How to permanently remove Android ads on Xiaomi Redmi: the full guide 2026

Xiaomi Redmi smartphone owners regularly encounter one of the most unpleasant features of the MIUI shell, which is intrusive advertising, which appears in settings, app menus, lock screens and even system notifications. The manufacturer has integrated ad units at the firmware level, making their removal less obvious than in the case of conventional banners in games or browsers.

In this article, we’ll look at all the current ways to remove ads on Redmi, from standard MIUI settings to radical methods like changing the DNS or installing custom firmware. It’s important to understand that some methods require root rights or can affect the stability of the device, and we’ll show you the complexity of each method so you can choose the best option.

Before you start, check your firmware version in Settings → About Phone → MIUI. New versions (e.g., MIUI 14/15 based on Android 13/14) may have changed paths to ad settings. Also note that after resetting your phone to factory settings, all changes will have to be repeated again.

1. disable personalized advertising in MIUI settings

The easiest and safest way to do this is to deactivate options associated with displaying ads on the system itself, a method that does not require superuser rights and is suitable for all Redmi models, including the Redmi Note 12, Redmi 11 and older devices.

Go to: Settings → Google → Advertising (or Settings → Additional → Privacy → Advertising in some versions of MIUI).

Turn it off here.

• 🔄 Personalized Advertising – the system will stop picking ads based on your actions.
• 📊 Data collection for advertising – will limit the transfer of information about your device to advertising networks.
• 🔍 Show ads on the lock screen (if option is available).

Then restart the phone, and the effect is not immediately noticeable, because the system can continue to display ads for another 24 to 48 hours until the cache is updated, and this method does not remove the ads completely, but significantly reduces the amount of ads, especially in system applications like Weather or Themes.

⚠️ Note: In some regions (e.g. the EU), the option of personalized advertising may be hidden due to local data protection laws.If you don't see this item, try changing the region in your Mi Account settings.

2. Blocking Advertising through Application Settings

Many Xiaomi system utilities (e.g. Security, Cleanup, Themes) have built-in ad units that can be turned off individually for each application.

For the application Security (Security):

1. Open the application and go to ⚙ Settings → About the programme.
2. Tap 5-7 times on the Version line until the message “Developer is enabled” appears.
3. Return to the main menu and hold the empty space on the home screen until the context menu appears.
4. Select Settings → Advertising and turn off all switches.

For the annex Topics:

• 🎨 Open Topics → Profile → ⚙ Settings.
• 🔕 Find the Advertising Recommendations and deactivate it.
• 📵 Turn off Display Notifications if they are related to the theme advertising.

The same setups are available in Mi Video, Mi Music and Files, and the main drawback of this method is that once the apps are updated, the settings can reset and you have to repeat the procedure.

3.Use of alternative DNS to block ads

One of the most effective ways is to redirect advertising requests to “empty" DNS-It works at the network level and blocks most of the banners in the browser, apps and even system notifications. It doesn't require root, but it can slow down the Internet a little bit.

Instructions for setting:

1. Go to Settings → Wi-Fi (or Mobile Network for Mobile Internet).
2. Click on the current network and hold its name, then select Change Network.
3. Enable Additional settings and find the DNS field.
4. Enter one of the addresses: 🛡️ AdGuard DNS: 176.103.130.130 and 176.103.130.131 🔒 Cloudflare Family: 1.1.1.3 and 1.0.0.3 🚫 NextDNS: 45.90.28.167 (requires registration for full lock)

Save the settings and restart the phone.

Important: If some applications (such as banking or instant messengers) stop working after changing the DNS, return the standard DNS settings or try another server.

4. Remove system applications without root (for power users)

Some Xiaomi apps (Mi Browser, Mi Music, Mi Video) are the main sources of advertising, and can be removed without root permissions using the Android Debug Bridge (ADB), a method that is suitable for users willing to work with the command line.

Step-by-step:

1. Turn on Developer Mode: Go to Settings → About Phone and tap 7 times on the MIUI version.
2. Return to Settings → Additional → For developers and activate Debugging over USB.
3. Connect your phone to your PC, install it. ADB-Drivers and open the command line in the folder with adb.exe.
4. Enter the command to check the connection: Adb devices should appear the name of your device.
5. Remove unnecessary apps (example for Mi Browser): adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.android.browser

To install AdAway with root:

1. Download the application from the official website.
2. Open it and click Download and Apply.
3. Reboot the phone.

After that, most of the ads in apps and browser will disappear.Renew the host base in AdAway once a week for maximum efficiency.

💡

Non-root apps (such as Blokada) only block ads when active. VPN-This can interfere with some services, such as online banking or geolocation.

7.Reset to factory settings as a last resort

If you've tried all the methods, but the ads keep coming, maybe you've accumulated temporary files or misset your system, and then hard reset will help, and that way you can get your phone back to its original state by deleting all the user data and apps.

Instructions:

1. Make a backup copy of important data (photos, contacts, messages).
2. Go to Settings → About the phone → Reset settings.
3. Choose Delete all data and confirm the action.
4. After the reboot, set the phone up as new, but don’t restore data from a MIUI backup – this can bring back ads.

After resetting, immediately turn off personalized ads (Section 1) and configure DNS (Section 3) to prevent banners from reappearing.

⚠️ Note: Some Redmi models (e.g. Redmi) 9A or Redmi 8) after reset, you may need to re-assign your Mi Account to unlock the device!

FAQ: Frequent questions about advertising on Xiaomi Redmi