How to turn off shades of gray on Xiaomi: the complete guide

The sudden disappearance of all colors from the screen of a Xiaomi or Redmi smartphone can cause panic in any owner. Instead of the usual bright interface, the user sees only a dull black and white picture resembling old newspaper clippings or devices with E-Ink screens. Most often this is not a breakdown of the matrix, but an accidentally activated system function designed to reduce eye strain or help in concentration.

MIUI and its more recent version of HyperOS have a wide range of personalization tools, including the "E-book" or "Shades of Grey" option, which can be set up on a schedule, triple tapping or software failure, and color recovery usually takes less than a minute if you know where to look for the switch.

In this article, we will look at all possible causes of monochrome images, from standard accessibility settings to hidden engineering menus, learn how to distinguish between software bugs and physical damage to the display, and learn how to prevent this mode from being turned on again in the future.

The main reasons for the emergence of the black and white regime

Before you start treating a smartphone, you need to understand the nature of the problem, and 90 percent of the time, it's the activated E-book mode, which is designed specifically for those who read a lot from the screen, because it reduces blue light and mimics the appearance of ink on paper, which is theoretically less tiring for long-term reading.

But there's a second, less obvious reason: accessibility settings for people with visual impairments, the Special Options section, which includes options for colorblind or visually impaired users that can invert colors or completely remove saturation, and accidentally tapping this menu or crashing after updating the MIUI firmware often causes the phone to go into monochrome mode.

⚠️ Note: If the screen turns black and white immediately after a smartphone drops or moisture hits, software methods may not help, in which case the display plume or image controller may be physically damaged.

Also worth mentioning are third-party applications: some battery or reading software "optimizers" may have their own permissions to change the system's color scheme, and if you've recently installed software from unverified sources, that's where the problem may lie.

Disconnecting the mode of the e-book in MIUI

The most common scenario is to activate the read mode. In the Xiaomi interface, this feature is often called "E-book." To check its status, you need to follow the main settings menu. Find the Screen or Screen Settings section, where brightness and color temperature are usually located.

Inside the menu, you'll see Read Mode or E-Book, and when you go to this subsection, the system will offer two options: classic (yellowish) and monochrome (black and spruce), and the second option turns your smartphone into a Kindle-like kind. To turn off, you just need to move the slider to an inactive position.

Often, users forget that they could set this mode to automatically turn on for certain applications, for example, you could have indicated that when you run a browser or a book application, the phone switched to black and white mode itself, checking application lists is an important stage of diagnosis.

It's important to note that the path may be slightly different in different versions of the firmware. In older versions of MIUI, it could be in the "Themes" or "Battery" section, but in current builds, the logic is stored in the display block. If you don't find the switch, try searching by settings by typing the phrase "read" or "gray."

Setting up special features and accessibility

If the read mode is turned off and the colors are not returned, the next candidate for verification is the special features section. Android and its shells provide powerful tools for people with disabilities, which are sometimes activated by accident.

Within this menu, look at the Visibility Improvement tab or Text and Display Customizations, where you can activate Color Correction or Color Inversion, and in some cases, users will accidentally tick the box against "Shades of Grey" thinking it's a contrast setting.

It's also worth checking out the Digital Well-Being settings. Google has introduced Screen Time, which has a Sleep mode, and in this mode, the screen also turns black and white to reduce the appeal of the smartphone before bed, and see if you have a schedule for activating this mode.

⚠️ Note: Some accessibility settings may overwrite system color settings. If you change the option in the accessibility section, it will take precedence over the usual screen settings.

And don't ignore the ability to control through hotkeys, because the special feature menu often has an option called "Accessibility key" or assigning actions to the volume buttons, and you may have accidentally pinched the key combination that switched the display mode.

Use of engineering menu and debugging

For advanced users who don't find a solution in the standard menu, there's a deeper level of customization, the engineering menu, and you can access it through the Phone app by typing in a special code. But beware, changing the settings here can affect the radio modules and the sensor.

Dial ##6484## or ##4636## (codes may vary depending on the Snapdragon or MediaTek processor model). If you open the CIT or Testing menu, you should look for sections related to Display or Color. Here you can check for software test modes that may have stuck.

Another method is to use USB debugging and ADB commands if you have access to a computer. The command to reset color settings can vary, but often helps resetting the access rights of applications that may have intercepted the control of the display. This is true if the problem occurred after installing a new launcher or theme.

If you use custom themes from MIUI Themes, try switching to the standard theme "Classic" or "No Limits." Some third-party themes contain errors in the code that force the monochrome filter to be enabled at the system level, ignoring the basic settings.

Verification of third-party applications and themes

Modern smartphones allow deep customization of the interface, but it carries risks.The eye protection app installed from Google Play can conflict with Xiaomi's system read mode.

Pay special attention to launcher apps (Nova Launcher, Apex, etc.) and reading programs. If the problem only appears in one particular application, then it's the internal settings of the application, go to the Settings of the application itself and look for the Night mode or Grayscale switches there.

It is also worth checking whether the traffic saving mode or the ultra-economical mode in the settings is included. SIM-Maps or mobile internet, although this rarely affects colors, some operators have content optimizing services that can visually degrade the image.

💡

To quickly diagnose, run your smartphone in Safe Mode, and if the colors are normal in this mode, then one of the apps you have installed is causing the problem.

Resetting settings and hardware problems

Once the software methods are exhausted, the radical step is to completely reset your settings (Hard Reset).Be sure to back up all the important data before that, as the process will remove all the information from the internal memory. Go to Settings -> About phone -> Reset.

If even after resetting to factory settings and initial settings without installing third-party programs, the screen remains black and white, the probability of hardware failure tends to 100%.

If you suspect hardware, don’t try to disassemble your smartphone yourself if you don’t have experience. Xiaomi displays are often glued to a frame, and a careless opening can lead to glass breaking or battery damage.

⚠️ WARNING: A full reset will delete all your photos, contacts and apps. Make sure you have an up-to-date copy of the data in the Mi Cloud or on your computer.

Contact an authorized service center, especially if the device is warranty-free.Intervention in the event of a hardware breakdown can lead to the final loss of warranty.

💡

If after a complete system reset (Factory Reset) the screen remained black and white, the problem is hardware in nature and requires repair in the service center.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)