Turn HDR On or Off in Camera
Photos taken against bright light or in high-contrast scenes sometimes look overprocessed, flat, or slightly blurred on Xiaomi phones. This happens when HDR (High Dynamic Range) automatically merges several exposures into one shot, which also slows down capture for moving subjects.
Change the Time Zone Manually
If your Xiaomi phone keeps switching its time zone whenever you travel or connect to a different carrier network, automatic time zone detection is the cause. This network-based setting overrides any manual change you make until you turn it off. Once you know where that toggle sits, you can lock in a fixed time zone yourself.
Set Up a Proxy Server for Wi-Fi
If your network admin or workplace requires traffic to run through a specific server, a plain Wi-Fi connection on your Xiaomi phone will not route it correctly. Without a configured proxy hostname and port, apps either fail to connect or bypass the required server entirely. This affects browsing, app updates and anything that depends on that network policy.
Rename a Home Screen Folder
A newly created folder on your Xiaomi home screen often just carries a generic label like 'Folder' or picks up the name of the first app you dropped into it. That makes it hard to tell at a glance whether it holds your shopping apps, finance tools, or games. Once you have several folders sitting next to each other, a clear name is the only thing that keeps your screen readable.
Switch Keyboard Language While Typing
Typing a message in a second language on your Xiaomi phone often means the wrong keyboard stays active because it defaults to the last language you used. Leaving the text field to fix this in settings breaks your train of thought and can even discard what you typed. A quick gesture inside the text field itself switches the keyboard without closing the app.
Reset Wi-Fi, Mobile Data & Bluetooth
If Wi-Fi keeps dropping, mobile data stops working after a SIM swap, or paired Bluetooth devices refuse to reconnect, corrupted network profiles are often the real cause. Switching a connection off and on rarely fixes these deeper configuration conflicts. A full network reset clears every saved Wi-Fi password, paired device, and mobile data setting in one pass.
Turn Dual Clock On/Off on Lock Screen
After switching the region on a Xiaomi phone, a second time suddenly shows up on the lock screen next to the main clock. This happens because MIUI detects a time difference between your set region and your current location or SIM, and the Dual clock feature reacts automatically. You can switch it off entirely or change which region the second clock refers to.
Add or Remove Bookmarks in Mi Browser
Losing track of a website you visited last week is common once it drops out of your browser history. Bookmarks fix this by saving the page permanently until you decide to remove it. The catch is that many Xiaomi users don't know where the bookmark list actually lives inside Mi Browser, so saved pages get forgotten or accidentally deleted.
Change Display Size
If text and icons on your Xiaomi phone look too small or too cramped, the Display size setting is usually the cause. It scales both the interface and the font size together, which can push app shortcuts around on your home screen until you rearrange them.
Turn Off App Lock
If Xiaomi's App lock keeps asking for a PIN, pattern or fingerprint before certain apps open, and some apps seem to have vanished from your app drawer, the lock feature is still active in the background. Turning it off releases every protected app at once and brings previously hidden apps back into view.
Turn On or Off Find My Device
If your Xiaomi phone goes missing and Google's Find My Device search comes up empty, the tracking toggle is probably switched off in your privacy settings. This setting decides whether your phone keeps reporting its last known location to your Google Account. Without it enabled beforehand, there is no location history to fall back on once the phone is actually lost.
Set Notification Sounds for Each App Individually
When every app on your Xiaomi phone plays the same notification tone, it gets hard to tell a messaging alert from a random app update without looking at the screen. MIUI lets you assign or mute sound per app, but the option sits inside a settings area many users never open. Here is where that control actually lives and how to change it for one app at a time.
Wi-Fi Direct Setup
Streaming a video or photo to your TV or Fire TV Stick only works if both devices can see each other on the network, and Wi-Fi Direct connections often fail silently when that handshake breaks. Your Xiaomi phone needs to be on the same wireless network as the receiving device before Wi-Fi Direct can even scan for it. If the target device never shows up in the device list, this direct-connection setting is usually the first thing to check.
Turn Lock Screen Notifications On or Off
Hiding lock screen notifications on your Xiaomi phone keeps message content away from prying eyes, but it also means pop-up alerts stop appearing when the screen is locked. Instead you only see small icons in the status bar, so you have to unlock the phone to check what actually happened. This trade-off between privacy and quick alerts confuses a lot of users switching the setting for the first time.
Add a Birthday to a Contact
If the default Contacts form on your Xiaomi phone only shows phone number and email, there's no visible field for a birthday. That date option sits in a separate section that most people never open, so they assume it doesn't exist and skip it. Without it, you lose an easy way to keep birthdays tied directly to a contact card instead of a separate calendar entry.
Remove a Stored Fingerprint
If a fingerprint still unlocks your Xiaomi phone after you sold it, handed it to someone else, or just registered a bad scan, that print needs to go. MIUI stores several fingerprints under one name, so it is easy to remove the wrong one by mistake. Deleting a print always asks for your unlock pattern, PIN or password first, which trips up people who only remember using their finger.
Show or Hide Password Characters While Typing
On Xiaomi phones, every character you type into a password field flashes briefly on screen before turning into a dot. If you unlock accounts in public, on a video call, or while someone else can see your display, that brief character preview can expose your password to anyone nearby.
Remove a Member from a Contact Group
If a contact still shows up in a group even though you no longer want them there, the fix is not to delete the contact but to unlink them from that specific group. On Xiaomi phones this distinction confuses people because the removal option sits inside the group menu, not in the contact's own profile screen.
Turn On/Off Auto Brightness
If your Xiaomi screen keeps getting brighter or dimmer without you touching anything, Auto Brightness is reacting to the light sensor. You can still drag the brightness slider manually while the function stays active, which often causes confusion about which setting is actually in control.
Turn Off Developer Options
If Developer options keeps popping up in your Xiaomi settings even though you only enabled it once for a quick fix, it usually just needs to be switched off inside its own menu. Leaving it active keeps USB debugging and other low-level toggles exposed, which can interfere with app checks or banking apps. Turning it off hides the whole menu again until you reactivate it through the hidden tap sequence.
Shake to Auto-Arrange Home Screen Icons
Empty cells scattered across your Xiaomi home screen after uninstalling an app? Shaking the phone while in edit mode can pull the remaining icons together and close those gaps automatically. The feature, called Shake to fill empty cells, sits hidden in the display settings and can be switched on or off.
Split Screen on Xiaomi Phones
Split screen lets you run two apps side by side on your Xiaomi phone, so you can chat while browsing or take notes while watching a video. MIUI offers more than one way to trigger it, and not every app supports it the same way. Knowing how it behaves helps you decide when it actually saves time.
Lock Home Screen Layout
If icons keep shifting position every time you delete an app or accidentally shake your phone, MIUI is still rearranging empty spaces on its own. Locking the layout stops that automatic reshuffling and keeps every icon exactly where you placed it.
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.