Why Does My Redmi, POCO or Xiaomi Phone Stop the Camera App With the Screen Off? Autostart, Battery Saver, Recents Lock

You set up an old Redmi, POCO or Xiaomi phone as a camera. It is on the charger, the screen is off, the camera app is recording. Later you check it, and the recording stopped long ago. There is no error. The app has simply been closed, or it opens fresh as if it was never running.

On these phones this is usually not a broken phone and not a broken app. It is the phone's own battery and "cleaning" system, which is built to close apps you are not looking at. A camera with the screen off is exactly that kind of app.

This guide shows the settings that cause it, where to find them on HyperOS and on older MIUI phones, and how to test your phone in ten minutes. It is written for a simple setup: one budget Android phone, no cloud account, no subscription, often with no SIM card and only home or shop Wi-Fi.

Why does my Redmi, POCO or Xiaomi phone stop the camera app when the screen is off?

Because Xiaomi's software adds its own background limits on top of normal Android, and those limits switch on by default.

Redmi and POCO phones are Xiaomi phones. They run the same software: MIUI on older models and HyperOS on newer ones. The volunteer site Don't Kill My App, which tracks how phone brands treat background apps, gives Xiaomi its highest problem score (5 out of 5) and puts it plainly:

"There are no APIs and no documentation for those extensions. In default settings, background processing simply does not work right and apps using them will break."

"No APIs" is the important part. An app can ask Android for permission to keep running with the screen off. That is what a foreground service is, and it is why a screen-off camera app shows a notification while it records. But the extra Xiaomi switches are not something an app can turn on for you. Only the person holding the phone can.

A parental-control company, Safe Lagoon, says the same thing from its own support work: Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO are "the most common reason monitoring silently stops," and its app is closed in the background "unless Autostart, No restrictions, and Recents lock are on."

Those three settings are the core of the fix. There are a few more around them.

The five settings that stop a screen-off camera on Xiaomi phones

Menu names move between HyperOS and MIUI versions, and between models. If a step does not match your phone, use the search box at the top of Settings and type the bold words.

1. Autostart

Where (HyperOS): Settings → Apps → Permissions → Autostart, find your camera app, turn it on.

Where (older MIUI): open the Security app → Permissions → Autostart. On MIUI 14, Don't Kill My App also lists a per-app switch: Settings → Apps → [your camera app] → App permissions → Background autostart.

Why it matters: this list decides which apps may start, or start again, without you opening them. If the camera app is off here, the phone does not have to let it come back after it is closed.

2. App battery saver: No restrictions

Where: Settings → Battery → App battery saver → [your camera app] → No restrictions. On older phones it can be Security → Battery → App Battery Saver, or inside the app's own page: Settings → Apps → Manage apps → [your camera app] → Battery saver.

Why it matters: this is the per-app battery rule. Any setting other than "No restrictions" lets the phone limit the app once the screen has been off for a while. No restrictions is the setting you want for a phone whose only job is the camera.

While you are on the app's page, Safe Lagoon also suggests opening Other permissions and allowing what is listed there. Some apps need these to show a window or start from the background. Allow only what your camera app actually uses.

3. Battery saver and Ultra battery saver: off

Where: Settings → Battery. Make sure Battery saver is off, and that Ultra battery saver is off too.

Why it matters: these are whole-phone modes. When they are on, they tighten the rules for every app at once, including the one you just set to "No restrictions." A camera phone lives on the charger, so it does not need them. Check that they do not turn on automatically at a low battery level, because a weak charger can let the battery fall (we explained that in Why Does My Phone Security Camera's Battery Drop Even Though It Is Plugged In?).

4. Lock the camera app in Recent apps

Where: open Recent apps. Find the camera app's card and drag it down, or long-press it and tap the lock 🔒 icon.

Why it matters: Xiaomi phones have a clean button in Recent apps that closes everything. Don't Kill My App says locked apps will "not be cleared from the background, even if you clear recent apps." To unlock later, drag the card down again.

This is the one to do even if you skip everything else. It protects you from anyone in the house or shop who taps "clean" because the phone feels slow.

5. The Security app's cleaner

Xiaomi phones come with a Security app that has a cleaner and a "Boost speed" feature. They can close apps too.

• Security → Settings (cog icon) → Cleaner → Remind to clean: off. (Safe Lagoon's HyperOS steps.)
• Security → Boost speed → Lock apps, then pick your camera app. Don't Kill My App says an app locked here "may be spared by Ultra battery saver."
• In the same Boost speed settings, Safe Lagoon suggests setting Clear cache when locked to Never.

