You open a gallery on your Xiaomi Redmi, and instead of clear previews of photos and videos, you see blurred thumbnails? The problem is familiar to many owners of smartphones of this line - from the budget Redmi 9A to the flagship Redmi K50. Blurring sketches can manifest on new devices and after the MIUI update, and often accompanied by a slowdown in the gallery.
The reasons for this are both system settings and hardware limitations. In some cases, the MIUI compression algorithm, which saves resources due to the quality of previews, in others, corrupted cache files or a conflict with the Xiaomi Cloud service, is to blame. But the good news is that in 90% of cases, the problem can be solved without resetting or contacting the service center.
Next, we’ll look at all the possible causes of Xiaomi Redmi thumbnail blurs, from simple to complex, and give you step-by-step instructions for how to fix them, and if you’ve tried any of these, vote in the survey below to understand which methods work most often.
1.Why miniatures become blurry: the main reasons
The blurring of previews in the Xiaomi Redmi Gallery is rarely an accident, usually the result of one of the system features or errors.
- 🔄 Automatic compression of sketches in MIUI. The default system reduces the resolution of thumbnails to speed up their loading. on weak models (e.g. Redmi). 8A or Redmi 9C) That's particularly noticeable.
- 🗑️ If you don't clean the temporary files, the system starts saving on their quality.
- ☁️ Conflict with Xiaomi Cloud: When synchronizing photos to the cloud, sometimes low-resolution previews are uploaded, which are then displayed in the gallery.
- 📱 Hardware limitations: On devices with low RAM (2-3 GB) MIUI Forcefully reduces the quality of sketches to save memory.
- 🔧 Errors after the update MIUI. Especially relevant for transitions between major versions (for example, with the MIUI 12 on MIUI 13).
Interestingly, some models (like the Redmi Note 10 Pro) only show blur for photos taken with the main camera, while screenshots and uploaded images remain clear, which is because MIUI processes sketches from different sources differently.
How do you know why? If you get blurred after the update, it's the software. If the problem is only with cloud photos, check Xiaomi Cloud. If the thumbnails "appear" after a few seconds, it's the cache or hardware resources.
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Before you clean the cache or change your settings, try simply restarting your phone. In 15 percent of cases, the thumbnail blur disappears after the reboot.
2. MIUI settings that affect the quality of thumbnails
MIUI has hidden and explicit parameters that are responsible for displaying sketches, and adjusting them often solves the problem without drastic measures.
1. Quality of previews in gallery settings
Go to the gallery. → ⚙️ Settings → Show the preview in high quality if this parameter is disabled, MIUI It will be forced to compress thumbnails on weak devices. 7/8/9 Enabling the option may slow down the scroll of the gallery slightly, but the pictures will become clearer.
2. Optimization of productivity
In Settings → Special Features → Performance Optimization, check if Power Saving or Background Limitation mode is enabled, which can reduce the priority of the gallery, which makes it impossible for the gallery to download full-size sketches.
3. Developer settings
Activate Developer Mode (7 times click on the MIUI version in Settings → About Phone), then go to Settings → Additional → For Developers and find:
- Limit background processes → set a standard limit.
- Do not save actions → disable (this prevents the caching of thumbnails).
- GPU-acceleration → Turn it on if it's disabled (helps on Redmi Note 8 Pro and later).
What to do if there is no item "Show previews in high quality"?
| Model Redmi | Typical cause of blur | Recommended solution |
|---|---|---|
| Redmi 9A/9C | Weak processor + 2 GB of RAM | Disable background optimization, use Google Photos |
| Redmi Note 10/11 | Conflict with Xiaomi Cloud | Clear the cloud cache, disable synchronization of thumbnails |
| Redmi K40/K50 | Mistake after MIUI update | Reset the gallery settings or roll back to the previous version |
| Redmi 8/8A | Cache overflow | Cleaning the gallery cache + rebooting |
3. Clearing cache and gallery data: step-by-step instructions
If thumbnail blurs come on suddenly, first aid is to clean temporary files.This is safe and doesn't delete your photos/video, but resets the gallery settings.
Step 1. Clear the cache.
Go to Settings → Applications → Application Management → Gallery → Storage → Clear cache. On some firmware, the path may be different: Settings → Apps → All Apps → Gallery → Memory → Cache.
Step 2: Reset data (if the cache doesn't help)
In the same menu, click Clear Data (or Delete Data).
⚠️ Warning: this will reset all the gallery settings, including the albums and favorites, but it won't delete the photos themselves.
Step 3: Reboot
Once cleaned, be sure to restart the phone. MIUI will restore the thumbnail cache the next time you open the gallery - this can take 1-2 minutes (on weak devices longer).
