How to Free Up Space in Xiaomi Cloud: A Complete Storage Cleanup Guide

Xiaomi, Redmi and Poco smartphone owners often face a situation where the built-in drive is full and the system insists on uploading data to the cloud. However, there are also resources that are not unlimited: the standard 5 GB quickly run out, blocking the creation of new backups and synchronizing photos. This becomes a critical problem, especially when it is urgent to save important documents or pictures.

MIUI and its successor HyperOS are deeply integrated with Xiaomi Cloud services, so overflowing storage can’t be ignored, which can cause contacts, notes and voice recorders to stop synchronizing. There are many effective ways to optimize space use without losing valuable data. We’ll look at proven cleanup methods that will help return gigabytes of free space.

Analysis of the current state of the storage

Before you start deleting files, you need to clearly understand what exactly the space is occupied. Often users delete unnecessary photos, not knowing that the bulk of the “eat” old backups of the system or deleted files from the basket. First, you should go to the account settings. Open Settings, click on the top line with the name of the Mi Account account and select “Cloud”.

This shows you visualizations of the occupied space by category: Gallery, Recorder, Contacts, Messages and Backups of the device. Visual analysis allows you to instantly identify heavyweights. For example, a backup system can weigh tens of gigabytes if it includes all the applications and their data. Without detailed study of these statistics, any cleaning actions will be chaotic.

Note the date of the last sync. If your device has not connected to Wi-Fi for a long time or the service has been disabled, the data may not be relevant, in which case the cleanup will be safer, and it is also worth checking the status of the subscription: you may have a paid tariff that can be temporarily suspended for audit.

Cleaning Gallery and Synchronization Management

The most obvious and voluminous section is the Gallery. High-resolution photos and videos quickly fill the 5GB quota. Unlike Google Photos, Xiaomi Cloud often duplicates media files unless you configure the "Storage Optimization" option. To make room, you don't just delete files on your phone, but manage a cloud copy.

Go to Gallery Management via the web interface or Gallery app on your smartphone, and it's important to distinguish between local files and cloud copies. Deleting a photo from your phone when synced will automatically remove it from the cloud, so you first need to disable sync for specific albums or use the Free Space feature, which deletes only those pictures that are already stored in the cloud from your phone's memory.

Pay special attention to video files. They take up the most space. It is recommended to transfer long videos to an external hard drive or to an alternative cloud storage, and then remove them from Xiaomi Cloud. Also check the section "Screenshots" and "Favorites", which often contain garbage.

⚠️ Before mass deleting photos, make sure they are copied to a computer or other cloud (for example, Yandex.Disk or Google Photos). Recovery of files deleted from the cloud is only possible within 30 days through the Recycle Bin, but relying on this as the main method of storage is risky.

Using the “Delete Local Copies” feature is a unique feature of Xiaomi’s ecosystem, allowing you to keep originals in the cloud and leave only thumbnails on your phone, ideal for devices with a small amount of internal memory.

Managing system backups

Backup is a black box for many users. By default, MIUI and HyperOS can create full copies of settings, icon locations, call lists, and even installed applications. These data are accumulated, and older versions of backups are not always deleted automatically.

To manage backups, go to Backup in the cloud settings, and here you will see a list of all the stored devices. If you have data from an old, sold or lost Redmi Note 9 or Mi 11 smartphone hanging in your account, it must be deleted. It takes up space, but it does not provide any benefit.

You can also configure the backup settings, eliminate heavy applications or data that are not critical to recovery (such as game cache or temporary system application files) from synchronization, which will significantly reduce the size of the archives you create.

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Tip: Check the Devices section in your Mi Account settings regularly. Removing the anchor of broken smartphones not only frees up space, but also increases account security.

Working with a Dictaphone and Notes

Many people forget that Xiaomi Cloud syncs not only multimedia, but also audio recordings from a voice recorder, as well as text notes. If you use a smartphone to record lectures, interviews or meetings, these files can take hundreds of megabytes. High-quality recording formats (.m4a or.wav) do not compress when uploaded to the cloud.

Check the recorder list through the web version of the cloud (i.mi.com). Often there are files with test records or noise made by accident. Deleting them will instantly free up space. For notes, the situation is similar: old shopping lists or drafts created a few years ago are unlikely to be necessary.

Deleting a note on your phone will delete it everywhere, so before cleaning critical records, it is recommended to export them to a text file or take a screenshot.

Using the web version for detailed cleaning

The mobile app is convenient for quick setup, but for deep storage cleaning, it is better to use the full web version of the service. The browser version of Xiaomi Cloud (available at i.mi.com) provides a more convenient file manager, reminiscent of the standard Explorer on your computer.

You can sort files by date, size and type, mass allocation and deletion is faster and more visual, and the web interface often displays files that for some reason have not been fully synced to the phone, but are already taking up space on the server.

It is also convenient to manage Find Device via the web interface, so if you have old gadgets lost on your list, you can remove them from the list of trusted devices, which sometimes helps to reset synchronization errors and free up reserved quotas for them.

⚠️ Warning: When working through a web browser, be careful with public computers.Always log out at the end of the session by clicking on the avatar and selecting "Exit" to prevent unauthorized access to your personal data.

Alternative solutions and autosynchronization settings

If 5GB isn’t enough after all the cleaning, it’s worth revising your storage strategy. Xiaomi Cloud is great for syncing settings, contacts and notes, but there are more capacious and cheaper alternatives for photos and videos in 2026, such as Google Photos (deleting), Yandex.Disk or Dropbox.

You can turn off the synchronization of the Gallery in Xiaomi Cloud and turn it on in another service, which will relieve the Xiaomi cloud, leaving it for system tasks where it is indispensable, and in the Gallery settings, you just need to switch the switch to the cloud sync to the off position.

Another option is to buy an extended tariff. Xiaomi offers 50GB, 200GB and 2TB subscriptions. For active users of the ecosystem, this may be justified, as it allows you to store full backups of multiple devices without having to constantly monitor the space.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

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Regular audit of cloud storage every six months is the best prevention of problems with space shortage and a guarantee of the safety of your data.