How to Clean Up RAM on Xiaomi: The Complete Guide

Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO are all known for their price-performance ratios, but even powerful devices are slowing down over time. Often the brakes are caused by overcrowded RAM (RAM), which accumulates background processes and app cache. Memory cleaning is the first step to restoring the former interface friction.

In the Android operating system, which runs MIUI and HyperOS, resource management is designed so that free memory does not always mean fast work. However, critical filling of RAM leads to constant reboots and lags. In this article, we will examine proven methods of freeing up resources, from standard tools to advanced settings.

You don't have to be a technician to do this. All of the methods below are device-safe and don't require super-user rights, and the key is to understand which processes can be completed and which ones are best left alone for system stability.

Standard MIUI and HyperOS cleaners

The simplest and most affordable method that's already built into your smartphone's shell is the System Security app, which automatically monitors the state of the system and offers to clear RAM with a single tap, a tool that's optimized by Xiaomi developers to work with specific versions of firmware.

To start the procedure, look for an icon on your desktop called “Security” (green shield). Inside the interface, you will see a pie chart showing the current RAM load level. Click on the “Clean up” button or the diagram itself to complete the background tasks.

Although simple, this method has its own peculiarities: it frees up memory, but does not always effectively remove the “heavy” processes that are automatically restarted by the system.

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Use the Desktop Cleanup Widget for quick access to the memory free function without logging into the security application.

It’s worth noting that aggressive cleaning through a standard tool can cause notifications from messengers to arrive with a delay, as their processes will be forcibly closed, so use this feature wisely, especially if you are waiting for an important message.

Manual closing of background applications

Many users have been used to just swiping apps up the menu of recent tasks, believing that it completely closes them. In reality, Android often leaves processes hanging in memory for quick launch. To guarantee that resources are free, you need to do something different.

Open the menu of running apps (usually the bottom left navigation button or the swipe at the bottom with a delay). At the bottom of the screen or in the corner you will see a button with a broom or cross. Pressing it will force all open windows to close, however, for selective cleaning, it is better to use the "Clean" button next to each specific application, if this option is available in your version of MIUI.

⚠️ Note: Do not close Google system services or processes related to the operation of the phone (telephony, messages), as this can lead to unstable communication or loss of synchronization.

A more effective manual approach is to use the developer menu, which will be discussed below, but standard tools can also be used to achieve results. Regular habit of closing heavy applications, such as social networks or browsers with a dozen tabs, helps to keep RAM in good shape.

And you should pay special attention to browsers. Each tab you open is a separate process that consumes megabytes of memory. If you have 20 tabs open in Chrome or Mi Browser, they continue to take up space even when they are folded.

Managing Auto-Run Applications

One of the main causes of memory leakage is auto-run. Applications in the Xiaomi ecosystem tend to run with the phone on and remain active, controlling this parameter allows you to significantly reduce the load on the system.

To manage this, go to Settings → Apps → Permissions → Auto Run. Here you will see a list of programs that are allowed to start on their own. Turn off anything that is not critical (for example, messengers, alarms or activity trackers can be left).

After changing the autorun settings, it is recommended to perform a full restart of the device, which will allow the system to re-initialize the processes already taking into account the new rules, which immediately affects the amount of free memory.

Cleaning the cache and application data

Cache is a temporary file that applications save to speed up work. Over time, the cache can grow to gigabytes, taking up not only internal memory, but also affecting the work of RAM, as the system has to index this data.

To clean up, go to Settings → Apps → All apps. Select a “heavy” app (like YouTube, Instagram or TikTok) and click Storage. Here you will see two buttons: “Clear Cache” and “Clear Everything.” The first one is secure, the second one will reset the app to “as after installation.”

• 🧹 Cache Clearing: Deletes temporary files, secure for all applications.
• 🗑️ Data Cleanup: Remove logins, settings and saves, use with caution.
• 📦 Removing Updates: Returns the app to the factory version, freeing up a lot of space.

Regularly cleaning the cache of social networks and video services is a great habit, and these apps tend to accumulate huge amounts of temporary files that slow down their launch and operation in the background.

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Cache cleaning does not delete your personal photos or correspondence, it only removes temporary garbage, so this procedure can be carried out regularly without fear of losing data.

Use of the developer mode

For advanced users, Xiaomi provides access to hidden settings through developer mode, where you can not only see what exactly eats memory, but also limit the number of background processes.

To activate this mode, go to Settings → About the phone and quickly press 7 times on the item "Version" MIUI» (or "Version" OS»). After the inscription “You became a developer” appears, go back to the main settings menu, select More → For developers.

Inside the menu, find the Applications section, and there's the "Background Process Limit" option, and the default is "Standard Limit," but you can choose "No More than 2 Processes" or "No Background Processes," which will radically free up RAM, but can affect multitasking.

Path to setup: Settings → Additional → For developers → Limit background processes

Be careful with these settings. If you restrict background processes too much, navigation can stop working in the background, and music can pause when switching to other tasks. It's a tool for specific resource shortages.

Memory consumption analysis through ADB

If standard methods do not help to identify the memory eater, you can use a computer and debugging bridge ADB. This method allows you to get detailed statistics on each process in real time.

To do this, connect your phone to a PC with USB debugging enabled. Using the console, you can input a command to output a list of processes sorted by memory consumption, which will allow you to find hidden system errors or escaped processes.

adb shell dumpsys meminfo | head -20

This team will top-20 The processes that consume the most RAM. If you see a process with a name that is not clear, and it takes hundreds of megabytes, you can try to find it in the application list and delete it or stop it.

⚠️ Attention: Use ADB Stopping critical system processes through debugging can lead to a phone reboot or temporary loss of functionality.

Using ADB is especially useful when the phone starts to brake immediately after updating the firmware or installing specific software.This allows pinpoint-to-precisely identify the culprit of the lags.

Radical measures: Resetting and optimization

When software methods stop working and a phone with 6 or 8 GB of memory is slow, it’s worth thinking about deeper issues: data fragmentation or errors in the file system can interfere with the efficient use of RAM.

The most effective but time-consuming way is to reset completely to factory settings. Before you do that, make sure to back up your Google Account or Xiaomi Cloud service. Once reset, the phone will work as new, as all the accumulated digital junk will be removed.

• 🔄 Resetting: Completely cleanses the system of user data and errors.
• 🚫 Update rollback: If the problem appears after the update, you can try to return to the previous version.
• 📉 Lite versions of applications: Installing lightweight versions of social networks (Lite) significantly reduces the load on the Internet RAM.

Also worth considering is the option of installing custom launchers that consume fewer resources than a standard POCO Launcher or MIUI Launcher. Lightweight interface shells can free up to 500MB of RAM.