“It’s impossible to use a voice recorder without the necessary permissions” on Xiaomi: 7 ways to fix the error

You try to record an important conversation or lecture on a Xiaomi smartphone, but instead of starting the recording, you see a message saying, "You can't use the recorder without the necessary permissions." The error appears even after multiple launch attempts, and everything seems to be on in the application settings. What is it and how to return the recorder to work without resetting the phone to the factory settings?

The problem is typical for Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO devices based on MIUI — especially after system updates or application rights resets. 80% of cases are due to incorrect permissions, battery optimization conflicts or system limitations for background processes. In this article, we will analyze all possible causes and give step-by-step instructions for their elimination, from basic checks to hidden settings, which are not written in the official documentation.

Important: If the recorder stopped working after installing a third-party application (such as RecForge or Easy Voice Recorder), first remove it - conflicts between recording software are not uncommon. Also check if the record does not block antivirus (such as Avast or 360 Security) if it is installed.

1. Checking the basic resolutions of the recorder

The first thing you need to do is make sure that the application is explicitly granted all the necessary rights, and even if you've given permissions before, they could reset after updating MIUI or cleaning the system cache.

• 🎤 Microphone: without this permission recording is impossible in principle.
• 📁 Storage: necessary to save audio files.
• 🔄 Auto-Run (in some versions) MIUI): It allows the recorder to work in the background.

How to check:

1. Open Settings → Applications → Application Management.
2. Find a standard Dictaphone (or third-party app if you use it) in the list.
3. Go to Resolutions and make sure all switches are active (green).
4. If there is no permission in the list, click Add permission (in some versions of MIUI, this item is hidden under the "..." in the upper right corner).

⚠️ Attention: On Xiaomi with MIUI 12+ The permission to the microphone can be blocked at the system level if the Privacy Protection function is enabled. To turn it off, go to Settings. → Confidentiality → Special permits → Privacy protection and deactivate the voice recorder option.

Microphone - on|Storage - included|Auto-start – enabled (if any)|Background activity - without restrictions-->

2. Set up auto-start and background activity

MIUI aggressively optimizes background processes to save battery life, so the recorder may not start or interrupt recording after a few seconds, to fix this:

1. Go to Settings → Applications → Application Management → Recorder.
2. Select AutoRun and turn on the option.
3. Back up and type in Permissions → Background Activity (or Background Limitation in older versions).
4. Set the value of "No restrictions" (or "Allow").

If there is no Background Activity, then your MIUI version manages this through Battery Optimization:

1. Open Settings → Battery and Performance → Battery Consumption Management by Apps.
2. Find the recorder in the list and select "No restrictions".

⚠️ Note: On some models (Redmi Note 10 Pro, POCO X3 Pro) after these actions, you need to restart the phone to make the changes take effect. If the recorder still doesn't work, check the next section.

3. Resetting permissions for all applications

If the voice recorder's permissions "fly" after each restart or update, the problem may be a system failure of access rights, in which case resetting permissions for all applications (don't worry, this will not delete your data):

1. Open Settings → Applications → Permissions.
2. Tap to three points (⋮) in the upper right corner and select Reset Application Permissions».
3. Confirm the action and restart the phone.

After the reboot:

• 🔄 Go to the recorder - the system will ask for permission again.
• 🎯 Grant all rights (microphone, storage, autorun).
• 📱 Check the performance of the record.

If the reset doesn't work, move on to the next method. On some firmware (e.g. MIUI Global 13.0.4), this method solves the problem 95% of the time, but requires reconfiguring the permissions for all applications.

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Once you reset permissions, check other apps that use the microphone (like WhatsApp or Google Assistant) and they may need to be re-authorized.

4. Clearing the cache and the recorder data

Accumulated cache or corrupted application data can block access to the microphone, to rule out this option:

1. Go to Settings → Applications → Application Management → Recorder.
2. Choose Warehouse.
3. Click Clear Cache (this is safe, your records will not be deleted).
4. If it doesn’t help, then use the “Clear Data» (⚠️ It'll delete all the stored records!).

After data clearing:

• 🔄 Run the recorder again.
• 🎤 Provide all permissions at the first request.
• 📁 Make sure that the folder for records is created automatically (usually this is the case). MIUI/sound_recorder inner-memory).

⚠️ Attention: If the recorder doesn't work after cleaning the data, but the record folder isn't created, the problem may be the storage rights. sound_recorder The root of internal memory through any file manager (e.g., Mi File Manager).

5. Checking conflicts with other applications

Some programs can block the recorder from accessing the microphone, especially if they use audio input themselves.

How to Diagnose Conflict:

1. Close all background applications through the latest task menu (swipe up).
2. Run the recorder and check the recording.
3. If it works, open other programs in turn to identify the “culprit”.

If a conflict is detected, but the application is necessary, try:

• 🔧 Set up exceptions in its parameters (for example, in antivirus add a voice recorder to the white list»).
• 📥 Update the problem application to the latest version.
• 🗑️ Remove it and use an analogue (for example, instead of Cube Call Recorder, try Boldbeast).

Update of firmware and voice recorder

The permissions error can be caused by a bug in the current version of MIUI. Xiaomi regularly releases patches for similar issues, so:

Step 1. Update the system software:

1. Go to Settings → About the phone → System update.
2. Click on “Check Updates” and install the available packages.
3. After the update, restart the phone.

Step 2. Update the Dictaphone app:

• 📱 If you use a standard voice recorder, updates come with MIUI.
• 🌐 If it is a third-party recorder, update it via Google Play or APKMirror.

⚠️ Note: On some models (Redmi) 9A, POCO M3) post-update MIUI 13 requires manual permission reset (see section 3). If the update did not work, try to roll back to the previous firmware version via Fastboot (the instructions are on the forum 4PDA).

7. Alternative methods of recording sound

If none of the methods worked, use the workarounds:

• 🎧 Connect an external microphone through USB-C Some Xiaomi models allow you to record sound from external devices even when you lock the built-in microphone.
• 📱 Use another application: RecForge II — It supports recording from multiple sources. MP3 Recorder – optimized for MIUI. Voice Recorder by Splend Apps – Simple and reliable.
• 💻 PC recording: connect your phone to your computer and use programs like Audacity (you need to enable Debugging by PC). USB).

If you need to record the sound right now and the recorder is not working:

1. Open Google Drive or Yandex.Disk.
2. Click on the microphone icon in the search bar – this will start recording voice through the cloud service.
3. After recording, save the file to the device.

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If a standard voice recorder is locked at the system level, third-party applications often become the only working solution. MIUI.

FAQ: Frequent questions about the recorder on Xiaomi