iPhone Notes with your Gmail account. By doing so, you should be able to see them on your Gmail app tagged with Notes label on your Xiaomi phone. Here’s a video to show you how to sync iPHone Notes to a Gmail account.
  Notes: Just in case you’re interested, there are software such as copytrans out there that can help you to export iPhone Notes to your computer.
jim says
June 28, 2014 at 9:00 am
Hi support team,
I am currently using a Xiaomi Redmi phone.
My Caller id is not working how can i fix this?
thanks
- Ethan says
  June 30, 2014 at 5:50 am
  Hi Jim,
  Thanks for dropping by. We’re or rather I’m not the support team for or from Xiaomi. I’m just a Xiaomi user and share what I know about the phones.
  For proper support, it’s better to contact Xiaomi directly (contact number and support chat are available on their website) or seek help in their official forum. ALso, remember to explain your problem to them in details such as what do you mean by Caller id not working. Thanks.
jeremy says
June 26, 2014 at 11:45 am
Hi and thanks for all the tips. Total newb question – but how do I see the application manager to see all apps running on the phone and close unused ones?
Thanks in advance
Jeremy
- Ethan says
  June 28, 2014 at 4:23 pm
  On your phone, long tap the Menu button to open the “clearing widget”. Here you can see a list of apps that you’ve used recently. These apps just remain in memory and use no CPU or other resources. When you access them again, they’ll quickly open, as they’re waiting in the memory for you to return.
  But if you wish to clear them from the memory, just tap the Brush icon.
  If you long tap the Brush icon, will get to the App screen, under the Running tab you should see a list of apps that are running in the background. On the Cached tab, you should see list of apps that are cached in memory, but aren’t actually running in the background. To clear them from the memory, just long tap the Menu button, then hit the Brush icon.
  Actually, Android has its own automatic task killer. It will automatically kill running apps and remove them from memory, if it needs more memory. It isn’t necessary to kill the background running apps manually. Here’s the detailed explanation of how Android manages apps and memory.
Bell says
June 24, 2014 at 12:42 pm
Hi, i want to ask why when i plug a usb cable to my laptop to transfer file(songs,video,photo) from laptop to my xiaomi hongmi, its actually connected. But, there is no folder for me to enter the phone storage in ‘my computer’. Please help…thanks
- Ethan says
  June 25, 2014 at 2:53 am
  Hi Bell, I’ve no idea what Windows version you’re having. However, what you can do is go to MIUI Forum search for the keyword “driver”, there are quite a number of threads related to driver issues for XP and Win7. In some of the threads, a driver file is attached for you to download.
pinky says
June 24, 2014 at 4:57 am
how do i select the fonts downloaded from playstore in settings from my xiaomi phone? hope you can help fast ^^
- Ethan says
  June 25, 2014 at 12:27 pm
  Sorry, I don’t know what font apps you’ve downloaded from Google Play. The fact is that some apps work with MIUI some don’t. As far as I know, for those that work with MIUI, you can see them on the Themes app, by going to Themes app > Category > Components > Font > Local. This is the place where you choose and apply the fonts you’ve downloaded. Here’s the guide for iFont app that works with MIUI, I hope it does give you an idea on how to apply the fonts that you’ve downloaded.
Ganesan says
June 22, 2014 at 8:46 am
Hi support team,
I am currently using a Xiaomi Redmi phone.
1) How do I transfer all my calendar data/info from my previous phone (Samsung Galaxy W) to my current Xiaomi Redmi phone? Is using Bluetooth ok? If yes, kindly show me the ‘step-by-step’ procedures.
2) On my Xiaomi Redmi phone personal contacts, I can enter all my friends contacts info such as phone number, address, website, e-mail, photo & etc. But for the “Lunar Date of Birth” –> How can I switch that to western calendar? Example: 25/Dec/1995. Kindly advise step-by-step procedures.
Thank you & regards,
Ganesan
- Ganesan says
  June 22, 2014 at 9:12 am
  Hi Ethan,
  sorry, you may ignore the question 2 as I still follow up on previous links.
