How to completely remove themes on Xiaomi: 5 proven ways

Why Xiaomi themes are memory-consuming and how to delete them correctly

Xiaomi’s MIUI-based smartphones are famous for their personalization flexibility, but many users are facing a problem: installed themes take up precious space in memory, slow down the system, and can even conflict with updates, especially on the budget models of Redmi and POCO, where 64-128 GB of memory is quickly clogged with unnecessary themes.

Unlike standard wallpaper, MIUI themes are packages that include icons, fonts, animations and system sounds. Even after changing the theme, the old one is not automatically deleted, but remains in the device's memory. For example, one theme weighs between 10 and 50 MB, and if they have accumulated 20-30, it is already 1-1.5 GB of garbage.

In this article, we’ll break down 5 ways to remove themes, from standard MIUI tools to manually brushing through ADB. You’ll learn how to free up space, speed up your smartphone, and avoid the typical bugs that lead to system failures.

Method 1: Remove themes through the “Themes” app

The easiest method is to use the built-in MIUI Themes app, which is suitable for most models, including the Xiaomi 13/14, Redmi Note 12 and POCO F5. However, there are nuances here: not all themes can be removed directly, and some remain in cache.

To clear up unnecessary topics:

1. Open the Themes app (icon with brush).
2. Go to My Themes (or Installed in new MIUI 14/15)
3. Press and hold your finger on an unnecessary topic, then select Remove.
4. If the option is inactive, the theme is systemic and requires other removal methods.

⚠️ Note: Some topics identified through MIUI Themes Store may not appear in the list of "My Topics." In this case, check the folder /MIUI/theme/ through the file manager (more on this in the method) 3).

Close all background applications

Connect to Wi-Fi (if you plan to download new themes)

Check the space available (minimum 500MB required)

Make a backup copy of important data-->

Method 2: Reset themes to standard through settings

If the themes are not deleted or the system is unstable, resetting to factory settings for themes only will help.This method does not affect user data, but returns all visual elements to the standard MIUI look.

Instructions:

1. Open Settings → Design (or Settings → Screen → Themes in new versions).
2. Select the Standard Theme (usually the first one on the list).
3. Click Apply and confirm reset.
4. Reboot your smartphone so that the changes take effect.

Once reset, the previously established themes will remain in memory, but will no longer affect the system. To completely remove them, use method 3 or 4.

💡

If after resetting the theme, some icons are displayed incorrectly, clear the Launcer app cache (the name may differ: MIUI Launcher, POCO Launcher).

Method 3: Manually delete theme files via file manager

For power users, there is a method of manually cleaning through the file manager, which allows you to remove even those topics that are not displayed in the Topic application. Importantly, this will require root rights or access to system folders through ADB (see method 5).

Where the topics are kept:

• 📁 /data/system/theme/ — User-generated themes (without root available).
• 📁 /MIUI/theme/ — Downloaded themes (available without root).
• 📁 /system/media/theme/default/ — Systemic topics (not recommended to be deleted!).

How to delete:

1. Use a file manager with access to the root folder (such as MiXplorer or Root Explorer).
2. Go to /MIUI/theme/ and delete folders with the names of unnecessary themes.
3. Clear the cache to /data/data/com.android.themes/cache/ (requires root).
4. Reset the device.

Method 4: Remove themes via ADB (without root)

If you don’t have root rights but need to remove system themes, ADB (Android Debug Bridge) works on all Xiaomi smartphones, including the Mi 11 Ultra, Redmi K50 and POCO X5 Pro, but requires a PC connection.

Step-by-step:

1. Enable USB Debugging in the Developer Settings → About Phone → MIUI Version – Press 7 times, then go back to Additional Settings → For Developers.
2. Connect your smartphone to your PC and open the command line in the folder with ADB.
3. Execute the command for the list of topics: adb shell pm list packages | grep theme
4. Remove unnecessary packets by command: adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.android.theme.name themes

⚠️ Note: Do not delete packages called miui.system or com.android.themes.default, this will cause the interface to crash.

Through the Topics app.

Hand-cleaning folders

Reset to a standard theme

ADB or root methods

Never deleted topics.-->

Method 5: Complete resetting of settings (last resort)

If the themes are not deleted by any means or cause critical errors (such as constant reboots or a black screen), the last option is hard reset, which erases all data, including themes, but requires subsequent configuration of the smartphone from scratch.

How to reset:

1. Go to Settings → About the phone → Reset settings.
2. Choose Delete all data (or Full Reset).
3. Confirm the action and wait for the reboot.

Once reset, all topics will be deleted, but photos, contacts, and apps will also disappear, and only use this method if other methods have not worked.

💡

Before reset, be sure to save data to your PC or to the Mi Cloud. Recovering deleted themes after reset will be impossible, but this is the only way to get rid of deeply integrated packages.

How to Prevent Automatic Theme Installation in the Future

To prevent themes from taking up memory, set up MIUI to limit their loading:

• 🔧 Turn off auto-update themes in Settings → Annexes → Topics → Auto-update.
• 📥 Set a limit on downloading via mobile Internet: Settings → SIM-maps and mobile networks → Transfer of data → Topics.
• 🚫 Remove or freeze the GetApps app (via ADB), which often sets themes in the background.

You should also check /MIUI/theme/ regularly for new files, and if you don’t use custom themes, you can turn off the theme service completely via ADB:

adb shell pm disable-user --user 0 com.android.themes

FAQ: Frequent questions about removing themes on Xiaomi