Xiaomi’s MIUI and HyperOS interfaces are famous for their rich functionality that allows you to turn a standard smartphone into a personalized gadget. However, among the many useful features, sometimes there are elements that can annoy users with their intrusiveness. One of these elements is the so-called “Wallpaper Carousel” – a service that automatically replaces the image on the lock screen every time you turn on the device.
For some owners, it’s an opportunity to see new, high-quality photos of nature, architecture or abstract art every day. For others, it’s a source of traffic, battery consumption and, most unpleasantly, periodic advertising of apps or services. Fortunately, the lock screen management system in Xiaomi and Redmi smartphones is flexible, and the user has full control over this process.
In this article, we’ll take a look at how to change the wallpaper carousel on Xiaomi, how to switch to a static image or a standard gallery, and how to completely disable this service if you don’t need it. You’ll learn about hidden settings that aren’t always obvious at first glance, and learn how to manage the content that’s displayed on your device.
What is a wallpaper carousel and why it is needed
The wallpaper carousel is an integrated system service that automatically uploads and installs new background images to the lock screen, which works independently of the main theme of the design, affecting only the screen you see before unlocking the device. Initially, the idea was to make the smartphone “live”, constantly updating the visual range without the user.
But with the development of the MIUI ecosystem, the carousel has expanded, and it's not just a change of pictures, it's a full-fledged dashboard, and you can see weather widgets, calendars, pedometers, and promotional offers from partners, and it's the presence of advertising content that often makes users look for ways to change or disable this feature.
It's important to understand that a carousel is a separate application in a system that is often hidden from the eyes of the average user in the installed list, that has access to the Internet to download content and can run in the background, and that understanding that it's a separate software module, rather than part of the kernel, gives us the flexibility to manage their behavior.
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The wallpaper carousel consumes Internet traffic, and if you charge every megabyte, you better turn off automatic downloads or use Wi-Fi for updates.
How to completely disable the wallpaper carousel
If you prefer the classic approach, where a single static image, selected by you manually, is displayed on the lock screen, the carousel must be deactivated.The process of disconnecting may vary slightly depending on the shell version (MIUI 12, 13, 14 or the new HyperOS), but the overall algorithm remains the same for most Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO models.
You need to get to the lock screen control menu first, and you can do this in two ways: through general settings or through the theme menu. The first is a more direct way. Go to Settings, find the Always on screen and the lock screen (or just the Lock screen), and in this menu you will see the wallpaper carousel.
Here you'll see a switch that activates or deactivates the function. To change the wallpaper carousel on Xiaomi to a static picture, just move this switch to the "Switched off" position. The system will immediately apply the changes, and the next time you turn on the screen, you will see your familiar photo.
☑️ Algorithm to shut down carousel
There is an alternative path that can sometimes be useful if the main settings are hidden or not working correctly. Open the Themes app (an icon with a multi-colored ring). Click on the profile icon (usually the avatar of the person in the upper right corner). In the menu that appears, select Settings, then find the wallpaper carousel. There is also a switch that duplicates the function in the main settings of the system.
⚠️ Note: After the carousel is turned off, some widgets that have been tied to the lock screen (such as the step counter or carousel-style battery status) may stop showing or return to the standard look of the carousel.
Setting up and personalizing slides
For those who don’t want to completely abandon the feature, but want to change the wallpaper carousel on Xiaomi, removing ads and leaving only beautiful pictures, there is a flexible system of settings. You can choose specific categories of images that you are interested in: nature, cities, animals, art or abstractions, which makes the lock screen more relevant to your taste preferences.
The carousel settings menu (path: Settings → Lock screen → Wallpaper carousel → Settings) contains the Subscription or Category section. You can deselect from topics you don't like. For example, if you're annoyed by images of space but like mountain scenery, just leave the category you want active.
And this section often hides an important switch for getting recommendations and ads, which can be called Receive Recommendations, Ads, or Sponsored Content, and disabling this item clears the carousel of commercial slides, leaving only artistic content, which is the perfect trade-off between aesthetics and obsession.
And the refresh rate is also important. Some versions of the firmware have a customization of the image swap interval, so you can either update each time you turn on the screen or make it more rare to keep the processor busy and save battery life, because it's a very energy-intensive process to load and render new images.
Using your own photos in the carousel
The standard carousel offers content from Xiaomi’s cloud servers, but many users want to see personal photos on the lock screen: photos of family, pets or captured moments of travel. You can change the wallpaper carousel on Xiaomi by adding your albums to it through the built-in functionality of the gallery or customization of the themes.
To do this, go back to the carousel control menu. Find a item that could be called My Photos, Local Wallpaper or Albums. The system will ask you to select an album from the gallery, from which images will be added to the overall rotation of the slides. You can select several albums, thus creating your own personal selection.
The important thing here is the orientation and resolution of the photos. The screens of modern smartphones have different proportions (19.5:9, 20:9 and others). If your photo is vertical, it will occupy the entire screen. If horizontal, the system can crop it or add black fields. It is recommended to pre-frame the images to the screen resolution of your device for the best visual effect.
The secret of the frequency of personal photos
With the addition of albums, the logic of the work will change: both images from your chosen categories (such as Nature) and your personal shots will be rotated, creating a unique mix where professional photos are interspersed with precious moments.
Comparison of lock display modes
Understanding the differences between the lock screen modes will help you make an informed decision about which option to choose. Below is a table comparing the main features of the standard mode, the carousel and the Always On (AOD) mode, which is often confused with the carousel.
| Characteristics | Standard regimen | Wallpaper carousel | AOD (Always On Display) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type of image | Static (one photo) | Dynamic (changing) | Black and White/Simplified |
| Battery consumption | Minimum | Medium/High | Low (on OLED) |
| Using traffic | No. | Yes (constantly) | No (after downloading) |
| Advertising | No. | Maybe. | No. |
| Interactivity | Low. | High (widgets, swipes) | Medium (time/notifications only) |
And you can see from the table that the wallpaper carusole is the most resource-intensive option, which requires a constant connection to the network for content relevance, and uses the processor more actively to process new images. AMOLED-Carousels can consume more energy than static images because of the frequent change of pixels and brightness.
Standard mode is ideal for those who appreciate minimalism and maximum autonomy. AOD (Always On Display), in turn, serves for a quick look at time without turning on the main screen, but is not a full replacement for lock wallpaper, as it works on a switched off (almost) display.
Solution: Carousel doesn't turn off or glitch
Sometimes users are faced with a situation where they seemingly know how to change the wallpaper carousel on Xiaomi, but the settings do not apply, or the service behaves incorrectly: the images do not load, freeze or turn on again after a reboot. This can be caused by a software failure or cache of the system application.
The first step in solving the problem is to clean the application data. Go to Settings → Apps → All apps. Find the Wallpaper Carousel (or Wallpaper Carousel) in the list. Go to the app menu (three dots or a gear) and select Clear → All data. Fear not, this will not delete your personal photos, but reset the carousel settings to the factory.
If the problem persists, check for updates for system components. Often interface bugs are patched in security patches or MIUI version updates. It’s also worth checking if you have a third-party screen locking app installed that may conflict with standard Xiaomi functionality.
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If the carousel “resurrections” by itself, try after turning off in the settings to forcefully stop the application “Wallpaper Carousel” through the application management menu.
In rare cases, especially on global firmware versions, the service may be disguised under a different name or be part of the MSA (MIUI System Ads) package. In such cases, changing the ad settings in the Xiaomi account (via the site or account settings in the phone) can also affect the behavior of the carousel.