How to permanently remove spam from the lock screen on Xiaomi: from advertising to viral notifications

The lock screen on Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO smartphones often becomes a battleground with intrusive advertising, spam notifications and suspicious banners. Even after buying a new device, users face push messages from MIUI, third-party apps or even viral services. The reasons for spam can be different: from aggressive monetization of the brand shell to malware infection through pirated APKs.

In this article, we’ll look at 7 proven ways to clean your lock screen, from basic MIUI settings to radical measures like reset to factory settings. You’ll learn how to turn off system ads, block spam notifications, remove viral apps, and even change the firmware region to reduce unnecessary push messages. All instructions are relevant for MIUI 12-14 devices (including HyperOS) and models from Xiaomi Mi 10 to Redmi Note 12.

We warn you beforehand that some methods require superuser rights or custom firmware installations -- these are risky operations that can take away warranties. But most solutions work without breaking into the system. Let's start with the simplest one!

1. Disabling Advertising in MIUI Settings

The first step is to deactivate the built-in ads in Xiaomi’s branded services, with the manufacturer integrating the ad units into Weather, Browser, Themes and even Settings, some of which can seep into the lock screen via widgets or notifications.

To turn them off:

• 📱 Go to Settings. → About the phone and tap 7 times on the line Version MIUI, activate the developer mode.
• 🔧 Back to Settings → Additionally. → Special facilities → Advertising (the path may differ depending on the version) MIUI).
• 🚫 Turn off the sliders opposite: Recommendations MIUI Personalized Ads Show ads in system applications

If there is no Advertising item on the menu, try an alternative way:

1. Open Settings → Applications → Application Management.
2. Click on the three dots in the top right corner and select Show All Apps.
3. Find Msa (Mobile Services Ads) and force it to be disabled, then clear the cache.

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If after the shutdown, the ads continue to appear, check for MIUI updates – in new versions, the paths to settings may change.

2. Blocking Spam Notifications

Most spam on the lock screen is notifications from applications or system services, which can be filtered through the notification menu:

Open Settings → Notifications and Status bar → Notification management. Here you will see a list of all apps that are authorized to display notifications.

• 📢 Unknown applications with Chinese characters in the title (e.g., Chinese characters, com.miui.weather2 or com.xiaomi.mipicks).
• 🔍 Services like Mi Video, Mi Browser or Cleaner – they often send out ads.
• 🚨 Applications you did not install (possible viruses).

For each suspicious item:

1. Slip the name of the app.
2. Turn off the display notification slider.
3. In the Notification Types section, disable all categories (especially Ads and Updates).
4. If the application is not needed, delete it (Delete or Disable button).

If notifications continue to appear, check the rights of special features:

1. Go to Settings → Additional → Special features → Special features services.
2. Disable access for unknown applications (especially those with titles like Notification Access or Device Test).

3. Deletion of viral and suspicious applications

If spam appeared after installing third-party APKs (especially from unverified sources), your device could have been infected with an adver (advertising virus), which masquerades as useful utilities, but actually displays ads and collects data.

To find and remove them:

• 🔎 Open the Settings. → Annexes → Application management.
• 📊 Sort the list by installation date (click on three dots) → Sort by → Installation date).
• 🗑️ Remove all unknown applications, especially those that are:

Some viruses protect against removal by giving the error "Removal is impossible."

1. Disable the application (button Disable instead of Remove).
2. Clear his cache and data.
3. If that doesn't help, use Safe Mode: Press the Power button → Long tap on Turn off → Safe Mode. In Safe Mode, try uninstalling the app again.

Check the list of installed applications

Sort by installation date

Remove Unknown APKs

Clear cache and suspicious program data

Restart your phone in safe mode

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If the virus blocks access to settings, try antivirus utilities:

• Malwarebytes (the free version scans the systems for the advers).
• Kaspersky Mobile Antivirus (detects Trojans and spyware)
• Bitdefender (good for detecting hidden threats)

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Most Google Play cleaners are spam sources themselves. Use only proven, high-rated antiviruses.

