How to get rid of advertising on Xiaomi phone: step-by-step instructions

Owners of Xiaomi, Redmi and Poco smartphones often face intrusive banner ads that appear in standard apps and system interfaces.This is a fee for the affordable cost of devices, but users do not have to put up with constant visual noise. Fortunately, the shells of MIUI and the new HyperOS provide the ability to disable most marketing elements without obtaining superuser rights.

The process of clearing the system from advertising takes no more than 10-15 minutes if you act consistently, you only need access to the settings of the smartphone and care when switching switches. It is important to understand that completely erase all references to the company's services will not work, but to make the use of the gadget comfortable is quite possible.

In this article, we will discuss all known blocking methods, including hidden settings and system restrictions. We will look at how to protect yourself from pop-ups in the explorer, browser and even in the lock menu. A key element of protection is to disable the MSA service (MIUI System Ads), which is responsible for delivering advertising content to the device.

Disabling system advertising through MSA settings

The main source of banners in Xiaomi smartphones is the system application MSA. This service analyzes your actions and selects the relevant content. To stop this process, you need to find the application in the installed list and revoke its permissions.

Go to your smartphone settings and find the Passwords and Security section. From the access control app list, select Access to Data or Permissions. Search the app called msa (MIUI System Ads) and turn off the Internet slider. The system will alert you to the possible consequences, but they are not critical to the average user.

When you turn off access, you'll have a 10 second countdown timer, which is a safety mechanism that prevents you from accidentally shutting down important system functions. When you're done, click "Cancel." If the system has an error, repeat the procedure again, sometimes 2-3 attempts are required.

⚠️ Warning: After revoking permissions, the app may try to recover the next time you connect to Wi-Fi. Periodically check the access status to make sure the lock is active.

You also need to turn off ad personalization, and to do that, go to your Mi Account settings and look for the Privacy section, and you need to turn off Ad Personalization, which will prevent companies from using your data for targeted marketing.

Set up standard Xiaomi applications

Advertising integrations are built deep into the ecosystem of standard utilities, and every application, from Explorer to Music, has its own recommendation settings. Let's look at the main ones.

Start with the Security app, which most often bothers users with cleanup and optimization notifications. Open the app, click on the settings gear in the top right corner. You need to find and disable the "Get recommendations" option. Similar actions are required for the Explorer app (Files). Go to its settings and check the "Recommendations" box.

The Music and Video apps also tend to show promotional material. In the settings of these programs, look for the Advanced Settings or General sections. You need to find the Show Ads or Online Recommendations switch and deactivate it. In some versions of MIUI, this item may be called Get Recommendations.

Don't forget the Themes app. This is where banners often appear on the lock screen. Go to the user profile (human icon), then to the settings. Turn off the "Show ads," "Personal recommendations" and "Sure video" items, which will significantly reduce information noise.

Remove advertising in the browser and on the desktop

The standard Mi Browser is known for its aggressive news and advertising policies. If you use this browser, its settings require special attention. Open the browser, go to the menu (three bars) and select Settings. In the Privacy and Security section, activate the ad blocker. Also in the Home Page Settings section, turn off the news feed.

However, the best solution would be to install an alternative browser such as Chrome, Firefox or Brave, which provide a higher level of privacy and are not integrated into the Xiaomi advertising network. Once you install a new browser, it is recommended to remove or disable the standard browser so that the system does not use it to open links by default.

For desktop, ads can appear in the Glance widget, which is a service that changes wallpaper on a locked screen and displays news. To turn it off, go to the lock screen settings and select Wallpaper Carousel. Turn off the wallpaper carousel switch. Now the locked screen will have a static image.

Blocking Advertising in Notifications and Folders

One of the most annoying types of advertising is push notifications from system applications, which can offer to install games, apply for a loan or buy goods, and to combat this, you need to manage notification channels.

Press your finger on the icon of the app that sends spam (like Cleanup or Scanner) and select About. Go to Notifications. Here you will see a list of categories. Turn off all categories related to Recommendations, Promotions or News. Leave only critical notifications, such as when a virus scan is completed.

And ads can also appear inside folders on your desktop, and if you've created an application folder, the system can suggest "Recommended Apps" at the bottom of the folder, so to remove that, open the folder, click on its name or settings, and turn off the "Recommended Apps" feature, which will clear the bottom of the folder of intrusive icons.

New versions of HyperOS have another source of notifications, widgets on the lock screen» → «Widgets: Disable any news or finance-related widgets if you don't need them.

⚠️ Warning: Be careful when disabling notifications from system applications. Do not disable the Critical or System channels to avoid missing important safety or low battery messages.

Using DNS to Block Advertising

The most effective method that works globally for the entire smartphone is the use of private DNS. This method blocks advertising not only in Xiaomi applications, but also in the browser and third-party programs, without requiring the installation of additional software.

To set up, go to Settings → Connection and Sharing (or “Wi-Fi and Internet”). Find “Private” DNS» (Private DNS). Select the option "Host Name of the provider" DNS» (or "Manual") and enter in the field the address: dns.adguard.com.

dns.adguard.com

Once you have set up, reboot your smartphone. Now all requests to known ad servers will be blocked at the network level, which will speed up the loading of pages in the browser and save traffic. If a site or application stops working correctly, you can always temporarily disable this feature, returning the setting to Auto mode.

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Use alternatives. DNS-AdGuard Family (dns-family.adguard.com) also blocks adult websites, which is useful for children's smartphones.

Frequent questions and additional settings

Even after you've done all the work, some elements may still be there, like ads that appear in the Weather or Calculator app. In Weather, you go to settings (three bars) → Settings → Get recommendations and disable all the items. In Calculator and Dictator, there are usually no ads, but check the About section for any extra switches.

If you use a POCO Launcher or a standard MIUI launcher, check the settings of the Google Search or Mi Video widget on your desktop. Often, it is the widgets that broadcast the news feed. Remove unnecessary widgets from the home screen or adjust their contents with a long press.

For advanced users, there is a method to disable advertising through ADB-It requires a computer connection and command line knowledge, and for most users, the methods described above will be sufficient for comfortable use of the device.

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A comprehensive approach, including disabling MSA, setting up DNS and adjusting the parameters of each application, guarantees complete elimination of advertising in the Xiaomi system.