Xiaomi, Redmi and Poco smartphone owners often encounter intrusive ads that appear in the most unexpected places, including the lock screen, which can be annoying, distracting and even creating the feeling that the device is controlled by someone else, but in most cases it is not a virus, but a regular feature of the MIUI or HyperOS shell that can and should be turned off.
Banners on a locked screen are often disguised as system notifications or suggestions to update applications. To effectively combat this, you need to understand which system services are responsible for their appearance. MSA (MIUI System Ads) is the main component that broadcasts content, but not the only culprit.
In this guide, we will look at all possible sources of banners and provide a step-by-step algorithm for cleaning the interface completely, learn how to distinguish between system advertising and spam from applications, and learn how to prevent them from reappearing after updates.
The nature of advertising in MIUI and HyperOS
Xiaomi’s shells are known for their functionality, but advertising monetization remains part of the company’s business model. When you see an image of a car or a proposal to install a game on a switched-off screen, it’s the result of specialized services that are integrated deep into the system and require manual user intervention to deactivate.
Often users confuse banner ads with useful “Hot Themes” or “Wallpaper Carousel” widgets, which are designed to decorate the screen, but can by default broadcast commercial content. Wallpaper carousel is a separate service that needs to be customized separately from system advertising modules.
It's important to note that turning off one setting may not be enough. Advertising aggression depends on the region you select when you first set up your phone. If you choose Russia or India, the number of ads is usually higher than if you choose the region "USA" or "Germany," but you can change this post facto.
Why is the ad coming back?
Disabling the MSA service, the main source of advertising
The first and most important step is to shut down the MSA system service, which is responsible for collecting user data and showing targeted ads throughout the shell, and without disabling this component, other activities may not be effective.
To do this, you'll need access to advanced application settings. The interface may vary slightly depending on the version of MIUI, but the logic remains the same. You need to find the application in the list of system processes.
☑️ Shutdown algorithm MSA
Find an app called msa (MIUI System Ads) on the list, click on it and select the option to turn off ads, or simply turn off the app if that option is not available. The system may ask you several times, suggesting that you wait 10 seconds before the final shutdown is a psychological trick that you just have to wait.
⚠️ Attention: After disconnection MSA Some features, such as personalized recommendations in the store to the Mi browser, may stop working correctly or display content.
Setting up the wallpaper carousel and lock screen
Often, the source of “advertising” on a locked screen is the wallpaper carousel function, which periodically changes the background image and can show banner ads at the bottom of the screen or as individual slides.
To manage this, go to the lock screen settings. → The lock screen, look for the wallpaper carousel, where you can not only turn off the function completely, but also adjust the refresh rate and the types of content displayed.
- 🖼️ Turn off the “Enable wallpaper carousel” switch to return a static picture.
- 📉 In the section “Update Frequency” select “Do not update” if you want to leave the function, but remove the dynamics.
- 🚫 In the settings of the Carousel itself, find the item “Get content” and disable all categories marked as “Recommendations».
If you prefer to use third-party apps to lock your screen, make sure they don’t have permissions to display over other windows unless you want to see their notifications instead of system ones.
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Use static high-quality wallpaper instead of Carousel to reduce battery load and eliminate occasional clicks on banner ads.
Cleaning Notifications from System Applications
Besides MSA, ads can generate specific system applications such as Security, Downloads, Explorer, and Music, and they often send push notifications with offers that look like system messages.
The most active source of spam is the Security app, which can offer to clear memory, speed up your phone, or install antivirus software, and to turn off these notifications, you need to go to the settings of each suspicious application.
Go to Settings → Applications → All apps. Search the list for “Security”, “Downloads”, “Mi Browser”. Inside the settings of each, find the “Notifications” section and disable all items related to recommendations, promotions and news.
| Annex | What to turn off | Where to find |
|---|---|---|
| Security | Recommendations, News | Settings → Notifications |
| Downloads. | Show recommendations | Three points → Settings |
| Conductor | Receive recommendations | Settings → About the annex |
| Music. | Showing advertisements | Settings → Additional |
Blocking ads in the browser and Mi Video
If the ads appear when you are not actively using your phone, check the background browser processes. Mi Browser and Chrome may have permissions to send notifications from news portals you may have accidentally subscribed to.
Go to your browser settings, look for Privacy or Notifications, disable notifications for all sites except those you are 100% sure of, and Mi Browser itself has a built-in ad blocker that is worth activating.
Mi Video and Mi Music are also prone to showing promotional material, often with the “Online Content” or “Receive References” switch hidden in their settings, and disabling these features will make apps “stupid” but remove visual noise.
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Completely cleaning up ads requires a comprehensive approach, from disabling MSAs to manually configuring notifications for each system application.
Using DNS to block advertising at the network level
For advanced users, there is a method of blocking ads at the level of network query, using a private DNS allows you to filter out advertising domains even before they load on the screen of your smartphone.
This method is effective not only for system advertising, but also for banners in applications and games. You do not need to install third-party software, just change one setting in the connection menu.
Go to Settings → Connection and Sharing → Private DNS. Select the option “Host Name of the DNS Provider” and enter the address:
dns.adguard.comSave the settings. Now all requests to known ad servers will be blocked, which may slightly increase the response time of the network, but will significantly improve the visual experience.
⚠️ Attention: When in use DNS-filtering some applications or games may stop loading content correctly or work slower.If you encounter problems, return the settings DNS auto-mode».