Owners of Xiaomi, Redmi and Poco smartphones often encounter intrusive advertising content that appears when the device is turned on.This phenomenon, known as “Wallpaper Carousel” or Mi Wallpaper Carousel, displays images, news and banner ads instead of static images. For many users, this becomes an annoying factor that prevents normal use of the gadget.
The lock screen ads are not just beautiful pictures, but a full-fledged service integrated into the MIUI or HyperOS shell. They consume Internet traffic, can reduce autonomy and, most importantly, distract attention. Fortunately, the system allows you to flexibly adjust these settings or completely disable functionality.
In this guide, we will go into detail all the ways to deactivate ad units. We will look at standard system settings, working with system applications and additional methods for cleaning the interface. You can return a clean lock screen that will display only the time, date and widgets you choose.
What is a wallpaper carousel and why does it appear
Wallpaper carousel is a system service developed by Xiaomi to personalize the lock screen, originally conceived as a way to diversify the user's visual experience, the tool has evolved over time into a channel for distributing advertising content, and when it is enabled, the phone periodically uploads new images from the cloud and displays them when the screen wakes up.
The carousel is often associated with the initial setup of the device or the firmware update. During these processes, the system can automatically activate the wallpaper carousel service if the user has not removed the corresponding ticks, and activation can occur when installing themes from the official Themes store.
⚠️ Attention: Complete removal of the system component of the carousel may lead to unstable operation of the lock screen on some versions of the firmware.
The main purpose of this service for the manufacturer is to monetize free devices, by showing advertising and promoting paid themes, the company compensates for the low margins of hardware, but for the end user this often leads to unnecessary traffic consumption and reduced performance, since the background process is constantly running in the background.
Disabling Advertising through Lock Screen Settings
The easiest and safest way to remove intrusive banners is to use the built-in settings menu, which doesn't require root rights or a computer connection, but you need to access the Wallpaper section in system settings.
First, you need to get to the main settings menu. To do this, swipe-swipe down the notification curtain and click on the gear, or find the Settings app on the desktop.
- 📱 Find and open the Wallpaper section (or Wallpaper and personalization in new versions).
- 🖼️ At the top of the screen or in the wallpaper carousel menu, find the switch Enable wallpaper carousel.
- 🚫 Transfer the switch to the position "Off».
- ✅ Confirm action if the system requests a confirmation of disconnection.
Once these steps are done, the carousel will stop uploading new images, but the lock screen may still have interface elements such as the Open button or the advertising signatures under the watch, and additional cache cleaning may be required to remove them completely.
☑️ Checking the carousel shutdown
Importantly, the locations of the items may vary slightly between MIUI and HyperOS, and in some cases, the carousel control is put into a separate app called the wallpaper carousel. If you don't find the switch in the general settings, look for the app of the same name in the list of all the programs.
Managing the Wallpaper Carousel app
If the standard switching of the toggler did not work, or if the ad returns after the reboot, you need to act directly on the application service. In the system, it is often hidden or has limited functionality in the application menu, but access to its settings is possible.
Find the Wallpaper Carousel (might be called Mi Wallpaper Carousel) in the app list. Go to App Info. Here you need to find Autostart and disable it, which will prevent service from starting when you turn on your phone.
Hidden carousel settings
It's also worth checking the app's permissions. Often, the carousel requires location and network access to target ads, disable geolocation access, and if possible, disable data transfer in the background, which will make it impossible for the service to download new content.
For advanced users, it is possible to freeze an application via ADB, but this requires a connection to a PC. Standard system means you can not remove the system application, you can only turn off its activity. If the "Disable" button is inactive, use the data cleanup method.
Cleaning up data and cache of system services
Sometimes the settings get lost because of accumulated debris or update conflicts, in which case the forced cleaning of the wallpaper service data helps, which will return the component to a factory state by removing all the uploaded banner ads.
Follow the following steps:
- Go to Settings → Applications → All applications.
- Find the Carusol wallpaper or Wallpaper in the list.
- Press the memory (or storage).
- Choose to Clean. → Clear everything.
After this procedure, the phone can momentarily return to the standard static wallpaper, which is normal behavior, and the system will reset all temporary files, including the ad cache.
| Action. | Impact on the system | Security |
|---|---|---|
| Turning off the tumbler | Stops downloading content | Absolutely safe. |
| Clearing the data | Removes cache and settings | Safe, resets the settings. |
| Shutting down autostart | Prevents the start of service | Safe. |
| Removal of updates | Returns the factory version | Safe, but it will bring back the old version. |
If the ads haven't gone away after cleaning the data, try removing updates to this system component. In the Info About App menu, click on the three dots in the upper right corner and select Remove Updates.This will roll back the component to the version that was on the phone when you bought, often depriving it of new ad modules.
MSA and System Advertising Setup
The wallpaper carousel is just one source of advertising, and MSA (MIUI System Ads) is responsible for collecting data and displaying ads on the system, and turning it off significantly reduces the amount of advertising noise throughout the shell, including the lock screen.
To limit the work of the MSA:
- 🔍 In the search for settings enter msa.
- 🛑 Find the item Get recommendations (or get recommendations on the MSA).
- ⛔ Turn off the switch.
- ⏳ Wait 10 seconds until the recall button is active and press it.
⚠️ Warning: The recall button may not work the first time. If you receive an error message, try again. 2-3 This is a common "protection" of the system from turning off ads.
In parallel, it is recommended to disable ad personalization. Go to Settings → Passwords and Security → Access to personal data. Find Ads and turn off Personalized Ads. This will not remove the ads completely, but will make them less intrusive and tied to your interests.
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To ensure that you have a guaranteed effect, disable the MSA and Carousel wallpaper in In-Air mode, which will prevent instant re-activation of services when you have the Internet.
Use of third-party launchers and themes
If the built-in techniques don’t help or you want to radically change the interface, you can use third-party solutions. Installing an alternative lock screen or launcher allows you to completely ignore the system settings of Xiaomi.
Popular Google Play apps like Hi Locker or KLCK can replace the standard lock screen, and once installed, the system will use its interface, completely ignoring the MIUI wallpaper carousel.
You can also try changing the theme to a fully customized one that doesn't support the carousel function. In Themes, look for works that don't include ads or only static images.
However, it is worth remembering the risks:
Third-party lock screens may conflict with the face or fingerprint function, which will cause delays in unlocking the device.
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A comprehensive approach: the combination of disabling MSA, cleaning the carousel data and disabling auto-run gives a 99% guarantee of getting rid of advertising.