How to find out the average screen time on Xiaomi: official and hidden ways

Have you ever wondered how much time you spend in front of a Xiaomi smartphone? Average screen time is not just a stat, but a useful tool for monitoring digital hygiene, analyzing productivity, or even diagnosing battery problems. In MIUI (the Xiaomi brand shell), this feature is hidden in an unobvious way, and in some models it is not at all in the standard menu.

In this article, we’ll look at 5 working ways to check screen time, from official settings to hidden engineering menus and third-party apps. You’ll learn how to look at day/week/month statistics, which Redmi, Poco and Xiaomi models support the feature natively, and what to do if Suddenly data disappeared after the update. And a unique life hack with ADB for advanced users that works even on custom firmware.

1.Official method: "Time of use" in MIUI

The easiest method is to use the built-in Time of Use feature (aka Digital Wellbeing in global firmware), but there are pitfalls: on some Xiaomi models, this option is disabled by default or hidden due to regional restrictions.

To find her:

• 📱 Open the Settings. → Device Memory and Digital Well-Being (or Special Features) → Digital Well-Being on Older Versions MIUI).
• 📊 Tap on the Control Panel or Usage Statistics.
• 🔍 Scroll down to the screen usage time block – this displays the average value for the selected period (day/week).

If the item is not on the menu, try:

1. Update MIUI to the latest version (in Settings → About Phone → System Update).
2. Change the device region to India or Europe (via Settings → Additional → Region).
3. Install Google Digital Wellbeing from Play Market (powered by global firmware).

⚠️ Note: On devices with Chinese firmware (for example, Xiaomi 13 Ultra) CN) Time of Use is often absent due to local privacy laws. MIUI or use the methods in Section 3.

2. Hidden statistics in the “Battery”: an alternative data source

If you don't have a built-in time tracker, try extracting data from the Battery section, where Xiaomi logs the screen activity to calculate the energy consumption, and you can adapt that data to our needs.

Instructions:

1. Go to Settings → Battery and Performance → Battery Use.
2. Slap the icon. ⋮ (three dots) in the upper right corner and select Screen Activity Time.
3. The system will show you a graph of the total screen time over the last 24 hours or 7 days, and to get the average, divide the total hours by the number of days.

Example of calculation: if the screen worked 42 hours per week, the average daily time will be 42 ÷ 7 = 6 hours / day.

💡

If there is no “Screen Activity Time” item in the Battery section, try turning on Developer Mode (7 taps by build number in About Phone) and go back to the menu – sometimes the option appears after that.

3. Engineering menu: data for advanced users

For those who aren’t afraid to dig deeper, Xiaomi has a hidden engineering menu with detailed screen usage statistics that works on 90% of models, but requires caution – wrong actions can lead to crashes.

How to open it:

1. In the phone app, type the code: ##4636##
2. In the menu that opens, select Usage statistics (or Usage Statistics).
3. Scroll to the Screen on Time block – here is the exact time in HH:MM:SS format.

Advantages of the method:

• 🔧 It works even on devices without Google Services (for example, on Chinese firmware).
• 📈 Shows data since the last reboot (more precisely than the Battery section»).
• 🔒 No need for root rights or additional applications.

⚠️ Note: On some models (Xiaomi) 12S Ultra, Redmi K50 Gaming) the engineering menu can be blocked by the manufacturer. If nothing happens after entering the code, try the alternative code: ##2664## (screen test) + statistics).

4. ADB-Commands: Exact screen time without root

For users familiar with Android Debug Bridge (ADB), there is a way to get data directly from system logs.This method is universal and works on all Xiaomi models, including those where standard stats functions are disabled.

Step-by-step:

1. Enable USB Debugging in Settings → About Phone → MIUI version (7 taps) → Additional → For developers.
2. Connect your phone to your PC and execute the command: adb shell dumpsys power
3. In the conclusion, find the lines: mScreenOnTime=XXXXXms where XXXXX is time in milliseconds. Translate it into hours by dividing it by 3.6 million.

Example of inference and calculation:

mScreenOnTime=21600000ms




21 600 000 ÷ 3 600 000 = 6 hours

To automate the process, you can use a script:

adb shell dumpsys power | findstr "mScreenOnTime" && echo "Screentime in hours:" && set /a time=%value%/3600000 && echo%time%

🔌 Install Xiaomi drivers USB Drivers|📥 Download Platform Tools from Google|🔧 Enable debugging on USB phone-on|🖥️ Start the command line on behalf of the administrator-->

5. Third-party apps: top-3 solution MIUI

If the built-in methods don't work, third-party utilities will come to the rescue, and we tested dozens of apps and selected the top 3, optimized for Xiaomi:

1. ActionDash: 📊 Detailed statistics on applications (including background activity). 🔄 Synchronization of data between devices. ⚠️ Requires permission Special access in settings MIUI.
2. Digital Wellbeing (Google): 🔒 It only works on global firmware with Google Services. 📱 Integration with family control (for parents). ❌ On Chinese firmware (CN ROM) not installed.

Screen Time Tracker

• 📈 Export of data to CSV for analysis in Excel.
• 🔋 Minimal battery impact (tested on Poco) X5 Pro).
• 💰 Free version with a limit of 7 days of statistics.

Example of log output:

05-20 12:30:45.123  1234  5678 PowerManagerService: Screen on (user=0)




05-20 14:15:22.456  1234  5678 PowerManagerService: Screen off (user=0)

To automate parsing, use Python script:

import re




from datetime import datetime





log_data = "" [your logcat output]""""




pattern = r"(\d{2}-\d{2}\s\d{2}:\d{2}:\d{2}\.\d{3}).*Screen (on|off)"




matches = re.findall(pattern, log_data)





screen_time = 0




for i in range(0, len(matches)-1, 2):




t1 = datetime.strptime(matches[i][0], "%m-%d %H:%M:%S.%f")




t2 = datetime.strptime(matches[i+1][0], "%m-%d %H:%M:%S.%f")




screen_time += (t2 - t1).total_seconds()





print(f) Total screen time: {screen_time/3600:.2f} hours

⚠️ Note: Parsing logs through logcat can put a lot of strain on the phone's processor.Do not use this method on weak devices (Redmi) 9A, Poco C31) — heat-risk.

FAQ: Frequent questions about screen time on Xiaomi