  Tks.
- Ethan says
  June 24, 2014 at 10:21 am
  Thanks for dropping by my blog. I’ll try to share what I know as much as I can.
  Personally, I don’t have a Galaxy W phone to do the testing. But, I did test on my Galaxy S5 and found that transferring calendar events from S5 to Redmi using Bluetooth doesn’t really work. If all your events are saved on the S Planner locally, you can use the iCal Import/Export app to export your local calendar to a .ics file. With the .ics file, you can import it to your Google Calendar. Next, sign in your Redmi with your Google account. Now, you should see the events appear on the Calendar app.
  Guide: How to export S Planner to Google Calendar ?
EL says
June 15, 2014 at 2:48 am
Also my whatsapp could not detect my contact list… ive tried uninstall and reinstalled several times still nothing.. thanks
- Ethan says
  June 17, 2014 at 6:56 am
  Check out the suggestion from this thread :
  Go to “Security” icon,
  “Permissions”, ”
  Manage App Permission”,
  “Contacts”,
  “WhatsApp”,
  Select “Allow”.
  After that returned to main menu.
  Go to “WhatsApp”, most likely you will get it.
  If not try to re-boot the phone
EL says
June 15, 2014 at 2:46 am
hi, thanks for the tips, its really helpful.. however i cant see redmi in my macbook pro..
How to save music into my redmi
- Ethan says
  June 17, 2014 at 6:59 am
  Sorry I don’t have a Macbook Pro on my side to try it. If you still facing this problem, I would encourage you seek help from the MIUI forum.
SL says
June 13, 2014 at 2:06 pm
On my Xiaomi Redmi phone, on the Contacts list where we can input our friends particulars like name, phone number, e-mail, website, company, address & alot useful infos. But on the ‘date of birth’, it only allow me to enter the lunar birthdate??? But alot of my contacts are non-chinese & their date of birth are based on western calendars. Currently I can’t make use of the “Lunar Date of birth” on my Contacts list. How can I switch it so that I can enter like a normal western calendar (eg: 12/June/1972)?
- Ethan says
  June 14, 2014 at 7:31 am
  As far as I see from my unit, I’m given the options to add both the Birthday and Lunar Birthday fields on my Xiaomi contacts. In that case, you can try delete the lunar birthday field and add the normal birthday on your contact list.
  - Ganesan says
    June 22, 2014 at 9:10 am
    Hi Ethan,
    thanks for your reply. I follow your advise but still can’t see the ‘Western Date Of Birth’ Field? When I selected a contact list, I click on ‘Add another field’, it prompt on another screen show –> Phonetic name, IM, Address, Nickname, Website, Internet call, Events, Lunar Birthday & Notes. Still no sign of “Birthday”? Did miss out any steps? Kindly advise. tks
    - Ethan says
      June 24, 2014 at 10:04 am
      Where do you save all these contacts ? Google contacts ? Xiaomi account or on the phone ?
      Your Redmi looks slightly different from my unit that’s running on Singaporean ROM (OS version).
      Sorry, I’ve no idea why you don’t see the Birthday field but instead of only the Lunar Birthday. I suspect it has got something to do with the OS version you’re having.
      My advise is that you better seek help in Xiaomi’s official forum.
jack says
June 7, 2014 at 1:29 am
I just got the latest redmi quad core phone and secure locked the SIM card with a PIN.
I have now forgotten the PIN number but i am unable to access the forgot password page.
What i see when i on the phone is the Input PUK and Enter PIN window.
What is this and how can i get back to use the phone again?
Thanks!
- Ethan says
  June 7, 2014 at 2:05 pm
  If you’ve forgotten the PIN for your SIM, you need to check with your operator for help. If you still have the packaging that comes with your SIM card, you can find the PUK number there. The PUK number can be used to gain access to your SIM card in the even you’ve forgotten the PIN.
