Owners of Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO smartphones often face a situation where the usual time and weather widgets suddenly disappear from the desktop or stop displaying current information. This can happen after updating the MIUI or HyperOS system, accidentally removing the application or resetting settings. The absence of these elements significantly reduces the usability of the device, as the user loses quick access to basic data.
Recovery of widget functionality usually requires no technical intervention, and most of the time, the problem is solved by standard Android operating system, adapted for the shell of Xiaomi, but there are nuances that depend on the firmware version and regional features of the services.
In this article, we will discuss in detail all possible ways to return watch and weather widgets. We will look at both standard methods for adding through the menu, and solutions for cases where widgets are not listed or work incorrectly.
Verification of system applications and their status
The first step before you try to add widgets is to make sure that the system components responsible for their operation are active, and the display of time and weather data is responsible for individual system applications that may have been accidentally disabled by the user or frozen during the optimization process.
Go to Settings → Apps → All apps. You need to find apps called “Hours”, “Weather” or their English counterparts Clock and Weather. If you see an arrow icon next to the name, then the application is disabled. Click on it and select the Enable button at the bottom of the screen.
⚠️ Note: Do not remove system weather applications, even if you do not use them. Desktop widgets are part of these applications, and removing them will make it impossible to display information without installing third-party analogues.
Also worth checking for updates for these components: Go to GetApps or Google Play, look for Xiaomi Inc.'s Weather and make sure the latest version is installed.Outdated versions may conflict with the new system shell.
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Without the active system application “Weather” widget will not display data, even if it is added to the screen.
Adding widgets through the editing menu
The most common way to bring the clock and weather back to the screen is to use the built-in menu of MIUI or HyperOS shell widgets. The interface may vary slightly depending on the Android version, but the logic of action remains the same for all models, from the Redmi Note to the flagship Xiaomi.
To start, free up space on your desktop. Press the blank area of the screen and hold for a few seconds until the edit menu opens. At the bottom of the screen, a toolbar appears. Select Widgets.
You'll open a library of all the widgets available, and you'll have to scroll through the list to the "Hours" or "Weather" section, and you'll have all the different design options, digital, analog, calendar or non-calendar, and you'll pick your style and drag it to the free desktop space.
- 📱 Classic watches: a simple digital format that takes up a minimum of space.
- 🌦️ Background weather: The widget changes the image depending on current conditions.
- ⏰ Combined: clock, date and temperature in one block.
Once the widget is placed on the screen, the system can request permission to access the geo-position, which is necessary to automatically determine your location and show the current weather. Without this permission, the widget will show data for a random city or require manual input.
Set up the Weather widget and geolocation
Often users add a widget, but they see a dashboard or data for another city, which indicates a problem with geolocation settings or Internet access permission for a particular application, and the weather widget's proper performance depends on the geolocation service.
Click on the weather widget (sometimes you need a long press, sometimes tap on the settings icon inside the widget). In the menu that opens, check if your city is selected. If it is "Undefined", click on the city name and enter the name of your village manually.
Next, check permissions. Go to Settings → Apps → All Apps → Weather → Permissions. Make sure Location and Internet are active. For location, choose Allow Always or Allow When Use so that the widget can be updated in the background.
⚠️ Warning: If you have power saving mode on, the system can block the background update of the weather widget to save charge.Add the Weather app to battery exclusions.
In some regions, such as the European Union, weather data is provided by AccuWeather, and in others by Xiaomi’s own servers. If the data is not updated, try changing the region in your phone settings (Settings → Advanced Settings → Region), although this may affect the performance of other services.
Problems with the widget Watch and time format
The watch widget can display the wrong time if the time zone or time format settings are down, which often happens after traveling or resetting the network settings, and checking these parameters is a must-do diagnostic step.
Go to Settings → Additional Settings → Date and time. Make sure the Use Network Time switch is activated. If you use a 12-hour widget and are used to a 24-hour widget, change the corresponding item on the same menu and the widget will automatically reset.
There's also a separate Watch app that manages alarm clocks and timers, and the desktop widget can be linked to it. If the widget shows the alarm clock time instead of the current time, you may have chosen the wrong type of widget when you set it up. Delete it and add it again, carefully reading the preview description.
Why is the clock slow?
For users who don’t like standard font or digit color, customization is possible through the theme, and changing the theme in the Themes app often replaces the design of the system watch widgets with more stylish ones.
Use Google widgets instead of system widgets
If standard Xiaomi widgets don’t suit you in design or functionality, you can always use Google’s solutions, and on many devices they are already preinstalled and integrated deeper into the system, ensuring stable operation.
To add Google widgets, pinch the empty space on your desktop, select Widgets, and scroll down to the letter G. There you will find the sections “Google”, “Google Search”, “Weather” (from Google) and “Hours” (from Google).
Google widgets often have a more modern Material You design that dynamically changes color depending on the wallpaper, and they are also less permission-intensive because they use the general account settings.
| Characteristics | Xiaomi Systems | Google widgets |
|---|---|---|
| Design | It fits the MIUI theme. | Material Design, adaptive design |
| weather source | AccuWeather / Xiaomi | Google Weather / AccuWeather |
| Functional | Basic + style | Integration with Calendar and Tasks |
| Autonomy | Medium | High (optimized) |
Switching between system and Google widgets doesn’t require root rights. You can use them simultaneously, placing them on different desktops for comparison.
Solving the Widget Disappearance Problems
There are situations where the widget is added, but after a while disappears or turns into a gray rectangle, this can be caused by memory cleaning, the work of the "cleaners" or failures in the launcher (desktop shell).
Try clearing the launcher cache. Go to Settings → Apps → All apps, search for Louncher (or System Launcher). Click Clear → Clear cache. Importantly, don't choose Clear All, otherwise all icons on your desktop will be confused.
If the problem persists, check if you have a third-party launcher (like Nova Launcher).On some versions of MIUI, third-party launchers may conflict with system widgets. Try temporarily returning to a standard launcher.
☑️ Checklist of diagnostic widgets
As a last resort, if the widgets are gone after a firmware update, you may need to reset your design settings. Go to Settings → Advanced Settings → Resetting → Reset your Wi-Fi, mobile internet and Bluetooth settings (this sometimes helps reset the network settings of widgets), but a full reset of the phone is rarely required.
Additional Opportunities and Customization
HyperOS shell and newer versions of MIUI offer enhanced widget capabilities, and many now support interactivity, such as Tasks or Calendar widgets that can be controlled directly from the desktop without opening the app.
Weather widgets are available with the "Always On Display" (AOD) feature, and if your screen supports this technology, the clock and weather can be displayed even on the screen that is off. You can set this up in Settings → Wallpaper and Personalization → Always On Display.
⚠️ Attention: Using a large number of active widgets and the Always On Display feature significantly increases battery consumption. If autonomy is more important to you, limit yourself to one watch widget.
Also worth mentioning are third-party widgets from Google Play, apps like HD Widgets or Overdrop that allow you to create a watch and weather widget of any shape and color that looks unique, but they require separate permissions and can consume more resources.
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Use 4x2 or 4x1 widgets to place at the top or bottom of the screen to leave the centerpiece for app icons.