How to effectively clean the memory on Xiaomi 8

Smartphone Xiaomi Mi 8, released in 2018, is still a popular device due to its unique features. AMOLED-The screen and performance, but over time, the built-in storage tends to fill up. Users often face a situation where the system notifies about the lack of space, which leads to slowdown of the interface and the inability to install application updates. Memory cleaning becomes a critical procedure to maintain the stability of the gadget.

In this article, we will take a look at all available methods of freeing up space, from simple built-in tools to manually removing system debris. You will learn which folders can be removed without risk to the system, how to work with the messenger cache and why standard cleaning is not always effective. Deep cleaning requires careful attention, but the result is worth it.

Before we start taking drastic measures, we need to understand the structure of space on your device. Often it turns out that the lion's share of gigabytes is occupied not by the applications themselves, but by their temporary files and forgotten videos in the gallery. On the Xiaomi Mi 8, the system partition is reserved, so the user has about 50-55 GB of the declared 64 or 128 GB.

Analysis of occupied space and built-in tools

The first step should always be to visually inspect what exactly is taking up space. There is a regular Security app in the MIUI shell (or HyperOS if you upgraded) that provides basic analytics, run it and select Cleanup to have the system perform a primary analysis and suggest removing obvious debris.

But the standard scanner is often superficial. For a more detailed look, go to the storage settings, and you'll see a color diagram that shows different colors for apps, images, videos and system files, and it helps you understand where the gigabytes are going.

• 📱 Applications and their data often occupy up to 60% of the space.
• 🖼️ Gallery – photos and videos, especially taken in 4K.
• 💬 Messengers – WhatsApp and Telegram save all media files by default.
• 🗑️ Recycle Bin - deleted files that lie for another 30 days.

Use the built-in analyzer to find the most "heavy" applications. Sometimes the user forgets about the game he installed a year ago, and it takes several gigabytes, and removing such programs is the fastest way to get free space.

Remember that after removing heavy applications or cleaning large files, it is recommended to restart the device, which will allow the system to correctly recalculate the file system index and update the display of free space.

Working with application cache and system debris

Cache is a temporary file that is created by apps to speed up their work: browsers save images of sites, navigators save maps, and social networks save news feeds. Over time, the cache can reach tens of gigabytes, which significantly slows down the Xiaomi Mi 8.

You can clean the cache selectively for each application through the settings menu or en masse through the Security app. However, be careful: cleaning the cache of the navigator will force it to download maps again, and cleaning the YouTube cache will delete temporarily stored video fragments.

⚠️ Warning: Don’t use the dubious Play Market clinch apps that promise “one-click speed.” On Android, they often work aggressively, constantly unloading the necessary processes from RAM, which ultimately only puts the battery down faster and loads the processor.

To clean up your system debris deeply, you can use the Deep Clean mode in Xiaomi’s standard security app, which scans apk folders, remnants of remote programs, and temporary ad files.

• 🧹 Delete. APK-Installation files are no longer needed after installing the programs.
• 📉 Clear the browser cache if you are actively surfing the Internet.
• 📂 Check the Download folder, there is often garbage accumulated.

Regular but careful cleaning of the cache once a month will help keep the phone in good shape without having to reset the settings to factory.

Cleaning messengers: WhatsApp and Telegram

The most voracious apps on any smartphone, including the Xiaomi Mi 8, are instant messengers. WhatsApp and Telegram by default store all received photos, videos and documents in internal memory, creating huge archives over the years of use.

Telegram is doing the most elegant job of all because of the cloud nature of the service, so go to the app settings, select Data and Memory, and find Memory Usage, where you can clear the cache, and your chats won't go away -- they'll just be rebooted from the cloud if you need them, and you can set a cache size limit, like 1GB.

WhatsApp is more complicated because the history of the correspondence and media files are stored locally, and inside the app there is a Storage section where you can see which chats occupy the most space, and you can select a specific dialogue and delete all the media files inside it, leaving text messages.

⚠️ WARNING: Before clearing WhatsApp data, be sure to back up to Google Drive if you want to save your correspondence history. Local deletion of files in the folder Android/media/com.whatsapp This can lead to loss of access to media in chat rooms.

It is also recommended to disable auto-save media in the gallery, in the settings of both messengers, you can prevent the saved images in the main gallery of the phone, which will prevent duplicate files.

Photo and video archive management

Xiaomi Mi 8 camera takes great pictures, but files in HEIC or JPG format weigh a lot, and 4K videos can take up 300-400 MB per minute. First of all, check the folder “Recently deleted” in the gallery – often users forget to clean it, and photos deleted months ago continue to take up space.

Use cloud services to unload memory. Google Photos or Xiaomi Cloud lets you upload originals to the cloud and remove them from your device, leaving only thumbnails, and this frees up gigabytes of space instantly.

If you don’t want to use the cloud, transfer the archive to your computer or external drive through the cloud. OTG-Xiaomi Mi 8 supports the connection of flash drives, which makes the data transfer process very fast.

And you also have to pay attention to screenshots, and we often take hundreds of screenshots that have been in a separate Screenshots folder for years, and just take up space, and go through them and delete the unnecessary.

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Turn on the “Clear Similar Photos” feature in the Xiaomi Gallery. Artificial intelligence will find duplicates and series of identical shots, suggesting that only the best ones be left.

Removal of applications and work with SD-card

Although the Xiaomi Mi 8 doesn’t have a memory card slot, many users are used to managing files as if they were, and it’s important to understand that you can’t physically expand memory on this model, so every gigabyte of internal storage is worth its weight in gold.

Do an installed app audit. Go to Settings → Apps → All apps and sort the list by size. You'll be surprised to find that some programs you don't use take up hundreds of megabytes.

Remove system applications that you don’t need, but only if you’re sure of their purpose. Some pre-installed Xiaomi or Google services can be disabled, which will hide them from the menu and stop background processes, although this will make room slightly.

• 🚫 Remove games that haven’t been played for more than a month.
• 📺 Streaming services (Netflix, Spotify) cache content for offline viewing – check their settings.
• 🛍️ Store apps often grow due to the cache of pictures of goods.

If you use your phone as a media center, consider using cloud players or streaming from your home PC to avoid storing heavy movies locally.

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There is no slot for Xiaomi Mi 8 SD-It is therefore critical to keep internal storage from being filled by more than 90% to avoid a drop in system performance.

Radical measures: Resetting to factory settings

If none of the above methods worked, and the phone still writes “Memory is full,” the last and most effective way is a complete reset.This will return the Xiaomi Mi 8 to the “out of the box” state, removing absolutely all user data, settings and applications.

Before you start, make sure to create a full backup. Use Mi Cloud, Google Drive, or the built-in Mi Mover app to transfer data to another phone. Without a backup, you will lose contacts, photos, and correspondence irrevocably.

To perform the reset, go to Settings → About Phone → Settings Reset → Erase all data. The system will request an unlock password and confirmation of operation. Once you reboot, you will get a clean system with maximum free space.

⚠️ Warning: Make sure the battery is at least 40-50% Interrupting the formatting process due to battery discharge can damage system partitions and prevent the phone from loading.

After resetting, take your time to restore all applications at once, install only the essentials and monitor how the memory fills up in the first days of use, which will help identify the culprit of fast filling.