The brand's smartphones Redmi have earned popularity due to their excellent price-performance ratio, but many users are annoyed by the company's aggressive advertising policy. Device owners often encounter intrusive banners in system applications, pop-ups, and personalized recommendations that appear completely inappropriately. Fortunately, the developers have provided the ability to disable most advertising mechanisms, although this option is not on the surface.
The process of clearing the interface of marketing content does not require obtaining root access or installing third-party firmware. It is enough to go through the system settings one by one and disable several key services responsible for collecting data and displaying ads. In this article, we will analyze in detail every step necessary to ensure that your Xiaomi or Redmi becomes a clean and convenient tool, and not an advertising platform.
Disabling the MSA system service
The central element of the advertising ecosystem in the MIUI and HyperOS shell is the service MSA (MIUI System Ads). It is this process that is responsible for loading and displaying most banners in system utilities. Completely disabling this service is the first and most important step towards a clean interface on your device.
To deactivate the service, you need to go to the application settings section. Find the item Applications in the list All applications and enter the abbreviation in the search msa. You will see an application called "MSA". Click on it to open the control menu. Here you will need to switch the toggle switch Autorun to the inactive position, and then press the button Disable at the bottom of the screen.
The system may try to stop you. When you press the disable button, you will see a countdown timer (typically 10 seconds) and a message indicating that disabling the feature will affect some services. You need to wait until the countdown ends and press Disableagain. Sometimes the procedure doesn’t work the first time, and the phone asks you to wait or tries to redirect you to the theme store. In this case, simply try to disable it 2-3 times in a row - this is the standard behavior of ad module protection.
⚠️ Attention: After disabling MSA, advertising in system applications may not disappear instantly, but within 24 hours. Do not rush to reset the settings if the banners remain immediately after the procedure.
☑️ Checking whether MSA is disabled
Setting up personalization and advertising recommendations
In addition to explicitly displaying banners, the system uses your data to content targeting. To stop collecting information about your preferences and activities to create an advertising profile, you must disable the personalization service. This will reduce the relevance of the proposed advertising, but most importantly, it will limit the transfer of data to the company’s servers.
Go to menu Settings, then select section Passwords and security. In the list, find the item Access to personal data (in some firmware versions it may be called “Confidentiality”). Here you will see a list of services that have access to your data. Find the service msa and uncheck it. Confirm the action in the dialog box that appears.
Next, you should disable usage-based recommendations. In the same section Passwords and security find the item Privacy and scroll down to the section Advertising services. Activate the option Disable ad personalization. It is also recommended to go to your Mi account settings and disable receiving advertising offers in the section About the system -> User agreement and privacy.
What is an advertising identifier?
An Advertising ID is a unique number assigned to your device to track interests. Resetting this identifier breaks the connection between your browsing history and your current profile, making advertising less accurate.
Removing advertising from system applications
Even after turning off global services, individual system utilities may continue to show ads in their interfaces. This applies to apps such as Security, File Explorer, Music, Video, and Downloads. Each of them has its own settings for displaying recommendations, which must be disabled manually.
Let's look at the main applications and ways to disable annoying elements:
- 🛡️ Security application: Go into the application, click on the settings gear in the corner. Find the item
Get recommendationsand disable it. It’s also worth disabling “Connect to the network for updates” if you want to completely isolate the application. - 📁 Explorer: Open the application, go to the menu (three bars) ->
Settings->About the application. Turn off the toggle switchGet recommendations. This will remove advertising banners from the main page of the file manager. - 🎵 Music and Video applications: In both cases, the algorithm is similar: Menu ->
Settings->Advanced->Show ads(or "Get recommendations"). Turn the switch to the inactive state.
Don't forget to also check application Downloads. Often this is where offers to install games or other applications accumulate. Go to the download settings through the three dots in the corner and disable the item Show recommended content.
⚠️ Attention: The interface and names of menu items may vary slightly depending on the version of MIUI or HyperOS. If you do not find an exact match of the name, look for synonyms like “Recommendations”, “Promo” or “Tips”.
Cleaning notifications and the "Downloads" folder
One of the most annoying types of advertising are push notifications from system services offering install games, clear memory or apply for a loan. These notifications are often disguised as system messages, causing the user to click on them by mistake. The source of such messages is usually services MDA or Analytics.