  If you just want to access your phone, you can take out your SIM card and by doing, your phone won’t ask you for SIM PIN.
WHo says
June 5, 2014 at 2:45 am
Hi, how can i forward incoming sms (Redmi) to another phone (my other andriod phone)? Thanks.
- Ethan says
  June 7, 2014 at 2:24 pm
  I’m not sure if you’re asking about forwarding SMS manually or automatically. Anyway this is what I know:
  Manually – You can access a particular SMS thread, long tap a particular message, then select Forward.
  Automatically – I don’t think there’s such a feature on Redmi at the moment. There are few apps out there which claimed to forward SMS automatically – PhoneLeash and SMS Forwarder – you might want to give them a try. Note: I’ve yet to have time to play around with them.
Victor says
June 3, 2014 at 2:23 am
Hello
Please tell me where is the backup saved to (internal memory or the installed memory card), and how much space is needed to do it
Thanks
- Ethan says
  June 4, 2014 at 2:51 am
  Check out this simple guide. It should backup to your SD card. Size is pretty much depends on how many items on your phone that you want to backup
Fiona says
May 29, 2014 at 3:58 am
Hello! Just got a redmi and i am wondering how can i save the apps to the SD card instead of the phone memory.. the usage is getting quite high…
thanks loads!
- Ethan says
  May 29, 2014 at 6:33 pm
  I don’t think you can do that at the moment without rooting your phone. But, what you can do now is to try move all your files and media over to SD card. This thread says it all !
Clarice Ong says
May 25, 2014 at 9:23 am
Tried to create Hotmail account in redmi phone. Error message is couldn’t open connection to server. Please help and thank you!
- Ethan says
  May 28, 2014 at 1:38 pm
  I hope this guide helps.
Albert says
May 18, 2014 at 5:37 am
Hi, how can REDMI sync contacts with outlook ? Can contacts be created in the phone instead of Xiaomi and Google ? THANKS!!! Have been searching for a solution few days …
- Ethan says
  May 19, 2014 at 10:28 am
  In this thread there are 2 suggestions : MyPhoneExplorer and sync Outlook & Google with gSyncit, then sync your phone with Google. Sorry, I don’t own an outlook software to give these 2 a try.
  As for storing contacts in the phone, here’s what I’ve found.
polly says
May 14, 2014 at 11:28 am
how do i install an app to the SD card in xiaomi phone directly or how to transfer the apps to be saved from the phone memory to SD card? its seem to go directly to the phone memory everytime i install new games alrhough i mounted my card already.
huiyi says
May 11, 2014 at 9:39 am
hi, i have inserted a 16G sd card into Redmi recently…however, all my files that are movable cannot be transfer into SD card…and i have checked the settings.. the sd card is mounted… what shall i do..? =)
- Ethan says
  May 12, 2014 at 9:16 am
  check out this thread http://en.miui.com/thread-19134-1-1.html The moderator suggested to do a Erase SD card, if it still doesn’t work try out with another card.
matkien says
April 20, 2014 at 6:21 am
why can’t i install google play store or over right the xiaomi market in my redmi ?pls help,thx
- Ethan says
  April 22, 2014 at 8:15 am
  Maybe you can try installing the Google installer apk. From the app you can get all the Google apps. Here’s the guide and the apk file. http://en.miui.com/thread-3998-1-1.html
Jin ZhiYan says
April 17, 2014 at 9:51 am
Hi, how do ichange the automatic saving to my sd card on my xiaomi?
I already installed a brand new 16 GB micro sd card into my redmi yesterday, but no new files are being saved there. My redmi’s not allowing me to take any more photos or screenshots. How do i direct the data savibg to my sd card?
- Ethan says
  April 18, 2014 at 9:16 am
  As far as I know, the process is pretty much automatic. You insert the SD card, the necessary folders will be created and most of the things will be saved there. Could it be something wrong with your SD card ?
  Anyway, go to Settings > Storage and make sure the SD card is mounted. It’s mounted when you see the Unmount SD card option 🙂