Why Xiaomi is crashing apps: a complete guide to elimination

Owners of Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO smartphones often face an annoying situation when a running application suddenly shuts down. This can happen at the most inopportune moment: while playing, watching a video or using a navigator. The problem of landing applications on the shell of MIUI or the new HyperOS is a common scenario that can be caused by both software conflicts and lack of system resources. Understanding the nature of these failures is the first step to restoring the stability of your device.

Often users mistakenly believe that the phone is malfunctioning hardware and start looking for service centers. However, in most cases, it is due to overcrowded RAM, outdated cached data or aggressive battery optimization, characteristic of the Android system. The operating system automatically closes the background processes to save charge, which leads to the closure of active programs. Understanding the intricacies of memory management and developer settings will help you avoid data loss and nervous breakdowns.

In this article, we will look at all the possible causes of malfunctioning software on Xiaomi devices. We will not just list the standard tips, but dive into the technical aspects of the shell so that you can diagnose and fix the malfunction yourself. It is important to approach the problem systematically, eliminating factors one by one, from simple reboots to more complex manipulations of system files.

Lack of RAM and overflow of storage

One of the most common but often overlooked causes of crashes is a critical lack of free RAM. When you run a heavy app and a dozen other programs are running in the background, the system simply has nowhere to put temporary data. At that point, the LMK (Low Memory Killer) mechanism comes into action, which forcibly ends the processes that take up the most resources. If you notice that applications shut down immediately after launch or collapse, chances are your smartphone is choking from a lack of free megabytes.

This is made worse when the internal storage is full. Android requires not only space to install programs, but also free space to create temporary files and swaps. If the free memory is less than 10-15% of the total, the file system's performance drops and the applications start to work unstable. The file system in such conditions works with delays, which leads to timeouts and subsequent departures.

To minimize the risk of crashes due to lack of resources, you need to regularly audit installed programs, remove those applications that you do not use, and clean up the downloads of old files, and pay attention to widgets and live wallpaper, which consume a significant amount of RAM even in the background.

• 📱 Close all background apps through the recent task menu and press the memory clean button.
• 🗑️ Remove unused programs and heavy files from the Download folder".
• 🎨 Discard live wallpaper and animated widgets on the home screen.
• 🔄 Restart the device to reset temporary processes and free up memory.

⚠️ Warning: Do not use third-party cleaner applications (Clean Master and analogues) on a regular basis. They often consume a lot of resources themselves and can aggressively close down the desired system processes, disrupting the work. MIUI.

Cache conflicts and application data corruption

Each application that is installed creates and stores a lot of temporary files collectively called cache. Over time, this data can get corrupted or conflict with new versions of programs. If you notice that a particular application crashes all the time and others work normally, the problem is most likely to be in the local data of this software. Cache data speeds up the load, but if it is corrupted, the program cannot be properly initialized.

Cache cleanup is a secure procedure that doesn't delete your personal data, logins or passwords, but resets temporary files. However, in some cases, if the damage is severe, it requires a complete cleanup of the application data. This action will return the program to "just after installation," so all settings inside it will be reset. Before this procedure, make sure that your data is synced with the cloud or account.

To perform cleaning, you need to go to the phone settings. → All applications, select the problem program and click Clear. Here you'll see two options: Clear cache and Clear all. Always start with the first option, and only if it doesn't work, use a full cleanup.

Special attention should be paid to system components such as Google Play Services or Google Play Services, which can cause crashes in any other applications that depend on the Google account. If problems began after the system update, resetting the cache of Google services often solves the problem.

Aggressive battery optimization MIUI and HyperOS

A unique feature of Xiaomi smartphones is its highly aggressive energy-saving policies: MIUI and HyperOS shells are designed to maximize battery life, often at the expense of multitasking. The system can “kill” the background processes of applications that it believes consume too much power, which leads to messengers stop notifying, and games or navigators close when the screen is rolled up.

To prevent the program from being forced to shut down, you need to manually set your priority. There's a "No Limits" feature in the battery settings that prevents the system from limiting the background activity of the selected application. Without that permission, the battery optimizer will constantly interfere with the software, considering it to be voracious.

