Xiaomi’s current smartphones have a striking iron, but over time, even flagship models can start to slow down. Users often notice delays when opening applications, jerks in the interface or a long response to touch. This does not always mean that the device is out of order; most often the problem lies in the software features of the MIUI or HyperOS shell and accumulated digital debris.
Optimizing your device is a process that requires a holistic approach. Simply removing apps rarely has a long-term effect unless you touch on the system settings for visualization and memory management. In this article, we’ll look at proven ways to help restore responsiveness to your gadget.
Before we start radical measures like factory resets, we should try less aggressive methods: they're safe, they don't require superuser rights, and they allow us to dramatically improve system performance in minutes. Let's start with the visual part that directly affects our perception of speed.
Customization of animations and visual effects
The first thing that catches your eye when using a smartphone is animations of transitions, opening windows and folding applications. In the MIUI shell, they are set to maximum smoothness by default, which looks beautiful on powerful processors, and on budget or old models creates a sense of “viscosity” of the interface.
To fine-tune these settings, you need to activate the hidden developer menu. Go to Settings → About your phone and start quickly tapping the MIUI Version (or OS Version) bar about seven times. Once the "You're a developer" notification appears, you can go to adjustment.
- 🚀 Open the Settings menu → Advanced settings → For developers.
- 🎨 Find the section "Drawing" and change the scale of the animation windows, transitions and duration of the animator to the value 0.5x or "No animation».
- ⚡ Turn off the blur animation option if it is present in your firmware version, as it heavily loads the GPU.
⚠️ Warning: Disabling animations completely (meaning "No animation") can make the interface twitchy. The optimal balance between speed and visual comfort is value. 0.5x.
The changes take effect instantly. You'll notice that windows open faster and the system responds to touches instantly. This is one of the most effective ways to make Xiaomi smoother without losing data.
Optimizing the use of RAM
RAM is a critical resource for multitasking. When there is little free memory, the system has to constantly unload background processes, leading to app restarts and lags. Xiaomi devices have a built-in memory expansion mechanism that is worth checking.
Memory Extension allows you to reserve some of the internal storage for RAM. While it doesn't give you the speed boost comparable to physical RAM, it helps the system keep more applications open in the background. You can find this option by Settings → Advanced Settings → Expand memory.
☑️ Checklist for memory release
It's also important to control the autoload of applications. Many programs tend to run with the system and hang in the background, consuming resources. Go to Settings → Applications → Autoboot and leave only those services that you really need right after the screen is turned on, such as instant messengers.
Regularly cleaning the cache through the built-in Security app also helps free up space.Don't rely on automatic cleaners alone; periodically check the Storage section to find and delete forgotten files or duplicate photos that take up gigabytes.
Energy management and background processes
Aggressive energy saving is a dual feature in Xiaomi smartphones, extending battery life on the one hand, and can kill processes on the other, causing the system to restart them every time it is called, putting a strain on the processor.
You need to set up an energy saving strategy for each application individually. → So, you can select the programs you use frequently and set the "No Limits" mode, which will allow them to work steadily without causing any interface jerks when you switch between tasks.
| Type of application | Recommended treatment | Impact on smoothness |
|---|---|---|
| Messengers | No restrictions. | High (instant notifications) |
| Games | No Limitations / Productivity | Critical (stable FPS) |
| Social media. | Saving energy | Medium (background synchronization) |
| Rare utility | Savings are hard | Low (only open when opened) |
Another important aspect is the Extended Memory feature mentioned earlier, but it is worth adding background process management to the developer menu. The Background Process Limit option is best left unchanged (the Standard Limit), as an artificial constraint can disrupt the logic of the system.
Secret code to clean up memory
Updating the system and removing system debris
Xiaomi developers regularly release updates that include not only new features, but also code optimization. If your smartphone is slow, there may be bugs in the current firmware version that have been fixed in the latest release.
Check for updates in Settings → About Phone → MIUI version. Before installing the update, it is strongly recommended to back up the data. The update process can take from 10 to 30 minutes, during which the phone will not be used.
- 📂 Delete folders with temporary messenger files (Telegram, WhatsApp), which often grow to huge sizes.
- 🗑️ Use the Cleanup function in the Security app to remove system debris.
- 🔄 After a major system update, it is desirable to reboot the device so that the caches are compiled again.
⚠️ Note: Do not install beta versions of firmware (Beta) ROM) You can use your main smartphone if you want stability, and they often contain bugs that can severely reduce performance.
Also worth paying attention to is the design theme. Some third-party themes downloaded from Themes store may be poorly optimized and contain heavy graphic elements. If you notice lags after changing the theme, go back to standard design.
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Periodically (every 1-2 months) turn off your smartphone completely and turn it on again, which allows the system to reset all temporary errors and clear RAM more efficiently than a normal restart.
Use of game accelerator and performance modes
For resource-intensive tasks, MIUI and HyperOS have a special mode that redistributes CPU resources to an active application, limiting the background activity of other programs, which is especially true for gamers, but can be useful for working with heavy applications.
To activate maximum performance, open the Security app, go to Game Turbo, where you can add the right apps and set up a performance profile, select No Limits or Maximum Performance mode.
The same menu also offers sensor enhancement and frame rate stability settings. For Snapdragon processors, these settings work best, ensuring minimal input latency. Users of MediaTek or Exynos processors should be careful with aggressive settings, as this can cause overheating.
Radical measures: Resetting and reflashing
If the software settings don’t work, the last but often most effective method is a full factory reset, which removes all user data, applications and accumulated system debris over the years, returning the phone to the state out of the box.
Before the procedure, be sure to save important contacts, photos and documents to the cloud or to your computer. Reset is done through the Settings menu → About the phone → Resetting → Erase all data. The process will take about 10-15 minutes.
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Full reset eliminates 90% of software performance problems caused by update conflicts or file system errors.
In some cases, especially when switching between major versions of Android (for example, from Android 11 to 13), a clean firmware installation via computer (Clean Install) works better than an over-the-air update.