Many owners of smartphones Xiaomi, Redmi and Poco are faced with an unpleasant situation: after accidentally deleting an important picture or document, it turns out that the usual folder “Recently deleted” simply does not exist. However, in most cases, the problem lies not in the absence of a function, but in the specific settings of the shell interface. MIUI or hyperos.
Android on Chinese-branded devices has its own garbage storage features, often looking for a shopping cart in the general settings of the system, when it is part of a specific application, enabling this feature can dramatically change the approach to the security of your personal data, creating a reliable buffer before final erasure.
In this article, we will discuss how to activate and find the basket in various system applications. We will look not only at the standard gallery, but also at the file explorer, as well as cloud services. Understanding these nuances will help you avoid irretrievable loss of information in the future.
Features of the basket in the shell of MIUI and HyperOS
Xiaomi’s philosophy is to maximize the amount of space it occupies, and in many firmware versions, the default function of storing deleted files may be inactive or time-limited, so that the device’s memory does not fill up with “digital garbage” without the user’s knowledge, but for the modern user, having a buffer zone is a security standard.
It's important to understand that the MIUI Recycle Bin is not a standalone application, but a system module built into media players and file managers. It doesn't appear on the desktop as an icon. It's accessed exclusively through the menu of the relevant programs. In recent HyperOS updates, the temporal file algorithms have been revised, but the principle has remained the same.
⚠️ Note: File Recycle Bin is limited in duration, and usually the system automatically cleans deleted items after 30 days, making room for new data.
There are several types of shopping carts you need to know about: one is local, residing on your phone's internal drive; the other is cloud, which is linked to your Mi Cloud account or Google Photos; they work independently and their settings are different; activating one doesn't guarantee the other one's work.
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If you plan to store deleted photos for longer than 30 days, be sure to enable cloud sync as the local cart is cleared automatically.
Activation of the basket in the standard Gallery
The most common scenario where recovery is required is photo work. In Xiaomi’s standard Gallery app, the shopping cart function is often turned on by default, but can be hidden or disabled in the privacy settings. To check its status, launch the app and go to the Albums tab.
Scroll down the album list, and if you see "Recently Deleted," it means it's active. If it's not, you need to check the settings. You need to click three dots in the corner of the screen or swipe down to call the menu, then select "Settings." There may be a switch that displays the remote items.
- 📸 Open the Gallery app on your smartphone.
- 📂 Go to the "Albums" tab at the bottom of the screen.
- ⬇️ Scroll down the list to the end to find hidden folders.
- ⚙️ If the folder is not available, go to the gallery settings and check the memory access rights.
In some cases, especially on older versions of MIUI, the folder "Recently Deleted" may not appear if the device is enabled with "Hidden Album" mode or set a password for the gallery. In this situation, the system believes that access to deleted files should be limited.
☑️ Status check for Gallery
Configure the Explorer to work with files
When it comes to documents, downloads and system files, the standard File Manager comes in. It's a gallery-like experience, but it's nuanced. The latest versions of the shell may have changed the interface, and the basket control button has moved. To access the settings, click on the three horizontal bars in the upper left corner or swipe to the right.
In the menu that opens, select Settings. Inside you'll find the cleaning or shopping cart section. It's important to note that Explorer may not have its own deep recycle bin for all file types, relying on Android's system mechanisms. However, for files deleted through this particular manager, the recovery path is usually open.
| File type | Where to find a basket | Storage period |
|---|---|---|
| Photos and videos | Gallery → Albums | 30 days |
| Documents | Conductor → Settings | Depends on the version. |
| Downloads. | Annex Downloads | Before cleaning. |
| Audio. | Music/Conductor | 30 days |
If you delete a file through a third-party file manager (such as Total Commander or ES Explorer), the standard Xiaomi Recycle Bin will not see it. Third-party applications use their own backup mechanisms. Therefore, for maximum security, it is recommended to use built-in system tools where integration with HyperOS is most complete.
What to do if there is no guide in the basket?
Using Google Photos as an Alternative
Remember that any Xiaomi smartphone has Google services pre-installed. Google Photos has one of the most trusted shopping carts on the market, which is often ignored by users in favor of the standard gallery. Its main advantage is independence from the state of the phone. Even if you reset the device to factory settings, photos in the cloud basket will remain.
To activate and check this feature, open the Photos app (flower icon). Click on your account avatar in the upper right corner and select Photo Settings. Next, look for Recycle Bin. Here you can see deleted items and configure storage options. Google Photos stores deleted images in the Recycle Bin for 60 days if sync is enabled, and 30 days if photos are stored only on the device.
This solution is ideal for those who are afraid of losing important moments. Unlike the local gallery MIUI, there is less chance of encountering bugs when updating the system.
- 🌐 Open the Google Photos app on your device.
- 👤 Click on the profile icon in the upper right corner of the screen.
- ⚙️ Select "Photo Settings" from the drop-down list.
- 🗑️ Go to the "Basket" section to manage remote objects.
It’s important to remember the difference between the two galleries: Xiaomi’s standard gallery is faster with local files and better integrated with system themes; Google Photos is more powerful in terms of search and cloud storage; using both tools simultaneously produces the best results.
Display problems and their solution
There are times when all the settings are checked, but the shopping cart never showed up, and this may be due to a software failure or damage to the app cache, and in such cases, you shouldn't panic. Often, simply cleaning the data of the Gallery or Explorer application itself helps, and this won't delete your photos, but it will reset the interface display settings.
To do this, go to Settings → Applications → All apps. Find in the list of Gallery. Click Clear and select Clear Cache (do not confuse Clear All Data, although this is safe for photos, as they are stored in a separate folder, but will reset your albums and sorting settings). Once the device is rebooted, check for the folder again.
⚠️ Warning: Before cleaning your app data, make sure your photos aren’t stored only in your phone’s memory without a backup, although the cache cleanup operation is safe for media files.
Another reason could be overcrowded memory: If there is less than 100MB of free disk space, the system can block the creation of new entries in system logs, including the deleted file log, free up some space and check the function again.
Third-party solutions for file recovery
If the built-in mechanisms of Xiaomi and Google don't work or work, you can always turn to third-party developers. There are many apps in the Play Market store that create their own basket layer, they intercept the deletion command and put the file in their closed container.
Popular options are apps like Dumpster or Recycle Bin, which emulate the Windows Recycle Bin on Android, and once you install it, you'll be asked to give it permission to access all the files, and then all the data you delete will be taken there first.
But this approach has its downsides: Third-party applications consume more battery life, as they must constantly hang in the background and monitor the file system, and they can conflict with the aggressive MIUI energy-saving system, which will try to kill them to save power.
- 📲 Download a reliable shopping cart application from a trusted source.
- 🔐 Provide all requested permissions to access files.
- 🔋 Set up an exception in the battery so that the system does not close the application.
- 🗑️ Check the contents regularly and clean it manually.
Using such tools is justified if you work with sensitive documents and do not trust cloud services. Otherwise, it is better to rely on built-in functionality that is optimized by Xiaomi engineers specifically for their hardware.
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Third-party baskets are a good backup option, but they require constant monitoring of permissions and can reduce the autonomy of the smartphone.