How to Clean Memory Xiaomi 9: The Complete Guide

Owners of flagship smartphones like the Xiaomi Mi 9 often face a paradox: a powerful device starts to work slowly due to a lack of free space. MIUI operating system over time acquires temporary files that take up gigabytes of valuable resource. Understanding how to properly manage storage is the key to keeping your gadget high performance.

There are many ways to get your system back up, from using built-in utilities to deep manually cleaning your system folders. In this article, we will detail safe and effective ways to free up space. You will learn to distinguish important system files from digital debris that can and should be removed without risking your phone.

Mismanagement of files can lead to loss of personal data or unstable applications. So it is important to follow the sequence of actions and clearly understand what each memory partition is responsible for. We will look at both standard tools and advanced methods for experienced users who want to make the most of their device.

Analysis of vault occupancy

Before you start deleting files, you need to determine exactly what is taking up space on your Xiaomi Mi 9. Standard Android tools often show only the big picture, hiding details in the system partitions.

Go to Settings → Memory and wait for the scan to be completed. The system will show the distribution of space between applications, images, videos and system files. Often it turns out that the lion’s share of space is occupied by social media cache or forgotten downloads from instant messengers.

Note the Other section, which MIUI often hides update files, deleted program residues, and error logs, and if this partition takes up a disproportionate amount of space, such as more than 10 GB, a deeper diagnosis is required through a file manager or a computer connection.

⚠️ Note: Do not delete files from system folders unless you know exactly what they are intended for. The error can lead to a cyclical reboot or loss of access to basic smartphone functions.

For more detailed analysis, you can use third-party utilities that build a visual disk map, which help you instantly find the "heavy" files that you may have forgotten deep in the download folders, but even a standard analyzer is usually enough to assess the situation in the first place.

Use of the built-in "Security" application

The easiest and safest way to start cleaning is to use the Security app preinstalled. It's a system tool that has deep access to the file system and knows which files can be deleted without consequences. Launch the application and select Clean up.

The scanner will automatically find temporary files, advertising debris and uninstall packet residues. Press the cleanup button to remove the detected objects.This process takes only a few seconds and often allows you to free up 500 MB to 2 GB of space.

Next, go to the section "Deep Clean" where the utility will offer to delete large files, duplicate photos and rarely used applications. Be careful when choosing files to delete in this mode, as this may be your personal documents.

• 🗑️ Cache Deletion: Safely Clears Temporary Application Data.
• 📸 Duplicate photos: Finds the same images in different folders.
• 📦 Large files: Shows videos and archives that take up a lot of space.
• 📲 Rare apps: Offers to remove programs you haven’t used in a month.

It is important to regularly perform such a procedure so that the system does not become overgrown with debris. In the settings of the application, you can enable automatic cleaning when you reach a certain occupancy threshold, which will help keep the Xiaomi Mi 9 in optimal condition without your constant intervention.

Cleaning the cache of messengers and social networks

The main memory eaters on a modern smartphone are messengers like Telegram, WhatsApp and Viber, which store every photo and video you view in your device’s memory, even if you haven’t saved it to a gallery.

To clean up Telegram, go to Settings → Data and Memory → Memory Use. You can see the cache volume and clear it with a single button. You should set up automatic deletion of the cache, for example, after 3 days or a week, so that the problem does not return.

On WhatsApp, cleaning is done through Settings → Data & Storage → Storage Management. The app will show you the most space-consuming chats and let you selectively delete media files, a convenient way to get rid of unnecessary videos while retaining important correspondence.

Once the cache is cleared, apps can run a little slower on their first run, as they need to re-upload data from the network. This is normal system behavior. Regularly cleaning messengers is the most efficient way to maintain free space on the Xiaomi Mi 9.

Removal of system debris and residual files

Even after you delete the apps, you still have tails, folders with settings, logs and temporary files, and there's no single button on Android to remove all the garbage, so you'll have to use a file manager, and a standard MIUI Explorer or Google Files would be great for this.

