How to permanently remove smart albums in Xiaomi: 5 working ways

Smart albums in Xiaomi Gallery are automatically generated folders with photos that the system groups by dates, places, events or even faces. For some users, it is a convenient feature, and for others it is an annoying clutter that clogs the main gallery and duplicates files. Especially acute is the problem with devices with MIUI 12-14, where machine learning algorithms have become more aggressive in sorting content.

In this article, we’ll look at all the ways you can delete smart albums, from standard gallery settings to hidden developer settings to alternative launchers, and learn how to turn off automatic sorting, hide unwanted albums, or even replace a standard gallery with a more flexible one. Importantly, some methods require root rights or a rollback to an older version of MIUI, so we’ll detail the risks and consequences of each option.

Why Smart Albums Are Reappearing and How to Fix It

The main reason smart albums come back after being deleted is the background sync with the Mi Cloud. Even if you manually hid the folder, the system can restore it the next time you upgrade the gallery or connect to the Internet, which is because Xiaomi views smart albums as part of MIUI’s smart features, not as regular custom folders.

The second common scenario is a firmware update, where after a new version of MIUI is installed (for example, from 13 to 14), the gallery settings are reset to the factory ones, and the smart albums reappear again, and to avoid this, it is recommended that before updating:

• 📁 Make a backup of gallery settings through Settings → The phone. → Backup.
• 🔄 Turn off automatic sync with Mi Cloud in Settings → Accounts. → Mi Cloud → Synchronization.
• 🛠️ Use third-party tools like App Cloner to create a clean copy of a gallery without smart albums.

If albums have already returned, check if the option is enabled Auto-Create Albums in the gallery settings. In MIUI 14, this option may be hidden under the item Smart Features → Personalization.

Method 1: Disabling smart albums through gallery settings

The easiest and safest method is to use the built-in gallery options. However, depending on the version of MIUI, the path to settings may differ. For most devices (Redmi Note 10/11/12, Poco X3/X4/X5, Mi 11/12/13) the instructions are as follows:

1. Open the Gallery app (an icon with a flower or photo).
2. Tap on three points (⋮) in the upper right corner and select Settings.
3. Go to the section Smart Albums or Categories (in the MIUI 14 may be called Personalization).
4. Turn off the sliders opposite: 📅 Date albums 📍 Albums by location 👥 Albums by person (if any) 🎨 Event albums

Save the changes and restart the gallery.

If your MIUI version doesn’t have a separate section for smart albums, try:

• 🔍 In the gallery settings search bar, type “smart” or “smart».
• 📱 On some firmware, the option is hidden in Settings → System system → Additionally. → gallery.

Backup of important photos|Verification of the version MIUI at the Settings → The phone.|Disable synchronization with Mi Cloud|Closing all background applications-->

Important! On devices with MIUI 13+, after disabling smart albums, you may need to clean the gallery cache:

1. Go to Settings → Applications → Application Management.
2. Find the Gallery and select the Warehouse.
3. Click Clear Cache (not data!).
4. Reboot the phone.

Method 2: Hiding Smart Albums Without Deleting (for MIUI 12–14)

If you can't completely disable smart albums (for example, because of firmware limitations), you can hide them from the basic view. This method doesn't delete files physically, but makes them invisible in the gallery interface.

1. Open the Gallery and go to the Album tab.
2. Tap it on three points (⋮) Next to the title of the smart album (for example, “Trip to the mountains»).
3. In the drop-down menu, select Hide the album or Remove from view.
4. The album will disappear from the main list, but will remain available through the search or Hidden section.

To bring back the hidden albums:

1. In the gallery, go to Settings → Hidden Albums.
2. Select the album you want and click Show.

This method is suitable for a temporary solution, but has disadvantages:

• ❌ Albums may reappear after gallery update.
• ❌ Hidden files still take up space in the device’s memory.
• ❌ Some smart albums (e.g. Favorites or Screenshots) cannot be hidden.

💡

If hidden albums continue to show up, try using a file manager (like Mi File Manager) to move folders manually: /storage/emulated/0/Pictures/.smart_albums/ (slip-folder).

