How to turn off location on Xiaomi: a step-by-step guide

Modern Xiaomi smartphones provide users with a huge amount of functionality, and one of the key modules is satellite navigation. It is necessary for maps, taxis and device search, but often remains on in the background, consuming resources. Many owners wonder how to turn off the location on Xiaomi to extend battery life or hide their geodata from applications.

Total shutdown GPS-The module is not just a way to save power, but also an important step in protecting personal privacy, and geolocation allows programs to track your movements even when you're not using them. In this article, we will discuss in detail all methods for managing coordinates in shells. MIUI HyperOS.

We'll look at both standard system settings and advanced features for advanced users, learn how to deny access to specific applications and what hidden engineering menus exist, and understand these processes will give you complete control over your device.

Basic management through notification curtain

The fastest way to temporarily stop the transmission of coordinates is to use a control panel, which is ideal for situations where you need to quickly hide the location or stop the background energy consumption, just swipe from the top edge of the screen down to open the curtain.

In the menu that opens, look for an icon that resembles an arrow or a pin. On different versions of firmware, it can be called Location or GPS. Pressing on this item instantly changes its status. If the icon is on blue or green, the module is active, if the gray is off.

But you have to understand that this is a global approach, and if you turn off geolocation through the curtain, you turn it off for the whole system at once, which means that the navigators will stop building routes, and the cameras will not be able to add geo-tags to the photo.

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Use a curtain to quickly switch modes, but remember that this does not remove the history of visits already saved in Google or Xiaomi services.

In some cases, the icon may not be on the main curtain page, then swipe to the right or press the edit button (usually a pencil or three dots) to add a switch to the visible panel.

Geolocation settings in the system menu

To fine-tune it, you need to go to the deep menu of the system, where the user accesses the control of accuracy and signal sources, go to Settings and find the section "Additional features" or "Privacy", depending on the version of your shell.

Inside the Location section, you'll see a general power slider. Below are important parameters that affect navigation. For example, Position Mode offers you the choice between high accuracy (GPS + Wi-Fi + networks) and battery saving (GPS only).

Using GPS-only mode significantly reduces the speed of indoor positioning, but saves battery life, while enabling Wi-Fi and Bluetooth scanning helps to find satellites in urban areas faster.

Also in this section, you often find a query log, which shows you which apps have asked for your coordinates in the last 24 hours or week, and it's a useful tool for identifying spyware.

Managing permissions for individual applications

Global shutdown GPS It's uncomfortable if you need the navigator to work and the social network not. MIUI You can flexibly manage access rights for each program separately. → Annexes → All applications.

Select the app from the list and find the "Allowances" item, where we're interested in the "Location" category, and the system will suggest a number of behaviors: "Always Allowed," "Only When Used," or "Forbidden."

The best choice for most programs is the “Only in Use” mode, in which case the application will receive coordinates only when it is open on the screen, and background access will be blocked, which will prevent hidden data transfer.

• 📍 Allowed – the application has full access to the GPS anytime, even in sleep mode.
• 📱 Only when used – access is only given while you are inside the app.
• 🚫 Prohibited – the program will not be able to access the coordinates in any way.

Be careful when setting up system applications, for example, disabling access to the camera may prevent it from adding geo-tags, and banning weather widgets will make them irrelevant for your region.

Specifics of work in HyperOS and new versions of MIUI

With the release of the HyperOS shell and the updated versions of MIUI 14, Xiaomi has increased its privacy controls, including the Virtual Location feature, or masking coordinates for individual applications, which allows you to swap real data for random or selected data.

In new systems, rights management has become more stringent, and when you first run an application, the system can insist on enabling geolocation, and it is important to read pop-ups carefully and choose "Disable" if access is not critical.

And the new firmware has also changed the way we go to customization, and now we often use a single privacy center where all the statistics come together, and you can see the heat map of the sensors that we use each day.

The new technology is designed to make it easier for users to turn off the module, but also to understand who is using their data when and when. It is more visual, but also more complex for inexperienced users.

Hidden settings and engineering menu

For advanced users, there is an option to access an engineering menu where you can control radio modules at a deeper level, a method that requires caution, as improper changes can disrupt communication.

To get into the testing menu, open the Phone app and dial the combination ##4636##. If the code didn't work, it's possible that your firmware version or region is blocking that access. From the menu that opens, select "Phone Information."

You can see the status of the various sensors and modules here, but it's worth noting that there may not be a direct switch to turn off GPS in the classic sense, since the system prioritizes this through standard Android settings.

⚠️ Warning: Do not change the settings in the engineering menu unless you are sure of their purpose.Resetting network settings can lead to temporary loss of cellular signal.

Using third-party GPS emulation apps (Fake GPS) also requires you to turn on the developer mode, clicking on the build number 7 times in the About Phone section, and then in additional settings, the Developer For App will appear, where you can select the app for a dummy location.

The impact of geolocation on the autonomy of the smartphone

GPS is one of the most energy-intensive components of a smartphone, and constant satellite search and triangulation through cell towers put a significant strain on the processor and radio, and turning off this feature is one of the most effective ways to extend the life of the device.

If you notice that your phone is running out of power or is warming up in your pocket, check the background. Often the culprits are apps that are constantly polling the location sensor, and battery consumption statistics show GPS usage rates over the past day.

Decreasing geolocation accuracy also helps save energy, and if you don’t need to navigate to within a meter, switching to Network or Charge Saving mode will allow the module to access satellites less frequently.

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Constantly active GPS-The module can reduce the battery life of the smartphone up to 30% per day depending on the intensity of card use.

In addition, disabling geolocation reduces the amount of data transmitted. Applications will not send packets with coordinates to analytics servers, which also positively affects the overall power consumption of the radio module.

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