Where to check your memory in Xiaomi: a complete guide to storage management

Owning a modern Xiaomi smartphone involves constantly interacting with a huge array of data: high-resolution photos, 4K videos, heavy apps and social media cache. Sooner or later, every user is faced with a situation where the system begins to warn about the lack of space, and the speed of the device drops. Understanding how your gadget’s internal storage is arranged becomes a critical skill for maintaining its performance.

Unlike computers, where disk management can be complex, the MIUI shells and the new HyperOS have convenient monitoring tools, but they are often hidden in different menu sections or require specific codes to access advanced statistics, and we will take a look at all the available methods, from standard settings to engineering menus.

Don't ignore the first signs of overflow, as it affects not only the ability to install new programs, but also the stability of the operating system. Android uses free space for the paging file and temporary operations. Let's figure out where to look for information about occupancy and how to effectively manage the resources of the device.

Checking through standard system settings

The most obvious and safe way to know how much space is left on your Xiaomi, Redmi or POCO is through the basic settings menu. It’s a versatile method that works equally stable on all firmware versions, whether it’s the old MIUI 12 or the newest HyperOS. Here you’ll see the overall picture of occupancy without unnecessary technical details.

To get the data, you need to go to Settings, then scroll down to About Phone. The menu that opens will be the Memory (or Storage) line, where the color scale visually shows the ratio of occupied and vacant space.

⚠️ Note: Do not manually delete system files through file managers unless you know exactly what they are intended for. An error in the system partition can cause a cyclical reboot of the device.

In a detailed view, the system breaks down the space into categories: apps, images, video, audio, etc. This allows you to quickly identify the "eaters" of the place, for example, it often turns out that messengers like Telegram or WhatsApp take up gigabytes of cache that the user did not even know.

Use of the Security App

Xiaomi's ecosystem preinstalled the system app Security, which is a Swiss knife for servicing the phone. It not only protects against viruses, but also provides the most convenient tools for cleaning memory. Many users ignore it, preferring third-party solutions, although the built-in algorithm is better optimized for a specific model of the processor.

Launch the app and select the Cleanup icon. The system will scan and give you a list of files that can be deleted without risking data: cache, remnants of deleted applications, advertising files and temporary data. This is the first step that should be done regularly.

The Deep Clean feature, which analyzes the contents of application folders and suggests removing old APK installation files, large video files, and rarely used programs, allows you to free up a significant amount of space in a couple of minutes.

Place analysis by category

When you move into storage management, the system offers a breakdown by content type. Understanding what lies behind each category helps you make informed decisions about deletion, for example, the category "Apps" can be misleading, because often the main weight is not the programs themselves, but their data.

Let’s look at the main categories of resources:

• 📱 Apps: It stores installation files and, more importantly, app data. Telegram or Instagram cache can grow to 10-20 GB if it's not cleaned.
• 🖼️ Images and Videos: Photos in format RAW or video 4K Check the screenshot folders and saved WhatsApp statuses.
• 📂 Documents and more: Often, forgotten downloaded files from the browser or attachments from the mail that have already lost their relevance are hidden here.

Special attention should be paid to the MIUI folder at the root of the internal drive, which can store logs of the recorder, system backups and themes, and if you do not use the theme constantly, its files can be deleted after use, freeing up space.

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Use the Photo Compression feature in the Xiaomi Gallery, which reduces the weight of images without any visible loss of quality, saving gigabytes of space.

Advanced analysis through the engineering menu

For more advanced users who need accurate numbers before the byte, there is access to hidden sections of statistics. It's not really an engineering menu in the classical sense, but rather a hidden system report that shows each specific process and folder in real time.

To get there, open the Phone app and enter a special code. Most Xiaomi devices have a combination:

##6485##

Once you enter the code, you'll see a Battery Info window, and we're not interested in battery power, but in the settings at the bottom of the screen. MB_06 (is used in memory; or MB_08 (available RAM). For internal memory (ROM) Look for parameters that start with RF_ or similar, depending on the version of Android.

⚠️ Note: This menu displays technical parameters. Do not change the values manually unless you are an engineer, as this may disrupt the calibration of the battery or system.

This method is useful when standard settings show a single value and the phone behaves as if the memory is full. The engineering menu shows raw data that sometimes accurately reflects the real state of affairs, especially in the presence of system accounting errors.

Working with a memory card and USB-accumulator

Many Xiaomi models support memory expansion via microSD cards, and when you set up this partition properly, you can store media files separately from the system, which speeds up your smartphone, but Android and MIUI have their own external media features.

Once you have the memory card installed, the system will suggest formatting it, and it's important to choose formatting as a portable storage if you're planning to transfer the card between devices, and if the phone is only used with this card, you can choose the option of "internal memory," but this will encrypt the card, and it won't read on other gadgets.

To check the status of the memory card, go to Settings → The phone. → There's a separate section for the memory. SD-Check this section regularly, because memory cards tend to degrade and go into read-only mode when worn out.

Table: Comparison of methods of memory verification

To make it easier for you to navigate your diagnostics, we have prepared a summary table that will help you choose the best tool depending on your goal: rapid cleaning or deep technical analysis.

As you can see from the table, you can use standard settings for everyday use, and you should only use engineering codes in controversial situations, where you need to understand where gigabytes that are not displayed in the standard interface are missing.

Optimization and freeing up space

Once you've checked the memory, the question is, what do you do with the information you get? Simply deleting files often has a temporary effect. You need a systematic approach to data management. You need to look at cloud services first.

Xiaomi Cloud or alternatives like Google Photos allow you to store your original photos in the cloud, leaving only thumbnails on your device, which can free up to 80% of the space occupied by media files, and it is also worth regularly cleaning the Download folder, where many temporary files accumulate.

Remember the Memory Extension feature, which is available on newer models, which allows you to use some of your internal memory as RAM, but if you don't have enough space for your files, you'd better turn it off in the "Advanced" settings so you don't sacrifice gigabytes of your photos for a hypothetical performance boost.

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Regularly cleaning up the messenger cache and moving media to the cloud is the only way to forget about the memory shortage on Xiaomi.