How to Clean the “Other” on Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro 128GB

Xiaomi smartphone owners often face a situation where the internal memory suddenly runs out and storage analysis reveals a mysterious category of “Other.” On the Redmi Note 9 Pro model with a storage capacity of 128 GB, this is especially critical, since the system and applications occupy a significant part, and the rest is quickly filled with garbage. The “Other” category is not a single file, but a collection of application cache, residual files after remote programs, temporary data and system logs.

The problem is that standard conductor doesn't always correctly display the contents of this folder, creating the illusion of overflow. The user sees that the memory is occupied, but does not understand what exactly. In this article, we will discuss safe and advanced ways to free up space that will help return the device to performance.

Memory Occupancy Analysis and Diagnosis

The first step before any cleaning is to accurately diagnose what exactly is taking up space. Standard MIUI tools provide a basic analyzer, but it often hides details. You have to go to the settings and select "About Phone" and then "Storage," and here you'll see a color graph where the gray or blue category might be labeled "Other," which is often inflated by multimedia messengers.

Apps like Telegram, Viber and WhatsApp store photos and videos in hidden folders that the system classifies as other files. If you use these services actively, they can take up to 20-30 GB of space, and they also include update files that did not automatically delete after installation, and accurate analysis allows you to understand the extent of the problem: whether it is a system failure or a result of active user work.

For a deeper analysis, you can use third-party utilities like DiskUsage or Xiaomi’s built-in Security app, which visualize the file system by showing the heaviest directories. Often, “Other” is just a folder with a browser cache or downloaded documents that lie dead for months.

• 🔍 Check the standard analyzer in the “Storage” menu to estimate the amount of occupied space.
• 📱 Pay attention to messengers – they are the main sources of junk files.
• 📂 Use a disk visualizer to find hidden heavy folders.

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The category “Other” is most often formed due to the cache of messengers and residual update files, rather than system errors.

Cleaning through the Standard Security App

The safest and easiest method available to every Redmi Note 9 Pro owner is to use a built-in cleaning tool. The MIUI shell preinstalled the Security app, which has the Cleanup module, which scans the device for temporary files, advertising debris and outdated APK installation packages.

But standard cleaning is often superficial, so to get to a deeper cleanup, you have to go to the Memory section inside the Security app, where you can delete files larger than 25MB that you may have forgotten, or old videos that you've already sent to the cloud, or forgotten downloads, and it's important to look carefully at the file type before you delete them so you don't erase your personal documents.

Also available in this section is the app cache cleaner, which will prompt you to clear the cache for each application you install separately, which is a secure operation that doesn't affect your logins and passwords, but deletes temporary data, speeding up the program, and doing this routinely prevents the Other category from growing to critical sizes.

You don't just have to rely on automated algorithms. You manually go through a list of big data applications, you can find hidden backups or error logs that take up space, for example, maps can store a cache of areas for offline navigation, which also falls into the category of other things.

Manual cleaning of the cache of messengers and social networks

As mentioned earlier, messengers are the main culprits of memory overflows. In Telegram, for example, the cache can grow to tens of gigabytes if you don't set up auto-delete it. To clear it, you go to the settings of the app itself, select Data and Memory, and click Memory Use. There's a "Clear Cache" button available, which will instantly free up space without deleting your correspondence.

WhatsApp is similar, but it needs to be careful with media files. It stores all the photos and videos it receives in its database. Cleaning up via WhatsApp settings (Data and Storage → Storage Management) allows you to select specific chats and delete only heavy files from them, a more flexible approach that allows you to save important documents but remove debris.

Social networks like VK or Instagram (if installed through third-party stores) also accumulate huge amounts of temporary data, and these apps often don’t have a full cache clearing button in their settings, so it’s sometimes more effective to reinstall the app, which is guaranteed to remove all the accumulated “Other” junk associated with the program.

• 🗑️ In Telegram, use the built-in cache cleaning function in the settings section.
• 💬 In WhatsApp, manage storage via the item “Data and Storage».
• 🔄 Reinstallation of social networks helps to remove the cache, which is not removed normally.

Regularly checking these apps should become a habit: just devote 5 minutes to the settings of messengers once a month, so that your Redmi Note 9 Pro runs quickly and does not suffer from space shortage.

Removing Android folder and system debris

A more advanced method involves working directly with the file system. At the root of the internal storage is the Android folder, which houses the data and obb subfolders. It stores application data, including game cache and temporary files. Deleting the contents of the data folder (but not the folder itself) for specific applications can free up a lot of space, but requires understanding what each folder is responsible for.

⚠️ Attention: Delete folders inside Android/data Reset the settings of the relevant applications and may require re-authorization, do this only if you are sure that the folder belongs to the remote application or contains garbage.

It's also worth checking the folder. MIUI It could be at the root of the vault. debug_log, And if you're not a developer, you don't need those files, and you can delete them, and they often weigh a few gigabytes and they're classified as "Other».

To work with the file system, use the built-in Files Explorer or the more advanced Total Commander. Do not delete files whose purpose you do not know, especially if they are in the system directories.

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Before removing files from your Android folder, copy them to your computer or the cloud to be able to recover data in case of an error.

Using ADB for deep cleaning

For users who are not afraid of a computer, there is the most powerful method - the use of debugging by USB and command line ADB. This way you can remove system debris and cache that is not available through the phone interface, USB-Xiaomi cable and installed drivers. First, you need to activate the developer mode, quickly clicking on the build number in the About Phone menu».

Once you have USB debugging enabled, connect your phone to your computer. In the command line on your PC, type a command to clear the cache of the batch installer and other system services. This can free up space that is labeled "Other" and can't be cleaned normally. Commands require accuracy, so copy them carefully.

adb shell pm trim-caches 999999999

This command tries to trim the cache of all applications to a minimum, and you can use the command to clear the cache of a particular package if you know its name, but for the average user, this method can seem complicated. It is effective when other methods have exhausted themselves.

⚠️ Attention: Use ADB-Introducing the wrong command can cause the system to malfunction or delete important system files. Use this method only if you understand the meaning of the commands.

Once you've done the commands, be sure to restart the device, and the system will recalculate the seat taken, and you'll see the actual result, and often after that, the "Other" category is reduced by a factor.

Resetting settings as a radical method

If neither method worked, and the Other category continues to take up absurd volume (e.g., 50-60 GB on an empty phone), it may have been an indexing failure in the file system, in which case a full factory reset would return the phone to a store-like state, removing all the trash, errors and redundant files.

Before reset, make sure to back up all important data. Photos, contacts and documents will be deleted. Go to Settings → About Phone → Reset and select “Erase All Data.” The process will take a few minutes, after which the phone will start clean.

After reset, don’t restore the apps right away, but install them again from Google Play, which ensures that you don’t bring back old garbage and erroneous configuration files that may have caused the memory problem.

• 💾 Make a full backup of important data before resetting.
• 🔄 Do not restore applications from the backup, but put them again.
• 🧹 First Start After Reset Shows Minimal Memory Use.

This method guarantees 100% results. Even if the memory fills up on its own without installing applications, this may indicate a physical failure of the drive, which requires a call to the service center.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)