Xiaomi smartphones have long established themselves as devices with an excellent price-performance ratio, but ownership of the gadget is often overshadowed by intrusive marketing. Owners of the Redmi Note 10s model often face a situation when icons of recommended applications suddenly appear on the desktop, in folders or when unlocking the screen. These are not viruses, but a regular feature of the MIUI shell designed to promote content, but it seriously annoys users who appreciate the purity of the interface.
The recommendation system works by analyzing your actions and often suggests installing games or services that you don't need. Fortunately, the MIUI firmware on the Redmi Note 10s has the ability to disable this mechanism. The process requires care, as the settings are scattered across different menu sections, but the result is worth it - your smartphone will be significantly cleaner and more responsive without unnecessary visual noise.
In this article, we will go into detail about all the ways to block advertising recommendations, not only go through the menu items, but also explain what system processes each service is responsible for so that you understand what you are disabling, which will allow you not only to remove current widgets, but also to prevent them from appearing in the future after the system update.
The Nature of Intrusive Recommendations in MIUI
The pop-ups, banners in standard apps and desktop icons are being driven by a special system component called MSA (MIUI System Ads), which is not virus software, but a built-in monetization module that allows the manufacturer to sell the devices at a lower price, offsetting costs with ads. On Redmi Note 10s, this module is integrated deep into the system, so simply removing icons from the desktop won’t solve the problem — they will reappear after a while.
In addition to the MSA module itself, mdapp is responsible for collecting your preferences and creating a personalized recommendation feed, which analyzes which apps you run more often and suggests their analogues or add-ons. Disabling personalized advertising collection is the first and most important step to take before removing system components.
⚠️ Warning: A complete shutdown of system services may affect some standard widgets, such as Horizon or News Feed. Make sure you don't use these features before applying drastic measures.
Understanding the architecture of Xiaomi’s ad system helps us to act point by point, and instead of chaoticly looking for customization, we will consistently turn off the sources of advertising: first data collection, then the MSA module, and finally cleaning the launcher interface, which ensures that recommendations disappear at all levels of the operating system.
- 📱 Module MSA Responsible for displaying advertising content in the system.
- 📊 mdapp collects data to target offers.
- 🔄 Launcher MIUI displays the data in the form of widgets and icons.
Disabling personalized advertising
The first step in combating intrusiveness is to stop collecting data about your activities, which will not completely remove ads, but will make them less accurate and reduce the number of recommendations based on your interests. To do this, you need to go to the basic settings of your smartphone. Open the Settings menu, scroll down to the Password and Security section, and select Privacy.
Inside the privacy menu, look for Advertising Services, and here you will see the Personalized Advertising switch, which needs to be put inactive, the system can warn you that ads will become less relevant, but that's exactly what we need. Once disabled, we also recommend clicking the Reset Advertising ID button to reset the profile that has already been accumulated.
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Repeat resetting your advertising ID once a month if you don’t completely turn off MSA services, which will knock out targeting algorithms.
It is important to note that the path to these settings may vary slightly on different versions of MIUI firmware. Sometimes the Advertising Services item is hidden in the Advanced Settings menu or directly in the About Phone section when you repeatedly click on the MIUI version (Developer Mode), but on the Redmi Note 10s, the standard Password & Security path is the main one.
- 🔒 Go to Settings. → Password and security → Confidentiality.
- 🚫 Find the Advertising Services and turn it off.
- 🗑️ Click the Advertising Identifier Reset button to clean up your profile.
Removal of the MSA system component
The most effective way to remove application recommendations is to force the MSA to stop and revoke permissions. This component has deletion protection, so simply pressing the Remove button will not work — it will be inactive. We need to starve the service, denying it access to the Internet and revoking all permissions.
Go to Settings, select the Applications, then All Apps. In the list, find an app called msa (MIUI System Ads). Click on it and select Other Permits. You must disable all items, especially network access, geolocation and auto-start. After that, go back and click Stop.
☑️ Checking the shutdown MSA
After a stop, the system can offer to turn the service back on in 10 seconds. Don't agree! Press "Cancel" or just ignore the offer. If you agree at least once, the process will have to start again. Sometimes you need to repeat the stop procedure 3-5 times in a row until the "Stop" button becomes gray and inactive, and the countdown timer disappears.
