How to remove recommended videos in the Xiaomi Gallery

Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO smartphone owners often experience intrusive content that appears in standard applications, especially when you open a gallery to view personal photos, and instead see an endless tape of Recommended Videos or Hot Videos, a phenomenon that has become the standard for MIUI shells and the new HyperOS, which seek to keep the user’s attention within their services.

But it's not only distracting, it's also consuming traffic, it's also taking up space in the cache. Fortunately, the developers have left the option to turn it off, even though they've hidden it quite deep in the settings. In this article, we'll go through all the ways to remove recommended videos from the Xiaomi gallery and return a clean interface to view your shots.

Before you start setting up, it's important to understand that not only the Gallery app itself, but also the system recommendation services, and that you can take a holistic approach to achieve the ideal result, and we'll look at both the software settings inside the application and the system constraints through specific codes and permissions.

What are Hot Videos and Why They Appear

Known as Hot Videos or Popular Videos, the feature is an aggregator of short clips collected by MIUI algorithms from various sources, which was supposed to be an analogue of TikTok or YouTube Shorts, built right into the gallery, but in practice it has become a source of advertising and information noise.

These videos are connected to the system component msa (MIUI System Ads), which analyzes your actions and offers content. Often the tape starts to work automatically after a major shell update or initial setting of the smartphone. The user may not even notice the activation time, since the turn on tick is often the default.

The main problem is that the tape consumes Internet traffic even in the background if it is allowed to access the network, and algorithms can mistakenly classify your personal videos as “popular”, mixing them with advertising content, which violates privacy and makes navigation on the media library uncomfortable.

⚠️ Warning: Disabling system advertising services completely may affect other shell widgets, such as Glance or recommendations in the Security app.

It's important to distinguish between two types of content: videos from the Mi Cloud and local recommendations. If you have sync enabled, the gallery may display a cloud tab that can also be hidden, but this is a separate setting. In this guide, we will focus on the ads and recommended videos generated by the system.

Disabling recommendations within the Gallery app

The easiest and safest way to get rid of intrusive videos is to use the built-in settings of the application itself. This method does not require root rights or a computer connection, but in some versions of MIUI, the menu item can be hidden or renamed.

To start, open the Gallery app. In the upper right or lower corner (depending on the shell version), find a three-dot icon or gear. When you click on it, you will be placed in the settings menu. Here you will find a section that may be called Popular Videos, Recommendations, or Cloud & Recommendations.

If you don't see an explicit video switch, try looking for "Get recommendations" and disable it. In newer versions of HyperOS, settings can be broken down into different subsections. It's also worth checking the "About Me" or "About the App" tab inside the gallery settings - sometimes the ad services switch is hidden there.

Once you turn off all sliders, completely close the app through the menu of running tasks and open it again. The tape should clear, and only your albums will remain. If the videos are missing, but when you update the pages appear again, then the background process is active, which we will discuss next.

System Constraints (MSA)

If the simple settings inside the gallery didn't work, you have to work on ads, the msa system service, which is the main demon that drives the display of advertising content throughout Xiaomi's system, and shutting down the service's Internet access often solves the problem dramatically.

To do this, go to your smartphone Settings. Search for the settings, type in the word “Access” or look for the App → All Apps. In the list, find the msa application (MIUI System Ads). If the search does not yield results, turn on the display of system processes in the settings menu.

When you go into the app information, look for Other Permits or Permissions. Find the Connection to Network (or Mobile Data and Wi-Fi) switch and deny access. The system will warn you that the app may not work correctly — agree. This action blocks the download of promotional videos.

⚠️ Attention: Once you have blocked access to the network for msa, the slider can spontaneously turn back on in 10 seconds. This is the normal behavior of the system protection. You need to quickly click "Cancel" in the timer window that appears to take effect.

This method is one of the most effective, as it blocks ads not only in the gallery, but also in other system applications. However, keep in mind that in rare cases, this can affect the operation of News widgets or personalized offers in the GetApps store.

Using code to hide advertising

Xiaomi engineers have a hidden debugging menu in their arsenal that allows you to manage the ad modules at a deeper level. USSD-This is especially useful if standard switches are not available.

Open the Phone app and dial ##6484##. If the code doesn’t work (it’s blocked on some global versions), go to Settings → About phone and quickly click 7-10 times on MIUI/HyperOS to activate the developer menu, then look for System Advertising Settings.

If you open the System Debug or Advertising menu, you'll see a list of services. You'll find items related to Hot Videos, Feed or Recommendations. You'll uncheck any items that contain the words "Ad," "Video," or "Feed," and that will turn off the ad configuration files.

After making changes, be sure to restart the device. Reboot is necessary to ensure that system services reread new configuration files and stop requesting advertising content. Check the gallery after turning on - the tape should be clean.

Comparison of methods of disabling content

The choice of method depends on your version of MIUI and the level of comfort when working with system settings. Below is a table comparing the effectiveness of different methods of removing recommended videos.

As you can see from the table, blocking msa is the middle ground between security and results. Using an engineering menu gives the best result, but requires caution. Turning off the Internet for gallery only is a temporary solution that will deprive you of the ability to share photos or sync them.

It is recommended to combine methods: first disable recommendations in the application settings, and then disable network access for system advertising, which will provide double protection against unwanted content.

Additional measures: cache cleanup and data

Sometimes the settings are correct, but the old data stays in the app's memory, and the video is still displayed, so you have to do a forced data cleanup, which will return the gallery to the post-installation state.

Go to Settings → Applications → All Apps. Find in the Gallery list. Click on Clean (or Reset) and select Clear Everything. Don’t worry, your photos and videos won’t be deleted because they’re stored in a separate DCIM folder, not in the app’s cache.

Once cleaned, reconfigure the gallery, but this time, keep a close eye on the checkmarks when you first start, and drop the "Improving Work," "Get News" and "Popular Videos" suggestions, which will seal the result.

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Tip: Once you reset your gallery settings, take one picture and try to delete it. If the system offers "Similar Videos" or "Stories", then the settings have not been fully applied. Repeat the msa lock.

Also worth checking is the Security app, which often has a Cleanup section inside it that can offer “acceleration” through video displays, and the Security settings also include disabling Get Recommendations.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

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A comprehensive approach, including setting up the application itself and blocking the msa system service, guarantees complete disposal of recommended videos in the Xiaomi gallery.