Memory "Other" on Xiaomi: what it is and how to clean

Owners of Xiaomi, Redmi and Poco smartphones often face a mysterious situation: storage is crowded, but standard applications do not take up much space. In the system analyzer, the category “Other” appears, which can grow to tens of gigabytes, causing interface brakes and inability to install updates.

This problem is common to MIUI and its successor HyperOS, which labels files that cannot be uniquely classified as photos, videos or music, and understands the nature of this data is key to freeing up valuable space without losing important information.

In this article, we’ll take a closer look at what this volume is made of, why antiviruses and built-in cleaners often don’t see the problem, and suggest step-by-step safe cleaning techniques that really work.

The nature of the category “Other”

The Other category in the Android file manager is a kind of black box, and it's data that the operating system couldn't recognize from the standard ones. MIME-Types or that were created by third-party applications in their own hidden directories.

The main source of growth of this partition is the cache of messengers such as Telegram or WhatsApp, which stores the received files, stickers and temporary data in folders that the standard Xiaomi analyzer perceives as unknown system files, not as media content.

Also included are remnants of remote applications, error logs, temporary update files and databases, and sometimes your personal files are included in the Other if they have a custom extension or lie deep within the Android/data folder structure.

• 📂 Cache and temporary system process files.
• 💬 Data messengers (Telegram, Viber, WhatsApp).
• 🎮 Cache of games and additional application resources.
• 🗑️ Residual files of remote programs.

It's important to understand that Android on Xiaomi smartphones has a specific permission structure. Some folders are hidden from the user, and the system simply adds their size to the general pile of "Other" so as not to scare the owner with complex technical path names.

Diagnosis: What exactly takes place

Before we start taking drastic measures, we need to figure out which data type is dominant, and the standard settings menu often only shows a total number, which is not helpful in solving the problem.

For a deeper analysis, it is recommended to use the built-in Security app or third-party utilities such as DiskUsage or Files by Google, which visualize the file system, showing which folders have inflated to giant sizes.

Note the app names folders. If you see that the com.telegram.messenger folder weighs 10GB, the problem is that it's the app's cache. System files rarely take up that much space unless you back up the system.

⚠️ Note: Do not delete files from folders Android/obb and Android/data manually, if you are not sure of their purpose, this can lead to incorrect operation of games and applications that require reloading resources.

Special attention should be paid to the folder MIUI/Gallery/cloud, where thumbnails and deleted photos can accumulate, which have not yet been synchronized with the cloud or have not been completely erased.

Basic cleaning with built-in MIUI facilities

The easiest and safest way to start the memory struggle is to use Xiaomi’s regular tools, which do not require superuser rights and minimize the risk of deleting system-critical files.

Go to the Security app and select Cleanup. The system will scan the device for junk files. However, standard cleaning is often shallow and does not affect the deep cache of the applications.

To work more efficiently, go to Settings → About Phone → Memory. You can see a detailed breakdown here. By clicking on a specific application, you can select the option “Clear Cache” that is safe and will not delete your logins or correspondence.

If the volume of the Other has not decreased significantly after these actions, then the files are blocked by processes or hidden in system partitions, access to which is limited.

Radical methods: cleaning through a computer

When built-in methods are powerless, a PC connection comes to the rescue, allowing you to see the real file system and remove what is hidden from the eyes of the mobile interface.

Connect your smartphone to your computer through USB-cable and select file transfer mode MTP. In Windows Explorer or macOS, open the device’s internal storage.

You need to find and analyze the following directories:

• 📁 /Android/data — herein, the application data is stored.
• 📁 /Android/obb — heavy-play.
• 📁 /DCIM/.thumbnails — gallery-folder.
• 📁 /MIUI/debug_log — Logic debugging, often taking up gigabytes.

Cleaning the.thumbnails folder can free up a few gigabytes, but note that the next time you open the gallery, the system will regenerate the preview, which can temporarily load the processor.

Also check the Download folder and the root of internal memory for forgotten archives, APK installers, and old documents.

Specifics of cleaning messengers and social networks

The lion’s share of garbage in the “Other” category is accounted for by messengers. Telegram, for example, by default saves all received media files in a cache that is not always correctly displayed in the phone’s storage.

Go to the settings of the app itself (e.g. Telegram → Settings → Data & Memory → Memory Use) and you will see the “Clear Cache” button there, which is safe: your photos and videos will remain in the chat cloud, you can download them again if necessary.

On WhatsApp, the situation is similar. Go to Settings → Data and Storage → Storage Management. You can delete large files or clear the entire chat from the media.

Social networks like Instagram and Facebook also accumulate cache, and it is often more effective for them not to clean the cache, but to reinstall the app, since the built-in cleaners inside them work poorly.

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Set the Telegram settings to automatically clean the cache (for example, after 3 days) and this will prevent the accumulation of gigabytes of garbage in the future.

Using ADB for Advanced Users

For those who are not afraid of the command line, the ADB tool (Android Debug Bridge) provides access to the file system, which is impossible through a normal interface, and allows you to remove system debris without root rights.

You will need to enable USB Debugging in the Developer Menu and install ADB on your computer. Once connected, execute a command to log in to the shell:

adb shell

You can then go to the cache directory and delete the contents of the cache, for example, the command to clear the cache of a particular application looks like this:

pm clear com.package.name

Where com.package.name needs to be replaced with the real name of the application package. Be extremely careful: cleaning system packages (for example, com.android.systemui) can lead to a reboot or unstable interface.

⚠️ Attention: Use ADB Incorrect commands can cause data loss or system disruption. Always check the name of the packet before cleaning.

This method is especially useful for removing residual files from Xiaomi system applications that cannot be deleted in the standard way.

Prevention and configuration of storage

To prevent the problem of the “Other” from returning with frightening regularity, you need to change your smartphone usage habits and set up automation.

Check Downloads and Bluetooth regularly, and often you'll have files that you don't need anymore, and you'll want to turn off auto-save in messengers if you don't want to, because every photo and video was immediately in the gallery and duplicated in the cache.

Use cloud services (Google Photos, Yandex Drive, Mi Cloud) to store media. Setting up the Free Space feature in Google Photos automatically removes from your device copies of photos that have already been uploaded to the cloud.

Regularly restarting your smartphone (once a week) also helps the system to correctly complete processes and clean temporary files that may have “hang” in RAM or permanent memory.

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Regularly cleaning the messenger cache is the most effective way to control the growth of the “Other” category on Xiaomi.