How to effectively free up space on Xiaomi phone

Xiaomi’s smartphones, including Redmi and Poco, are known for their excellent price-performance ratio, but even 128 or 256 gigabytes of internal memory may run out over time. MIUI or its new version of HyperOS accumulate data that users often don’t notice until they receive a space-short notification, a critical point, as a crowded drive leads to slowdowns, problems installing updates, and the inability to take new pictures.

There are many reasons why storage fills up so quickly: messenger cache, forgotten screenshots, duplicate photos in the gallery and residual files of remote applications. Memory cleaning is not just removing a pair of applications, but a comprehensive approach to file system maintenance. In this article, we will discuss proven methods that will help to return gigabytes of free space without losing important data and using dubious software.

Before embarking on radical measures like a full reset, it’s worth analyzing what exactly takes up space. Android allows you to study the structure of folders in detail, but users often ignore built-in analysis tools. Up to 40% of the occupied space on Xiaomi smartphones is usually occupied by temporary files and social media cache that can be safely deleted.

Analysis of memory occupancy through settings

The first step is always to diagnose. You don't blindly delete files for good luck. The MIUI and HyperOS shells have a handy tool that visualizes storage. To get into it, you go to Settings → About Phone → Memory (or Storage), and here the system will show a color diagram of the data distribution.

And if you look at the other section, it's often where you're hiding heavy files that are not photo or video or application, it can be archives or documents or service-specific data, and if you click on that section, you'll see the detail. If the other takes up more, you'll see more detail. 10-15 GB, requires manual file sorting through the file manager.

⚠️ Note: Do not delete files from system folders with names like Android, MIUI or system if you are not 100% sure of their purpose, removing critical libraries can cause your phone to run unstable or your apps to lose data.

And in this section, you can see which apps are taking up the most space, and it often turns out that messengers like Telegram or WhatsApp have swelled to a few gigabytes, and storage analysis helps identify these memory eaters, and once you identify the leaders in resource consumption, you can move on to cleaning them or transferring data.

Cleaning cache and garbage removal by the staff Cleaner

Every Xiaomi smartphone has a Cleaner app preinstalled, not just a marketing tool, but a useful utility for basic maintenance. Launch the app and press the Cleanup button. The scanner will find temporary files, junk advertising and uninstall process remnants.

However, the Cleaner functionality is deeper than it first appears. There are tabs available at the bottom of the screen for finer customization. The Photo tab will help you find blurry pictures and screenshots you no longer need. The Apps tab will show rarely used software that can be removed. Deep Clean allows you to find large files that you may have forgotten in the download folder.

• 🗑️ Temporary files: securely deleted, free up to 500MB.
• 📸 Similar photos: the tool will offer to leave the best, removing duplicates.
• 📦 Packers APK: Installation files of applications that have already been installed.
• 📱 Application cache: data that speeds up programs but takes up space.

It's important to understand the difference between cleaning up cache and cleaning up data. Cache cleaning is safe and only removes temporary information. Data cleaning (or deleting an application) will reset the program to factory settings by removing your logins, correspondence and game progress. Be careful when choosing an action in the application management menu.

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Use the “Accelerate” feature in the Security app before launching heavy games. This will not only free up RAM, but also close the background processes that can create temporary files.

Work with garbage in Telegram and WhatsApp messengers

The leaders in filling memory on Xiaomi smartphones are invariably messengers. Telegram and WhatsApp by default save all received photos and videos to the phone gallery, creating copies of files, which leads to the fact that the same video can take up space in both the app cache and the shared gallery.

Telegram is most effective with cloud architecture. Go to Settings → Data and memory → Memory usage. Here you will see the amount of cache you have occupied. Click Clear cache. Don't worry, your photos and videos won't be lost - they're stored on the server and will be downloaded again when you view. It's also recommended to enable Media Autodelete, setting a time limit of, for example, 3 days or 1 week.

WhatsApp has a different mechanism, because all data is stored locally. To make room, open a chat, click on the name of a contact or group, select Media, Links and Documents. Sort files by size and delete unnecessary videos. Global Cleanup is available in Settings → Data and Storage → Storage.

After cleaning the apps, make sure to check the gallery, often with Telegram Images and WhatsApp Video folders that need to be manually removed through the standard Gallery or Explorer app, which will free up double the amount of memory that copies take up.

