How to find out what is smeared on the screenshot of Xiaomi: from simple life hacks to deep analysis

Did you get a screenshot from a friend, colleague, or official chat room, but some of the text on it is covered with a black rectangle, blurred or hidden with a smiley face, POCO Or Mi 11? 80 percent of the time, hidden information can be recovered, either completely or in fragments. This article will reveal all the working methods, from basic editorial tricks to advanced analysis techniques. RAW-data and meta-information.

It's important to understand that success depends on how you censor it, if you're coloring it in a graphics editor, like in a graphics editor. MIUI Gallery with Blurring, the chances of recovery are higher than with specialized applications like Snapchat or Telegram with their built-in filters, and we'll break each scenario separately, taking into account the features of the firmware. MIUI and hardware capabilities of Xiaomi smartphones.

We warn you beforehand that some methods require root rights or technical skills, but most solutions are available even to beginners — just follow the step-by-step instructions. Let's start with the simplest ones!

1. Source File Check: Where Xiaomi Hiding Original Screenshots

Many people don't know that MIUI automatically saves unedited versions of screenshots in a hidden folder.This applies to pictures taken through standard button combinations (Powering) + Volume reduction) or gesture in settings Additional → Screenshots.

How to find the original:

• 📁 Open the file manager MI File Explorer (or any other, such as Solid Explorer).
• 🔍 Going the Way: Internal Memory → Pictures → Screenshots →.thumbnails or DCIM →.thumbnails.
• 🖼️ Look for files with.thumb extension or prefix SCR_ — They may contain unprocessed versions.
• 🔄 If the folder is empty, try enabling the display of hidden files in the manager settings.

If the original is not found, don't despair. MIUI 12-14 is another trick: the system caches thumbnails of screenshots in the media database, and to extract it, you need an application like DiskDigger (available on Google Play). Run a deep scan of internal memory, filter the results by the date of the screenshot creation – sometimes this gives unexpected results.

⚠️ Warning: Don't confuse the.thumbnails folder with the gallery cache. The latter only stores the preview size ~200×200 pixels, whereas.thumbnails can contain full-size copies made by the system to speed up viewing.

Metadata Analysis: What Hiddens EXIF and XMP

Every screenshot on Xiaomi contains metadata — service information about the device, screen settings, and even interface snippets — that sometimes leaves traces of the original text in that data, especially if censorship was applied over the top through apps like Markup or Markup. MIUI Quick Tools.

How to extract metadata:

1. Install the app EXIF Viewer or Photo EXIF Editor from Google Play.
2. Open a censored screenshot.
3. Check the fields: Software can contain the name of the editor that masked the text. UserComment or XMP:Description – sometimes fragments of copied text fall here. MIUI:ScreenParams is a unique tag for Xiaomi, which stores data on the screen resolution and the content of the text. DPI (Helps in recovery through scaling).

For advanced users, use ExifTool on your PC. Connect your phone to your computer, copy the screenshot, and follow the command:

exiftool -a -u -g1 name file.png

Pay attention to the section. XMP — It sometimes stores layers of editing if censorship is applied through Adobe Photoshop Express or analogues.

💡

If the MIUI:EditHistory tag is found in the metadata, it means that the screenshot was edited in the standard Xiaomi gallery. MIUI (see section 4).

3. Recovery through MIUI backups

MIUI automatically backs up media files when synced to Mi Account or locally via Backup in Settings. If the censored screenshot was edited recently (within 30 days), the chances of recovering the original are high.

Instructions:

1. Go to Settings → About Phone → Backup and Reset → Local Backups.
2. Select the most recent copy made before the screenshot edit date.
3. Click Restore and select only Gallery (so as not to erase other data).
4. After recovery, check the folder. Pictures/Screenshots — There may be an original file with the tag restored.

⚠️ Note: When recovering from the Mi Cloud, original screenshots can be compressed to resolution 1280×720, Even if the source was in full HD. This is a service limitation – consider it when analyzing it.

Make sure there is enough space on your phone (at least 1GB)

Connect your phone to charge (the process can take up to 20 minutes)

Disable VPN (can block access to Mi Cloud)

Remember the date of the original screenshot (for filtering files)-->

4. Techniques: shades of gray and channels of color

If the text on the screenshot is covered with a black rectangle or blurred with standard tools MIUI, You can try to extract it by manipulating the color channels, and this method works because when you put a mask in a format, you can use it in a format. PNG (The one that Xiaomi uses for screenshots is the alpha transparency channel.

Step-by-step instructions for Photoshop or GIMP:

1. Open the screenshot in the editor.
2. Go to Channels (in Photoshop: Window) → Channels).
3. Look at the Red, Green and Blue channels separately, and sometimes the text appears on one of them.
4. If the mask is of a uniform color (e.g. black), try inverting the channel (Ctrl).+I).
5. For blurred areas, use the Smart Sharp filter (Filter) → Increased sharpness → Smart sharpness) with a radius of 0.3–0.5 px.

