Xiaomi’s ‘Other’ Category: What’s Hiding and How to Delete

Owners of Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO smartphones often face the mysterious situation of the device’s internal memory filling, but in standard storage it is impossible to determine exactly what exactly takes gigabytes. A particularly annoying factor is the “Other” partition, which can grow to tens of gigabytes, slowing down the system and not allowing you to install new applications or take photos. Understanding the nature of this partition is key to solving the problem of overflow of the drive.

In fact, the Other category is not one specific file type, but a collection of storage for the system cache, residual data from remote applications, error logs and temporary messenger files. The MIUI or HyperOS operating system classifies files that are not related to photos, videos, music or installed programs into this particular basket. Ignoring the proliferation of this partition can lead to a critical slowdown of the smartphone and the appearance of errors when updating the system.

In this article, we will discuss in detail what the Other category is made of, why it doesn’t automatically clear, and what safe ways to free up space are available. You will learn how to use built-in system tools, as well as third-party deep cleaning utilities. It is important to act consistently so that you don’t delete important system files necessary for the stable operation of your device.

Anatomy of the “Other” section in the Android system

To effectively combat memory filling, you need to understand what's behind the name, first of all, it's an application cache that's created to speed up the loading of frequently used programs, and over time, this cache ceases to be useful and becomes digital garbage, taking up valuable disk space.

The second important component is residual files: When a user deletes an application in the standard way, folders with the settings, temporary data and logs of the program are often left on the disk, the system cannot automatically determine whether other applications need this data, so it places it in the “Other” section.

Also, a significant amount of data is taken up by messengers such as Telegram, WhatsApp and Viber, which store images, videos and documents in their hidden directories, which the standard file analyzer does not always correctly recognize as media files, resulting in gigabytes of correspondence and sent files being counted as system debris.

⚠️ Note: Before manually cleaning files, be sure to check the contents of folders. Deleting system files with the.obb or.data extension can cause games and applications to malfunction, requiring them to be re-downloaded.

Another source of growth is system logs and error reports. If Android malfunctions, the system records them in special log files, which take up minimal space in a normal phone, but if there are software errors, their volume can grow rapidly.

Use of the built-in "Security" application

The easiest and safest way to start cleaning is to use the standard Xiaomi system. MIUI It preinstalled a security application that includes storage analysis and garbage disposal functionality, and it was designed specifically to take into account the file structure of the operating system.

To start cleaning, you need to open the Security app and select Cleanup. The system will scan and prompt you to delete temporary files, cache and application residues. However, the standard mode often does not clean the Other section completely, so you need to go to the advanced cleaner settings.

Inside the cleaner, look for the Deep Clean section, where the system analyzes the contents of memory in more detail, finding large files, duplicate photos and unused applications, and this section is where you find hidden folders that inflate the category "Other".

The Big Files tab is a special focus, and users often forget about downloaded video files or archives that lie deep in the file system, and moving those files to an external drive or deleting them can instantly free up several gigabytes.

💡

Run a deep cleanup regularly through a regular app to prevent a large amount of junk files from accumulating. It is better to delete 100 MB once a week than to search for 10 GB later.

Manual cleaning through File Explorer

If the automatic tools fail, you'll need to manually clean the file, either with the Explorer app built in or with a more advanced file manager like Total Commander or FX File Explorer, which allows you to see the real folder structure and make informed decisions.

First of all, you need to check the Android/data and Android/obb folder. This is where the app data and the game cache are stored. Be very careful: deleting the folders with the names of the games installed will lead to loss of progress or the need to download additional files again.

The next step is checking messenger folders, and in the MIUI directory or at the root of the internal storage, there are often Telegram, WhatsApp, VK folders, and inside of them there are cache folders and images, which can weigh a lot, and cleaning the cache folder inside the messenger directory is usually safe.

And the.thumbnails folder inside DCIM, which stores thumbnails of your photos for quick display in the gallery, can grow to a few gigabytes over time, can be easily deleted, and the system will create a new one when you open the gallery.

⚠️ Warning: Never delete folders with the names of Google or Xiaomi system services (e.g. com.google.android.gms) unless you are 100% sure of their purpose.

Cleaning the cache of messengers and social networks

The leaders in memory consumption in the Other category are almost always messengers. Telegram, for example, stores the entire history of media files in the cache on the device to speed up their re-view. Without manually configuring this cache can take 10, 20 or more gigabytes.

To clean up Telegram, you need to go to Settings → Data and Memory → Memory Use. You can see the exact size of the cache and click the "Clear Cache" button. Importantly, this action will not delete your correspondence, the files will simply be re-uploaded from the cloud if necessary.

WhatsApp is similar, but files are often stored in a shared file system, and it is recommended to use the built-in storage management function within the app itself: Settings → Data and Storage → Storage Management. Here you can select the chat rooms with the largest amount of data and remove attachments selectively.

Social networks such as VK or Instagram (through third-party clients) also accumulate data, and these apps often have a “Clear Cache” option in their settings. If there is no such option, the app is easier to reinstall, saving important data, since the cache is guaranteed to be deleted with reinstalle.

Advanced Methods: Analyzers and ADB

For users who want to gain full control of their device, there are dedicated tools for analyzing disk space. The DiskUsage or Storage Analyzer app builds a visual memory card, showing which files occupy the most space, which allows you to find hidden “heavyweights” that are not visible in a standard conductor.

An even more powerful tool is the use of USB debugging and the command line ADB (Android Debug Bridge), which requires connecting the phone to a computer, and commands can remove the system cache and files that are closed to ordinary applications without root rights.

Example of a command to clear cache via ADB (requires drivers installed and ADB configured on PC):

adb shell pm trim-caches 999999999

This command forcibly trims the cache of all applications if the free space is less than the specified value (in bytes). This is a powerful tool, but you should use it with caution, realizing that after cleaning, applications can run a little slower on the first run.

💡

Using visual memory analyzers is the most effective way to find specific files that rank in the Other section when standard methods don’t help.

You should also consider resetting memory-eating apps, under Settings → Applications → All apps, select a specific application, click Memory, and select Clean All, which will return the application to a state immediately after installation, removing all the accumulated debris.

Prevention and optimization of storage

To prevent the problem from returning regularly, you need to implement the habit of periodic prevention: Android does not always perfectly manage memory, especially on devices with a small amount of built-in storage. Regularly restarting a smartphone also helps the system to reset temporary files and free up RAM.

It is recommended to set up automatic cache cleaning in messengers, for example, on Telegram you can set a restriction on the storage of media files: “3 days”, “1 week” or “1 month”, old files will be deleted automatically, making room for new data without your participation.

Use cloud storage for photos and videos. Services like Google Photos or Yandex.Disk can automatically upload media files to the cloud and delete them from your phone's memory, leaving only thumbnails, which dramatically solves the problem of lack of space for multimedia, which is often masquerading as "Other".

⚠️ Warning: Do not install the dubious accelerator and cleaner apps from the Play Market, which are often the source of advertising and junk, and their effectiveness is lower than that of embedded tools. MIUI.

If neither method worked and the Other continues to take up an abnormally large volume (e.g., half the memory), an indexing error may have occurred in the file system, in which case the only radical but effective solution is a complete reset to the factory settings (Wipe Data) with the pre-saving of important data.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)