Owners of budget and mid-budget smartphones often face a situation when beautiful animation on the desktop begins to slow down the interface. Xiaomi Redmi 8, despite its popularity, has limitations in the amount of RAM that become noticeable when using resource-intensive design elements. Live wallpaper is one of the main consumers of CPU and battery energy in the background, which directly affects the autonomy of the device.
Many users activate dynamic themes accidentally or in an attempt to personalize the gadget, but soon notice a decrease in performance. In the MIUI shell, the process of turning off these effects may not be obvious due to the extensive settings menu. In this article, we will discuss in detail all the available ways to return a static image and speed up your smartphone.
Why you should abandon dynamic graphics on Redmi 8
Using animated backgrounds on devices with a Snapdragon 439 processor puts a constant strain on the graphics core. Even when you're not interacting with the screen, the system continues to waste resources on rendering frames, leading to heat up the case and faster battery discharge. System optimization often requires eliminating heavy visual effects to ensure the smoothness of the main applications.
Also, some of the themes from MIUI Themes store contain poorly optimized code that can cause conflicts with system services, such as random interface reboots or freezes when you unlock the screen. Returning to a standard static image is the first step in eliminating lags.
It's important to understand that removing live wallpaper doesn't just change the image, it actually disables the background service that's responsible for animation, and that frees up some of the RAM that can be redirected to the messenger or navigator. For Redmi 8 owners, this is a critical stability parameter.
⚠️ Warning: Installing themes from unverified sources can lead to banner ads on your desktop even after changing the wallpaper.Always check the author's rating of the topic before downloading.
Basic way to disconnect through screen settings
The easiest and safest way to get back to static is to use a standard personalization menu, so you don't need super-user rights or a computer connection, but you just need to do a few sequential actions on the smartphone interface.
To start, unlock the device and find an empty area on the home screen. Make a long press (pinch) finger to activate the editing mode of the desktop. At the bottom of the display, a toolbar will appear, where you need to select Wallpaper or Themes, depending on the firmware version and region.
In the menu that opens, you'll see the current set theme. If the live wallpaper is active, next to the preview there'll be a corresponding icon or inscription. Click on the Remove button or just select any static background from the gallery and apply it. The system automatically deactivates the animation engine.
- 📱 Unlock the screen and make a pinch on the desktop.
- 🎨 Click on the Wallpaper icon in the lower menu.
- 🗑️ Select a static image and click Apply.
- ✅ Confirm the action for the lock screen and desktop.
After the changes are applied, the system can freeze for a second — that's normal, the interface is redrawn, if the animation is gone, then the procedure was successful, in some cases, it may be necessary to restart the device to complete the process.
Theme management through the Themes app
In the Xiaomi ecosystem, a separate Themes system application is responsible for visual design, and this is where all downloaded design packages are stored, including those containing dynamic components, and for deep cleaning, you need to go to the user profile inside this application.
Open the Themes app and go to the Profile tab (usually the person icon in the lower right corner). In the list, select Topics. This shows all the graphics sets installed on the device. Find a theme that is currently active and will be marked with the appropriate status.
Click on the active theme to open its detailed description. In the upper right corner or in the three-dot menu, find the Remove or Change button. If you choose to delete, the system will suggest using the default theme (Classic or Default), which is guaranteed to contain no live wallpaper.
⚠️ Note: When removing a paid theme, make sure you remember your Mi Account, as a re-download may require payment if the purchase was not tied correctly.
☑️ Checking before changing the topic
It’s worth noting that removing a theme from your profile doesn’t always completely clear the graphics cache. If you’re planning to make room for it, you can safely remove the old theme file from the list of available themes after you change the theme to the standard one, especially if the theme weighs more than 50MB.
Settings of special features and simplified mode
Sometimes Redmi 8 users will find that the live wallpaper is returned or not deleted through the standard menu, this may be due to the enabled mode of simplified access or features of the special features in MIUI. In this section, we will look at how to check these settings.
Go to the basic Settings of your smartphone and find the Advanced Settings section or Special Features section. In some firmware versions, this item is placed in a separate menu at the bottom of the settings list, and we're interested in the subsection related to display or text size.
