What is the “Other” category on the Redmi Note 8 Pro?

The popular Redmi Note 8 Pro often faces a situation where internal storage suddenly fills up and a standard analyzer can’t explain exactly where gigabytes disappeared. The Memory menu features a mysterious category called “Other” that can take anywhere from 5 to 20 GB or more, causing panic among users. This is not a system bug, but a specific feature of the MIUI shell that groups heterogeneous data that doesn’t fit standard labels like “Photo” or “Apps.”

Understanding the nature of this partition is critical to keeping the device running, as a crowded system partition often leads to “freezes” of the interface. In this article, we will examine in detail what this volume actually consists of, why it grows so quickly on Xiaomi models and how to safely free up space without deleting important documents. The key reason for the growth of the “Other” is the cache of messengers (WhatsApp, Telegram) and the remnants of remote system updates that Android does not consider user files.

Many users mistakenly believe that this is a system failure, and start to reset the phone to factory settings, which is a radical and often unnecessary method. Before you decide to take extreme measures, it is worth trying more gentle and effective cleaning methods, which we will discuss below.

Anatomy category "Other" in MIUI

The Other category (or System Data in newer versions of Android) is a kind of black hole in the operating system file classifier. MIUI algorithms put all files that can not be uniquely identified as media, documents or installed applications in this buffer zone, where temporary files, error logs and data left over from the programs are reset.

The Redmi Note 8 Pro is a very aggressive background process that creates a lot of time records, and it considers that data to be important for fast application loading, so it doesn't delete it automatically, but over time, that balance gets upset, and the cache stops optimizing, starting to take up precious space.

It is important to understand that the Other is not one file, but millions of small entries in different directories. manual cleaning of each file is impossible and dangerous, so you need to use system tools or specialized software. Android file system is designed so that without the rights of the superuser (Root), we see only the tip of the iceberg, but even this is enough for an effective cleaning.

⚠️ Warning: Never attempt to delete files from system folders through root-access file managers unless you are sure of the purpose of each byte.This can result in bootloop and a smartphone that is completely inoperable.

The main culprits: cache of messengers and streaming services

The biggest consumer of space in the “Other” category on the Redmi Note 8 Pro are instant messengers. Telegram, WhatsApp, Viber and other apps store all the photos, videos and voice messages you viewed into local memory. Even if you delete the correspondence in the application itself, its “tails” often remain in the system cache, which MIUI refers to the “Other” section.

Streaming services like YouTube, Spotify or Netflix are also making extensive use of this section: Downloaded tracks, buffered portions of videos and channel thumbnails can take up gigabytes. A user may not even remember watching a video a week ago, but the system has saved part of it for quick re-downloading.

To combat this, you need to regularly audit the messenger storage. Unlike standard cache cleaning through Android settings, internal cleaning in the applications themselves works more efficiently. Cache data in messengers is often duplicated, creating copies of thumbnails and previews, which inflate the volume.

• 📱 Telegram: Takes up the most space due to lack of automatic default cleaning.Requires manual settings in the Data and Memory section».
• 💬 WhatsApp: Stores contact statuses and videos sent to hidden folders that the system sees as “Other».
• 🎵 Music services: Offline playlists and streaming audio cache can quietly "eat» 2-3 GB for a month of active listening.

System garbage: logs, error reports and update remnants

The second largest group of files that make up the volume of the Other is system debris. The Android operating system and the MIUI shell keep logs of their work all the time, they record information about running processes, energy consumption and communication modules, usually small files, but when applications fail, they can grow to huge sizes.

Another important aspect is system updates. When your Redmi Note 8 Pro receives an air-to-air update (OTA), the firmware file is downloaded to a hidden partition. Once installed successfully, the original installation file is often not deleted immediately, but remains deadweight, taking up 1 to 3 GB.

And this includes the Crash Reports, which is that if an application crashes all the time, the system creates a text file that describes the error, and thousands of them can put a lot of pressure on the filesheet, and cleaning up that data is safe and even useful, because the old logs are no longer diagnostically valuable.

Instructions: How to Safely Clean the Other Section

Now, to the practical side, there are several levels of cleaning, from standard tools to advanced methods, and let's start with the safest and most efficient method available to every Redmi Note 8 Pro owner. You don't have to be a programmer to do that.

