How to speed up Xiaomi Redmi 5: a complete guide to system optimization

Owners of the popular budget Xiaomi Redmi 5 often face a slowdown after a year or two of active use. Smartphone, which initially pleased with the speed, begins to “hang” when switching applications, open heavy pages in the browser for a long time or even respond to touches with a delay. This is a natural process for any electronics, but in the case of MIUI, the situation is aggravated by an abundance of background processes and advertising.

But it's not worth rushing to buy a new gadget or flash it over the air. There are a number of effective software methods to restore the interface to its former friction. Deep cleaning of the cache, disabling unnecessary services and properly configuring animations can work wonders even on old hardware.

In this article, we will take a look at all the optimization options available, from simple menu actions to more complex manipulations, and learn which system processes can be safely stopped and how to properly configure memory for maximum performance.

System status analysis and memory cleaning

The first step before any radical action is diagnostics, and you need to understand what's consuming resources, and the MIUI has a powerful security tool built in, which is often ignored by relying on third-party cliners, but the native optimizer works better with system files.

Go to the Security → Cleanup app. The system will analyze the files and suggest removing the garbage. Don't stop there. Go to Deep Cleanup. There are large files left by messengers and duplicate photos. Often, it is the overcrowded Internal Storage section that is the main cause of the brakes.

⚠️ Attention: When you clean deep, watch carefully what you delete. Do not erase folders with.obb or.data extensions for games unless you want to download them again, and be careful with system logs if you plan to send error reports.

After manual cleaning, check which applications are running in the background. Go to Settings → Advanced Settings → Memory. Here you will see a list of processes that eat up RAM. If free RAM is less than 15-20%, the system will constantly unload applications, which creates a lag effect when they are re-run.

You can use the built-in acceleration function to automate the process. Click the "Clean" button in a floating window or widget on your desktop, and this will force the background processes to be completed, freeing up resources for the current task.

Customization of animations and interface for speed

The visual component of the MIUI shell is beautiful, but requires CPU resources to render transitions. On budget chipsets like the Snapdragon 450 in Redmi 5, these effects can cause micro-latency. Disabling or speeding up animations is the easiest way to make the interface "volatile."

To access these settings, activate the Developer Mode. Go to Settings → About Phone and quickly click 7 times on MIUI Version. You’re a Developer Notice will appear. Now, in the Advanced Settings menu → For developers, find the Drawing section.

You're interested in three things: Windows animation, transition animation, and animation duration. They're 1x by default. Change them to 0.5x or completely disable them (without animation) This will make opening apps instantaneous, taking time away from rendering effects.

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If the interface looks twitchy after resizing the font or animation, return the 0.5x value – this is the optimal balance between speed and visual comfort.

Also, you should disable heavy wallpaper and live themes. High-resolution static image loads less than dynamic wallpaper, which constantly consumes CPU cycles. Remove widgets from the desktop if they are updated in real time (weather, news), as they constantly access the network and GPS.

Managing Autoboot and Background Processes

One of the biggest problems with Android smartphones is the uncontrolled autoload of apps, social networks, stores and games are written in start-up and hang in your memory even if you don't use them.

Open the app Security → Permissions → Autorun. Here you will see a list of programs that start with the phone. Leave only messengers (Telegram, WhatsApp, Viber) on if instant notifications are critical. Everything else, including Mi Store, GetApps and various Google services, can be safely turned off.

In addition to auto-run, there is a floating window feature, which some applications can use to work in the background. Check the settings of each heavy application in the Apps section → Settings → Notifications and limit background activity where possible.

It's important to understand the difference between a full stop and a background activity restriction. A full stop through the Application Manager kills the process before the next manual start, which is useful for gaming. A background activity restriction allows the application to run, but prevents it from waking the processor unnecessarily.

Special features and hidden performance settings

In the depth of Android settings, you can find the settings that directly affect the CPU. In Developer Mode, find Background Processes. The default is "No Limits"; change it to "No More than 2 Processes" or "No More than 3 Processes"; this will cause the system to more aggressively unload old software, freeing RAM for the active application.

Another important parameter is "Hardware acceleration rendering." Make sure you tick "Use hardware acceleration of the GPU." While this may slightly increase battery consumption, it shifts the load of rendering graphics from the CPU to the video core, which is often a plus for the Redmi 5.

Be careful with MIUI Optimization at the end of the developer’s setup list, which puts the phone in pure Android mode, hiding many of the shell’s features, and only do so if you understand the consequences, as it could disrupt system applications.

Optimization of network operation and data transmission

Users often confuse the interface lags with slow Internet performance. If pages load for a long time, the problem may not be in the processor, but in the network settings. Xiaomi has a “Traffic Limit” feature that can artificially limit the speed of background applications.

Check the settings in Security → Data Transfer. Make sure that the browser and the applications you need are not set a speed limit. Also, reset the network settings if there are persistent Wi-Fi interruptions: Settings → Connection and Sharing → Reset Wi-Fi, mobile networks and Bluetooth.

To speed up mobile internet, you can try changing the type of network. → SIM-maps and mobile networks → Network type and select Preferred LTE. Sometimes the phone gets stuck in the area of insecure reception 3G, The manual selection of the standard helps.

Cardinal measures: Resetting and flashing

If the software methods didn't work, there's the final frontier, which is a complete reset. Before you do that, make sure you back up your data. In MIUI, it's done through Settings → About Phone → Settings Reset → Erase all the data.

Once reset, the phone will return to factory status. Don't restore all apps from a Google backup or Mi Cloud. Set only the minimum you need. Often, it's the accumulated "digital debris" from older versions of apps that causes problems after you upgrade.

⚠️ Warning: When resetting, all photos, contacts and files are deleted, make sure that important data is copied to your computer or cloud storage before starting the procedure.

For advanced users, there is a custom firmware option (like LineageOS or Pixel Experience) that completely changes the software shell to a lighter, devoid of Xiaomi services. However, this requires unlocking the bootloader, which is officially only possible after waiting 168 hours (7 days) from the moment of the account’s attachment.

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Full Factory Reset returns 90% of the new device’s performance, removing years of accumulated software debris and version conflicts.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)