Convert HEIF Photos to JPEG Before Sending
If photos shared from your Xiaomi phone show up as broken files or will not open on someone else's device, the picture was likely saved in HEIF format. Many apps and older phones cannot read HEIF directly, so the recipient sees a blank thumbnail or an error instead of your photo. The Gallery app has a setting that handles this conversion automatically at the moment you send a file.
Turn Auto-Rotation On or Off
If your Xiaomi screen stays locked in portrait mode when you turn the phone sideways, auto-rotation is likely disabled in Display settings. Some apps also ignore rotation entirely if the quick toggle in the notification shade is set to lock orientation. Both controls work independently and can override each other depending on which one you touched last.
Clear App Data
When an app on your Xiaomi phone starts crashing, freezing, or throwing login errors, clearing the cache alone often does not fix it. Corrupted app data, broken login sessions or leftover settings can keep triggering the same error even after a cache clear. Wiping the app data resets it completely, though you will need to sign in again and reconfigure the app afterward.
Back Up Your Phone to Xiaomi Cloud
If your Xiaomi phone breaks or gets lost, photos, contacts and app data are gone unless a cloud backup exists. Many users assume MIUI backs up automatically, but Xiaomi Cloud sync stays off until you sign in with a Mi account and switch it on. Without that step, only local backups on the device itself exist, and those disappear along with the phone.
Stopwatch: Lap Times, Pause and Reset
Lap times captured in the Xiaomi Clock app sometimes vanish once you pause the stopwatch, or tapping Stop clears the whole list instead of just pausing it. This happens because Start, Lap timer, Pause and Stop / Reset are separate controls with distinct effects on the running time and the lap history. Mixing up Pause and Stop is the most common reason lap data gets lost unexpectedly.
Add a Widget to the Home Screen
Opening an app just to check a stock quote, the weather, or your next calendar entry gets tedious fast. On Xiaomi phones running MIUI, widgets show that information directly on the home screen without unlocking the app first. Many users only find wallpaper and icon-organizing options here, since the widget menu is easy to miss.
Restrict Floating Notifications in Do Not Disturb
If your Xiaomi phone keeps popping up banners while Do Not Disturb is active, incoming alerts are still showing as floating notifications instead of staying silent. The messages themselves are not lost, they simply arrive quietly in the background, but the pop-ups still interrupt whatever you are doing. This setting decides whether MIUI shows those floating banners while DND is on.
Silence Media Automatically in Silent Mode
When you switch your Xiaomi phone to Silent mode, videos, games and other media keep playing sound anyway. That happens because 'Silence media in Silent mode' is a separate toggle in the sound settings, not something Silent mode covers on its own.
Change the Region Setting
Your Xiaomi phone picks the region automatically, usually based on your SIM card or network. If you are traveling or using a local SIM abroad, that automatic pick can be wrong for app stores, currency formats, or regional content. You can override it and set the region yourself.
Create a New Event in the Calendar App
If a date only lives in your head, it disappears the moment you get distracted. The Calendar app on your Xiaomi phone lets you save events with a title, guests, location and repeat schedule, but many users only ever use the quick add-note shortcut and miss the full event options. Skipping the dedicated event category also means no reminder fires before the actual date.
Missed Call Reminders: Turn On or Off
If a missed call slips by unnoticed until hours later, missed call reminders are probably switched off or set to repeat only once. MIUI can nudge you again about an unanswered call, and the number of repeats is adjustable. Without this setting active, a single missed call notification is easy to swipe away and forget.
Enable the Number Row on the Keyboard
If you only get digits by long-pressing the letter keys on your Xiaomi keyboard, the number row is switched off. That is the default state on the MIUI keyboard, so every digit needs an extra long-press instead of a single tap. A dedicated setting adds a permanent row of numbers above the letters, which speeds up typing passwords, codes or addresses.
Turn Auto-Sync Data On or Off
If your Xiaomi phone burns through mobile data or drains battery faster than expected, background account synchronization is often the reason. This setting keeps your Google Account data, like contacts, calendar entries and photos, updated in the background at all times. Switching it off stops the drain immediately but also means new changes stop arriving until you sync manually.
Turn On/Off Next-Word Suggestions
If the keyboard stops predicting the next word while you type a message or email, MIUI's text correction settings are usually behind it. Next-word suggestions guess the word that fits your sentence based on context, not just the letters you already typed. Switching the feature on or off changes how fast you can write and how often the keyboard guesses wrong.
Quiet Ringer When Lifted
If your phone still rings at full volume even after you pick it up during an incoming call, the Quiet ringer when lifted feature might be switched off. This motion-based setting is meant to automatically lower the ringtone as soon as you lift the device, but it only works when enabled in the calling settings. Without it active, you have to manually silence every call yourself.
Set Up TalkBack Feedback Sounds and Vibration
If every tap on your Xiaomi phone triggers a vibration and a sound at the same time, TalkBack feedback is running on its default settings. Some users find the double feedback distracting or too quiet in noisy environments, while others want music and other audio to duck automatically when TalkBack speaks. Both the feedback type and its volume can be adjusted separately.
Manage Bookmarks in Mi Browser
If your saved pages in Mi Browser have turned into one long unsorted list, the bookmark manager on your Xiaomi phone can fix that. You can rename, move or delete individual entries and sort them into groups instead of scrolling through everything at once. This becomes especially useful once you have dozens of bookmarks from work, shopping or research mixed together.
Turn On/Off Data Usage Reduction (Mi Browser)
If videos in Mi Browser suddenly stop autoplaying and only start after you tap them, Data usage reduction is likely active on your Xiaomi phone. This setting throttles how much content loads automatically while you browse, which lowers mobile data consumption but changes how pages behave. The effect varies by website, so some pages still autoplay while others stay silent until you interact with them.
Set a Custom Start Page in Mi Browser
Every time you open Mi Browser on your Xiaomi phone, the same default home screen with shortcuts and preset services loads instead of a search engine you actually use. This happens because the start page setting is locked to the built-in default and has not been switched to a custom web address. You can point it to Google, Bing or any other site you prefer.
Set Date Manually
If the date on your Xiaomi phone keeps resetting no matter how often you change it, automatic network time sync is usually the reason. As long as this feature stays on, MIUI pulls the date from your carrier and overwrites any manual edit in Settings within seconds.
Turn Focus Mode On or Off
If notifications from social or gaming apps keep interrupting your home office setup on a Xiaomi phone, Focus mode is the built-in tool meant to block that noise for selected apps. Many users only discover the toggle by accident, and the automatic scheduling option often stays unused, leaving the phone unrestricted outside of manual activation.
Turn On/Off Read Text on Images (Select to Speak)
When Select to Speak on your Xiaomi phone starts reading text from photos or the camera viewfinder out loud, the Read text on images option is active. Xiaomi flags this as an experimental function, so it can misread words, skip lines entirely, or lag behind what the camera actually shows. Knowing where to switch it off helps once the readouts cause more confusion than they solve.
Double-Space Period Shortcut
If you double-tap the space bar on a Xiaomi keyboard and suddenly get a period you did not mean to type, this shortcut is turned on. If you rely on it to speed up typing and it stops working after a keyboard update, the setting got switched off or reset.
Optimize Battery Usage
If your Xiaomi phone drains faster than usual, background apps and forgotten settings are often the cause. MIUI has a built-in scan that checks running processes and configuration and lists exactly what is costing you charge. You decide which of those suggestions actually get applied.