How to Move Icons on Xiaomi Desktop: All Ways + Hidden MIUI Features

The desktop on Xiaomi smartphones is not just a set of icons, but a full-fledged personalization tool. Many users face chaos on the home screen: app icons are scattered erratically, important utilities are lost among dozens of shortcuts, and free space is reduced to zero. Meanwhile, the MIUI shell (even in the latest versions 14 and 15) offers much more opportunities for organizing workspace than it seems at first glance.

In this article, we will analyze all the available ways to move icons – from basic gestures to hidden functions that are not written about in official manuals. You will learn how not only to move icons, but also to group them into folders, fix on the screen, hide unnecessary applications and even adjust adaptive grids for different display sizes. Particular attention will be paid to the nuances for models with AMOLED- screens (for example, Xiaomi 13 Ultra or Redmi K60 Pro), where the location of the icons affects the uniform wear of the matrix.

Before you start setting up, check your shell version: go to Settings → About Phone → MIUI version. Some features (like dynamically resizing icons) only appeared in MIUI 14 and later. If you have an older version, update your firmware through Settings → System Update – this will open up access to advanced customization tools.

Basic movement of icons: gestures and restrictions

The easiest way to change the location of the icons is to drag and drop your finger. Click on any app icon and hold it for 1-2 seconds until it sticks away from the desktop. You can then move the icon anywhere on the screen (except the widget area at the top) or to another desktop (scroll left/right while dragging).

Pay attention to the invisible limitations:

• 📱 Minimum distance between icons -- MIUI automatically aligns icons on an invisible grid, so if you try to place an icon too close to another, it will magnetize to the nearest cell.
• 🔒 Fixed system icons — Phone, Messages, and Camera icons at the bottom of the screen (dock bar) are locked by default and can only be moved once unlocked (more on this in the next section).
• 📂 Application folders -- if you drag and drop one icon onto another, you automatically create a folder. To avoid that, carefully place the icons without overlapping them.

On curved screen models (such as the Xiaomi Mix Fold 3 or Black Shark 5 Pro), drag and drop zones may differ. The extreme 5-10% of the display area on the sides often does not respond to touch due to software protection against false positives. If the icon does not "cling" when pressed, try touching closer to the center of the screen.

⚠️ Warning: Some devices with increased sensor polling frequency (120/144/192 Hz) may have a delay in dragging icons. This is due to optimizing power consumption. To eliminate lags, turn off the adaptive refresh rate in Settings → Display → Screen refresh rate and set a fixed value (e.g., 60 Hz).

2 Unlocking and fixing icons in the dock bar

The dock bar (bottom panel with 3-5 icons) is a separate desktop area that is displayed on all screens. By default, system applications are hosted here, but you can replace them with any other.

1. Press and hold the icon in the dock bar (like the phone).
2. In the menu that appears, select Remove from the dock bar (the icon will not be removed from the device, but will simply free up space).
3. Drag a new icon from the main desktop to the vacant dock bar cell.

If you need to fix the icons so you don’t accidentally move them when cleaning the screen:

1. Press and hold the empty space on the desktop.
2. Select Desktop Settings (or Screen Settings in older versions of MIUI).
3. Activate the switch to Secure the layout, and now the icons will not move when you accidentally touch them.

Identify 3-5 most used applications

Remove unnecessary icons from the dock bar

Check that all icons are the same size (settings → Icon Size)

Save the layout backup (Settings) → Backup)-->

On devices with MIUI 15, the Smart Dock Bar feature has been introduced, which automatically adjusts to the context of use. For example, when you connect your headphones, the Music icon appears in the dock bar, and during the game, the Game Turbo. To turn this feature off, go to Settings → Desktop → Smart Dock Bar and deactivate the corresponding switch.

3. Grouping icons into folders and categories

Xiaomi desktop folders help you structure your apps by topic (social media, games, utilities) and free up space. You can create a folder in two ways:

• 📂 Manual method: Drag one icon to another, and a folder with the category name (e.g., "Games" or "Tools") will automatically form. You can change the name by opening the folder and clicking on the title.
• 🤖 Automatic Sort: Press and hold the blank space on the screen → Desktop settings → Autosort. The system will distribute icons to folders based on usage data (available from MIUI 14).

Additional options are available for folder management:

On devices with large screens (such as Xiaomi Pad 6 or POCO F5 Pro), folders can be displayed in an extended form - up to 4 rows and 4 columns. To activate this mode, go to Settings → Display → UI Element Size and select Large. This will increase not only the folders, but all the icons by 20%.

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If the folder is too big and interferes, but you don’t want to delete it, move it to the second or third desktop. For quick access, use the swipe gesture up from the dock bar (setting is included in Settings → Gestures → Quick Start).

