Turn On/Off Wi-Fi Calling
Weak signal at home, underground, or in a concrete building often causes dropped calls on a Xiaomi phone, even when Wi-Fi shows full bars. Wi-Fi calling routes voice calls through your wireless network instead of the mobile network, but only works if your carrier actually supports it. If the toggle is missing from your SIM settings, an unsupported plan or outdated carrier profile is usually the reason.
Turn Off User Experience Program
If usage statistics keep syncing quietly in the background on your Xiaomi phone, the User Experience Program is likely still active. This service sends anonymous usage data from your device to Xiaomi to help refine products and features. Since it is not possible to verify exactly what data leaves your device, disabling this option is the safer choice.
Change Device Name
If your Xiaomi phone still shows up under its model number when you scan for Bluetooth devices or connect to a hotspot, that is the default device name at work. It makes picking your phone out of a list of nearby devices harder, especially if you own more than one Xiaomi device. MIUI lets you replace that generic label with a name you actually recognize.
Unhide an Album in Gallery
If a photo album you hid earlier is missing from Gallery, it is not deleted - it just sits in a separate hidden section. Xiaomi keeps hidden albums out of the main view until you unhide them again, and each album needs to be restored on its own.
Show or Hide the Emoji Switch Key
If you type a lot of emojis, switching between the language globe and the emoji picker can slow you down on the MIUI keyboard. The globe icon and the emoji key share the same spot, so only one of them shows on the keyboard row at a time. Turning on the emoji switch key swaps that icon while quick language switching still works by holding the space bar.
Turn Screen Cast On or Off
If your Xiaomi phone won't mirror to a TV or monitor, the built-in Cast feature might be turned off, or your phone and screen aren't on the same Wi-Fi network. Screen Cast behaves differently from many third-party mirroring apps, since playback usually stops the moment you turn off the display. That makes it easy to mistake a disabled toggle for a broken connection.
Change Alarm Tone
If your Xiaomi alarm keeps ringing with the same generic tone or the Nature alarm sound never changes, the ringtone categories in the Clock app are likely the reason. Some categories, like Nature alarm, only rotate through different sounds when the phone has an active internet connection. Without that connection, the alarm falls back to a stored default tone instead of downloading a new one.
Allow Gallery Access to SD Card
If Gallery on your Xiaomi phone refuses to save new photos or won't let you delete files on the SD card, it usually means storage access was never granted. Android blocks apps from writing to external storage until you confirm the permission for that specific card. Until you approve it, Gallery can only display existing files but not create, move or remove anything on the card.
Turn Emergency Alerts On or Off
If your Xiaomi phone keeps buzzing with Amber Alerts or severe weather warnings you never signed up for, the Emergency alerts feature is likely still active in the background. Some people want the opposite and need extreme threat notifications, vibration and voice alerts to actually get through. Either way, the switch sits in a security menu that is easy to overlook.
Keyboard Vibration Settings
If every tap on the on-screen keyboard triggers a buzz that feels too strong or too weak, or typing feedback vanished after an update, the keyboard's Haptic feedback on keypress setting is usually the cause. This option runs independently from your general system vibration, so toggling System vibration alone will not fix it. Notifications and Focus mode profiles do not touch this setting either, since it lives inside the keyboard app itself.
Remove Google Search Bar from Home Screen
After the first setup of a new Xiaomi phone, a Google Search bar sits on the home screen by default and takes up space you might want for widgets or app icons. Many people assume it is a fixed part of MIUI and leave it there without checking. It is actually just a removable widget, so getting rid of it does not require digging through any settings menu.
Turn Location Access On or Off
If maps, weather, or camera apps suddenly stop finding your position on a Xiaomi phone, the general location toggle in MIUI settings might be switched off. Turning it off blocks GPS for every app at once, even those you already granted permission to use your location. This differs from per-app location permissions, which stay untouched but simply can't function without the master switch.
Turn Battery Drain Notifications On or Off
If your Xiaomi phone keeps popping up alerts about fast battery drain, or you never get one and expect to, this setting is the reason. Battery drain notifications warn you when an app or background process burns through power faster than normal. Left enabled, unrelated background tasks can trigger these alerts more often than you would like.
Change Keyboard Theme (Language & Input)
If the Gboard keyboard on your Xiaomi phone still shows the default gray background, the theme setting has never been switched. This only changes the visual layout - colors, gradients or picture backgrounds - and has no effect on autocorrect or typing speed. The key borders can also be turned on or off separately from the overall theme.
Show SIM Card Messages
Old text messages from years back sometimes stay on the SIM card instead of moving into the phone's internal storage. If you swap the SIM into a new Xiaomi phone, those messages do not show up in your normal inbox automatically, so it looks like they are gone.
Enable the Number Row on the Keyboard
If you only get digits by long-pressing the letter keys on your Xiaomi keyboard, the number row is switched off. That is the default state on the MIUI keyboard, so every digit needs an extra long-press instead of a single tap. A dedicated setting adds a permanent row of numbers above the letters, which speeds up typing passwords, codes or addresses.
Assign Custom Button Shortcuts
If double-pressing the power button always opens the camera when you wanted a screenshot instead, the button shortcut linked to that gesture doesn't match how you actually use your phone. MIUI lets you remap gestures like double-press power or long-press volume to actions such as torch, split screen or Google Assistant. Finding and changing that mapping means digging through a settings menu that isn't obvious at first glance.
Change Color Scheme
If photos, videos or app icons on your Xiaomi phone look washed out or overly intense, the display color scheme is likely set to the wrong profile. MIUI lets you switch between a natural, a vivid and a standard color rendering, plus fine-tune the color temperature manually. Picking the wrong option can make skin tones look off or colors appear flat.
Turn Camera Grid Lines On or Off
If your photos keep coming out tilted or the horizon never lines up straight, you are probably shooting without any framing guide. Xiaomi's camera app can overlay a 3x3 grid that helps you keep verticals upright and place the horizon on a clean line. Without it, minor tilts are easy to miss on a small screen and only show up later when you check the shot on a bigger display.
Add Account in Calendar App
If appointments from your Google or work account never show up in the Xiaomi Calendar app, only one account is usually linked to it. Calendar only displays events for accounts you have added yourself, so a new work email or a second Google account stays invisible until you connect it. This is also why events vanish after switching phones or resetting the calendar app.
Change Camera Picture Quality
If your camera storage fills up fast or photos take too long to share, the picture quality setting in the MIUI camera app is often the reason. Xiaomi's camera defaults to a high resolution that produces large files, even when you only need a quick snapshot. Switching between High, Standard, and Low lets you balance sharpness against file size for each situation.
Disable Navigation Bar Per App
Accidentally tapping the Back or Recents button during a full-screen game or video can pull you out of the app at the worst moment. On Xiaomi phones the on-screen navigation bar stays active by default even in apps that do not need it. MIUI lets you set this behavior per app instead of turning it off system-wide.
Turn Notification Badges On or Off Per App
A red dot keeps sitting above an app icon even after you have opened every message inside it. On Xiaomi phones this badge is a separate switch from the notification itself, so muting an app does not always remove the counter. If the dot never clears, or shows up for an app you barely use, the badge toggle for that specific app is still turned on.
Change Notification Sound
When every app on your Xiaomi phone plays the same generic chime, spotting an important message in a stack of notifications gets tricky. MIUI lets you pick a different tone per notification type, and if you run two SIM cards you can even split the sound by line. The tricky part is finding where this setting actually lives, since it is buried a few taps below the general Sound menu.