How to enable traffic savings on Xiaomi: a complete guide with hidden settings

Mobile traffic on Xiaomi can leak out unnoticed: background updates, autoloading content in instant messengers, in-app advertising all eat up gigabytes every month. Especially a problem for users with limited tariffs or those who travel often. Fortunately, Redmi, POCO and other Xiaomi smartphones have built-in tools to control data consumption, but they are hidden in non-obvious menu sections.

In this article, you’ll find not only basic ways to enable traffic savings, but also hidden MIUI settings that help reduce data consumption by 30-40% without compromising user experience. We’ll learn how to limit background application activity, disable autoplay of video on social networks, and even set up prioritization of traffic for critical services, and at the end, answer frequent questions, including problems with saving mode on specific models (for example, Redmi Note 12 Pro+ or POCO F5).

Why is Xiaomi traffic so fast?

The main reason is the background activity of applications, and even when you're not using a smartphone, many programs continue to communicate with servers, updating the weather, synchronizing mail, downloading notifications, and research suggests that up to 60 percent of mobile traffic can go to these invisible processes, especially voracious ones:

• 📱 Social networks (Facebook, TikTok, Instagram) – autoplay video, preload content.
• 📧 Email clients (Gmail, Mi Mail) - synchronization in real time.
• 🎮 Games (PUBG Mobile, Genshin Impact – map updates, banner ads.
• 🔄 Cloud services (Mi Cloud, Google Drive) – automatic upload of photos / videos.

The second reason is unoptimized MIUI settings. By default, the system allows most applications to use mobile data in the background, and also does not limit traffic consumption for system processes (for example, MIUI updates or Google Play Services), In addition, many users do not even suspect the existence of the Data Saver feature, which is in pure Android, but in Xiaomi is hidden under a different name.

Basic method: Incorporate the Traffic Saving mode into MIUI

The easiest method is to activate the built-in saving mode. It limits the background data consumption for most applications, except for those you add to the exceptions. The instruction is suitable for all modern Xiaomi smartphones on MIUI 12-14 (including Redmi Note 11/12, POCO X5, Mi 11 Lite and later).

To include traffic savings:

1. Open Settings (the gear icon on the main screen).
2. Go to Connections and Sharing → Mobile Network.
3. Slip on the item Traffic Saving (or Data Saver on global firmware).
4. Activate the switch at the top of the screen.
5. In the Applications section, without limitation, select programs that are allowed to use mobile data in the background (for example, messengers or navigators).

Once activated, MIUI will start blocking background activity for all applications except system and those you added to the exceptions, which will immediately reduce traffic consumption by 20 to 30 percent.

• ⚠️ Some apps (such as WhatsApp or Telegram) may stop receiving notifications on time.
• ⚠️ Auto-update weather, currency rates and other widgets will only work when connected to Wi-Fi.

Make sure that messengers are added to exceptions|Check the notifications|Disable autoplay video in social networks|Set up traffic restriction for individual applications-->

Hidden Settings: Limiting Traffic for Individual Applications

If the basic savings aren’t enough, you can manually adjust the limits for each application, a method that is useful if you notice that a service is eating traffic especially heavily (like TikTok or YouTube).

How to set individual limits:

1. Go to Settings → Applications → Application Management.
2. Select the app you want to limit traffic to (like Facebook).
3. Please click on the mobile data (or data usage).
4. Activate the option to limit background data.
5. If necessary, set a mobile data limit (e.g. 500MB per month).

For more flexible settings, use the “Data Use” section in the settings:

1. Open Settings → Connections and Sharing → Data Use.
2. Select Mobile Data and scroll down to the flow chart.
3. Slip on any application from the list to set individual restrictions for it.

Note that some system applications (such as Mi Video or Mi Browser) may ignore these limitations, in which case they will have to be turned off completely or use the firewall (about it in the next section).