First of all, check the Download folder. That's where most of the files from the browser get into. APK-files that are no longer needed, or old documents.

Also worth looking at folders with names of remote applications, if you see a folder with the name of a game or program that is no longer on your phone, check its contents, and chances are there are useless data that can be deleted.

You can use the Cleanup feature in the file manager to find duplicate files, and it scans the memory and finds the same files with different names, which is especially true for those who often download files from different sources.

• 📂 folder Android/data: contains a cache of games and applications, you can selectively clean.
• 📂 folder DCIM: Here you store your photos and videos, requires manual sorting.
• 📂 folder MIUI: System logs and themes, only delete temporary files.
• 📂 Root folder: Look for files with.log or.tmp extension.

⚠️ Attention: Folder Android/obb It contains heavy game cache data, and if you delete the contents, the games may stop running and require you to re-upload the data.

Remember to check the Bluetooth folder if you've ever transferred files through this interface. There's often a buildup of old videos and music that you've long forgotten.

Working with multimedia and gallery

Photos and videos are the things that take up the most space on any smartphone.The Xiaomi Mi 9 features a great camera that takes high-resolution shots, but they take up a lot of memory. Regularly reviewing the gallery and removing failed frames is a necessary procedure.

Use the recently deleted feature in the gallery. Often users delete photos but forget to clear the cart, where files are stored for another 30 days, and cleaning the cart will instantly free up space occupied by files that have already been deleted, but not permanently erased.

For video files, it is recommended to use cloud storage or transfer it to a computer. Video in 4K resolution can take up hundreds of megabytes per minute of recording. It is not advisable to store such volumes of data on an internal drive.

💡

Use Google Photos with Free Space, which automatically removes photos and videos that are already stored in the cloud, leaving them available in the gallery.

It’s also worth checking the Screenshots folder. We often take screenshots of important information but forget to delete them after use. Accumulation of hundreds of screenshots can stealthily eat up a few gigabytes of your Xiaomi memory.

Removal of applications and rights management

Many pre-installed apps and games that you never use continue to take up space and run in the background. Go to Settings → Apps → App Management and sort the list by size.

Remove programs you haven’t used in the past few months. Even if you rarely run an application, it can store large amounts of data. For system applications that can’t be removed, try clicking the Clear Data button (if you’re sure you don’t need settings).

Note the MIUI features that may be redundant, for example, if you don’t use Xiaomi’s built-in voice recorder or calculator, you can remove them or replace them with lightweight ones from Google Play.

Rights management also affects memory: Over-regulated applications can create more logs and temporary files; limit background activity for programs that don't have to run all the time.

• 🚫 Remove bloatware: Removing unnecessary preinstalled games.
• ⚙️ Data Reset: Cleaning the settings of heavy applications.
• 🔄 Replacement with analogues: use of lighter versions of programs (Lite).
• 🔒 Restriction of background activity: banning work in the background.

After removing a large number of applications, it is recommended to restart the device, which will allow the system to restructure the indexes and correctly display the new value of free memory.

Using a computer for deep cleaning

Connecting Xiaomi Mi 9 to your computer via USB-The cable gives you access to the file system in storage mode, and it's the most powerful tool for analysis and cleaning, because it's easier to work with files on a big screen.

Turn on USB debugging mode in the Developer menu if standard connectivity is not enough, this will allow you to use specialized software to manage files, but for simple cleaning, you just need to select File Transfer (MTP) mode.

On your computer, you can use programs to find duplicates or analyze space, such as WinDirStat or TreeSize, to show you a visual memory card on your phone, where you can immediately see the heaviest folders.

adb shell pm list packages -3

This debugging mode (ADB) command will show you a list of all third-party packages installed. This is useful for identifying hidden or system applications that are taking up space. Use this method only if you are a confident user.

💡

Connecting to a PC is the best way to safely transfer large archives of photos and videos without permanently deleting them.

⚠️ Note: When connecting to