How to effectively clean the gallery on Xiaomi Redmi 9

Owners of the popular Xiaomi Redmi 9 budget smartphone often face the problem of lack of space. This is a natural process, because modern applications take up a lot of space, and cameras allow you to take high-resolution pictures that quickly fill internal memory. When the storage is overflowing, the device starts to work slower, and the standard gallery can freeze or refuse to display images at all.

Cleaning up a gallery is not just about removing old photos, it's also about putting things in order. MIUI, the operating shell of a smartphone, accumulates a lot of temporary files, thumbnails and hidden data that you can't see on the surface. A smart cleaning approach will free up gigabytes of space and bring the device back to its previous speed without having to reset to factory settings.

In this detailed guide, we will take a look at all available optimization methods. We will look at the regular system tools, working with hidden folders, cleaning the cache of applications and using cloud services. On Redmi 9, it is critical to manually remove garbage folders from messengers, since automatic cleaning often ignores them. Following these recommendations will help you keep your smartphone in excellent condition.

Basic removal of photos and videos through the standard Gallery

The most obvious, but often inefficient, method is manually deleting media files. The standard Xiaomi Gallery app has a user-friendly interface, but users rarely use its grouping capabilities. Instead of flipping thousands of photos one at a time, use the highlight mode, which allows you to instantly clear the memory of unnecessary screenshots, takes and blurred frames.

To start, open the app and go to the Albums tab, where the content is categorized into screenshots, videos, downloads. Often it is the Screenshots folder or WhatsApp Images that takes up the most space. Once you select an album, click and hold your finger on one image to activate the selection mode, and then use the "Select All" feature or highlight unnecessary files with your finger.

Once deleted, the files don't disappear completely, but they move to a 30 day basket, which is a MIUI security measure, but it prevents you from freeing up space right now, so that the effect is instantaneous, you have to go to the settings of the gallery or the Deleted folder itself and clear the contents, and then the physical space on the drive will be freed up.

• 📸 Use the “Recent” mode to quickly find and delete old photos taken a month ago.
• 🗑️ Make sure to clean the Remove folder after each major clean for instant results.
• 📂 Sort albums by size to identify the heaviest folders with video files.
• 🔄 Periodically check the Favorites folder, as advertising images from apps often get there.

⚠️ Before mass cleaning of folders of messengers (WhatsApp, Telegram, Viber), make sure that among the deleted photos there are no important documents or receipts that may be needed in the future.

Cleaning Hidden Folders and System Garbage

Many users are unaware that a significant part of the memory is occupied by hidden system files and application cache. In the Android file system on Xiaomi Redmi 9, many directories are hidden from the eyes of the average user. To access them, you will need a built-in file manager. Go to the Explorer application and turn on the display of hidden files in the settings.

Special attention should be paid to the Android/data and Android/obb folders. It stores cached data of games and heavy applications. However, deleting files from here can lead to a reset of game progress or loss of offline cards. A safer way is to clean up the social network cache folders, which often grow to several gigabytes.

It's also worth checking the root directory for folders from remote applications, sometimes after uninstallation, its folder with logos and temporary data stays in place, manually find folders with the names of remote games or utilities and delete them if you are sure that they are not necessary.

• 📁 The.thumbnails folder can weigh gigabytes – it can be cleaned safely, the system will create it again.
• 📱 Tencent directory often contains junk files from Chinese versions of apps.
• 📉 folder MIUI/gallery/cloud Stores local copies of cloud photos if synchronization is enabled.

Using the built-in Cleanup tool in the Security app helps to find some of the debris, but manual control through Explorer gives a much better result, and checking these sections regularly will keep the system on track.

Application cache management and memory optimization

Social media apps and instant messengers are the biggest memory eaters on Redmi 9. Telegram, Instagram and TikTok store vast amounts of time to quickly load your feed. Over time, this cache becomes redundant and slows down your device. Clearing the cache doesn't delete your personal correspondence, but frees up space occupied by the videos and pictures you've watched.

