Owners of Xiaomi, Redmi and Poco smartphones often face intrusive behavior of a system that constantly suggests installing new games or utilities.This phenomenon, known as recommended apps, can annoy, take up useful screen space and even consume traffic in the background. Especially often users notice the “Get More Apps” folder or pop-ups with suggestions after installing MIUI shell updates or the new HyperOS.
Fortunately, the Chinese giant’s Android architecture allows you to manage these settings with a lot of flexibility if you know where to look. In this article, we’ll take a look at how to remove recommended apps from your desktop, folders, and disable the system ads that broadcast them. You don’t need root rights, but you need to be careful when switching switches to the menu.
The Nature of Intrusive Suggestions in MIUI and HyperOS
The phenomenon of unnecessary icons and banners is associated with the operation of the system component MSA (MIUI System Ads), which is responsible for collecting anonymized user data and displaying targeted advertising, including suggestions for installing software, which developers position as a way to monetize budget devices, allowing you to sell smartphones with high margins at a low price.
But the aggressiveness of algorithms sometimes goes beyond reasonable, and recommendations can appear in standard folders, notification curtains, or even in the memory-cleaning interface, and understanding that ad units are embedded deep in system processes helps to approach them correctly without disrupting the critical functions of the phone.
⚠️ Note: Complete removal of system components through ADB This can cause the device to malfunction, and we only consider safe methods of shutting down through the standard settings.
It is worth noting that the location of the switches may vary slightly from firmware to firmware (Global, European, Chinese), but the logic of the recommendation service remains the same across the brand ecosystem.
Disabling the “Get More Apps” folder on the desktop
The most noticeable source of annoyance is a folder that automatically appears on the home screen and contains icons of other programs, and to get rid of it, you need to perform a series of actions in the launcher settings. First find the directory itself with recommendations on the desktop and click on it to open the content.
In the window that opens, usually in the top right corner or at the bottom of the screen, there's a gear icon or a three-dot menu, and if you click on it, you'll be taken to the folder management menu, and you'll find a switch called "Get Recommendations" or "Recommended Applications" and put it in an inactive state.
Once you disable the option, the folder can either disappear by itself or turn into a regular empty folder that can be deleted by standard (long press) and drag and drop to the cart. If the switch is missing, then your version of the MIUI shell mechanism works differently, and you will need to disable through the system settings of the ad.
- 📱 Find a folder with recommendations on the desktop.
- ⚙️ Open folder settings through the gear icon.
- 🚫 Turn off the switchboard "Get recommendations».
- 🗑️ Remove the unnecessary folder from the screen.
⚠️ Note: In some regions, settings may be called "Card display" or "Suggested apps." Look for any mention of the words Recommend or Suggest.
☑️ Checking folder settings
Global Disconnection of MSA Advertising and Service
To make recommendations stop appearing not only in folders but also in system utilities, you need to disable the main advertising module. Go to the Settings menu of your smartphone, then select the Passwords and Security section (in some versions Advanced Settings).
In the process list, find msa. Click on it and turn off the access switch. The system will alert you that some features may stop working correctly, and will suggest waiting 10 seconds before re-activating. This is the standard protection against random user actions.
Once the timer has expired, confirm the action. It is also recommended to find Getapps (Xiaomi app store) in the same list and limit its rights if you do not use this directory, this will prevent the lists of recommended software from loading in the background.
Path to setup: Settings → Passwords and security → Privacy → Special permissions → Access to personal data → msaIt is important to understand that disabling MSA can affect the performance of personalized widgets, but for most users this effect is invisible against the background of the disappearance of advertising.
What happens if the MSA switch is switched back on?
Cleaning recommendations in the Security and Loader app
The standard Security app on Xiaomi smartphones often contains a news feed and a block of popular apps. To remove them, open the Security app, click on the gear icon in the upper right corner, and select Settings.
In the settings menu, find the “Receive recommendations” or “Popular apps” section and deaktivirujte (turn off) this feature, and check the “About the app” section inside the security settings and disable notifications there if they interfere.
The same situation is observed in the standard browser and bootloader. In the Mi Browser browser, you need to go to the settings (three menu bars), select Settings → Privacy and Security, and disable Personalized Recommendations. This will clear the start page of news debris.
| System component | Where to look for settings | What to turn off |
|---|---|---|
| Desktop | Folder settings | Receive recommendations |
| Security | Settings → General | Receive recommendations |
| Loader | Settings → General | Show the cards |
| Conductor | Settings → About the annex | Recommendations |
⚠️ Warning: After the firmware update, the settings may reset. It is recommended to check these points again after each major update. MIUI.
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To quickly navigate the hidden settings menu, search inside the Settings app. Type the word “advertisements” or “recommendations” and the system will suggest the item.
Removal of system advertising in standard applications
Advertising blocks can be embedded in the interface of the cleaner, task manager and even calculator. To minimize their impact, you need to go through the settings of each system application separately. Open Settings → Applications → All applications.
Search for Clearer, Task Manager and Topics on each of these, and click on Notifications and disable notifications unless they are critical. Often, push messages are sent through notification channels to suggest that you install the game.
Also, in Themes, you should go to the user profile (human icon) → Settings and disable the "Show ads" item. This will remove banners from the theme and widget store interface.
- 🧹 Open the settings of the Cleaner application».
- 🔔 Go to the "Notifications" section».
- 📵 Disable all types of notifications except system notifications.
- 🎨 Repeat the procedure for the “Themes” app».
Remember that system applications can have hidden settings that are only available with a certain number of clicks, for example, in some versions you need to click 10 times on the icon version of the application to open a hidden menu debugging ads.
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Consistently disabling advertising in each system application is the only guaranteed way to completely clean the interface of garbage.
Using Developer Mode and ADB for Advanced Users
If the standard methods don't work, you can use a more powerful tool called ADB debugging, which allows you to delete or freeze the system packages that are responsible for advertising without obtaining root rights, but this requires a computer and a cable.
First, activate Developer Mode. Go to Settings → About Phone and quickly click on MIUI Version or OS Version 7 times. Then, in advanced settings, turn on Developer Mode and activate USB Debugging.
Connect your phone to your PC, install the Android SDK drivers and platform. With the adb shell pm disable-user --user 0 com.miui.misys command, you can turn off the system ad module. Be careful: disabling the wrong packages can lead to a “brickle” phone or a cyclical reboot.
adb shell pm list packages | grep miui
// Find packets containing the words 'ads', 'daemon', 'analytics' and disable them carefully.This method is only suitable for experienced users who understand the risks, and for most cases, the settings described in the previous sections are sufficient.
- 💻 Connect your smartphone to your computer via USB.
- 🔧 Activate debugging on USB developer-like.
- ⌨️ Enter the command to disable the advertising package.
- ✅ Check the system after restarting.