The situation when a favorite music station suddenly falls silent in the middle of the track, familiar to many owners of smartphones Xiaomi and Redmi. Users often face the fact that the background listening is interrupted for no apparent reason, the screen goes out, and the app stops playing sound. This is not just an annoying bug, but the result of aggressive MIUI system, which tries to save battery power at all costs.
The problem is deep optimization, where the operating system mistakenly classifies the streaming application as inactive and kills it. Unlike standard calls or SMS, streaming audio requires a constant connection to the Internet, which the system considers as an excessive resource consumption. Understanding the mechanisms of MIUI Optimization is the first step to stable listening.
In this article, we will take a closer look at all possible causes of failure and provide step-by-step instructions for configuring your device, so you don’t have to be an expert in programming, you just have to follow the algorithms below, we’ll cover notification settings, background processes, and even network settings that affect connection stability.
Aggressive energy saving and background processes
The main culprit behind stopping playback is often the built-in Battery Saver mechanism. HyperOS or MIUI is set to maximum autonomy by default, so it ruthlessly closes apps it thinks aren't in use at the moment. When you turn off your phone screen to listen to the radio in your pocket, the system may decide in a few minutes that the app is no longer needed.
To prevent this, you need to manually change the power consumption settings for a particular player. Standard smart battery settings won't help here, because they work on common algorithms. You need to create an exception for your music application by allowing it to run in the background without restrictions.
⚠️ Warning: Changing your energy saving settings can lead to faster battery discharge during the day, as the app will be constantly active.
The adjustment process is as follows:
- 📱 Open the Safety app (green zipper icon) and go to the Battery section».
- ⚙️ Click on the settings icon (cog) in the upper right corner of the screen.
- 🔋 Select "Applications in the background" or "Applications charge consumption».
- 🎵 Find your radio app (such as TunerRadio or Radio Garden) on the list).
- ✅ Set the switch to the "No Limits" position».
Once you do this, the system will stop strangling the playback process, but in some cases, you need to adjust it through the developer menu if the standard methods don't work, and it's also important to check if you're not in a global energy saving mode that ignores the individual settings of the applications.
Set up notifications and block the application
Another critical feature in Xiaomi’s ecosystem is the mechanism for locking applications in memory. If an application is not fixed in RAM, cleaning the memory (the cross or swipe button) will cause it to close completely. Even if you do not manually clean the memory, the system can do this automatically when resources are scarce.
To keep the online radio running, you need to lock the app, which tells the system that the process is a priority and cannot be forced to complete, and without that lock, any other settings can be ignored when the CPU is under high load.
Algorithm for blocking:
- 🚀 Launch the radio app and roll it up without closing it.
- 📑 Open the menu of running applications (swipe from bottom to top with a delay or menu button).
- 🔒 Press and hold your finger on the radio app window until the menu appears.
- 🛡️ Click on the lock icon – it should close, signaling a lock.
Also worth paying attention to notifications. In newer versions of Android and its shells, the lack of active notification can be interpreted by the system as a lack of user activity. Make sure that the app has the player notification on the lock screen. This is the anchor that keeps the process alive.
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If the lock icon doesn't appear, try to play first and then fold the app. Some players only activate lock mode while playing the sound.
Problems with network connection and Wi-Fi
Online radio is completely dependent on the quality of the Internet connection. If the data stream is interrupted even for a split second, the buffer can empty and playback will stop. On Redmi and Poco smartphones, there is a specific problem with switching between Wi-Fi and mobile Internet, as well as with the sleep mode of the Wi-Fi module.
Often, the phone loses Wi-Fi signal in your pocket due to antenna features or interference, and the automatic switch to the mobile network (4G/5G) is delayed or not at all. At this point, the flow stops. In addition, some routers can break the connection with devices that do not show activity on the protocol for a long time, which is characteristic of low-bitrate audio stream.
| Network parameter | Impact on radio | Recommended action |
|---|---|---|
| Wi-Fi sleep mode | High (breaks on the off screen) | Disable in extended Wi-Fi settings |
| Data switching | Average (delays in network change) | Enable “Smart Network Switching” |
| 5 GHz frequency | Low (better speed, less radius) | Use 2.4 GHz for range |
| Traffic limit | Critical (full cliff) | Check the limits in the SIM settings |
To solve this problem, we recommend that you stop the system from turning off Wi-Fi in sleep mode. Go to Settings → Wi-Fi → Assistant Wi-Fi (or advanced settings) and find the point responsible for sleep mode. Make sure you select the value "Always keep active." This ensures that the radio module will not fall asleep along with the screen.
The secret to a stable connection
Restrictions on background data transmission
MIUI has strict restrictions on data transmission in the background to save user traffic. If a radio application does not have permission to use data in the background, it will only work when it is open on the screen. Once you fold it, the data stream will be blocked.
Checking these settings is a must-have diagnostic step, and often users, in an effort to save megabytes, accidentally switch on a global background ban, forgetting to make an exception for media services, leading to a situation where the Internet seems to be there, but applications do not “swipe”.
Instructions for permit verification:
- 📂 Go to Settings. → Annexes → All applications.
- 🔍 Find your app to listen to the radio.
- 📶 Select “Data Use” or “Mobile Data and Wi-Fi».
- ✅ Make sure that the switches "Mobile data" and "Wi-Fi" are turned on».
- 🔄 Activate the item "Unlimited traffic" (or "Background connection»).
The special attention should be paid to the item “Unlimited traffic”, which not only removes consumption limits, but also gives the application priority in network query, which is critical for streaming audio. Without this option, the system can prioritize the download of mail or messengers, delaying the audio stream, which causes buffering and stopping.
⚠️ Warning: Enabling unlimited traffic for video content apps can lead to unexpected consumption of mobile packets if you are not in a Wi-Fi zone.
Conflicts of Android versions and applications
Don't discount software bugs. Updating the Android operating system or the HyperOS shell itself can make changes to how background services are handled. A radio app that worked perfectly a month ago may start to crash once the system is updated.
It's also important to keep an eye on the versions of the apps themselves. Developers are constantly changing the codecs and streaming protocols. An outdated version of the player may simply not support the new encryption standards or broadcast formats that radio stations use, often manifesting as a constant buffering or instantaneous connection break.
The following actions are recommended to resolve conflicts:
- Remove the current radio app altogether.
- Clear the cache of the Google Play Market (Settings → Apps → Google Play → Memory → Clean).
- Install the latest version of the app from the official store.
- If the problem persists, try an alternative player (such as VLC or RadioDroid) to rule out a bug of a particular software.
☑️ Diagnostics of software failure
Specific settings of the developer
For advanced users who haven't been helped by standard methods, there are hidden settings in the developer menu, where you can turn off process-specific optimization, which actually gives the radio application a green light, but you should use this method with caution.
In the developer menu, we're interested in the section that's related to background processes. By default, the system can limit the number of background processes for performance. If the limit is set too low, your radio will close immediately after you fold.
How to access and what to change:
Settings → About Phone → 7 times press on "Version MIUI" → Settings → Advanced Settings → For DevelopersIn the menu that opens, look for the Apps section, and it can be "Background Process Limit," set "No Limits" or "Standard Limit," and it's also useful to find "Don't Turn Off Wi-Fi in Sleep" and activate it if it's available in your firmware version.
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The developer menu is a powerful tool, but changing unknown parameters can cause the entire smartphone to run in an unstable way. Change only the settings you know are intended.