Cleaning the “Other” section on Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro: the full guide

Owners of the Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro often face a situation where internal memory is full and a large part of it is occupied by the mysterious “Other” section, which can grow to tens of gigabytes, blocking the installation of applications and saving new photos. Understanding the nature of this partition is the first step to successfully clean the device.

Android, especially in the MIUI shell, accumulates temporary files, app cache and remnants of deleted programs in this folder. Standard cleaning methods often prove powerless against deep-seated data. In this article, we will discuss proven ways to help securely free up space.

The Nature of the Other Section in the MIUI System

The Other section is a system storage for files that the operating system cannot uniquely classify, including messenger cache data, remnants of remote games, temporary update files and application logs. On the Redmi Note 9 Pro, this partition can take up to 30% of the total memory.

Often, users are unaware that listening to music online or watching high-resolution videos leaves a heavy mark here, and the system considers this data important for fast download, but over time it turns into digital garbage. Without regular cleaning, this leads to a slowdown in the interface.

Data caching is automatic, and the standard cleaner doesn't always see these files as being deleted, social media and video services are particularly aggressive, saving previews, avatars and videos to save traffic, but forgetting to delete older versions.

⚠️ Warning: Do not attempt to delete system files through root-righted file managers without understanding their purpose.

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Check the.thumbnails folder regularly in hidden directories – this is where most of the junk is often hidden from the gallery.

Basic cleaning through standard means

The first step should always be to use a built-in cleaning tool that is safe and removes obvious debris. To do this, open the Security app and select Cleanup, and the system will analyze the device and suggest that you delete temporary files.

However, a standard scanner often skips large files in the Other section. You need to go to the storage settings manually. Go to Settings → About Phone → Storage. Here you will see a detailed breakdown by category. Click on the Other section to see which apps take up the most space.

It often turns out that the lion's share is taken by data from a particular application, like Telegram or YouTube, in which case it's more effective to clear the cache of that particular application than to delete everything, which will save important account data but free up gigabytes of space.

Don't ignore the gallery cart and the "Recently Deleted" folder, which stores files for 30 days and continues to occupy space, formally referring to the "Other" or "Images" section until they are permanently deleted.

Working with the cache of messengers and social networks

Messengers are the main culprits behind the inflated “Other” section on Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro. Telegram, WhatsApp and Viber store all received media files. In Telegram, for example, cache can reach 10-15 GB if you do not configure autodeletion.

To clean up Telegram, go to Settings → Data and Memory → Memory Use. Here you can safely clear the cache without deleting correspondence. Photos and videos will remain available for re-upload from the cloud, and space on the phone will be freed up instantly.

WhatsApp is more complicated because it doesn't have a built-in deep cache cleanup without deleting chats, and it's recommended that you use Storage Management inside the app's settings, so you can sort the chats by volume and remove the heavy attachments selectively.

Automatic downloading of media files is a feature that should be turned off. Leave downloading only over Wi-Fi or completely manually, which will prevent the accumulation of unnecessary images from group chats in the future.

Analysis of storage by third-party utilities

If standard methods don't work, specialized analytics apps come to the rescue, visualize the file system by showing which files are taking up space, and one of the best utilities is DiskUsage or Files by Google.

These programs build a memory card where the size of the rectangles corresponds to the size of the files, and you'll immediately see huge blocks in the "Other" section, which often turn out to be forgotten downloads or error logs, and deleting such files is safe if they're not related to the current operation of the applications.

When working with analyzers, be careful: do not delete files with the.obb or.data extension unless you are sure that they belong to remote games. These files often lie in root folders and can weigh 2-3 GB each.

Cleaning through Developer Mode and ADB

For advanced users, there is a USB debugging method that allows you to remove the system cache that is not available to the average user, and you need to activate the developer mode by seven times clicking on the build number in Settings → About phone.

Once you have enabled USB debugging, connect your phone to your computer. Using the Android Debug Bridge (ADB) platform, you can execute a command to clear the packet cache. This requires caution, but gives the best result for the Other section.

adb shell pm trim-caches 999999999

This command forcibly cuts the cache of all applications to the lowest possible value. Unlike normal cleaning, it affects system processes. Once the command is executed, the phone can run slower first. 10-15 minutes until the necessary cache is restored.

⚠️ Attention: Use ADB-Introducing the wrong command can lead to the removal of important system components.

If you're not sure about yourself, it's best to limit yourself to cleaning through safe mode. To enter it, press the off button, and then hold your finger on the "off" item on the screen for a long time.

Radical measures: Resetting settings

When the Other partition takes up a critical volume and is not cleanable, the last option is a complete reset. This is guaranteed to remove all debris, but requires prior data storage.Be sure to back up to the Xiaomi Cloud or your computer before the procedure.

Reset is done via Settings menu → About phone → Reset → Delete all data. The process takes 5 to 15 minutes. Once turned on, you will get a clean system where the Other section will occupy the minimum possible volume.

It is important not to restore backup applications immediately "wholesale." Install them one by one and watch the growth of the "Other" section. Often one particular application is the cause of the problem, and its re-installation will fill the memory again.

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A complete reset is the only way to remove system logs and file system errors that have been accumulating for years.

After resetting, it is recommended to immediately configure the rules for cleaning the cache and disable the autoload of media in messengers, this will prevent the problem from returning quickly in the future.

Prevention of memory overflow

To keep the problem from returning, you need to change your smartphone usage habits: check the storage once a week regularly, and avoid filling up more than 85% of your memory, as this critically affects the speed of the Redmi Note 9 Pro.

Use cloud-based services to store photos and videos. Set up automatic sync and then delete local copies, which will free up gigabytes of space and shift the load to the cloud.

Regular updates to MIUI are also important, as newer firmware versions often fix bugs that lead to memory leaks and incorrect calculation of free space.