How to turn off ads on Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro: the full guide

Owners of Xiaomi’s flagship devices often face intrusive ads that appear in system applications. Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro, despite its premium status and transparent back panel, is no exception to the company’s marketing policies. Built-in advertising is designed to compensate for the low cost of devices, but for many users it becomes a source of irritation.

Fortunately, MIUI provides flexible tools to fine-tune the interface. Complete removal of advertising debris requires several steps to be taken in sequence across menu sections. Ignoring even one item can cause banners to continue popping up at inappropriate times, such as when you unlock the screen.

In this detailed guide, we’ll break down all the known ways to block intrusive content, touch on the settings of the msa system service, disable personalized recommendations, and block ads in standard applications, and follow this guide will turn your smartphone into a pure tool for work and entertainment.

Disabling the MSA system service

At the heart of Xiaomi’s advertising ecosystem is the MSA (MIUI System Ads) system application, which is responsible for loading and displaying most banners in the interface, and the first and most important step will be to unauthorize this service through security settings.

To start, you need to go to the device settings menu. Find the Passwords and Security section and select Data Access. From the app list that opens, find msa and put the slider inactive. The system will warn you of the consequences, you will need to wait 10 seconds and confirm the action.

⚠️ Note: If the switch does not turn off the first time and there is an error "Can not turn off", repeat the procedure 3-4 This is a well-known feature of service protection, which is often solved by multiple attempts.

After successful disabling of msa, the number of ads in the system will be significantly reduced. However, this process can automatically activate again after a firmware update or reboot.

Configure recommendations in system folders

Another source of visual noise is desktop folders, and by default, MIUI adds a Recommended Apps block to it, which loads advertising icons, and you can remove this item through the hidden menu of each individual folder.

Open any folder on the home screen where the apps are collected. At the top of the window, next to the folder name, you'll see a gear icon or just an empty space to click on. In the menu that opens, find the Recommended Applications switch and deactivate it.

It's important to do this for each folder on the desktop separately, and there's no global switch for all folders at once in the standard launcher settings. It takes a while, but the result is worth it, and it's clean and rigorous.

• 📱 Open the folder with applications on the desktop.
• ⚙️ Click on the folder name or settings icon at the top.
• ❌ Find the "Recommended Apps" item and turn it off.
• 🔄 Repeat the action for all other folders.

Once you disable the recommendations, the folders will only display the programs you have installed, which not only improves visual perception, but also saves traffic, as there is no constant loading of banner ads in the background.

Cleaning the "Security" and "Lower" application

Standard Xiaomi utilities, such as the Security app and the bootloader, also contain built-in advertising modules. In Security, banners often appear when a scan or memory is started, and in bootloader, as news and offers.

To remove the ads in the Security app, run it and click on the gear icon in the upper right corner. In the settings menu, find Receive recommendations and turn it off. It's also worth checking the About section, where the Recommendation switch sometimes hides.

The Downloads application uses a similar algorithm: Open the app, go to the settings via the menu (three dots or bars) and find the Settings section, where you turn off the option to Show recommended content, which will remove the news feed and advertising blocks from the downloads start page.

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Check updates to standard apps periodically via GetApps or Google Play_MIUI_ The location of the switches may change, new advertising modules may be added._

Don’t ignore cleaning the cache of these apps after making changes, this will help remove already downloaded banner ads that may be displayed for a while even after you turn off settings. You can do this in the Applications → All Apps → Security → Memory → Clean.

Removing Advertising in Mi Browser

Xiaomi’s standard browser is known for its aggressive advertising policy, showing news notifications, pop-ups and banners on the homepage, and deep tuning of the app is essential for comfortable surfing.

First, open your browser and go to settings. Find the Privacy and Security section. Here you should activate the ad blocker if it is available in your version, and disable Push notifications from sites. Also, in the general browser settings, find the Receive news and notifications and turn it off.

If standard methods do not remove all ads, it makes sense to consider alternative browsers. Installing Chrome, Firefox or Brave will completely get rid of the ad mechanisms built into Xiaomi’s proprietary browser. In addition, third-party browsers often have more effective built-in blockers.

Disabling advertising in the application "Music" and "Video"

Mi Music and Mi Video are also not without ads, and banners can appear when you start an application, in a track library, or when you switch songs, and you need to be careful to turn them off.

In the Music app, go to the menu (three bars) and select Settings. Find the Advanced Settings or About section. You need to turn off the Receive Recommendations and Show Ads option. In some firmware versions, this item is hidden in the About submenu, where you need to quickly click on the logo several times.

You need to do the same thing in the Video app. Open a user profile or settings menu, find the Settings section, and turn off Online Recommendations and AutoRun Videos, which will not only remove ads, but also prevent traffic from preloading video content.

• 🎵 Open the Music app and go to Settings.
• 🚫 Find and disable the item "Get recommendations".
• 🎬 In the Video app, disable "Online recommendations".
• 📡 Disallow background data transfers for these applications.

It's worth noting that once online features are turned off, some features, such as displaying album covers from the Internet or lyrics, may stop working, but this is not critical for local file playback, and the speed of applications will increase markedly.

Blocking Advertising through Private DNS

One of the most effective and versatile ways to combat advertising at the system level is to use a private DNS. This method does not require the installation of additional applications and works in all browsers and most programs.

To set up, go to Settings → Connection & Sharing → Private DNS. Select DNS Host Name and enter dns.adguard.com. Save settings. After that, your Xiaomi Mi 8 Pro will start filtering traffic by weeding out requests to known ad servers.

⚠️ Attention: Use of third-party DNS It can cause some applications that are tied to ad networks for authorization or functionality to work unstable. If you notice problems with the work of specific programs, temporarily disable Private DNS.

The advantage of this method is that it is global, you don’t have to dig into the settings of each application separately, but it is worth remembering that Private DNS does not block ads that are downloaded from the same domains as content (for example, YouTube or embedded advertising in some games), for such cases, more complex measures will be required, such as installing AdGuard or using modified versions of applications.

FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions

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A comprehensive approach, including disabling MSA, configuring each application and using Private DNS, ensures maximum purity of the interface and improves the performance of the smartphone.