Cleaning up Xiaomi Redmi 6 phone from garbage: 7 proven ways

The Xiaomi Redmi 6, released in 2018, is still a popular budget smartphone due to its reliability and maintainability. However, over time, even this “unkillable” device begins to slow down, warm up and give out messages about memory shortages, the reason for the accumulated system debris: remnants of remote applications, cache, duplicate photos and temporary MIUI files. Unlike the flagships, the Redmi 6 has only 16/32 GB of internal memory, so every megabyte counts.

This article is not about the magic buttons that promise to clear everything in a second, but about the system approach: from manually cleaning hidden folders to setting up auto-cleaning. We will analyze which files can be deleted without risk and which should not be touched (even if they take gigabytes), focusing on the specific problems of MIUI 9/10 on Redmi 6 – for example, why cleaning through Security often does not work and how to circumvent this limitation.

1. Diagnosis: What exactly is taking up memory on Redmi 6?

Before you clean, you need to understand which files are eating up memory. On Redmi 6 with MIUI, this is not always obvious: the system can show “14 GB occupied”, but the Storage menu will have less of all categories, because of hidden files and backup space for updates.

To get accurate data:

• 📊 Open the Settings. → Storage and wait for the full chart load (can take up to 30 seconds).
• 🔍 Click on the “Other” category – here often hides before 3-5 GB of garbage (logs, memory dumps, update remnants).
• 📁 Install a file manager (e.g., Mi File Manager or File Manager) FX Explorer) and enable the display of hidden files in the settings.

Typical memory allocation on Redmi 6 after a year of use:

⚠️ Note: If the System category is more than 6 GB occupied, this may indicate corrupted firmware files, in which case only resetting to factory settings or flashing through Fastboot will help.

2. Cleaning the cache of applications: what can be deleted and what can not

Cache is a temporary file that apps create to speed up work. On Redmi 6, the cache can take up to 3-5 GB, but you need to delete it wisely. For example, cleaning the cache of Google Play Services will lead to authorization problems, and the Galery cache will lead to a long re-indexing of photos.

It's safe to clear the cache:

• 🎮 Games (e.g. com.tencent.ig for PUBG Mobile – can weigh up to 1.5 GB).
• 📺 Social networks (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok – up to 500 MB for each of them).
• 🌐 Browsers (Chrome, Mi Browser – especially if you use “Mode to save traffic»).

Don't touch the cache:

• 🔒 com.android.vending (Google Play Market) – can break updates.
• 📱 com.miui.home (Launcer) – will result in the reset of wallpaper and widgets.
• 🔄 com.google.android.gms (Google Play Services) – the risk of losing access to your Google account.

How to clean the cache correctly:

1. Go to Settings → Applications → Application Management.
2. Select the app and click Clear Cache (not Clear Data!).
3. For mass cleaning, use Settings → Storage → Cleaning, but uncheck the boxes from system applications.

Close all background applications

Backup important data (e.g. game saves)

Connect your phone to charge (the process can take 5-10 minutes)

Do not interrupt cleaning, even if the phone is hanging.-->

3. manually delete unnecessary files: hidden folders and application residues

Even after the apps are removed, Redmi 6 still has its tails: folders with settings, logs, and temporary files that can take up to 1-2 GB and don’t appear in the standard storage menu.

Where to look for garbage:

• 🗑️ folder /sdcard/Android/obb/ — additional game data is stored here (e.g. graphics packages for the PUBG You can delete the files of games that you have not used in a long time.
• 📂 folder /sdcard/Android/data/ — Remnant remnants of deleted applications. Only delete folders of programs that are no longer in the system.
• 🖼️ folder /sdcard/MIUI/Gallery/cloud/ — Cloud gallery cache (can weigh up to a maximum of 500 MB).
• 📱 folder /sdcard/MIUI/Backup/ — Old backups (unless you plan to restore them).

To access these folders:

1. Use Mi File Manager (enable the display of hidden files in the settings).
2. Or connect your phone to your PC via USB in File Transfer (MTP) mode.

⚠️ Note: Do not delete folders named com.android. or com.xiaomi. MIUI. Avoid the folder, too. /sdcard/MIUI/Extra/, Since it contains files for the work of design themes.

4. MIUI Optimization: Disabling Unnecessary Functions and Autocleaning

The MIUI on Redmi 6 has a lot of background processes that eat up memory and battery power, some of which can be turned off without harming the system.

