How to find out which apps are running in the background on Xiaomi Redmi

Xiaomi and Redmi smartphone owners often experience battery power declines faster than usual and the device starts to heat up even at rest. This behavior is often caused by processes that continue to function after you turn off or close the screen. Understanding what exactly consumes resources of your gadget is the first step to optimize its operation.

The MIUI operating system installed on most of the brand’s devices has a complex memory management structure. Standard methods of closing programs do not always stop them completely. In this article, we will discuss in detail the tools that allow you to identify hidden processes and explain how to manage them correctly without harming the functionality of the system.

Don’t panic when you find a lot of services running, some of which are necessary for notifications to work correctly, data synchronization, and running frequently used programs quickly, but some of them may also be “gluttonous” applications that you rarely use but that actively mine or collect data.

Standard Monitoring Tools in MIUI

The easiest way to get a basic background information is to use the built-in features of the system. The HyperOS shell and earlier versions of MIUI have a basic functionality that doesn't require additional software to be installed, and it gives you a general picture of power consumption.

To start, you need to go to the settings menu and find the battery section, where the system aggregates data on which programs and serviced the charge over the past 24 hours or 7 days. Pay attention to the percentage: if an application you haven't used consumes more than 5-10% of the power, this is a clear sign of active background work.

In the same section, you can often find detail by activity type, and you can see if the application was used to transmit data in the background, if it was running. GPS-It's either a module or just a screen that's been active, and it helps you distinguish between system processes and user processes.

It doesn’t always show processes that masquerade as system services or use non-standard memory retention techniques.

💡

Use the Battery widget on your desktop for quick access to statistics without having to go into the deep menu settings every time.

Use of the “Developers” menu

A deeper level of control is opened when the developer mode is activated, and this hidden menu contains tools that the average user doesn't normally need, but are indispensable for diagnosing background problems on Redmi and Poco.

To activate this mode, go to Settings → About phone and quickly click on the build number MIUI. After the message about the successful activation, a new option will appear in the settings menu “Additional” or “Extended settings”, where the developer menu is logged in.

Within this section, we are interested in the item “process statistics” or “Running Services”, which displays a list of all currently active services and applications, as well as the amount of RAM they occupy. Unlike the standard battery menu, you can see even those processes that are not high in energy efficiency, but take up resources.

Not only are the user applications listed in the process list, but you can also see the Android system services. Be careful when analyzing: stopping critical system processes can lead to unstable interfaces or loss of communication.

⚠️ Warning: Do not disable processes with names that contain the words "System", "Framework", "Media" or "Google Services" if you are not sure about their purpose.

Analysis through ADB and computer diagnostics

For users who need the most detail, Android Debug Bridge (ADB) is an indispensable tool, which allows you to access hidden logs and process lists that are not displayed in the smartphone’s graphical interface.

To start work, you need to connect the smartphone to the computer through USB-cable and make sure that the debugging USB And then, using the command line on the PC, you can ask for a complete list of running processes:

adb shell dumpsys activity processes

This command will draw a comprehensive list of all active processes, their priorities and statuses, and by analyzing the output, you can find processes with high CPU or memory consumption, and it is also useful to use the adb shell top command, which shows the real-time CPU load from each application you run.

Using ADB is particularly effective for detecting hidden miners or malware that masks its processes. If you see a process with a strange name that loads the system, its name can be checked in a search engine to determine security.

Third-party applications for activity monitoring

If you don’t want to mess with the command line, Google Play’s specialized apps will come to the rescue, providing a user-friendly graphical interface for monitoring background activity and often providing additional optimization features.

One of the most popular solutions is BetterBatteryStats, or GSam Battery Monitor, which can read system logs and plot detailed battery discharge graphs by linking them to specific applications and wakelocks, which show what keeps the phone awake.

Another useful type of utility is task managers like Greenify. While modern versions of Android manage memory well themselves, these apps help freeze programs you're not using right now, forcibly stopping their background activity.

When using third-party software, you should take into account that they themselves consume some of the system’s resources. Therefore, it is not recommended to keep heavy monitors on all the time – it is better to use them for a one-time diagnosis of the problem.

Set up background activity restrictions

Once you identify applications that are overactive in the background, you start to adjust the constraints, and MIUI and HyperOS have flexible behavioral controls that allow you to keep them functional but limit your appetites in the background.

The first step is to set up auto-start. Go to Security → Permissions → Auto-Start. Only those applications that need to be alerted instantly (messengers, mail) should be turned on, so that the rest of the programs don't start themselves when you turn on the phone.

The second important option is to limit background activity in battery settings. Go to Settings → Apps → All apps, select the desired application, click on “Charge Saving” and select “Limit background activity” or “No restrictions” (if you need to make it work).

💡

The optimal strategy is to allow full background work only messengers and alarms, and for all other applications to set a limit.

Also worth noting is the Advanced Cleanup feature on the developer menu, which allows the system to more aggressively unload applications from memory when you fold them, which can help on devices with little RAM.

System Services and Hidden Processes

The list of running processes often includes names that don’t tell the average user, many of which are Android system services or Google Play Services components, and understanding their purpose will help avoid errors in cleaning the system.

For example, com.android.phone is responsible for cellular communication and should not be stopped. com.google.android.gms enables maps, push notifications and account synchronization to work, and stopping them will result in communication loss or inoperability of most applications.

However, some Xiaomi apps (Mi Video, Mi Music, Mi Browser) may have their own background services for content updates or analytics, and if you don’t use them, they can be safely disabled through the app management menu or even removed from the updates.

⚠️ Warning: Before disabling any process with an unknown name, be sure to search the Internet for information about it.Switching off the critical system service may require resetting your phone's settings.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)