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.
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.
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.
Custom Image on Always-on Display
If the pre-installed Always-on Display themes on your Xiaomi phone all look the same, you can swap them for a photo of your own. MIUI lets you pick any image from your gallery instead of the default clock designs. Once applied, you can still adjust the clock position, text color, and how battery or notification icons appear on top of your picture.
Remove a Contact from Speed Dial
Speed dial slots on Xiaomi phones fill up fast, and once all numbers are taken you cannot assign a new one until an old entry is cleared. Removing a number from the list only deletes the shortcut, not the contact itself, but the option sits several menus deep inside the call settings and is easy to miss.
Clear RAM and Storage
If your Xiaomi phone feels sluggish or storage keeps filling up, junk files, app cache, and rarely used apps are often the cause. MIUI includes a built-in cleanup tool that clears RAM and storage in one pass, but what actually gets removed depends on which categories you select before confirming.
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 Tap Sounds On or Off
Every tap on a button, the Back key, or a menu item triggers a short click sound on your Xiaomi phone. If that noise gets distracting during calls, meetings, or at night, the Tap sounds setting is behind it and can be switched off just as quickly as it can be turned back on.
Turn Off Battery Saver Automatically After Charging
If Battery saver stays active even after your Xiaomi phone finishes charging, it keeps throttling performance and dimming the screen longer than needed. MIUI can switch Battery saver off on its own once the battery reaches a set charge level, so you don't have to remember to disable it by hand every time you unplug the charger.
Stay on Lock Screen After Face Unlock
If your phone jumps straight to the home screen after face unlock, you lose the chance to glance at notifications or widgets on the lock screen first. Other users want the opposite and prefer to land on the home screen right away without an extra tap. This behavior comes from a single toggle hidden inside the Face unlock settings on your Xiaomi phone.
Switch Recent Apps View
On Xiaomi phones, Recents stacks open apps vertically below each other by default, which can feel cramped if you are used to the classic card layout. MIUI lets you switch to a horizontal row instead, so apps line up side by side like in older Android versions. This setting sits in the Home screen options, not inside the multitasking menu itself.
Show or Hide Week Numbers in Calendar
Scheduling an event and trying to figure out which calendar week it falls into turns into quick mental math every time. The Calendar app on Xiaomi phones can display the week number next to every row, but the option sits buried in a settings menu most people never open.
Turn a Keyboard On or Off
A new keyboard downloaded from the Play Store does not automatically show up next to Gboard on your Xiaomi phone. Until you switch it on in the input settings, it stays hidden from the language switcher and typing keeps defaulting to the old keyboard. This usually happens with third-party layouts, handwriting keyboards, or apps installed after the initial setup.
Adjust Ringtone Volume for Calls and Notifications
If calls ring too loud while notifications stay silent, the culprit is usually the separate volume sliders inside Sound & vibration. Xiaomi phones control ringtone, reminder and notification volume independently, so lowering one slider does not affect the others. This mismatch often causes missed calls or alerts that trigger at the wrong volume.
Restrict Mobile Data Usage for an App
If a Xiaomi phone burns through your data plan even though you barely open certain apps, background data access is usually the cause. By default every installed app can use mobile data and Wi-Fi without restriction. On dual-SIM phones this applies separately to each SIM slot, which makes it harder to spot which line is actually consuming the data.
Edit and Rearrange Quick Settings
If the toggle you need most sits at the bottom of the control center or is missing entirely, you have to scroll or swipe further every time you want to switch it on. MIUI lets you add, remove and reorder these quick settings tiles, but the edit option is easy to miss if you have never opened it before.
Enable Reading Mode in Mi Browser
Bright white pages in Mi Browser can strain your eyes during long reading sessions, especially at night. Xiaomi's reading mode swaps sharp whites for a warmer tone and dims contrast to reduce eye strain, but many people miss the intensity slider that controls how strong the effect actually is. Without adjusting it, the change can feel too subtle or too aggressive.
Allow or Deny Do Not Disturb Access for Apps
When an app suddenly enables Do Not Disturb on its own, or a call app keeps muting notifications you actually want to see, a hidden system permission is usually behind it. On Xiaomi phones, individual apps can request permission to switch Do Not Disturb on or off, and that access is not always obvious from the app itself. Checking which apps hold this permission helps you regain control over your notifications.
Set Touch & Hold Delay
If long-pressing an app icon on your Xiaomi home screen either opens the shortcut menu too fast by accident or takes too long to react, the touch and hold delay is set to the wrong stage. This timing controls how long you need to keep your finger down before a long-press action triggers, and it affects every control element that supports it, not just app shortcuts.
Add New Browser Tabs
Closing your current page every time you want to check something else in Mi Browser gets old fast. If you cannot find a way to browse two pages at once without losing your place, the tab feature in Mi Browser solves that without extra apps.
Switch to Scientific Calculator Mode
You open the Calculator app on your Xiaomi phone expecting only basic math, but functions like sine, cosine, tangent, square roots or Pi are nowhere to be found. Many users assume the app simply lacks these tools, when in fact they are hidden behind a display mode that most people never trigger. Without knowing the trick, you end up switching to a third-party app for calculations your phone already supports.
Change Ringtone for a Contact Group
If every group member still rings with the default tone, or one contact keeps overriding the sound you picked, the group ringtone setting inside the Contacts app is being ignored. On Xiaomi phones a ringtone assigned directly to a single contact always takes priority over any group-level tone, no matter what you set in My groups. That mix-up is the most common reason a group ringtone seems to have no effect.
Turn Personalized Ad Recommendations On or Off
If ads on your Xiaomi phone feel oddly tied to your recent searches or app activity, Personalized ad recommendations is the setting behind it. Switching it off does not lower how many banners you see, it only stops MIUI from matching them to your interests and usage data.