Smartphones from the Poco brand, a sub-brand of Xiaomi, are known for their incredible performance and bargain price. However, when buying a device at an affordable price, users often encounter intrusive software that displays banner ads in system applications, a phenomenon that has become the hallmark of the MIUI shell and its current version of HyperOS, causing irritation among many owners of equipment.
Advertising integrations can appear in unexpected places: when you unlock the screen, in the Tools folder, in the Explorer app, or even in the standard Music Player. Fortunately, the system allows you to completely deactivate these functions, returning the phone to its original appearance and clean interface. In this article, we will discuss all the available methods that will help you forget about intrusive offers on Poco F3 forever.
The process of disabling does not require obtaining superuser rights or flashing the device to global versions from other markets. All the necessary settings are hidden in the depth of the menu, but we will show the exact ways to do them.
Basic system setup and MSA disabling
The centerpiece of the advertising ecosystem in Xiaomi and Poco devices is a system service called MSA (MIUI System Ads), which is responsible for collecting your preferences and displaying the relevant banners in the interface, the first and most important step is to force the service to stop and disable through authorization settings.
You need to go to the smartphone settings menu first, find the security and privacy section, and the path may vary slightly depending on the shell version, but the logic remains the same, and you need to find the authorization and Mi Account item.
In the list of system services that opens, find the msa string. The activation slider next to it will be located. Click on it to initiate the shutdown process. The system will warn you that some functions may stop working correctly, and will prompt you to wait 10 seconds before the final confirmation.
When the timer runs out, press the "Disable" button. If the service didn't turn off the first time and it gave an error, repeat the procedure 2-3 times in a row. Often the company's servers are overloaded and it takes several attempts to successfully execute the command, this is a critical step, without which the rest of the settings may not be effective.
☑️ Checking the shutdown MSA
After successfully disabling the MSA, you will notice that the number of pop-ups in standard utilities has decreased significantly, but to achieve the ideal result, you need to do an additional fine-tuning of personalization.
Disabling personalized recommendations
Even after the main ad service is blocked, the mechanisms that Xiaomi calls “personalized recommendations” remain in the system, in fact, these are the same ad integrations disguised as useful tips or content suggestions, which can appear in the tool folder, in the Security app and in the settings menu.
To remove them, go back to the main settings menu and find the Password and Security section. In some firmware versions, this item may be simply called “Security” or be entered into a separate “Privacy” sub-menus, and you need to find a switch called “Receive recommendations.”
Deactivating this slider will prevent the system from analyzing your actions and offering apps or games based on your usage history.
⚠️ Warning: After disabling recommendations, the interface of some system applications (such as Music or Video) may look empty.This is normal, as the tiles with news and suggested tracks will disappear, but your personal files will remain in place.
It's also worth checking the settings of the particular Security app, which is the control center of the system. Open it, click on the gear in the upper right corner, and find "Get recommendations." Make sure it's also off.
Why are the settings resetting?
Setting up the desktop and tool folder
One of the most prominent areas for posting advertising content in the MIUI shell is the Tools folder on the desktop. By default, it contains news widgets that are downloaded from the Internet and often contain promotional articles or offers.
To clean your desktop, press and hold your finger on the blank space of the screen to go into edit mode. Select a news widget or wallpaper carousel card if you don't need one, and remove it, which will make room and remove the source of constant visual noise.
Next, go to the desktop settings. To do this, press the blank area of the screen and select Settings. Find the wallpaper carousel or Glance section and turn it off if you don't use the image change feature on the locked screen, a feature that is often a source of intrusive brand advertising.
- 📱 Tool folder: Remove the News or Hot apps widget from the system utilities folder.
- 🖼️ Wallpaper carousel: Turn off in the theme or desktop settings to remove ads on the lock screen.
- 🔍 Google Search: In the search widget, you can disable the display of the news feed (Discover), which also contains advertising blocks.
After that, your desktop will be much cleaner, and you'll only see app shortcuts, without distractions, which is especially important for users who value minimalism and productivity.
Cleaning up standard applications
System applications such as Explorer, Downloads, Themes, and Music also have their own ad settings, and even when the MSA is disabled, they may still have local switches that activate banner displays.
Start with the Explorer app, open it, click on the menu (three bars) and select Settings, find the Guidelines or Get Recommendations and deactivate it, a similar procedure to be done in the Downloads app.
In Themes, ads are the most aggressive. Go to the user profile (human icon), then to the settings, where you need to turn off the "Show ads," "Autoplay videos" and "Personal recommendations," which will make the directory all the more convenient for navigation.
| Annex | The path to adjustment | What to turn off |
|---|---|---|
| Conductor | Menu → Settings | Receive recommendations |
| Security | Settings (cogs) | Receive recommendations |
| Topics | Profile → Settings | Showing advertising, Autoplay |
| Downloads. | Menu (three dots) → Settings | Receive recommendations |
Also, be sure to check the Music app, which often hides the “Use the Internet” or “Show recommendations” option in its settings, which loads covers and news while simultaneously loading banner ads.
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If you don't use the standard Mi Video player, you'd better delete it right away or turn it off in your app settings. It's one of the most active sources of advertising in the background.
Using DNS to block
There is a more advanced but highly effective method of combating advertising, the use of a private DNS (Private DNS), which works at the network level and blocks requests to known ad servers, preventing them from downloading content to your Poco F3.
To implement this method, you do not need to install third-party applications. Just change one setting in the system. Go to Settings → Connection and Sharing → Private DNS (or Settings → Wi-Fi → Private DNS).
Select the option “DNS Host Name” (or “Manual”) and enter the address of a trusted lock service. The most popular and verified option is dns.adguard.com. After entering the address, save the settings.
dns.adguard.comThis method has its advantages: it blocks ads not only in the system, but also in the browser, and in some applications that use system libraries to display banners. However, if the DNS server is unavailable, you may have problems with your Internet connection, so in case of failures, you will need to return the setting to Auto mode.
⚠️ Note: When using Private DNS Some apps or sites may stop loading correctly if they use the same domains as ad networks.If you encounter problems accessing resources, temporarily disable this feature.
Additional measures and resetting of advertising identifier
The final touch is to reset the advertising ID, which is a unique code that is assigned to your device to target ads, and resetting it won't remove the ads completely, but it will reset the profile that the system has collected about you.
Find the Privacy section or Google in the settings. Depending on the Android version and shell, the path may be called Google → Advertising, and you will see the button “Reset Ad ID” or “Delete Ad ID” and click it to perform the operation.
Also worth noting is GetApps (formerly Mi Apps), an app store from Xiaomi that often sends notifications about discounts and new items, and if you don’t use third-party stores, notifications from it can be completely disabled in the notification settings of a particular app.
- 🔄 Reset ID: Regularly reset your Google Advertising ID to reset your profile.
- 🔔 Notifications: Check the list of all applications and disable notifications for suspicious system utilities.
- 🚫 GetApps: Completely remove or freeze the GetApps store if you don’t use alternative software directories.
By doing all of these steps, you can turn Poco F3 into a clean interface, free of intrusive marketing, and your smartphone will work faster as it stops wasting resources on downloading advertising content.
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A comprehensive approach, including disabling MSA, configuring applications and using DNS, guarantees 99% of the system’s ad-free experience.