Owners of the popular Xiaomi Redmi 8T smartphone sooner or later face unpleasant notification of a lack of free space on the drive. Despite initially sufficient internal memory of 64 or 128 GB, modern applications, messengers and photos in high resolution quickly fill the available space. When the system starts to work slower and new images cease to save, it is time for decisive action.
Effective cleaning is not just about removing a couple of photos, but a comprehensive approach to managing the MIUI file system. In this article, we will explore proven methods to help return performance to your device and free up gigabytes of usable volume. You will learn how to safely remove system debris, work with cache and find hidden files that take up space for years.
Analysis of storage occupancy through settings
Before you start deleting data, you need to determine exactly what takes up the lion’s share of space on your Redmi 8T. Standard Android tools often hide the real picture, so you should use the built-in analyzer. Go to Settings → Memory, where the system will provide a detailed breakdown by category.
Here you'll see the distribution of space between applications, images, videos, audio files and system data. Pay special attention to the "Other" section, which often contains bulky residual files. Understanding the structure of the storage allows you to act point by point without removing the extra.
Sometimes users are surprised to find that most of the memory is not occupied by personal photos, but data from messengers or streaming services. Competent diagnosis is the first step to optimization.
- 📊 Open Settings and find Memory to run the analysis.
- 📂 Explore the category of “Apps” to find the heaviest programs.
- 🗑️ Check the “Cleaning” section that the system offers automatically.
⚠️ Note: Do not delete system files from folders with names like Android or MIUI manually through the file manager without understanding their purpose, this can cause the interface to fail.
Use of the built-in “Cleanup” application
The MIUI shell preinstalled a powerful maintenance tool called Cleaner, which is not just a marketing feature, but a really useful tool for quickly eliminating temporary files, run the application through the Tools folder or find it in the menu.
After scanning, the system will prompt the removal of so-called "garbage", usually the remnants of deleted applications, temporary browser files and error logs, the security of this process is guaranteed by the developers: important user data will not be affected, but it is worthwhile to exercise caution in the extended cleanup.
Inside the app, there's a tab to manage large files, and you can find forgotten downloads or heavy documents, and using this tool regularly, at least once a week, helps keep the phone on its tone.
☑️ Weekly Memory Prevention
It is worth noting that the deep cleaning function may offer removal. APK-If you've already installed the application, these files are no longer needed and you can safely delete them.
Clearing the cache and data messengers
The most voracious apps on any Android smartphone, including Redmi 8T, are messengers: Telegram, WhatsApp, Viber. They store every photo and video you see in your device’s memory, creating giant archives. Simply deleting correspondence often doesn’t free up space, because media files remain in the cache.
Telegram has a built-in automatic cache cleaner. Go to Settings → Data and memory → Memory Use. Here you can set up autodelete downloaded files in 3 days, a week or a month. This is critical for owners of versions with 64 GB of memory, as Telegram cache can grow to 10-20 GB.
WhatsApp is more complicated: there is no such flexible setting, but you can clear the cache through Android settings. Go to Settings → Apps → All apps → WhatsApp → Memory → Clear the cache. It is important not to confuse with the “Erase data” button, otherwise you will lose all chats if you did not make a backup.
| Annex | Where to find a storage facility | Is it safe to remove the cache? |
|---|---|---|
| Telegram | Settings within the application | Yeah, chats won't be lost. |
| Android settings / Inside the application | Yes, but better through the app settings | |
| Android settings | Yes, we'll need a re-entry. | |
| YouTube | Android settings / Inside the application | Yeah, offline video's gonna be gone. |
Regularly checking chat attachments allows you to delete unnecessary video files, which often weigh the most, and on Telegram, you can do this selectively by type of content.
Work with Gallery and Cloud Services
Media files are the primary consumer of space on Redmi 8T. The camera takes great pictures, but they take up a lot of space. The first step is to check the folder "Recently deleted" in the gallery. The files are stored there for 30 days and continue to take up space even if you thought you deleted them.
Use cloud services to unload internal memory. Google Photos, Yandex.Disk or Mi Cloud allow you to store original images online. Once downloaded, you can use the Free Space feature, which will remove from your phone those photos that are already in the cloud.
Also, you should pay attention to the quality of the shot, because if the memory is critically limited, you can lower the resolution of the video or switch to the compression format in the camera settings, which will slightly affect the quality for social networks, but save gigabytes.
How to find duplicate photos on Xiaomi?
Remember to check the messenger folders in the gallery, often containing hundreds of unnecessary stickers and postcards sent in group chats that automatically ended up in the shared feed.
Removing Unused Applications and Games
As time goes on, the software you've stopped using accumulates on your smartphone, games, food delivery services, bank or store apps can hang dead for months, each one taking up not only the installer's space, but also creating configuration files and cache.
Go to Settings → Apps → All apps. Sort the list by size. You will be surprised to find that some forgotten game can take 2-3 GB. Removing such heavyweights is the fastest way to get free space.
For Xiaomi system applications that cannot be removed in the standard way (e.g. Mi Video, Mi Music if you don’t use them), there are advanced methods through ADB, but it’s safer for the average user to simply disable them or disable the update.
- 🎮 Remove games that haven’t been played for more than a month.
- 🛒 Demolish the app stores if you do not order right now.
- 📱 Disable pre-installed software that you do not use.
⚠️ Warning: When removing system components through third-party ulites (Debloat) there is a risk of disrupting the work MIUI. Be careful with packages whose names you don’t know.
💡
Before removing a heavy game, check if your progress is tied to an account (Google Play Games or Mi Account) so you don’t lose your gains when you re-install.
Cleaning up the Downloads folder and hidden files
Browsers and some applications save all downloaded files to the Download folder (Downloads). PDF-documents, installation files APK, And you can see the images you've saved from the Internet, all of which have been on your phone for years. Open the file manager and check this directory.
And you also have to look at hidden folders, and some apps create their directories at the root of internal memory, like Tencent folders (for QQ and older versions of messengers) or BaiduNetdisk, and if you don't use those services, you can delete their content.
Pay special attention to the Android/obb and Android/data folder. It stores cached game and application data. It is not recommended to manually delete the contents of these folders, as this can lead to loss of progress in games or reset application settings.
💡
Regular manual check of the Downloads folder allows you to free up to 5 GB of space on devices with active Internet surfing.
Sometimes files with the.tmp extension or logs with errors remain in memory, and their search and deletion also contribute to the overall purity of the system.
Radical methods: reset to factory settings
If none of the above methods worked and the phone continues to signal a shortage of space, the last measure remains a complete reset.This will return your Xiaomi Redmi 8T to a "store-like" state.
Before starting the procedure, make sure you back up your contacts, photos and important documents. Resetting through the settings menu (Advanced Settings → Resetting → Erase All Data) is the safest way. The phone will reboot and begin the cleanup process.
After a reset, don't rush to restore all the apps right away from Google's backup. Install only the essentials. Often this keeps your phone fast and litter free for a long time. Clean installation is the best prevention.