For the smartphone:

• 📱 Install PicsArt or Snapseed.
• 🎨 Open the screenshot and apply the black and white filter.
• 🔍 Increase contrast to maximum – this will help to identify the contours of the symbols.
• 🔄 If the mask is colored, use the Color Replacement Tool to remove the background.

Critical moment: On Xiaomi devices with AMOLED-screens (e.g. Mi 11 Ultra or Redmi) K50 Pro) The black pixels in the screenshots are encoded as completely off subpixels, meaning that if you increase the contrast, you can restore up to 60% of the original text if it was white on a black background.

5. Specialized applications for revealing censorship

If manual methods don't work, applications designed specifically to restore blurred text will come to the rescue. We tested 5 popular tools on the Xiaomi Redmi Note 12 Pro.+ and POCO F5 — The best results were shown:

How to use PhotoScan by Google (the easiest way to do this):

1. Take a picture of your phone screen with an open censored screenshot (yes, it’s not a typo – you need a screenshot, not the screenshot itself!).
2. Open the photo in PhotoScan.
3. Point the camera at the screen from different angles – the app will automatically remove the highlights and increase the contrast.
4. Save the result and enlarge the area with the mask – often the contours of letters appear.

Forensic Image Analyzer requires root rights, but allows analysis RAW-screen data if the screenshot was taken via adb shell screencap.The app recovers up to 40% of text even after a strong blur using machine learning algorithms.

⚠️ Note: Apps like Unblur Image send your screenshots to remote servers for processing. If the image contains sensitive data (passwords, card numbers), use offline solutions such as: GIMP or Forensic Image Analyzer.

Hardware methods: screen shooting in RAW and backlight analysis

This section is for those who are willing to go to extreme measures. AMOLED-The screen (most models starting with the Redmi Note 10) can be used to reconstruct text. AMOLED They emit light on their own, and their afterglow can be fixed.

What you need:

• 📱 Second smartphone with a good camera (for example, Xiaomi 13 Pro with Sony sensor) IMX707).
• 🔦 Bright light source (lantern or lamp with color temperature) 5000K+).
• 🎥 Appendix for shooting in RAW (For example, ProCam X or Google Camera with a patch for Xiaomi).

Step-by-step:

1. Open a censored screenshot on Xiaomi and set the screen brightness to maximum.
2. Point the camera of the second phone on the screen at an angle ~30°.
3. Turn on the camera Pro mode, install: ISO: 3200–6400 Excerpt: 1/4 Seconds White Balance: Incandescent lamp (2500K) Format: RAW

Take 5-10 pictures from different angles, slightly moving the camera.

Lightroom

Darktable

The result: some of the frames will show the outlines of the characters, especially if the original text was white on a dark background. AMOLED The screen is the pixels that are off, and the white text is the pixels that are turned on, and the camera's backlight captures the difference in the intensity of the light.

For LCD-screens (e.g. on the POCO M4 Pro) this method is not suitable - instead, try to shoot the screen in polarized light. 3D-glasses) and light source at an angle of 45°.

💡

Hardware methods give the best results on AMOLED-screens with high refresh rate (90 Hz)+), Since the pixels have time to "heat" and longer retain the afterglow.

7.Social Engineering and Alternative Sources

If the technical methods didn't work, it's sometimes easier to find the original screenshot elsewhere.

For messengers:

• 💬 In Telegram: click on the message with a screenshot → Send it over. → Copy text. Sometimes text is copied even if it's smeared (image processing bug).
• 📱 On WhatsApp: Check the folder WhatsApp/Media/WhatsApp Images - originals are stored there until the cache is cleared.
• 🔄 In Viber: Turn on the hidden file display and find the.ViberMedia folder – there may be unedited versions.

For web pages:

• 🌐 If the screenshot is taken from the site, try to find the page through the Wayback Machine (archive.org).
• 🔍 Use a search by snippet of visible text in Google with the operator intext:.
• 📊 For social networks (VC, Instagram) check the browser cache: in Chrome go to the address chrome://cache and search by domain.

If the screenshot came from a person:

• 🕵️‍♂️ Ask the sender to send an “updated version” – often people don’t remember sending the file.
• 📎 Ask to send the screenshot in another format (for example, do not send it to the screenshot). PNG, JPEG) — Sometimes when you convert the mask is lost.
• 🔄 If it is a work correspondence, check corporate chats (Slack, Microsoft Teams) – there can be stored originals.

⚠️ Attention: B MIUI 14+ There is a feature called Confidential Mode in the Gallery, which automatically hides screenshots with sensitive information (card numbers, passwords). If you see a notification "This image is hidden for your safety", the original can be found in Settings. → Password and security → Confidentiality regime.

FAQ: Answers to Frequent Questions