How to speed up Xiaomi Redmi: a complete guide to system optimization

Modern Xiaomi Redmi smartphones have impressive hardware for their money, but over time, even top-end models can start to slow down. It is a natural process of accumulating system debris, app cache and background processes that inevitably load the processor and RAM. Users often notice that the MIUI interface or the new HyperOS becomes less responsive, and launching “heavy” games takes longer than when buying a device.

But the situation is not critical, and in most cases, a complete reinstallation of the system or purchase of a new gadget is not required. There are a whole range of software measures that allow you to return the old abruptness of your device. Optimizing your Android smartphone is not just about deleting unnecessary files, but deep setting system parameters that are by default focused on saving charge or showing ads, rather than maximum response speed.

In this guide, we’ll look at proven methods ranging from safe storage cleaning to activating hidden engineering menus. You’ll learn which system processes can be safely stopped, how to turn off visuals that slow down, and why standard memory cleaners often work to the detriment of the system. A critical step for older models is to disable automatic MIUI updates, which may not be optimized for aging hardware.

Analysis and release of system resources

The first step to speed up Xiaomi Redmi should be to carefully analyze what exactly consumes resources of your device. Unlike older versions of Android, modern MIUI shells have built-in, but not always obvious monitoring tools. You need to go to Settings → Memory to see detailed statistics on the use of internal storage and RAM.

Often the cause of lags is a crowded "Other" partition, which can take up tens of gigabytes. These are temporary files, remnants of deleted applications and messenger cache. Cache clearing is a safe procedure that does not delete your personal photos or contacts, but makes room for fast recording of new data by the system. If the free memory is less than 10-15%, the system starts to work much slower due to fragmentation and lack of space for swap.

Also worth paying attention to background processes. Many applications, especially social networks and marketplaces, continue to work even after closing, consuming CPU resources. In the Advanced Settings menu, find access to memory or use the built-in Security tool, where you can see a list of programs that eat up the battery and power in the background.

For deep cleaning, you can use the built-in Cleanup tool in the Security app, but it’s better to do it manually for important applications. Go to Settings → Apps → All apps, select “heavy” programs (such as Telegram, Instagram, YouTube) and click Clear Cache. Don’t confuse this with the Clean All button, which will reset the app to factory status by removing your logins and settings.

• 🗑️ Remove unused apps that you haven’t opened in more than a month – they often contain hidden analytics services.
• 📸 Transfer heavy photos and videos to cloud storage or to a computer, freeing up internal memory, the speed of which is critical for the system to work.
• 🔄 Regularly reboot the smartphone at least once a week - it resets the hanging processes and clears the RAM more efficiently than any Task killers.

⚠️ Note: Do not use third-party accelerator apps from the Play Market that promise to “boost the signal” or “free up” RAM» They are resource-intensive processes and often contain advertising, which ultimately slows down the Xiaomi Redmi even further.

Removing system advertising and disabling MIUI Optimization

One of the main reasons why Xiaomi smartphones can seem slow is the intrusive advertising and telemetry collection.MSA (MIUI System Ads) advertising modules are constantly hanging in memory, waiting for the moment to display a banner, and consume Internet traffic.

First, you need to turn off ad personalization. Go to Settings → Passwords and Security → Access to Personal Data (or “Privacy”). Find msa on the list and turn off the slider. The system will try to dissuade you by running a countdown timer, waiting for it to end and click “Cancel”.

Then you turn off the recommendations in the system applications. Go to the Security app, click on the settings gear and turn off "Get recommendations." Do a similar operation in the Music, Video, Explorer and Downloads apps. This will not only remove visual noise, but also reduce the load on the processor, since the system does not have to load advertising content blocks.

The most powerful tool for advanced users is to disable MIUI Optimization. This feature optimizes the work of applications under the shell, but often causes conflicts and lags. To access this menu, you need to click 7 times on the MIUI version in the About Phone section, become a developer, then go to For developers and find the item "Enable MIUI optimization." After turning off, the phone will reboot.

• 🚫 Disable the Joyose service through ADB or special apps if you’re a gamer – it often artificially lowers the frame rate in games to save energy.
• 📉 Reduce screen refresh rates to 60Hz in heavy gaming if you feel unstable to offload the GPU.
• 🔇 Turn off “Sound Improvement” and “Mi Sound” in the sound settings if you do not use expensive headphones – this will save CPU cycles.

⚠️ Attention: After optimizing MIUI The interface may become less familiar and some applications may not display correctly. If you notice critical errors in the system, return this parameter to its original position.

Customization of animation and visual effects

The visual smoothness of Android on Xiaomi Redmi is largely dependent on animations. Beautiful transitions between windows, opening apps and folding tasks create a pleasant feeling, but on budget models with a less powerful processor, they can cause micro-latency. Accelerating animations or completely turning it off is the fastest way to subjectively speed up the smartphone.

To access these settings, activate the developer mode. Go to Settings → About Phone and quickly click on MIUI Version 7 times (or OS Version). Once you have become a developer, go back to the main settings menu, select “Additional” → “Developers”.

In the menu that opens, you can scroll down to the Drawing section, and you're interested in three things: "Scale of window animation," "Scale of transition animation," and "Scale of transition animation." They're set to 1x by default. Change them to 0.5x. This will make all the interface movements twice as fast. If the phone is very old, you can try setting the "Switched Off" value, but the interface will become twitched.

