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.
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.
Auto-download Updates via Mobile Data
If your Xiaomi phone keeps pulling system updates in the background while you are off Wi-Fi, mobile data usage can climb fast without warning. MIUI treats update downloads as automatic once a new version is detected, and a separate toggle decides whether mobile data counts as an allowed source for that download. Switching it off limits update downloads to Wi-Fi only, which matters if you are on a limited plan.
Send Photos and Videos via Bluetooth
Sending a photo or video from your Xiaomi phone to a paired device sometimes stalls right after you tap Share, or the target device never shows up in the list. This usually comes down to picking the wrong sharing option or Bluetooth pairing not being active. The steps below use MIUI's file sharing menu, which works the same for pictures, videos and most other file types.
Snooze App Notifications
When a chat app or delivery tracker keeps buzzing during a meeting, muting it completely isn't always what you want. MIUI lets you pause a single notification for a set time instead of turning it off for good. This keeps the alert coming back later without touching the app's notification settings.
Configure Individual System App Settings
When Security, Messages, or Camera on your Xiaomi phone keeps auto-updating or asking for permissions you never approved, a hidden per-app toggle in System app settings is usually the cause. Each preinstalled MIUI app, from Calendar to Recorder, carries its own switches for updates, notifications, and background data that do not show up on the regular app info screen. Finding the right toggle for the right app is the only way to fix the behavior without disabling the whole app.
Set Up a Portable Wi-Fi Hotspot
If your Xiaomi phone still hands out a hotspot name and password nobody chose, other people nearby can guess it or connect without permission. A weak default SSID also makes it harder to spot your own hotspot among several devices in the same room. Setting a custom name and password fixes both problems and keeps the connection under your control.
Allow Repeated Calls in Do Not Disturb
When Do Not Disturb is active on your Xiaomi phone, every incoming call gets silenced, even urgent ones. MIUI has a separate setting that lets a second call from the same number within a short window ring through instead of staying muted.
Turn Off Suggestions in Recent Apps Menu
If your recent apps screen on a Xiaomi phone keeps showing extra tiles for Cleaner, Security scan, Deep cleaning or Manage Apps, a system suggestion feature is adding them automatically. This can make the app switcher feel cluttered and slower to scan through, especially if you only want to see your open apps.
Switch Between Old and New Control Center Style
If your Xiaomi phone still shows the older two-panel layout after an update, or you miss that classic view after switching to the newer simplified overview, the display style does not change on its own. It sits behind a separate setting that many people never open. Notifications and quick toggles stay mixed together until you pick the layout you actually want.
Turn Off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Scanning for Location
Even with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth switched off, your Xiaomi phone can still scan nearby networks and devices to sharpen its location fix. Apps with location permission trigger this background scanning automatically, keeping your radios active more often than expected. If you want tighter control over when your phone searches for networks, the scanning setting needs to be adjusted separately from the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth toggles.
Delete an Album in Gallery
Deleting an album on your Xiaomi phone also deletes every photo and video still stored inside it. This catches a lot of people off guard when they just wanted to tidy up their Gallery app and end up losing media they meant to keep. Knowing which albums are safe to remove and which ones hold originals is key before you tap delete.
Fix Fisheye Distortion in Ultra Wide Shots
Ultra wide shots on your Xiaomi phone sometimes bulge at the edges, making straight lines look curved like a fisheye lens. This happens because the wide field of view stretches objects near the corners of the frame. The camera app can correct this automatically, but the setting is easy to overlook.
Back Up Phone Data to Google Drive
If your Xiaomi phone gets reset, lost or swapped for a new one, contacts, messages and app data disappear unless a backup exists somewhere else. MIUI has a built-in option to save that data to Google Drive, but the toggle sits buried in the general settings and is easy to miss until you actually need it.
Turn On App Lock
If anyone can open your banking, messaging, or gallery apps just by unlocking your phone, sensitive content stays exposed. Xiaomi phones include a separate app-level lock that adds a second layer of protection on top of your screen lock. Setting it up wrong, or skipping the fingerprint option, often leaves some apps unprotected.
Manage Updates for System Apps
If your Xiaomi phone keeps nagging you about system app updates - or stays silent when new versions are actually ready - the System apps updater settings are probably not set the way you want. MIUI lets you control whether update notifications show up, whether updates install automatically, and whether downloads run on Wi-Fi only or also over mobile data. Leaving these settings on default can mean unexpected data usage or missed fixes.
Change Contacts App Theme (Light or Dark)
On Xiaomi phones, the Contacts app can keep its own light or dark look even after you switch the phone-wide display mode in system settings. That mismatch happens because the app ships with a separate theme option that overrides the system default. Calls and messages screens can stay bright at night or dark during the day because of it.
Mark Contact as Favorite
If a contact you call or message often gets buried in a long list, you probably haven't set it as a favorite yet. Favorites move straight to the top of the Contacts app and speed up dialing from the Phone app. It's a quick toggle, but easy to miss since it's tucked inside the contact detail view.
Show Emojis in the Symbols Keyboard
On Xiaomi phones the symbols keyboard can display your most recently used emojis for quicker access, but that suggestion strip stays hidden by default. The Mi keyboard needs this behavior turned on separately before recent emojis appear next to the symbols and numbers.
Auto-Disable Ultra Battery Saver at 50% Charge
Once your Xiaomi phone reaches around 50% charge, Ultra battery saver can switch itself off without asking, dropping all the restrictions it just applied. If you rely on the extreme power-saving mode staying active until you manually turn it off, this automatic behavior gets in the way. The setting controlling this is separate from the regular battery saver toggle.
Turn Portable Wi-Fi Hotspot On or Off
If other devices cannot get online through your Xiaomi phone, the portable hotspot might simply be switched off or still using a network name and password you do not remember. This feature turns your mobile data connection into a Wi-Fi network for laptops, tablets or other phones nearby. Once it is active, the tricky part is usually finding the right toggle again, since it sits inside a settings screen most people only visit once.
Rename a Paired Bluetooth Device
When several Bluetooth accessories are paired to your Xiaomi phone, the device list can quickly fill up with cryptic model numbers or partial MAC addresses. Telling a pair of earbuds apart from a car stereo or a fitness tracker gets difficult once the default names look identical. Renaming each paired device gives you a clear label instead of guessing which entry belongs to which gadget.
Turn On/Off Camera Live Tips
If your Xiaomi camera keeps popping up messages about a dirty lens or telling you to hold the phone level, the Live tips feature is running in the background. These prompts are useful for beginners but can get in the way during fast shooting, and not everyone wants every single tip active.
Turn Quick Responses On or Off
When a call comes in and you cannot pick up, MIUI can send the caller a short text instead of just cutting them off. If that automatic reply keeps firing at the wrong moments or refuses to trigger at all, the Quick responses feature needs a check.