How to reduce traffic on your Xiaomi phone: a complete guide

Mobile traffic on Xiaomi can leak out unnoticed: background updates, autoloading content on social networks, advertising in games — all of which eat up megabytes even when you are not using your phone. Especially relevant for tariff owners with limited traffic or those who often travel with roaming. Fortunately, MIUI offers flexible tools to control data consumption, and additional settings in applications will help reduce consumption by 30-70% without losing functionality.

In this article, we’ll look at not only standard savings (like limiting background data), but also hidden Xiaomi features that few people know about, such as how to turn off automatic download of MIUI updates over the mobile network or configure Data Saver for individual applications, and learn which programs eat up the most traffic and how to optimize them. All instructions are relevant for MIUI 14/15 and models from Redmi Note 10 to Xiaomi 14 Ultra.

1. Incorporate traffic saving mode into MIUI

The fastest way to reduce data consumption is to activate the built-in saving mode, which limits the background activity of applications and compresses traffic for some services.

1. Go to Settings. → SIM-maps and mobile networks.
2. Choose yours. SIM-card (if there are several).
3. Slip on Traffic Savings and move the slider to the right.

After activation, the system automatically:

• 🚫 Blocks background synchronization for most applications (except messengers and mail).
• 📉 Reduce the quality of uploaded images in the browser and social networks.
• ⏳ Delay application updates before connecting to Wi-Fi.

Note that in this mode, some features may run slower. For example, Google Maps will update maps less often, and YouTube will play video at 480p by default. If you need to temporarily disable restrictions (for example, to download a file), just go back to the settings and deactivate the mode.

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Traffic saving mode does not affect Internet speed, but only optimizes data consumption, and can be used in parallel with other methods in this article.

2. Restriction of background data for applications

Many programs continue to eat traffic even when you're not using them, like checking for updates, downloading ads, or synchronizing data, and MIUI has a tool to manually control that flow.

How to limit background data:

1. Open Settings → Applications → Application Management.
2. Select an app (like Facebook or TikTok).
3. Go to Data Use.
4. Activate the option to limit background data.

For convenience, you can sort applications by traffic consumption:

• 📊 In the same Application Management menu, click on the three dots in the upper right corner.
• 🔍 Select Sort. → Using data.
• 📉 Top positions will take the most “gluttonous” programs – start optimizing with them.

Important: Don’t limit background data for instant messengers (like WhatsApp or Viber) if you want to receive messages on time. Also be careful with banking applications – some of them require a constant connection for push notifications about transactions.

3. Set up automatic updates

App updates and MIUI itself can eat up gigabytes of traffic per month. Xiaomi downloads them automatically by default, but it's easy to fix.

For apps from Google Play:

1. Open the Play Store.
2. Slip on the profile avatar in the upper right corner.
3. Select Settings → Network → Auto-Update applications.
4. Install only via Wi-Fi.

For MIUI updates:

1. Go to Settings → About the phone → System update.
2. Click on the three dots in the top right corner and select Settings.
3. Turn off the option Automatic download via mobile network.

If you want to completely disable background updates (for example, to save battery power), you can use the developer mode:

4. Optimization of traffic consumption in popular applications

Some programs have their own data-saving settings that work better than system constraints, and let's look at the most voracious ones.

YouTube:

• 🎥 In the application settings, select Playback Quality via mobile network → 480p.
• 🔄 Turn off Autoplay in the settings.
• 📥 Use pre-loading video only via Wi-Fi (Settings) → Background and loading).

Instagram and Facebook:

• 🖼️ In your account settings, enable the option to save data (Instagram) or save traffic (Facebook).
• 🎞️ Turn off autoplay video in tape.
• 📂 Clean the app cache once a week through Settings → Warehouse.

Telegram:

• 📸 In chat settings, turn off Autoload Media for mobile network.
• 🎵 Set the quality of voice messages → Saving traffic.
• 🗑️ Clean the cache regularly through Settings → Data and memory.

Few people know, but MIUI has a hidden feature called “Intelligent Traffic Optimization” that analyzes your habits and automatically limits data for rarely used applications. To enable it, go to Settings → Special Features → MIUI Functions → Intelligent Optimization and activate the appropriate switch.

5.Use of third-party applications to control traffic

If Xiaomi’s built-in tools aren’t enough, you can install specialized utilities that not only show detailed statistics, but also block “extra” traffic.

Top.-3 data-saving applications:

• 📊 GlassWire — visualizes real-time traffic flow, shows which programs are active right now.
• 🛡️ NetGuard – works as a firewall, allowing you to manually deny access to the network for individual applications (including system ones.
• 📉 My Data Manager – tracks the consumption by day/week, sets limits and sends notifications when they are exceeded.

Example of NetGuard configuration:

1. Once installed, open the app and provide access to the VPN (this is necessary to filter traffic).
2. In the list of applications, tick the ones for which you want to ban mobile data.
3. Click on the cloud icon in the top menu and select Lock on the mobile connection.

⚠️ Note: When using firewalls (e.g. NetGuard), some Xiaomi system functions may stop working correctly, such as push notifications and synchronization of Mi Account.

6. Additional methods: disabling advertising and traffic compression

Ads in apps and browsers can eat up to 30 percent of traffic, and fortunately, they can be blocked without root rights.

Methods of blocking advertising:

• 🌐 Install a browser with a built-in blocker (for example, Brave or Opera with a browser). VPN).
• 🛡️ Use it. DNS-filter: go to Settings → SIM-maps and mobile networks → Name of the access point (APN) field APN-Protocol specify dns.adguard.com.
• 📱 Enable Ad Blocking in MIUI Security (Settings) → Annexes → Security → Blocking ads).

To compress traffic, you can use Google Chrome in Light mode or Opera Max (although it is officially de-supported, its APK still runs on Xiaomi), which compress images and videos before downloading, saving up to 50% of data.

Another little-known trick is to turn off IPv6, which can generate additional traffic on some networks:

1. Go to Settings. → SIM-maps and mobile networks → Name of the access point (APN).
2. Choose yours. APN field APN-protocol IPv4.
3. Save the changes and restart the phone.

⚠️ Attention: Disconnection IPv6 This can cause problems with accessing certain services (e.g. YouTube or Netflix in high definition).If sites are slower to open after the changes, return the settings. APN starting-point.

7. Monitoring and analysis of traffic flow

To save money effectively, you need to understand where traffic is going. MIUI has built-in monitoring, but it's not always accurate. You'd better use a combination of system and third-party tools.

How to check the data consumption in MIUI:

1. Go to Settings. → SIM-maps and mobile networks → Use of data.
2. Set the reporting period (for example, from the 1st day of the month).
3. View the list of applications, sorted by consumption.

For more detailed analysis, use GlassWire or My Data Manager, which shows:

• 📅 Day/hour expenditure (peak loads).
• 📡 What applications used data in the background.
• 🌍 Traffic geolocation (useful for roaming).

Tip: Set a weekly reminder to check the statistics. For example, every Monday open Settings → Use the data and reset the meter to track the dynamics. If you notice a spike in consumption, check if new voracious apps have appeared.

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Regular monitoring of traffic consumption helps to identify hidden data leaks that may occur due to application updates or changes in their settings.

FAQ: Frequent questions about traffic savings on Xiaomi