The situation where the beloved Xiaomi Redmi suddenly stops recording your activity is familiar to many users: you have walked miles, and the Health app shows zero or incorrect data, which is demotivating and confusing. The problem is not the breakdown of the smartphone, but the aggressive policy of energy saving the shell of MIUI, which forcibly closes the background processes.
In most cases, the step counter stops working due to system limitations that kill the process of tracking activity immediately after the screen is turned off. To return the functionality of the tracker, you need to perform a series of settings that allow the system to continuously use motion sensors. Below we will discuss in detail the algorithm of actions to restore the correct operation.
It is important to understand that the accelerometer and the gyroscope are complex hardware components that require stable power and software permission to work in the background, and ignoring these settings will lead to the fact that statistics will be reset or not kept at all.
Reasons for the pedometer data reset on Redmi
The main culprit in the statistics is battery optimization, and MIUI and HyperOS are designed to maximize the time of the device, sacrificing background tasks, and when you remove your finger from the screen, after a short time, the system forcibly stops the application, believing it to be inactive.
Another common reason is that the application does not have the right to access physical activity or location data (which is sometimes used to calibrate the route), it simply cannot run the count, and crashes can occur when updating the firmware when old configuration files conflict with new security rules.
And the human factor is that accidentally turning off sync or cleaning up the app cache without saving data can cause history to be lost. Hardware failures are extremely rare, but if the phone fell, the sensor inside could shift or fail.
- 🔋 Aggressive mode of energy saving, disabling background processes.
- 🚫 Lack of permissions to access motion and geolocation sensors.
- 🔄 Synchronization errors between system application and Mi Cloud account.
- 📉 Failures in the accelerometer after a fall or a strong impact.
⚠️ Warning: If the pedometer doesn't work after all the software settings, try running the hardware test through the engineering menu. Enter the code ##6484## and select Accelerometer. If the sensor doesn't respond to tilts, the hardware problem is.
Set up auto-start and work in the background
The first thing you need to do to fix this is to stop the system from closing the Health app, which is a basic setup, without which you can't do anything further, and you need to go into the settings of the app and change its behavior when you're working in the background.
Find Health (or Mi Fitness if you use it) in the app list and go to Battery, where it is critical to select the option “No Limits” and the default is “Battery Savings,” which causes the step counter to stop.
Next, make sure that AutoRun is enabled. Without this permission, the app won't be able to start its tracking services immediately after turning on the phone, which is especially true for the Redmi Note and Poco series models, where memory cleaning is very common.
☑️ Checklist of background work settings
Once these parameters are changed, the system will stop strangling the tracking process. However, if you have Ultra-energy saving mode on, the pedometer may still not work, since this mode turns off most of the functions of the smartphone, leaving only calls and SMS.
Permits and access to motion sensors
Even with the right battery setup, the app may not have the right to read sensor data. In modern Android versions and Xiaomi shells, access rights have become more detailed.
And you also have to pay attention to geolocation. Although GPS is not required to count steps, many stride-length calibration algorithms use location data, and if access to geolocation is denied globally or for a particular application, accuracy can fall.
In some cases, permission reset helps. Go to the application settings, select Permissions and turn everything off, and then turn it back on, carefully reading the system's queries. Pay special attention to Start in the background.
| Type of permit | Default status | Recommended status | Influence on steps |
|---|---|---|---|
| Physical activity | Requested. | Allowed always | Critically. |
| Location | Ask. | Allow (for calibration) | High. |
| Notifications | Included. | Included. | Average. |
| Auto-start | Off. | Included. | Critically. |
⚠️ Note: When you reset your privacy settings, all previously issued permissions will be deleted. You will have to reconfirm access for all applications, which may take time.
Synchronization problems with Mi Account and Google Fit
Often, data is not displayed because it doesn't count, but because it doesn't sync between servers. If you're using a Mi Fitness and Google Fit bundle, the authorization conflict can block the update of the numbers on the screen.
Try logging out of your Mi Account in your phone settings and logging in again, which will update your authorization tokens and can connect to the statistics server, and check if the cloud storage is crowded if you have a detailed training history.
For users relying on the Google ecosystem, it is important to check the connection status in the Google Fit app itself. Sometimes you need to re-link accounts through the Data Sources menu.
How to properly reconnect accounts
Resetting and calibration of sensors
If the software settings didn't work, you should resort to more drastic measures. Health app data resets often solve the problem of accumulated cache errors. Go to Settings → Apps → All Apps → Health → Memory → Clean.
Important: Cleaning the data will delete the local step history if it wasn't synced to the cloud, so make sure the data is uploaded to the server before you do the procedure.
Once cleaned, it's useful to calibrate the sensor, go a known distance (e.g., 100 meters in a measurement) and compare it to reality. The engineering menu also has an accelerometer calibration function that you can force.
Alternative applications for step counting
The built-in Health app may not be as accurate or functional as it is. Fortunately, Google Play has a lot of alternatives that are often more stable on custom shells, popular with Pedometer, StepsApp and Google Fit in standalone mode.
Third-party applications often have more flexible power saving settings and ask for more permissions from the system, but it is worth remembering that installing multiple trackers at the same time can lead to double counting steps or increased battery consumption.
When choosing an alternative, pay attention to the availability of desktop widgets and support for Google Fit, as this is the universal standard where data from most fitness bracelets and smartwatches flock.
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Third-party stepping apps often circumvent MIUI restrictions more effectively than system ones, thanks to the use of special accessibility services and more aggressive rights requests.