It’s also worth checking your autorun settings. Many users don’t know that Xiaomi apps don’t automatically start after you restart your phone unless they’re given permission to do so, which can cause services to crash, which should be running all the time. Open Security → Permissions → Autorun and activate the right programs.

Problems with updating Google’s system and components

Often, the cause of instability is errors made by developers in new versions of firmware or applications. If the flights began immediately after the system update, it is possible that the new version of MIUI contains bugs that have not yet been patched by the patch. In such cases, waiting for the next update or, conversely, rolling back on the previous stable version, although the latter requires unlocking the bootloader.

Google Play features deserve special attention. Since most apps are tied to Google services, their malfunctioning causes a chain reaction. If Google Play Services malfunctions, departures can be observed on YouTube, Maps, Gmail and third-party programs. Check the Play Market store if there are any pending updates, and install them all.

Sometimes it helps to remove updates to system applications that have started to behave strangely: Go to the application settings, find the system component (for example, "bootloader" or "Themes"), click three dots in the corner and select "Delete Updates." This will return the component to the factory version, which can temporarily solve the problem.

⚠️ Note: If you are using the beta version of the firmware (Beta/Developer), Application launches are expected behaviors, and versions contain experimental code and are not designed for everyday use without bugs.

Conflicts of third-party software and malware

Install applications from unknown sources (APK-Files from sites, not from the Play Market, are high risk, and such programs may not be optimized for your version of Android or contain malicious code that causes conflicts with the system. Malware can be embedded in the processes of other applications, causing them to fall, or mine cryptocurrency in the background, overheating the processor.

Especially dangerous are the so-called accelerators, antiviruses and modified versions of popular programs (hacked games, Premium subscriptions) that require deep permissions in the system, which violates the security integrity of Android. If after installing a program, the phone begins to behave unstable, delete it immediately.

To diagnose, try running your phone in Safe Mode, which only activates system applications, and if there are no departures in Safe Mode, then the problem is exactly in one of the apps you installed, and by eliminating it, you can find the culprit.

• 🛡️ Install a reliable antivirus (such as Dr.Web or Kaspersky) and perform a full check.
• 🚫 Remove all apps that are not downloaded from the official Play Market Store.
• 🔍 Remember after installing which program the problems started and delete it.
• 📉 Check the list of applications with administrator rights in the security settings.

Resetting settings and radical solutions

If none of the above methods work, the last, but most effective way is to completely reset your settings to factory (Factory Reset), which will delete all your data, photos, contacts and installed applications, returning the phone to a “store-like” state. Often it is the accumulated “digital garbage” and conflicting settings that cause unexplained departures.

Before resetting, make sure to back up your data. You can use the Mi Cloud, Google Drive, or just copy important files to your computer. Once reset, your phone will work quickly and stably, as your system files will be overwritten clean.

Settings → About the phone → Reset settings → Erase all data

There is also a less radical method – reset all settings without deleting data (Wipe All Data without cleaning internal memory, the option is not available in all versions of MIUI). However, for a guaranteed result, it is better to do a full reset. After turning on the phone, do not rush to restore all applications immediately from the backup – try working with a clean phone for a couple of days to make sure that you are stable.

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Before a complete reset, take pictures of screens with important settings (access points, Wi-Fi settings, widget placement), since after reset, only contacts and photos are restored, but not system settings.

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Full reset to factory settings eliminates 95% of software errors associated with the departure of applications, as it completely clears the system partition from errors and conflicts.

Hardware problems and processor overheating

And you can't rule out a physical malfunction, because if the smartphone gets overheated, trottling, which is a protection that reduces the frequency of the processor, and when it gets too hot, the system can force applications to close to reduce the load on the CPU and GPU, and check if the body is warming up in the area of the camera or processor during departures.

It can also be a memory module problem: If a memory chip has physically degraded (which often happens after falls or prolonged use), reading and writing data is error-prone, causing app crashes, and it is difficult to diagnose this at home, but an indirect sign may be artifacts on the screen or menus hanging.

If the flights are accompanied by spontaneous reboots or the phone cannot turn on, most likely the problem is hardware, in which case the software methods are powerless, and you need to contact a service center to diagnose the motherboard.