Removing duplicates and large files in the Gallery

Xiaomi’s camera takes high-resolution images, and video can be written in 4K. One minute of this video weighs about 300-400 MB. Often users take a series of pictures in the hope of choosing the best one, forgetting to delete the rest.

Use the built-in "Recent" album for quick sorting, but you'd better use the system's tools to find duplicates. In the Gallery app, go to the Albums tab and scroll down to the "Recommendations" or "Utilities" section, where you often find the "Delete Similar Photos" feature, and the system itself will suggest leaving quality shots and removing blurred or duplicate ones.

Special attention should be paid to the Recycle Bin folder, which does not disappear immediately, but is stored there for 30 days, continuing to occupy space. To guarantee memory freedom, you need to go to the Deleted album and click on Clear. This action is irreversible, so make sure that there is nothing important among the deleted.

Also check the Download folder. Browsers and instant messengers often save it there. PDF-Files, presentations and app installers you've long forgotten about. Sorting by file size in Explorer will help you quickly find and remove heavyweights».

Transfer data to memory card and cloud

If internal memory is overcrowded, consider expanding storage. Most Redmi smartphones and some Xiaomi models have a microSD card slot. Although the card's write speed is lower than internal memory, it's the perfect place to store archives of photos, videos and music.

To move files, paste a map, then open the Explorer app. Select files in the internal storage, click Move, and point the path to the SD-In the camera settings, you can immediately set the saving of new photos to the memory card by selecting Settings. → Retention on SD-map.

The alternative is cloud storage. Google Photos allows you to free up space on your device in one click. Open the app, click on your profile avatar and select "Free up space." The app will remove photos and videos from your phone that are already securely stored in the Google cloud, one of the safest ways to clean up memory.

⚠️ Note: When using cloud services, make sure that sync is complete before deleting files from your device. Check the status of "Backup done" in the application settings.

Removing unnecessary applications and their residual files

The average user uses approximately 10-15 Apps are available daily, but can be installed on the phone 50 Games that have been played once, bank applications of canceled cards, food delivery people all take up space. → Annexes → All applications.

However, simple deletion is not always effective. Some applications leave behind folders with data. After deleting the program, go to Explorer and check the Android/data folder (access may be restricted in new versions of Android) or the root folder with the name of the remote application. If you are sure that the program is no longer necessary, feel free to delete the remaining directories.

Also worth paying attention to Xiaomi system applications that you don't use (e.g. Mi Video, Mi Music if you use third-party ones) are often not completely removed without root permissions, but you can "disable" it, which hides the application and prevents it from updating or running in the background, which will slightly unload the system.

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Regularly auditing installed applications (once a month) helps keep the phone clean and prevents critical memory filling with imperceptible background software.

Developer Mode and ADB (for Advanced)

For power users who lack standard methods, there is the option of cleaning system debris through USB debugging.This method requires connecting to a computer and installing ADB drivers. It allows you to remove system blankware applications that cannot be removed in the usual way.

First, activate the developer mode. Go to Settings → About Phone and press 7 times on MIUI Version (or OS Version). Then, in the advanced settings, turn on “Debugging on USB.” Connect the phone to your PC and execute the command at the terminal:

adb shell pm uninstall -k --user 0 name.packet

For example, to delete Mi Pay (if not used), you need to know the name of the package (for example, com.mipay.wallet.in). Be extremely careful: removing system components can lead to a "bootloop" (cyclic reboot).

This method is not so much about freeing up gigabytes as it is about eliminating unnecessary processes, but when combined with other methods, it is a great result. Deep cleaning requires accuracy and understanding of the structure of Android.

Preventing memory overflow in the future

To prevent the memory filled problem from returning every week, change your smartphone usage habits. First, set up automatic cache cleaning. You can set up an automatic cleaning schedule in the Security app, although newer versions of MIUI may limit this feature.

The second important step is to disable auto-save in messengers. In the Telegram and WhatsApp settings, prevent saving media to the phone gallery. Files will remain inside the application and will be available when viewed, but will not be duplicated in the system gallery, taking up double space.

Check your Downloads folder regularly and delete old files. If you’re actively shooting videos, consider buying a Google One or Yandex Plus subscription for automatic backup and free up space. Following these simple rules will allow your Xiaomi to work quickly and consistently for years to come.