How to adjust the brightness on the Xiaomi phone: 5 ways + troubleshooting

Screen brightness is one of the key parameters affecting smartphone comfort, autonomy and even eye health. Too high brightness speeds up battery discharge and causes fatigue during long reading, and too low makes it difficult to perceive content in the sun. Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO have several ways to customize this setting, including adaptive adjustment, manual control and even hidden functions for fine calibration.

In this article, we will look at all the available methods, from basic to advanced, including setting through MIUI, engineering menus and third-party applications, and focus on the typical problems: when brightness spontaneously changes, does not respond to the light sensor or “stuck” at a minimum/maximum level, if your Xiaomi behaves inadequately, here you will find a solution.

1. Basic brightness setting through the notification curtain

The fastest way to adjust brightness is to use the Quick Settings Panel, which works on all Xiaomi models (from the Redmi Note 4X to the Xiaomi 14 Ultra) and does not require in-depth knowledge.

To change the brightness:

• 📱 Swipe down from the top edge of the screen to open the notification curtain.
• 🔍 Find the brightness slider (usually located to the right of the battery icon).
• ☀️ Move the slider to the left (reduce) or to the right (increase).
• ⚙️ Click on the gear icon next to the slider to go to the advanced settings (optional).

Note that if the slider is missing, it may be hidden to bring it back:

1. Open the Settings. → Control panel.
2. Find the Brightness element and drag it to the active area.

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If the brightness slider disappears after the MIUI update, try resetting the control panel settings: Settings → Control Panel → Reset to standard.

Automatic (adaptive) brightness: how to turn on and calibrate

Adaptive brightness automatically adjusts the screen’s illumination to the light conditions using an ambient light sensor, a feature that is useful for saving battery and reducing eye strain, but often works incorrectly – for example, changing the brightness too dramatically or “hanging” at one level.

To enable adaptive brightness:

1. Go to Settings → Display.
2. Activate the Automatic Brightness (or Adaptive Brightness in newer versions of MIUI) switch.
3. To fine-tune, tap the gear icon next to the switch.

And you'll see a graph on the calibration menu that shows the luminance versus illumination.

• 📊 Change the adaptation curve by shifting the dots on the graph.
• 🌓 Set minimum and maximum brightness thresholds.
• 🔄 Reset the settings to factory (if the sensor is not working properly).

⚠️ Warning: If the adaptive brightness has turned on, the screen becomes too dim in dark rooms, check if the light sensor is closed (usually located next to the front camera.

3. Manual brightness control in MIUI settings

For those who prefer fixed brightness values, MIUI provides advanced options, where you can set separate levels for day and night time, as well as adjust automatic change on a schedule.

Instructions:

1. Open the settings → Display → Brightness.
2. Turn off Automatic Brightness (if enabled).
3. Move the slider manually or select one of the preset values (e.g. 25%, 50%, 75%).
4. For a schedule, tap the brightness schedule and set time intervals.

In some models (for example, Xiaomi 13T or POCO F5) is available option Comfortable brightness – it automatically reduces the backlight to a safe level during long reading.

4. Hidden brightness settings through the engineering menu

If standard methods do not produce the desired result (for example, the screen is too dim even at maximum), you can turn to the engineering menu, which is suitable for experienced users and requires caution - incorrect changes can lead to failures of the display.

To open the engineering menu:

1. Open the Phone app.
2. Enter the code ##36446337##
3. Choose LCD Setting or Display (depending on the model).

In this menu, parameters are available:

• 🔧 Brightness Mode - Adjustment mode (manual/automatic).
• 📈 Max Brightness – maximum level of backlighting (can be increased above the standard 100%).
• 🌡️ Sensor Calibration – Calibration of the light sensor.

⚠️ Note: Changing Max Brightness above factory values can shorten the life of the matrix and increase battery consumption. On some models (for example, Redmi Note 10 Pro), exceeding 500 nits leads to overheating of the screen.

5. Brightness adjustment via ADB (for advanced users)

If you need to set the brightness value accurately (for example, for testing or automation), you can use ADB (Android Debug Bridge), which requires connecting the phone to a PC and turning on the developer mode.

Step-by-step:

1. Activate Developer Mode: Go to Settings → About Phone and tap the MIUI version 7 times.
2. Return to Settings → Additional → For developers and enable USB debugging.
3. Connect your phone to your PC, open the command line and type in: adb shell settings put system screen_brightness 150 (where 150 — valence 0 before 255).

To check the current brightness, use the command:

adb shell settings get system screen_brightness

To control adaptive brightness through ADB:

adb shell settings put system screen_brightness_mode 1

(where 1 is automatic, 0 is manual).

Install Xiaomi drivers on PC

Enable debugging over USB

Download the ADB platform (for example, from Google)

Connect your phone with the original cable (not all cables support data transfer)

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6. Solving brightness issues on Xiaomi

If the brightness of the screen is unstable (spontaneously changing, not responding to settings or getting stuck), the reasons can be both software and hardware.

6.1. The brightness does not change when moving the slider

Possible causes and solutions:

• 🔄 Failure MIUI: Reset your phone. If it doesn't work, reset your display settings (Settings). → Display. → Reset the settings).
• 🛠️ Damaged Software: Update the firmware through Settings → Update the system or reflash the phone manually.
• 🔌 Hardware malfunction: If the slider moves but the brightness does not change, there may be a problem with the display plume or matrix.

The adaptive brightness is not working properly

Most of the time, it's connected to the light sensor.

• 🧹 Sensor cleanliness: Wipe the area around the front camera with soft cloth.
• 🔦 Calibration: Go to Settings → Display. → Automatic brightness → Calibration and follow the instructions.
• 📱 Third-party applications: Some programs (e.g. Lux Auto Brightness) may conflict with system adaptive brightness.

6.3 The screen is too dim even at maximum

Possible solutions:

• 🔋 Power Saving Mode: Turn it off in Settings → Battery.
• 🌗 Dark subject: In some firmware, it's forced to dim the brightness. Try switching to a light topic.
• 🛠️ Resetting: Perform reset to factory via Settings → The phone. → Resetting settings (pre-reverse backup!).

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If the brightness problem has occurred after the MIUI update, try rolling back on the previous firmware version or wait for a patch from Xiaomi. Often, the display bugs are fixed in the next updates.

7. Third-party applications for brightness control

If standard MIUI tools don't suit you, you can use third-party tools, which offer advanced features: smooth adjustment, color temperature adjustment, time-of-day automation and geolocation.

Top.-3 apps:

Check compatibility with your Xiaomi model before installing it – some apps may not work properly on newer versions of MIUI (e.g. MIUI 14).

⚠️ Note: Brightness control applications require permission to Overlay other applications and Change system settings. Provide these only to verified programs from official sources.

FAQ: Frequent questions about brightness settings on Xiaomi