Showing posts with label experience. Show all posts
Showing posts with label experience. Show all posts
Thursday, September 21, 2017
Guide to setting up a Xiaomi MIUI phone for a more Stock Android experience
Guide to setting up a Xiaomi MIUI phone for a more Stock Android experience
While I love Xiaomis hardware, there are a number of issues I have with MIUIs default settings and application handling.
In this post I will outline which settings I modify in order to provide a more usable experience, at least for my tastes.
Note that the instructions below assume you have at least installed the Google Play store on your device and that it is running MIUI 8. Personally I use the latest Xiaomi.eu firmware on all my Xiaomi devices.
Launcher
While the default MIUI launcher is fine for some, it is not to my taste. I prefer the stock Google Now launcher.
The following steps are required to set the Google Now launcher as the default.
1. Install the Google app and the Google Now Launcher from the Play store
2. Open the Google app from within the Play store & set it up.
3. Go into the Security app & select Permissions
4. In Autostart, enable the Google and Google Now apps
5. Reboot the phone
6. Go to Settings / Installed Apps / Defaults.
7. Change the Launcher to Google App.
8. Press the Home button and set up the Launcher
9. Go into the Security app & select Battery
10. Select App battery saver
11. For Google App and Google Now Launcher, select No restrictions and Background location Allow.
MIUI is extremely restrictive on providing Apps with the permissions they need and preventing apps from running in the background.
This often leads to significant issues, such as missing notifications due to MIUI having killed the app in the background.
Fixing application restrictions involves a number of steps.
Autostart Permissions
1. Go into the Security app & select Permissions
2. In Autostart, enable any app that should be allowed to start when the phones starts - e.g. email clients, messaging apps, social networks, alarm clock / timers, apps that need to sync data etc.
Background Processes
1. Go to Settings / Battery & Performance
2. Go to Manage apps battery usage
3. Turn Off Power Saving Modes
Battery saver restrictions
2. Ensure Battery Saver is Off
3. Select App battery saver
4. Against each app you wish to keep running in the background, click on the app
5. Select No restrictions and Background location Allow.
Be sure to revisit this when you install new apps you wish to run in the background
Developer Options
There are two useful flags in Developer Options to reduce the aggressiveness of killing background processes. To enable Developer Options go to:
Settings / About Phone & press 7 times on the "MIUI version" section to Enable Developer Options (Settings / Additional Settings / Developer Options)
1. Set Memory Optimization to Off.
2. Set Turn on MIUI Optinization to Off.
Application defaults
Once all your apps are installed on the device, it is a good idea to set the default applications for each category, e.g. Browser, Gallery, Email, Video etc
Go to Settings / Installed Apps / Defaults to select your favourite app in each category.
Languages
English in MIUI is defined as American English, but as a UK resident, I prefer to set the phone up to reflect UK preferences, such as date formats and keyboard layouts.
1. Go to Settings / Additional settings
1. Back in Language & Input, chose Spell checker
2. Change the Language to English (United Kingdom)
1. In Language & Input, chose Text-to-speech output
2. Configure the Google Text-to-speech Engine
3. Change the Language to English (United Kingdom)
Once all your apps are installed on the device, it is a good idea to set the default applications for each category, e.g. Browser, Gallery, Email, Video etc
Go to Settings / Installed Apps / Defaults to select your favourite app in each category.
Languages
English in MIUI is defined as American English, but as a UK resident, I prefer to set the phone up to reflect UK preferences, such as date formats and keyboard layouts.
1. Go to Settings / Additional settings
2. Go to Language & input
3. If using the Google keyboard, select Google keyboard
4. Deselect Use system language
5. Enable English (UK) and disable English (US)
6. In Dictionary, select Sync learned words and sync to your Google account1. Back in Language & Input, chose Spell checker
2. Change the Language to English (United Kingdom)
1. In Language & Input, chose Text-to-speech output
2. Configure the Google Text-to-speech Engine
3. Change the Language to English (United Kingdom)
4. Install the TTS voice data for English (United Kingdom)
Adding Languages
If you wish to add new languages to your phone, or change the system language from, for example, English (United States) to English (United Kingdom), the MoreLangs app is very useful.
1. Install and run MoreLangs
2. Select your desired language
3. If your phone is not rooted, click "Make it work"
4. Click on the link to the tutorial. This will require connecting the device to a PC and using ADB to grant the app the relevant permissions.
NOTE: To enable USB Debugging, you will need to go into Settings / About phone and click on MIUI version 7 times.
Go to Settings / Additional settings / Developer options and enable USB debugging
In essence, you will need to perform the following adb command:
adb shell pm grant sightidea.com.setlocale android.permission.CHANGE_CONFIGURATION
5. Once performed, re-open the app and select the desired language again.
By default, MIUI does not show Notification icons on the homescreen. To enable this:
1. Go to Settings / Notification & status bar
2. Enable "Show notification icons"
Battery percentage
MIUI allows the user to enable a battery percentage display next to the battery icon.
1. Go to Settings / Notification & status bar
2. Change Battery indicator from Graphical to Percentage.
A number of apps, such as Mapping and Routing apps, require High Accuracy location.
1. Go to Settings / Additional Settings / Privacy / Location
2. Change Location Mode to High Accuracy
I personally love built-in Do Not Disturb, to prevent notifications and unwanted calls from waking me up in the night.
1. Go to Settings / Do not disturb
2. Set this up to your preferences, including exceptions.
Data Usage
The Data Usage feature can be useful to ensure you do not go over your monthly data allowance.
1. Open the Security App
2. Go to Data usage and Set data usage limit
3. Set the Warning level and reset data
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Wednesday, September 13, 2017
Geek Trivia The Experience Of Transitioning Between Wakefulness And Sleep Is Called
Geek Trivia The Experience Of Transitioning Between Wakefulness And Sleep Is Called
Think you know the answer? Click through to see if youre right!
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