How to uninstall applications on Xiaomi Redmi 3S: the full guide

Owners of the popular Xiaomi Redmi 3S budget smartphone often face a lack of free space in the device’s memory. The main reason for this problem is the abundance of pre-installed software that takes up precious megabytes and consumes RAM. Cleaning up unnecessary components is the first step to speeding up the gadget.

The MIUI shell removal procedure has its own features that differ from pure Android. Standard methods allow you to get rid of most user applications, but removing system components will require more in-depth knowledge.

Incorrectly deleting critical system files can lead to unstable device performance or even data loss, which is why it is important to clearly understand the difference between regular programs and service processes. Let's start with the basic methods available to every user without obtaining superuser rights.

⚠️ Warning: Before any manipulation of system files is initiated, it is strongly recommended to create a complete backup of the data on an external medium or in the cloud storage.

Standard removal through the control menu

The easiest and safest way to clean up memory is to use the built-in shell functionality, which is suitable for removing programs you downloaded yourself, as well as some pre-installed services that are not critical to the Redmi 3S. First, you need to go to the main settings menu of your smartphone.

You should find the section in the settings list that manages the installed software. It can be called differently in different versions of MIUI firmware, but it's usually "Applications" or "All Apps." When you click on it, you'll see a complete list of all the installed software, sorted by frequency of use or alphabetically.

Select an unnecessary application from the list. If the program is to be removed by the standard method, the screen will open the "Delete" button. In some cases, the system may suggest first "Disable" the application, which will actually hide it and stop all processes, but will not delete files physically. This is a good compromise for system services that you do not use but are afraid to delete.

• 📱 Go to Settings. → Annexes → All applications to access the list.
• 🗑️ Click on the basket icon or the “Delete” button in the program menu that opens.
• ✅ Confirm the action in the pop-up window to complete the uninstallation process.

It’s worth noting that a standard controller won’t let you remove many system components that are labeled as protected, which Xiaomi’s developers did to prevent the smartphone from accidentally crashing, but that’s often not enough to free up memory, especially on models with 16GB of built-in storage.

⚠️ Note: Do not attempt to remove applications that you do not know the purpose of, especially if they are connected to the operation of the phone, messages or interface. MIUI.

Removal through the built-in application manager

There's a separate tool in MIUI for mass program management that users often ignore, called Application Manager, that allows you to find and remove unnecessary software faster, and it's especially useful when you need to quickly clear space before installing a heavy app or game.

To use this method, look for an icon called Security or a separate Manager app on your desktop or in the Tools folder. Inside, select Delete Applications. Here, the interface is optimized for quick operation: you see a list of programs with checkboxes, which allows you to select several objects to remove.

After highlighting the unnecessary components, press the delete button at the bottom of the screen. The system will request confirmation because the action is irreversible. This is a good way to visually show how much space will be freed up after cleaning. However, as in the previous case, the system limitations of MIUI will not allow you to remove the protected components.

It is important to understand that some applications may return after a system update or sync with your Mi Account. Therefore, after cleaning, it is recommended to disable automatic updates for unused services in the GetApps store or Google Play settings.

Using ADB to remove system programs

For advanced users who want to remove deeply integrated system applications without obtaining root permissions, the ideal solution is to use the Android Debug Bridge (ADB) debugging tool, which allows you to remove programs for the current user, effectively hiding them from the system and stopping all associated processes, which frees up RAM.

Before starting work, you need to activate the developer mode on your Redmi. 3S. To do this, go to the Settings. → About phone and seven times quickly click on the item "Version" MIUI». After the message about the activation of the developer mode appears, go to the advanced settings and turn on “Debugging by” USB». You may also need to include an option «USB-Debugging (security settings) and allowing installation through USB.

Connect your smartphone to your computer through high-quality USB-The computer must have Xiaomi drivers and platform installed. SDK Platform-Tools. Open the command line in the tool folder ADB and enter a command to check the connection:

adb devices

You'll see a request on your smartphone screen for debugging permission from that computer -- be sure to click "Allow." If the device's serial number is displayed on the console, the connection is successfully installed. You can now proceed to delete. This is done using the pm uninstall command with the flag for the current user.

• 🔍 Find out the exact name of the application package (e.g. com.miui.videoplayer).
• 💻 Execute the command adb shell pm uninstall -k --user 0 terminal-name.
• 🔄 Restart the device to apply changes and check system stability.

⚠️ Note: Removing system packages through ADB It does not require root rights, but the erroneous removal of critical components (e.g., system launcher or framework) can lead to a cyclical reboot (bootloop).

The main advantage of ADB over rooting is that if you have problems, you can always do a full reset (Wipe Data), and remote system applications will return, since they were not physically erased from the system partition, but only hidden to your user profile.

Complete removal with Root rights

The most radical, but also the most effective way is to obtain superuser rights (Root). On Redmi 3S (codename prada), this procedure is relatively simple thanks to the unlockable bootloader. Having root rights allows you not just to hide, but physically delete files from the system partition, which gives you the maximum gain of free memory.

To implement this method, you first need to unlock the bootloader through the official Mi Unlock utility, which will require a wait of 7 to 30 days. After unlocking, a custom recovery (such as TWRP) is installed through which the Magisk or SuperSU rights manager is sewn.

With root rights, you can use powerful system managers like System App Remover or Titanium Backup, which have access to all parts of the file system, and when you delete them, you get a warning about the criticality of the component being removed, and in red, you usually label files that could disrupt your phone.

Using root rights gives you complete control, but it takes away the security guarantee. Some banking and cheating apps and games may refuse to work on rooted devices.

Cleaning cache and residual files

Even after the main application is removed, the smartphone often has tails — logs, temporary files and cache — in Redmi 3S, with its limited internal memory, this becomes critical, and regular cleaning of this data helps keep the system running.

The built-in Cleanup utility in the Security menu can find the main junk files, but for a deeper cleanup, you can use the file manager. Go to the root of internal memory and find folders with the names of the deleted applications. Often they remain dead for months.

Special attention should be paid to the folder Android/data and Android/obb. It stores game cache and application data. If you deleted the game but forgot to clear the cache, files can take up several gigabytes. Manually delete only those folders whose names correspond to already deleted programs.

Remember that some apps, like instant messengers, store media files in separate directories, and checking those folders frees up a lot of space without deleting the app itself, which is especially true for WhatsApp and Telegram, which like to save gigabytes of images and videos.

Typical errors and problems with removal

In the process of optimizing Xiaomi Redmi 3S, users often face a number of problems, one of the most common is the “failed to delete” error when trying to get rid of the system application in a standard way. It is not a failure, but protection of the system, trying to get around it without ADB or Root will only lead to a waste of time.

Another common problem is that the system components are permanently stopped, which means that some remaining process is trying to access the deleted file, which is when cleaning the cache of the remaining applications or, in extreme cases, resetting to factory settings helps.

Users also often confuse deletion and deletion of the application. Data cleanup (Settings → Applications → Clear Data) resets the application to the “just installed” state, but does not delete its apk file.

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Tip: Before you delete an unknown system application, search the name of the application online with the name "Redmi 3S remove safe".

If an application takes 5-10 MB and doesn't hang around, removing it will not give you any tangible performance gains, but it can break the dependencies of other services. Focus on heavy programs and services that you don't really use.

⚠️ Attention: Deleting the Downloads system component may make it impossible to download files from the browser.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

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The optimal balance between security and freedom of action on Redmi 3S is achieved by using ADB to remove system debris without the need to unlock the bootloader and obtain Root rights.