To manage your app memory, go to Settings → Apps → All apps. Select a heavy app (like Telegram) and click Memory. Here you will see the Clear Cache button. It is important not to confuse it with the Clear All button, which will delete the app along with the login data.

In addition, the Telegram messenger itself has a built-in memory management feature. Go to Settings → Data and Memory → Memory Use and set up automatic cache cleanup in, say, 3 days or a week, which will prevent the storage from inflating again in the future.

Regular cache maintenance is a habit that prolongs the life of a budget device. On the Xiaomi Redmi 9 with its storage capacity, this is especially true.

Working with cloud services and synchronization

Cloud technology allows you to transfer photos and videos from your device to the Internet, freeing up local memory. Xiaomi is actively promoting the Mi Cloud service, which is integrated into the system. However, for Redmi 9 users, Google Photos is often a more profitable and voluminous solution.

Using the Free Space feature in Google Photos is one of the safest ways to clean up, and it analyzes which images have already been uploaded to the cloud and removes local copies of them from your phone, ensuring that your memories are not lost and that space on the disk is freed up.

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Turn on the “Save Space” feature in Google Photos settings so that new images are immediately compressed in the cloud, taking up less space.

If you prefer the Xiaomi ecosystem, set up the Gallery sync with Mi Cloud. Once you have finished uploading the originals to the cloud, the system will suggest optimizing the storage by leaving only thumbnails on the device.

It's important to remember the state of the network. Uploading large amounts of video to the cloud requires a stable Wi-Fi connection. When using a mobile network, the process can interrupt or consume your traffic. Configure synchronization only over Wi-Fi in the parameters of the corresponding application.

⚠️ Before removing the original photos from your device, make sure that the sync is successful and the files are available in the cloud from another device or through a browser.

Use of the SD-mapping

The Redmi 9 features a microSD card slot, which is a lifeline for those who store a lot of media, and when you set up the card correctly, you can transfer not only files, but also some of the applications, and change the way you save new photos and videos by default.

To get the camera to write to the map, open the Camera app, click on three bars in the corner and select the settings. SD-Now all the new images and videos will take up space on the external media, leaving the internal memory free for the system.

You can also transfer existing files. In Explorer, select photo and video folders, select Move, and specify the path to the file. SD-Delete the originals from internal memory after transfer. Some applications allow you to specify the path to the storage in your settings - look for this option in the Storage or Memory sections».

• 💾 Use speed class memory cards U3 or higher for recording high-resolution video.
• 🔄 Make a backup copy regularly SD-Computer cards are less reliable than internal memory.
• 📂 Create a separate folder structure for photos, videos and documents on the map for easy search.

Using external memory is the cheapest way to get an extra 128 or 256GB of space. For the Xiaomi Redmi 9, it’s almost a must-have option for an active user.

Radical Methods: Resetting and Formatting

If the gallery isn't working properly even after cleaning, or the system says the memory is full even though the files are deleted, it may require a gallery reset or a full phone reset.These are extreme measures, but they often resolve file system software errors.

The first step is to clean up the Gallery app itself. Go to Settings → Apps → All Apps → Gallery. Click Memory and then Clear Everything (or Reset) and it won’t delete your photos, but it will return your browsing and sorting settings to factory settings, which can fix display errors.

Settings → About Phone → MIUI Version (Multiple Press) → Three Points → Resetting

If the problem is global, a full reset will help. Be sure to back up all the important data before you do it, because the phone will return to a "store-like" state. After the reset, the gallery will be empty and the system will be clean of garbage.

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A complete phone reset is the most effective means of combating software errors and “bloating” the system, but requires a mandatory data backup.

Once you're back to factory settings, don't rush to install hundreds of applications at once, install just what you need and watch the memory fill, and this will help you understand which application is the main source of garbage.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)