Hide or Show the Notch
If icons or app content get cut off by the camera cutout on your Xiaomi phone, the Notch display setting is likely still set to show full-screen content behind it. Some apps stretch their layout right into the cutout area, hiding status bar icons or clipping off parts of the interface. MIUI lets you switch between covering the Notch with a black bar or letting content run around it.
Set Up Automatic Cache Clearing
Cache files pile up quietly in the background and can eat into your storage or slow down apps over time. Xiaomi phones running MIUI include a setting that clears this cache on its own once the screen locks, but it is off or set to a schedule you may not want. Adjusting the timing decides how often your device cleans up automatically without you doing it by hand.
Set the Default Media Volume Level
Videos, music, and games on your Xiaomi phone start way too loud or too quiet, and pressing the Volume buttons only helps once something is already playing. That happens because Media volume runs on its own channel, separate from ringtone and notification levels in MIUI.
Turn Color Inversion On or Off
If your Xiaomi phone suddenly shows a black background with white text everywhere, or photos and videos look like a photo negative, Color inversion is likely switched on. This accessibility feature swaps colors system-wide, including in apps, galleries, and the camera preview, which can make the phone look broken until you know where to turn it off.
Turn On/Off Contact Suggestions
When Contact suggestions are active on a Xiaomi phone, the keyboard pulls names, numbers and email addresses from your Contacts app while you type messages or fill out forms. That can be handy for quick replies, but it also means personal details from your address book show up as autocomplete hints in apps that have nothing to do with Contacts. If you want tighter control over what your keyboard suggests, this setting is the one to check.
Game Turbo Settings
Game Turbo hides a long list of toggles that most Xiaomi owners never open, covering things like Game Speed Booster, ingame shortcuts and how added apps get removed from the list. If a game still throttles mid-match, notifications keep breaking through, or an external screen behaves oddly while gaming, one of these switches is usually the cause. The settings panel controls all of this from a single screen, but the options are easy to miss.
Set Start of Week in Calendar
If your calendar always opens on a Sunday even though you expect Monday to be the first column, the app is just following the region setting on your phone. This mismatch makes weekly planning confusing, especially when you compare dates with colleagues or family using a different week layout. A quick setting inside the Calendar app fixes the view for good.
Turn Off Mobile Data When Device Is Locked
If your Xiaomi phone keeps burning through mobile data even while sitting locked in your pocket, a background data setting is likely still active. MIUI can cut mobile data automatically once the screen locks, but the delay before that happens is often left on a setting that does not match how you use the phone. That gap is what causes messages, emails or app updates to keep syncing long after you stopped looking at the screen.
Assign a Custom Ringtone to a Contact
If every incoming call sounds the same, you have to check the screen to know who is calling before you pick up. On Xiaomi phones, the default ringtone applies to all contacts unless you override it manually for specific people.
Change Call Waiting Notification Sound
If the call waiting tone plays continuously instead of just a short beep, or a second incoming call barely gets your attention, the notification style set for call waiting is likely the cause. Xiaomi phones let you pick between a single tone, a repeating tone, or a tone combined with vibration, and the wrong choice makes overlapping calls easy to miss or annoying to handle.
Turn On/Off Long-press for Symbols
If numbers, accents or special characters only appear after holding down a key on your Xiaomi keyboard, Long-press for symbols is doing its job in the background. When this setting is off, those hidden symbols stay invisible and you cannot access them at all through a long press. The delay before a symbol gets inserted can also feel too short or too long, depending on how you type.
Turn On/Off Call Forwarding
Calls landing in voicemail even though your phone never rang usually means call forwarding is already active in the background. On many Xiaomi phones the network sets forwarding for 'busy', 'unanswered' and 'unreachable' cases by default, so you might not notice it until a call disappears. Each of these forwarding rules can be switched on or off separately, or redirected to a different number entirely.
Move Photos or Videos into an Album
Photos and videos pile up in one long Gallery feed until finding a specific shot means endless scrolling. When you try to sort them into an album, Gallery stops you with a choice between moving or copying the file, and picking the wrong option can leave duplicates behind or remove the original from where you expected it.
Turn Screenshot Sound On or Off
Every time you capture a screenshot on a Xiaomi phone, a short chime plays to confirm the capture went through. If that sound feels too loud in meetings or you simply want an audible confirmation back, the setting sits separately from your general ringtone volume and needs its own toggle.
Assign a Photo to a Contact
When a contact shows only initials or a plain avatar during calls and messages, no photo has been linked to that contact yet. MIUI lets you attach an existing picture from your gallery instead of only allowing a new snapshot. Without that link, incoming calls and chat threads stay visually anonymous even if the contact already has a name and number saved.
Turn Accessibility Menu Shortcut On or Off
If a small floating icon suddenly shows up in the bottom right corner of your screen on your Xiaomi phone, the Accessibility menu shortcut has been switched on. This icon opens a panel with accessibility actions and does not change how the rest of the phone works. You can turn it on or off depending on whether you actually need those accessibility tools.
Change Default Dialer App
If you install a new phone or call app on your Xiaomi device, calls may still open in the standard MIUI Dialer instead of your preferred app. This happens because MIUI keeps its own dialer set as default until you switch it manually in the app settings. Third-party dialer apps from the Play Store only take over once you assign them as default there.
Add Extra Contact Details
Only a phone number and name saved for a contact leaves out useful extras like birthday, nickname, or a website link. On Xiaomi phones, MIUI hides these optional fields behind the standard edit screen, so you never see them unless you go looking. Without filling them in, calls and messages only ever show the bare minimum information for that person.
Add a Fingerprint
If you can only unlock your Xiaomi phone with one specific finger, you probably registered just a single fingerprint during setup. MIUI lets you store several fingerprints so both your left and right hand work for unlocking or confirming payments. Each saved fingerprint can also get its own name, which helps when the device is shared with family.
Set a Custom Notification Sound
If you pick a full song as your Xiaomi notification tone, only the first few seconds usually play before the sound gets cut off or overlaps with the next alert. MIUI lets you use almost any audio file stored on your phone as a notification sound, no matter which folder it sits in, but long tracks feel out of place for a quick alert. Trimming the file first keeps notifications short and easy to recognize.
Set a Default Home Screen
Tapping the home button always drops you on the wrong panel, especially if you keep several home screens or widget pages active on your Xiaomi phone. MIUI lets you pin one specific screen as the default target, but this setting is easy to miss and gets reset after a launcher change or update. Without it, the home button just returns to whichever screen you last viewed.
Turn Call Barring On or Off
If your Xiaomi phone keeps racking up charges while roaming abroad, or you need to stop all incoming or outgoing calls for a while, call barring is the setting responsible. Unlike silencing a contact or using Do Not Disturb, call barring blocks calls at the network level and requires a password to change. Getting the wrong option enabled can also cut off calls you actually want, like international or roaming numbers.
Hide and Show Apps on the Home Screen
If an app keeps showing up on your home screen even though you do not want it visible, MIUI can hide it completely as long as App lock is turned on. Without App lock active, the option to hide apps simply does not appear in the menu. Once hidden, an app only reappears after you unlock it with your password or pattern.
Change Preferred Network Type
If your phone shows no or barely any 4G/LTE signal in certain spots, calls drop and data stalls even though older 3G or 2G networks are still available nearby. The Preferred network type setting decides which mobile network your SIM tries first, and the wrong choice can leave you stuck searching for a signal instead of connecting to one that actually works.