Next articleThe “Other” on Xiaomi Poco M3 Pro takes gigabytes? learn to clean properly

Owners of Xiaomi Poco M3 Pro often encounter a mysterious “Other” section in the memory settings, which takes from 5 to 20 GB — and this despite the fact that user files are not saved there. The system stubbornly does not show what is stored in this section, and standard cleaning methods (cache, garbage) do not help.

In fact, "Other" is a collective name for system files that MIUI does not categorize as "Applications," "Media," or "Documents."

• 📁 Cache updates (including failed packages) OTA)
• 🔄 System Logs and Error Dumps (especially after Failures)
• 📱 Residual files of remote applications
• 🔐 Encrypted data (e.g. from Mi Account or Google Play Services)
• 🎮 Temporary game files (Unity or Unreal Engine cache)

Compounding the problem, the Poco M3 Pro has only 64/128GB of storage (depending on the modification), and even 10GB of “invisible” debris can make a smartphone unusable.In this article, 5 proven ways to clean up “The Other,” including hidden methods that are not mentioned in the official documentation of Xiaomi.

1. Diagnostics: What exactly occupies a place in the "Other"?

Before you clean it, you have to understand what we're dealing with. MIUI has a built-in memory analysis tool, but it only shows the tip of the iceberg.

1. Open Settings → About the phone and tap on the “MIUI version” item 7 times to activate the developer mode.
2. Return to Settings → Additional → For developers and enable “Debugging by USB”.
3. Connect the Poco M3 Pro to your PC and use ADB (Android Debug Bridge) to execute the command: adb shell df -h /data It will show the real memory allocation, including hidden partitions.

If ADB It's hard to use the DiskUsage app (available on Google Play) and it visualizes the space that's occupied in a diagram, where "Other" is usually displayed as system_data misc.

⚠️ Note: If the output is adb shell df -h section /data busy 90%+, This may indicate that the file system has been damaged, in which case the cleanup will not help - a complete reset will be required (see section below). 5).

2. Clean up the update cache and temporary MIUI files

Cash. OTA-Updates are one of the main memory eaters in Other. Xiaomi saves firmware packages even after successful installation, and unsuccessful updates can take up to a few years. 2-3 GB each. You can remove them like this:

• 📱 Go to Settings. → Memory. → Clean and tap Update Files. If you don't have a point, use the manual method:
• 🔍 Open any file manager (such as Mi File Manager) with root permissions (if any) and delete folders: /data/ota_package/ /cache/
• 🗑️ For removal without root, use the command ADB: adb shell pm clear com.android.updater

Also check the /data/local/tmp/ folder, which often contains temporary files from Google Play Services and Mi Cloud, which can be deleted manually or through ADB:

adb shell rm -rf /data/local/tmp/*

Check out the MIUI version (Settings → About the phone)

Make a backup copy of important data

Connect the charger (the process can take 10-15 minutes)

Do not interrupt cleaning, even if the phone is “hang”

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3. Removal of logs and error dumps

The MIUI system maintains detailed logs that are rarely needed by the average user, but can take 1-5 GB. Especially a lot of garbage accumulates after:

• 🔄 Unsuccessful updates (recovery.log files, last_log)
• 💥 Crash of apps (daddy) /data/anr/)
• 📡 Network Diagnostics (netlog, tcpdump files)

To clear the logs:

1. Install the Log Viewer app (like aLogcat from F-Droid) and check the log size.
2. Use ADB to remove: adb shell su -c "rm -rf /data/log/*" adb shell su -c "rm -rf /data/anr/*" adb shell su -c "rm -rf /data/tombstones/*"
3. If there is no root, clean through Safe Mode: Turn off the phone. Press the power button and hold the volume up until the POCO logo appears. In Safe Mode, go to Settings → Memory → Cleanup and select System Logs.

⚠️ Note: Removing files from /data/tombstones/ If the phone often overheats or turns off, check it first at a service center.

4. Cleaning up the residues of remote applications

When you delete an application through Settings, MIUI doesn't always remove all associated files.

• 📂 Folders in /data/data/ (cache, settings)
• 🔗 Symbolic references to /data/app-lib/
• 🎮 Game save files (e.g. com.tencent.ig for PUBG Mobile)

To find and remove this garbage:

1. Use a root-access file manager (like Root Explorer) and manually check folders: /data/data/app-lib/ /sdcard/Android/obb/ Look for folders with names of remote applications (like com.facebook.katana for Facebook).
2. Without root, the SD Maid application (section “CorpseFinder”) will help.
3. For games, remove folders in /sdcard/Android/obb/ – they can weigh 1-2 GB each.

Important: Do not delete folders of existing applications - this will lead to their collapse. Before cleaning, check the date of the change of files: if the folder has not been updated for more than a month, you can safely delete it.

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If you are not sure if the folder is a remote application, rename it (for example, add old at the end). If in a week no programs stop working, feel free to delete.

5. Reset to factory settings (last chance)

If the previous methods didn't work, and the Other still takes 10+GB, it's a radical reset, but it's guaranteed to clean up all the hidden files, and it's important to do it right so you don't lose the data.

1. 📱 Backup: Copy photos/video to your PC or cloud (Google Photos, Mi Cloud). Export contacts via Settings → Google → Backup. Save it. SMS via appendix SMS Backup & Restore.

Reset:

1. Go to Settings → About the phone → Reset settings.
2. Select “Erase all data” and confirm.
3. If the phone is stuck on the POCO logo after reset, press Power + Volume down for 10 seconds for a forced reboot.

⚠️ Note: If the “Other” grows again rapidly after reset (for example, it takes 3 weeks to reset)+ GB), this may indicate a hardware memory problem (eMMC chip wear), in which case only replacing the motherboard will help.

6.Prevention: How to prevent the growth of the Other?

To prevent the Other from taking up gigabytes again, follow these rules:

• 🔄 Regular Cleaning: Once a Month, Start Settings → Memory. → Cleanup.Use CCleaner or Files by Google to delete unnecessary files.
• 🚫 Limit Logs: Turn off “Sending Error Reports” in Settings → Additionally. → Confidentiality. Reduce logging through ADB: adb shell setprop log.tag *:S
• 📱 Update Control: Turn off automatic update downloads in Settings → The phone. → Update the system. OTA manually after installation (see section 2).

Also avoid installing modified firmware (such as Custom ROM) – they often create additional hidden files that MIUI cannot properly classify.

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Regular cleaning of the update cache and logs reduces the growth of the "Other" by 60-70%. Full reset is recommended to do no more than 1 time in 6 months.

FAQ: Frequent questions about the "Other" on the Poco M3 Pro