Also on the developer menu, you should pay attention to the option "Plantback of processes", which can limit the number of background processes, select "No more than 2 processes" or "No more than 3 processes", which will cause the system to more aggressively unload applications from memory, freeing up resources for an active task. However, remember that with this attitude, applications will start "from scratch" more often, which can increase battery consumption.

Another important parameter is "Use hardware acceleration." Make sure it's on, which will allow you to shift some of the interface rendering tasks from the CPU to the graphics, which is especially true for the Redmi Note and Redmi A series.

• 🎨 Enable "Dark Theme" in the screen settings - on AMOLED-screens, this not only saves charge, but also reduces the load on the display controller.
• 📱 Avoid live wallpapers and widgets with constantly updated content on the home screen, as they require constant connection and rendering.
• ⚙️ In the section "For developers" include the option "Speed up work" GPU» (if available for your model) to force rendering of graphics.

Managing Autoboot and Background Processes

Many users are unaware that dozens of apps run alongside a smartphone and continue to run in the background even if you’re not using them. MIUI’s shell has a built-in autoload management mechanism that needs to be manually configured, as it allows almost everything by default.

To control auto-run, go to the Security app (green lightning icon), select Permissions → Auto-Start. Here you will see a list of all the apps that start with the system. Leave only messengers (WhatsApp, Telegram) on if you need instant notifications and system services. Everything else — stores, social networks, games — safely turn off.

In addition to auto-run, you should also configure Other Permissions. In the same Security menu, find Memory Access or Background Activity. For each application, you can choose a strategy: No Limitations, Smart Limitations, or Limits. For programs that are rarely used, set a strict restriction, which will prevent them from running in the background and collecting data.

💡

Use In-Flight mode for 10-15 seconds if your phone starts to heat up and brake a lot, which will force you to break all network connections and restart the modem, often eliminating network freezes.

It's also worth checking the list of "Sleeping" apps. The system can automatically send infrequently used programs into deep sleep, from which they can't receive notifications. If you want the application to always run fast, find it in the battery settings and select "No restrictions." But to speed up the overall performance, it's better to have a minimum of such exceptions.

It's important to check the battery consumption section in your settings regularly, and if you see an application that you haven't used but it consumes a significant percentage of its charge, that's a signal of a voracious background process. Delete that application or restrict its rights.

Use of Game Mode and Game Turbo

For owners of gaming smartphones Xiaomi and Redmi (especially the series K, F and Note Pro) it is critically important to properly configure the Game Turbo function. This is not just a marketing “chip”, but a real tool for reallocating the system resources in favor of a running game, disabling unnecessary background processes and increasing the sensitivity of the touch screen.

To activate maximum performance, add the right games to the Security app → Game Turbo (or Game Acceleration). Inside the Game Turbo settings, select the Performance or No Limits profile, which will prevent the system from reducing the CPU frequency when it is heated (within reasonable limits) and turn off notifications that may cause a frieze.

💡

The Game Turbo does not create new power out of thin air, but effectively blocks background tasks that could take away FPS at a critical point in the game.

In the advanced game mode settings, you can find the options "Increased touch" and "Increased response." MOBA-game (PUBG, Mobile Legends, COD Mobile) these settings make the control more responsive, and it is also worth turning off Autobrightness while playing, as algorithms may incorrectly respond to the change of frames, causing the image to twitch.

If your phone supports Virtual RAM, experiment with it. It takes some of the internal memory and uses it as RAM. For heavy gaming, this can be useful, but for overall interface speed, it's sometimes better to keep that option off or at a minimum, since internal memory is slower than real RAM.

• 🎮 Turn on Do Not Disturb mode in Game Turbo to make calls and SMS They did not interrupt the gameplay and did not cause lags.
• 📉 Close all apps before launching a heavy game through the Recents menu to free up maximum RAM.
• 🌡️ Remove the case during long gaming sessions if you feel strong heat - trottling (resetting frequencies due to temperature) - the main enemy FPS.

⚠️ Attention: Maximum performance mode significantly increases battery consumption and housing heating. It is not recommended to keep the phone in this mode constantly for normal work with the browser or social networks.

Cardinal measures: Resetting and flashing

If none of the software methods worked and Xiaomi Redmi continues to run slowly, it may have accumulated critical errors or damage to file tables. In this case, the way to completely reset to factory settings, this will return the device to the “out of the box” state, removing all user debris.

Before resetting, make sure to back up your data via Mi Cloud or Google Drive, and save important photos and documents to your computer. Go to Settings → Phone → Settings → Reset → Erase all data. The process will take a few minutes, after which the phone will turn on clean. Often, it is after such a reset that old devices start to work as new.

For advanced users whose devices are no longer getting official updates or are getting "heavy" versions of Android that are not optimized for their hardware, custom firmware installation (such as LineageOS, Pixel Experience or lightweight versions of Xiaomi.eu) is relevant. Pure Android without MIUI add-ons works much faster on budget hardware.

However, if the phone is over 5-6 years old, no software optimization will compensate for the physical wear and tear of the battery and the degradation of the memory chips, in which case the acceleration will be temporary and insignificant.

To sum up, regular maintenance, good application management, and disabling red-imaging can extend your Redmi’s life by several years, starting with simple steps like clearing your cache and turning off ads, before you get to the developer’s complex settings.