MIUI Firewall: Full Control of Traffic

MIUI firmware has a built-in firewall that allows you to block access to mobile data for any application, including system applications. This is the most radical, but also the most effective way to save money. But beware: the wrong settings can disrupt the smartphone.

How to set up a firewall:

1. Open Settings → Applications → Firewall (on some firmware, the path may differ: Settings → Privacy → Special permissions → Firewall).
2. Activate the Firewall switch at the top of the screen.
3. In the list of applications, mark those that you want to deny access to mobile data. System applications will be marked with an icon. 🛡️ — Block them only if you are sure of the consequences.
4. Click Save and restart your smartphone.

The advantages of a firewall:

• 🔒 Full traffic blocking for selected applications (including background mode).
• 📉 Reduce data consumption by up to 50% with proper setup.
• 🛡️ Protection against data leakage through advertising SDK tracker.

⚠️ Note: Blocking system applications (e.g. com.miui.system or Google Play Services) can cause smartphone malfunctions. If notifications stop coming after setting up the firewall or mobile internet disappears, return the default settings.

Optimizing traffic in popular applications

Even with the savings included, some apps continue to consume traffic, and below are hidden settings for the most voracious services that will help reduce data consumption by another 15-20%.

Telegram also recommends disabling autoplay of animations and voice messages, and can do this in Settings → Data and Memory → Autoplay Media.

💡

If you watch YouTube videos frequently on the road, set a quality limit. Select Wi-Fi Only for High Quality (HD) in your app settings, which will reduce your traffic from 1 to 1.5 GB per hour to 300 to 500 MB.

Additional Ways to Save Traffic

In addition to the built-in MIUI tools, there are several external methods that will help to reduce data consumption even further:

• 🌐 Use lightweight versions of sites. Many services (e.g. Facebook, Twitter) have mobile versions (m.facebook.com) that consume 2-3 times less traffic.
• 📱 Install a third-party firewall. Applications like NetGuard or GlassWire allow you to flexibly configure network access for each application, including blocking ad domains.
• 🔄 Turn off automatic app updates. Go to Google Play → Settings → Auto-update of applications → Select Only via Wi-Fi.
• 📡 Use traffic compression. In Google Chrome, activate Traffic Savings in Settings (⋮ → Settings → Saving traffic).

For advanced users, there is another way: change. APN-Some operators (e.g. MTS or Beeline) allow you to connect a special profile to save traffic:

1. Go to Settings → Connections and Sharing → Mobile Network → Access Point Name (APN).
2. Select the current profile (usually referred to as an operator, such as mts).
3. In the field APN-protocol IPv4 (if available).
4. In the APN type field, add,dun at the end (for example, if there was a default, it will become default,dun).
5. Save the settings and restart the smartphone.

⚠️ Attention: Incorrect settings APN If the network is lost after the changes, return the standard settings or contact the operator for correct data.

Frequent problems and their solutions

Sometimes, when you turn on traffic savings, you get a problem: notifications don't work, the Internet goes down, or individual applications stop updating, and here are the most common problems and ways to fix them:

• 📵 No notifications from instant messengers.Solution: Add an app (like WhatsApp or Viber) to traffic saving exceptions (Settings) → Connections → Saving traffic → Applications without restrictions).
• 🌐 No images loaded in the browser Solution: Turn off the compression of traffic in the browser or add it to firewall exceptions.
• 🔄 App Auto Update doesn't work Solution: Check Google Play settings (Wi-Fi only) or temporarily turn off traffic savings for Google Play Services.
• 📱 The smartphone has stopped connecting to the mobile network. Solution: Reboot the device or reset the mobile network settings (Settings) → Connections → Mobile network → Resetting settings).

If problems persist, try resetting your network settings:

1. Go to Settings → About the phone → Reset settings.
2. Select Network Reset (not to be confused with a full reset!).
3. Confirm the action and restart the smartphone.

💡

If you have lost your mobile Internet after you have turned on the traffic savings, first check if the firewall blocks system applications (for example, com.android.phone).

FAQ: Answers to Frequent Questions