Xiaomi’s smartphones, which are powered by MIUI shells or the new HyperOS, are known for aggressive power optimization. However, sometimes the system works too hard to close the right messengers or navigators, or, conversely, skips heavy programs that drain the battery. Understanding how to manage background processes is key to balancing autonomy and functionality of the device.
In this article, we will discuss in detail the mechanisms of the Android operating system in conjunction with the proprietary add-ons of the Chinese manufacturer. You will learn where hidden settings hide, how to prohibit auto-start and why the usual swiping of the window from the menu of running applications often does not give the desired effect.
Many users are faced with a situation where the battery goes down in a few hours, although the screen almost did not burn. The culprits are often social networks and gaming platforms that continue to consume traffic and energy even when rolled up.
Why apps continue to work after closing
The architecture of the Android operating system is designed so that programs don't shut down completely as you know it when you roll them up to the home screen, they go into a standby state or they continue to perform background tasks like receiving notifications, synchronizing data or updating content, which is a fundamental principle of the modern mobile platforms.
The MIUI shell has its own memory management mechanisms that can conflict with Google’s standard settings. Often, the system automatically restarts services it considers important to the user experience, ignoring the owner’s attempts to stop them completely, which can lead to unpredictable charge consumption.
There is also the notion of sticky processes that the system considers critical, with the background activity of such programs being limited with difficulty, and often requiring special permissions or developer mode to stop them completely, and without a deep understanding of these mechanisms, fighting voracious applications can become useless.
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Use the “Flight” mode at night, if the background processes still discharge the phone, this is guaranteed to turn off all network modules.
Basic management through the menu of running applications
The easiest and most obvious way to try to stop a program is to use the standard multitasking menu, which requires swiping from the bottom up (or pressing the menu button) and finding the right window, but it is important to understand that just swiping up doesn’t always mean stopping all the associated processes completely.
In the MIUI, if you press the application preview or swipe to the right long enough, you open an extended control menu, so you can lock the application in memory so that the system does not close it, or, conversely, force the process to be terminated, which is useful for quickly cleaning RAM before starting demanding games.
- 📱 Click the Menu button or swipe from the bottom up to open the task list.
- 🛑 Click on the lock icon or cross in the corner of the preview app for forced closure.
- ⚙️ Use the Clean button to complete all unblocked processes.
It's worth noting that once the device is restarted, all the time-close settings are reset and the autoboot services are activated again, so this method is suitable for situational problem solving, but not for continuous system optimization.
Set up auto-start and background activity in MIUI
The central element of resource management in Xiaomi smartphones is a special settings section, often called “Activity Control” or “Autostart”, which is where you decide whether the program can run itself when you turn on your phone or when you start a connected service, and this is the first line of defense for your battery.
To get into this section, you need to open the Safety app (green zipper icon) that is preinstalled on all the brand devices, and inside you need to find the Auto Start or Permissions item, and here is a complete list of installed programs with switches that allow you to disable or allow start.
☑️ Checking auto-start settings
It's important to distinguish between Autostart and Background Activity. The former allows the program to start itself, the latter allows it to remain in memory after folding. The limitation of background activity can cause you to stop receiving notifications from the application until it is manually opened.
⚠️ Warning: Do not turn off auto-start for Google system services, account sync services, and alarms, otherwise your phone may not work properly or stop waking you up on schedule.
Forced stop through system settings
If an application is behaving incorrectly or consuming too many resources, the way to stop it is to use the system’s forced stop feature, which differs from simply closing a window in that it completely kills the process and all its subsidiaries until the next manual start by the user.
To do this, go to Settings → Applications → All apps. Find the program you want and click on it. The app information menu that opens will have a Stop button (or Forced Stop) and the system will warn you of the possible consequences, as this action may disrupt the associated functions.
This method is particularly useful for “hang” programs that do not respond to touch, or for services that cannot be closed by standard methods. Once stopped, the application will disappear from the list of running and will no longer consume CPU resources and RAM.
- 🔍 Go to Settings and select the "Applications" section».
- 📂 Find the problem app in the general list or through search.
- 🛑 Click the “Stop” button and confirm the action in the pop-up window.
Remember that some Android system processes are protected from forced shutdown by a button that is inactive (grey), which is designed to protect the integrity of the operating system from accidental damage to critical components, and interference with their operation can lead to a reboot.
What happens to the data after the forced shutdown?
Using Developer Mode to Control Processes
For advanced users who don’t have enough standard methods, Android offers access to a hidden developer menu, which includes tools for detailed control over the limits of background processes, a powerful tool that requires careful handling, as improper configuration can destabilize the interface.
To activate this mode, go to Settings → About Phone and quickly click on MIUI version or build number seven times. After the message “You became a developer” appears in the settings menu, a new item will appear “Advanced Settings” or “Additional”, where the desired menu is hidden.
In the "Developers" section, we're interested in the "Limit of Background Processes" item, and the default is "Standard Limit," but you can choose "No Background Processes" or limit their number (e.g., no more than 2), which will force the system to aggressively close everything that is not on the screen right now.
| Setup parameter | Description of action | Impact on the battery |
|---|---|---|
| Standard constraint | The system decides how many processes to keep. | Balance |
| No background processes | When folding, the application immediately closes. | Maximum savings |
| No more than 2 processes | Only the last 2 applications remain in memory. | High savings |
| No more than 4 processes | Moderate restriction of multitasking | Average savings |
It's important to understand that setting a hard limit on background processes can cause music in the player to be interrupted when switching to another screen, and the navigator stops rewiring the route. A hard limit on background processes completely shuts down widgets and live wallpaper. Use these settings only to temporarily solve autonomy problems.
Energy conservation and smart restrictions
Modern versions of HyperOS and MIUI are equipped with intelligent energy saving algorithms that analyze user behavior. In the Settings menu → Battery → Energy saving, you can configure work profiles for each application separately, which allows you to flexibly manage how long the program can run in the background.
There are three main modes of restriction: No Limits, Charge Saving, and Austerity. Selecting a mode of austerity effectively equates to banning background activity — an app won't be able to use the network and GPS until you open it. This is perfect for rarely used programs.
- 🔋 No restrictions: the application works in the background always (useful for messengers).
- 🌙 Charge savings: The system limits background activity 15 minutes after folding.
- 🚫 Hard savings: background activity is banned completely, notifications do not come.
You should check your battery usage statistics periodically to see if you have parasitic programs, and if you see an app that you haven't used but it's consumed 10 percent of its charge overnight, change its energy saving profile to Hard immediately, which will give you back control of the device.
⚠️ Warning: Setting a “Savings Hard” mode for smart home apps (Mi Home) or health trackers (Mi Fitness) will result in loss of communication with devices and no alert alerts.
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The optimal strategy is to leave without restrictions only messengers and mail, and for all other applications to install a profile "Saving charge".