Setup themes on Xiaomi: from standard to custom solutions

Xiaomi’s smartphone design theme is not just a background image, but a whole range of visuals that transform MIUI beyond recognition. From app icons to screen-switch animations, a properly chosen theme can make your phone more comfortable and sometimes more productive. But how can you find the right one in the Mi Theme Store, among the thousands of options, that suits your needs? And what if standard solutions aren’t enough?

In this article, we’ll look at all the ways you can customize themes on Xiaomi, including the hidden MIUI 14/15 features, custom themes through.mtz files, and even solving typical problems like “gray icons” or theme failures. We’ll focus on Redmi, POCO and Xiaomi 13/14 flagships, where the settings may be different. And if you like experiments, you’ll find instructions for creating your own theme from scratch.

1. Standard Topics: Where to Look and How to Set Up

The basic way to change the theme to Xiaomi is through the built-in Mi Theme Store, which is pre-installed on all MIUI devices and offers both free and paid options.

• 📱 Open the Themes app (the icon with a brush on the home screen or in the app menu).
• 🔍 In the top row of the search, type in keywords (such as “dark,” “minimalism,” or “dark "AMOLED").
• 🎨 In the "Recommended" or "Top" section, select your favorite topic and click "Apply".
• 🔄 To preview, click on the theme thumbnail – a gallery with screen examples will open.

Important: some themes require subscriptions (e.g. Mi VIP) Free options are usually marked with a green "FREE" tag, and pay attention to the rating and number of downloads, which will help to avoid low-quality bug themes.

⚠️ Attention: On devices with MIUI For a global market (e.g. Redmi Note 12 Global), some topics can be blocked due to regional restrictions, the solution being to change the region in the Mi Account settings (but this will entail resetting some data!).

If you haven’t found a suitable theme in the official store, try alternative sources:

• 🌐 Miuier Themes is the largest database of custom themes for MIUI.
• 📁 Telegram channels, like, @MIUIThemes or @XiaomiThemes, Where users share.mtz files.

2. Install custom themes through.mtz files

.mtz files are archives of themes that can be manually installed, and this method is suitable for those that are downloaded from third-party sources or created independently.

1. Download the.mtz file to your device (for example, via a browser or Telegram).
2. Move the file to the MIUI/theme folder on the internal storage (create it if it doesn’t exist).
3. Open the Topics app and go to My Topics → Import.
4. Select the downloaded file and confirm the installation.

After applying the theme, you may need to restart the device. If the icons are displayed incorrectly (for example, remain standard), try:

• 🔄 Re-apply the topic.
• 📱 Clear the cache of the "Themes" application in the settings (Settings) → Annexes → Application management → Topics → Warehouse → Clear the cache).
• 🔧 Enable the option "Forced use" in the developer settings (relevant to the MIUI 14+).

⚠️ Note: Installing themes from unverified sources may contain malicious code. Before installing, check files through VirusTotal and read reviews on forums (for example, check the files on the forums, 4PDA or XDA Developers).

Download.mtz file from a trusted source |

Create a MIUI/theme folder on internal storage |

Check the file for viruses |

Backup current topic (export to My topics")-->

3. Set up individual elements of the topic

Not all users want to change the theme completely, but you can customize individual interface elements in MIUI:

For advanced users, customization is available via ADB. For example, to apply icons from one theme and wallpaper from another, use the commands:

adb shell cmd overlay enable --user 0 com.android.theme.icon_pack.custom


adb shell cmd overlay enable --user 0 com.android.theme.wallpaper.custom

On devices with MIUI 15, the Dynamic Themes feature has appeared, which automatically adjusts the color palette of the interface to the wallpaper. Activated in Settings → Screen → Dynamic Colors.

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If after changing the theme, the weather widgets or clock on the home screen are gone, try to delete and re-add the widget through a long press on the desktop → “Widgets”.

4. Create your own theme for Xiaomi

If you don't find the perfect theme, you can create it yourself.

• 🖥️ Computer with Photoshop or GIMP (icon-editing).
• 📦 Archive with theme templates for MIUI (down-to-earth XDA Developers).
• 🛠️ Programme MIUI Theme Editor for packing.mtz file.

The process of creating the theme includes:

1. Icon design (size 192×192 px, PNG format with transparency).
2. Wallpaper creation (resolution of at least 1080×2340 px for Full HD+ screens).
3. Set up a color scheme in the file colors.xml (Responsible for menu background, buttons, etc.).
4. Package in.mtz via MIUI Theme Editor.

You can test the finished theme on your device or publish it to the Mi Theme Store (developer account required) and you can find detailed themes on XDA Developers.

5. Solving theme issues on Xiaomi

Even official topics sometimes don't work properly, and here are the typical problems and solutions.

If the theme causes the device to freeze or overheat, return the standard theme immediately and remove the problem theme.

1. Go to Settings → About Phone → MIUI version.
2. Click on the MIUI version 7 times to activate the developer mode.
3. Back to Settings → Additionally. → For developers.
4. Find the "Reset themes" option and confirm the action.

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Before installing custom themes, always back up the current configuration through My Themes → Export, which will quickly restore the interface to work when crashes.

6. Optimizing themes for AMOLED-screen

On devices with AMOLED-screens (for example, Xiaomi 13 Pro, Redmi) K60 Pro) Dark themes not only look stylish, but they also save battery life. Here's how to optimize the theme for these displays as much as possible:

• 🌑 Use themes with a clean black background (RGB: 0, 0, 0), not dark gray.
• 🔲 Turn off animations in Settings → Special facilities → Remove animations.
• 📱 Install static wallpaper instead of live (they consume additional energy).
• 🔋 Activate the Dark Theme mode for all applications in Settings → Screen. → Dark subject.

To check the actual color of the pixels, use the AMOLED Black Test app, and if the screen shows gray instead of black, the theme uses suboptimal colors.

⚠️ Note: On certain devices (e.g, POCO F5) When you turn on a dark theme, you can lose interface elements in third-party applications, so the solution is to manually adjust the dark mode for each application in its settings.

7 Themes for different versions of MIUI: what has changed

The functionality of the themes depends on the version of MIUI. Below is a comparison of the features in different versions:

MIUI 15 has introduced the Adaptive Icons feature, which automatically adjusts the shape of icons to the selected style (round, square, rounded). Activated in Settings → Home screen → Icon Style.

For devices on MIUI 12/13 Some modern themes may not be supported, in which case manual editing of the description.ini file inside the.mtz archive (you need to change the line) will help. miui_version on your version).

FAQ: Frequent questions about setting up topics