Set Autoclick Dwell Timing for a Mouse
If you control your Xiaomi phone with a connected mouse, clicking a tiny cursor button gets tiring fast. Autoclick (dwell timing) lets the phone register a click automatically once the pointer stops moving for a set time. The delay is adjustable, so a short dwell time can trigger accidental taps while a long one feels sluggish.
Save Photos and Videos to SD Card Automatically
If your Xiaomi phone keeps filling up internal storage even though a microSD card is inserted, the camera is probably still saving everything to the phone by default. New shots and clips pile up locally instead of moving to the card, which quickly triggers low-storage warnings.
Reset Camera Settings to Default
If your Xiaomi camera keeps producing blurry shots, odd colors, or a shooting mode you no longer understand after trying out filters and manual adjustments, restoring the default configuration usually fixes it. This clears every custom change you made in the camera app without touching photos or videos already saved on your phone. It is the fastest way to undo settings that got out of control after too much tinkering with exposure, resolution, or scene modes.
Add a Print Service
If a print dialog on your Xiaomi phone shows no printer at all, no print service is registered in MIUI yet. Most phones only come with a driver for Epson devices, so printers from other brands stay invisible until you install their own service. Without that step, apps like a PDF viewer or browser can never send a job to your printer.
Set Ringtone for Incoming Calls
When every incoming call on your Xiaomi phone uses the same generic tone, or a video calling app ignores your chosen sound completely, the default ringtone setting is usually the cause. Dual-SIM users often run into a second issue: one SIM plays the wrong tone because each line can carry its own ringtone. Both problems trace back to the same sound settings that MIUI applies system-wide.
Change the Google Backup Account
If your Xiaomi phone keeps backing up to the Google Account you used during setup, files and app data saved under a newer account never make it into the backup. This happens because MIUI locks in the original backup account and does not switch automatically once you add a second Google Account. You have to select the account manually before new backups use it.
Turn One-handed Mode On or Off
If your Xiaomi phone feels too big to reach the top of the screen with one thumb, the built-in one-handed mode shrinks the whole display into a smaller window. Many users never find this option because it hides under Additional settings instead of the main Display menu. Without it enabled, you are stuck stretching or using both hands for every notification bar swipe or top-corner button.
Turn Off Automatic Diagnostic Data Sending
If Send diagnostic data automatically stays enabled, your Xiaomi phone keeps transmitting usage statistics that can include personal details. Many people only notice this after checking a privacy report or reviewing background data usage. MIUI never discloses exactly what content gets sent in these reports, which is why disabling related user experience options is worth doing.
Close All Tabs in Mi Browser
After a long browsing session in Mi Browser, the tab counter on your Xiaomi phone can climb to a number you never actually chose. Every open tab keeps running in the background, which slows down the browser and drains extra battery. Closing them one by one takes forever, but there is a faster way.
Change Ringtone for Event Reminders
If every calendar reminder, note alert, and task notification on your Xiaomi phone plays the same generic tone, it's easy to miss what actually matters. Event reminders use a separate sound slot from calls and messages, so changing your default notification tone alone does nothing. MIUI lets you assign a dedicated tone just for these reminders, from either Xiaomi's included tones or your own sound files.
Go Back to Previous App Gesture
If swiping in from the left edge and holding for a moment does nothing on your Xiaomi phone, the Go back to previous app gesture is probably switched off. This shortcut only shows up once full-screen gestures are active, and it needs its own toggle buried inside the gesture settings. Without it, the small app-icon preview at the screen edge never appears.
Turn Emergency Location Service (ELS) On or Off
If first responders cannot pinpoint your position during an emergency call or text, Emergency Location Service on your Xiaomi phone may be switched off. This feature sends your current GPS position automatically whenever you dial an emergency number, but it only works if the setting is active and your wireless carrier supports it. Some users disable it by accident while adjusting location permissions, which delays help in a real emergency.
Set Up a Privacy Protection Password
Anyone who unlocks your Xiaomi phone can still open apps like Gallery, Notes, or File Manager without a second check, exposing personal photos or documents. The screen lock protects the whole device but not individual apps, which is where a separate privacy password comes in.
Save Location Info for Photos and Videos
Photos and videos from the Xiaomi camera arrive without any location tag, so sorting vacation shots by place later only works if you remember the trip yourself. That happens because the camera option for saving location info sits switched off out of the box. Turning it on lets the Camera app attach GPS coordinates to every photo and video you capture.
Blur Effect for App Previews
When you swipe through recent apps on your Xiaomi phone, the preview thumbnails can show account balances, chat messages or other personal details in plain sight. MIUI lets you blur individual app previews so text and layout become unreadable at a glance. The setting works per app, which means it is easy to forget for apps you add later, such as a new banking or messaging app.
Allow or Deny Apps to Modify System Settings
Some apps on your Xiaomi phone quietly hold permission to change system settings like brightness, do-not-disturb or notification behavior, even after you stopped using them. If a random app is toggling display or sound settings on its own, this hidden permission is usually the cause. You can review and revoke it for individual apps without affecting others.
Turn on TalkBack
Once TalkBack starts running, every tap on the screen gets read aloud instead of performed right away, which throws off anyone who did not expect the phone to switch to gesture-based navigation. This screen reader is essential for blind or low-vision users, but a stray touch inside the Accessibility menu can turn it on by accident too, changing how the whole interface reacts to touch. Knowing exactly where the toggle sits helps you switch it on deliberately or turn it back off if the phone suddenly stops responding to normal taps.
Adjust Screen Brightness
If the display on your Xiaomi phone looks too dark indoors or blinds you at night, the brightness slider is set wrong or auto-brightness is fighting your manual changes. A screen running at full brightness all day is also one of the fastest ways to drain the battery. Getting the level right matters both for comfort and battery life.
Add Contacts to a Group
Groups on your Xiaomi phone stay empty until you actually assign contacts to them. You can add people either from a single contact's profile or from inside the group itself, and mixing up the two methods is where most confusion starts. Knowing which screen controls group membership saves you from re-adding the same contact twice.
Mirror Navigation Bar Buttons
If the back button and recent apps button feel like they are on the wrong side of the navigation bar, your Xiaomi phone likely has the default three-button layout active. Left-handed users especially notice this, since reaching for the back key on the left edge feels unnatural. A hidden toggle lets you flip the order of these two buttons without changing anything else on the home button.
Share Wi-Fi Password via QR Code
Typing out a long Wi-Fi password for every visitor gets tedious, especially with random letter-number combos. Xiaomi phones can turn your current network credentials into a scannable QR code instead. Anyone with a camera can then join the network without you dictating a single character.
Create or Remove Dual Apps
Running two WhatsApp or Facebook accounts on one phone usually fails because those apps only allow a single login at a time. Dual apps gets around that by cloning the app into a second icon with its own data and notifications, fully separate from the original. Without setting this up, you are stuck logging out and back in every time you want to switch accounts.
Send a Group Message (SMS/MMS)
When you try to text several people at once on a Xiaomi phone, it is not always clear whether picking multiple names in Contacts actually creates a real group thread. MIUI also switches silently between SMS and MMS depending on whether photos or long text are attached, so replies can end up scattered across separate one-on-one chats instead of a single conversation.
Turn MMS Read Receipts On or Off
If contacts can see the moment they read your MMS messages, or you cannot tell whether your own texts got opened, the read receipt option is likely misconfigured on your Xiaomi phone. This setting works separately from standard SMS delivery reports and needs its own toggle inside the messaging app. On Dual SIM devices, each SIM line can carry a different receipt setting, which often explains why the behavior seems inconsistent between conversations.