How to clean up Xiaomi smartphone: the complete guide

Owners of Xiaomi, Redmi and Poco devices sooner or later face slowdowns, long-term application launches and a lack of free space. It is a natural process associated with the accumulation of temporary files, residual debris from remote programs and the proliferation of messenger cache. Cleaning up a smartphone is not just freeing gigabytes, but a necessary procedure to extend the life of the drive and ensure the stability of the MIUI or HyperOS system.

Ignoring memory overcrowding can cause the phone to spontaneously reboot or stop receiving updates. In this article, we will look at all the available methods, from quick cleaning with standard tools to deep formatting, you will learn which folders can be deleted manually and which cannot be touched categorically so as not to disrupt the operating system.

Before you start taking drastic measures, it’s important to understand the structure of files in your device.The Android system that powers Xiaomi phones stores data in a strictly defined hierarchy.The right approach will allow you to make room without losing personal photos and contacts.

Use of the built-in "Security" application

The easiest and safest way to clean up your system is to use a pre-installed system application, called Security in MIUI firmware, and has a green icon with a shield, which Xiaomi engineers designed specifically for their devices and can correctly remove cache without affecting important system logs.

Launch the app and press the Cleaner button. The system will quickly scan and prompt you to remove the "garbage." However, take your time to agree with everything at once. Click on the Analysis button or review the file list in detail. Often, not only temporary files are hidden in the Cleanup section, but also APK installation packages that can be safely removed if you don't plan to reinstall applications.

⚠️ Note: In the Cleanup section, carefully check the Big Files category, which may include your personal videos or archives of work documents that the system has mistakenly deemed unnecessary.

For more in-depth work, go to the Cleanup tab inside the Security app, and you'll see the details by category: app cache, ad files, remnants of remote programs. Ad files (Ad) can be removed without fear — they're just pictures and scripts from ads in free apps and games.

• 📱 App cache: Temporary data that speeds up launch but takes up a lot of space.
• 🗑️ Residual files: Folders left over after deleting games or programs.
• 📦 Installation Packages:.apk files that are no longer needed after installing the software.
• 📸 Screenshots and photos: Duplicates of images, often created by messengers.

Regular use of this tool is the best brake prevention, and you just need to run a check once a week to make the phone fly, and if standard cleaning isn't enough, you'll have to switch to manual file management.

Manual cleaning through the "Conductor"

Xiaomi's standard file manager provides access to all folders on the device. For advanced users, it's a powerful tool. Go to Memory or Internal Storage. It stores all user data. Be careful: deleting system folders can lead to bootloop.

Telegram, WhatsApp and Viber are famous for storing copies of all the photos and videos you viewed in your phone’s memory, even if you deleted the correspondence long ago. The path to them usually looks like Android/media or individual folders rooted with the app’s name.

It's also worth checking the Download folder. Browsers and social networks often save everything you've ever opened there. Often there are dozens of forgotten presentations, old versions of apps and random pictures, and deleting the contents of this folder is usually safe for the system to work.

• 📂 DCIM: Camera folder, your photos and videos are stored here (remove only unnecessary ones).
• 📥 Download: All downloads from the Internet, often full of garbage.
• 🎵 Music/Movies: Media files that can be transferred to a memory card or to the cloud.
• 📱 MIUI: System folder, touching its contents without understanding the structure is prohibited.

Pay special attention to folders with names of games or applications that have been deleted for a long time, which can weigh several gigabytes, and if you are sure that the application is removed, its folder in the root of the internal drive can be erased.

Clearing the cache of individual applications

Some apps, like YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and browsers, accumulate gigabytes of cache, which is data that allows content to load faster when viewed again, but it's not critical. You can clear it through your system settings.

Go to Settings → Apps → All apps. Select a “heavy” app like YouTube. Click on Memory (or Storage) and you’ll see two buttons: Clear Cache and Clear Everything (or Reset). Use the first button to securely delete temporary data.

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Use the Memory Cleanup widget on your desktop for quick access to the cache reset functions of frequently used applications without logging into deep settings.

The Clear Data button is more aggressive, not only will it remove the cache, it will also reset the app to the factory settings, and it will also log your account in it. Use this feature if the app is malfunctioning or malfunctioning. For instant messengers, this means you have to re-enter your phone number and confirmation code.

Modern versions of HyperOS and MIUI 14+ have a feature that automatically cleans the cache when there is a shortage of space. Make sure it is activated in the Advanced Settings → Memory section, which will help the system maintain its own free space balance.

Removal of duplicates and large files

Over the years, duplicates inevitably accumulate in the memory of a smartphone, which can be the same photos saved from different sources, or copies of documents, and it is convenient to use a built-in storage analyzer to find such files.

The Explorer or Security app often has a Storage Analysis feature, which groups files by size and type. Sort files by size to find heavyweights. Often forgotten movies, tape recorders, or chat backups.

Duplicate photos are a scourge of modern smartphones with multiple cameras. The Gallery app sometimes takes time to detect them, but third-party algorithms inside Xiaomi Explorer do a good job of doing this. Before mass removal, always back up important data to the Mi Cloud cloud or to your computer.

And remember, the.thumbnails folder in DCIM is a hidden folder that stores thumbnails of your photos for quick viewing in the gallery, and it can grow to a few gigabytes. It can be deleted, the system will recreate it, but the gallery can temporarily slow down on its first run.

Reset to factory settings (Hard Reset)

If the software cleaning doesn't work and the phone keeps running slowly, the radical method is a complete reset. Hard Reset will return the device to the state it was when you bought it, and it deletes absolutely all the data: contacts, photos, apps and settings.

To perform the reset, go to Settings → About Phone → Reset. Select Erase All Data. The system will alert you to the irreversibility of action. If you have a Mi Account installed on your phone, you will be asked to enter a password from it to confirm the operation. This is anti-theft protection.

⚠️ Warning: Once reset, the phone will ask for a password from the Google account and Mi Account that were previously synced.If you don't remember the passwords, access to the device will be lost forever.

There is also a way to reset via the Recovery menu if the phone is not turning on or hanging on the logo. To do this, turn off the phone and press the combination of the Volume+ and Power buttons. From the recovery menu, select the language (English) and press Wipe Data → Wipe All Data. Confirm the action by pressing Confirm.

Once the process is complete, the phone will restart. It will take 10-15 minutes to set up in the initial setup. Don't rush to install all the apps at once. It's better to install them gradually, watching the behavior of the system, and this will help identify the culprit of the brakes if the problem was in a particular application.

Prevention and optimization of work

To avoid going back to cleaning every two weeks, you should adopt good habits: first, disable auto-save media files in messengers; WhatsApp and Telegram can prevent you from saving photos and videos to your phone gallery; they will remain in the chat room, but they will not take up space in the shared memory.

Second, use cloud services: Google Photos with Free Space automatically removes images from your device that are already uploaded to the cloud, allowing you to store thousands of photos without taking up a megabyte of internal memory.

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Regular restart of the phone (every 3-4 days) clears the RAM and completes the suspended background processes, which significantly speeds up the interface.

Also keep an eye out for system updates. Xiaomi engineers are constantly releasing patches that optimize memory and fix resource leaks. Activate Auto Update in About Phone to get them on time.

Lastly, don't install the Play Market's shady cleaners, they're often the source of advertising and garbage, and the MIUI is enough to make a comfortable life, and the external utilities can interfere with the system processes of the android, causing the opposite effect.