How to Clean a folder Other on Xiaomi Redmi 7: the complete guide

Budget but reliable smartphone owners often face a lack of space, and Redmi 7 is no exception, exacerbated by the mysterious “Other” category, which can take up gigabytes of valuable memory, which accumulates temporary files, remnants of remote applications, messenger cache and system logs, inflating into obscene sizes.

Understanding what’s hidden inside this partition is the first step to successful device optimization. The Android partition and MIUI shell don’t always properly classify files, sending anything that doesn’t fall into standard categories like Photos or Apps to Other, and ignoring this problem slows down the interface and makes it impossible to install updates.

In this article, we will break down proven cleaning methods that will help restore your Xiaomi performance. We will not use questionable applications from unverified sources, but focus on built-in tools and safe manual manipulation.

Analysis of the contents of the section Other

Before we take any radical action, we need to understand the nature of memory filling, and the Other section (sometimes referred to as System Files) is a repository for data that the operating system cannot uniquely identify, including archives, documents, APK installation files, and cache of streaming services and browsers.

Special attention should be paid to messengers such as Telegram or WhatsApp, which store media files in their own directories, which the standard memory analyzer often perceives as unknown data, and the cache of navigation programs can also take up a significant amount of volume, especially if you often travel and use offline mode.

System logs and error reports are another important component: If your Redmi 7 recently crashed, detailed diagnostic reports could be written to the Other folder, and only developers need to store them for debugging, and the average user is intruded.

⚠️ Note: Before manually deleting files, make sure they are not critical to the operation of installed applications.

You can use a built-in explorer to do this in detail, go to the storage menu and try to sort files by size, and often the most voluminous elements are hidden deep in the folder structure, and it takes care to detect them.

Use of the built-in MIUI cleaner

The safest and easiest way to start the fight for free space is to use the regular tool “Clean up”, which is preinstalled in every Xiaomi smartphone. This module automatically scans the device for junk files, duplicates and large unused applications.

Run the Security app on the home screen and select Clean up. The system will perform an initial analysis and suggest removing the cache files. However, to deep clean the Other section, you need to click on the Clean up garbage button and wait for the deep memory scanning process to be completed.

The extended cleaner menu often hides the categories “Big Files” and “Unused Applications”; analyzing large files allows you to find forgotten videos or archives that formally belong to the “Other” section, but do not appear in the gallery.

It is worth noting that the built-in MIUI tool is sometimes conservative and does not delete certain types of temporary files, considering them potentially useful for speeding up the launch of applications.

Manual cleaning through the conductor

If the automatics fail, the manual method comes to the rescue, you need the standard Explorer app, go to the internal drive root directory and look carefully at the contents, and we're interested in folders with application names that you haven't used in a long time.

Pay special attention to the Android/data folder, which stores app data, including game cache and social media files, and inside this directory, you can find folders with packet names, such as com.whatsapp or com.vkontakte.android, which often contain cache subfolders or files that can be safely deleted.

• 📁 folder MIUI — Logs and temporary shell files can be stored here, but only delete the contents of subfolders. debug_log Or a gallery if you're sure.
• 📁 Download Directory – a classic place of the cluster of forgotten installers APK Documents that are often misclassified by the system.
• 📁 Bluetooth folder – here automatically saves all the received files that you could forget about.
• 📁 Directory DCIM/.thumbnails — hidden folder with thumbnails that can grow to gigabytes and slow down the work of the gallery.

When deleting files, use the big-to-small approach. Sort files by size to see the largest memory users immediately. Files with the.tmp,.log and.bak extensions are mostly temporary and must be deleted.

⚠️ Warning: Never delete.obb files inside game folders if you want to save game progress and data. Also avoid deleting folders with Google or Xiaomi system service names.

After manual cleaning, it is recommended to restart the device, which will allow the Android system to recalculate the file indexes and correctly display the freed up space in the storage settings.

Working with the cache of messengers and social networks

Messengers are the main culprits behind the inflated “Other” section on Redmi 7 smartphones. Telegram, for example, stores all the media you’ve watched in the device’s memory by default. To fix this, you need to go to the settings of the app itself.

On Telegram, go to Settings → Data and Memory → Memory Use. Here you will see the amount of cache you are cacheing. Click on Clear Cache. Importantly, this action will not remove your correspondence or photos from the cloud, they will be re-uploaded if necessary, but will free up space on the disk.

WhatsApp is similar, but there's a nuance with backups: Before cleaning, make sure your chats are saved to Google Drive. Go to Settings → Data and Storage → Storage Management. You can delete large files or clear the entire media cache.

Social networks like VK or Instagram also aggressively cache images and videos. In the settings of these apps, find the "Cash" or "Storage" section and clean it up. If you don't have that option, it's easier to reinstall the app, which is guaranteed to remove all the accumulated garbage.

Resetting settings and radical methods

If none of the above methods helped significantly reduce the size of the Other folder, it is possible that the file system has accumulated errors or corrupted system indexes, in which case the most effective solution would be a complete reset to factory settings.

Hard Reset will completely remove all user data, applications and, most importantly, clean the system partition from debris.Be sure to create a full backup of important data to your computer or cloud storage before this procedure.

To perform the reset, go to Settings → About Phone → Settings Reset → Erase all data. The device will reboot and begin the cleaning process, which can take anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes. Once turned on, you will get a clean system, like from the store.

An alternative to a full reset might be to flash the device through the computer and save user data (the “Clean all” option without locking the bootloader), but this method requires a MIUI Account with a binding and unlocked bootloader, which is not always possible on older models.

Prevention and useful advice

To prevent the problem of overflowing the "Other" section on Redmi 7 from returning too quickly, implement healthy smartphone usage habits.Regular prevention takes less time than dealing with the consequences.

Set up automatic cache cleanup in messengers, for example, in Telegram you can set the cache autodelete 3 days or a week after viewing, this will prevent the accumulation of gigabytes of temporary files.

• 📅 Check the Downloads folder once a month and delete unnecessary files.
• 📅 Turn off auto-save photos and videos in the gallery of messengers.
• 📅 Use cloud storage (Google Photos, Yandex.Disk) with the function “free up space».

It is also recommended that you do not fill the internal memory of the device completely. Free space is necessary for the system to work correctly the mechanisms of writing and reading. If more than 90% of the memory is filled, the speed of the Redmi 7 can critically drop.

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Use a microSD card to store photos and videos. In the camera settings, select saving materials directly to an external card so that internal memory remains free for the system.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

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Regularly cleaning up messenger cache and using cloud storage is key to ensuring that the Other section never takes up more than 10-15% of your Redmi 7’s memory.