How to effectively clean system memory on Xiaomi Redmi 9

Owners of Xiaomi Redmi 9 will sooner or later face a situation where the device starts to run slower, and notifications of space shortages appear more often. This is a natural process, as modern applications become “heavier”, and photos and videos in high resolution take up gigabytes of free space. System memory is not just a file storage, it is a workspace where the MIUI operating system places temporary data for the fast operation of running programs.

When space runs out, the phone can freeze, shut down apps spontaneously, or even not start. It is important to understand that simply removing a few songs or old photos is not enough, since the bulk of the space is often occupied by hidden system files, messenger cache and remnants of remote programs. In this article, we will discuss all available optimization methods, from standard tools to advanced methods.

Before we start taking drastic measures, it is worth assessing the current state of the drive, which will help you understand what exactly “eats” precious gigabytes. On Redmi 9, the system partition is reserved for MIUI files and cannot be reduced by the user without flashing, so the main struggle is for user space. The right cleaning approach will allow you to extend the life of your device without having to buy a new gadget.

Storage occupancy analysis and search for hidden files

The first step to freeing up space is to analyze in detail what exactly memory is doing. The MIUI shell has a powerful tool built in to visualize the distribution of data. Go to the Settings menu → About Phone → Storage to see a color diagram where each sector is responsible for a specific type of content: applications, images, videos, documents or system files.

Users are often surprised to find a huge "Other" section, which includes browser cache files, temporary system update files, uploaded stickers to Telegram or Viber, and streaming data, which are not critical to the system's operation, but can take up to 10-15 GB of space, and their removal is safe and often gives an instant gain in free space.

You can use a built-in Explorer to do a deeper analysis, open Explorer and sort by file size, and you can find forgotten archives, old backups, or video files that have been downloaded from the Internet and forgotten, and removing these heavyweights is the fastest way to make room.

• 📂 Check the Download folder – there are often a lot of unnecessary installation files. APK documents.
• 🗑️ Pay attention to the folder. DCIM →.thumbnails is a gallery miniature cache that can grow to giant sizes.
• 📱 Analyze the folders of messengers: Android → media → com.whatsapp or com.telegram.messenger.

⚠️ Warning: When cleaning your.thumbnails folder, be prepared for the fact that the next time you open the gallery, your phone may temporarily run slower until you recreate thumbnails of images.

Use of the built-in "Security" application

Xiaomi preinstalles the Security utility on its devices, which is the main tool for system maintenance. It's not just an antivirus, but a comprehensive harvester for resource management. Launch the application and select Cleanup. The scanner will automatically find temporary files, remnants of remote applications and unnecessary installation packages.

Deep Cleaning allows you to work through the system in more detail, and it offers you to delete large files, duplicate photos, and rarely used applications. But be careful: the algorithm may suggest you delete files you really need, so always check the list before confirming an action. Regularly using this tool once a week helps keep the system on track.

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Set up automatic cleaning in the Security app so that your phone will remove garbage when you reach the 90% memory occupancy threshold.

There's also a section inside the app to manage the apps, and you can see how much space each program's cache takes up. For example, social networks often accumulate gigabytes of cached images and videos. Clearing the cache through the app's settings is safer than completely clearing the data, because it doesn't require re-authorization.

• 🚀 Use the "Accelerate" button on the home screen to unload background processes and free RAM.
• 🧹 Routinely run scans for adware and hidden threats that also take place.
• 📉 Track the dynamics of vacancy in the schedule of storage use within the application.

⚠️ Warning: Don’t use third-party aggressive “cleaners” from Play Market that promise to speed up the phone by 5x, they are often the source of advertising and can delete system files necessary for the stable operation of the Redmi 9.

Cleaning up cache and data heavy applications

The most voracious consumers of memory are traditionally social networks and instant messengers. Telegram, WhatsApp, Instagram and TikTok store every photo and video viewed in local storage. Over time, this turns into a huge archive that slows down the entire smartphone. To clean, you need to go to Settings → Apps → All applications.

Select the app from the list and find Memory, and you'll see two buttons here: Clear Cache and Clear Everything (or Reset) and the cache cleanup is safe, it will only delete temporary files and the app will reload them if necessary, and the reset will return the app to the "post-installation" state by removing logins, correspondence and settings.

