The situation when the flagship smartphone, which pleased with lightning fast work when buying, after a year or two begins to react to touch with a noticeable delay, is familiar to many owners of Xiaomi equipment. Sudden interface hanging, long transitions between applications and unexpected reboots can turn the use of the device into torture. Users often sin on the wear of iron or obsolescence of the processor, but in most cases the root of the problem lies in the software features of the MIUI shell and the accumulated digital “garbage”.
Unlike pure Android, the Chinese manufacturer’s proprietary shell contains a host of background services that consume system resources even in downtime. Over time, these processes cache, conflict with new versions of applications and create a load on RAM. Understanding why Xiaomi is starting to slow down is the first step to restoring performance without having to carry the gadget to the service center.
Next, we’ll take a closer look at the technical aspects of slowing down, the effects of crowded memory, and hidden settings that can sabotage your device’s performance.
Effects of MIUI shell and background processes
The main culprit for slowing down is often the operating system itself. The MIUI shell is known for its functionality, but it comes at a cost of high resource consumption. In the background, analytics, cloud synchronization, Mi Cloud search, file optimization and memory optimization are constantly running. On high-powered processors, this is invisible, but when free RAM is scarce, the system begins to “choke”.
The aggressive memory management mechanism is worth paying special attention to, because when you try to free up resources for a running application, the system forcibly closes the background processes, but when you switch between tasks often, it has to start them again, which creates a twitchy interface and increases response time.
In addition, many pre-installed applications are not removed by standard methods and continue to hang in memory.They are regularly updated, check notifications and consume traffic, creating a constant background load on the processor.
Hidden processes of the system
"Mi Service" and "MSA" (MIUI System Ads can be used up to 15% processor resources in the background, responsible for collecting statistics and displaying advertising in system applications.> Internal memory overflow and fragmentation One of the critical reasons Xiaomi is starting to slow down is that internal storage is filled. 10-15% The system cannot efficiently create temporary files and use virtual memory, which leads to lags. File fragmentation also plays a role. When you actively write and delete data, files are broken up into parts scattered across different memory sectors, and the processor takes longer to find and assemble information, especially for models with eMMC memory, which is slower than today's memory systems. UFS. ⚠️ Warning: Do not allow internal memory to be filled to the fullest. If the indicator is lit red, the system may stop responding to commands or reboot cyclically. Use the built-in Security app to diagnose and clean. It allows you to quickly remove cache, remnants of deleted programs and duplicate files. Regular cleaning helps to maintain a stable write speed. Problems with updates and optimization of applications Often users notice that the phone began to slow down immediately after the system update. This is due to the process of re-indexing files and optimizing applications for the new version of Android or MIUI. First. 2-3 The device may be unstable, warm and slow to react after the update, however, if the problem persists for longer than a week, the update may contain software errors (bugs). In such cases, developers usually release patches, and it’s also worth checking if all apps are updated in Google Play and GetApps. Older versions of programs may conflict with new system libraries. In some cases, cleaning the cache of a particular “heavy” application or reinstalling it completely helps, especially social networks and instant messengers, which eventually grow to gigabytes. Hardware limitations and overheating We can not exclude the physical wear of components. Over time, the battery loses capacity, which can lead to voltage drawdowns under load. The processor, feeling unstable power or high temperature, forcibly reduces the clock frequency (trottling) so as not to burn out. FPS Overheating is a frequent companion of older smartphones. With a dried thermopaste or a dusty speaker, heat throttling is not effective, and as a result, heat throttling is turned on even for simple tasks, such as watching high-resolution video or video calls. And it's also worth considering that today's applications are becoming more demanding, and what worked smoothly two years ago can now require twice as much resources. 2-3 GB of RAM, brakes in new versions of Instagram or Telegram may be inevitable.Amulation settings and visual effects Visual component of the interface MIUI It's beautiful, but it takes resources to render, and if the phone starts to brake, it makes sense to reduce the load on the GPU, and it doesn't increase the power of the processor, but it does make the system subjectively faster by opening windows instantly. To access the advanced settings, you need to activate the developer mode. → About the phone item Version MIUI And press it quickly. 7-10 Once the message "You became a developer" appears, go to Additional → For developers, in the menu that opens, look for the section related to drawing, and we're interested in three things: window animation, transition animation, and animation duration. Change their meaning from the standard. 1x on 0.5x Or shut it down completely (without animation). The interface will be more twitchy, but responsive. Comparing cleaning and optimization techniques, there are many ways to try to reanimate a slow smartphone. Some methods are safe and temporary, others require radical measures. Below is a table comparing the effectiveness of different approaches to solving the brake problem. Method Efficiency Data loss risk Difficulty Cache Clearing ("Security") Low No Minimum Animation Disconnection Average No Low Reset to Factory Settings High Total Loss Average Custom Firmware Installation Maximum Total Loss High As seen from the table, Simple Methods So the most effective software solution is a complete reset, which puts the system back out of the box. Radical measures: Reset and flashing. If software optimization doesn't work, the final frontier is Hard Reset. Before this procedure, be sure to back up your important data on your PC or in the cloud, as all files will be destroyed.Reset removes accumulated system errors and setting conflicts. → The phone. → Reset settings. Select "Erase all data». After turning on the phone will be as new, and you can assess the real speed of its operation without excess luggage. ⚠️ Warning: Make sure that the battery is at least 50% charged before starting the reset. Interrupting the process by turning off may damage the system partition and cause the boot to fail. For advanced users, there is an option to install custom firmware (for example, Pixel Experience or LineageOS), which allows you to get rid of the heavy shell. MIUI And we're going to get a clean Android, which often works wonders with the performance of older models (FAQ) Will closing all apps in the background help speed up the phone? In the short term, it will free up RAM, but the system MIUI It manages resources efficiently, and shutting down applications constantly causes the processor to rerun them, which can even increase battery consumption. Why does the phone only slow down in certain applications? Chances are the problem is optimizing the app itself or crowded cache. Try clearing the data of a particular application through Settings. → Applications or reinstall it.Affects overflow of message storage (SMS) Yes, if you have tens of thousands of dollars in savings. SMS-This can slow down search and indexing, especially on older models with slow memory. Do you need to use third-party accelerators (Clean Master and analogues)? No, they are not necessary. Xiaomi's built-in tools are more efficient and safer. Third-party accelerators are often themselves a source of advertising and background load.