Owners of Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 smartphones often face the desire to personalize the interface of the device using third-party designs from the MIUI Themes store. However, after installing many designs, the system can start to work slower, and visual bugs become noticeable in different sections of the shell.
The cleaning process is not always obvious, as the standard settings menu hides some options for managing the design packages. To completely remove the theme and related elements, you need to know the exact navigation paths in the MIUI 12 or MIUI 13 system that are relevant for this model. In this article, we will discuss in detail all ways to return to the factory style.
Why to remove third-party themes on Redmi Note 9
Using custom designs is a great way to stand out, but there's a flip side to the coin: Third-party themes often contain heavy graphics that load the Redmi Note 9's CPU and RAM. This can lead to micro-latency when switching between apps or scrolling through the desktop.
In addition, poorly designed themes can conflict with system updates. After another MIUI update, the interface can go, icons become unreadable, and fonts in the settings turn into squares, in such situations, removing the problem package is the only quick solution.
It’s also worth considering the amount of space you’ll be able to take in. Although a single topic weighs a bit, a collection of dozens of downloaded files can take up to a few hundred megabytes. For users who are monitoring every gigabyte of internal memory, regular cleaning will be a useful habit.
⚠️ Note: Make sure you have access to the Internet before removing the theme. Xiaomi’s system sometimes requires online rights checks before applying the standard design if there was a third-party mod before.
Return to the standard theme through settings
The easiest and safest way to remove a third-party design is to activate the built-in theme by default.This method doesn't delete third-party file design completely, but resets all visual changes, returning the phone to its original look.
To start, open the Settings app and find the Topics section. In the store that opens, go to the user profile by clicking on the person icon in the bottom right corner of the screen, and it stores the entire history of your downloads.
Select the Themes tab and find the option called Classic or Untitled (usually first on the list or marked as standard). Click Apply. The system will restart the graphical shell and the interface will return to factory state.
☑️ Checklist for resetting the topic
After applying the standard design, it is recommended to restart the device, which will clear the GUI cache and fix the changes, preventing possible glitches during further operation.
Completely delete theme files from memory
If your goal is not just to change the picture, but to physically delete the theme files from the memory of your smartphone, you need to use a file manager. The standard MIUI Explorer allows you to get to the system folders where the registration data is stored.
Open Explorer and go to the MIUI root folder. Follow the theme path. This is where all the files you download are. Be careful: deleting system files can disrupt the interface.
Find files with the.mtz extension or folders with obscure names that correspond to the installation time of the unnecessary theme. Select them and click Delete. The system will request confirmation of the operation.
The way to the topics folder:
/MIUI/theme/It is important to understand that simply removing a file from the Explorer does not always completely clear the traces of the theme in the registry. For deep cleaning, it is better to use the built-in features of the Themes application, described in the next section.
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Use the built-in cleanup in the Security app to remove the remnants of the theme files after manually deleting through the Explorer.
Theme Management through the Topics App
Xiaomi’s Themes app has hidden functionality to manage installed packages, and many users don’t know that you can completely erase third-party design data from here.
Go to the app and go to Profile. Select the Topic tab. Click and hold your finger on the topic you want to delete. In the context menu that appears, select Remove or Recycle Bin icon.
If the theme is active, the system will first require you to switch to the standard one, and then the file will be removed from the list of available files, which frees up space and removes the topic from the list of recent ones.
| Action. | The result | Necessary rights |
|---|---|---|
| Apply Classic | Reset visual | No. |
| Remove from profile | Clearing the list | Mi Account |
| Delete the file (.mtz) | Freeing Memory | Access to files |
| Clearing the cache | Deletion of temporary data | No. |
Some system themes cannot be removed because they are part of the firmware, and if you try to delete them, you will either not see the corresponding button or the system will issue a warning about the critical component.
Resetting fonts and icons
Often users forget that the theme is not just wallpaper, but also fonts, icons, sounds and style of system windows. Even after changing the theme, fonts can remain changed if they are not reset separately.
To return a standard font, go to Settings → Screen → Font. Here select the standard MIUI font and click Apply. A similar procedure is required for icons if they have changed regardless of the main theme.
The Themes app has separate tabs for Fonts and Icons, and when you go into profile, you can see the download history of these items, and they are removed by the same principle: long-press and select the removal option.
⚠️ Warning: Installing fonts from unreliable sources can cause some characters (e.g., in banking applications) to become unreadable.Always check for Cyrillic support.
What to do if the font does not change?
Solving the problems with removing themes
In some cases, users may experience an error when deleting or changing the theme, and the system may send a message about a network error or a lack of rights, often due to regional restrictions on Xiaomi servers.
If the standard methods don't work, try changing the region in your phone settings. Go to Settings → Settings → Settings → Selective → Region and select India or Singapore. After changing the region, the theme store can earn the right amount of money by allowing you to manage content.
Another effective method is to clean the data of the Themes app. Go to Settings → Apps → All apps, find Themes and click Clear → All data. This will reset the store settings, but will not delete your personal files.
If the problem is deep system errors, you may need to reset all settings to factory settings, and use this method only as a last resort, saving important data beforehand.
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Changing the region to India often solves the problems with access to theme servers and allows you to correctly remove or apply the designs.
The impact of themes on the performance of the Redmi Note 9
The Redmi Note 9 is powered by the MediaTek Helio G85 processor, which is a mid-budget solution. Heavy themes with live animations and complex widgets can significantly reduce FPS in the interface.
Using a standard theme ensures optimal system performance. Xiaomi engineers optimize this interface for hardware devices. Third-party developers do not always take into account the limitations of memory and processor.
Regular cleaning of unused themes has a positive effect on the speed of the file system: fewer files means faster index and fewer errors when reading data.