Turn On/Off Always-on Display
If your Xiaomi screen stays completely black in standby, you might be missing the time, battery level, or notifications at a glance. This depends on the Always-on display feature, which only works on Xiaomi models with an OLED panel, not on LCD screens.
Clear App Cache
If an app on your Xiaomi phone keeps crashing, freezing, or throwing error messages, leftover cache files are often the reason. Over time these temporary files pile up and can overlap or corrupt each other, causing an app to behave oddly even though nothing else changed. Clearing the cache removes that clutter without touching your saved data or settings.
Fingerprint Unlock for App Lock
If a locked app on your Xiaomi phone keeps asking for the app lock password even though your fingerprint sensor works everywhere else, fingerprint unlock for App lock is probably switched off. This setting lets you skip the PIN or pattern entry for individual apps and confirm access with your finger instead. Without it enabled, MIUI falls back to the password every time you open a protected app.
Delete a Single SMS Message
Deleting a whole conversation wipes out every message in that thread, even the ones you still need. Sometimes you only want one text gone, like an old verification code or a message sent to the wrong person. On Xiaomi phones, single messages inside a conversation can be removed without touching the rest of the thread.
Enable or Disable Spell Check
If words get underlined the moment you type them on your Xiaomi phone, spell check is active in the keyboard. Unlike autocorrect, spell check only flags a word as wrong without changing it, which can feel distracting when you type quickly or use slang. You can turn this marking on or off separately from autocorrect.
Enable or Disable Simple View for Contact List
If your contact list on your Xiaomi phone feels cluttered with profile pictures and extra info, a simple list view can clean things up. This setting in the Contacts app controls whether photos and details show up next to each name, or whether you just get plain text entries. Switching it off makes scrolling through a large contact list faster and less distracting.
Show or Hide Notification Icons in the Status Bar
When your status bar stays empty even though an app has new messages, the notification icon display in MIUI might be switched off. This setting decides whether small app icons show up next to the clock so you can spot new activity without unlocking your phone. If it is disabled, you will only notice new notifications once you pull down the shade.
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.
Turn Screen Wake for Notifications On or Off
If your Xiaomi phone lights up every single time a notification arrives, that constant flashing can drain the battery and get annoying fast, especially at night. On the other hand, if the display stays black and you only hear the notification tone, you might be missing messages you actually want to see right away. Both behaviors come from one single toggle in the lock screen settings.
Turn Flashlight On or Off
Need to switch on the LED flash on the back of your Xiaomi phone without opening the camera app? The flashlight toggle sits in the quick settings panel, but if you rarely use it the icon is easy to overlook. An unresponsive toggle usually points to a Control center layout change, not a broken LED.
Turn On/Off Device Watermark on Photos
Every photo you take with your Xiaomi phone gets a small watermark in the bottom left corner, showing which device captured the shot. If you want cleaner images for sharing or printing, that watermark can get in the way fast.
Pair a Bluetooth Device
If your headset, earbuds, or speaker will not connect to your Xiaomi phone, the accessory usually needs to be paired first before Bluetooth can use it. Until pairing finishes, the phone will not list it as an active connection, so audio and calls stay on the built-in speaker.
Turn On/Off Color Correction (Accessibility)
If someone using your Xiaomi phone has trouble distinguishing colors in charts, status icons, or notification dots, the screen's color rendering may need adjusting for a vision deficiency like red-green color blindness. MIUI ships with a color correction filter built into the Vision accessibility tools, but it stays disabled by default and is easy to miss. Without it turned on, the display keeps showing standard colors that are hard to tell apart for certain types of color vision anomalies.
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.
Delete a Contact Group
If a contact group in the Xiaomi Contacts app is cluttering your groups list, you can remove it without losing the people inside it. Many users hesitate because they assume deleting a group also deletes the assigned contacts. In reality, only the group label itself gets removed, while every contact stays saved on the device.
Resize a Home Screen Widget
When a widget takes up too much space or looks squeezed on your Xiaomi home screen, the easiest fix is adjusting its size instead of removing it. Not every widget supports resizing, and some only offer fixed size steps rather than free dragging. Knowing which widgets react to resize handles saves you from rearranging your whole layout.
Pin a Conversation
If an important chat keeps sliding down your conversation list on a Xiaomi phone, new messages from other contacts push it out of view. The Messaging app sorts threads by recent activity, so a conversation without fresh replies eventually disappears from the top. Pinning keeps that specific chat visible regardless of how much new activity happens elsewhere.
Set Always-on Display Duration
If your Always-on display only flashes for a few seconds after you tap the screen, it is set to the short timer instead of staying on permanently. On MIUI you can choose between a brief 10-second preview and a version that stays active the whole time your phone is locked or in standby.
Disable Wi-Fi Direct
On many Xiaomi phones the Wi-Fi Direct toggle looks greyed out or simply refuses to switch off. That happens because the feature stays active as long as at least one device remains paired to it. Disconnecting every paired device is the only way to actually shut Wi-Fi Direct down.
One-Handed Keyboard Mode
Typing with one thumb on a large Xiaomi screen often means missing keys on the far side of the keyboard. The stock layout stretches across the full display width, so you end up stretching your thumb or shifting your grip with every message. Xiaomi's keyboard settings can shrink and pin the whole layout to the left or right edge instead.
Limit Connected Hotspot Devices
By default, your Xiaomi phone lets an unlimited number of devices join your mobile hotspot at once. That can slow down your connection and makes it hard to track who is actually using your data. Setting a maximum device count gives you back control over who connects.
Show Memory Status in Recent Apps
When you swipe up to check recent apps on a Xiaomi phone, the memory bar at the top sometimes just isn't there, leaving you without a quick read on free RAM. This indicator only reports live usage and does not close or manage background apps on its own. Without it turned on, you lose a fast way to judge whether your phone is actually running low on memory.
Data Usage Warning: Enable or Disable
If your Xiaomi phone keeps popping up mobile data warnings even though you barely use your plan, or it stays silent right before you hit your limit, the Data usage monitor in the Security app is behind that behavior. This setting decides whether you get proactive alerts or none at all, independent of what your carrier app shows.
Check for System Updates
If you swiped away the update notification on your Xiaomi phone or never saw it pop up, the update itself is not lost. MIUI still tracks it in the background, you just need to trigger the check yourself. This matters when a security patch or bugfix has been sitting unnoticed for weeks.