How to Clean a folder Other on Xiaomi Phone

Many Xiaomi and Redmi smartphone owners will sooner or later face a mysterious partition in the storage called “Another” that can grow to tens of gigabytes, occupying precious space that is designed for your photos, videos and applications.

Android's MIUI or HyperOS shell classifies files that don't fall into standard categories like "Apps," "Photos" or "Music," which is the folder that can hide messenger cache, remnants of remote programs, error logs and temporary update files. It's necessary to understand this chaos, because overflowing memory leads to brakes and unstable gadget operation.

In this article, we will discuss in detail the safe cleaning methods that will not harm the operating system, you will learn how to find hidden files, use embedded utilities and third-party software for deep cleaning, the main thing is to act consistently and understand what you are deleting, so that you do not accidentally erase important data.

Reasons for the expansion of the section Other

The phenomenon of fast filling in the category "Other" often scares inexperienced users. In fact, it is a regular behavior of the system that simply requires control. The main culprit is the cache of applications. Social networks such as Telegram or WhatsApp store the images and videos viewed in temporary memory, which over time can weigh more than the operating system itself.

The second reason is system logs and error reports, and if an application crashes or conflicts with MIUI often, it can generate text files that accumulate in hidden directories, and streaming services that cache buffered video for smoother playback, but forget to delete it after watching it.

• 📂 Residual files after deleting applications that have not been completely cleaned by the system.
• 📦 Firmware updates that the system did not automatically remove after installation.
• 🎮 Game cache including textures, music and resources downloaded after installation from Google Play.

⚠️ Note: Do not blindly delete all the contents of system folders through root-right file managers, as this can lead to a cyclical restart of the device (bootloop).

It’s important to understand the difference between user data and system files. If you see a sharp jump in volume in one day, it’s likely that a particular application that started to malfunction or downloaded a large amount of data in the background is to blame.

Use of the built-in Security application

The easiest and safest way to start the fight for gigabytes is to use Xiaomi’s regular tools**.Security is already pre-installed on every device and contains a powerful memory analysis tool that can find junk files that are not visible when you browse folders.

To start the procedure, go to the Settings menu and find About Phone, then click on Warehouse. The system will prompt you to start cleaning. A deeper analysis is available through the app icon with a broom on your desktop or in the Tools folder. Click Scan and the algorithm will check all directories.

Once scanned, the system will prompt the removal of temporary files, but often the standard cleaning does not affect the application deep cache, which is the lion's share of the "Other" section, in which case you need to go to the "Deep Cleaning" section, where you can select large files, rarely used applications and duplicate photos.

• 🗑️ Removal APK-Installation files that remain after updating programs.
• 📸 Search for similar photos and screenshots taking place.
• 📉 Analyze applications that have not been used in a long time, but store a lot of data.

⚠️ Note: When using the Deep Clean feature, carefully look at the preview of files so that you do not accidentally delete important documents or original photos.

Cleaning up data messengers and social networks

The most voluminous sources of garbage are Telegram, WhatsApp and Viber, which store the history of correspondence and media files in their internal databases, which Android perceives as “Other”, and simply removing the application will not be enough, since when you re-install the story can be restored from the backup or cloud, taking up space again.

In Telegram, the cleanup is most effective through the built-in settings. Go to Settings → Data and memory → Memory Use. Here you will see the full cache volume. Press the Clear Cache button. This is safe: your chats and contacts will remain in place, only uploaded images and videos that can be re-downloaded if necessary.

For WhatsApp, the path is a little different. Open the app, go to Settings → Storage & Data → Storage Management. The system will show files larger than 5MB and let you select the chats that take up the most space. Removing old video files from group chats is recommended, as they are often duplicated and weigh a lot.

Don't forget other social media sites. VK, Instagram and TikTok also aggressively cache the video stream.These apps' settings often have a "Clear Cache" option that helps free up 1 to 5GB of space instantly.

Analysis of storage by third-party utilities

If Xiaomi's built-in tools don't work, specialized analytics apps come to the rescue, and they visualize the file system, showing which folders take up the most space, and one of the most effective tools is DiskUsage or Files by Google.

Once you install this app, give it permission to access the files, it will build a diagram where each square corresponds to a specific file or folder, and you can see that, for example, the.thumbnails folder in the DCIM directory has grown to an incredible size, and this is a gallery sketch cache that sometimes forgets to be cleaned.

Using these tools, you can find forgotten downloads, old navigator maps or offline translators that take up gigabytes. Be careful when deleting files with the.obb or.data extension in the Android folder if you are not sure that they belong to a remote game.

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Before removing unknown system files through a third-party analyzer, copy their names to a search engine to make sure they are not critical to MIUI.

Manual removal through the conductor

For advanced users who want to control each byte, manual cleaning through standard Explorer is available. This method requires care, but allows you to remove specific debris that automatic cleaners ignore. Open the Explorer app and go to the root of internal memory.

First of all, look at the Download folder. Often, installation files accumulate there, PDF-- You can check your files and your browser pictures. MIUI → debug_log. If it contains files, they can be safely deleted – these are debugging logs that only developers need when searching for errors.

Another place where the other is clustered is the Android → data folder, which stores app data, and you can delete the contents of specific program folders (like com.whatsapp) if you're willing to lose the settings or local history of that application, but it's best not to touch the folder structure itself.

• 📁 Folder thumbnails in DCIM — cache of thumbnails, can be deleted, the system will create new.
• 📁 Temp or tmp folder at the root of the system – temporary files of various processes.
• 📁 Backup folder – backups you no longer need.

⚠️ Warning: Never delete.xml or.conf files from your system folders unless you know exactly what they are intended for, which can disrupt the interface or specific functions of your phone.

Radical measures: Resetting and reflashing

If neither method worked, and the Other continues to take up absurd volume (e.g., 40-50GB on an empty phone), there may have been a file system error or damage to markup tables, in which case only a full factory reset helps.

Before this procedure, be sure to back up all important data to your computer or to the Mi Cloud. Go to Settings → About Phone → Reset → Erase all data. The phone will return to the “out of the box” state and the “Other” partition will disappear as the file system will be formatted again.

In rare cases, when even a reset does not help (which is extremely rare and indicates physical memory degradation or a serious firmware bug), you need to flash the device through the computer using the Mi Flash Tool utility.

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Full reset is the only solution that is guaranteed to remove file system errors that cause phantom space in the Other section.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)