Another in Xiaomi memory: what is it and how to clean?

Xiaomi and Redmi smartphone owners often face a mysterious situation: the device’s internal memory is full, although the applications are few and photos and videos are deleted. In a detailed analysis of the storage, it turns out that the lion’s share is occupied by files classified as “Other” by the system, which becomes a digital “black box” where MIUI or HyperOS hides cache, remnants of deleted programs and temporary files that were not correctly processed.

Understanding the nature of this data is critical to the normal operation of the gadget. Overloading memory not only prevents the installation of new games or applications, but also leads to a noticeable decrease in system performance, the appearance of artifacts on the screen and even spontaneous reboots. Many users mistakenly believe that standard cleaning tools will solve the problem, but the algorithms of the Android file system are more complex.

In this article, we’ll take a closer look at what this category is really made of, why it grows to tens of gigabytes, and what safe methods exist to free it up. We’ll look at both the standard tools and advanced file system ways to help your Xiaomi get back to its original speed.

The Anatomy of the Other: What’s Hiding There

The Other category in Android storage is not just one specific file type, but a collection of data that the system cannot uniquely classify as images, audio, video or documents, primarily app cache. Messengers like Telegram or WhatsApp, and browsers and social networks, accumulate gigabytes of temporary data to speed up content loading. Over time, this cache stops optimizing work and just takes up space.

The second important component is the remnants of remote applications, which are often left behind when you delete a game or program through a standard interface, configuration files, error logs, and data libraries, which can weigh hundreds of megabytes, and system logs and error reports that MIUI creates in the background for debugging, but rarely deletes automatically.

Special attention should be paid to offline maps and downloaded content of streaming services. Files downloaded to Spotify, Yandex.Music or navigators can be displayed by the system not as music or maps, but as unknown data if the application does not transmit the correct metadata about the file type to the system, which is why cleaning requires careful attention.

Analysis of storage with regular MIUI and HyperOS

Before you go to any drastic measures, you need to do a good diagnostic. Xiaomi has a powerful memory analyzer built in. Go to Settings → Memory (or Advanced Settings → Memory on older versions). This is a visualization system for space. Click on "Other" or "System Files" to see the details.

A regular cleaner (Security → Cleanup) often suggests removing "garbage," but be careful. Cache clearing algorithms can be too aggressive. For example, cleaning the card cache will cause the navigator to re-download data the next time it runs, which will waste traffic and time.

Notice the recent section in the gallery and guide. Deleted photos often end up in a 30 day shopping cart, continuing to rank in the Other category until they are permanently deleted. Also check the MIUI → Gallery → cloud folder, where cloud thumbnails can be stored.

Manual cleaning through Explorer and file managers

A file manager is required to clean it deeper. Xiaomi’s standard Explorer or third-party solutions like Total Commander or MiXplorer (require rights or settings) will allow you to see the real folder structure. Go to the root of internal memory and look at folders with application names like com.whatsapp or com.tencent.mm.

Cache, temp, or thumbnails folders are often hidden inside these directories, and deleting the contents of these folders is safe for personal data (correspondences and photos will remain), but will free up a significant amount of data. Be careful not to delete the folders themselves with the database names (often with the extension.db) unless you are sure of their purpose.

The Download folder deserves special attention. Browsers and instant messengers often save there. APK-installer, PDF-documents and archives that you've already opened and forgotten, transferring them to your computer or deleting them is the fastest way to free up space, and check your Bluetooth folder if you've received files wirelessly.

Using ADB for Advanced Cleaning

If standard methods don’t work, Android Debug Bridge (ADB) is a developer tool that allows you to manage your smartphone file system from your computer, and you’ll need to enable USB debugging in the Developer Menu (available after 7 clicks on the build number in About Phone).

Using the adb shell pm list packages command, you can get a list of all the packets and then analyze their size. However, the most effective way to clean up the cache of specific applications is by the adb shell pm clear command, which allows you to clear the data where the system interface can block the action.

adb shell pm trim-caches 99999999999

This team tries to make room by cutting down the cache of all applications to a minimum. Importantly, the ADB commands require an installed device driver and SDK tools platform on the PC. Inexperienced users should be extremely careful, since removing system packages can lead to unstable operation.

⚠️ Attention: When in use ADB Never remove system apps, even if they seem useless, which can disrupt Google services or the shell itself. MIUI, which will require re-flashing the device.

Table: Analysis of file types in the “Other” category

To better understand what is taking up space, check out the typical “inhabitants” table in this section, and understanding the source of the files helps you choose the right cleaning strategy.

As you can see from the table, the bulk of the volume is occupied by user applications, not system files. Android/data After removing heavy games, it is a good habit for the Xiaomi owner.

Radical measures: Resetting and reflashing

If the Other category is more than 30-40 GB and does not decrease after all the manipulations, it is possible that there are errors or fragmentation in the file system. In this case, the solution is a complete reset to factory settings (Settings → About Phone → Resetting).

Before you do that, make sure to back up your important data to the cloud or to your computer, and reset it will remove everything, including junk, and return the partition structure to its original state, often solving the problem of software-based cleaning methods being powerless against file system logic errors.

💡

Before resetting, check if sync is activated with Mi Account and Google Account, which ensures that contacts, notes, and calendar are restored automatically after you log in.

In extreme cases, when even a reset doesn’t help (which is rare), it requires a full-clean-up Mi Flash Tool to flash the device, which recreates the memory partitions again, ensuring that any artifacts of space are eliminated.

⚠️ Warning: Full flashing or resetting with cleaning removes all data without recovery. Make sure you have an up-to-date copy of photos and documents on an external medium.

Prevention of memory overflow

To keep the Other problem from coming back, change your smartphone usage habits. Set up automatic cache cleanup in messenger apps. For example, Telegram can set a cache size limit: Settings → Data and memory → Memory Use → Cache Limit. Set a limit of 1-2 GB.

Regularly, once a month, check the Downloads folder and delete unnecessary ones. APK-Don’t store music and movies in internal memory if your Xiaomi has a microSD card slot — transfer media files there.

💡

The main secret of memory purity is to prevent the growth of the messenger cache and regularly clean the Downloads folder, since they make up 90% of the Other category.

Use cloud storage for photos and videos. Services like Google Photos or Mi Cloud allow you to store originals in the cloud, leaving only compressed copies on the device or deleting them altogether after synchronization, which frees up gigabytes of space for the system and applications.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)