What can be safely disabled:

• 🔄 Auto-update MIUI: Settings → The phone. → Updating the system → ⚙️ → Auto-downloading updates (turn off).
• 📊 Usage statistics: Settings → Xiaomi accounts → Mi Cloud → Synchronization → Usage statistics (deactivate).
• 🎵 Mi-Pei (if not used): Settings → Sound and vibration → Mi-pei (disconnect).
• 📡 Network Diagnostics: Settings → Memory. → ⚙️ → Network diagnostics (disable).

For automatic cleaning:

1. Activate Cleaning Mode in Settings → Memory → Cleaning.
2. Set up Auto Cleanup on Schedule: Settings → Memory. → ⚙️ → Autocleaning (weekly).
3. Enable Memory Optimization: Settings → Additional → Memory Optimization.

1. Enable Developer Mode (7 times click on the MIUI version in Settings → About Phone).

2. Go to Settings → Additional → For developers.

3. Set the window animation scale, the transition animation scale and the animator duration on the Off. or 0.5x.-->

5. Cleaning through the Engineering Menu and ADB: for advanced users

If standard methods don’t work, you can use hidden MIUI tools or ADB command line to remove system debris that isn’t visible in the normal interface.

Method 1: Engineering menu (code ##4636##)

Type in the phone keyboard ##4636##, then:

1. Select Storage Information.
2. Click Clear App Cache (this will remove the cache of all apps, including system ones!).
3. Reboot the phone.

Method 2: ADB-deep-cleaning

You will need a computer with installed ADB-Drivers and Included Debugging USB on the phone (Settings) → For developers → Debugging by USB).

Cleaning commands (enter cmd or terminal):

adb shell pm clear com.miui.analytics # Clears MIUI Analytics


adb shell pm clear com.xiaomi.market # Clears the Mi App Store cache




adb shell rm -rf /data/local/tmp/* # Deletes temporary files




adb shell rm -rf /cache/* # Clears the cache folder (requires root)

⚠️ Attention: Rm teams -rf They can cause the system to fail if you're incorrectly entered. Don't use them without understanding the consequences. If you're not sure, limit yourself to the first way.

💡

The engineering menu and ADB allow you to clean up to 1-2 GB of hidden debris, but you need to be careful. If after commands the phone begins to behave unstable, perform a cache reset via Recovery (Volume Up + Power when booting).

6.Reset to factory settings: when it really needs to

If all previous methods failed, it's a complete reset, a radical way to get the phone back to "clean" but delete all the data. On Redmi 6, the reset takes 5-10 minutes and solves 90 percent of the performance problems.

When to do the reset:

• 🐢 The phone brakes even after cleaning (delays when opening applications, lags when scrolling).
• 🔄 Persistent errors such as “App is stopped” or “Memory is missing».
• 📱 Memory is not known what (in Settings) → The vault is occupied. >80% but no large files).

How to do the reset correctly:

1. Save important data (photos, contacts, messages) to your PC or cloud.
2. Go to Settings → Additional → Recovery and Reset → Resetting.
3. Choose to erase everything (do not erase internal memory unless you want to format a memory card!).
4. After resetting, do not restore data from the backup – this will return the old garbage.

If the phone doesn’t turn on or hangs on the logo, you can reset it via Recovery:

1. Turn off the phone.
2. Press Volume Up + Power before the Mi logo appears.
3. Select Wipe Data → Wipe All Data (control – volume and power buttons).

7.Prevention: How to prevent future memory clogging

To prevent Redmi 6 from becoming a digital landfill a month after cleaning up, follow these rules:

• 📵 Turn off autoload multimedia in instant messengers (WhatsApp, Telegram). → Autoboot media → Only on Wi-Fi or Never.
• 🎮 Use lightweight versions of apps (e.g. Facebook Lite, Messenger Lite, YouTube Go).
• 🔄 Clean up downloads regularly: folder /sdcard/Download/ often contains unnecessary APK documents.
• 📁 Transfer files to the memory card (if installed). To do this, select a file in Mi File Manager. → Move it → Memory map.
• 🔒 Block Advertising Notifications That Upload Unnecessary Content: Settings → Notifications → Notification settings → Blocking notifications.

For automatic memory control, set:

• Files by Google – scans and suggests removing unnecessary files.
• SD Maid (requires root) – cleans the remnants of remote applications.
• CCleaner monitors cache and temporary files.

💡

Regular cleaning (every 1-2 weeks) and eliminating heavy apps will extend the life of your Redmi 6 by 2-3 years.

FAQ: Frequent questions about cleaning Xiaomi Redmi 6