Xiaomi smartphone owners often face the mysterious problem of having internal memory filled up and the source of that filling is not obvious.In particular, the Redmi 3S model, despite its reliability, has a limited amount of internal storage that is quickly consumed. MIUI system classifies a lot of cached data, temporary files and residues of remote applications into the category of “Other”, making them difficult for the average user to access.
Cleaning this partition is critical to the stable operation of the device, as memory overflow leads to serious interface brakes and even cyclical reboots. In this article, we will detail safe and advanced methods of freeing up space. You will learn how to find hidden files, delete junk data and prevent the system partition from re-inflating without having to reset to factory settings.
Before we start taking drastic measures, we need to understand the nature of the origin of these files, most often update remnants, application error logs and messenger cache that the system cannot automatically identify, and a competent approach will allow you to return gigabytes of free space, while preserving all important contacts and photos.
The Nature of the Others section in MIUI
The Others section of Xiaomi’s file manager is not a separate folder in the classic sense, but a collection of data that the system cannot categorize as standard categories like Photos, Videos, or Music. Often, files with unknown extensions or those that were created by applications in hidden directories fall into this category. For Redmi 3S, with its modest 16 or 32 gigabytes of memory, this becomes a narrow performance neck.
Social media and browser cache data grows to giant sizes over time, and apps store images, videos and temporal scripts they view to speed up their re-upload, but MIUI doesn’t always manage that data correctly, leaving it hanging dead weight even after being cleaned through standard tools.
Another source of debris is residual files after deleting programs. When you uninstall a game or utility, its folders with settings and logs often remain at the root of internal memory, the system sees them as unknown data and takes them to the Others section. Without manual verification, these files can occupy up to 30% of the total available volume.
⚠️ Warning: Before mass deletion of files from system folders, be sure to back up important data. Mistakeful deletion of system logs can lead to unstable operation of some applications.
Understanding the structure of files allows you to act point-by-point, instead of blindly removing everything, it is worth analyzing which applications consume the most resources, which will help in the future to avoid installing “heavy” programs that are poorly optimized for working with the Android file system.
Use of built-in cleaner and analyzer of storage
The first and safest step is to use Xiaomi’s regular tools. The Security app has a built-in Cleanup module that scans the device for obvious debris. However, deep cleaning of the Others section will require using the storage analysis feature, which shows the distribution of space by category.
Run the Security → Cleanup app and wait until the scan is finished. Standard cleaning will only remove surface debris. For more in-depth analysis, go to Settings → Memory (or Advanced Settings → Memory in older versions of MIUI). Here, the system will try to visualize what exactly occupies space, although the detail is often insufficient.
☑️ Standard cleaning algorithm
Deep Clean, which allows you to find duplicate photos, old APK installer packages, and unused applications, is an effective way to reduce the volume of the Others partition without getting into system files, and using this tool regularly helps keep the system on top of its tone.
If standard methods have not yielded tangible results, it is worth turning to more detailed settings. Sometimes the system does not correctly display the size of folders, and real cleaning requires manual intervention through the conductor. In such cases, automatic scripts may be powerless against specific cache files.
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Use the Storage Analyzer feature in the Explorer app to see the visual memory card and find the heaviest but most forgotten files.
Manual cleaning through file manager and PC
The most effective way to deal with the bloated "Others" section is to manually check the file system. USB-cable, as access to some system folders from the phone may be restricted by access rights. 3S PC-to-PC file transfer mode (MTP).
On your computer, open up your smartphone’s internal memory and look for folders with the names of the apps installed. Often, heavy WhatsApp, Telegram, or game cache files are hidden here. Look for folders with Android/data and Android/obb names, which is where the basic data of applications that the system often refers to as “Others” is stored.
| Folder/Directory | What does it contain? | Can be removed |
|---|---|---|
| MIUI/debug_log | Logs of system debugging | Yes, it's safe. |
| Android/data | Cash and application data | Only the contents of specific applications |
| DCIM/.thumbnails | Photo miniatures | Yes, they will be recreated. |
| Tencent/MicroMsg | Cash WeChat and QQ | Careful, just the cache files. |
When deleting files from your Android/data folder, be very careful: Deleting the entire folder will reset the settings of all applications, and deleting specific subfolders (for example, com.whatsapp) will deprive you of correspondence and media files in the corresponding messenger.
