What is the rest in the memory of the Xiaomi phone: a complete analysis

Owners of Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO smartphones often face a mysterious situation: storage is crowded and standard applications can not find specific files that occupy space. In the Memory section of a MIUI or HyperOS system, a category called “Other” appears, which can grow to tens of gigabytes, which causes panic among users who do not understand where the free space has disappeared.

The “other” phenomenon is a system feature of Android shells that accumulates data that does not fall into standard categories like Photos, Videos or Applications, and this section includes system logs, remnants of remote programs, messenger cache, temporary update files, and even corrupted databases, and understanding the structure of this partition is critical to effectively managing your gadget’s space.

In this article, we will take a closer look at the anatomy of the Others section of Xiaomi smartphones, which files are stored there, why they can’t be deleted through standard conductor, and what safe cleaning methods exist. We will look at both built-in optimization tools and advanced file system practices.

The Anatomy of the Other Section: What is Hiding There

The Others section (sometimes referred to as System Data or Outer) is not a specific folder, but an aggregator of disparate files. Android classifies files by their type and origin. If the file does not have an explicit extension associated with media or documents, or if it lies in a hidden system directory, it is automatically sent to this category.

The bulk of the volume is usually occupied by social network cache files and messengers. Telegram, WhatsApp and Viber store the images and videos viewed in a temporary storage, which the system often does not consider part of the application itself, and it stores logs of errors that are created when programs crash, and temporary files left after interrupted downloads.

• 📂 Application cache: temporary data that speeds up programs but grows over time.
• 📝 System Logs: Text Reports on Operating System Operation and Application Failure.
• 📦 Residual files: data left over after deleting games or utilities.
• 📡 Online content: cached pages of browsers and streaming services.

⚠️ Note: Do not attempt to manually delete files from system folders through a root-rights file manager without understanding their purpose. Deleting critical libraries can result in a device bootloop.

Role of cache and temporary files in overflow

The most common reason for bloating the Others section is aggressive caching. Apps tend to store data locally to download it faster when re-referred. However, in the Xiaomi ecosystem, automatic cache clearing mechanisms sometimes work incorrectly or not often enough.

Messengers were particularly distinguished, for example, Telegram stores all the media files viewed in a hidden folder, which can reach 20-30 GB. The system sees this as “other” because the files are not marked as part of the gallery.

To clean up this dataset, you need to use specialized tools. Standard deletion of an application often does not affect its cache unless you select the option “Clear all data”, which leads to the fact that after reinstalling the program, “Other” does not decrease, and sometimes grows.

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Use the built-in Cleanup feature in Xiaomi’s Security app weekly. It effectively cleans up the secure cache that the system itself flags as garbage.

Hidden folders and remnants of remote applications

The Android file system that underlies MIUI is designed so that when an application is removed, its data folder (/Android/data/) is not always deleted completely, but is designed to preserve progress in games or settings, but in practice becomes “digital garbage.” These orphaned files continue to take up space for years.

In addition, many programs create their own hidden directories at the root of internal memory, such as navigators can store offline maps, and music services can store downloaded tracks, and if an application was removed incorrectly or malfunctioning, these folders remain hanging dead weight, increasing the counter "other".

To find these heavyweights, it is convenient to use disk space analyzers such as DiskUsage or Files by Google, which visualize busy memory, allowing you to accurately identify the folders-parasites that are hidden in the depths of the directory structure.

Impact of system updates and firmware MIUI

The process of updating the MIUI or HyperOS operating system leaves a significant mark: During downloading and installing the new firmware version, a backup of the current system and temporary installation files are created, and in an ideal scenario, they are deleted automatically after a successful restart.

However, if the update is faulty or interrupted, these files may remain in the Others section, and after a major system update (for example, switching from Android 12 to Android 13), old system libraries may be duplicated in anticipation of full application optimization, which temporarily increases the amount of time occupied.

Another factor is fragmentation of the media database, which is that after updating, the system re-indexes all the files, and in the process of indexing, temporary pointer files are created that can weigh hundreds of megabytes, and they usually disappear after a few hours of active operation of the device.

Safe cleaning methods for “other”

There are several levels of cleaning, from simple steps in the interface to the use of an engineering menu, and you should always start with the least invasive methods so that you do not disrupt the system.

The first step is to use a regular cleaner. The Security app on Xiaomi has a Cleanup section. Click on it, wait for analysis, and then select Clean. For a deeper cleanup, click on the Garbage icon or go to Deep Cleanup, where you can select specific file categories to delete.

• 🗑️ Cleaning the app cache: Go to Settings → Annexes → All apps, select a heavy app (like YouTube) and click Clear Cache».

If standard methods don't work, you can try a more radical but safe way, which is to clean through Recovery mode, by booting into Recovery mode (clutching the volume button up when the phone is off) and selecting Wipe Cache Partition, which will remove the system cache without affecting personal photos and contacts.

⚠️ Warning: In Recovery mode, never select Wipe Data or Format Data unless you want to completely erase your phone and reset it to factory settings.

Advanced Cleaning Through ADB and PC

For advanced users who are not afraid of the command line, there is a method of cleaning through debugging over USB (ADB).This method allows you to delete files that are hidden from the average user, but are not critical to boot the system.

To do this, you need to turn on Developer Mode and activate USB Debugging in your phone settings. By connecting your smartphone to your computer, you can execute a command to clear the batch manager cache or temporary Dalvik files.

adb shell pm trim-caches 999999999

This command forcibly caches all installed applications, freeing up space, and you can manually delete the contents of the /sdcard/Android/obb/ folder if you are sure that there is no data left from the games you are using.

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Use of the ADB-The most effective way to deal with the Other is to be careful, but a mistake in the team's syntax can lead to the deletion of system files.

Prevention of memory overflow

To prevent the “Other” section from growing to critical size in the future, you need to adhere to a certain digital hygiene: Regularly rebooting your smartphone (at least once a week) helps the system reset temporary files and logs that accumulate during uptime.

It is also worth revising the messaging habits: WhatsApp and Telegram recommends disabling auto-save media in the gallery and setting up automatic cache cleanup (for example, delete files older than 3 days), which will prevent the accumulation of gigabytes of “garbage”.

Xiaomi engineers are constantly improving the algorithms for working with memory in new versions of MIUI. If you haven’t updated your phone in a long time, it may be that the new firmware has already fixed a bug that causes memory leakage in your particular case.