How to completely remove the game shortcut on Xiaomi smartphone: all ways

Game shortcuts on Xiaomi smartphones often appear automatically after installing apps from Google Play or Mi App Store. They can duplicate icons on the desktop, take up space in the app menu, or even interfere with the Game Turbo, Xiaomi’s proprietary game accelerator. Unlike conventional shortcuts, some game icons are not removed in the standard way (clamping and dragging into the cart), which causes confusion among users.

In this article, we will discuss 5 proven methods to remove unnecessary game shortcuts on Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO devices running MIUI 14/15 or the new HyperOS. The methods are suitable for both system games (for example, Mi Game Center) and third-party applications.

Why is the game label not removed in the standard way?

On Xiaomi smartphones, game shortcuts may behave differently than regular app icons. Here are the main reasons:

• 🔹 Game Turbo Duplication: The system automatically creates a separate shortcut to run the game through the Game Turbo Optimizer, even if you installed the application manually.
• 🔹 Systemic constraints MIUI: Some games (such as Mi Game Center or Xiaomi Cloud Games) are protected from removal without superuser rights.
• 🔹 Launcher cache: After removal, the shortcut may temporarily disappear, but return after reboot due to an uncleaned shell cache.
• 🔹 Updates MIUI/HyperOS: After major updates, the system can restore deleted shortcuts by default".

If you tried to remove the shortcut by clamping and dragging it into the cart, but it came back, it means that you only removed the visual shortcut on the desktop, not the system shortcut itself.

Method 1: Remove from the App Menu (for most games)

This method works for third-party games (e.g. Genshin Impact, PUBG Mobile, Free Fire) and some system games if they are not protected by MIUI.

1. Open the app menu (swipe up from the bottom of the screen).
2. Find the game you want to remove and pinch the icon for 1-2 seconds.
3. In the context menu that appears, select Delete (or Delete the shortcut if it is a duplicate).
4. Confirm the action by pressing OK.

If you only see Delete from desktop instead of Delete, it's Game Turbo's system shortcut. Go to Method 2.

There are no important saves in the game

The game is not linked to a Google/Mi Account.

Auto-update of the game in Play Market is disabled

Data backup (if necessary)-->

Method 2: Disabling Game Turbo shortcuts

Game Turbo is Xiaomi's proprietary game accelerator that automatically creates separate shortcuts to run games in optimized mode, to remove those duplicates:

1. Open Settings → Applications → Application Management.
2. In the search box, enter Game Turbo (or Game Turbo in Russian).
3. Select the Game Turbo app and click Disable (if the button is active).
4. Reboot your smartphone. After that, all Game Turbo shortcuts should disappear.

⚠️ Warning: Disabling Game Turbo will remove all game shortcuts created by the system, including performance settings for games.If you need optimizations (such as blocking notifications while playing), it is better to use Method 3.

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If the shortcuts remain after disabling Game Turbo, clear the launcher cache: Settings → Applications → Launcher → Storage → Clear the cache

Method 3: Remove via launcher settings (hiding shortcuts)

If the game shortcut is not removed, but you don’t want to disable the Game Turbo completely, you can hide it through the launcher settings.This method works on the standard MIUI/HyperOS launcher and some third-party ones (for example, POCO Launcher).

1. Click on the empty space on your desktop and select Desktop Settings (or Launcher Settings).
2. Go to Hidden Applications (or Hide Apps) section.
3. Find the game in the list, the label of which you need to remove, and tick it.
4. Save the changes and restart the launcher (or smartphone).

After that, the shortcut will disappear from the app menu and desktop, but the game itself will remain installed. To return it back, just remove the tick in the settings of hidden applications.

Method 4: Remove via ADB (for power users)

If the game shortcut is protected by the system and not removed by standard methods, you can use Android Debug Bridge (ADB), which requires connecting the smartphone to the computer, but is guaranteed to remove even system shortcuts.

⚠️ Attention: Wrong commands ADB may disrupt the system. Before execution, back up the data through Settings → The phone. → Backup.

Instructions:

1. Turn on USB Debugging on your smartphone: Settings → About Phone → MIUI Version (click 7 times to activate Developer Mode). Then go back to Settings → Additional → Developer → Debugging on USB.
2. Connect your smartphone to your computer via USB and confirm your trust in the device.
3. Open the command line (Windows) or terminal (macOS/Linux) and type:

adb shell pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.xiaomi.gamecenter.sdk.service

This command removes the Game Center service that creates game shortcuts, and if you want to remove the shortcut of a particular game, first find the batch name:

adb shell pm list packages | grep "game"

Then remove the label with the command:

adb shell pm uninstall -k --user 0 name packet

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ADB Remove tags only for the current user (flag) --user 0). System files remain intact, so the risk of bricking is minimal.

Method 5: Resetting launcher settings (extreme case)

If none of the methods worked, and the game shortcut still appears, you can reset the launcher to factory settings, which will delete all user desktop settings (images, widgets, folders), but return the system to its original state.

Instructions:

1. Go to Settings → Applications → Application Management.
2. Find a launcher (usually called a launcher, MIUI Launcher, or POCO Launcher).
3. Open the Warehouse → Clear the data and confirm the action.
4. Reboot your smartphone.

Once reset, all shortcuts, including game tags, will be removed, and you will have to reconfigure the desktop, but this is guaranteed to solve the problem with the "non-removable" icons.

⚠️ Note: On some HyperOS firmware, resetting the launcher may cause wallpaper and design themes to reset. Before executing, save your favorite themes in Settings → Registration → My subjects.

Comparison of methods of removing game shortcuts on Xiaomi

Frequently asked questions