How to disable apps in the background on Xiaomi: the complete guide

Owning a modern Xiaomi smartphone is always a balance between functionality and performance. Often users are faced with a situation where the device begins to heat up and the battery melts in front of their eyes, even though the screen is not even on, and the perpetrators of this behavior are usually programs that continue to run in the background, consuming the resources of the processor and RAM.

The MIUI operating system on the brand’s smartphones has a specific power management architecture. Unlike pure Android, it has more aggressive algorithms, but they require the right setup on the part of the user. If you want your phone to run faster and hold its charge longer, you need to figure out how to properly limit the background activity of unnecessary services.

In this article, we will discuss in detail all available ways to stop background processes, learn how to distinguish system services from user software, understand what Battery Saver settings affect the operation of instant messengers, and you can create an optimal power profile for your device without losing important notifications.

Why apps work in the background and why turn them off

Many users mistakenly believe that the folded application completely stops consuming resources. In fact, most modern programs, such as social networks or navigators, continue to exchange data with the server, update the geolocation or simply “hang” in memory, waiting for a command.

This is especially noticeable on Xiaomi devices because of the shell features, which tends to keep frequently used applications in memory for quick launch, but sometimes this mechanism fails, which causes the phone to slow down and the RAM is filled with processes that you are not using right now.

⚠️ Warning: Disabling all background processes completely may result in you no longer receiving notifications from messengers or emails until the app is opened.

The main reason to interfere with these processes is to extend battery life, when the screen is off, background services can consume up to 40% of battery life per day, especially for applications with poor optimization that do not know how to properly “fall asleep”.

Basic settings through the Battery menu

The easiest and safest way to limit software activity is to use built-in optimization tools, which are put into a separate menu on Xiaomi smartphones, access to which does not require superuser rights, which is the first step that every owner needs to take.

Go to your phone's settings and find Battery, and you have to click on the gear icon or select the "App Energy Saving" menu, and in this section, the system will list all the installed programs with three behaviors for each of them.

The settings options usually look as follows:

• 🚀 Without restrictions – the application can work in the background constantly, using the maximum amount of resources (useful for navigators or trackers).
• 🔋 Battery savings – the system limits background activity if the charge falls below a certain level.
• 🚫 Limit – complete cessation of background work after the window is folded (the application will not receive data until you open it).

For instant messengers like Telegram or WhatsApp, it’s better not to choose Limit mode, otherwise messages will come with a delay, but for games, video editors and rarely used utilities, this mode will save you from battery life.

Once you change your settings, the system may require confirmation of actions. MIUI will alert you to the possible consequences, but for custom applications, it is safe. Don't be afraid to experiment with settings for each application individually to find the middle ground.

Forced stopping and cleaning of memory

If a particular application is stuck in the background and the phone is warming, it needs a forced stop, a more radical method that completely unloads the process from RAM until the next manual start.

To perform this operation, go to Settings → Applications → All Apps. Find the problem culprit in the list and click on it. In the properties menu that opens, select the Stop (or Complete) button.

This method is useful in the following situations:

• 📉 The application causes sudden interface lags.
• 🔥 The device heats up strongly in the area of the camera or processor.
• 💾 The program takes up an abnormally large volume of cache that is not cleaned by standard means.

It's worth noting that after a smartphone reboot or the next automatic start-up, the system can reactivate the service again, so a forced stop is a temporary measure, not a permanent solution.

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If the Stop button is inactive (gray), it is a system process critical to Android. Don't try to disable it by third-party methods.

To clean it up, you can use the built-in Security utility. Run a system scan, and on the home screen, press the memory clean button, which will free RAM from temporary files and close inactive tabs.

Using Developer Mode for Deep Customization

For advanced users who want to have full control over how to disable the app in the background on Xiaomi, there is a hidden developer menu, and here are the tools to manage the limits of background processes at the system level.

First, you need to activate the hidden mode. → About the phone and quickly press 7 times on the item "Version" MIUI". After the message “You became a developer” appears, go back to the main settings menu.

Now, under "Additional" or "Extended Settings," you'll see a developer option, and you'll find the "Applications" section there, and you'll notice the following:

Changing the "Background Process Limit" setting is a powerful tool, so if you set the "No Background Processes" value, the phone will run as fast as possible, but multitasking will disappear completely: when you switch between applications, they will reboot.

Use these settings with caution. Incorrect configurations can lead to a cyclical reboot of the interface or the inability to start important services. If the phone behaves strangely after changes, just reset the developer settings to the original state.

Automating Constraints with Scenarios

MIUI’s shell offers a unique tool, the Scenarios app (or Automation in global versions), which allows you to create rules that automatically change your phone’s settings depending on conditions like time of day or charge level.

You can create a Night scenario that automatically activates Do Not Disturb mode and forcefully closes all heavy apps at 23:00, ensuring that the phone doesn’t waste any time on background updates at night.

Example of setting up automatic application closure:

1. Open the Scripts app (often in the Tools folder).
2. Create a new script and select the trigger "Time" or "Battery Charge".
3. As an action, select “Clear Memory” or “Close Applications”.
4. Save the profile and activate it.

This approach allows you to not think about manual cleaning, and the phone will clean up for you when you go to bed or when the battery drops below 20 percent, which is especially convenient for the elderly or those who don't like to dig into the settings often.

However, for third-party applications (browsers, games, stores), this method works faultlessly.

Specificity of the work of messengers and important mail

Special attention should be paid to the question of how to disable the application in the background on Xiaomi, if we are talking about messengers. Here the rule of the “golden mean” applies: a complete restriction will deprive you of communication, and the absence of restrictions will “eat” the battery.

The problem is that MIUI often kills messengers too aggressively, so to prevent this from happening, you need to add important apps to the exception list. Go to Settings → Battery → Exceptions and check the programs you want.

It is also recommended to fix the application in memory:

• 🔒 Open the menu of running applications (swipe from the bottom up or menu button).
• 🔽 Press and hold the messenger window or press the lock next to it.
• ✅ A lock icon will appear, meaning that the “Clear All” button will not affect this application.

⚠️ Note: When you clean up memory through the recent app menu, the attached programs (with a lock icon) will remain in RAM, even if you click the cleaning cross.

For corporate email and work chats, it’s best to leave background work on, but limit the synchronization of large attachments, which can be done in the application settings by reducing the frequency of checking new emails or by prohibiting autoloading images.

Third-party utilities: whether they should be used

There are thousands of clicker apps on Google Play that promise to speed up the phone, but on today’s Xiaomi MIUI-enclosed smartphones, they are often useless or even harmful.

Android already has built-in memory management mechanisms (Low Memory Killer). Third-party programs, trying to clean the phone, constantly start their services, which creates an additional burden. Instead of saving, you get a vicious circle: the clinch closed the application → the system opened it again → the cliner closed again.

If you do decide to use third-party software, choose only proven solutions that can work in Deep Sleep mode and do not require permanent permissions to access the system. But in 95% of cases, Xiaomi’s built-in tools are more than enough.

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The built-in MIUI optimization is more effective than any third-party cliner, as it has deep access to the core of the system and does not conflict with Android processes.

Detailed Questions and Answers (FAQ)