How to return the watch to the home screen of Xiaomi phone: from simple settings to hidden features

You used to look at the time right from the Xiaomi home screen, but suddenly noticed that the usual watch has disappeared? This is a common problem among users of Redmi, POCO and Mi smartphones, especially after updating MIUI or changing the launcher. 90% of the time is due to problems in the shell settings, not hardware failures, and you can return the watch widget in 2-3 minutes.

In this article, we will look at all the current ways to return a watch to the screen, from basic (through the personalization menu) to advanced (editing configuration files via ADB). Particular attention will be paid to the nuances for different versions of MIUI 12/13/14 and models with Always-On Display (AOD). If you have tried standard methods without success, here you will find solutions for complex cases, for example, when the clock disappears after resetting or installing custom firmware.

Why the Watch is Disappearing from the Xiaomi Screen: 7 Reasons

Before you start to recover, it's important to understand the root of the problem, and it's often the fault of:

• 🔄 Update MIUI — after installing a new version of the shell, the widget settings are reset (especially important for transitions between the two sides). MIUI 13 → MIUI 14).
• 📱 Change Launcher – If you have installed a third-party launcher (like Nova Launcher or Hyperion), system widgets may conflict.
• ⚙️ Error in lock screen settings – sometimes the clock disappears after changing style AOD or disable the function "Show the clock".
• 🗑️ Resetting settings – even a “soft” reset via Settings → About the phone can remove widgets from the main screen.
• 🛠️ Manual removal of the widget – random long-term pressing of the clock and selecting “Delete” (a frequent error when cleaning the screen).
• 📴 Battery optimization — MIUI aggressively closes background processes, including system widgets.
• 🔧 Damage to system files is rare, but happens after unsuccessful firmware or manual intervention in the system. /system.

If the watch is only missing on the lock screen, the problem lies in the Always-On Display settings or the power saving mode, and if it disappeared from both the home screen and the lock, the com.miui.home system launcher malfunctions.

Method 1: Restore the clock through personalization settings (works 80% of the time)

The fastest method is to return to the standard widget settings via the theme menu, which is suitable for all devices on MIUI 12 and later, including the Redmi Note 12 Pro+, POCO X5 and Xiaomi 13T.

1. Open Settings → Personalization (or Themes in older versions of MIUI).
2. Select the Lock Screen (for clocks on a locked screen) or the Home Screen (for desktop widgets).
3. Scroll down to the Widgets block and tap the Clock.
4. Activate the Show Clock Switch and select the display style (analog/digital).
5. For the home screen: return to the desktop, make a long press from scratch → Widgets → find the Watch and drag to the screen.

If the "Clock" item is not in the widget list, it means that the system launcher has reset the cache, in which case it will help to restart the phone or clean the data of the Launcher application (about this in method 3).

Method 2: Reset the launcher settings (for complex cases)

When the watch does not return via the personalization menu, the problem lies in the failure of the MIUI Launcher system launcher.

Option A: Clearing the launcher cache (without data loss)

1. Go to Settings → Applications → Application Management.
2. In the search bar, type Launcher (or Mi Launcher in Russian).
3. Select the app and tap the Warehouse → Clear the cache.
4. Restart your phone – the watch should appear within 1-2 minutes.

Option B: Full launcher reset (returns standard settings)

If cleaning the cache did not help, reset the launcher settings:

1. In the same Launcher menu, select Storage → Clear Data.
2. Confirm the action – this will remove all your desktop settings (location of icons, folders, widgets).
3. After the reboot, the watch will appear in a standard place (the upper left corner of the lock screen).

⚠️ Attention: Clearing the launcher data will reset all settings of the main screen, including wallpaper and icon location. Before the procedure, take screenshots of the current arrangement to quickly restore it.

Method 3: Enable the watch through Always-On Display (AOD)

On devices with AMOLED-screens (Xiaomi) 12/13, Redmi K50, POCO F4 GT) The watch may be lost due to the disabled Always-On Display mode, which is responsible for displaying time, notifications and other data on the off screen.

To get the clock back:

1. Go to Settings → Lock screen → Always-On Display.
2. Activate the Always-On Display slider.
3. Choose the style of the watch (options are available: Digital, Analog, Minimalist).
4. Set up a display schedule (for example, Always or Schedule).

On devices with LCD-screens (e.g. Redmi) 9A or POCO M4 Pro) function AOD No – the watch can only be returned via a widget on the home screen or lock screen.

Method 4: Manually Adding the Watch Widget to the Main Screen

If the watch is missing from the desktop (and not from the lock screen), you can return it manually:

1. Make a long press on the empty place of the main screen.
2. In the bottom menu, select Widgets.
3. Scroll through the list to the Systems block and find the Watch (or Clock on English firmware).
4. Hold the icon of the watch and drag it onto the screen. Release your finger when the frame appears.
5. Set up the widget size (if supported) and display style.

If there is no item in the list of widgets:

• 🔄 Restart your phone – sometimes widgets don’t show up due to a malfunction MIUI Home.
• 📥 Update the firmware through Settings → The phone. → Updating the system.
• 🛠️ Install an alternative watch widget from Google Play (e.g. Clock Widget or Digital Clock Widget).

💡

If the watch widget refuses to be added, try temporarily disabling battery optimization for the Launcher app. Go to Settings → Applications → Application Management → Launcher → Battery and select No Limits.

Method 5: Correction through ADB (for advanced users)

If all previous methods failed, the problem may be a system settings failure, which can be repaired by the ADB (Android Debug Bridge) team, which is suitable for users familiar with USB debugging.

Warning: improper use of ADB can cause the phone to malfunction.

1. Turn on Developer Mode: Settings → About Phone → MIUI version (tap 7 times in a row).
2. Activate USB Debugging in Settings → Additional → For developers.
3. Connect the phone to your PC, install ADB drivers and open the command line.
4. Run the command to reset the launcher settings: adb shell pm clear com.miui.home
5. Reset the device.

If your watch is missing due to a SystemUI failure, try restarting the process:

adb shell am broadcast -a android.intent.action.BOOT_COMPLETED


adb shell pkill -f com.android.systemui

⚠️ Note: pm clear com.miui.home will reset all settings on the home screen, including the location of icons and widgets.

Frequent Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

When you restore your watch, you often have typical problems, and here's how to fix them:

• ❌ The watch appears but disappears after a few seconds Reason: Aggressive battery optimization Solution: add Launcher and SystemUI to the list of applications without restrictions (Settings) → Battery → Optimizing the battery).
• ❌ The lock screen only displays date, no time Reason: failure in style settings AOD. Solution: Change the style of the watch in Settings → Lock screen → Always-On Display.
• ❌ The watch widget is not added to the main screen Reason: damage to the launcher cache Solution: clear the data com.miui.home (see Method 2).
• ❌ Watch displays incorrectly (time or format is lost) Reason: time synchronization failure. Solution: go to Settings → Additionally. → Date and time and activate Automatic Date and Time.

If none of the methods worked, the problem may be caused by the system files being damaged, in which case only a complete reset (Settings → About Phone → Reset) or a flashing through Fastboot will help.

💡

Before resetting, be sure to back up your data via Settings → About Phone → Backup or Mi Cloud. This will save your contacts, photos and app settings.

FAQ: Answers to popular questions