4. Hiding icons and managing app visibility

Not all apps need to be kept visible. MIUI has three ways to hide icons without removing them:

1. Hiding in the app menu: Scroll through the desktop up to open the app menu. Click on the three dots in the top right corner → Hide apps. Select the programs you want to remove from the screen, and confirm.

The applications hidden in this way will remain in the system and will be available through search (swipe down on the desktop), but will not appear in the menu.

Archiving icons:

Archive

Archives

Disablement:

Calendar

Notes

Settings → Applications → Application Management → [application name] → Disable

On dual-account devices (Second Space in MIUI), the icons hidden in one profile can remain visible in another. To sync settings, go to Settings → Second Space → Data Sync and activate the Desktop Settings option.

⚠️ Warning: Icons hidden through the application menu still take up space in the device's memory. If the goal is to free up space, use the Cleanup function in Settings → Memory to remove the cache of unnecessary programs. Also remember that disabling system applications (such as Security or Themes) can cause malfunctions MIUI.

5. Setup of the desktop grid and icon sizes

By default, MIUI uses a grid of 4×5 icons on one screen, but this value can be changed.

1. Press and hold the empty space on the desktop.
2. Select Desktop Settings → Desktop Grid.
3. Set the right number of rows and columns (available options: from 3×3 to 6×6).

The choice of the size of the grid is influenced by:

• 📱 Screen resolution: On Full HD+ (1080×2400), the maximum grid is 5×6, on QHD+ (1440×3200) is 6×7.
• 🔄 Interface Scale: If the Settings → Display → Text Size is set to increase the font, the number of cells in the grid will automatically decrease.
• 🎨 Design Theme: Some themes from the Theme (e.g. Dark Mode Pro or Minimalist) block grid change.

In addition to the grid, you can adjust the size of the icons themselves:

1. Go to Settings → Display → Size of interface elements.
2. Select the size of the icons and move the slider (values from 75% to 125%) are available.
3. To apply the changes, restart the device (some versions of MIUI require a shell restart via Settings → About Phone → Restart MIUI).

6. Additional tools: widgets and gestures

Icons are not the only way to organize your desktop, but MIUI has widgets and gestures that can replace some icons or complement their functionality.

Widgets allow you to quickly access information without opening an app, for example, instead of a Weather icon, you can put a widget with the current temperature, and instead of a Calendar, you can put a monthly event review.

1. Press and hold the empty space on the desktop.
2. Select Widgets from the bottom menu.
3. Scroll through the list and drag the desired widget to the screen.

Gestures help to reduce the number of icons due to quick actions:

• 👆 Swipe up from the dock bar: Opens the app menu (can be replaced with a search or voice assistant in Settings → Gestures → Quick Launch).
• ✌️ Double-touch: Default unlocks the screen, but can be reassigned to start the camera or flashlight.
• 🔄 Phone Rotation: On some models (e.g. Xiaomi 12T), rotating the device horizontally opens the Quick Settings Panel.

For users who want to remove icons from their desktop completely, there is a radical way to:

1. Remove all icons from the screen (move them to the archive or hidden folders).
2. Add widgets for frequently used features (weather, clock, control buttons).
3. Use search (swipe down) or voice assistant (press the power button) to run applications.

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Widgets and gestures not only free up space on the desktop, but also reduce the time of interaction with the phone. According to Xiaomi, users using gestures spend 30% less time navigating the interface than those who rely only on icons.

7. Backup and transfer the layout to another phone

If you've spent time perfecting your desktop, it's logical to keep this layout so you don't have to reset it after you reset or buy a new phone. MIUI has a built-in backup feature:

1. Go to Settings → About Phone → Backup.
2. Choose Local Backup or Cloud Backup (Mi Account is required).
3. Make sure that the data list for saving is marked with the Desktop Settings item.
4. Click Create a backup and wait for the process to complete.

To restore the layout on another device:

1. Sign in with the same Mi Account (if you used cloud copying).
2. Go to Settings → About Phone → Backup → Restore.
3. Select the right backup and confirm the recovery.

Please note the limitations:

• 🔄 Desktop layout is only restored on devices with the same screen resolution. For example, if you move settings from the Redmi Note 12 (FHD+) to the Xiaomi 13 Pro (QHD+), the icons can overlap.
• 📱 Some widgets (like those from third-party apps) won't be portable. They'll have to be added again.
• 🔒 If a newer version MIUI is installed on a new device, some of the settings (e.g., folder color) may be reset to standard.

⚠️ Warning: When you restore a backup to a device with another model (e.g., a smartphone to a Xiaomi Pad tablet), the desktop layout may not display correctly, in which case it is recommended to manually adjust the location of the icons after recovery, since the system automatically scales the grid to the new screen.

FAQ: Frequent questions about moving icons to Xiaomi