Check if Ultra or Lite mode is activated, which can force you to change the design of the interface, and you should also look at the zoom settings, and if there are any dynamic effects for the visually impaired, they can conflict with the usual wallpaper, creating the illusion of undeleteable animation.
| Parameter | Location on the menu | Recommended value | Impact on wallpaper |
|---|---|---|---|
| Screen mode | Settings → Screen | Classical. | Removes unnecessary animations |
| Type size | Display → Text | Standard. | Prevents layout failures |
| Dark subject matter | Settings → Screen | Scheduled. | Can change the wallpaper overnight. |
| Wallpaper carousel | Settings → Blocking | Off. | Stops the background shift |
Disabling the extra features in this section not only helps to remove the live wallpaper, but also makes the interface more responsive. On the Redmi 8 processor, every megabyte of memory and every bit of the processor is in the account, so minimalism in the settings of special features is the key to stable operation.
What is a wallpaper carousel?
Cache cleaning and reset theme settings
If visual artifacts or live graphics elements remain even after the theme change, it may be that the system has accumulated an erroneous cache.The MIUI shell tends to save temporary graphics files for quick download, but over time this data can be corrupted.
To clean, you need to go to the Application menu → All apps. Find the Topic (or Themes) app on the list. Click on it and select Memory. Here you need to clear or Clear Data. Don't worry, your personal photos and contacts won't be affected, just the design settings will reset.
Once the data is cleaned, the phone can freeze for a few seconds and then reboot the desktop, which is the normal behavior of the system. Once you boot, you'll see a standard background. If the problem was a software failure of the theme, it will be fixed.
- 🛠️ Go to Settings. → Annexes.
- 🔍 Find the System Application Topics.
- 💾 Press Memory and choose Clean Everything.
- 🔄 Wait for the automatic reboot of the interface.
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If all previously downloaded themes are gone after cleaning up the data, don’t worry. You can re-download them from the Mi Cloud or the Them store by logging in to your account.
In the rare cases where the problem is deeper, you may need to clean the system launcher cache, and do this carefully: in the application menu, find the System Launcher and also clean up its data, which will return the layout of the icons on the desktops to the factory appearance, but will definitely remove any attachments to the live wallpaper.
Third-party launchers as a radical solution
When standard MIUI tools fail to deliver the desired result or the interface seems too overloaded, many Redmi 8 users resort to installing a third-party launcher, which is a shell program that completely replaces the desktop, control panel and application menu.
Popular solutions like Nova Launcher, Lawnchair or Microsoft Launcher completely ignore Xiaomi’s system live wallpaper. They use their own rendering engine, which is usually much easier and more optimized. Once installed, the question of “how to remove live wallpaper” disappears by itself, since the third-party program simply does not support this format as Xiaomi implemented it.
Download for installation APK-A launcher file from a proven source or Google Play Store. Once installed, the system will ask permission to use the new launcher by default. You'll agree, and you'll get to a clean interface. Now you can install any static image through the launcher's settings.
⚠️ Attention: Installing third-party launchers on Android 10-12 (relevant to Redmi 8) You may need additional permissions in the special features menu to make the search or swipe function work.
Using an alternative launcher is not only a way to combat live graphics, but also the ability to customize the Redmi 8 beyond recognition. You can change the grid of icons, fonts and animations of opening apps, making the smartphone visually more modern and faster.
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Third-party launcher is the most effective way to completely get rid of the limitations of the MIUI interface and is guaranteed to remove any system live wallpaper.
Impact of system updates on design
Xiaomi regularly releases updates for its devices, and the Redmi 8 is no exception. Sometimes, along with security patches or a new version of Android, changes in the work of the theme come, and the software update can both fix bugs with live wallpaper and bring new ones.
It is recommended to periodically check for updates in the About Phone menu. If you encounter a problem after the update, there may be a file conflict, in which case, resetting the theme settings described above, or waiting for the next patch from developers, helps.
It's worth mentioning that newer versions of MIUI (Global and China) are bringing smart wallpaper features that change the image depending on the time of day or location. They're not technically live wallpaper in the classic sense (video row), but they also consume resources. They turn off in the lock screen settings.
Does the behavior of the wallpaper in MIUI 12 and 13 change?
Watch out for firmware news for your model. Sometimes in official support groups, users post information that a particular version of the software (for example, V11.0.3) has a wallpaper bug, and advise not to update or, conversely, update for a fix.