Owners of budget but feature-rich smartphones often encounter intrusive content that appears in the most unexpected places of the interface. Especially annoying when banner ads pop up right on the lock screen, blocking time and notifications. For the Redmi 9C model, running on the basis of the MIUI shell, this problem is one of the most pressing among users who want a clean experience.
Fortunately, Xiaomi's Android security and settings system allows you to manage the flow of information with a lot of flexibility, so you don't have to be a programmer or get root rights to get rid of visual noise, you just need to go through a few menu items consistently and disable the relevant analytics and personalization services.
In this article, we will discuss all possible sources of advertising material on the locked screen of your device. We will consider the theme settings, MSA system services, as well as hidden browser and application parameters that often cause intrusive offers.
MSA Disconnection: The Main Source of Advertising
The main culprit behind the introduction of ad units is the MIUI System Ads system application, which is often hidden under the name msa. It is this process that collects data about your preferences and generates advertising results, without it, complete cleaning of the interface is impossible.
To deactivate the service, you need to go to the password and security settings section, and you need to find the "Access to Data" or "Appropriations" item, which displays a list of all active processes. Find the msa list and put the slider in an inactive position. The system will warn you of the consequences, but it is necessary to remove ads.
⚠️ Note: When you turn off the msa service, you may need to wait 10 seconds before the confirmation button becomes available.
If you fail to turn off the service the first time, repeat the procedure 2-3 times. Sometimes the system requires several attempts to apply the changes. After successful disabling, restart the device so that the changes take effect at the system kernel level.
☑️ Checking the shutdown MSA
Setting up the lock screen and wallpaper carousel
Often, adverts on a locked screen appear not as a pop-up, but as part of the wallpaper carousel function, which automatically changes the background image and can load banner ads along with pictures, and to remove this, you need to go to the lock screen settings.
In the settings menu, find the section responsible for the design screen. Here you should find the item "Wallpaper Carousel" or "Glance" and completely disable it, after which the system will stop downloading new content and will use a static image from your gallery.
- 📱 Open Settings and go to the Lock Screen section.
- 🚫 Find the wallpaper carousel switch and turn it off.
- 🖼️ Install static wallpaper through the Wallpaper menu in the main settings menu.
- 🔄 Restart the device to apply changes.
Also worth checking is the personalization settings. Some versions of MIUI have a separate Receive References Toggler that handles the tips and news on the lock screen, and it also needs to be deactivated to get the best results.
💡
Use third-party screen locking apps from the Play Market if standard MIUI features continue to cause inconvenience, although this can increase battery consumption.
Managing Notifications from System Applications
Even after the core services are disabled, ads can be broadcasted by standard Xiaomi apps such as Security, Downloads, or Explorer, which have their own push notification settings that are often used to promote games and services.
It is recommended to go through the list of installed system utilities and manually check their permissions. Pay special attention to the application Security, as it has the most extensive access rights and is most often used to display advertising content.
| Annex | Type of advertisement | Method of disconnection |
|---|---|---|
| Security | Push notifications | Settings -> Notifications |
| Downloads. | Recommendations | Menu -> Settings -> Show recommendations |
| Conductor | Banners downstairs. | Menu -> Settings -> About the app (disable ads) |
| Music. | Pop-ups | Settings -> Promotion |
It’s important to understand that system updates can return some of these default settings. Periodic checking of the notification list will help keep the interface clean. If you notice a new app from Xiaomi, check its permissions right away.
Cleaning up advertising identifiers and analytics
To stop collecting data about your actions and targeting ads, the system needs to reset the advertising ID, which is a unique code that is assigned to your device to track interests, and without resetting it, algorithms will continue to pick up content even if the main services are disabled.
Go to Passwords and Security, then select Privacy, and this is where Advertising Services or Advertising ID are located. Click on the reset button to generate a new random number that is not related to your previous history.
⚠️ Warning: Resetting your advertising ID does not remove already installed advertising applications, but breaks the link between your device and the ad servers.
Also in the same section, it is recommended to disable participation in the MIUI Improvement Program, which sends technical data to developers’ servers, which is not formally advertising, but increases network traffic and the load on the Redmi 9C processor.
Setting up the browser and disabling push notifications
Often users confuse system advertising with notifications from sites they accidentally subscribed to in a browser.The standard Mi Browser or Chrome browser can show pop-ups even when the browser is closed, if you have given permission to a particular site.
To fix this, go to your browser settings, look for the Notifications or Sites section, delete any suspicious addresses or disable notifications completely from the permission list, and remove intrusive offers to download games or go to questionable resources.
If you use third-party browsers, check their settings in a similar way. Often ads appear because of installed extensions or plugins that were added without the user's knowledge.
What to do if the advertisement remains?
Additional methods and hidden settings
There is a more radical but effective method of combating advertising, the use of a private DNS, which blocks ad requests at the network connection level, preventing banners from downloading in any application.
To activate the function, go to the connection settings. Find Private DNS (usually under "Additional Settings" or "Connect and Sharing"). Enter the address of the ad-blocking server, such as dns.adguard.com.
dns.adguard.comAfter saving settings, the network can be interrupted for a short time, and this method is especially effective for blocking ads in free apps and games where disabling MIUI system services does not help.
💡
Using a private AdGuard DNS is the most effective way to block ads throughout the system, including browsers and games, without installing additional applications.