Check that the photos are synced to the cloud (if necessary)
Close all applications in multitasking
Connect your phone to charge (in case of a long reboot)
Remember the current gallery settings (sorting, hidden folders)-->
4.Challenges with Xiaomi Cloud: How Synchronization Ruins Miniatures
Xiaomi Cloud is often a source of blurred previews, because when synchronized, MIUI defaults to upload smaller copies of photos to the cloud (to save traffic and space), and then pulls them up like sketches in a gallery.
How do you check that?
- Open Settings → Xiaomi Account → Xiaomi Cloud → Gallery
- See if the synchronization is on.
- If yes, check if the box opposite Sync only when connecting to Wi-Fi (this can cause delays in downloading full-size previews).
Decisions:
- 🔄 Turn off synchronization of thumbnails: in the cloud settings, find Synchronization settings → Synchronize thumbnails and disable this item.
- ☁️ Remove the cloud cache: Settings → Annexes → Xiaomi Cloud → Warehouse → Clear the cache.
- 📁 Download originals: If photos are already uploaded to the cloud in low quality, try downloading them back in full resolution via the web version of i.xiaomi.com.
⚠️ Warning: If you turn off the gallery sync with the cloud, new photos will no longer be automatically backed up, and we recommend that you pre-copy important images to your computer or other cloud service (for example, Google Photos).
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If the blur is only visible for photos taken on the main camera, and the screenshots and uploaded images are clear, it is the fault of Xiaomi Cloud.
5. Alternative galleries: When the standard MIUI fails
If neither of these methods worked, it might be the firmware itself that is the problem, and if you want to install a third-party gallery, the best options for Xiaomi Redmi are:
- 📷 Google Photos: Automatically creates clear previews, supports cloud redundancy and smart search.
- 🖼️ Simple Gallery: lightweight, ad-free app with flexible thumbnail settings. Suitable for weak devices (Redmi) 7/8).
- 🌌 A+ Gallery: Supports dark theme, gestures and manually adjusting the quality of sketches.
- 🔍 QuickPic: Minimalist open source gallery (but not updated for a long time).
How do you move the data?
Install a new gallery from Google Play, then select the scan folders (usually /DCIM/Camera and /Pictures) in its settings. Most alternative apps will automatically detect photos, but you can manually add paths to the settings for reliability:
/storage/emulated/0/DCIM
/storage/emulated/0/Pictures
/storage/emulated/0/Download⚠️ Note: When using Google Photos, disable autosynchronization in Xiaomi Cloud to avoid conflicts.Dual backups can lead to file duplication and additional thumbnail blur.
Hardware restrictions: when the "iron" is to blame
On Xiaomi Redmi's budget models (like the Redmi 9A with 2GB of RAM or the Redmi 8A with a Snapdragon 439), thumbnail blur can be an inevitable trade-off between performance and quality.
How do you get around the restrictions?
- 🗃️ Break the photos up into albums. MIUI Create separate folders (e.g., “2023”, “Vacations”, “Documents”) – this will make it easier for the system to handle thumbnails for small groups of files.
- 🧹 Delete unnecessary photos. The fewer files in the gallery, the faster they load. Use Settings → Warehouse → Free up space to search for duplicates.
- 🔋 Turn off animations. → The phone. → Version. MIUI (7 taps for the developer mode) → Developer settings → Size animation set Off. It'll speed up the loading of sketches.
If your Redmi is older than 2019 (like the Redmi 7 or Redmi Note 7), consider upgrading. Current models (starting with the Redmi Note 10) have ample resources for clear thumbnails even with a large amount of photo.
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On devices with 3GB of RAM or less, turning off the Smooth Scrolling feature in the gallery settings helps, which will remove the paralax effect for sketches, but make them load more stable.
7 MIUI Update: When a blur is a firmware bug
After major MIUI updates (e.g. 12-13 or 13-14), many users are faced with blurred thumbnails, due to a change in caching algorithms or conflicts in the gallery database.
How do you fix it?
- Reverse to the previous version MIUI (If the problem appeared immediately after the update. To do this, download the necessary firmware from the official Xiaomi website and run it through Settings. → The phone. → Updating the system → ⚙️ → Select a firmware file.
- Wait for the patch. Usually Xiaomi will release fixes for mass bugs within 2-4 weeks. Keep an eye out for updates in Settings → System Update.
- Reset your gallery settings (see section 3), but back up before doing so via Settings → Xiaomi Account → Xiaomi Cloud → Backup.
⚠️ Warning: rolling back firmware will erase all data on your phone unless you use separate memory for custom files.
If you don't want to take risks, the alternative is to wait for the next update, for example, after MIUI 14.0.4, many Redmi Note 11 users reported that the thumbnail blur disappeared by itself.