How to watch screen time for the year on Xiaomi: all ways and life hacks

Have you ever wondered how much time you spend on a Xiaomi smartphone during the year? This statistic is shocking: Studies show that the average user spends more than 3 hours a day on gadgets, which is almost 45 full days a year — more than a month of continuous wakefulness! Fortunately, MIUI-based smartphones collect detailed information about screen usage time, but it’s not as easy to find annual statistics as it seems.

In this article, we’ll look at all the ways you can view screen time per year on Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO devices, from standard Digital Well-Being tools to hidden features and third-party apps. You’ll learn how to bypass system limitations, export data for analysis, and even compare your activity with previous periods.

Why is MIUI not directly connected to annual statistics?

Many users find that the Digital Well-being menu (or Time of Use in older versions) displays data for a maximum of 7 days or a month, the reason being the MIUI architecture:

• 📊 Storage restrictions: The default system only stores detailed statistics for the last month to save memory space.
• 🔄 Resetting with updates: After major updates MIUI (For example, from version 13 to version 14, the history can be reset if synchronization with Mi Account is not enabled.
• 🛡️ Xiaomi knowingly restricts access to long-term data to avoid claims of collecting personal information.

But that doesn't mean you can't get annual statistics, but there are a few workarounds, from hidden settings to third-party tools, and we'll go into that in detail.

Method 1: Standard Digital Well-Being Menu (Limited Statistics)

The easiest, but also the most limited, method is to use the built-in Digital Well-Being feature, which is available on all Xiaomi devices with MIUI 10 and later.

1. Open Settings → Digital Well-Being and Parental Controls.
2. Slip the hourglass icon (or Use Time in older versions).
3. Select the Statistics tab or the Weekly Report.

Here you'll see:

• 📱 Total use time per day/week/month (but not year!).
• 📊 App distribution – which programs eat up the most time.
• 📈 Timetable of activity by hour (peak periods of use).
• 🔋 Number of screen unlocks.

To measure annual activity, you can manually sum up monthly data, but it takes a long time, and as mentioned earlier, the story is reset after updates, so this is only suitable for short-term analysis.

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If the Digital Well-being menu doesn't have data from past months, check if sync with Mi Account is enabled in your account settings. Without it, the story is erased after a reset or update.

Method 2: Export data through “Developer Settings” (hidden method)

Few people know, but MIUI has a hidden usage statistics export feature that allows you to get data in.csv or.json format. This method works on most devices, but requires activation of the developer mode.

Here's the step-by-step instruction:

Activate the developer mode (7 times tap on the version) MIUI In Settings → The phone)|Enable debugging on USB In Settings → Additionally. → For developers|Connect your phone to your PC and start adb shell dumpsy usage command|Save output to a file and process it through Excel or Google Sheets-->

If you are not familiar with ADB, you can use a simpler method:

1. Activate the Developer Mode (as mentioned above).
2. Go to Settings → Additional → For developers → Usage Statistics.
3. Slip on the three dots in the upper right corner and select Export Data.
4. Select the period (maximum 3 months) and file format.

Note that even this method doesn't give you full annual statistics, but it does give you quarterly data that you can then manually combine, and you have to use third-party tools to do the full analysis.

Method 3: Third-party applications for screen time analysis

If Xiaomi's built-in tools aren't enough, third-party apps come to the rescue, not only taking statistics longer than standard Digital Well-Being, but also offering advanced analytics features.-3 tested solutions:

For these applications to work correctly, they need special permissions:

• 🔓 Access to usage statistics (in Android settings).
• 📱 Permission to display over other windows (for notifications).
• 🔄 Auto-run (so that the application is not closed by the system).

Importantly, some apps (like ActionDash) may conflict with Xiaomi’s built-in Digital Well-Being, and you’ll have to choose one solution.

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Third-party apps only collect data from the moment they're installed, and if you want to analyze last year, start using it as early as possible -- they won't recreate the statistics retroactively.

Method 4: Manual data collection through screenshots and Excel

If you want to get the most accurate annual statistics, but none of the above methods work, you have to do manual data collection, which requires discipline, but gives you the most complete control over the analysis.

Here's how to do it:

1. Take monthly screenshots of the statistics screen in Digital Well-being (or in a third-party app).
2. Save them to a separate folder (e.g. Screen time 2026).
3. At the end of the year, transfer data to Excel or Google Sheets by creating a table with columns: 📅 A month. ⏱️ Total time (hours) 📱 Top.-3 applications 🔋 Number of unlocks

Use formulas to calculate the annual amount and chart.

Example of the table for analysis:

This method takes time, but gives you 100% control over the data, so you can add your own metrics (like weekday use vs. weekend use), compare years, and even predict trends.

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To remember to take screenshots, put a monthly reminder in Google Calendar or use the Automate app to automatically save statistics.

Method 5: Using Mi Account and Cloud Backup

If you're actively using your Mi Account and you've enabled data sync, you have a chance to recover your screen time history even after you reset or update it.

1. Make sure that Settings → Accounts → Mi Accounts → All data syncs (including Digital Well-Being) are enabled.
2. Make a backup through Settings → Additional → Backup and Reset → Local Backup.
3. Once you have created a backup, connect your phone to your PC and find the backup file (usually in the MIUI/backup/AllBackup folder).
4. Use tools like MIUI Backup Extractor (available on GitHub) to extract data from the backup.

In the extracted files, look for a folder with a name containing digital_wellbeing or usage_stats. It may store historical records:

• 🔍 File format can be encrypted – additional decoding tools will be required.
• ⏳ Data is not stored forever: Xiaomi limits the shelf life of backups to 6 months.
• 🔄 When recovering from the backup, the current statistics can be overwritten.

This method is suitable for tech-savvy users, as it requires working with system files. If you are not sure about your skills, it is better to use third-party applications or manual data collection.

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Backups of MIUIs don’t always contain full screen time statistics, depending on the firmware version and device model, for example, on Xiaomi 13 Pro, data is stored longer than on the budget Redmi.

What to do if the statistics suddenly drop?

Sometimes users find that their screen time history is reset for no apparent reason, and here are the most common reasons and ways to eliminate them:

If neither method worked, try an alternative launcher (like Nova Launcher or Lawnchair) that can collect its own usage statistics, and check if the Power Saving mode is on, which often blocks background activity of system services.

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If you notice that statistics are reset after each update, turn off the automatic installation of updates in Settings. → The phone. → Updating the system → Settings (⚙️) → Auto-update.

FAQ: Frequent questions about screen time on Xiaomi