Budget smartphone owners often encounter intrusive banners that appear in the most unexpected places of the interface. MIUI, the Chinese manufacturer’s branded shell, is known for its aggressive monetization through advertising integrations. For the Redmi 8 model, this problem is especially relevant, since the device belongs to the initial segment, where the company seeks to compensate for the low margin of the device.
Advertising modules can be embedded in system applications such as Music, Themes, or Explorer, and pop up when you unlock the screen. This not only annoys, but also drains Internet traffic, and drains the battery. A full understanding of the mechanisms of advertising services will allow you to effectively clean the space of your smartphone from unnecessary digital noise.
In this guide, we will discuss a step-by-step algorithm that will help deactivate most advertising sources, so you do not need super-user rights or complex technical knowledge, just follow the instructions carefully and change the settings in the corresponding menu sections consistently.
Disabling the MSA system advertising service
The main source of intrusive offers in the MIUI shell is the MSA (MIUI System Ads) process, which is responsible for collecting user data and displaying targeted advertising in various corners of the interface, and disabling this component is the first and most important step in the fight for a clean screen.
To access the management of this service, you need to go to the password and security settings menu. Find Authorization and Review (or Access to Account). In the list that opens, find the msa string and put the switch into an inactive state. The system will try to dissuade you from doing this by claiming that some functions will stop working.
You'll have to wait 10 seconds, then the Revoke button will be active. Press it confidently. If the first time you don't shut down and you have an error, repeat the procedure 2-3 times, a well-known feature of Xiaomi's algorithms that often requires a second attempt to successfully execute a command.
After successful permission revocation, banner ads in the system folders and desktop should disappear, but to consolidate the result, it is also recommended to disable related services such as GetApps and Mi Video if you do not use them.
⚠️ Attention: After disconnection MSA The “Hot apps” and “Hot games” widgets in folders can stop updating or disappear, which, however, will only improve the speed of the interface.
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If the Revoke button is inactive, check your internet connection. Sometimes Xiaomi servers may be temporarily unavailable and a stable connection is required to revoke rights.
Customization of personalized recommendations in the system
Even after the core MSA module is disabled, the system still has separate settings for receiving advertising recommendations, which can be in different menu sections, and they need to be manually disabled for each system application, a finer setup that requires care.
Start with general system settings. Go to Settings → Passwords and Security → Privacy → Advertising Services. You need to turn off Get Personalized Recommendations. This action will prevent the system from using your data to select ads, although it will not completely remove all banners.
Next, you should go through the key system applications. In the Security app, click on the gear in the upper right corner and find the item "Receive recommendations." Similar actions should be repeated in the Topics, Music, Downloads and Explorer applications, in each of them you need to find settings (usually in the three-dot menu or gear) and uncheck the item "Receive recommendations" or "Show ads".
Pay special attention to the lock screen. Redmi 8 often activates Wallpaper Carousel, which is essentially a promotional tape. To remove it, go to Settings → Wallpaper → Wallpaper Carousel and turn off the function, which will return the static image to the lock screen and remove unnecessary notifications.
- 📱 Open the Themes app, go to profile and select Settings, then turn off Show Ads and Get Recommendations».
- 🎵 In the Music app, go to the settings, find the Advanced Settings section and remove the tick from the "Show Advertising" item».
- 📂 In “Conductor” click on three menu bars, select “Settings» → «About the program (or just “Settings”) and disable recommendations.
☑️ Checklist of disabling advertising in applications
Managing Notifications from Browser and Applications
Users often confuse MIUI system advertising with notifications from sites they accidentally subscribed to or from installed apps.Pop-ups with news, weather forecasts or offers to buy goods often come from the Chrome browser or the built-in MI Browser.
To solve a problem in your Chrome browser, go to settings (three dots in the corner), select Settings → Notifications. Go through the list of sites and turn off access for suspicious resources. If the list is too large, it is easier to reset your browser settings completely or clear the site data.
Xiaomi’s built-in browser (MI Browser) also requires a separate setup. Go to its settings, find the Privacy & Security option and turn off personalization. It’s also worth checking the Notifications section and disallowing news from news aggregators. Many users prefer to simply install an alternative browser, like Firefox or Brave, which have built-in ad blockers.