4. Resetting advertising settings and identifiers

Xiaomi (and other manufacturers) assigns each device unique identifiers for targeted advertising. their reset can reduce the amount of spam:

For this:

1. Go to Settings → Google → Advertising (or Settings → Accounts and Sync → Google → Advertising).
2. Click Reset Advertising ID.
3. Turn off the option of personalized advertising.

Also, clear the data of Google Play services:

1. Open Settings → Applications → Application Management.
2. Find Google Play Services.
3. Click Warehouse → Clear the data and Clear the cache.

For the complete reset of MIUI advertising identifiers:

1. Go to Settings → About the phone → All the parameters.
2. Find Reset Advertising Settings (may be called Reset MIUI ID).
3. Confirm the action.

5. Change of the firmware region (for advanced)

Xiaomi firmware for different regions contains different amounts of advertising, for example, Chinese and Indian versions of MIUI are the most aggressive in terms of monetization, while European (EEA) or global (Global) have less spam.

To change the region:

1. Install the Mi Flash Tool app on your PC and download the firmware for your model from en.miui.com (select EEA or Global).
2. Connect your phone to your PC in Fastboot mode (clip Volume Down + Power when the device is off).
3. In the Mi Flash Tool, select the downloaded firmware and press Flash.

Warning: a change in region will result in a complete data reset! Also, some features (such as NFC or 5G) may not work properly if the firmware is not designed for your device.

Alternative method (without complete resetting):

• 🌍 Use the Mi Region Changer app (requires root).
• 🔄 Change the region to Europe (EEA) or Global.
• 🔄 Reset the device.

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Before changing your firmware, check compatibility on the XDA Developers or 4PDA forums. Some models (like the Redmi Note 10 Pro) have a bootloader lock that you need to unlock first.

6. Radical measures: reset to factory settings

If nothing works, the last chance is a complete reset, which will delete all data, but also clear the system of viruses and reset the ad settings.

How to reset:

1. Save important data (photos, contacts, messages) to your PC or cloud.
2. Go to Settings → About the phone → Reset settings.
3. Select Reset all settings and confirm the action.

After discharge:

• 🔒 Do not restore data from a backup copy – it may contain viruses.
• 📥 Install apps only from Google Play.
• 🚫 Turn off automatic update installation for system applications (Settings) → Annexes → Auto-update).

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Factory reset deletes all data, including accounts, photos, and installed apps, and only use this method if other methods have failed.

7. Use of custom firmware (for experienced users)

If you are willing to take drastic measures, installing custom firmware (like LineageOS or Pixel Experience) will completely remove all built-in MIUI ad modules.

• 🔓 Unlock the bootloader (possible loss of warranty).
• 🛠️ Installations of custom recaveri (TWRP).
• 📦 Manually stitching the system image.

Instructions (brief):

1. Unlock the bootloader through Mi Unlock Tool (requires a Xiaomi account binding and a wait of 7-15 days).
2. Install TWRP Recovery via fastboot: fastboot flash recovery twrp.img fastboot boot twrp.img
3. In TWRP, make a backup of the current system (Backup).
4. Sweep through custom firmware (like LineageOS) and GApps (Google services).

Advantages of custom firmware:

• ✅ No built-in advertising.
• ✅ Cleaner and faster interface.
• ✅ Regular security updates.

Disadvantages:

• ❌ Loss of guarantee.
• ❌ Risk of "bricking" the device in case of error.
• ❌ Certain functions (e.g, IR Blaster may not work.

FAQ: Frequent questions

If none of the methods worked, it is possible that your device is infected with a system virus that masquerades as an update or MIUI service. In this case, we recommend contacting the Xiaomi service center or reflashing your phone through the Mi Flash Tool with a complete cleanup of data (clean all).