The sudden transformation of your smartphone’s bright and colorful screen into a dull black and white image can take anyone by surprise, and most often, Xiaomi and Redmi device owners face this situation after accidentally switching their reading modes or activating functions to save battery power. In some cases, the cause is a MIUI system malfunction or incorrect third-party applications that intercept color management.
Don't panic and take the device to the service center thinking about a matrix breakdown. In the vast majority of cases, the problem is solved in a software solution in a few minutes. You just need to find the appropriate switch in the settings menu that could have been activated by accident. Below we will discuss in detail all possible causes and methods of their elimination.
Sometimes, changing the color gamut of a display is an intentional feature that developers have implemented to reduce eye strain or improve concentration, and understanding which mode is on will help bring back the image more quickly, and we'll look at both the standard shell tools and the hidden features of the system.
Checking the “No Sleep” and Digital Well-Being
The most common reason for gray tones on the screen is the “Sleep Mode” or “Sleep Time” feature built into the digital well-being system, which is designed to make the user less distracted by bright colors at night before bedtime and fall asleep faster. If you notice that the screen turns black and white at a certain time of day, this is probably the scenario that is activated.
To turn this off, you need to go to your system settings. Find the partition that's responsible for screen time or digital well-being. Depending on the version of MIUI or HyperOS, the path may vary slightly, but the logic remains the same. You need to find the item associated with the schedule or rest mode and deactivate it.
⚠️ Note: If you use third-party apps to lock the screen or control time, they may also force monochrome mode.
In some versions of the firmware, you can set it to automatically turn on on your schedule, make sure that the schedule settings do not tick the box against the "Shades of Grey" or "Monochrome" item, which will avoid the situation where the phone will turn black and white again automatically tomorrow night.
Color and Reading Mode settings in MIUI
The MIUI shell has advanced display capabilities, including a special Read Mode that mimics electronic paper, converting the image to black and white for easy reading of texts, and accidentally turning this feature on through a notification curtain or screen settings is a common reason for the interface to “sit down”.
To check the status of this feature, go to the screen settings menu, you will need to find the section related to vision protection or reading mode, you can see the current status and if necessary, switch the slider to the "Off" position, and you should also pay attention to the color scheme settings.
- 📱 Go to Settings and select Screen.
- 🎨 Find the Reading or Paper Mode section.
- ❌ Make sure the reading mode switch is off.
- 🌈 Check the Color Scheme tab and select Standard or Saturated.
The color temperature settings deserve special attention. Sometimes users accidentally move the slider to the extreme position, which makes the image fade and almost monochrome. Return the color channel sliders (red, green, blue) to the center position or select the default profile.
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Use the Dark Theme feature instead of a full monochrome if your goal is to reduce eye strain at night by keeping the ability to distinguish colors in mission-critical applications.
Use of special capabilities (accessibility)
Deep in the Android settings available on all Xiaomi and Redmi smartphones, there is a section called “Special Features” that brings together features for people with disabilities, including high contrast and color inversion, and activating some of these items can lead to incorrect display of colors.
The most likely culprit here is the Color Inversion or Color Correction function. If inversion is enabled, the white background becomes black and the black becomes white, which is often perceived as a strange black and white image, color correction can be adjusted to color-blind mode, which also changes the palette.
| Function | Screen impact | Where to turn off |
|---|---|---|
| Color inversion | Replacement of colors with opposite colors | Special Opportunities → Visual Opportunities |
| Shades of gray | Remove all colors, leaving only brightness | Special opportunities → Improved visibility |
| Color correction | Changes the palette to correct color blindness | Special Opportunities → Text and Display |
| High contrast | Makes the boundaries of the elements sharper | Special Opportunities → Visual Opportunities |
Go through the list of services enabled in the special features section. If you see color or vision activated, try turning them off sequentially by watching the changes on the screen, which will help you accurately identify the source of the problem.
☑️ Diagnostics of special opportunities
Third-party applications and energy savings
Don't discount the impact of third-party software. Many battery-saving, memory-cleaning, or launcher applications have their own display settings, and they can force the screen to turn on energy-saving mode, which often means dimming and switching to black and white.
Battery apps and performance boosters are especially bad at this, and if you’ve recently installed one, try uninstalling it or checking its settings, and check the built-in scripts in Xiaomi’s Security app, which has deep system permissions.
⚠️ Note: Some apps may request permission to “Overlap Other Windows” that allows them to change the look and feel of the interface, including the color scheme, without your knowledge.
Check the list of applications that can change the system design. Go to settings, find the section on special features or access rights, display a list of applications that can change the system colors, and disable suspicious or unknown programs.
Hidden Developer Settings
Resetting settings and hardware problems
If the software methods did not help and the screen remains black and white, there may have been a serious system failure, in which case a complete reset to factory settings can help.Be sure to back up all important data before performing this procedure, as all information from the device will be deleted.
However, if the problem persists even after the reset, there is a high probability of hardware failure, which can be damage to the display plume, problems with the screen controller or the matrix itself, especially after a smartphone falls or moisture enters the body.
- 💾 Backup your data to the cloud or computer.
- 🔄 Perform a reset via the Settings menu → The phone. → Resetting settings.
- 🔍 If the problem persists, check the phone in safe mode.
- 🛠 If you maintain the problem, contact the service center for diagnosis.
In Safe Mode, only system applications run. If the colors are normal in this mode, then some application you install is causing the problem. If the screen is black and white in Safe Mode, it is almost certainly a hardware or a deep firmware error.
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Hardware breakdown of the matrix or plume is often manifested not only by a change in color, but also by the appearance of stripes, flickering or idle parts of the screen.