How to check the memory status of Xiaomi: the complete guide

Xiaomi’s modern smartphones are famous for their performance, but even the most powerful models eventually start to work slower. Often this behavior is caused by crowded internal storage or a lack of RAM. Users notice that applications open longer, the interface slows down, and notifications of space shortages appear at the most inopportune moment. Understanding where to look at memory status on Xiaomi is the first step to optimize the device.

Android, which runs the MIUI or HyperOS shell, has different types of memory, and it's not worth confusing them. RAM is responsible for multitasking and speed of running applications right now. At the same time, internal memory (ROM) is used to store photos, videos, installed programs and system files. It's important to distinguish between these concepts, since the methods of cleaning and diagnosing them are significantly different from each other.

In this article, we will discuss in detail all the available ways to diagnose the storage of your smartphone, you will learn to use the built-in tools of the system, engineering menus and third-party utilities to obtain the most accurate information. Proper control over the resources of the device will extend its life and maintain a high response rate for many years.

Built-in Safety Tool for Quick Diagnostics

The easiest and most affordable way to instantly assess the occupancy of the drive is in a standard application from developers. All Xiaomi smartphones preinstalled system tool called Security, which combines the functions of antivirus and optimizer. Launch the application with an icon in the form of a shield on the home screen or in the folder “Tools”.

Once you start, you'll see a "Clean" or "Test" button, and when you click on it, it'll scan the device, but what we're interested in is not cleaning it, but visualizing the space that's occupied. The main menu of the Security app often shows a pie chart showing the ratio of free and occupied memory, and clicking on that element or going to the Cleanup section will give you a more detailed picture.

The system automatically kategoriziruet files, showing how much space images, videos, documents and cache of applications take up, which allows you to quickly identify the heavyweights that consume resources. If you see the Other section taking up suspiciously much space, this may indicate an accumulation of system debris or residual files of remote programs.

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The built-in security scanner is the first tool to use to quickly assess the situation, as it has access to all system partitions without additional permissions.

It's worth noting that this method gives a general idea, but it doesn't show the technical state of the memory chip, such as the number of rewriting cycles. For deep diagnostics, other methods will be required, which we'll talk about later, but for daily monitoring, this method is the most convenient and safe.

Detailed analysis through system settings

You can get more in-depth statistics by looking at the standard operating system settings, which are universal for all versions of Android and do not depend on the version of the MIUI shell. To get there, you need to open the settings menu and find a section that can be called About Phone or Advanced Settings, depending on the firmware version.

Inside the About Phone section, you'll need to find the Storage or Memory section, and here's a color bar where you're showing different colors for data types: apps, images, audio, video, documents and system files, so you can visually see what's eating up space.

And you'll pay special attention to the Apps section, and if you click on it, you'll see a list of all the installed programs sorted by size, and it often turns out that messengers like Telegram or WhatsApp take up gigabytes of space because of the accumulated cache of media files, and managing storage through this interface allows you to delete the data of specific applications without completely uninstalling them.

If you have a microSD card installed on your device, the menu will display information about it, the system will show the total volume, space used and available balance. SD-cards, as damage to its file system can lead to errors in the operation of the entire smartphone.

RAM Memory Checking (RAM) and Background Processes

Many users confuse lack of photo space with lack of RAM, which leads to confusion in terms. RAM is a temporary storage where the data of applications running right now is stored. If it is not enough, the phone begins to slow down and reload tabs in the browser or games, you can check its status through the multitasking menu.

Press the menu button (square or three bars) or swipe from bottom to bottom with a delay to open the list of running applications. At the top of the screen, information in the format “X GB free from Y GB” is often displayed. If free less than 10-15% of the total volume, the system becomes difficult to manage processes.

For more advanced users, the developer mode is available, where you can see the details of each process. To activate this mode, you need to quickly click on the build number in the About Phone section 7 times, and then a new option will appear in the settings menu for developers, where in the Memory section you can see the average RAM time and the number of free slots.

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Don’t try to keep RAM completely free. Android is designed so that free RAM is wasted RAM. The system will unload the unnecessary if you need space for a new task.

There is a common myth that you need to constantly clean RAM by third-party process killers. In fact, frequent forced cleaning of RAM on Xiaomi can even harm autonomy, as the system has to restart system services, which consumes more CPU power.

Use of engineering menu for technical diagnostics

For those who want to know not only the volume, but also the technical condition of the drive, there is an engineering menu, which is a hidden part of the system, designed for engineers and equipment testing, accessed through a special code in the phone application.

If the code is suitable for your model and firmware region, the CIT menu will open, and you will find a memory item that can be called Storage, Memory or SD Card Test.

In this section, you can run a read-write test, and the system will create a temporary file, write it down, then count and verify integrity, and it can identify broken sectors or problems with the drive response rate that are not visible in the normal interface, and if the test shows errors, it's a serious reason to think about replacing the device or backing up the data.

⚠️ Warning: Be very careful in the engineering menu. Don't choose the Format or Erase options unless you want to completely erase all your phone data).

Consider that on global firmware versions, access to the engineering menu through codes is often blocked by the manufacturer for security reasons, so you can try entering code ##4636##, which opens the test menu, where you can also find information about memory usage, albeit in less detailed form.

Third-party applications for resource monitoring

If standard tools are not enough, specialized applications from the Google Play Store come to the rescue, providing more flexible visualization and deep file system analysis tools, and one of the most popular and reliable solutions is the DiskUsage app.

This app scans the internal storage and builds an interactive map in rectangles, and each rectangle is the size of a file or folder, and it allows you to instantly find hidden large files that aren't displayed in a standard conductor, for example, you might find a forgotten log folder or a streaming service cache that takes up several gigabytes.

Other useful utilities include SD Maid and Files by Google. They not only show the structure of memory, but also offer safe ways to clean. SD Maid is especially good for being able to find "body" - the remnants of files from long-deleted applications that clog the system.

When using third-party software, it is important to remember access rights, and to function properly, such programs often require permission to access or super-user rights (Root), without Root rights, some system partitions may remain hidden from the user's eyes.

Indicators and status table

Understanding what different metrics in the memory menu mean is critical to proper diagnosis. Often users see obscure abbreviations or percentages and don't know if they should panic. Below is a table that will help decipher the basic statuses and values.

If you see an internal memory (ROM) load factor exceeding 90%, the system will start to run unstable. Android requires free space for temporary operations, virtual memory and log writing, and ignoring this fact can lead to a cyclical reboot or inability to install updates.

If you deleted 5 GB of photos but only 1 GB of memory is available, you may have original files in the cart (“Recently deleted”) that take up space for another 30 days before final deletion.

Optimization and cleaning of storage

Once you’ve figured out where to look at Xiaomi’s memory status and found problems, you need to start optimizing. Simply deleting files isn’t always the best solution. Start by clearing the cache of heavy apps like YouTube, TikTok and social media through the app management menu.

The second step is to use cloud services. Xiaomi offers its own cloud service, but Google Photos and Yandex.Disk are also effective. Set up automatic synchronization of the gallery with remote storage and enable the “Free Space” function, which will remove the originals already uploaded to the cloud from the phone.

⚠️ Warning: Before performing a complete cleanup or formatting a memory card, be sure to back up important data.Recovering deleted information from a crowded drive may not be possible.

Regular maintenance of the device will help to avoid critical filling, it is recommended to audit installed applications once a month and remove those that you have not used for more than three months, this will keep your Xiaomi performance at a high level.