How to change wallpaper to Xiaomi from your gallery: the complete guide

Personalization of a smartphone starts with visual design, and Xiaomi wallpapers play a key role here. Standard images preinstalled by the manufacturer often seem boring or too intrusive, so most users tend to replace them with their own photos from travel, family shots or quality art. The installation process seems trivial, but the shells of MIUI and HyperOS have their own nuances, ignoring which leads to the fact that the photo is cropped incorrectly or looks blurry.

In this article, we will not only discuss the basic algorithm of actions, but also delve into the settings that not all Xiaomi owners know about. You will learn how to properly prepare the image before installation, so that the system does not apply aggressive compression, and how to adjust the automatic change of the background through the Wallpaper Carousel. Understanding these subtleties will allow you to get the perfect result the first time, turning the lock screen and desktop into a unique space.

Modern smartphone displays have high pixel density, which dictates special requirements for the original file. If you just select a photo through a standard menu and apply it, the compression algorithm can significantly worsen the quality of the picture. To avoid porridge on the screen and artifacts, it is important to follow a certain course of action, which we will describe below, using the capabilities of the Themes system application and the standard Gallery.

Preparation of images before installation

Before you go to system settings, you need to make sure that the original file meets the technical requirements of your device. the screens of modern Redmi and POCO often have a non-standard aspect ratio, such as 20:9 or 19.5:9, while most photos are taken in 4:3 or 16:9 format. Direct installation of such an image will lead to the system automatically cropping the edges, possibly removing important parts of the composition.

The best solution is to pre-fraud the photo to the screen resolution of your smartphone. You can find out the exact resolution in the Settings menu → About the phone, where the display parameters are specified. If you set the image with a resolution equal to or higher than the native screen resolution, the picture quality will be maximum, since the system does not have to artificially stretch the pixels.

⚠️ Warning: Avoid using images with watermarks or text at the top of the frame, as in this area, time and date widgets are often displayed on the lock screen, which will make the text unreadable.

You should also pay attention to the file format. Although the system supports JPEG and PNG, the PNG format is preferable for graphics and screenshots, since it uses lossless compression. For photos, a quality JPEG with a bitrate of at least 90% is quite suitable. If you take a photo from messengers, make sure that the sender sends the file as a "Document" or in original quality, otherwise the compression of the messenger will irrevocably spoil the detail.

Installation of wallpaper through the “Themes” app

The most common and functional way to change design is to use the built-in Theme app, which allows you not only to set a static picture, but also to immediately distribute its use between the lock screen and the desktop, the algorithm of actions here is universal for most versions of MIUI and relevant for the new HyperOS.

To start, open the Themes app on your desktop. At the bottom of the screen, find and click on the user profile icon, which usually looks like a human silhouette. From the menu that opens, select Wallpaper, then go to the Gallery or Local tab, and display all the images that the system considers suitable for use as a background.

• 🖼️ Click on the desired image to open it in preview mode.
• 📱 Select the Apply button at the bottom of the screen.
• ⚙️ In the menu that appears, specify where to use the wallpaper: “lock screen”, “work desk” or “Both screens».
• 🔍 Use the preview function to evaluate how the image looks with the icons.

The feature of the Theme app is that it automatically applies the parallax effect (background movement when the phone is tilted) if this is supported by the selected image. However, if the photo has a complex structure or dark tones, the effect may look unnatural, in which case it is better to turn off the background movement in additional application settings so that the static picture looks clear and does not “float” when unlocked.

Alternative Methods through the Gallery

If the Themes app is not working properly for some reason or you are used to working through standard media viewers, you can use the Gallery app, which is often faster, especially if you have just taken a picture or downloaded an image from the Internet and want to put it in the background right away.

Open the image in the gallery. At the bottom of the screen, click on the "More" button (usually three dots or a menu icon). In the drop-down list, find the "Install as wallpaper." The system will prompt you to select the framing area if the photo format does not match the screen. Once the selection is confirmed, you will be asked to apply the image to the lock screen, desktop or both.

The main difference is that there are fewer preview settings, so you won't see what the widgets or app icons look like in the background until you get back to the desktop, so if you want the perfect aesthetic, the Themes app method is still preferred because of the advanced editing functionality on the fly.

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If the wallpaper looks dull after installation, check to see if the “Paper” or “Vision Protection” mode is turned on in the notification curtain, as it changes the color temperature and reduces color saturation.

Setting up the wallpaper carousel (Glance)

The Wallpaper Carousel (known as Glance in some regions) feature, which allows you to automatically change images on the lock screen every time you wake up, is a great way to constantly get new visual content without having to manually search and install pictures.

To activate this feature, go to Settings → Lock Screen. Find the Wallpaper Carousel and turn it on. In the carousel settings, you can select the subject of images (nature, technology, art), refresh rate and even allow video wallpaper to download. The system will select content from the Xiaomi cloud directory itself.

It’s important to note that the Wallpaper Carousel requires a constant connection to the Internet to download new content. If you want to use only your photos in slideshow mode, it’s more difficult to do this with standard means – you will need to create a special album and use third-party launcher applications or widgets, since the native carousel is sharpened on content from the manufacturer.

Working with live and 3D wallpaper

Owners of AMOLED-screen devices, such as many Xiaomi and Redmi Note models, often want to take advantage of display technology by installing live wallpapers, which are short video looping or interactive scenes that respond to touch or gyroscope.

Installation of live wallpaper is possible only through the Theme app. In the Wallpaper section, you need to switch to the video or Live tab. After selecting the video you like, click Apply. Keep in mind that live wallpaper consumes significantly more energy than static images, since they use the processor and video core to render animation even in the background.

⚠️ Attention: Use of high-resolution video wallpapers (4K) On older smartphone models, it can lead to noticeable delays in the interface and a quick battery discharge during the day.

If you want to install your own video as wallpaper, you can’t do it by standard means. You need to download a special application from Google Play, such as Video Live Wallpaper, which converts any video file from your gallery to a format that is understandable to Android for installation on the desktop.

Solution: quality and pruning problems

Often, users are faced with a situation where, after installation, a beautiful photo becomes cloudy or loses color, this is due to the operation of MIUI memory optimization algorithms, which compress resources for system performance, and to get around this, you can use a trick to rename a file or change its meta-data, but the easiest way to use the high-bitrate PNG format.

Another common problem is the image shifting after the phone is rebooted, which may be due to a design conflict. If you use a third-party theme, it may force its wallpaper to be reset, either by changing the theme to the standard one or by allowing the use of its wallpaper in the the theme settings (Themes → Profile → Themes → My Theme → On customize).

Also worth mentioning is the problem of black screen instead of wallpaper. This often happens if a file is corrupted or has an exotic color profile (e.g., ProPhoto RGB). Converting an image to a standard sRGB profile through any photo editor on a PC or phone before installation is guaranteed to solve this problem.

FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions

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The quality of the final image is 80% dependent on the source file: use the photo in screen resolution and PNG format for the best results.