Suddenly transforming your bright and juicy AMOLED-A dim black and white display can cause panic, especially if you haven't set up anything like that, but in most cases it's not a matrix breakdown, but an activated software feature designed to help the user reduce their dependence on the gadget or protect their eyes. Android system installed on smartphones Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO, offers a variety of tools for customizing the interface, and sometimes they are turned on by chance or by a given algorithm.
Most often, the cause is the "Digital Balance" mode or the specific "Night Mode" settings, which can be activated automatically on a schedule. Users often forget that they set time limits or chose a "Sleep" profile, which forcibly translates the interface to monochrome. It is difficult to understand the maze of settings of MIUI and HyperOS, as developers periodically change the location of menu items.
In this article, we will take a closer look at all the possible causes of a black and white screen and provide step-by-step instructions for eliminating them, learn how to turn off timers, check availability settings, and return saturated colors to your display in minutes without losing data.
Digital balance and time limits
The most common reason Xiaomi’s screen turns black and white is because of its Digital Balance feature, which was introduced by Google to help users combat digital addiction, and when you reach the set time limit for using a smartphone or individual apps, the system automatically switches the color scheme to shades of gray, making the screen less attractive to the brain.
To check this, you need to go to your system settings. Find a section that could be called Digital Balance or Wellbeing. It often hides an active timer inside of this menu that fires at certain times of the day, and if you see that Sleep Mode or Sleep Time is active, it dictates the monochrome scale.
⚠️ Caution: Disabling your digital balance can cause you to stop noticing how much time you spend on social media, which sometimes negatively affects your productivity and sleep quality.
To completely disable the restriction, you need to find the color filter switch, sometimes just remove the time limit, and the colors will return instantly, and some firmware versions require you to completely deactivate the digital well-being service itself.
If you want to keep the usage statistics, but remove the black and white filter, look for a separate option called "Rest Mode" or "Bedtime mode." It's in its bowels that the "Black and White Mode" or "Grayscale" setting is hidden. Turn off this slider, and the display will shine again.
Night mode settings and schedule
Another culprit in monochrome imagery may be aggressively setting Night Mode or Read Mode, which, although these functions usually only change the color temperature to a warmer one (yellow), in some cases users accidentally activate full discoloration, especially for older versions of the MIUI shell, where the blue light filter settings and the color scheme were combined.
Check the Screen section in the basic settings. Here you are interested in "Vision Protection" or "Read Mode." Inside this menu, a Schedule switch can be activated. If it is turned on, the phone automatically goes into gentle mode at specified hours. Often users set the time from 22:00 to 07:00, forgetting about it, and in the morning wonder why the screen does not show colors.
Also worth paying attention to is "Dark Theme." Although it makes the background black and the text white, some third-party themes or improperly working wallpaper can create the illusion of a black and white screen. Try temporarily turning off the dark theme to rule out this factor.
It's important to distinguish between software-based brightness and color reduction. If the screen just got dim, maybe the light sensor or Adaptive Brightness function went off. But if the colors are gone completely (no gray, only black and white), then this is the 100% software filter we're talking about.
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Use Google or Siri voice assistant to say “Switch off night mode” if you’re afraid of getting confused in the manual settings menu.
Special Opportunities (Accessibility)
And underneath the Android settings, there's the Accessibility section, which is designed for people with visual or motor impairments, but ordinary users can activate it randomly, and that's where the global color correction switch is, which force the entire interface to monochrome.
To find this setting, go to Settings → Advanced Settings → Special Features. In the list, look for Color Correction or Color Correction. If this switch is active, the screen will be black and white all the time, regardless of the time of day or the application you run.
In the same section, you should check "Simplified Mode." It enlarges fonts and icons, but it can also change the color scheme for better readability. If you didn't plan on handing the phone to older relatives, it's best to keep it off.
Sometimes the color filter is turned on through a quick menu. Try swiping from top to bottom to open the notification curtain, and deploy the control panel. There may be a color correction button or an eye icon. Check if it's pressed.
☑️ Testing of special facilities
Third-party annexes and design themes
Don't discount the impact of third-party software. Battery-saving applications, smart launchers or reading programs often have their own color filtering settings. They can override Android system settings, creating a black-and-white screen effect.
Think about the apps you installed or updated before the colors went missing, and apps with names like Night Screen, Blue Light Filter, Battery Saver, or E-ink Mode are especially suspicious, and even if you removed the app, its settings could stick in the system.
Also, MIUI Themes can cause problems, and some design solutions involve monochrome style, so try using a standard theme, "Classic" or "Untitled," to see if the problem will go away.
⚠️ Note: When removing filter apps, be sure to restart your smartphone, as they often embed their services deep into the system startup process.
If you're using launchers like Nova Launcher or Microsoft Launcher, check their internal settings. The "Look and Feel" or "Display" section can activate a filter. Resetting the launcher to the factory settings often helps solve the problem.
Engineering menu and reset display settings
For advanced users who believe that it is not a matter of standard settings, there is an option to check through the engineering menu, but using the engineering menu requires extreme caution: changing unknown parameters can lead to incorrect display or touch screen.
You can find matrix tests on the engineering menu, and if the CIT is showing the colors correctly, then the (iron) is good, and the problem is purely software, and even if the screen is black and white, the display plume may have moved away or the controller is damaged.
To enter the engineering menu on Xiaomi, you often use the code ##64663## or ##4636##. In the "Display" section, you can run a color test. If the test is successful but there is no color in the system, a full reset will help.
Hard Reset is a radical method that is guaranteed to eliminate any software conflicts.Be sure to back up your data in the Mi Cloud or on your computer before doing so, as all files will be deleted.