Xiaomi and Redmi smartphone owners often face intrusive ads that appear in the most unexpected places: when unlocking the screen, in standard applications or on top of the interface. This problem annoys users, distracts from working with the device and reduces the overall performance of the system. Often such pop-ups are part of the company’s marketing policy to keep the cost of gadgets low.
There are many ways to get rid of this digital noise without getting root rights. In this article, we’ll detail how to turn off system advertising, find and remove malicious applications, and block notifications from specific services. MIUI and the new HyperOS provide enough tools to fine-tune if you know where to look.
Eliminating banner ads will not only make smartphone usage more comfortable, but also save battery life and mobile traffic. Some of the processes that drive ad display can work in the background. Let's start with basic system settings that will help to significantly reduce unwanted content.
Disabling system advertising in MIUI and HyperOS
The first step to a clean interface should be to disable the built-in recommendation service, and it is the msa component (MIUI System Ads) that collects data and displays ad units in standard applications, and to deactivate it, you need to go to the settings menu and find the password and security section.
Inside this section, you'll find the "Access to Data and Use" or "Advanced Features" button, and you'll need to find the switch that's responsible for getting recommendations, and the system can ask you a few times about your decision, suggesting you wait 10 seconds before you try to shut down again, and this is a standard procedure to keep the user in the ecosystem.
⚠️ Note: When you turn off msa, some features, such as personalized recommendations in a music service or browser, may stop working correctly.
Once the action is completed successfully, the ads in the system folders and desktop should disappear. However, this does not guarantee the complete absence of banners in built-in utilities such as Explorer or Downloads.
Set up standard Xiaomi applications
Many built-in utilities have their own ad settings that are independent of the overall system switch. To completely clean a smartphone, you have to go through each standard application separately. It takes a few minutes, but the result is worth it.
Start with the Security app. Open it, click on the gear in the top right corner, and find the Receive Recommendations item. Turn off this option. Similar steps should be done for Explorer, Music, Theme, and Downloads, and in each of them, you should look for the About or Settings section where the recommendation switch is hidden.
- 📱 Topics: Profile → Settings (cogs) → Show an advert → Turn it off.
- 📂 Conductor: Menu (three stripes) → Settings → About the programme → Recommendations → Turn it off.
- 🎵 Music: Menu → Settings → Advanced settings → Showing ads → Turn it off.
Also, be sure to check your Mi Browser settings if you use it by default, and its privacy settings often activate notifications from news partners, disabling these notifications will save you from a constant stream of news on the lock screen.
☑️ Verification of standard applications
Search and Remove Malware Applications
If the ad appears suddenly on top of all windows, even in applications where it should not be, it is likely that third-party software is installed on the device. Often users download such programs themselves, taking them for useful utilities, such as “memory cleaners” or “flashlights”.
To identify culprit, go to Settings → Apps → All apps. Carefully review the list. Malware is often masked: it may not have a name or icon, or it is called a system process with a typo. Look for applications that you haven’t installed or that have recently appeared.
| Sign. | Description | Action. |
|---|---|---|
| Absence of icon | In the list of applications, an empty space instead of a logo | Immediate removal |
| High battery consumption | Unknown app consumes a lot of energy | Permit verification and deletion |
| Pop-ups | Advertising appears on the desktop | Search for the source in running processes |
| Strange name. | The name is made up of random symbols. | Removal |
If normal deletion is not possible (the Delete button is inactive), then the application has been granted device administrator rights, then go to Settings → Passwords and Security → Privacy → Special Access Rights → Access to Use. Find the suspicious application and revoke the rights, after which the standard deletion becomes available.
What to do if the application is not removed?
Blocking notifications from websites and services
A common reason for pop-ups is not viruses, but permissions that the user accidentally gave to sites in the browser. When visiting various resources, we often mechanically click “Allow” on the request to show notifications, after which the site begins to send spam.
To clean up your Chrome browser (or any other Chromium engine), go to your browser settings, select Site Settings, and go to Notifications, where you will see a list of all sites that have the right to send you messages, just delete or block any suspicious addresses.
In Android system settings, you can also manage permissions for each application individually. Go to Settings → Apps → App Management, select a browser or messenger that seems suspicious, and click Notifications. Disable all notification categories or disable them completely.
- 🚫 Browsers: Check the permissions for Chrome, Yandex.Browser, UC Browser.
- 💬 Disable notifications from channels and groups you don’t read.
- 🛍️ Stores: AliExpress, Amazon and other marketplaces often send spam.
An effective method is also to install an ad blocker at the DNS level, such as AdGuard or using Google’s or Cloudflare’s DNS, which will filter ad traffic before it reaches the device.
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Use DNS to block ads at the network level. In the connection settings, specify the address: dns.adguard.com. This will remove ads in many applications without installing additional software.
Resetting Advertising Settings and Identifiers
Even after you turn off all the visible switches, you still have an advertising ID, which is a unique code that allows ad networks to track your interests and show targeted ads, and resetting that ID breaks the link between your past actions and your current ads.
To reset, go to Settings → Privacy → Advertising. Here you will see the option “Reset Ad ID.” Pressing this button will create a new ID, and the ad algorithms will start collecting data about you again, which will temporarily reduce the accuracy of targeting.
It is also recommended to disable ad personalization in your Google account. Go to Google's settings on your phone, select Ads and turn off personalization.This is a global setting that affects all of the Google ecosystem services installed on your Xiaomi.
⚠️ Note: Resetting your advertising ID does not remove ads completely, but does make them less relevant and intrusive as systems lose the context of your preferences.
Use of third-party cleaning tools
If manual tuning seems too complicated or doesn’t work, you can use specialized applications to control the system in detail. One of the most powerful tools for advanced users is ADB AppControl.
This PC software allows you to connect to your smartphone and manage system applications that are usually hidden from the user, and it can safely disable analytics and advertising components such as Mi Credit, Mi Video (if not in use) and other MIUI services.
To work with such tools, you need to enable debugging mode over USB. This is done through Settings → About the phone, where you need to click on the build number 7 times to activate the developer menu. Then, in advanced settings, turn on “Debugging over USB”.
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Use of the ADB-Teams are the most radical and effective way to remove system advertising, but it requires caution and a computer.
In addition to ADB, there are detector applications that show which app is the one that is running the pop-up, like AppWatch or Detector, and when you see an ad, these tools show the source app icon, which allows you to quickly find and remove the culprit.