How to turn off advertising on Xiaomi MIUI 11

Xiaomi smartphone users often encounter intrusive content that appears in the most unexpected places of the interface. MIUI 11, despite its advantages, has maintained an aggressive monetization policy by embedding ad units into system applications.This can be annoying, especially when pop-ups block important notifications or interfere with navigation.

Fortunately, the developers have left it to users to manage these settings themselves. Complete removal of ads requires a series of actions to be performed sequentially across menu sections. The system does not offer a single “turn off everything” button, so you have to go through several points.

In this article, we will discuss a detailed algorithm of actions that will help to clean the interface of unnecessary visual noise, you will learn where the main sources of promocional content are hidden and how to deactivate them without losing the functionality of the smartphone.

Disabling MSA and system advertising

The first and most important step is to deactivate the system service. MSA (MIUI System Ads. This is the component that loads and displays banner ads in the shell, and without disabling this service, the rest of the actions may not be effective.

First, you need to go to your phone's settings and find the Password and Security section, and you need to select "Access to Data" or "Accept Permissions," and you need to find msa in the app list that opens and deny it access to Wi-Fi and mobile data.

Once you've stopped access, the system will ask you to wait 10 seconds before you confirm an action, which is an artificial delay to dissuade the user from making a decision, so you have to wait until the timer ends and press "Disable." If you don't work the first time, you have to repeat the procedure several times.

⚠️ Attention: After the service is disconnected MSA Some interface elements may be temporarily rendered incorrectly. That's normal, and in a few minutes, the system will re-engineer.

Then you have to turn off the system's recommendation, go to Settings → Password & Security → Privacy. At the bottom of the list is Advertising Services, where you want to put the Receive Recommendations switch inactive.

Cleaning Standard Applications from Banners

Even after the system service is disabled, individual applications can continue to display ads if their internal settings are not changed. In MIUI 11, almost every standard application has its own ad recommendations switch.

Start with Explorer. Open the app, click on the three menu bars on the left and select Settings. You can find About and remove the box from Get Recommendations.

In the Security app, click on the gear in the top right corner. In the settings menu, find the Get Recommendations section and turn it off. It's also worth checking the Cleanup section, as ads may appear after the scan is completed.

• 📁 Topics: Profile → Settings (cogs) → Hide banners → Turn it on.
• 🎵 Music: Menu → Settings → Advanced settings → Show an advert → Turn it off.
• 📂 Downloads: Three dots → Settings → Showing recommended → Turn it off.

Also, be sure to check the settings for the Music and Video app, where ads are often built into the My Playlist or home screen, and disabling recommendations in those sections makes the interface cleaner and more functional.

Setting up the Mi Browser browser

Xiaomi’s standard browser is known for its aggressive advertising policy. News, notifications and banners can appear all the time unless you do a deep setup_privacy_ parameters.

Open your browser and go to settings through the bottom menu. Select the Privacy and Security section. You need to turn off Personalized Recommendations. This will remove the news feed from the home screen.

Also, go to Notifications inside your browser settings, disable all notifications from sites you don't visit regularly, which are often the source of pop-ups even when the browser is closed.

⚠️ Note: Deleting the system browser completely may cause some system functions to fail, and it is better to simply disable notifications and not use it as the main browser.

For more advanced users, it is recommended to install a third-party browser, such as Firefox or Chrome, and assign it to the default browser. This completely eliminates the appearance of advertising from the MIUI engine.

Removing Advertising in Folders and on the Desktop

One of the most annoying things about MIUI is that you have ad cards in your desktop folders, and when you open your app folder, you can see a Recommended Apps block at the bottom.

To remove this, open any folder on your desktop. At the top of the folder window, you'll see the folder name and next to it a small switch or settings icon (depending on the MIUI 11 build version).

In the menu that opens, find the item “Recommended Apps” or “Promoted Apps” and turn it off. After that, the ad blocks will disappear from all folders on the desktop instantly.

Also worth checking is the widget settings. Some widgets preinstalled in the system can load ad content. Remove unused widgets from the desktop to improve performance.

Comparison of disconnection methods

There are several ways to deal with intrusive content, and they vary in complexity and effectiveness. Below is a table to help you choose the best method for your situation.

The safest and most recommended way is to manually disable services through settings.Using ADB (Android Debug Bridge) gives you deeper control, but requires a computer connection and certain skills.

If you are not sure about your actions, it is better to limit yourself to standard methods through the settings menu, which ensures that the operating system will work smoothly without the risk of accidental removal of critical components.

💡

A comprehensive approach that combines disabling MSA and configuring each application gives the best result without the need for root rights.

Using ADB for Advanced Users

For those who want to achieve perfect system cleanliness, there is a method of using USB debugging, which allows you to remove or freeze the system packages responsible for advertising at a depth level.

To start, activate the developer mode. Go to About Phone and quickly click on MIUI seven times. Then, in the advanced settings, turn on USB Debugging.

Connect your phone to your computer and use the command to remove ad packets. Example of commands to remove the analytics component:

adb shell pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.miui.analytics

You can also remove the com.miui.misys package, which is responsible for collecting system data, but beware: removing system components can cause some functions to function unstable, such as updating themes or running an app store.

⚠️ Attention: Before use ADB Make sure to back up your data completely. Returning remote system packages may require resetting to factory settings.

If after removing the packets, the phone began to behave strangely, you can always return everything back using the install command with the original. APK-file or reset settings.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

💡

Check the App Updates section in the GetApps store periodically. Sometimes, old ad settings may return with updates to system components.