Xiaomi and Redmi smartphone owners often face an annoying problem: messages from the social network VKontakte stop coming in the background. You open an app, and there are already a dozen unread messages, even though the phone has been in your pocket for the past two hours. This is not a bug of a particular device, but a feature of aggressive optimization of the MIUI system or the new HyperOS, which seeks to maximize battery life.
The system algorithm simply kills the messenger process by thinking it is inactive to save processor resources, and as a result, you miss important calls, private messages, and notifications of new likes. Fortunately, you can manually fix the situation by setting up several hidden parameters that many users do not even know about.
In this article, we will look at all possible causes of failures and provide a step-by-step instruction to restore the normal operation of push notifications. You do not need to be a technician, you need to perform the described actions in the settings menu consistently enough.
Checking basic settings inside the VK application
Before you go into the deep system settings of your smartphone, you need to make sure that the problem is not in the VK app itself. Often users accidentally turn off notifications in the global settings of your account or a particular chat. Go to the application, click on three menu bars and select Settings, then go to the Notifications section.
Here, it's important to check if the "Show Notifications" slider is activated. If it's off, the phone just won't respond to incoming events, and you should also pay attention to the sound and vibration settings -- maybe notifications come in, but in a silent mode that you didn't notice.
Pay special attention to settings for specific conversations. If messages don't come from just one person or from a single conversation, you may have accidentally turned on Do Not Disturb mode for them. Open the chat, click on the conversation name on top, and make sure that notifications are not silenced.
- 📱 Check if the shared notification switch is enabled in the profile settings.
- 🔔 Make sure that no sound mode is set for important chats».
- 📵 Check if the “Do Not Disturb” mode is activated in the curtain (moon icon).
⚠️ Note: If you use third-party VKontakte clients (e.g. Kate Mobile or Google) VK Mod), settings may differ from the official application.In such cases, it is recommended to first check the work of the official client.
⚠️ Note: After updating the operating system, notification settings are sometimes reset to factory values, so they should be rechecked after each major firmware update.
Making sure that inside the application everything is included, you can move to the Android system settings, which take priority over the settings of the application itself.
Configure permissions and notifications in the Android system
Android on Xiaomi smartphones has strict control over application rights. If the VKontakte app prevents the display of notifications at the system level, no internal settings will help. Go to Settings → Notifications and Status bar → Notification management.
In the list that opens, look for the VK app, make sure the master switch is activated. Below you will see a list of notification categories: messages, likes, comments, calls, and you can flexibly configure what events will wake your phone and what will come quietly.
An important parameter is display style. For instant messengers, it is critical that notifications are displayed on the lock screen and pop up on top of other windows, which ensures that you see the message, even if the phone is lying down or you are playing a game.
It's also worth checking if Quiet Notifications is enabled. If it's active, the message will come, but without sound or vibration, just leaving a small icon in the status bar. For important chats, it's better to prioritize High or Urgent.
Battery optimization and auto start are the main reason
The most common reason why VK notifications don't come to Xiaomi is because of the power saving system, which is that the aggressive MIUI algorithm by default limits the background activity of most applications, considering them to be charge consuming, and to fix this, you need to add an application to the exceptions.
The first step is to configure Autostart. Without this permission, the app won’t be able to start its notification service immediately after turning on the phone or after it’s been cleared from memory. Find Apps → Permissions → Autostart in the settings and turn on the slider opposite VKontakte.
The second, equally important step is to remove the battery constraints. In the same app settings menu, find "Activity Control" or "Battery Savings." Select "No Limits" to allow the app to run in the background all the time, even if you haven't opened it for days.
☑️ Setting up energy saving
When these parameters change, the system can issue a warning that this will increase energy consumption. Don't worry: modern instant messengers consume minimal resources in the background, and stable communication is more important than a couple of percent of charge.
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After setting up your autostart and battery, do not remove the application from the list of running (do not swipe it) during the day so that the system “remembers” its importance.
Memory management and process cleaning
Another cause of failure can be a lack of RAM or aggressive operation of the built-in cleaner. If the system lacks free resources, it forcibly closes the background processes, and the push notification service stops with them.
To prevent this, you can pin the VKontakte app to the list of running tasks. Open the menu of running applications (swipe from the bottom up and hold or menu button), find the VK window and click on the lock or select "Secure." Now, when you click "Clear" button, this application will not be closed.
It’s also worth checking the memory expander settings if you have one in your model. Sometimes virtual memory is slower than physical memory, which can cause delays in background services. If the problem persists, try temporarily disabling the memory expansion in the About Phone settings.
Why does memory cleaning kill notifications?
Third-party memory cleanup utilities (Clean Master and analogues) are often more aggressive than Android’s built-in tools and can block system services necessary for Google and Xiaomi’s push services to work properly.
Network settings and traffic restriction
Sometimes the problem is not the processor, but the network, and mobile Internet or Wi-Fi settings may prohibit VKontakte from transmitting data in the background, often when using traffic saving modes.
Check your data settings: go to Settings → Connection and Sharing → Data Use → Traffic Control. Make sure VKontakte is allowed to transfer data over both Wi-Fi and mobile networks. Also check if the back-end limit is worth it.
It is worth mentioning separately about DNS Private DNS. If you use third-party DNS-servers (for example, to block ads or circumvent restrictions), they can block the connection to the notification servers. DNS connection settings.
| Parameter | Where to find out. | Recommended value | Impact on notifications |
|---|---|---|---|
| Auto-start | Settings → Applications | Included. | Start the service immediately after switching on the phone |
| Battery savings | Settings → Battery | No restrictions. | Allows work in the background without sleep |
| Background data | Use of data | Permission. | Receiving messages without opening the application |
| Alerts | Notifications | All included | Sound, vibration and pop-up windows |
If you're using corporate networks or public Wi-Fi, administrators could block the ports needed to run push services, so switch to mobile Internet for checks.
Additional solutions and resetting settings
If none of the above methods worked, there may have been a crash in the app cache or a corruption of the configuration files, in which case cleaning the cache and data will help. Go to Settings → Apps → All Apps → VKontakte → Storage and click “Clear Cache”.
Important: Clearing the data (not the cache) will result in logging out of your account, so make sure to remember your login and password before performing this procedure. Once the data is cleared, the application will return to a post-installing state, which often resolves software conflicts.
As a last resort, if the problem has appeared after a firmware update, wait for a patch from the developers or try to remove the updates to the application through the Google Play Store, and then install it again.
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A comprehensive setup of auto start, battery and access rights solves the problem 95% of the time on Xiaomi and Redmi devices.
Remember that the app version can also affect the notifications, and make sure that the latest version of the VK client is installed in the Play Market or AppGallery.