⚠️ Attention: When attempting to disconnect MSA The system will insist on leaving the service on, claiming that it will improve the performance of the phone.
If the standard way through the settings is not working, you can use the method via ADB (Android Debug Bridge) by connecting your phone to your computer, which is a more complicated but guaranteed way to completely remove the system package. However, for most Redmi Note 10s users, the method of repeatedly stopping through the settings menu is enough.
Setting up the desktop and widgets
Even after the ad services are turned off, there may be widgets on the desktop that have previously broadcast recommendations, including app folders. There is a Recommended feature in the MIUI shell that automatically fills empty folders with new app icons. To fix this, open any folder on your desktop.
Click on the folder name to open the edit menu, and you'll see the Recommended Switch, which you need to turn off, and then all the ad icons inside the folder will disappear, and only the apps you installed yourself will remain, and you'll need to do this for every folder where you've seen extra items.
You should also check the launcher's settings. Click on the empty space on your desktop or pinch it with two fingers to go into screen editing mode. Click on the settings icon (cog) in the bottom corner. Here, find "Get recommendations" or "Wallpaper carousel" and turn it off. This will remove the advertising slides when you unlock and the extra widgets on the home screen.
Don’t forget to check the Horizon widget (or Mi Video/Mi Music), which is often preset by default.If you don’t use the news feed or built-in players, it’s best to remove this widget from your desktop completely, as it’s one of the main sources of visual noise.
Cleaning up standard applications
Advertising recommendations can come not only through the system module, but also through standard Xiaomi applications such as Explorer, Security, Themes and Music. Each has its own notification and promotional settings. Start with the Security app — open it, click on the settings gear in the upper right corner and find the Receive Recommendations.
Similar to the Themes app, go to the user profile (human icon), select Settings, and disable the "Show Ads" and "Personalized Recommendations" items, which will prevent pop-ups from showing you new themes or wallpapers at random moments of phone use.
For File Manager, the path is to open the app, click on the menu (three bars), select Settings → About (or Settings depending on the version) and find the Recommendations section, and disabling this option will remove banner ads that often appear when you open files.
- 🛡️ In the Security app, disable recommendations in settings.
- 🎨 In Topics, remove the ticks from the advertising points in the profile.
- 📁 In the Explorer, find the recommendations settings and prohibit them from showing.
Comparative table of blocking methods
To organize this knowledge and choose the best strategy for your Redmi Note 10s, let's compare the methods we've looked at. Each has its own efficiency and level of complexity. Combining all of these methods yields the best results, but if time is limited, it's worth focusing on the most effective ones.
| Method | Efficiency | Difficulty | Impact on the system |
|---|---|---|---|
| MSA shutdown | Tall. | Medium | Minimum |
| Privacy settings | Medium | Low. | Absent. |
| Cleaning folders and widgets | Local. | Low. | Absent. |
| Set up individual applications | Tall. | Tall. | Minimum |
As you can see from the table, disabling the MSA module is the most powerful tool, but it requires a certain amount of care when executed. Privacy settings are a good addition, but by themselves do not remove visual elements completely. The comprehensive approach described in this article guarantees a clean interface.
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The maximum effect is achieved only when all methods are used simultaneously: disabling services, setting up the launcher and cleaning standard applications.
Additional settings and nuances
There is another hidden section that not all Xiaomi users know about: the Special features menu, where additional sources of recommendations sometimes hide. Check Settings → Special Opportunities → Wallpaper Carousel. If the feature is active, it can load advertising content onto the lock screen. Even if you don't use the wallpaper change, it's better to turn it off or remove it from the active list.
Also worth mentioning is GetApps (formerly Mi Store), which is Xiaomi’s official app store, which often sends discount and new product notifications. If you use Google Play, you don’t need GetApps. Go to its settings and turn off all notifications, or simply uninstall the app updates through the All Apps menu to return it to factory status with minimal functionality.
What if the advertisement returns after the update?
Remember that after any major changes to the system, it is recommended to restart the device, which will allow the Redmi Note 10s to recalculate resources and finally complete the processes associated with the services stopped.