Owners of Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO smartphones often face situations where the device starts to run slower, applications open with a delay, and the system periodically closes background programs.
The current MIUI shell, or the new HyperOS, is built on Android and uses complex resource management mechanisms. Unlike computers where memory is simply filled with data, smartphones are more dynamic, with constant synchronization, widget updates and system services. To effectively combat resource scarcity, you need to deconstruct the structure of memory consumption in detail.
In this article, we're not just going to look at the numbers, but we're going to look at what's vital and what's safe to shut down, and you're going to learn how to distinguish between system load and junk, and why free memory isn't always a measure of system health. And deep analysis will allow you to extend the life of the battery and speed up the interface response.
System Processes and Android Core
The foundation of any smartphone is the Linux kernel and Android system services. On Xiaomi devices, this layer takes up a significant part of RAM, and that's absolutely normal. This includes the processes responsible for communication, screen operation, touch input processing and the basic logic of the operating system, without which the phone would become a useless piece of plastic and glass.
Google Play Services is not just one app, it’s a huge framework that runs maps, push notifications, contact syncs, and geolocation. Even if you don’t use Google apps directly, system components depend on them. On current models with 8 or 12 GB of storage, this block can take up from 1.5 to 2.5 GB, which often scares inexperienced users.
⚠️ Warning: Attempting to forcefully stop system processes through the developer’s settings can lead to an instant smartphone reboot or loss of access to the settings menu.
The MIUI System itself consumes a lot of volume, too, and it's responsible for visuals, animations, notification curtains, and control center. The higher the screen resolution and refresh rate (e.g., 120Hz), the more resources it takes to render the interface. In the background, the shell also caches commonly used elements to speed up work.
Why not completely clean up your system memory?
Pre-installed applications and services Xiaomi
A unique feature of Xiaomi smartphones is the presence of a large amount of proprietary software, often called "bloatware." These are not only useful utilities like "Conductor" or "Gallery", but also background services that are constantly hanging in memory, including Mi Cloud, Mi Video, Mi Music and various system analyzers.
MSA (MIUI System Ads) is technically responsible for advertising in system applications, but in fact it is a constantly active process of collecting data and loading content. Even if you have turned off ad personalization, the processes associated with Xiaomi analytics can continue to consume resources while working in the background.
- 📱 GetApps is an app store that is frequently updated in the background and checks installed programs for new versions.
- 📊 Security Center – a security center that scans memory and files in real time, which creates a constant load on the processor and RAM.
- 🌐 Mi Browser – Even if you don’t use it, its background processes can remain active for news and widgets.
Many of these applications can be disabled or removed, but you need to be careful. Some components, like Themes, are essential for the interface to be displayed correctly. If you try to remove them through ADB without understanding dependencies, you can get a bootloop or a standard, indelible look of the system.
Background activity of third-party applications
The main “eater” of free memory is often applications installed by the user himself. Social networks (VK, Telegram, WhatsApp) and instant messengers tend not to close completely, but to go into standby mode, saving their own in RAM for instant launch, this is called background activity.
Memory-aggressive applications with geolocation and tracking function are particularly aggressive. Navigators, food delivery services and taxis can constantly request coordinates even when the screen is off. On Xiaomi devices with aggressive energy saving policies, this creates conflict: the system tries to kill the process to save charge, and the application immediately restarts, consuming resources again.
Also worth considering are the mechanisms of memory compression algorithms. MIUI has a virtual memory extension technology that uses a portion of the ROM as a RAM, which helps keep more applications open, but the speed with this memory is lower than with physical RAM. You can check the use in Settings → Expansion of memory.
Detailed analysis through the Engineering Menu and ADB
To get a real picture of what's in memory, a standard task manager is often not enough; it only shows approximate values. To get expert data, you need to use USB debugging and the ADB (Android Debug Bridge) tools to see the exact list of processes and the amount of memory they occupy.
The first step is to activate the developer mode. You need to click on the build number 7 times in the About Phone section. Then in the Advanced Settings menu → For developers, turn on USB Debugging. Once you connect to your computer, you can use the command to output a list of processes.
adb shell dumpsys meminfoThis command will give you a detailed report. The Total PSS column shows the actual amount of memory the process uses, taking into account shared libraries. This is the parameter that you should pay attention to, not the "process size." It is also useful to use the adb shell top -m 10 command, which will show the 10 most voracious processes in real time.
☑️ Memory use verification
Table: Memory distribution in a typical scenario
To make it easier for you to navigate the numbers, let’s look at the approximate allocation of RAM on a Xiaomi smartphone with a volume of 6 GB of RAM in normal use mode (without heavy games).
| Type of process | Approximate volume (MB) | Can I turn it off? |
|---|---|---|
| Android + Core System | 1200 - 1500 | No (critically) |
| Google Play Services | 400 - 800 | Partially (risky) |
| MIUI/HyperOS shell | 600 - 900 | No. |
| Background applications (3-5 pcs) | 500 - 1000 | Yeah (in settings) |
| Cash and buffers | Remainder | Automatically. |
As you can see from the table, more than half of the memory can be occupied by system needs before your applications start. If you have a model with 4 GB of RAM, then only crumbs are left free, which explains the constant reboot of background programs. In such cases, hardware limitation is the main factor, and software optimization will only give a temporary effect.
Methods of optimization and cleaning of memory
Knowing the enemy in the face, you can move to action. The safest method is to use the built-in Security Optimizer. However, for advanced users, more subtle settings are available. In the Settings menu → Apps → All applications you can find a specific application, go to the Battery section and select No restrictions (if you need to work in the background) or Limit background activity (to save resources).
Another effective method is to disable unnecessary system applications through ADB, which does not remove them completely, but hides them from the system, freeing up resources, for example, you can turn off advertising services:
adb shell pm disable-user --user 0 com.miui.misys⚠️ Attention: Use of teams ADB Disabling a critical system package (e.g. com.android.phone) will result in loss of communication or inability to boot the system.
It is also recommended to regularly clean the cache of applications that you rarely use, but which tend to grow. MIUI has a function "Memory Cleanup" in the notification curtain, but it works superficially. For deep cleaning, you should use the Settings → Memory menu, where the system itself will suggest removing rarely used applications.
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Use Expand Memory only if you have a lot of free internal memory (ROM), which on full drives can, on the contrary, slow down the system due to fragmentation.