To combat this, go to Settings -> Notifications and status bar -> Manage notifications. Scroll down the list to system apps. Find applications with names Analytics, MDA (Mi Video/Music Ads), GetApps (Mi app store). Go to the settings of each of them and completely prohibit sending notifications.
It is also worth cleaning out the folder Download (Downloads) in the file manager. Often, advertising APK files accumulate there after accidentally clicking on banners in the browser. Deleting these files will not only free up space, but will also prevent the accidental installation of malware, which can generate advertising at the level of a running application, and not the system.
| Service / Application | Advertising type | Action |
|---|---|---|
| MSA | System banners | Disable in application settings |
| Analytics | Data collection, push notifications | Prohibit notifications and access |
| GetApps | Game and software offers | Disable notifications and auto-update |
| MDA | Advertising in media players | Block notifications |
If you cannot find the MDA application in the list, try showing hidden system processes in application settings by clicking on the three dots in the corner and selecting the appropriate item.
Blocking ads in the browser and through DNS
A significant part of advertising garbage comes not from the system, but from the Internet through the browser. Built-in browser Mi Browser is known for its penchant for displaying news feeds and advertising blocks on the start page. The most radical method is to abandon it in favor of cleaner alternatives, such as Chrome, Firebase or Brave.
If you prefer to remain in the ecosystem, go to your browser settings. Disable the item News feed or Recommendations on the main page. However, a more effective method is to configure Private DNS at the level of the entire operating system. This method allows you to block ads in all applications and browsers without installing additional software.
To activate, go to Settings -> Connection and sharing (or "Additional settings") -> Private DNS. Select the "DNS Provider Hostname" mode and enter the following value:
dns.adguard.comSave the settings. Now all requests to known ad servers will be blocked at the network level. This will significantly speed up page loading and remove banners from most applications and games. If, after enabling DNS, some applications stop working or loading content, you can always return the setting to Auto mode.
Using a private DNS with the address dns.adguard.com is the most effective way to block ads throughout the system without the need for root access.
⚠️ Attention: Blocking ads via DNS may conflict with some corporate Wi-Fi networks or specific ones services that require a direct connection to advertising networks to work (rare, but found in free versions of some games).
Resetting the advertising identifier and final cleaning
The final stage of optimization is resetting the advertising identifier. This action resets the profile that the system managed to collect about your interests before the changes were made. Although we have already disabled personalization, resetting the ID will ensure that old data will not be used to show cached ads.
Find the section in settings Google (not to be confused with Mi account). Inside the Google menu, select Advertising. There you will see two useful options: Remove advertising identifier and Disable ad personalization. Do both. This will break the connection between your device and Google advertising networks, which are also integrated into Android.
After completing all procedures, it is recommended to restart your smartphone. A restart is necessary to ensure that any background processes that may have remained in memory are permanently terminated and the new DNS settings and disabled services take effect. After turning on, check the system applications - the interface should become noticeably cleaner.
Is it possible to remove system applications completely?
Yes, but this will require ADB commands from the computer. Removal through settings is often not available. Be careful: removing critical system components may cause the phone to not work (bootloop).
Frequently asked questions (FAQ)
Will advertising return after updating the firmware?
Unfortunately, yes. Major MIUI updates or upgrading to a new version of Android (HyperOS) may reset some application settings or return MSA services to enabled. It is recommended to save these instructions and check the settings after each major system update.
Is it safe to disable the MSA service?
Yes, it is absolutely safe. The MSA service is solely responsible for serving advertisements. Disabling it does not affect the stability of the phone, the ability to make calls or the operation of basic applications. In rare cases, some thematic offers may disappear in the theme store, but this is not critical.
Why do advertisements appear in other people's applications after installation?
If advertisements pop up on top of other applications or on the desktop, most likely you accidentally installed a malicious application with a miner virus or an ad module. Check the list of recently installed apps, remove suspicious ones and scan your phone through the built-in Security application.
How to remove ads in the calendar and weather?
In the "Calendar" application, go to settings (three bars) -> Settings -> Subscription and turn off receiving recommendations. In the Weather application, the path is similar: Menu -> Settings -> disable Get recommendations. Sometimes you also need to disable Internet access for these applications if they continue to load content.
Will resetting before help? Factory settings?
A factory reset will delete all your data and apps, but will return your advertising settings to the default state, which means advertising will be turned on. You will still have to manually go through the process of disabling MSA and other services after the reset.