Xiaomi smartphone users often face a situation where background audio playback is interrupted for no apparent reason. Especially annoying is in online radio applications, where the stream is cut off, and the silence is replaced by system sound or complete silence. The problem is massive, affecting both the standard FM Radio player and third-party services like Radio Garden or Yandex.Music. The main reason lies not in the breakdown of the speaker, but in aggressive algorithms for energy saving the MIUI shell or HyperOS, which “smother” background processes to save battery power.
Android’s MIUI-based system has many optimization layers that are set to maximize autonomy by default. The battery optimizer can force an application to close if it consumes traffic or CPU time in the background, even if you’re just listening to a broadcast. In addition, conflicts can cause other running apps, cache errors, or an unstable Internet connection. Understanding the architecture of the background processes in Xiaomi is key to solving the problem.
In this article, we will take a look at all the possible reasons why the radio on Xiaomi’s phone is turned off online, and offer step-by-step instructions for setting up the system. You don’t need to be a technician to fix this. We’ll look at power saving settings, access rights, and specific features like Memory Extension that can affect the stability of the audio stream.
Aggressive battery optimization MIUI and HyperOS
The main culprit behind stopping music in the background is the built-in energy saving system. Xiaomi is famous for its rigid policy of managing background applications. When you turn off the smartphone screen, the system goes into deep sleep after a certain time. At this point, MIUI Optimization analyzes the activity of the applications and, if the program is not marked as important, it is forced to close. For online radio, this means instantaneous interruption of the flow.
To fix this, you need to manually change the settings for a particular radio application. You need to go to Settings → Applications → All applications, find your player (for example, FM Radio or VK Music) and select Battery Consumption. Here you need to switch from Saving to Without Limits. This action tells the system not to interrupt the operation of this software, even if the screen is turned off.
But switching modes is sometimes not enough: newer firmware versions have an extra layer of protection called memory optimization, which, if it's active, can ignore battery settings and still unload the app from RAM. Disabling memory optimization for media applications is critical to keeping online radio running in the background.
⚠️ Attention: Unlimited mode increases battery consumption. If you listen to radio over the mobile Internet, traffic consumption will also increase. It is recommended to use Wi-Fi or pre-downloaded playlists for long-term listening.
You should also pay attention to the Sleep mode feature in the battery settings section. If it is turned on, then when a certain percentage of charge (for example, 20%) is reached, the phone will begin aggressively closing all background processes, including the radio.
Set up autostart and background activity
The second important aspect of how Xiaomi apps work is autorun control. By default, MIUI prohibits all third-party apps from autorun. That means that if the system kills the radio process, it can't repair itself without your intervention. For streaming services, it's fatal. You need to manually allow autoruns for the application you're listening to the radio through.
To do this, go to the Safety app (green zipper icon), select Permissions → Auto Run. Find your radio app in the list and activate the slider, which will allow the system to run the necessary services along with the phone boot and restore them after crashes.
There's also a hidden setting called "Run in the background." It's on the Settings path → Applications → Permissions → Other permissions. Here you need to find your app and make sure that Run in the background is allowed. If you have a "Disable" restriction, any switch to another application or turn off the screen will stop playback.
☑️ Checklist of background work settings
It is not superfluous to pin the application in the menu of recent tasks. Open the list of running applications (swipe from the bottom up and hold or button menu), find the window of your radio and pull it down (or press the lock, depending on the version of MIUI), will appear the lock icon. This is a signal to the system that this application can not be unloaded when cleaning the memory button "Crossic".
Problems with Internet connection and Wi-Fi
Online radio requires a constant and stable data flow. If the Internet connection is unstable, the buffer will quickly empty and playback will stop. On Xiaomi smartphones, the problem of “smart” switching between Wi-Fi and mobile Internet is often encountered. The system can see that the Wi-Fi signal is weak, and try to switch to 4G, but during the switching, the connection stops and the radio stops.
To solve this problem, you should disable the Wi-Fi Assistant or similar settings that monitor network quality. The path to setting up is usually in Settings → Wi-Fi → Assistant Wi-Fi (or Wi-Fi settings).
