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Huawei

Guides for Huawei GR5 (2017)

471 guides

Notifications & Focus

Set a Custom Ringtone

If every call still sounds like the factory-installed tone, the personal MP3 you copied over USB or downloaded to your Huawei phone is not showing up where you expect it. The stock ringtone list only pulls from a specific storage location, so a file saved in the wrong folder simply gets ignored. Once you know which folder EMUI actually scans, picking your own track takes seconds.

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Photo, Video & Media

Zoom In or Out in the Camera App

Framing a shot with the classic two-finger pinch can feel imprecise, especially when you want a small, steady zoom adjustment. Many Huawei camera users overlook that a second control exists right on the screen edge, which makes fine-tuning zoom much easier once you know where to look.

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Display & Home Screen

Enable or Disable Screen Saver

If your Huawei phone's display stays completely black while charging instead of cycling through photos, the screen saver feature is probably switched off. Even when it's active, a missing picture source or a short playback duration can make it look like the feature isn't working at all.

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Calls & Messages

Add a Birthday to a Contact

Saved contacts on your Huawei phone often stay incomplete right after you save the first number. Without a birthday field filled in, your phone can never remind you when that date comes around. Adding it later takes a few taps in the contact details.

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Other

Clear Cookies in the Browser App

If the Huawei Browser keeps you logged into sites you already signed out of, or a website shows an old version no matter how often you refresh, stored cookies are usually the cause. The Browser app on EMUI lets you clear just the cookies without wiping your saved passwords or bookmarks.

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Language & Input

Set Default Keyboard

New keyboard app installed but Swiftkey keeps popping up instead? Huawei phones use Swiftkey as the default keyboard, and extra keyboards you install do not switch on by themselves. You need to activate the keyboard you want before it shows up when typing.

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Other

Enable or Disable Eye Comfort

Harsh white light late at night can strain your eyes fast, especially when you are reading on your Huawei phone in a dark room. Eye Comfort shifts the display to warmer tones and reduces blue light, but the toggle and the automatic schedule option are easy to miss in the settings. Without it active, your screen keeps its full brightness and cool color temperature no matter the time of day.

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System & Settings

Add a Printer Manually via IP Address

If your Huawei phone lists no printers during the network scan, the WLAN or WiFi Direct discovery has failed to reach the device. This happens on isolated subnets, guest networks, or with printer models that block broadcast discovery. Adding the printer by its IP address skips the automatic search entirely.

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Storage & Backup

Switch Between 12-Hour and 24-Hour Time

If your Huawei phone displays 3:45 PM instead of 15:45, or the other way round, the clock format is likely tied to your system language rather than a fixed choice. This dependency means switching language can silently change how time appears on the lock screen, notifications, and widgets. A manual toggle for 24-hour time removes that guesswork.

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Network & Connectivity

Restrict App Access to Mobile Data or Wi-Fi

If a video streaming app keeps burning through your mobile data plan even when you are not actively watching anything, background network access is usually the cause. Some apps also switch between Wi-Fi and mobile data without asking, which drains your data allowance faster than expected. You decide per app whether it may use mobile data, Wi-Fi, or both.

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Language & Input

Change the System Language

If your Huawei phone still runs in the language you set up years ago, you don't have to reset the device to fix that. EMUI lets you add extra languages under Language and region, but a newly added language stays inactive until it's moved to the top of the list. Skip that step and the phone keeps using the old language no matter how many times you pick the new one.

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Security & Privacy

Screen Lock Tone: Enable or Disable

Every time you lock your Huawei phone with the power button, a short click plays and there is no obvious switch for it inside the main sound menu. If that beep annoys you, or it suddenly disappeared after you changed a sound profile, the toggle actually sits inside a secondary settings screen. Keep in mind the tone stays silent automatically whenever your phone is set to Mute or Silent, even if the toggle itself is turned on.

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Calls & Messages

Restore Deleted Contacts

Accidentally deleted a contact on your Huawei phone and now it seems gone for good? EMUI actually keeps deleted contacts in a temporary folder instead of removing them right away. That window closes automatically after a set number of days, so the contact becomes unrecoverable once it expires.

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Notifications & Focus

Wake Screen for Notifications

If your Huawei phone display stays black when a new message or notification arrives, the wake screen option is likely turned off. This setting controls whether the screen lights up automatically for incoming alerts, separate from your normal lock screen timeout. Without it, you only see new notifications after pressing the power button yourself.

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Notifications & Focus

Enable Gentle Notifications for an App

Every notification on your Huawei phone triggers a sound, a vibration and a full pop-up by default, even for apps you only check occasionally. If a chat or news app keeps interrupting you but you still want to see missed messages later, muting it completely removes that overview. Gentle notifications quiet the alert while keeping a discreet trace of it in the notification panel.

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Apps & Installation

Enable Read in Background for Select to Speak

If Select to Speak stops reading the moment you switch to another app on your Huawei phone, the background reading option is turned off. This feature is still experimental and can behave unpredictably in some apps.

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Language & Input

Turn Off Keyboard Usage Statistics Sharing

If your Huawei phone keeps sending keystroke patterns and app usage data back to Microsoft SwiftKey, the Help improve Microsoft SwiftKey option is switched on by default. This setting shares what and how you type to refine the keyboard, which raises privacy concerns for many users. You can review and turn it off directly from the keyboard settings.

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Photo, Video & Media

Allow or Deny Picture-in-Picture for an App

If a video freezes the moment you switch to another app, or a floating window never shows up while you type a message, the picture-in-picture permission for that app is probably the issue. Some apps get this permission by default, others need it turned on manually before the pop-up window works. Checking which side an app is on saves a lot of guessing.

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Other

Delete Conversations

Deleting a conversation message by message takes forever when you just want the whole thread gone. Huawei's Messages app has a direct option to remove a full conversation at once, but there is no undo once you confirm it.

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Other

Edit Quick Response Text Messages

When you cannot pick up a call on your Huawei phone, decline-with-message sends a short text instead. If the default wording never fits your situation, you can rewrite these Respond with text entries to match how you actually communicate. The setting sits inside the Phone app, not in your messaging app.

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Notifications & Focus

Set Sound and Vibration for Calendar Reminders

If calendar reminders on your Huawei phone stay silent or skip the vibration you expect, the notification sound for the Calendar app is usually set to Mute or the vibration toggle got switched off. This sits separately from your general ringtone settings, so changing your phone's ringtone won't fix it. A quick check inside the Calendar app settings solves it.

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Notifications & Focus

Manage Do Not Disturb Access for Apps

If an app on your Huawei phone keeps buzzing through Do Not Disturb, it has been granted permission to bypass that mode entirely. This usually happens after you approved a notification-related prompt without noticing what it actually allowed. Once granted, the app can send alerts, calls or messages even while your phone is set to stay silent.

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Notifications & Focus

Enable or Disable Do Not Disturb

If calls suddenly go straight to a busy signal or message alerts stop making a sound on your Huawei phone, Do Not Disturb is likely switched on. The mode silences calls, messages and system alerts at once, and it can also trigger itself on a schedule without you noticing. Knowing where this setting lives helps you turn it off fast or set it up the way you actually want.

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System & Settings

Change the Region Setting

On many Huawei phones the region field switches on its own whenever the device connects to a different mobile network. This can happen right after a trip abroad or when a SIM briefly loses signal and reconnects to a foreign carrier. The automatic change can affect app stores, weather data, and date formats without any warning.

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