Why Xiaomi is slowing down: a full guide to speeding up the smartphone

Your Xiaomi is slowing down, apps are slowing down, and animations are twitching? This is a common problem faced by owners of the brand's devices, from budget Redmis to flagship Mis or POCOs. Brakes can appear on older models (like the Redmi Note 5) and relatively new ones (Xiaomi 13 after a year of use), the reasons lie in a combination of hardware constraints, MIUI firmware features and user habits.

In this article, we’ll look at 10 proven ways to get your smartphone back on track, from basic (memory cleanup) to advanced (flashing through Fastboot), how to diagnose the brake source, what MIUI settings are removing the lags, and when to think about replacing your battery or chipset. All the instructions are relevant for Android 12-14 devices with a MIUI 13-15 shell.

1.Diagnostics: why Xiaomi started to slow down

Before you start optimizing, identify the root of the problem. Brakes can be caused by:

• 🔋 Worn-out battery (if capacity falls below 70%, the processor automatically limits performance).
• 🗑️ Overflowing memory (less than 10% of free storage space leads to system lags).
• 🤖 Firmware failures (especially after updates) MIUI orthing).
• 📱 Background processes (apps like Facebook or TikTok eat up to 30% CPU even in a folded state).
• 🔥 Overheating (Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset is known for trottling when heated above 45)°C).

To check the status of the battery, go to Settings → Battery → Battery Status. If there is no data, use the AccuBattery application (will show real wear in percent). To analyze the CPU load, install DevCheck, which will display the temperature of the processor, the use of RAM and the model of the chipset.

Critical information: If the processor temperature in DevCheck exceeds 50°C for simple tasks (youtube viewing, instant messengers), this indicates problems with thermopast or cooling - an opening of the device is required.

2. Cleaning the system: remove garbage and cache

The first step is to free up space on the drive and clear temporary files. MIUI has a built-in tool for this:

1. Open the Settings → Memory.
2. Click Clear (remove app cache, temporary files, empty folders).
3. Go to Files → Recycle Bin and clean it.
4. In the Apps section, sort by size and remove unnecessary programs (especially games and social networks).

For deep cleaning, use SD Maid (requires root) or Files by Google, which will find duplicate photos, large files, and remnants of deleted programs.

• 📁 /Android/data/ — This is where the game data is stored (may weigh) 10+ GB).
• 📁 /DCIM/.thumbnails — Photos that are not automatically deleted.
• 📁 /Download/ — Downloaded files that are often forgotten to clean.

⚠️ Note: Do not manually delete files in folders /system/ or /vendor/ — It's going to crash the system.

3. MIUI Optimization: Disable animations and background processes

MIUI It's known for its heavy interface, with lots of animations and background services, and turning them off will give you a lot of smoothness. 20-30%. Here's what we can do:

• 🎨 Turn off animations: Activate Developer Mode (7 times click on Version) MIUI In Settings → About the phone. Go to Settings. → Additionally. → For developers, set the scale of the animation window, the scale of the animation transition and the scale of the duration of the animator on the Off..

Limit background processes:

Process limit → Maximum 2 process in the background

Disable MIUI Optimization:

For developers

MIUI Optimization

It is also recommended to disable unnecessary system applications (for example, Mi Video, Mi Music, GetApps).

adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.miui.videoplayer


adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.miui.player




adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.xiaomi.mipicks

These commands are executed via ADB (you need a computer and enabled debugging over USB).

💡

If after disabling MIUI Optimization, navigation gestures are lost, return the settings to the System → Gestures → Full-screen gestures

4. Reset to factory settings: when and how to do

If cleaning and optimization didn't work, the next step is hard reset, which will delete all the data, but return the smartphone to a "clean" state, resetting helps in 70% of the cases of brakes caused by:

• 🔄 Conflicts after updates MIUI.
• 🐛 Viruses or malware.
• 📱 Accumulated errors in system files.

⚠️ Note: On models with a locked bootloader (for example, Redmi Note 11 for Russia), a reset via Fastboot will lead to a blink.

5. firmware update: how to properly reflash Xiaomi

Outdated or "curved" firmware is a common cause of brakes. MIUI updates monthly, but not all updates are stable. If you have lags after the update, try:

• 🔄 Download the desired firmware from xiaomifirmwareupdater.com (select Stable for your model). update.zip and put it in the root of the memory. Go to Settings. → The phone. → Updating the system → Three points. → Select a firmware file.

Install custom firmware:

Pixel Experience

LineageOS

bootloader

Switch through Fastboot:

Mi Flash Tool

.tgz

Warning: Fastboot flashing will erase all data, and the wrong firmware can turn the phone into a brick. Always check the compatibility of the version with your model (for example, the Redmi Note 10 Pro has sweet encoding, and the POCO X3 NFC is surya).

6. Hardware problems: battery, thermal paste, chipset

If the software methods did not help, the cause of the brakes can lie in the "iron":

• 🔋 Battery: When worn higher 30% Power controller limits performance. Battery replacement (cost) 1500-3000₽) return factory speed.
• 🌡️ Thermopaste: On models older than 2 years, the paste dries, which leads to overheating and trottling. MX-6).
• 🖥️ Chipset: On budget models (Redmi) 9A, POCO C31) weak processors (Helio) G25, Snapdragon 4xx) They can't handle modern applications, and that's where the only thing that helps is replacing the phone.
• 💾 Related: Cheap eMMC memory (instead of UFS) Check the health of the drive through AndroBench (read speed below 100 MB / s - critical).

To diagnose hardware problems, use:

• Throttling Test CPU – will show how much the processor resets frequencies when heated.
• AIDA64 will display the temperature of the battery, chipset and memory module.
• 3C Toolbox – analyzes battery wear and health of the drive.