⚠️ Warning: Never delete.xml or.conf files from root folders unless you are sure of their purpose.This can lead to a device bootloop (cyclic reboot.
It’s also worth checking the Download folder and the root of internal memory for forgotten.apk installation files. They often weigh hundreds of megabytes and become a completely useless ballast once the program is installed.
Cleaning the cache of messengers and social networks
Messengers are consistently the leaders in filling the “Others” section. Telegram, Viber and WhatsApp store every photo and video viewed into a cache that grows over time to several gigabytes. In MIUI, this data is often not displayed in the “Images” category, but goes to “Other”.
To clean up, go to the settings of the app itself. For example, on Telegram, the path looks like this: Settings → Data and memory → Memory Use → Clear cache. This is a secure operation that will not delete your correspondence, but only download your media files again when you re-view. On WhatsApp, a similar function is in Settings → Data and Storage → Storage Management.
If standard settings don't work, you can use a file manager, find WhatsApp/Media/.Statuses or Telegram/Telegram Images folders, and removing the contents of these folders through Explorer is also effective, but requires manual sorting to avoid deleting important documents.
Why is the cache growing again?
Regularly cleaning the messenger cache is a habit that prolongs the life of Redmi 3S. Owners of devices with a small amount of memory are recommended to check (occupied space) once a week in popular applications and clean up the accumulated garbage.
Reset applications and clean up through safe mode
Sometimes the Others section gets inflated because of a specific application error that stops properly managing its temporary files. In this case, it helps to reset the application settings or reinstall it. Go to Settings → Apps → All apps, find a suspicious program (often browsers or launchers) and click Clear Everything →
If you can't identify the culprit, try running your smartphone in Safe Mode, which only downloads system applications, and if the volume of Other Files has decreased dramatically in Safe Mode (as seen through the memory analyzer), then the problem is with third-party software.
To enter Safe Mode on Xiaomi: Press the Off button, and when the menu appears, keep your finger on the “Stop” (or “Reboot” depending on the version of MIUI) for a long time until you have an offer to go to Safe Mode.
This method also helps to identify viruses-miners that masquerade as system processes and generate a huge number of temporary files, in safe mode, their activity is blocked, which allows you to safely remove malicious code through the file manager or antivirus.
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Safe Mode is the best diagnostic tool for identifying parasitic applications that hide the real amount of memory.
Radical methods: Complete reset and flashing
If none of the above methods helped reduce the Others partition and it continues to take up the lion’s share of memory, it is possible that the smartphone file system is damaged or has accumulated critical errors, in which case the only effective solution is a complete reset to the factory settings (Hard Reset).
Before performing this procedure, be sure to save all important data to your computer or the cloud, as all files will be destroyed. To perform the reset, go to Settings → About Phone → Reset → Clear all data. The device will restart and return to the “out of the box” state.
Settings → About Phone → Resetting → Clean all dataAn alternative, deeper method is to flash the device through the computer using the Mi Flash Tool, which will completely reinstall the operating system and re-mark memory partitions, guaranteed to eliminate file table errors that could lead to incorrect display of memory.
⚠️ Warning: Flashing through the Mi Flash clean (Clean All) will unlock the bootloader (if it has been locked) and delete all data. Make sure the battery is at least 60% charged before starting the process.
Once reset or flashed, the Others section typically takes up a minimum amount (a few hundred megabytes) of system storage, proving that the problem was software storage, not physical memory wear.
Memory Filling Prevention on Redmi 3S
To prevent the problem from returning in a month, you need to change your smartphone usage habits. Redmi 3S is a resource-limited device, and it requires a more careful file system than today's flagships. Regular maintenance is more important than emergency cleaning.
Set a rule: check the Downloads folder and messenger cache once a week, turn off auto-save media from chats to the gallery if this feature is not critical to you, and this will prevent duplicate files from getting into system debris.
It is also recommended to periodically (every 3-6 months) make a full backup of data and format internal memory through the recovery menu (Recovery), which allows you to “shake” the file system and get rid of minor indexing errors that over time lead to distortion of memory statistics.
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Use cloud storage (Google Photos, Yandex.Disk) with auto-delete local copies after download, which will free up gigabytes of space on the device.
By following these simple guidelines, you can maximize the comfort of your Xiaomi Redmi 3S, avoiding annoying notifications about space shortages and slowing down the interface.