How to remove ad blocking on Xiaomi phone: official and hidden methods

Xiaomi’s MIUI-based smartphones are known for aggressive system-level ad blocking, which protects users from intrusive banners on the one hand, but can also interfere with some services, test advertising campaigns, or view legal content with monetization. Unlike standard blockers like AdBlock, the built-in MIUI protection acts profoundly: it filters DNS traffic, blocks the download of ad SDKs in apps, and even hides banners in the Mi Browser browser.

Complicating the problem, Xiaomi doesn’t provide an obvious switch to completely disable this feature. In the settings, you can only find the “Show recommendations” option — but it is only responsible for personalized advertising in the system menu, not for global blocking. In this article, we will discuss 5 proven ways to disable ad filtering on Redmi, POCO and Mi phones (relevant to MIUI 12-15), including hidden developer settings and bypass maneuvers for individual applications.

Why Xiaomi is blocking ads and can it be turned off safely?

The built-in ad blocking in MIUI works on the basis of three mechanisms:

• 🔒 DNS-filtering: redirecting ad domains to black holes (e.g., 0.0.0.0) using the domain database from Mi Security.
• 📱 Lockdown SDK: ban on downloading advertising libraries in applications (for example, com.google.android.gms.ads).
• 🌐 Modifying traffic: removing advertising elements from the HTML-Page code directly in the Mi Browser browser.

You can't turn it off completely without root rights, because some of the features are hardwired into firmware, but you can bypass the lock on individual applications or change the DNS settings to make sure that ads are displayed in the browser and some services.

⚠️ Warning: Disabling system protection may lead to increased traffic consumption (advertising) SDK This will be downloaded in the background and potential data leaks through insecure ad networks.

If you need to test your ad impressions in your app or see banners on a particular site, just use point methods from the following sections. To completely disable you will need to unlock the bootloader and install custom firmware (for example, Pixel Experience), which will void the warranty.

Method 1: Disable the lock in the Mi Browser settings

The easiest method is to set up the built-in Mi Browser browser, which by default filters ads through its own algorithms, which does not affect system lock, but allows you to see banners on websites:

1. Open the Mi Browser and tap on three points (⋮) top-right.
2. Select Settings → Privacy and Security.
3. Find the "Ad Block" option and turn it off.
4. Go back and go to Additional → Content Settings.
5. Activate the “Show images” option (sometimes ads are blocked as “unwanted content”).

After that, update the page - banner ads should appear. If the site still displays without ads, try clearing the browser cache (Settings → Clear data).

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If you need to test ad impressions on multiple sites, use the Incognito mode in Mi Browser, where ad blocking works less aggressively.

Method 2: Change DNS-servers

System lockdown MIUI partly based on DNS-If you replace the standard filtering. DNS-Xiaomi servers on alternatives (e.g. from Google or Cloudflare), some of the ads will start to appear:

1. Go to Settings → Connections and Sharing → Private DNS.
2. Select "Host Name of Private DNS Provider".
3. Enter one of the addresses: 🔹 dns.google (Google Public DNS) 🔹 1dot1dot1dot1.cloudflare-dns.com (Cloudflare) 🔹 dns.adguard.com (AdGuard, but with filtering turned off)

Save the settings and restart the phone.

To check the efficiency, open the site DNS Leak Test – the results should show the selected DNS-If the ad is still blocked, try the combination of this method and disable the lock in Mi Browser (Method 1).

Method 3: Disable "Safe Browsing" in MIUI settings

MIUI has a hidden Safe Browsing feature that blocks not only phishing sites, but also ad networks, and can be disabled via the security menu:

1. Open the Security app (the shield icon).
2. Go to the Browser section (or Network Protection in new versions).
3. Find the Safe Browse option and deactivate it.
4. Return to the main Security menu and open Settings → Privacy Protection.
5. Turn off "Tracking Protection" and "Blocking malicious sites".

These settings affect the system layer, so after disabling them, ads can appear even in third-party browsers (for example, Chrome or Firefox).However, some ad networks (for example, AppLovin or Unity Ads) will still be blocked, they will require manual editing of the hosts file (Method 4).

⚠️ Warning: Disabling Safe Browsing reduces protection against phishing attacks, do not visit suspicious sites or download files from unreliable sources.

Method 4: Editing the hosts file (for power users)

The hosts file in Android is responsible for matching domain names with IP-address. MIUI Adds entries to it to block ad domains (e.g. 127.0.0.1 doubleclick.net) to remove these restrictions, you need to edit the file manually. ADB-access.

If you don’t have root, use this workaround through ADB:

1. Install. ADB-computer-assist.
2. Connect your phone to your PC and allow debugging over USB (Settings → About Phone → MIUI Version → 7 times tap to activate the developer mode, then Settings → Additional → For Developers → Debugging over USB).
3. Open the command line (Windows) or terminal (macOS/Linux) and execute: adb shell su mount -o rw,remount /system rm /system/etc/hosts echo "127.0.0.1 localhost" > /system/etc/hosts chmod 644 /system/etc/hosts reboot

If you have root, use any file manager with superuser rights (such as Root Explorer), find the file /system/etc/hosts and delete all lines except 127.0.0.1 localhost. After the reboot, the ads will start to appear in the browser and some applications.

Make a backup copy of the original hosts file

Make sure that USB debugging is enabled

Install ADB drivers for Xiaomi

Connect your phone to your PC with the original cable

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Method 5: Using a VPN with Advertising Resolution

Some of them VPN-Services (e.g. ProtonVPN or Windscribe) allow you to bypass DNS-filtering MIUI, By redirecting traffic through its servers, the system's ad blocking remains active, but it doesn't work because of the routing change:

1. Install. VPN-App from Google Play (Recommend 1.1.1.1: Faster Internet by Cloudflare).
2. In the VPN settings, turn off the “Ad Block” option (if any).
3. Connect to a server in a country with minimal censorship (e.g. the United States or the Netherlands).
4. Open a browser or application where you need advertising.

To unlock the bootloader on Xiaomi, follow the official instructions:

1. Apply for unlocking via Xiaomi’s website (you will need a Mi Account and phone link).
2. Download the Mi Unlock Tool and connect your phone in Fastboot mode.
3. Wait for confirmation (may take up to 72 hours).
4. Once unlocked, install custom recovery (TWRP) and flash through the alternative firmware.

⚠️ Warning: Unlocking the bootloader resets all data on the phone and can lead to problems with the phone OTA-On some models (for example, Redmi Note 10 Pro) after unlocking, Widevine stops working. L1 (no HD Netflix, Disney.+).

FAQ: Frequent questions about ad blocking on Xiaomi