Method 3: Remove via ADB (for advanced users)

If the standard methods do not work, you can use the Android debugging bridge (ADB). This requires connecting the phone to a PC and basic command line knowledge. ADB They may disrupt the system!

Step-by-step:

1. Turn on Developer Mode on your phone: Go to Settings → About Phone. Tap 7 times on MIUI until the notification “You’ve become a developer” appears.

USB debugging

Settings → Additional → For Developers

ADB

Minimal ADB and Fastboot

adb devices

Make sure the device is identified.

adb shell pm disable-user --user 0 com.miui.gallery.smartalbum

If the team doesn’t work, try an alternative:

adb shell settings put global smart_album_enabled 0

Reboot the phone.

To return smart albums, use the command:

adb shell pm enable com.miui.gallery.smartalbum

This method works on most devices with MIUI 12-14, but may require customization of commands for a particular model, such as the Poco F3 or Redmi K40, sometimes requiring individual services to be disabled:

adb shell pm disable-user --user 0 com.miui.gallery.cloud

Method 4: Replace the standard gallery with an alternative

If none of these methods worked, a radical solution is to install a third-party gallery that doesn’t support smart albums, which not only removes unnecessary folders, but also adds new features (such as cloud sync with Google Photos or Dropbox).

The best alternatives to the standard Xiaomi gallery:

To make a third-party gallery the default app:

1. Install the selected application from the Play Market.
2. Go to Settings → Applications → Application Management.
3. Find the Gallery and click Disable (or Remove Updates if it is a system application).
4. Open any image and the system will prompt you to select the default application.

💡

Replacing a gallery is the only method that is guaranteed to remove smart albums forever, but requires getting used to the new interface.

If you want to completely remove the standard gallery (requires root rights), use the Titanium Backup app or ADB command:

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

Method 5: Recoiling back to the old version of MIUI (extreme case)

On some devices (such as the Redmi Note 9 Pro or Mi 10T), smart albums only appeared in MIUI 12.5+. If you're critically interested in getting rid of them, you can return the old firmware where this feature was not yet available, but this method has serious risks:

• ⚠️ Data loss when incorrect rollback.
• ⚠️ Violation of some applications (banking, games).
• ⚠️ Loss of warranty (if the device is under warranty).

If you are ready for this, follow the instructions:

1. Download the old version of MIUI for your model from the official Xiaomi website (for example, MIUI 11 or 12.0).
2. Make a full backup of data through Settings → About Phone → Backup.
3. Unlock the bootloader with the Mi Unlock Tool (requires a Mi Account binding and waits 7-15 days).
4. Swipe the old firmware through the Mi Flash Tool in Clean All mode.

After the rollback:

• 🔒 Block system updates in Settings → The phone. → Updating the system → Three points (⋮) → Settings → Auto-update.
• 📵 Disable Mi Cloud to Avoid Automatic Sync.

💡

Before rolling back, check if the old version supports MIUI yours SIM-maps (especially relevant for the 5G-model).

Frequent Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

When trying to remove smart albums, users often face typical problems, and here are the most common ones and ways to solve them:

1. Albums return after reboot: Reason: Background sync with Mi Cloud. Solution: disable gallery sync in Mi Account settings.
2. No Smart Albums in the settings: Reason: Some firmwares have hidden the option. Solution: search by settings or ADB-team.
3. After the shutdown, all the photos were missing: Reason: The gallery stopped displaying media files due to a cache failure.Solution: Clear the gallery data (Settings → Apps → Gallery → Storage → Clear Data) and restart the phone.
4. ADB does not work on MIUI 14: Reason: Xiaomi has tightened security policy. Solution: use Wireless ADB or disable signature verification in the developer settings (Disable MIUI verification).

If none of the methods worked, check:

• 📱 Compatibility with your model (Poco, Redmi, Mi).
• 🔄 Version MIUI (Some methods only work in China or Global ROM).
• 🔒 Root rights (for deep system changes).

FAQ: Answers to popular questions

If your question is not covered in the FAQ, specify the phone model and the version of MIUI - this will help you choose the exact algorithm of actions.