It is also worth checking the settings. DNS. ISPs sometimes block or slow down streaming. Try prescribing static broadcasts. DNS-Google or Cloudflare addresses in your Wi-Fi settings, which often helps if the radio is switched off on your home network but is running over the mobile Internet.
| Problem. | Symptoms. | Decision |
|---|---|---|
| Weak Wi-Fi signal | Stuttering, buffering, cliffing | Switch to 4G/5G or change router |
| Aggressive sleep | Silence after screen switching off | Battery mode "No restrictions" |
| DNS conflict | Flow loading error | Prescribe DNS 8.8.8.8 |
| Lack of RAM | The app closes itself | Close the extra applications, disable the memory expansion |
Conflicts with memory expansion and RAM
Modern Xiaomi models (Redmi Note 12, 13, POCO F5 and later) are embracing Memory Extension technology, which uses some of the embedded flash memory as virtual RAM. While this sounds useful, in practice, virtual RAM is much slower than physical RAM, and applications that are uploaded to this area may not work properly, freeze or suddenly close.
If you have an online radio shutdown, try turning off the memory extension, which will free up physical RAM to better manage background processes, and you can do this from the Settings menu → Additional settings → Expand memory. Once you turn off this feature, the phone will need to restart.
It’s also worth checking if RAM is full of other heavy applications: Browsers with a dozen tabs, navigators and games can displace the player from memory. Before turning on the radio, it’s recommended to clear the background tasks, leaving only the necessary services.
⚠️ Warning: Disabling memory expansion can reduce multitasking in games, but often significantly improves the stability of background music and navigation.
There's a caveat to caching, and some users have noted that cleaning the cache of the Security app or the player itself helps reset the wrong resource meter, and then the radio stops turning off, but it's worth doing so carefully so you don't reset important settings.
Specifics of the standard application FM Radio
If it’s not online radio, but a standard FM Radio app that catches airwaves, the problem could be hardware or headset-related. Most Xiaomi smartphones have wired headphones that act as an antenna. If the contact in the 3.5mm connector (or USB-C adapter) is broken, the signal goes missing and the radio goes silent.
Also, the FM Radio application on MIUI often requires that the screen be on or the application be in the active window, which is a restriction on the radio module's firmware itself, bypassing this by running the radio, folding it, and then starting another heavy process (such as navigation) so that the system forgets to close the radio.
New Android versions (11, 12, 13, 14) are gradually eliminating support from Google FM-So if you have a new Xiaomi, the app is a software-level chip. FM Radio may not work properly simply because there are no drivers in the new version of Android, even if the phone’s hardware supports it, and only third-party apps like NextRadio (if the model is supported) or switching to online broadcasting help.
Why doesn't the radio work without headphones?
Third-party applications and their settings
If you use third-party radio listening apps (Yandex, TuneIn, Simple Radio), the problem may lie in their internal optimization. Developers often do not take into account the aggressive policy of MIUI. In such cases, installing “heavy” launchers or using special utilities to “revive” processes helps, although these are extreme measures.
Often, reinstalling an application with a complete data cleanup helps. Go to Settings → Apps, find an application, select Clean → Clear Everything (or Reset) This will delete the cache and temporary files that may have been corrupted. Then log in again and configure access rights.
It is also worth checking the version of the application. Google Play or GetApps (Xiaomi store) can be available updates that correct compatibility bugs with MIUI. Automatic updates of applications are better to turn on, so that you always have the latest version of the software.
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If the radio only shuts down when the screen is locked, try changing the theme to standard. Third-party MIUI themes sometimes contain errors in the screen blocker code that interrupt media processes.
System Errors and Resetting Settings
In rare cases, the cause is a systemic failure of the shell itself. MIUI. If none of the above has worked, you may have damaged the system files that control the audio stream. Before drastic measures, try resetting the network settings. This won't delete your photos or contacts, but will return the settings of Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and mobile networks to factory values. Settings → Connection and sharing → Reset Wi-Fi, mobile networks and Bluetooth.
If that didn’t work, check for system updates. Xiaomi often releases patches that fix bugs in the background services. Go to Settings → About the phone and click on MIUI/HyperOS. If there’s an update, install it.
As a last resort, if the problem occurs after installing a particular program or update, you may need to reset completely to factory settings. Be sure to back up the data before this procedure. Often after a clean start, without accumulated debris and conflicting settings, the radio starts to work steadily.
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The main reason for stopping radio is the balance between energy saving and background work, and setting up the "No Limits" mode solves the problem 90 percent of the time.