Why Xiaomi turns off the screen when listening to voice messages: 7 reasons and solutions

You listen to a voice message on WhatsApp, Telegram or Viber, but Xiaomi's screen suddenly goes out after a few seconds -- and you have to unlock your phone to continue listening. Is the situation familiar? This is one of the most common complaints of Redmi, POCO and Mi smartphone owners in recent years, and it's not just messaging apps, but voice recording apps, podcasts, or even when you call Google Meet.

At first glance, it seems that the power saving mode or screen timeout is to blame, but in practice the reasons go deeper: they are related to MIUI optimization, application conflicts and even hardware features of some models. In this article, we will examine all possible reasons why Xiaomi turns off the screen while playing audio, and give step-by-step instructions for fixing the problem, from basic settings to hidden developer parameters.

It's important to understand that the problem isn't always a malfunction, and it's often a consequence of MIUI's aggressive power management policies, which force the screen to save power even when the audio stream is active, but there are other nuances, from bugs in the firmware to conflicts with optimizer applications.

If you’ve tried to increase screen time in your settings, but it didn’t work, don’t rush to reset your phone to factory settings. 90% of the time, the problem is solved without drastic measures. Next, we’ll look at 7 key causes and ways to fix them, including hidden settings that are not mentioned in the official documentation.

1. screen timeout and sleep settings

The most obvious reason is that the screen automatically shuts down after a given time interval. MIUI has a default setting of 15 to 30 seconds, which is often not enough to listen to long voice messages. However, even if you increase that time, the problem may persist due to additional optimizations.

To check and change the settings:

1. Go to Settings → Screen → Screen timeout.
2. Choose the maximum value of 10 minutes (or Never if this option is available).
3. Return to Settings → Screen and turn off the option Adaptive Brightness – sometimes it conflicts with proximity sensors.

But there’s a catch: even after these changes, the screen can go out because of the Smart Assistant feature (called Battery Saver or App Battery Saver in some firmware), which forces applications to “sleep” if they think they are running in the background without active interaction.

To disable optimization for messengers:

1. Go to Settings → Applications → Application Management.
2. Select a messenger (such as Telegram), then click Battery Limits.
3. Set up a No Limits mode.

2. Conflict with the proximity sensor

Many Xiaomi models (especially the Redmi Note 8/9/10 and POCO X3) suffer from false alarms of the proximity sensor, which is responsible for turning off the screen when you hold the device to your ear when you call, but sometimes it works when listening to voice messages, mistakenly “thinking” that you are talking on the phone.

You can check the operation of the sensor using a hardware test:

1. In the phone app, type ##6484## (or #4636## for older models).
2. Select the Proximity Sensor Test.
3. Close the sensor (top of the screen) with your hand – the value should change from 5.00 cm to 0.00 cm.

If the sensor doesn’t respond or shows incorrect values, try the following steps:

• 🧹 Clean the top of the screen of dust and protective film – they can block the signal.
• 🔄 Recalibrate the sensor through the engineering menu (code ##2664##, then Proximity Calibration).
• 🛠️ Disable the sensor programmatically (temporarily) ADB-Adb shell settings put global proximity_delay 2500 This will increase the delay of the operation to 2.5 seconds.

💡

If the proximity sensor is faulty, the screen can go out even during normal use, in which case only replacing the display module in the service center will help.

3. Battery optimization and background activity

MIUI is known for its aggressive power management policy, which often forcibly closes applications in the background, and this applies to instant messengers: the system can decide that listening to a voice message is an inactive action, and turn off the screen to save energy.

To fix this, you need to disable optimization for specific applications:

1. Go to Settings → Applications → Application Management.
2. Select a messenger (like WhatsApp), then click Battery Limits.
3. Set up a No Limits mode.
4. Enable Auto Start and Background Activity.

For a deeper setup:

• 🔋 Turn off the "Adaptive Battery" in Settings → Battery → Battery settings.
• ⚡ Add messenger to the exceptions for the mode of energy saving.
• 📱 Activate Developer Mode (7 times click on Version) MIUI In Settings → About phone) and disable the option to Limit background processes.

If the problem persists, check the synchronization settings:

⚠️ Attention: In some firmware MIUI 12/13 There's a bug that causes applications to lose their background rights after they reboot.

4. firmware bugs and conflicts with updates

Some versions of MIUI contain critical bugs that cause the screen to go out when playing audio. For example, MIUI 12.5 for the Redmi Note 10 Pro had a bug with a conflict between the audio driver and the power management system. and MIUI 14 for POCO F4 was a problem due to optimization for Android 13.

Check if your model is on the list of problems:

If your model is on the list, try the following steps:

1. Update your firmware to the latest stable version via Settings → System Update.
2. Clear the system cache: Settings → Memory → Cleanup → Cache of the system
3. Reset the sound settings: Settings → Sound → Additional → Resetting the settings

5. Conflict with Optimizer Applications

Many users install third-party applications to clean up memory or save charge (such as Clean Master, DU Battery Saver or Greenify), which often force messengers to close, considering them “unnecessary” background processes.

To rule out this factor:

• 🚫 Remove all battery optimizers – in MIUI There are already built-in tools.
• 🔍 Check the permissions for messengers in Settings → Annexes → Permits.
• 🛡️ Turn off "Memory Protection" in Settings → Special facilities → Protecting memory.

If you use Greenify or similar apps to “freeze” background processes, add messengers to the whitelist:

1. Open Greenify.
2. Go to the Hibernation section.
3. Click on the + icon and select messengers that don’t need to be optimized.

Remove third-party memory cleaners | Check messenger permissions | Disable Memory Protection in MIUI| Add apps to Greenify-->

Hardware problems: battery and plumes

If all the software methods didn't work, the problem could be hardware, and most of the time, it's the fault of:

• 🔋 Worn-out battery - at low voltage, the system forcibly turns off the screen.
• 📱 Damaged display plume - can cause false alarms of the proximity sensor.
• 🔌 Faulty power controller – rare but found on phones after falls.

How to diagnose hardware problems:

1. Check the battery status through the engineering menu (code ##4636##, then Battery Information) If Health is below 80%, it's time to change the battery.
2. Test your phone in Safe Mode: Press the power button → Additional → Safe Mode If the problem disappears in Safe Mode, the software is to blame, if not, the iron.
3. Check the charging response: connect your phone to the network and try to play a voice message, and if the screen doesn't go out, the battery is a problem.

⚠️ Attention: If the phone falls or gets wet, there's a high probability of damage to the display plume, in which case the screen can go out not only when listening to the audio, but also when the device is tilted.

7. hidden settings of the developer and ADB-team

If standard methods do not work, there are hidden settings and ADB commands. These allow you to disable forced shutdown of the screen at the system level.

First, activate the developer mode:

1. Go to Settings. → The phone.
2. 7 times click on the line version of MIUI.
3. Return to the main settings menu and a new section for developers will appear.

Turn off unnecessary optimizations:

• 🔧 Turn off Optimization. MIUI": Settings → For developers → Turn off optimization MIUI
• 📵 Stop turning off the screen while charging: Settings → For developers → The screen is always on while charging.
• 🔄 Increase the limit of background processes: Settings → For developers → Limit of background processes → Standard limit

For advanced users — ADB-commands (requires a computer and enabled debugging on the USB):

adb shell settings put global stay_on_while_plugged_in 3


adb shell settings put global proximity_delay 3500

The first command causes the screen to remain on when connected to charging, the second increases the delay of the approach sensor.

💡

If you're not sure about ADB, you should go to the service center, and incorrect commands can cause the system to crash.

FAQ: Frequent questions about the problem