How to Force 120Hz Refresh Rate on Android Games Using Shizuku (No Root)
Short answer: you can't add frames per second a game refuses to render, but you can stop Android from silently dropping your screen back to 60Hz during gameplay. Here's the fix, what it actually changes, and where it falls short.
WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGS permission over wireless debugging, then use a settings-editor app connected to Shizuku to set user_refresh_rate to 1. This locks your display's refresh rate to its maximum instead of letting Android's adaptive refresh logic pull it down to 60Hz mid-game.
What This Actually Does (and What It Doesn't)
Most modern Android phones with 90Hz, 120Hz, or 144Hz screens don't run at that rate all the time. To save battery, the system dynamically scales the refresh rate down — often to 60Hz — for apps it doesn't trust to need more, and many games fall into that bucket by default. On Android 15 and newer, this is explicit: games are capped at 60Hz unless the developer requests a higher rate through Android's Frame Rate API.
The user_refresh_rate tweak overrides that adaptive behavior at the system level, forcing the display hardware to stay at its top refresh rate everywhere, including inside games. That's genuinely useful for smoother scrolling, menus, and any game that already renders above 60 frames per second but was being visually capped by the screen.
What it will not do is make an underpowered chipset render a heavy game at 120 actual frames per second. If your GPU can only push 45–60 frames in a given title, locking the screen to 120Hz just means those frames are displayed on a faster-refreshing panel — it doesn't invent extra frames. Refresh rate (Hz, a display property) and frame rate (FPS, a rendering property) are related but not the same thing, and this trick only controls the former.
What You Need Before You Start
- A phone with a screen that physically supports a higher refresh rate (90Hz/120Hz) — this won't create Hz your panel doesn't have.
- The Shizuku app, free on the Play Store.
- A way to pair wireless debugging: Android 11+ devices can do this entirely on-device through Developer Options, no PC required.
- A settings-editor app that supports Shizuku as a permission backend (several free options on the Play Store list "Shizuku support" explicitly).
Step-by-Step Setup
- Enable Developer Options. Go to Settings → About phone and tap "Build number" seven times until it unlocks Developer Options.
- Turn on Wireless debugging. In Settings → System → Developer options, enable "Wireless debugging."
- Install Shizuku from the Play Store and open it.
- Pair Shizuku with wireless debugging. Inside Shizuku, tap the wireless debugging pairing option, which opens your phone's pairing screen with a code. Enter it in Shizuku to link the two.
- Start the Shizuku service from the app's main screen once pairing succeeds. You should see a "Running" status.
- Install a settings-editor app that can request permissions through Shizuku, then open it and grant it Shizuku access when prompted. This is what actually applies the
WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGSpermission to the editor — Shizuku itself is just the bridge. - Search for
user_refresh_rateinside the settings editor's secure settings list. - Set its value to
1and save. - Reboot the device for the change to apply reliably system-wide.
WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGS, not the standard "Modify system settings" toggle Android exposes to normal apps. That distinction matters because it's a higher-privilege permission — it's why you need Shizuku (or ADB) to grant it in the first place, rather than a simple in-app permission prompt.
Common Mistakes That Stop It From Working
| Mistake | Why it fails |
|---|---|
| Shizuku not running when you open the settings editor | The editor can't request the permission if Shizuku's service isn't active; you must restart it after every reboot unless you use a fork built for auto-start. |
| Skipping the reboot | Some OEM skins (MIUI, ColorOS, One UI) cache the refresh-rate policy and only fully apply the override after a restart. |
| Expecting it to override thermal throttling | If the phone is hot or in a battery saver mode, the system can still force the rate back down regardless of this setting. |
| Assuming it raises in-game FPS caps | Some games set their own internal frame cap (commonly 60) inside the game engine itself; this Android-level setting has no effect on that. |
Battery and Heat Trade-Offs
Locking the display to its highest refresh rate at all times increases power draw and heat generation compared to adaptive scaling, since the panel and GPU are working harder even during moments — menus, loading screens, static UI — where a lower rate would've been fine. If you notice noticeably worse battery life after making this change, that's expected, not a bug. You can always set user_refresh_rate back to 0 to restore adaptive behavior.
Troubleshooting
Shizuku keeps disconnecting or "Not running"
Check that battery optimization is disabled for Shizuku in your phone's app battery settings, and that no firewall/VPN/ad-blocker app is restricting it — several of those can interrupt the local connection Shizuku relies on.
The setting reset itself after a reboot
Shizuku's official build doesn't start automatically on boot; you have to reopen it and restart the service manually after every restart. Community forks add a "start on boot" option if this becomes a hassle.
My screen still drops to 60Hz in one specific game
That's usually the game engine itself requesting 60Hz through Android's Frame Rate API for battery or stability reasons, not the system overriding your setting. There's no universal Android-side fix for that — it's a per-game decision made by the developer.
Who Should Actually Bother With This
This is worth doing if you own a phone with a high-refresh-rate panel that your manufacturer's software is being overly conservative with — throttling to 60Hz in games and apps that could comfortably run higher. It's not worth doing if your phone only has a 60Hz screen to begin with, or if you're chasing a specific competitive FPS number in a heavy game — that ceiling is set by your chipset, not by this setting.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is granting WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGS through Shizuku safe?
It's a sensitive, elevated permission, so only grant it to a settings editor you trust, and avoid installing unnecessary apps with Shizuku access. It doesn't require root and doesn't trip most banking-app root checks, but it's still a step above normal Play Store permissions.
Does this void my warranty?
No. Shizuku works through Android's standard debugging interface and doesn't unlock the bootloader or modify system partitions, unlike rooting.
Will this drain my battery a lot?
Expect a modest but real hit, since the display and GPU run at a higher sustained rate. How noticeable it is depends on your panel technology and how much of your usage is idle/static screens.
What's the difference between this and the "Force 90Hz/120Hz" toggle some phones already have?
Some manufacturers expose a manual refresh-rate toggle in display settings, but many still quietly override it for specific apps they consider battery-heavy — often including games. The user_refresh_rate secure setting sits at a lower level and is harder for the OEM's adaptive logic to overrule.
Can I undo this later?
Yes — reopen your settings editor through Shizuku, set user_refresh_rate back to 0, and reboot to restore Android's adaptive refresh-rate behavior.
Related: More Android tips and tweaks · More how-to guides