Owners of Xiaomi and Redmi smartphones sooner or later face a critical shortage of free space. MIUI system or the new HyperOS over time overgrow gigabytes of temporary files, duplicate photos and messenger cache. When RAM is full, the device starts to work slower, applications fly out, and new files simply have nowhere to save.
There are many ways to get your system back up and free up precious gigabytes. Some methods are safe for user data, others require carefulness and understanding of the processes taking place in Android. In this article, we will discuss all the steps of cleaning, from standard tools to advanced methods of working with system partitions.
Use of the built-in "Security" application
The first and most obvious step is to use a standard tool from shell developers, which is deeply integrated into the system and has access to areas closed to third-party utilities, and allows you to quickly remove the obvious digital debris that has accumulated over time.
Launch the app and select Clean up, and the system will scan and suggest that temporary files, deleted app residues and junk be deleted, and it is important to review the list carefully before confirming, as sometimes useful APK installation files can be found there.
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In the Security settings, you can enable automatic cache cleaning when a certain memory occupancy threshold is reached.
In addition, the Deep Clean tool is available in this section, which analyzes bulk files, large videos and rarely used applications. Deep Clean is especially effective for finding forgotten downloads and duplicates of photos that take up space but do not carry value.
Manually checking the Big Files section often allows you to find forgotten archives or videos that can be transferred to a computer or cloud storage, freeing up local space.
Storage analysis and work with garbage in applications
Xiaomi’s standard storage analyzer provides a visual map of the occupied space. Go to Settings → About Phone → Storage to see the detail by category. It often hides the “heavyweights” that you may have forgotten about.
Telegram, WhatsApp and Viber are also worth noting, as they have a habit of saving all media files viewed in the memory of the device, each with its own data and storage section, where you can safely delete the cache of channels and chats.
For Telegram, the path is: Settings → Data and memory → Memory use. Here you can clear the cache of all chats or set up autodelete media files in 3 days, a week or a month, which is critical to keeping the smartphone running.
WhatsApp is similar, but the folder structure is different. Inside the app, go to Settings → Data and Storage → Storage Management. The system sorts chats by space, allowing you to selectively delete heavy videos and documents.
⚠️ Note: Clearing the application data (not to be confused with cleaning the cache) will result in the complete removal of correspondence, settings and media within this application. Be extremely careful when choosing the item “Erase data” in the application management menu.
Delete duplicates and large files
Photo duplicates are one of the main reasons for space shortages, and they occur when you re-upload from the cloud, or when you fail to copy or save statuses from messengers, and the MIUI file manager can find those copies automatically.
Open Explorer and select Images. Often, the system highlights similar photos itself, but for deeper analysis, it is better to use third-party tools that specialize in finding visual duplicates, since the regular functionality may miss partially similar frames.
☑️ Gallery cleanup plan
Large files are often hidden in the Download folder or hidden social media directories. Video files saved from TikTok or Instagram can take up gigabytes.Sort files by size in the explorer and ruthlessly delete what has lost relevance.
Remember the.thumbnails folder in the DCIM directory, which stores thumbnails of your photos for quick display in the gallery, and over time, this file can grow to several gigabytes, and it's safe to clean, and the system will recreate it if necessary.
Cleaning the system partition "Other"
The Other section of Xiaomi’s storage is a black box where the system drops everything it can’t classify, including system update cache, error logs, temporary update files, and remnants of deleted programs.
The safest way to reduce this partition is to reset your application settings or clear the cache of specific system services. Go to Settings → Apps → All apps, find Google Play Services or Media Storage and clear their cache.
| File type | Where to find | Security of removal | Recommended method |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cash app. | Settings → Applications | Tall. | Clearing the cache |
| Files.thumbnails | DCIM/.thumbnails | Tall. | Conductor removal |
| Logs of debugging | System folders | Medium | Third-party utilities |
| APK remnants | Download / Install folder | Tall. | Manual removal |
If the Other partition takes up an abnormally large amount of space (more than 10-15 GB), there may have been a failure in the file system, in which case an effective but radical method is to back up the data and perform a complete reset to factory settings.
Why is the “Other” section growing?
Using ADB for Advanced Cleaning
For advanced users who want to get the most out of the data without losing data, the ADB (Android Debug Bridge) cleaning method is available, which allows you to remove system debris that is not available through a regular interface.
To start, you need to turn on USB debugging mode. Go to Settings → About Phone and quickly press 7 times on MIUI Version (or OS Version) to activate the developer menu. Then, in the advanced settings, turn on USB Debugging.
adb shell pm trim-caches 999999999This command forcibly cuts the cache of all installed applications to the lowest possible value. Be careful: once this command is executed, applications can load a little longer on the first run, since they will have to regenerate the necessary temporary files.
ADB can also remove pre-installed system applications (bloatware) that cannot be removed in the standard way, but removing critical system components can lead to unstable device operation or a “boot” (cyclic reboot).
⚠️ Attention: Use of teams ADB To remove system packets requires accurate knowledge of packet names. Removing com.miui.securitycenter or com.android.systemui will render the phone inoperable without flashing it.
Memory Map and Cloud Storage
If internal memory is crowded, the logical solution is to transfer data to an external medium. Xiaomi smartphones support microSD memory cards. Move photos, videos and music to them, leaving the system space to work.
In modern versions of Android and MIUI, you can’t just transfer the app to a memory card, but you can change the default save path for the camera and voice recorder, which will prevent the internal drive from filling up quickly.
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Using cloud services (Google Photos, Mi Cloud, Yandex.Disk) with the function “free up space” is the best way to store archives without taking up the physical memory of the phone.
Set up automatic photo sync. Once the photos are uploaded to the cloud, use the Free Space feature in the cloud storage app to delete local copies of files that are already securely stored on the server.
Regular digital hygiene is more important than one-time cleanings, the habit of immediately removing unnecessary screenshots and videos, as well as periodically checking the Downloads folder, will help to avoid a situation where the phone starts to brake due to lack of space.