Users of Xiaomi, Redmi and Poco smartphones often face intrusive marketing that is built right into the system components of the MIUI and HyperOS shell. One of the most annoying manifestations of this policy is advertising in the Themes app, where banners can overlap the preview of icons or appear as pop-ups when searching.
The company’s advertising model allows for the devices to be sold at a low price, but instead requires the owner to tolerate periodic advertising integrations. Fortunately, most of these features can be manually deactivated, returning the system to a clean look without unnecessary banners.
In this article, we will discuss in detail the methods of disabling advertising directly in the Topics section, and also touch on the adjacent MSA settings that are responsible for the overall advertising activity on the device.
Disabling personalized recommendations in the application
The first step to getting rid of intrusive content is to disable algorithms that analyze your preferences to show targeted ads, a basic setup that should be done immediately after you buy a smartphone.
To do this, you need to launch the Themes app and go to the user profile, which is usually indicated by the person icon in the lower right corner, then click on the gear icon or the settings button located at the top of the screen.
In the menu that opens, find Personal Recommendations and switch the switch to an inactive state. The system may request confirmation of an action that you need to respond to with consent.
This measure will not remove all banners completely, but will significantly reduce their relevance and frequency of appearance in the recommendation feed.
- 📱 Open the Themes app on the main screen.
- ⚙️ Go to the settings section through the user profile.
- 🚫 Find and disable the Personal References option.
- ✅ Confirm the shutdown in the pop-up window.
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After disabling recommendations, the feed can be updated longer, as the system takes time to restructure the algorithms for issuing content without considering your history.
Blocking the MSA (MIUI System Ads)
MSA (MIUI System Ads) is the main system component responsible for loading and displaying ads in all built-in applications, including Themes, Explorer and Browser. Disabling this process is the most effective way to combat banners.
To access system services management, go to Settings → Passwords & Security → Access to Personal Data. In the application list, find msa and disable the access slider.
⚠️ Note: When you try to shut down the service, the system will insist you to wait. 10 This is the standard behavior of the ad module's defenses. If you failed to turn it off the first time, repeat the procedure. 3-4 Usually after several attempts, the system misses the action and the service stops working. It is also recommended to find the application Get notifications (or GetApps) in the same list and limit its rights if you do not use the app store from Xiaomi. ☑️ Checking the shutdown MSAFind MSa in the access list Disable accessTimerRepeat 3 If not, check the absence of advertising in the topics: 0 / 5 Privacy and Advertising Identifier Settings To completely remove the digital footprint that is used for targeting, you must reset the advertising identifier. This action breaks the link between your device and your advertising profiles. Go to the Settings menu → Passwords and security → Confidentiality → Advertising services. You need to activate the switch to turn off ad personalization. Then click Reset the ad ID. This action generates a new random number that has no history of your actions. Regularly resetting this identifier is useful not only to combat advertising in topics, but also to improve overall digital hygiene when using a smartphone. 🔒 Go to the Privacy section in the settings. 🆔 Select the item Advertising services. 🔄 Click Reset Advertising Identifier. 📉 Activate the option to disable personalization. What is an advertising ID?This is a unique set of characters assigned to your device by advertisers to track interests. Resetting is equivalent to creating a new “digital face” for the phone. Managing autoload and notifications Than Often, ads in the Topic app appear through pop-up notifications or automatically running the process in the background. Restricting these rights makes banners impossible. Find the Topics app list, go to Settings → Apps → All apps. Select the desired application and go to the Other permissions section. You must also disable Auto Launch. Also, in the Notifications section, you should disable all categories, especially those labeled as “Recommendations” or “Marketing.” This will prevent the appearance of ads in the application from appearing in the background. Permission type Current status Recommended Action Impact on AutoRun System Allowed Prohibit Application won't start itself Notifications Enable Disable All Disappear Push Notifications Network Access Allowed Leave (for download) Topics will swing Over other windows Allowed Prohibit Remove pop-up windows Use DNS For blocking ads, a more advanced method that works at the device level is to configure private DNS. This method blocks the connection of the smartphone with Xiaomi ad servers. → Connection and sharing → Private DNS. Select the hostname of the provider DNS (or "Manual"). Enter the address of a trusted blocker, such as dns.adguard.com. Once the setting is saved, reboot the device to apply the changes. This method is effective not only for the Theme application, but also for blocking ads in the browser and other system applications. 📊 Whether you use DNS-Filters for blocking ads?Yes, constantlyNoSometimesNo, I am afraid to break Don't know what these are Possible problems and their solution In some cases after updating the firmware MIUI Or HyperOS settings can be reset and ads come back, which is because system updates often restore Xiaomi's standard configurations. If you notice banners returning, check the status of the msa service and access to personal data. Often, after a major update, access rights are restored by default, and the problem may be the cache of the application. Try to clear the application data Themes through the App menu → Application management → Topics → Memory. → Clean up. Remember that completely removing the system application Themes without root rights is impossible, so setting the restrictions is the best solution. 💡Regularly checking access rights after system updates is the only way to ensure there is no advertising in the long run (FAQ) Is it safe to turn off the service? MSA? Yes, outage MSA It's a system-based advertising service that doesn't affect the basic functions of the phone, calls or third-party apps. Will downloaded themes disappear after the ads are turned off? No, all the themes, fonts and wallpaper you install and download will remain in place, and turning off ads only affects the display of marketing content and recommendations in the store. MSA The advert reappears? The system can automatically reactivate the service after a software update or when checking the integrity of the system, in which case the disconnection procedure through Access to Personal Data must be repeated. Can I completely delete the Topic application? Without obtaining superuser rights (Root) and using special tools like ADB, you can not completely delete the system application. You can only restrict its rights and hide it from the desktop.