The first step is to use Xiaomi’s built-in Security app, which, despite criticism from enthusiasts, works quite well in basic garbage cleaning, but requires a manual approach through app settings to thoroughly clean the Other section.

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Before mass clearing the cache of heavy apps (Instagram, TikTok), make sure you remember your passwords.

Algorithm for deep cleaning:

1. Go to Settings → Applications → All applications.
2. Sort the list by the size of the memory occupied.
3. Choose the leading apps (usually social networks and browsers).
4. Click on Memory and select Clear Cache (not to be confused with Clear Everything).

⚠️ Warning: The Clear Everything button (or Reset) will not only remove your cache, but also your logins, saved passwords, and settings within a particular application. Use it only if you want to uninstall the app completely or start with a clean slate.

To remove the remnants of system updates, use the file manager. Open Explorer → Memory of the device and find the folder downloaded_rom. If there's a file inside update.zip And the system is stable, and you can delete the file safely. 2-3 GB of free space instantly.

Hidden folders and “Temps”: where the garbage is hiding

Many users don’t know that there are hidden folders in the phone’s memory that start from a dot (like.thumbnails) that store smaller copies of your photos and videos to open faster in the gallery. On the Redmi Note 8 Pro with its high-resolution camera, this file can grow to several gigabytes.

The Thumbnails folder is a classic example of how optimization becomes a problem. The system creates a preview for each photo, and if you have thousands of images, the database file becomes a huge preview. When you clean this file, the gallery can temporarily slow down until it recreates thumbnails, but the space will be freed up significantly.

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Regularly cleaning the folder.thumbnails and the gallery cache is the fastest way to free up space without losing the photos themselves.

Also worth paying attention to the folders of remote applications. Sometimes when you delete a game or program, its folder with data (for example, a cache of cards or resources) remains at the root of the memory, you can find them by names that often coincide with the names of famous developers or games (for example, folders com.roblox... or data with incomprehensible content).

• 🗑️ folder.thumbnails: Located in DCIM/.thumbnails. You can delete content, but not the folder itself.
• 📂 Game Remnants: Look for folders with remote game names at the root of internal memory.
• 📄 Temporary files (.tmp): Files with the.tmp extension in different directories are the tails of unfinished operations, their removal is safe.

Radical methods: resetting and flashing

If none of the above methods worked, and the Other category continues to grow, occupying more than 30-40% of memory, it is possible that critical errors have accumulated in the file system, in which case the Redmi Note 8 Pro may require a full Wipe Data reset, which will return the phone to the “out of the box” state.

Before you do this, make sure to back up all important data to the Mi Cloud or your computer. The reset process will permanently delete all user data, including contacts, photos and correspondence, if they are not stored separately.

Recovery Menu (Recovery Mode)):


1. Turn off the phone.




2. Press Volume Up + Nutrition.




3. Select the language (English/Chinese).




4.Tap Wipe Data → Wipe All Data → Confirm.




5. Once completed, select Reboot.

The alternative is to flash the device through the computer using the Mi Flash Tool, a more complex method that requires an unlocked bootloader (in most cases). Clean firmware installation is guaranteed to remove all software errors of the file system that could lead to incorrect display of occupied space.

⚠️ Warning: Unlock Bootloader flashing can result in loss of warranty and reset security settings (e.g., banking apps or Google Pay will stop working unless you reconfigure them via Magisk.

Prevention: How to avoid overcrowding in the future

To keep the Other problem from coming back too often, you need to develop a digital hygiene habit: Redmi Note 8 Pro owners are advised to check the storage once a month and clean the cache of heavy apps. This takes a couple of minutes, but saves from a sudden shortage of space.

Use cloud services to store media files. Set up automatic uploading of photos to Google Photos or Yandex.Disk with the function “Free space” This will remove the originals from the phone, leaving them in the cloud, which will significantly reduce the load on internal memory and reduce the size of the database previews.

Also keep an eye out for system updates. Xiaomi regularly releases patches that make your file system work. If you haven't updated MIUI in a while, there may be a known memory counting bug in your version that has already been patched in the new firmware.