How to Clean Memory on Xiaomi Mi 9: The Complete Guide

The Xiaomi Mi 9, released in 2019, is still a popular device due to its powerful processor and high-quality screen. However, even the most productive flagship eventually begins to experience a lack of free space, which inevitably leads to slowdown of the interface and problems with installing updates.

When the built-in storage is overflowing, the MIUI operating system loses the ability to manage temporary files efficiently, causing lags and sudden application closures. Owners often notice that the phone starts to “think” longer than usual when starting the camera or messengers, although such problems have not been observed before.

In this article, we’ll break down proven space freeing techniques that don’t require superuser rights or complex software.You’ll learn to find hidden files, clean up system debris, and properly configure automatic cleanup to make your Xiaomi Mi 9 run fast again.

Analysis of vault occupancy

Before you delete the first files you see, you need to know exactly what is taking up the lion's share of memory. The MIUI shell has a powerful analysis tool built in that visualizes the distribution of data by category. Go to Settings → Memory menu to see a detailed employment chart.

The system automatically sorts applications, images, videos and documents by space, often finding that the main memory eaters are not the installed programs, but their cached data and downloaded media files from messengers.

⚠️ Note: Do not delete system folders with Android names, MIUI or data manually through the file manager if you are not sure about their contents, as this may cause the operating system to malfunction.

Note the Other section, which often inflates to tens of gigabytes, and can contain error logs, remnants of deleted applications, and temporary update files that can be safely cleaned by special utilities.

Use of built-in cleaning tool

The easiest and safest way to free up space is to use the regular Security app, which is preinstalled on every Xiaomi device, which is deeply integrated into the system and knows which files can be deleted without risking stability.

Launch the app and select Cleanup. The system will scan and suggest removing debris, app cache and unnecessary APK installation packages. It is recommended to perform this procedure regularly to keep the device in good shape.

For a deeper cleanup, go to Memory Management inside the security app, where you can sort large files by size and date, allowing you to quickly find forgotten downloads or heavy videos that are no longer needed.

It’s important to understand that cleaning the cache doesn’t delete your personal data, logins or passwords, it only erases temporary files, speeding up the program, but after this cleaning, applications can load a little longer on the first run, as they will have to re-create temporary data.

Working with multimedia and gallery

Photos and videos usually take up the largest amount of memory on a smartphone. Xiaomi Mi 9 owners often take high-resolution pictures, which quickly eats up free space. Regularly check the albums "Screenshots", "WhatsApp Images" and "Camera", removing the unsuccessful footage.

Remember to check the folder "Recently deleted" in the gallery, the files you delete do not disappear completely, but are stored there for 30 days, continuing to occupy space, and to instantly free up space, you need to clean this basket.

Use cloud services like Google Photos or Yandex.Disk to automatically upload media files. Once synchronized successfully, you can turn on the Free Space feature, which will delete copies of photos from your device, leaving them only in the cloud.

Cleaning up messengers and social networks

Communication apps like WhatsApp, Telegram and Viber have a habit of accumulating gigabytes of data, and they store every photo, video and voice message you see into your phone’s memory, even if you’ve forgotten about them for a long time.

Each messenger has a Memory Use or Data and Storage section in its settings, where you can see which chats occupy the most space and selectively clear their history by saving important text messages.

• 📸 Turn off auto-save media in the gallery in the privacy settings of messengers.
• 🗑️ Use the “Clear Cache” function inside the settings of each specific chat.
• 🚫 Stop downloading videos over mobile and Wi-Fi unless absolutely necessary.

Especially consider group chats, where file sharing is constant, often with old cards, greetings and brochures that have no value but take up precious megabytes for years.

⚠️ Before mass cleaning chats in messengers, make sure that important documents and contacts are stored elsewhere, as it will be impossible to restore deleted correspondence without a backup copy.

Removal of duplicates and large files

Over time, duplicate files inevitably appear in the memory of the smartphone, which can occur due to data transmission failures, re-uploading the same documents or the operation of different camera applications.

You can use built-in MIUI tools or third-party analytics apps to find these files. The explorer often has a duplicate search function that scans the storage by checksums of the files.

Also worth paying attention to is the Download folder, which users often download and forget about app installation files, presentations, restaurant menus, which are not needed by the system after use and are subject to deletion.

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Use voice search in Explorer by entering “large files” or “duplicates” requests so that the system itself filters out content for removal.

Regularly reviewing the document folder helps keep things in order: sort files by size and ruthlessly delete anything that is over 100MB and is not an important document or work program.

Management of applications and their data

Apps are not just the installation file, but the data they generate as they work: Maps for navigation, music for offline listening and levels in games can take up a significant portion of the Xiaomi Mi 9’s memory.

Go to Settings → Apps → All apps and sort the list by size. You'll be surprised to find that some programs take up several gigabytes. Inside each application there's a "Clean" or "Delete Data" button.

Be careful: the Clear Data button resets the application to a state immediately after installation, you will lose logins, settings and saved progress if they are not synced with the cloud. Use this feature only for problem programs or before deleting.

• 🎮 Games: Remove the resource cache if the game is not used for a long time.
• 🗺️ Navigation: Check the size of downloaded offline maps and delete regions you don’t plan to visit.
• 🎵 Music and video: clear the cache of streaming services that inflates from listening to tracks.

If you don't use an app very often, you'd better delete it altogether. In today's world, most services have web versions that run through a browser and don't take up disk space.

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Regular audits of installed applications reveal “hidden memory eaters” that are not in use but continue to run in the background.

System settings to save space

The Android operating system and MIUI shell provide a number of settings that help control memory filling in automatically, and activating these features will save you from having to constantly manually clean your phone.

Turn on the memory cleanup function in the security app by setting a schedule, for example, once a week, and activate a notification when less than 10% of the space is available to respond to space shortages in time.

Use Easy Mode or simplify the interface if the phone is used by an older person. Fewer widgets and live wallpapers - less cache and temporary files that load the system and take up space.

Compliance with simple digital space hygiene rules will allow your Xiaomi Mi 9 to remain fast and responsive even years after its release. Regularity is a key factor in keeping order on your smartphone.