In some cases, such as Telegram, it is more effective to use the built-in settings of the application itself. In Settings → Data and memory → Memory use, you can set up automatic deletion of the cache if it occupies more than a certain volume, or set a media storage period (for example, 3 days, 1 week), this will prevent the proliferation of garbage in the future.

Special attention should be paid to navigation maps, such as Yandex.Maps or Google Maps. If you downloaded offline maps of entire regions or countries, they can take several gigabytes. Check the "Offline maps" section in the navigation settings and delete unnecessary regions.

• 🗺️ Remove offline maps in navigators if you don’t plan to travel without internet anytime soon.
• 🎞️ In YouTube and Netflix settings, check the Downloads section and delete movies and TV shows you have watched.
• 📸 On Instagram and Facebook, use the Data Savings feature to limit autoplay of high-quality videos.

Removal of system debris and residual files

Even after deleting applications, the system often has their tails — empty folders, configuration files, and error logs — and you'll need a file manager with access to the root structure or a built-in Xiaomi Explorer to get to the root of internal memory and look at folders with the names of programs that have been deleted long ago.

A special place is occupied by the folder MIUI → debug_log. It stores debugging logs that can take hundreds of megabytes. Unless you're a developer and you're debugging the system, you can delete the contents of that folder. → obb — it stores game cache data. If the game is deleted, a corresponding folder called com.gameloft.android often stays and takes up space.

Another source of garbage is the.Trash folder in the gallery or the guide, and when you delete a photo or a file, it doesn't disappear completely, it moves to a basket where it's stored for 30 days, and to make room, you have to go to the Deleted album and clean it completely.

⚠️ Note: Be extremely careful when deleting files in the folder Android/data. Remove only those folders whose names correspond to already remote applications, otherwise the work of programs may be broken.

Transfer data to memory card and cloud

Redmi 9 supports microSD card installation, which is a great solution to the problem of space shortage. However, just inserting the card is not enough, you need to configure the system correctly. Go to Settings → Storage, select the memory card and press Format. Important: formatting will delete all the data on the card, so back up in advance.

Once you have set up the map, you can transfer photos, videos and music to it. In the Camera app, change the save settings so that new pictures are written immediately to the user. SD-To do this, open the camera, click on three bars in the corner, select Settings and activate Save on SD-This will prevent the internal memory from being filled in in the future.

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Using a UHS-I or higher memory card is critical for Redmi 9, as cheap cards can slow down the system and record video in 4K.

An alternative to a physical map is cloud storage: Google Photos, Yandex.Disk or MI Cloud allow you to upload media files to the Internet and delete them from your phone. Google Photos has a convenient "Free Space" feature that automatically finds copies of photos already uploaded to the cloud on your device and deletes them.

• ☁️ Configure sync only over Wi-Fi so as not to waste mobile traffic.
• 📼 Use “smart storage” in Google Photos that compresses photos to “Saving space” quality without noticeable loss of quality.
• 🔄 Check your sync status regularly to make sure important photos are not missing from your phone before uploading to the cloud.

Radical Measures: Dumping and Using ADB

If the software cleaning doesn’t help and the memory fills up on its own, it may be that file spreadsheet errors or virus software have accumulated in the system. In this case, a complete factory reset is a random (albeit radical) method. Before that, be sure to back up all important data through Settings → About Phone → Backup.

For advanced users, there is a method of cleaning through ADB (Android Debug Bridge from your computer: This method allows you to remove system applications that are not removed in the standard way (for example, unnecessary services from Google or Xiaomi applications). USB In the section For developers and connect the phone to the PC.

adb shell pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.google.android.apps.maps

This command, for example, will delete Google maps for the current user, freeing up space but leaving system files in case of reinstall. Be very careful when entering ADB commands: removing critical system components can lead to a "bootloop" (cyclic reboot) of the phone.

After all the cleaning procedures, it is recommended to restart the device, which will allow the system to reset the file indexes and correctly display the freed space. If the problem of fast memory filling persists after the reset, this may indicate a physical malfunction of the drive, which requires contacting the service center.