Many Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO smartphone owners are facing a nasty situation sooner or later: notifications of space shortages appear more often, and the standard analyzer shows that the lion’s share of memory is occupied by an obscure category “Other.” This section often takes up tens of gigabytes, causing the system to slow down and inability to install new applications. The user sees that photos and videos take up little, messengers too, but the free space disappears into nowhere.
Understanding what another Xiaomi means in storage is really important to keep the device healthy. It's not a system failure or a virus, but the specific logic of how the Android operating system works in conjunction with the MIUI or HyperOS shell. The system labels files that it cannot uniquely classify as media, documents or application install packages.
In this article, we will explore the nature of these files, explain why they can grow uncontrollably, and provide a step-by-step algorithm for safe cleaning, learn how to distinguish the system cache from the residual files of remote programs and understand how to return gigabytes of free space without losing important data.
The Nature of the “Other” Category in Android
When you see a significant amount of data in the Other section, it means that the smartphone file system has accumulated a lot of heterogeneous data, primarily the cache files of various applications. Social networks, browsers and streaming services save temporary data to speed up work, but rarely delete it on their own, and over time these tails can grow to incredible sizes.
The second important component is the remnants of remote applications. Even after the standard removal of the program through settings, folders with configuration, error logs or temporary downloads often remain on the disk. The MIUI shell does not always correctly “clean up” these traces, referring them to an unknown data type. In addition, it includes system update files that have already been installed, but their installers were not deleted automatically.
⚠️ Warning: Do not attempt to manually delete files from system folders through root-righted file managers unless you are sure of their purpose.Removing critical libraries can lead to a bootloop (cyclical reboot) of the device.
Messenger databases are also often included in the Other category, for example, WhatsApp or Telegram can store the history of correspondence and media files in a format that Xiaomi’s memory analyzer perceives as system data, rather than ordinary photos or videos.
The main reasons for overflowing section
Why is this category growing? The main reason is the use of multimedia applications. Watching social media feeds, video calls and listening to music generates a huge stream of temporary files. If you rarely do a deep cleanup, this data accumulates, especially the “heavy” cache of YouTube, TikTok and Instagram, which can take 5-10 GB each.
Another reason is that some applications are not working properly, and it can get stuck in a log or temporary file creation cycle, filling up the memory until the system starts to slow down, often with navigators or photo editing apps that back up projects.
It is also worth mentioning the files. OTA-After successful installation of a new version of Android or MIUI, The installation package often remains in hidden memory areas, and for the system it is no longer relevant file, but also automatically delete it, it sometimes forgets, transferring it to the category of other things.
- 📱 Social media cache: Temporary image and video files that are downloaded when you scroll through the tape.
- 💾 Remnants of Remote Games: Cash files (obb, data) that remain after uninstallation of heavy games.
- 📲 System Error Logs: Debugging files created when applications fail or the shell itself.
- 🗑️ Gallery Recycle Bin: Deleted photos and videos that are stored for 30 days before the final disappearance.
Memory analysis with built-in tools
Before you start taking any drastic measures, you need to do a diagnostic. Xiaomi smartphones have a built-in tool called "Clean up" that allows you to see the approximate distribution of space. However, for a deeper analysis, you better use the storage menu. Go to Settings → Memory and wait for the scan to be completed.
Here you'll see a distribution graph. If you click on "Other", the system may suggest clearing the cache, but often that's not enough. For more detailed study, you can use the built-in Explorer app. Go to the Explorer settings and turn on the hidden files display, which will allow you to see folders that are usually hidden from the user's eyes.
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Use the built-in Security → Cleanup app regularly, but don’t rely on it completely. It often misses the deep messenger cache.
Note the Android/data folder. This is where the app data is stored. If you find remote game or program folders there, you can safely delete them. However, be careful: deleting active application folders will cause them to reset or lose game progress.
| Type of data | Where to look (way) | Can I remove it? | Risks. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cash app. | Settings → Applications | Yes. | Resetting the application settings |
| Folder.thumbnails. | DCIM/.thumbnails | Yes. | Slow gallery loading |
| MIUI files | MIUI/debug_log | Yes. | No. |
| System files | System, Vendor | No. | Loss of service |
Secure cleaning of cache and temporary files
The safest way to free up space is to clear the cache through application-specific settings. Go to Settings → Apps → All apps. Find the most “heavy” programs (usually browsers, social networks, marketplaces). Select an application, click on Memory and then Clear the cache. It is important not to confuse it with the “Clear Everything” button, which will reset the application to the “just from the store” state.
Pay special attention to messengers. Telegram, for example, you can set up automatic cache cleanup. Go to Settings → Data and memory → Memory use and set a Cached Media timer for 3 days or a week, which will prevent the Other category from growing in the future.
☑️ Checklist for quick cleaning
It's also worth checking the download folder. Often users forget about downloads. PDF-paperwork APK Go to the Download app or Download folder and sort the files by size.
⚠️ Note: Before clearing the messenger data (WhatsApp, Viber), be sure to back up the correspondence in the cloud. When manually cleaning folders through the Explorer, the message history may be lost irretrievably.
Use of third-party disk analyzers
If Xiaomi’s standard tools don’t give you the full picture, specialized analytics apps will come to the rescue, visualizing the file system by showing which files occupy the most space, and some of the best ones are Files by Google, DiskUsage, or Solid Explorer.
These programs build a memory card where the size of the rectangles corresponds to the size of the files, so you will immediately see that, for example, a logcat.txt file weighing 2 GB takes up space in the system folder, which allows you to point-out the "parasites" that hide in the category "Other".
Why aren't files deleted?
When working with third-party file managers, be careful: Do not delete files with the.apk extension unless you are sure that it is an installer, and do not touch files with the.so,.dex or.odex extensions - this is the executable code of the system and applications.
- 🔍 Visualization: Graphic mapping of occupied space helps to quickly find heavyweights».
- 🧹 Deep Cleanup: Access to hidden system folders closed by standard conductor.
- 📊 Sorting: The ability to sort all files on your device by size, regardless of their type.
Radical methods: Resetting and flashing
If the Other category is more than 20 to 30 GB and can’t be cleaned by standard methods, there may be a lot of errors in the file system, in which case a complete factory reset is an effective but radical method.
To perform the reset, go to Settings → About Phone → Settings Reset → Erase all data. The phone will go back to the box-like state and the Other category will disappear as all temporary files and cache will be destroyed. This is the most reliable way to solve the problem if it is caused by software errors of garbage accumulation.
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Full Reset is the only solution that guarantees 100% cleanup of the Other category if the cause is file system errors or system table corruption.
In rare cases, when even a reset does not help (which happens when the userdata partition is damaged), it may be necessary to flash the device through the computer using the Mi Flash Tool utility.
Prevention of memory overflow
To keep the Other problem from returning, you need to develop a habit of regularly maintaining your smartphone. Take 5-10 minutes a month to check the storage, delete unnecessary screenshots, clear the cache of heavy applications, and keep an eye on system updates, as newer versions of MIUI often improve memory management algorithms.
Use cloud storage for photos and videos. Services like Google Photos or Yandex.Disk allow you to free up space on your device by storing originals in the cloud, which will prevent the proliferation of media files that can later be mistakenly classified by the system.
⚠️ Warning: Do not install apps to “accelerate” and “clean” from questionable sources. Often they themselves are a source of advertising junk and can slow down your smartphone instead of helping.
Also, try not to fill the device’s internal memory completely. Android and virtual memory mechanisms must be left free 10-15% of the total. If the memory is filled, the system starts to work slower, and the process of writing new data can lead to errors and increase the size of system files.