How to close applications on Xiaomi: full instructions

Owners of Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO smartphones often face the need to force the background processes to stop. The MIUI operating system or the new HyperOS is built so that a standard press of the Home button only turns the program down, leaving it active in RAM, which can lead to increased battery consumption or slow down the device when resources are scarce.

App closure allows you to free up RAM and eliminate freezes. However, the approach to managing running tasks can vary depending on the firmware version and interface settings. Understanding the mechanics of the task manager will help you more effectively control the operation of your gadget.

There are several proven ways to complete software, from standard swipe navigation to engineering menus, and in this article, we will go into detail on each method, explain the difference between a routine shutdown and a forced shutdown, and answer the question of whether it is necessary to do it all the time.

Basic method of closing through swipes

The most common and intuitive way to terminate applications is to use the standard navigation interface. On modern Xiaomi models, gesture control is the default, where swipes are swiped between running programs at the bottom of the screen. To get into the menu of running tasks, you need to swipe from the bottom up and hold your finger in the middle of the screen.

Once you open the list, you'll see all active programs. To close a particular program, just press it and pull it up or sideways, depending on the animation settings. If you want to close all the applications at once, many versions of the shell have a special button with a cross, usually located at the top of the list or in the corner of the list.

It is important to note that this action does not always completely remove the process from memory. Android can automatically restart important system services or programs you often use in a short time.

• 📱 Swipe from bottom up with a delay opens the multitasking menu.
• ❌ Single card swipe closes a specific application.
• 🧹 The “Clean” button closes all background processes at once.
• ⚙️ Animation settings affect the interface response speed.

⚠️ Warning: Continuously shutting down all applications immediately after each use can paradoxically increase battery consumption, as the CPU requires more power to cold start programs than to keep them in sleep mode.

Forced stop through settings

When an application is stuck, does not respond to touch, or consumes an abnormally high amount of power in the background, a regular swipe may not be enough. In such cases, you need to use a built-in forced stop mechanism.

To access this feature, go to the Settings menu, then select the App section and click All Apps. In the list that opens, find the problem program. Inside the app menu, at the bottom of the screen, there will be a red Delete button (if it is a user application) or a gray Stop button.

This method is especially useful for diagnosing background problems: If the application starts to behave incorrectly again after a forced stop, it may need to be reinstalled or cache cleaned, and it is worth remembering that system applications are not recommended to close this way unless you know exactly what they are intended for, as this can lead to unstable interface operation.

Using the stop function requires caution, and unlike a simple swipe, the system perceives it as a critical action, and some services, such as Google Play Services or system bootloaders, can automatically restart almost instantly, as they are necessary for the operating system to function.

Using a Developer Menu to Manage Processes

For advanced users who need deep control over running services, Android has a hidden developer mode, enabling this mode to access detailed memory settings and running processes that are not available on the standard menu, allowing you to see the real list of services, not just app shortcuts.

To activate this mode, go to Settings → About Phone and find the MIUI Version (or OS Version). You need to quickly click on this item 7-10 times in a row until you notice that you have become a developer.

Inside the developer menu, we're interested in Working Services (or Process Statistics), which shows a list of all active processes with the RAM they occupy, and you can select any process and click Stop, which is the most radical method that allows you to kill even those processes that are hidden from the average user.

Features of the background processes in MIUI and HyperOS

Xiaomi’s shells are known for their aggressive energy-saving policies: MIUI and its successor HyperOS automatically kill background processes to extend battery life, meaning that in many cases, the user doesn’t have to manually close applications at all — the system will do it itself if it thinks the resources are needed for the current task.

But sometimes this protection works too hard to close the right applications, like activity trackers or messengers, which causes notifications to disappear. In such cases, instead of closing the application, you need to fix it in memory, and to do this, you need to pull the card down on the menu of running tasks (where the application cards are) and the lock icon will appear on it.

Locked applications ignore the Clear All command and take priority in memory allocation, which is an important nuance of resource management: instead of constantly closing programs, it is better to correctly configure exceptions for important services, which will ensure a balance between speed and the availability of current notifications.

• 🔒 The lock on the card protects the application from cleaning.
• 🔋 Aggressive energy saving itself closes the unnecessary.
• 📉 Closing apps rarely speeds up a phone significantly.
• ⚡ Background processes may be necessary for synchronization.

Users often mistakenly believe that clean memory is always a good thing. In reality, Android is designed to make full memory normal. Empty memory means that the system did not use available resources for caching, which slows down the re-run of programs.

Automation of application closure

For those who prefer to minimize manual intervention, there are ways to automate the cleaning process. Xiaomi's built-in Security app has a "Memory Cleanup" feature that can be run on a schedule or by a widget on the desktop.

You can also use automation scenarios, such as setting up your phone so that when you lock your screen or connect to charge, certain heavy applications close automatically. This requires settings through Settings → Special Options → Task Automation (the functionality may differ from firmware version to version).

There are also third-party software-cliner apps, but installing them on Xiaomi devices is often redundant. Built-in optimization mechanisms work at the core level of the system and have more rights than third-party software. The use of third-party “accelerators” can even conflict with the system algorithms MIUI, causing excessive load on the processor.

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Use the Memory Cleanup widget on your desktop for quick access to the RAM free function without going into the deep settings menus.

Frequent questions and problems during closing

Many users are wondering why the app reopens immediately after closing, which is normal behavior for Google services, social networks and instant messengers, which have self-repair mechanisms, and can only be completely disabled through notification settings or a forced stop with no auto-start (if available).

Another problem is that the device is heated after being cleaned, and as mentioned earlier, cold-started applications require processing power, which causes a short-term jump in the temperature of the processor, and if you shut down 20 apps and the phone gets hot, that's because the system re-initializes them.

In some cases, the application may not shut down at all, a sign of a bug in the code of the program itself or a conflict with system libraries, in which case only rebooting the smartphone or removing the problematic application helps, and ignoring such symptoms can lead to further accumulation of system debris.

⚠️ Note: Do not try to close system processes with names like Android System, Media Server, or System. UI» This can cause the interface to reboot (screen blinking) or a complete restart of the phone.

💡

The optimal strategy is to close only those applications that you have not used for a long time, and which clearly slow down the device, and not clean the memory for the sake of “digits”.