The Redmi 9 series of NFC smartphones remain popular, but users often experience a slowdown over time, which is due to the overflow of RAM with background processes that accumulate during days of active use. Understanding how to effectively manage RAM resources is key to extending the life of the gadget without buying a new one.
Owners of Xiaomi MIUI devices have access to powerful built-in cleaning tools, but not everyone knows how to use them properly. Incorrect removal of processes can lead to instability of important notifications or failure in data transmission over NFC. In this article, we will discuss safe and proven methods of resource release.
There are several levels of cleaning, from quick notification reset through the curtain to deep optimization through the engineering menu. It is critical not to confuse RAM cleaning with internal storage (ROM) freeing up, as these are fundamentally different processes. We will focus on speeding up the system by managing active tasks.
Analysis of the state of RAM on Redmi 9
Before we start taking radical measures, we need to assess the current system load. The MIUI shell provides the user with transparent monitoring tools that are often ignored. When you run the analysis, you'll see not only free volume, but also a list of the most voracious applications.
To access this information, you just need to open the Security app, which is pre-installed on every Xiaomi device, and inside the Memory section, you can see the usage schedule and the running process, and you can see which programs are consuming the most resources right now.
- 📊 Visual Occupancy Indicator Shows Percentage of Use RAM.
- 📱 The list of applications is sorted by the amount of memory occupied.
- ⚙️ The "Clean" button forcibly completes background processes.
⚠️ Warning: Continuous forced cleaning of all processes can cause the system to start reloading the necessary services, which will temporarily increase battery consumption.
Special attention should be paid to system services associated with the NFC module and wireless communication. If these processes take up an abnormally large amount of space, you may need to reboot the device or reset network settings, rather than just clear the cache.
Standard cleaning methods through MIUI
The easiest and safest way to free up resources is to use the standard shell functionality. Xiaomi has implemented algorithms that automatically detect inactive applications and prompt them to close, a basic level of service available to every user.
To do a quick cleaning, just swipe down and open the control center and click on the broom icon or cleaning icon in the security widget, and the system will instantly complete processes that are not related to mission-critical functions, but this method only has a short-term effect.
☑️ Checklist for quick cleaning
More in-depth analysis is available through the settings menu. Go to Settings → About Phone → Memory (the path may vary depending on the version of MIUI). This shows detailed statistics of RAM usage over the past 3 hours, 6 hours or day.
- 🗑️ Removing the cache of specific applications through the settings menu.
- 🚫 Disable Auto-Run for Rarely Used Programs.
- 🔄 Resetting Memory Use Counters after Rebooting.
It’s important to understand that modern versions of Android and MIUI are designed to keep frequently used apps in memory for quick launch, so having 70-80% full memory is normal for a stable system.
Managing application autoloading
One of the main reasons for the lack of free memory is the automatic start of applications when you turn on your phone. Many programs prescribe themselves to boot without the user's knowledge, consuming RAM resources constantly, controlling this parameter gives a significant increase in performance.
To control autorun, go to the Security app and select "Permissions" and then "Permissions." Here's a complete list of programs that start with Xiaomi. Disable anything that isn't vital to you.
| Type of application | Recommendation | Impact on RAM |
|---|---|---|
| Messengers | Leave it on. | High (notification required) |
| Social media | Shut down. | Medium (can be manually run) |
| Games | Shut down. | Low (if not started) |
| System services | Don't touch it. | Critical |
Disabling auto-runs for social media such as Facebook or Instagram often frees up to 200-300MB of RAM immediately after the phone is turned on.This is especially true for the Redmi 9 model, which can have a limited amount of RAM in basic configurations.
Hidden Developer Settings
Using Developer Mode to Optimize
For advanced users, Android provides access to hidden settings through the developer menu, and you can find options that affect how a system behaves with memory, but using these features requires caution and understanding the consequences.
To activate the menu, go to Settings → About the phone and quickly click on the item "Version" MIUI" Seven times in a row, after the successful activation message appears, a new "Additional" or "Extended Settings" section will appear in the settings menu, where the "Developers For" item is located".
Inside this section, look for the "Applications" subsection. Here is the "Background Process Limit" option. The default is "Standard Limit", but you can select a constraint, such as "No More than 2 Processes".
- ⚙️ Forced limitation of the number of background tasks.
- 🚫 Disabling caching activities to free up resources.
- 📉 Monitoring of running services in real time.
⚠️ Attention: Setting a hard limit on background processes can cause music players to stop when switching to other apps, and the navigator to reset the route.
Also available in the developer menu is the Do Not Save Activities feature, which when enabled will destroy the activity of the application as soon as the user leaves it, which radically frees RAM, but makes multitasking impossible.
Cleaning cache and temporary files
The accumulation of temporary files and application cache indirectly affects the speed of the system, causing the processor and memory to work harder when accessing data. Regular cleaning of these files is a good habit for maintaining the health of the Redmi 9.
Using third-party cleaners from the Play Market store on Xiaomi devices is not recommended. The built-in MIUI tool works more efficiently and securely, since it has deep access rights to the system. Third-party programs often consume a lot of resources themselves.
Settings → Storage → CleaningWhen cleaning, look at the Others section, sometimes it hides the remnants of deleted apps or error logs that take up space, and it's safe to delete files from Download folders if you don't use them all the time.
💡
To quickly clear the cache of a particular application, press its icon on your desktop, select About and click Clear Cache. This will not delete your personal data.
Special attention should be paid to the cache of multimedia applications such as Telegram or TikTok, which can take up gigabytes of temporary memory, and it is better to clean them through the settings of the application itself, so as not to delete important dialogs or drafts.
Radical measures: resetting and reflashing
If software methods don’t work and the Redmi 9 continues to brake even after cleaning, there may have been a critical bug in the system, which is a full Hard Reset.
Before you do this, make sure to back up all your important data in the Mi Cloud or on your computer. Reset will delete all your information, including contacts, photos and installed apps. This is a last resort, but often the only effective one.
To perform the reset, go to Settings → About Phone → Settings Reset → Erase all data. The process will take a few minutes, after which the device will turn on in the “out of the box” state.
- 💾 Complete removal of all user data and settings.
- 🔄 Return to the original version of the firmware and drivers.
- ⚡ Maximum performance immediately after switching on.
💡
Regularly restarting your phone (every 2-3 days) is more effective at preventing the accumulation of errors in RAM than manually cleaning through the Task Manager.