Remember to check permissions for newly installed applications. Often free utilities, flashlights or scanners QR-codes require permission to display notifications that turn into advertising spam. → Annexes → All applications, select a suspicious application and in the Notifications section, prohibit their display.
⚠️ Warning: If the ad appears suddenly as a full-screen pop-up when the phone is lying idle, it is a sign of malware.Urgently check the device with an antivirus or remember which app was installed before the problem began.
How to find an application that causes advertising?
Using DNS to block advertising at the network level
One of the most effective and elegant ways to remove ads on Redmi 8 is to set up a private DNS, which allows you to block ad requests before they even reach the screen of your smartphone. You don't need to install additional applications, just change one setting in the system.
The method is to use an AdGuard DNS server that automatically filters traffic and cuts connections to known ad servers. This works in all applications and browsers, including system. To activate, go to Settings → Connection and Sharing → Private DNS (the path may vary slightly depending on the version of Android, you can also search by settings).
Select the option “DNS Host Name” (or “Manual”) and enter the following line in the field that appears:
dns.adguard.comSave your settings. Now all Internet traffic on your device will go through AdGuard filters, and you will notice that ads in browsers and many free apps have stopped loading, which will also have a positive impact on page loading speed and traffic consumption.
It is important to understand that this method does not affect system advertising. MIUI, It is downloaded from Xiaomi servers, as it often uses secure connections or proprietary domains that may not be blocked by standard filters. MSA.
| Parameter | Meaning | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Type DNS | Private (Private) | Encrypts requests, preventing surveillance by the provider |
| host | dns.adguard.com | Server address with built-in blocker |
| Impact | Blocking in browsers and games | No installation required APK-file |
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Set up a private DNS is a “silver bullet” to combat advertising on the Internet, which works globally for the entire device without installing additional software.
Resetting the advertising ID and data cleanup
To improve the efficiency of blocking and resetting the accumulated advertising “mus”, it is recommended to clean the advertising ID. Google and MIUI itself use a unique ID to track your interests.
To do this, go to Settings → Google → Advertising. Here you will see the button “Reset the Ad ID.” Click on it. This action will create a new random ID, and the ad networks will start collecting data about you again, which will temporarily reduce the accuracy of targeting.
It is also useful to do data cleaning for system services. Go to Settings → Apps → All apps, find in the list of Google Play Services and Google Play Store. For each of them, select Memory and click Clear Cache. Don’t be afraid to click Clear All Data for system services – this won’t delete your personal files or installed apps, but will reset some temporary settings and cache.
After performing these steps, it is recommended to restart the smartphone.This will ensure that all changes are applied and the RAM is cleared from running advertising processes. On Redmi 8 with its RAM capacity, regular restarting is also useful for overall performance.
- 🔄 Resetting your advertising ID makes your digital identity less predictable by Google’s algorithms.
- 🧹 Cleaning the browser cache and system services removes temporary files that may contain data for displaying ads.
- 📵 Rebooting the device completes the cleaning process and stops background services that may have avoided shutting down.
Alternative methods and installation of blockers
If standard methods don't work 100%, you can use specialized software. VPN-Tunnels can filter traffic in even more detail than standard tunnels. DNS.
One of the most popular solutions is the AdGuard app, which can be downloaded from the developer's official website, because Google Play versions are often stripped down. Once installed, AdGuard will offer to configure HTTPS filtering, which will require the installation of a root certificate. This is safe if you use the official app.
Another option is to use browsers with built-in protection, such as Brave or DuckDuckGo, to surf the Internet, which block trackers and ad scripts at the page rendering level, and system-level solutions such as Blokada are better suited to block ads inside other applications (such as games).
It’s worth noting that installing too many blockers can reduce the performance of the Redmi 8. Snapdragon 439 and 2-4 GB of RAM may not be able to cope with simultaneous traffic filtering by multiple applications.
⚠️ Note: When installing security certificates for the operation of blockers HTTPS, download applications only from official developer sites, and installing a certificate from an unverified source can compromise the security of your passwords and banking data.