Why it matters: these features are made to make the phone feel fast by closing things. A camera app recording in the background looks, to a cleaner, like a good thing to close.

A setting we would not start with

Don't Kill My App also mentions MIUI optimization, hidden in Developer options, as something that "can break the background tasks." Changing it affects the whole phone, not one app. Do the five steps above first and run the test below. Only look at Developer options if the test still fails, and only if you are comfortable with them.

Does this work without internet?

Yes. None of the settings above need internet, a SIM card or an account. They are local switches on the phone.

That matters for a common setup in shops and homes where the camera phone has no SIM and only joins the local Wi-Fi, or no Wi-Fi at all. Recording to the phone's own storage does not need internet. A live view inside the same Wi-Fi network does not need internet either, as long as the router is on. Streaming to YouTube Live is different: that one needs a working internet connection.

Why phones with 2 GB or 3 GB of RAM still stop sometimes

Many camera phones are older Redmi models with little memory. On those phones two different things can stop your camera:

1. Xiaomi's battery and cleaning rules (this guide). These are settings. You can change them.
2. Android's low-memory killer. When memory is full, Android itself closes apps, starting with the least important. A foreground service ranks high, but it is not untouchable.

The settings here fix the first one. For the second: keep the phone for the camera only, uninstall or disable heavy apps you do not need, and do not run games or social apps beside the camera. We explained how Android picks what to stop in A Foreground Service Is Not Immortal: What Android's Low Memory Killer Does to a 24/7 Camera on a 2 GB Phone.

The 10-minute test: does your phone still stop the camera?

Changing settings is not proof. Test the real phone with the real app.

1. Make the changes above. Restart the phone once.
2. Open the camera app, start recording, and turn the screen off.
3. Note the time. Put the phone on the charger. Do not touch it.
4. Wait at least 10 minutes. One hour is better. A full night is best.
5. If your app has a live view over Wi-Fi, open it from a second phone or laptop while you wait. Is the picture still moving?
6. Unlock the camera phone and look at the recordings. Do the files continue past the time you noted, with no long gap?
7. If there is a gap, note roughly when it started. A gap that starts soon after the screen went off usually means a battery setting was missed. A gap that starts when someone used the phone and tapped "clean" means the Recent apps lock was missed.

Run the test again after every HyperOS or MIUI update. Updates can add new power features, move menus, or reset switches. The settings belong to the phone's software, and they can change when the software changes.

Quick checklist for a Redmi, POCO or Xiaomi camera phone

• [ ] Autostart: camera app on
• [ ] App battery saver: camera app set to No restrictions
• [ ] Battery saver and Ultra battery saver: off, and not set to turn on automatically
• [ ] Camera app locked in Recent apps
• [ ] Security app: Remind to clean off; camera app locked in Boost speed
• [ ] 10-minute test done, then an overnight test
• [ ] Re-test after every system update

If you have a different brand

• Tecno, Infinix or itel: these phones have Phone Master and a night-time "Sleep Mode Optimization" that turns on airplane mode. See Why Does My Tecno, Infinix or itel Phone Stop the Camera App With the Screen Off?
• Samsung: the night-time trap there is a scheduled automatic restart. See Why Does My Samsung Phone Camera Stop Recording at Night?
• Developers who want the Android side of this (Doze, foreground services and why vendor layers sit on top) can read Why Does My Android Camera Stop Recording When the Screen Turns Off?

New to this? Start with Turn an old Android phone into a screen-off security camera (no cloud, LAN-only), then come back to this checklist before you leave the phone alone.

Sources

• Don't Kill My App — Xiaomi (the "no APIs and no documentation" description, Recent apps locking, Security → Boost speed → Lock apps, MIUI 14 Background autostart, App battery saver, Autostart, MIUI optimization)
• Safe Lagoon help — For Xiaomi devices (HyperOS / MIUI) (HyperOS menu paths, Battery saver and Ultra battery saver off, Remind to clean, Clear cache when locked). This is a third-party app's guide, not official Xiaomi documentation.
• K-Droid Dev — Preventing Apps from Being Killed on Xiaomi Devices (Boost speed → Lock apps path; the author reports testing it on MIUI and HyperOS)

The three guides use slightly different menu names for the same switches. That is normal for Xiaomi phones, and it is why the test matters more than the menu.

Background Camera RemoteStream turns an Android phone into a screen-off camera: it records with the screen off and keeps recordings on the phone, with no cloud account needed. Its Pro tier adds a live browser view over your own Wi-Fi and YouTube Live streaming; check the Play listing for what is free and what is Pro.

• Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.superfunicular.digicam
• Website: https://superfunicular.com