How to disable recipes and recommendations on the lock screen Xiaomi

Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO smartphone owners often experience intrusive content that appears immediately after the device is turned on. The lock screen, designed to protect data and show time, is turning into a platform for displaying recipes, news and promotional offers, a phenomenon especially characteristic of the shells of MIUI and the new HyperOS, where recommendation services are built deep into the system.

The constant appearance of recipe cards can not only annoy visual noise, but also significantly reduce the performance of the device, consuming traffic and battery power in the background. The user has to swipe or press a button every time to get to the desktop, bypassing unnecessary information blocks. Fortunately, the system provides tools to completely disable these functions, returning the lock screen to its classic look.

In this article, we will take a look at all the known methods of eliminating recipes and recommendations. We will look at the settings of embedded services, working with aggregator applications and system limitations that can interfere with cleaning the interface. You will learn to distinguish between system widgets and third-party software to effectively manage your smartphone.

The nature of recipes: system widgets or third-party applications

The first step to solving the problem is to properly diagnose the source of content. Recipes on the lock screen can come from two main sources: the built-in Glance recommendation service (or its Mi Video/Mi Browser analogue) and the wallpaper carousel widgets. Understanding the difference between them is critical to choosing the right method of disconnection.

If recipes appear as a background image that changes every time you turn on the screen, or as a swipe swipe tape left-right, it's the work of the Wallpaper Carousel, in which case the content is loaded dynamically from the Internet, and if you see static recommendation cards under the watch widget or at the bottom of the screen, you probably have Glance activated, or a similar personalization module.

⚠️ Note: Some smartphone models shipped to specific regions may have pre-installed advertising modules that masquerade as system widgets.

Often users confuse system functions with viruses, but in the case of Xiaomi, this is a regular, albeit intrusive behavior of the shell. Disabling these features does not violate the warranty and does not require obtaining the rights of the Root superuser.

Disabling the wallpaper carousel and recommendation services

The most common recipe source is the wallpaper carousel, which replaces the static picture with a dynamic tape containing articles, recipes and news, and to get rid of this, you need to change the type of locking.

Go to your device settings and find the Lock Screen section. Depending on the firmware version, this item may be in the Wallpaper menu or the Always On screen and Lock screen, you will need to find the setting responsible for changing images and switch it to standard mode.

Once the carousel is turned off, the system may suggest leaving "Recommendations" on, which is a trap, because even without changing the background, recipes can be displayed as widgets. You must manually uncheck all items containing the words "Recommendations", "Tips" or "Glance".

• 📱 Open Settings and go to the Lock Screen section.
• 🖼️ Find the wallpaper carousel item and click on it.
• 🚫 Switch the switch to the position "Off" or select "Normal wallpaper".
• 🧹 In the menu that appears, uncheck the boxes from the "Recommendations" and "Advertising" items".

Importantly, new versions of HyperOS may have changed the way you approach settings, so if you don't find the right item on the lock menu, try searching for it through a global search by settings, typing in "Carousel" or "Glance," which will save you time and allow you to immediately go to the right switch.

Managing widgets and cards on the lock screen

Even after the carousel is turned off, widgets that broadcast content can remain on the lock screen, often called "Tips" or "News" widgets, which display recipes by default, and managing these elements requires a separate approach through widget settings.

Try to pinch your finger in the free space of the lock screen (if the Android version allows you to do this without unlocking) or go to the widget settings through the Widget menu in the general application menu. Find the widget responsible for displaying the cards and click on the gear icon or settings.

The widget settings often hide content categories, so you can leave the watch or the weather widget, but disable the food or cooking category, so you can keep the screen functional, but you can remove the annoying recipes, and if you don't have that flexibility, it's easier to remove the widget completely.

Some widgets may be part of the MSA (MIUI System Ads) system package that is responsible for advertising integration. Although removing the MSA completely requires more complex manipulation, disabling its visible manifestations through the widget settings will significantly clean up the interface.

Security application and system services settings

The in-depth settings that affect recipes are often hidden in the Security app or Xiaomi system services, which is because content aggregation is seen by developers as part of an ecosystem rather than as a standalone application.

Open the Safety app (green zipper icon). Go to settings (cog in the corner) and find the Receive recommendations section. There may be hidden switches that are responsible for personalized content that appears in various places on the system, including the lock screen.

Mi Account settings are also worth checking. Mi Account -> Privacy often has points allowing data collection to improve recommendations, and disabling these points can reduce the frequency of targeted recipes, although it does not guarantee that they will disappear completely without changing the interface settings.

• 🔒 Launch the Security app on the home screen.
• ⚙️ Click on the settings icon in the upper right corner.
• 📉 Find the About section or Advanced settings.
• ❌ Turn off the option to receive recommendations and personalized advertising.

In some cases, cleaning the data of the system application Glance or Mi Video helps. Go to Settings -> Apps -> All applications, find the appropriate service and choose Clear Data. This will reset accumulated preferences and can stop the flow of recipes.

Using themes and third-party launchers to clean the interface

If standard settings don’t work, you can resort to more radical but effective methods. Setting a third-party theme often allows you to override the system widgets of the lock screen. There are options with minimalist designs in the Themes theme catalog, where there is simply no room for recipe cards.

When installing a theme, pay attention to the lock screen preview. If only the clock and date are visible in the picture, most likely, the theme completely ignores the system recommendations widgets. After applying the theme, recipes should disappear, since the new design does not presuppose their display.

An alternative is to install a third-party launcher like Nova Launcher or Microsoft Launcher.Although they primarily change the desktop, some offer their own lock widgets or allow you to customize the system more deeply, hiding standard MIUI elements.

⚠️ Note: When installing themes from third-party sources (not through the official Themes store), be careful. Unverified files may contain malicious code or disrupt the stability of the system.

Using third-party Lock Screen apps is another option, completely replacing the lock screen with your own, where you decide which widgets to display, but this can lead to increased battery consumption, since the system will operate two lock mechanisms.

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Before you install a new theme, take a screenshot of the current widget settings, which will help you quickly restore the desired features if the new theme is too minimal and removes the unnecessary.

Frequent problems and complex disconnection cases

Users may find themselves in a situation where after all the manipulations, recipes return, often after a system update or reset, in which case you need to recheck all the items, since HyperOS updates can return the old privacy settings to the default values.

Another problem is that you can't turn off the wallpaper carousel if the switch is inactive (sildened), which can happen if the device is locked up under a carrier, or if the region of use has specific content display requirements, in which case the temporary change in the region in the phone settings helps.

Try changing the region to Indonesia or Nepal, where wallpaper carousel functionality is often different or absent, allowing you to unlock settings and disable the service, and then you can return the region back, but this method does not work on all versions of the firmware.

• 🌍 Go to Settings -> Additionally -> Region.
• 🇮🇩 Select a region where Glance is not supported (e.g. Indonesia).
• 🔄 Restart the device and check the lock screen settings.
• 🔙 If the switchboard is active, turn off the carousel and return the original region.

If nothing helps, consider installing a global firmware version (Global ROM) instead of China ROM, and global versions tend to contain less aggressive advertising and have simpler disabling mechanisms that meet European privacy standards.

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Changing the region is a temporary “crutch” that can help unlock settings, but is not a guaranteed solution to the problem on all smartphone models.

FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions