Xiaomi and Redmi smartphone owners often face aggressive MIUI optimizations that force backgrounds to close to save battery power. On the Redmi 9 model, equipped with a MediaTek Helio G80 processor, this feature can be especially noticeable as the operating system seeks to free up RAM for the current task, which leads to the fact that navigators stop plotting the route, music players go silent, and messengers stop sending notifications in real time.
The solution is to manually set priorities for specific programs, so you don't have to be a programmer or have superuser rights to change the behavior of the system, but to fix an application in memory is a standard procedure that tells the system that the software you choose must remain active even when resources are scarce.
In this article, we will take a look at all the methods available for fixing processes, from simple actions in the menu of recent tasks to deep adjustment of battery settings. The correct configuration of MIUI will allow your device to work more stable, keeping the desired programs running exactly when you need it.
Why you should install applications on Redmi 9
The main reason why MIUI-based Android shuts down background applications is because of energy-saving algorithms. Xiaomi Redmi 9 is positioned as a budget device, and the company's engineers have bet on long battery life, to do this, background processes are severely limited, and unused programs are unloaded from RAM.
But this approach is not always user-friendly: If you use your smartphone to navigate in your car, listen to podcasts or work with corporate email, suddenly closing the program can be a serious inconvenience, and fixing the application in memory changes its status to “priority”, preventing the system from forcibly stopping its operation.
⚠️ Warning: Excessive number of fixed applications can lead to accelerated battery discharge and a noticeable decrease in interface performance, as free RAM will become critically small.
In addition, some users use anchoring to protect important data from being accidentally deleted through the Clear button.If the program is locked, it will not close with standard memory cleaning, which can be useful for saving the state of a game or an open document.
Basic fixation through the menu of recent tasks
The fastest way to lock an application is to use the built-in lock function in the menu of running programs, which does not require deep immersion in the settings and works on all versions of the MIUI shell installed on Redmi 9.
To start, open the app to appear on the active list. Then swipe from the bottom up (or click the menu button if three-button navigation is used) to go to the list of recent tasks. Find the card of the program you want.
On the application card, press and hold your finger, or, in some versions of the firmware, just tap the lock icon at the top of the preview. You should see visual confirmation that a small lock will appear next to the program name, which means that now when you click on the "Clean" button (cross or broomstick), the program will remain in memory.
- 🔒 The lock icon ensures that the application does not close during standard memory cleanup.
- ⚡ This method does not prevent the system from unloading the application in case of critical shortage. RAM, but it gives priority.
- 🔄 To remove the lock, repeat the action – the lock will disappear, and the program will again become vulnerable to cleaning.
It's important to understand that this method works at the launcher interface level, and if the system needs to release resources to run a heavy game, it can ignore the status of the lock and close the background process, although this is rare.
💡
If the lock icon doesn’t appear with a long press, try swiping the app card down a bit – in some versions of MIUI, this opens the menu with the lock option.
Set up auto-start and work in the background
A more reliable way to keep an application in memory is to adjust its behavior to Xiaomi system parameters. Unlike a simple lock, here we give the program direct permission to work in the background without restrictions.
Go to Settings of your Redmi 9 and find the Application section. From the list of installed programs, select the one you want to pin. Next, you are interested in Starting and Saving Battery.
From the charge saving menu, select No Limits. By default, the system sets a charge saving value, allowing MIUI to lull the application 15 minutes after folding. Choosing No Limits mode gives the program full access to CPU and network resources even in the background.
☑️ Checking the application settings
Also, remember to activate the AutoRun slider, which is primarily responsible for starting the program after the phone is restarted, but activating it often signals the system to the user's importance of the service.
| Parameter | Recommended value | Impact on the system |
|---|---|---|
| Auto-start | Included. | The program starts after the reboot |
| Battery savings | No restrictions. | Prohibition of euthanization |
| Notifications | Permitted. | Allows the app to wake up the screen |
| Access to memory | Permitted. | Necessary for data caching |
After making changes, the system may request confirmation of action, warning of possible increase in power consumption.Agree to the changes if the stability of the application is more important to you than saving a few percent of charge.
Use of extended memory mode
The Redmi 9 smartphone in some versions and firmware supports RAM expansion technology, which allows you to reserve part of the built-in storage (ROM) and use it as an addition to the main RAM.
To activate this feature, go to Settings → Expansion of Memory (or Additional → Expansion of Memory). Here you will see a switch and slider that allows you to select the amount of memory you add, usually from 2 to 4 GB.
⚠️ Attention: Using memory extension reduces the speed of the drive, since flash memory is slower than real RAM. This can lead to micro-twitching of the interface.
Activating this option is especially useful if you hold many heavy applications in your memory at the same time, and the system receives an additional buffer, which reduces the likelihood of downloading fixed programs with a sharp jump in resource consumption.
Once the function is enabled, the phone will prompt a reboot. Be sure to reboot so that the changes take effect and the virtual partition of memory is mounted correctly.
Should I include the memory extension on Redmi 9?
Features of the game accelerator Game Turbo
For gamers, Xiaomi has developed a special tool called Game Turbo, and if your goal is to keep the game in your memory so that it doesn’t crash during a curtailment or incoming call, standard methods may not be enough.
Add the game to the Game Turbo app list. To do this, open the Security app, scroll down to Game Turbo and click on the Settings or Add Games icon. Select the game from the list.
Within Game Turbo settings for a particular game, you can activate the Enhanced Performance mode, in which the system prioritizes the game processes, allocating maximum number of CPU cores and RAM, ignoring the standard limits of background tasks.
- 🎮 Game Turbo prevents game cleaning when switching to other tabs.
- 📉 Reduces frame rate in the background to save energy, but does not close the process.
- 🚫 Blocks notifications and calls (if configured), which also helps to keep the connection stable.
Using this tool is the best way to ensure stable heavy duty operation. 3D-The Game Turbo’s mechanism goes deeper than simple fixing, as it interacts with the Android kernel task scheduler.
Problems with aggressive MIUI optimization
Despite the setup, the MIUI shell is known for its aggressive memory management policy, and sometimes even a fixed application can be shut down if the system decides that it consumes too much resources or is not working properly.
In such cases, it is worth checking the Battery partition and performance in the settings. Make sure you choose the Balanced or Performance profile. Energy Saving mode will ignore your fixing settings and forcibly close the background processes.
There is also a hidden cleaning mechanism that activates when the battery is low (less than 20%), in which the system enters survival mode and can close any applications other than the system, regardless of the lock.
💡
Even with fixing, a charge level below 20% can force the system to force the background apps to extend the phone’s standby.
If the problem persists, try updating the app to the latest version via Google Play or GetApps.Old versions of the programs may have conflicts with new MIUI security patches, leading to their unstable performance in the background.