Disabling Game Sync on Xiaomi Redmi: The Complete Guide

Why syncing games can interfere with the smartphone

Synchronizing gameplay on Xiaomi Redmi smartphones is a useful feature for those who often reinstall games or change devices. It automatically saves progress to the Mi Cloud, allowing you to continue playing from the same place on the new phone. However, this option has the flip side: it can slow down the device, consume traffic and even lead to conflicts between local and cloud saves.

Many users experience a situation where the game starts to “hang” when loading a level or suddenly resets progress. Often the fault is background sync, which is activated at the most inopportune moment. In addition, on some Redmi models (for example, Redmi Note 10 Pro or Redmi 12), this feature is enabled by default and works covertly, consuming up to 15% of battery power per hour of active play. If you notice such problems, turning off sync can be a simple and effective solution.

In this article, we’ll look at all the ways to disable synchronization of games, from standard MIUI settings to hidden developer settings, how to completely deactivate cloud saves, suspend them temporarily or configure them selectively for individual games, and also how this can have consequences and how to avoid losing important data.

Where to store synchronization of games on Xiaomi Redmi

Before you disable the feature, it is important to understand how it works. On Xiaomi smartphones, synchronization of gameplay is implemented on two levels:

• 📱 Local saves – Progress files that are stored directly in the device’s memory (usually in a folder) /Android/data/[title game] or /Android/obb/).
• ☁️ Cloud Savings: Data uploaded to Mi Cloud (a Xiaomi cloud storage service) is linked to a Mi Account and is available on all devices with that account.

By default, MIUI tries to sync both types of saves, but cloud data is prioritized, which means that if you played on another phone, the system can automatically download other people's saves by overwriting local ones, which is why many users prefer to disable this feature, especially if they only play on one device.

In addition, some games (such as Genshin Impact, PUBG Mobile or Call of Duty: Mobile) have their own sync mechanisms via Google Play Games or social networks, in which case disabling sync in MIUI will not affect their work - you will need to configure each application separately.

Method 1: Disabling synchronization through Mi Account settings

The easiest and safest way to do this is to deactivate sync directly in your Mi Account settings, which is suitable for most Redmi models (including the Redmi Note 11, Redmi 9T, Redmi K50, and others) and does not require superuser rights.

Instructions:

1. Open the Settings app (the gear icon on the home screen).
2. Scroll down and select Mi Account (or Xiaomi Account in some versions of MIUI).
3. At the top of the screen, click on the profile avatar to open account details.
4. Go to the Mi Cloud section (Xiaomi Cloud).
5. Find the Data Sync or Games and Applications item (the name may vary depending on the firmware version).
6. Turn off the slider next to Game Sync or Game Data.
7. Confirm the action by clicking Disable in the window that appears.

After that, cloud sync will be suspended, but local game saves will remain intact. Note: if you play on multiple devices, progress will stop updating automatically.

⚠️ Note: If you use Mi Account to log in to games (e.g. Mi Game Center), disabling sync may result in loss of access to certain features, such as ratings or achievements.

Method 2: Selectively disabling synchronization for individual games

Not all users need to turn off sync completely, and if you want to keep it only for the most important games (like Honor of Kings or Free Fire), you can set up a selective shutdown.

1. Launch the Security app (the shield icon).
2. Go to Optimization or Game Mode (depending on the version of MIUI).
3. Choose the Game Turbo (Game Turbo)
4. In the list of installed games, find the one for which you want to turn off synchronization, and tap on its icon.
5. In the game settings, find the Data Sync or Cloud Save option and deactivate it.

This method allows you to flexibly manage synchronization, leaving it only for games where it is really needed, for example, you can turn it off for casual games (like Candy Crush), but leave it for MMORPGs where progress is critical.

If you don’t have the right item in Game Turbo, try another way:

• 🔧 Go to Settings. → Annexes → Application management.
• 🎮 Select a game from the list.
• 📁 Go to Warehouse and find the option to Clear Cloud Data.

This won’t disable sync completely, but it will remove the current cloud storage, which can solve the conflict problem.

💡

If a game starts to give out errors after the sync is turned off, try clearing its cache in the application settings. This often helps to reset conflicting data.

Method 3: Disconnect via developer settings (for power users)

For those who are willing to dive into technical details, there is a way to disable sync through the developer's settings, a method that is more radical and requires caution, as wrong actions can disrupt the system.

Steps:

1. Activate Developer Mode: Go to Settings → About Phone. Find the MIUI Version and tap it 7 times in a row until you become a developer!

Settings

For developers

Background check

Limitation of background processes

No background processes

Maximum 1 process

Not to keep up the action

These settings won’t shut down sync completely, but they will significantly reduce the impact on performance, but be prepared for the fact that some features (such as notifications from games) may not work properly.

⚠️ Warning: Changes in developer mode can cause the system to run in an unstable way. If the phone starts to overheat or run out quickly after the changes, return the settings to their original state.

Method 4: Radical solution - removing Mi Cloud (for advanced ones only)

If you're determined to get rid of sync forever and are willing to sacrifice all the cloud features, you can completely remove the Mi Cloud app from your device, a method that requires super-user rights and is only suitable for power users.

Instructions:

1. Get root access on your Xiaomi Redmi (for example, using Magisk or TWRP).
2. Install a file manager with root support (such as Root Explorer or Solid Explorer).
3. Go to /system/priv-app/MiCloud or /system/app/MiCloud.
4. Delete the MiCloud folder or rename it (for example, in the MiCloud_bak).
5. Reset the device.

💡

Even after MIUI has been disabled, some games (such as those with Google Play Games) can continue to save progress to the cloud, in which case the settings need to be changed directly in the game itself.

Frequent problems and their solutions

When you turn off sync, users often face unexpected challenges, and let's look at the most common ones and how to fix them.

Problem 1: After the synchronization was turned off, the game stopped running.

Solution: Clear the cache and game data in Settings → Apps → [game name] → Storage. If that doesn't help, reinstall the game.

Problem 2: There is no “Synchronization of Games” option in the settings.

Solution: Your Redmi model may be using a stripped-down version of MIUI (e.g. for the global market). Try updating your firmware to the latest version or using alternative methods (e.g., through Game Turbo).

Problem 3: Sync is disabled, but the game still keeps progressing to the cloud.

Solution: Check if the game uses third-party services (e.g. Google Play Games or Facebook) and disable them in the game settings.

Problem 4: After deleting Mi Cloud, notifications stopped working.

Solution: Restore deleted files from backup or reflash the device. Alternatively, you can use third-party notification apps (such as NotifyBuddy).

FAQ: Answers to popular questions