How to clean up Xiaomi phone memory: a new method

Xiaomi and Redmi smartphone owners often face a paradox: after buying the device flies, but after six months it becomes annoying with constant notifications of space shortages. Standard methods, such as cleaning through built-in "Safety", cease to give tangible results, since they remove only surface debris.

We will look at a new method of deep diagnostics and cleaning, which affects hidden parts of the file system, often ignored by standard optimization scripts, and this approach is especially relevant for devices based on the MIUI 14 shell and HyperOS, where the compression algorithms work differently.

Understanding the structure of the drive will allow you to return hundreds of megabytes of free space without losing personal data, and it is important to realize that simply removing photos is not enough, because the bulk of the storage is often occupied by system logs and caches of remote applications.

The Anatomy of Overflow: Why Memory Disappears

The main problem is aggressive media caching: Social networks and instant messengers store copies of the files viewed in hidden directories that are not displayed in the gallery, which the system considers important for fast download, but over time they reach tens of gigabytes.

In addition, Android creates temporary update files that aren’t always deleted automatically.If you rarely reboot your smartphone or install many beta versions of apps, these tails take up space.

⚠️ Before doing a deep cleanup, make sure your contacts and important documents are synced with the Mi Cloud or Google Drive cloud.

There is also the phenomenon of bloating application databases, for example, a messenger can weigh 200 MB after installation, but after a year its size grows to 5 GB due to error logs and image thumbnails.

Toolkit and diagnostics preparation

To implement this new cleaning method, we'll need access to advanced debugging settings. Don't be intimidated by technical terms, all of the actions are done through the standard Settings interface. The first step is to turn on the developer mode.

Find the About Phone menu and quickly click 7 times on the MIUI version or OS version. After the activation message appears, go back to the main settings menu and select Advanced Settings → For developers.

The background process limit parameter is here: a temporary limit to 2-3 processes will allow the system to forcely close the suspended services that block deletion of files.

• 🔍 Check the amount of occupied space in the section Warehouse to determine the most severe category.
• 📱 Make sure the battery is above 20% so that the phone doesn’t turn off at a critical moment.
• 🌐 Turn off Wi-Fi and mobile internet before deep cleaning starts so that background processes don’t download new data.

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Use Do Not Disturb before cleaning so that incoming calls do not interrupt the process of deleting system files.

New method: cleaning through ADB (No root rights)

The most effective way we'll look at involves using Android Debug Bridge (ADB), which allows you to remove system debris that is usually hidden from the user. You don't need to get root rights, which saves the warranty on the device.

Connect your phone to your computer through USB-You have to run the command line on your computer and you have to type a command to delete the batch installer cache, and it's safe because it doesn't affect your personal data.

adb shell pm clear com.android.packageinstaller

Next, clean up the cache of the media scanner service, which often eats away at memory, creating duplicate thumbnails, which can take several minutes to heat up the phone slightly.

adb shell pm clear com.android.providers.media.module

⚠️ Attention: Teams ADB Enter only the instructions given in the instructions so that you don't damage the system files.

Comparison of cleaning methods: efficiency and risks

There are many ways to free up space, but not all of them are equally useful. Standard cleaning through the Security app is good for daily maintenance, but powerless against deep-seated files.

Using third-party utilities from Google Play often backfires, consuming resources and displaying ads, and our ADB method is the middle ground between security and depth of penetration.

As you can see from the table, the ADB method is the best balance: you get access to hidden cache, but you don't risk losing personal photos or contacts, as if you completely reset.

Working with the "Other" folder in the vault

The mysterious category “Other” often makes up the lion’s share of the space occupied, and includes firmware update files, streaming cache, and remnants of remote games.

To clear this section, go to Settings → Advanced Settings → Memory. Click on Clear Cache. If that doesn't work, you'll have to use a file manager with access to system folders like MT Manager or Solid Explorer.

Find the Android/data folder. It stores all the installed applications. You can carefully examine the contents: folders with the names of remote games can be easily deleted. However, be careful with the active application folders.

Pay special attention to messenger folders. Inside com.whatsapp or com.tencent.mm, you can find gigabytes of old voice messages and statuses that you no longer need.

Optimize HyperOS and MIUI to prevent overflows

Once cleaned, it's important to set up the system so that the problem doesn't come back in a month. There's a "Memory Extension" feature in the HyperOS shell that uses a portion of the drive as RAM. Turn it off if you have less than 128GB of free space.

Go to Settings. → Additionally. → Expand memory and select "Off." This will free up from 2 to 5 GB, which the system has reserved for virtual. RAM, But in a space-scarce environment, it's a superfluous thing.

Also, limit the background activity of heavy applications. In the battery settings, select the application (for example, Facebook or Instagram) and set the No Limits mode only if it is critical, in other cases, it is better to choose "Battery Savings".

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Disabling memory expansion on devices with a small storage capacity (64/128 GB) can significantly increase the available space for user data.

Prevention: How to maintain order in the future

Regular maintenance is more important than one-time cleanings. Make a rule: once a week, delete the cache of heavy applications through settings. This takes 2 minutes, but prevents the accumulation of gigabytes of garbage.

Use cloud storage for photos and videos. Set up automatic uploads in Google Photos with the "Free Space" feature, which automatically removes from your phone those pictures that are already stored in the cloud.

Don't store files on your device that haven't been used for more than six months. Archive them to an external hard drive or to a cold cloud. Digital minimalism is key to your Xiaomi's fast performance.