How to completely remove live wallpaper on Xiaomi: from standard to third-party animations

Live wallpaper on Xiaomi smartphones (including the Redmi line and POCO) They often cause increased battery consumption, overheating of the device and even slowing down the interface. Despite the visual appeal, animated background images consume up to a maximum of two hours. 15-20% additional energy in standby mode - especially if third-party wallpapers with 3D-In this article, we'll look at all the ways you can turn them off, including hidden settings. MIUI, Not obvious to most users.

Complicating the problem, newer firmware versions (starting with MIUI 12.5) have hidden direct options for deactivating animations. For example, in Xiaomi 13 Pro or Redmi Note 12, live wallpaper can automatically turn on after a system update, and removing them through the standard theme menu often works incorrectly. We tested all methods on current devices (2023-2026) and identified those that are guaranteed to work even on custom firmware.

Important: some methods require superuser rights (root), but we have separately highlighted safe options for users without technical skills. If your goal is not just to remove the current wallpaper, but completely prevent the system from installing them (for example, after resetting settings), please note the section on disabling the service com.android.themes.

1. Standard removal through theme settings

The most obvious, but not always working, way is to use built-in MIUI tools.This method is suitable for wallpapers installed through the official Theme app, but may not work for third-party animations (e.g. from Google Wallpapers or Zedge).

Instructions:

• 📱 Open the Themes app (icon with brush on desktop).
• 🖼️ Go to Wallpaper section. → My wallpaper.
• 🗑️ Find the live wallpaper (marked Dynamic) and click on them.
• 🚫 Select the option to Remove or Reset to standard.

If the Remove button is inactive or not, then the wallpaper is protected by the system.

1. Set static wallpaper over animated ones (temporary solution).
2. Use alternative methods from the following sections.

⚠️ Attention: B MIUI 14 after removing the live wallpaper through the Themes, they can recover from the reboot, and this is due to the work of the com.miui.home service, which caches the last wallpaper, and the solution is to apply static wallpaper twice in a row, rebooting between actions.

2. Disable animation through the developer settings

If the live wallpaper continues to work even after it is removed, the problem may lie in the system’s global animation settings. Disabling all transitions and effects often solves the problem, but will make the interface less smooth.

How to turn on the developer mode and deactivate animation:

1. Go to Settings. → The phone.
2. Click 7 times on MIUI until you become a developer!
3. Go back to the basic settings and open a new section for developers.
4. Find the window animation block and set all three sliders in the Open position:

Windows animation: Reflection (0.5x → 0x)


Transition animation: Retraction (0.5x → 0x)




Duration of animation: Reknosed. (1x → 0x)

After you apply the changes, restart the device. This method does not remove the wallpaper itself, but pauses the animation, which reduces the load on the processor and the battery. The effect will be noticeable immediately - check the charge consumption through Settings → Battery.

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If the interface becomes too sharp after disabling the animation, return the window animation slider to the 0.5x position - this is a compromise between smoothness and performance.

3. Delete via file manager (for power users)

Live wallpaper is stored in system folders in the form of APK-They can be manually deleted, but this method requires caution - an error can cause a launcher to fail.

Step-by-step:

• 📂 Open any file manager with access to root folders (e.g. MiXplorer or Solid Explorer).
• 🔍 Cross the path:

/data/app/com.android.themes-1/


/data/app/com.miui.home-2/

• 🗃️ Find files with the.apk extension or folder, the name of which has livewallpaper, dynamic, animation.
• 🗑️ Remove them (pre-rename them by adding.bak to check the result).
• 🔄 Reset the device.

Critical information: In the folder /system/priv-app/ There may be a system living wallpaper (for example, MiuiLiveWallpaper.apk). Deleting them without root rights will lead to an error, and with rights, it can disrupt the launcher. Alternatively, rename the file by adding a character at the beginning (for example, _MiuiLiveWallpaper.apk).

4.Use of ADB for forced removal

If previous methods have failed, you can use the ADB (Android Debug Bridge) debugging bridge, which does not require root rights, but you need a computer with Xiaomi drivers installed and the ADB Tools package.

Instructions:

1. Enable USB debugging in the developer settings (see Section 2).
2. Connect the phone to the PC and confirm the debugging permission.
3. Open the command line (Windows) or terminal (macOS/Linux) and type:

adb devices

(The name of your device should appear.)

1. Follow the command to remove live wallpaper:

adb shell pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.android.wallpaper.livepicker


adb shell pm disable-user --user 0 com.miui.livewallpaper

1. Reset the device.

These commands disable the system components that control the live wallpaper. If the background turns black after reset, set the static wallpaper manually through the gallery.

adb shell pm enable com.miui.livewallpaper

Install Xiaomi drivers on PC

Download ADB Tools (platform-tools)

Enable debugging over USB on your phone

Connect your phone to the original cable

Check the visibility of the device by the adb device command-->

⚠️ Note: On certain devices (e.g, POCO F5 Xiaomi 12T) post-execution ADB-commands may not be able to install any wallpaper through the standard menu. Solution: reset the settings of the Launcher application in Settings → Annexes → Application management → Launcher → Warehouse → Clear the data.

5. Resetting launcher settings (last resort)

If the live wallpaper is imprinted on the system and is not deleted by any means, the last option is to reset the settings of the MIUI launcher. This will return the desktop to the factory state, but will remove all widgets, folders and icon location.

How to drop the launcher:

• 🔧 Go to Settings. → Annexes → Application management.
• 🔍 Find the Launcher app (or MiuiHome).
• 🗃️ Open the Warehouse. → Clear all data.
• 🔄 Confirm the action and restart the phone.

After discharge:

• ✅ The live wallpaper will be replaced by a standard background MIUI.
• ❌ All user-defined desktop settings will disappear.
• 🔄 You will have to reconfigure widgets and folders.

This method is guaranteed to remove all wallpaper, including system, but only use it if other methods do not help. On devices with MIUI 14, you may need to re-authorize your Xiaomi account after reset.

6. How to prevent the system from installing live wallpaper automatically

Even after successful removal, live wallpaper can reappear after a MIUI update or reset, and to avoid this, you need to turn off automatic installation of theme and wallpaper.

Ways:

1. Disable auto-update themes: 📱 Open Topics → Profile → Settings. 🔄 Turn off Auto Update Theme options and recommend wallpaper.
2. Block background processes: 🛠️ Go to Settings. → Annexes → Application management. 🔍 Find Themes and Louncher. 🚫 For each, turn off AutoRun and limit Background activity.

Use a third-party launcher:

Install an alternative launcher (like Nova Launcher or Lawnchair) and set it up as the default launcher.This completely bypasses the MIUI system wallpaper, but requires manual interface tuning.

For root-right users, there is a radical solution to freeze the system APKs of live wallpaper via Titanium Backup or Lucky Patcher, which will permanently block their work, but could disrupt MIUI updates.

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The most reliable way to prevent the reappearance of live wallpaper is a combination of disabling auto-renewal of theme + limiting the background activity of the launcher.

FAQ: Frequent questions about live wallpaper on Xiaomi