How to find out what the Internet is spent on Xiaomi

The situation when the balance of the mobile operator is rapidly melting and the connection speed is falling to a minimum, familiar to many owners of Xiaomi smartphones. In an era when gigabytes cost money and Wi-Fi access is not everywhere, it is critical to understand what software “eats” your traffic. MIUI operating system and its newer version of HyperOS have powerful built-in monitoring tools, but they are often hidden from the eyes of the average user or work incorrectly due to synchronization errors.

In this article, we will explore how to identify hidden traffic eaters, learn how to distinguish between background activity and direct use, and set the system so that the Internet is spent only on your tasks, you will learn why even in standby mode, the phone can transmit megabytes of data and how to resist this without installing third-party software.

Before we get to the complex settings, it’s worth noting that the main cause of leaks is often not viruses, but standard synchronization and automatic update functions. Understanding the architecture of Android network services on the shell from Xiaomi will allow you to take control of the device in your own hands.

Built-in traffic monitor in MIUI and HyperOS

The first place to look when you suspect a data breach is the standard Security app, which is a system control center that is pre-installed on all smartphones of the brand, and here are the basic statistics that allow you to summarize the situation with traffic consumption over a selected period.

To access the data, you have to run the application and select the partition that's responsible for the network. The interface may vary slightly depending on the firmware version, but the logic remains the same. The system aggregates the consumption data both over the mobile network and over Wi-Fi, allowing you to see the full picture.

It's important to understand that a standard meter can have errors, and it doesn't always update data instantly if you're switching between access points or using flight mode, but it's quite enough to make a first-hand diagnosis.

• 📊 Open the Security app on the home screen.
• 📡 Go to Traffic Statistics or Data Transfer.
• 📅 Select the period of interest (today, yesterday, month) for analysis.

Special attention should be paid to limit settings, which can be used in the statistics menu to set a limit on traffic after which the system will force the mobile Internet to be turned off, a critical feature for those who use packet rates with little data.

⚠️ Warning: Don't blindly rely on the built-in meter when setting the limit. 10-15% from your real rate, as carriers and phone may round up the amount of data transferred in different ways.

Detailed analysis of the annexes

To understand who is spending resources, you have to go down to the bottom level, to detail each application. Unlike standard Android, the MIUI shell divides the statistics into two categories: Mobile Network and Wi-Fi. This division is crucial, because some applications can only be voracious when using mobile Internet.

The list of apps sorts data by volume, and the leaders are usually social media, autoplay video messengers, and streaming services, but sometimes the top ones are system services or games that you haven't even run in that period.

Clicking on a specific app will show a more detailed breakdown: how much data was transferred in the background and how much when the screen was on. background traffic is a prime candidate for optimization if you want to save money.

If you see an application that consumes gigabytes, but you haven't used it, it's an alarm, maybe it's automatic content downloading, or it's a hidden sync process.

The table below shows typical traffic consumers and examples of their normal monthly consumption with moderate usage:

Hidden processes and system services

Often users find that even after all apps are closed, traffic continues to go away, with Xiaomi and Google’s system services being the culprits, and Google Play Services constantly syncing email, contacts, calendar and app data.

MIUI also has its own background processes, such as msa (advertising service) or miui.daemon, which can transmit telemetry. Although system components cannot be completely turned off, their activity can be limited.

Special attention should be paid to the application installation assistant and advertising in system applications, which can load banners and offers in the background, spending your traffic without your knowledge.

For in-depth analysis, you can use Developer Mode. Go to Settings → About Phone → MIUI Version and press 7 times on the build number. Then, in the advanced settings, look for Network Statistics (if available in your version) or use ADB commands to get logs of network activity.

⚠️ Note: Disabling Google System Services or MIUI Through the developer settings, notifications, geolocation and account synchronization can malfunction.

Setting restrictions for background applications

The most effective way to combat low-conspicuous traffic is to restrict background activity, which is more flexible with HyperOS and newer versions of MIUI, and you can prevent a particular application from using a mobile network, leaving it only access via Wi-Fi.

To do this, go to the app's settings and look for "Data Use," where you can check the box for "Mobile Network," and then the app will only work when you connect to Wi-Fi, which is ideal for heavy applications like cloud storage or video services.

There is also a Traffic Saving feature in global network settings, which, when activated, enforces a background data limit for all applications except those on the exclusion list.

• 🚫 Go to Settings. → Annexes → All applications.
• 📱 Select the consumption leader app.
• 🔒 Click Data Use and Disable Mobile Network.

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For instant messengers (WhatsApp, Telegram), do not turn off the background completely, otherwise real-time messages will stop coming, it is better to limit only the download of media files in the settings of the application itself.

And remember, Smart Constraints, which can be used to limit applications that are rarely used but are actively downloading data, and you can accept these if you don't use these programs every day.

Auto Updates and Synchronization: Where the Cost Hidden

Google Play and GetApps (Mi App Store) are set up to automatically update programs by default. If you have many apps installed, they can be updated daily, consuming hundreds of megabytes.

Recommended to change your auto-update settings. Go to Google Play profile, select Settings» → «Network settings" and set "Wi-Fi only" to the GetApps store.

Syncing photos in Google Photos or Mi Cloud is another powerful source of traffic, and if you take a lot of high-resolution photos, uploading them to the cloud can quickly run out of Internet bundle.

Synchronization settings:


1. Google Photos → Account settings → Autoboot and sync.




2. Select "Only via Wi-Fi".




3. disable the option "Use mobile network to download".

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The main source of hidden traffic is not your active use, but background processes: auto-update applications and synchronize media files with the cloud.

Check your email settings too, if you have multiple accounts with push notifications and frequent sync, they can keep a constant connection, consuming resources.

Using ADB commands for advanced users

For those who are not afraid of the command line, the ADB toolkit provides access to hidden statistics that are not available through the GUI, which allows you to get accurate data about the network activity of each process in real time.

To get started, you need to enable debugging over USB in developer mode and connect the smartphone to the computer. After installing the drivers and the SDK Tools platform, you can enter commands for monitoring.

The adb shell dumpsys netstats command will display a detailed log of all network activity since the last reboot, and you can see the UID of each process and the amount of bytes transferred.

A more convenient command for quick checks: adb shell cmd netstats getdetails, which will show detailed information on the interfaces, which is useful when the built-in MIUI counters show incorrect data.

⚠️ Attention: Working with ADB The wrong commands can cause network resets or system instability. Use this method only if you understand what you're doing.

There are also GUIs for ADB, such as ADB AppControl, which allow you to manage application network resolutions from a computer, which is much more convenient than poking into a small phone screen.

FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions