Memory Anatomy: What Takes Place on Xiaomi Redmi

Users of Xiaomi Redmi and Poco smartphones often face a paradoxical situation: the claimed amount of internal memory is 128 or 256 gigabytes, but the free space ends up frighteningly quickly. When trying to analyze the storage in a standard Security app or settings, the eye sees the mysterious category “Other”, which can take up tens of gigabytes without giving in to simple cleaning. Understanding the structure of the Android file system and the MIUI shell (or HyperOS) is critical to avoid losing valuable data and wasting time to delete the necessary files.

In this article, we'll take a closer look at what your smartphone's space actually consists of, move away from the superficial "delete photos" tips and look deeper into system folders, app cache and hidden logs, and learn why the system shows one volume and the file manager another, and where the gigabyte "hidden eaters" hide.

For starters, Android is based on Linux, where memory is divided into logical partitions. The user sees only aggregated data, but it is important to represent this hierarchy for effective device management. The system section "Other" on Xiaomi often includes messenger cache, remnants of remote applications and temporary update files that are not deleted automatically. This is not a system error, but a feature of the UFS drives used in modern Redmi.

System Files and Reserved Space

The first thing that a new smartphone owner faces is the difference between advertised capacity and user-accessible capacity (1 GB = 1 000 000 000 bytes, while the operating system counts in binary (1 GB = 1 024 In addition, a significant part is occupied by the shell itself. MIUI/HyperOS and pre-installed Google services.

The system partition is protected from writing by conventional methods, and its size varies depending on the model. On budget Redmi with 64 GB of memory, the system can take up to 15-18 GB, while on flagships with 256 GB - about 20-25 GB due to advanced features and heavier graphical interface elements. It is important to understand that reducing this volume is impossible without flashing the device to custom builds, which deprives of warranties.

⚠️ Warning: Attempts to manually delete files from system folders through root rights can lead to a “bootloop” (cyclic reboot) and complete inoperability of the smartphone.

Inside the system partition, you store critical libraries, camera drivers, modem and display, and you also have the resides partition recovery, which allows you to reset your device to factory settings, and when you upgrade to OTA, you create a temporary copy of the system, which also temporarily increases the amount of space you occupy.

Application cache and messenger data

The most dynamic part of storage is user cache. Apps, especially social networks and messengers like Telegram, WhatsApp and Viber, aggressively store media files. Unlike iOS, where the cache is cleaned more strictly, on Android, these files can lie for years if not removed by force.

When you view a photo in a chat or video in a tape, it is stored in temporary memory. Over time, this “junk” grows. Standard cleaning through the application settings often deletes only temporary files, leaving databases and attachments. For deep cleaning, you need to use Xiaomi’s built-in tools or specialized file managers.

Special attention should be paid to folders Android/data and Android/obb. In newer versions of Android (11, 12, 13, 14) Access to these is limited, but it is where card caches (such as Yandex.Navigator or Google Maps) and heavy game data are stored. Deleting the content of obb will cause games to stop running and require a re-jump of resources.

The mysterious section "Other" (Other)

The Other category in Xiaomi’s memory analyzer is a hodgepodge of everything the system can’t uniquely classify as photos, videos, music or apps, including archives, documents, APK installation files, error logs and, as mentioned earlier, cache. Often users wonder where 10-20 GB of data comes from in this section.

One reason for the Other is streaming services, apps like YouTube, Netflix or Spotify (if you used offline listening) can store buffered data in hidden directories, and deleted photos and videos that are stored in the Gallery shopping cart for another 30 days but are no longer displayed in the main album.

It is recommended to connect the device to the computer and use disk visualization programs such as WinDirStat or WizTree (for Windows) or DaisyDisk (for macOS), which will allow you to see the exact structure of folders and find giant files.

Storage analysis: partition table

To better navigate what exactly takes up space, let’s take a look at the typical data distribution on a Xiaomi Redmi smartphone with 128GB of storage. The numbers can vary, but the proportions are usually kept.

As you can see from the table, the vast majority of variable data comes from media and application cache, and these are the categories that you need to work with first when you don't have enough space, and you shouldn't touch the system partition because it's static and depends on the firmware version.

Another thing to note is the.thumbnails folder inside DCIM, which stores thumbnails of your photos for quick display in the gallery, and if you have thousands of photos, this file can grow to a few gigabytes, it can be safely deleted, the system will create it again, but it will temporarily slow the scroll through the gallery.

Hidden folders and remnants of remote programs

Many users delete apps by simply dragging an icon into the cart or clicking Delete. However, developers often leave behind tails — folders with settings, logs and cache at the root of internal memory, for example, after deleting a game, a folder with its name or developer acronym may remain.

Also worth checking is the Download folder. Browsers and instant messengers by default save all downloaded files there: PDF-document, APK-Installators, images, and over time, this folder becomes a digital graveyard that no one can see, but takes up space.

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Use Xiaomi’s Explorer app and enable the hidden files in the settings to see folders starting at (..) This will help you find forgotten configs and logs.

Another source of debris is the MIUI folder at the root of the storage, which can contain voice recorder backups, screen recordings, and temporary theme files, and periodic checks of the contents of this directory help free up a couple of gigabytes.

Practical methods of memory cleaning

To clean up memory efficiently on Xiaomi Redmi, you don't have to be a programmer, you just have to stick to a certain algorithm of actions. Start with the built-in Cleanup tool in the Security app. It does a good job of handling surface debris.

Next, go to Settings → Memory and use the Clean Now feature, which will prompt you to delete large files, duplicate photos and unused applications, and pay special attention to the Big Files section, which often includes forgotten videos or archives.

For instant messengers, use their internal cleanups. On Telegram, these are Settings → Data and Memory → Memory Use → Clear Cache. On WhatsApp, go to Settings → Data and Storage → Storage Management. This is the safest way to ensure that you do not delete important correspondence along with pictures.

⚠️ Before manually cleaning folders, make sure to back up important data to the cloud (Google Drive, Mi Cloud) or to your computer.

If nothing helps and the memory fills up on its own, there may be an indexing error in the system, in which case resetting to factory settings (Settings → About Phone → Resetting) can help, but this is an extreme measure requiring a full backup.

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Regular cleaning of the messenger cache and the Download folder allows you to free up to 30% of the space without losing personal data and photos.

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