How to completely clear up the history on Xiaomi smartphone: a detailed guide

Why it’s important to clean up your history on Xiaomi regularly

Xiaomi smartphones based on MIUI They collect a huge amount of data about your activity, from web pages visited to call lists and geolocations, and this information not only occupies a precious place in the memory of the device, but can also become a vulnerability to privacy. For example, the history of the browser in Mi Browser or Google Chrome stores not only the URL-Addresses, but also cookies, image cache, form autocomplete data – all this can be used to track your preferences or even hack accounts.

Moreover, system logs and call logs accumulate over the years, slowing down the phone. According to tests by Xiaomi Community, clearing the history and cache every 2-3 months increases the speed of opening applications by 15-20%. And if you plan to sell or transfer a smartphone, it is not enough just to reset the settings - the history can be restored through the cloud services Mi Account or Google. In this article, we will discuss how to remove all traces of activity without a trace.

How to Clear Your Browser History on Xiaomi (All Ways)

Xiaomi smartphones have two main browsers pre-installed: Mi Browser (branded) and Google Chrome, and their cleaning algorithms differ, as does the set of stored data. For example, Mi Browser syncs the story to Mi Account by default, so it needs to be deleted in the cloud.

For Google Chrome, the process is simpler, but there’s a caveat: if you’re logged in to a Google account, history will be restored the next time you sign in. To avoid this, turn off sync in your Settings account settings → Google → Managing your Google account → Data and Personalization → App History and Web Search.

• 🌐 Mi Browser: Open your browser → ⋮ (Menus) → History → Delete. Select a period ("All the time") and confirm. For cloud cleaning: Profile → Settings → Synchronization → Clear the data.
• 🔍 Google Chrome: Launch the app → ⋮ → History → Clear the data. Check the check boxes "Browsing History", "Cookies" and "Cached images".
• 🛡️ Incognito mode: In both browsers you can enable private mode (in Mi Browser - via the browser). ⋮ → The new window is incognito, but it does not delete the existing history, but only prevents it from being preserved in the future.

⚠️ Note: If you use Mi Browser with Mi Account sync enabled, clearing your history on your phone alone won’t help – the data will remain in the cloud.

Delete the call history and SMS: step-by-step instructions

Call logs and messages are stored in MIUI system partitions and are not cleared when a standard cache reset occurs. Moreover, some models (Redmi Note 10 Pro, POCO X3 Pro) store this data even after flashing, unless the /data partition is formatted, to delete it completely:

1. Calls: Open the phone application → ⋮ → A history of challenges → ⋮ → Select "All" or specific contacts.
2. SMS/MMS: Go to the messages. → Keep your finger in the dialogue. → Delete or ⋮ → Settings → Clear all messages.
3. System Logs: For deep cleaning, go to Settings → About Phone → Memory → Cleanup → Deep Cleanup and select Call Logs and Messages.

If you are selling a phone, it is not enough to simply delete messages manually. Use the Settings function → Additional → Restore and Reset → Reset settings, but before that:

Turn off Mi Account in Settings

Delete your Google account

Make a backup copy of important data

Turn off sync with the clouds-->

⚠️ Note: On Xiaomi models with MIUI 13+ After the reset, there may be a hidden call history in the Mi Cloud backups. To delete it, go to Settings. → Mi Account → Mi Cloud → Backup and manually clean up archives.

Cleaning up your application history and Google Activity

Many Xiaomi apps (e.g. Mi Video, Mi Music, Gallery) maintain their own activity logs, such as Gallery storing your viewing history of photos and videos, and Mi Video storing your playlist, which is not deleted by standard cache cleaning.

For their removal:

• 🎵 Mi Music: Open the app → Profile → History → Clean up.
• 📺 Mi Video: Profile → History → Delete everything.
• 📷 Gallery: Albums → Recent → ⋮ → Clear history.

And here's Google Activity, which is a service that captures all of your activities in the Google ecosystem: search queries, places you visit, voice commands, even YouTube activity, to clean it up:

1. Go to myactivity.google.com.
2. In the filter, select "Today", "Yesterday" or "All the time".
3. Press Delete. → Confirm.

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To disable Google Activity data collection in the future, go to Google Settings → Data and Personalization → Application History and Web Search → Auto-Delete and set the retention period to “3 months” or “18 months.”

Hidden Data: How to Delete System Logs and MIUI Cache

MIUI maintains extensive system logs that include:

• 📱 Error logs (crash logs of applications).
• 🔄 Update Logs (Information about installed firmware).
• 📡 Network logs (data on Wi-Fi connections, mobile network).

These files take up from 500 MB to 2 GB and are stored in the /data/log folder. You can delete them only with root rights or through Recovery Mode. Alternatively, use the MIUI Cleaner app (preinstalled on all Xiaomi smartphones):

1. Open Security. → Cleanup.
2. Choose Deep Cleanup.
3. Check the boxes in front of "System Cache" and "Logs".
4. Press Clear.

Automatic Cleanup: Configure MIUI to Protect Privacy

MIUI 12-14 offers tools for automatically cleaning history, but they are often disabled by default.

1. Autoclean Cache: Settings → Memory → Autoclean → Enable the option and set a schedule (e.g., “Every Week”).
2. History Limitation: In Mi Browser, go to Settings → Privacy → Clear History when you exit.
3. Blocking data collection: Settings → Privacy → Special permissions → Location data → disable access for unnecessary applications.

For models with MIUI 13+, the Private Mode feature is available, which blocks the saving of history for selected applications.

1. Go to Settings → Privacy → Private mode.
2. Add applications (e.g. Gallery, Messages).
3. Activate the mode through the notification panel.

What to do if history has recovered after resetting

If you sold your phone or handed it over to another person and your phone’s call, text, or browser history suddenly “back,” the reasons may be:

• 🔄 Recovery from Mi Cloud: The new owner is logged in to your Mi Account (for example, if you didn’t log out before resetting).
• ☁️ Google Sync: Google account was linked to phone and automatically recovered data.
• 📱 Local backups: On some models (Xiaomi) 11T Pro, Redmi K40) Create hidden backups in the folder /MIUI/backup.

To avoid this:

1. Before resetting, delete all accounts (Mi Account, Google, Samsung, etc.) in Settings → Accounts.
2. Format internal memory via Recovery Mode (press Power + Volume up when booting).
3. Use the factory reset with the "Clean All" tick (in MIUI 14 this item is called "Erase All Data").

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The only reliable way to delete history without the possibility of recovery is to untie all accounts, format memory through Recovery Mode and perform a complete reset with the internal storage cleanup.

FAQ: Frequent questions about cleaning up history on Xiaomi