How to Free Your Xiaomi Phone Memory: The Complete Guide

Owners of Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO smartphones often face an unpleasant situation when internal storage is overflowing, and the system insists on freeing up space. This leads to a slowdown in the interface, the inability to install new applications and even to freeze the device. In the MIUI operating system or its new version of HyperOS, the accumulation of junk files occurs quite quickly due to aggressive caching and the peculiarities of messengers.

There are many ways to manage space efficiently, from built-in cleaning tools to manually removing system logs. It is important to understand that simply deleting photos does not always solve the problem, since a significant portion of the volume is often occupied by hidden data and duplicates. In this article, we will discuss proven methods that will help you return gigabytes of free space and speed up the work of the gadget.

Before embarking on radical measures such as resetting settings, it's worth trying less disruptive optimization techniques: Proper file organization and regular prevention will avoid critical /data partition overflow. Let's look at the main areas of work for cleaning a smartphone.

Analysis of vault occupancy

The first step to freeing up space is to understand what exactly is taking up your storage capacity. Android and MIUI shells provide quite detailed statistics, but sometimes it may not be obvious to the average user. You need to go to the settings menu and find the partition responsible for the state of the device.

To do this, go to Settings → About Phone → Storage. Here you will see a color diagram where different colors are marked apps, images, video, audio, etc. Special attention should be paid to the category “Other” or “System files”, since this is often where gigabytes of temporary data are hidden, which can be safely deleted.

⚠️ Note: Do not delete files in the root folders of the system manually through the file manager, if you are not sure of their purpose, as this can lead to malfunction of the operating system.

Modern firmware versions can automatically sort files by type, but for deeper analysis, it is better to use specialized utilities, which show not only the size of the folders, but also the date of the last file change, which helps to find forgotten downloads.

Use of the built-in “Cleanup” application

The easiest and safest way to start the fight for megabytes is to use the standard Security app, which is preinstalled on every Xiaomi device, a tool developed by the company’s engineers specifically to maintain the system and delete temporary files without affecting important user data.

Launch the app and click on the large green Clean Up button. The system will scan and suggest removing the cache, deleted app residues and advertising files. However, standard cleaning is often superficial. For a deeper analysis, click on the Garbage icon inside the app and then select Clean Deeper.

In deep cleaning mode, you can see large files, duplicate images, and rarely used applications. The large file cleaner feature allows you to find videos that weigh more than 50 MB that you might have forgotten in your download folder or received in your messenger. It's one of the most effective ways to quickly get a few gigabytes of free space.

• 📱 Click on the Apps tab at the bottom of the cleaner screen to see a list of programs taking up the most space.
• 🗑️ Select the app and click Clear Cache to delete temporary files without touching your account’s personal details.
• 📸 Use the Similar Photos tool to find and remove repetitive images left over from the serial shoot.

Regular use of this tool, at least once a week, will help keep the system on track, and you should not ignore the notifications about the accumulation of garbage, which periodically appear in the notification curtain.

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Set up automatic cleanup in the Security app so that the phone deletes temporary files when the free space drops below 10%.

Cleaning the cache of messengers and social networks

The leaders in memory consumption on any smartphone, including Xiaomi Mi and Redmi Note, are always messengers. Telegram, WhatsApp, Viber and Instagram store every picture, video and voice message viewed in the cache of the device. Over time, this folder can reach tens of gigabytes.

The most common mistake users make is trying to clear the cache through Android settings, which often leads to logging out or losing settings. The best way to use built-in cleaning tools inside the applications themselves. For example, on Telegram you need to go to Settings → Data and memory → Memory Use and click “Clear Cache”.

On WhatsApp, the situation is similar: go to Settings → Data and Storage → Storage Management. Here you will see a list of chats, sorted by volume. You can selectively delete media from specific dialogues without deleting the correspondence itself, this is especially true for group chats, where heavy videos are constantly being sent.

It is important to note that clearing the cache does not delete your private messages or contacts, it only erases downloaded media files that can be re-downloaded if necessary. However, if you delete the application data (not the cache, but the data), the entire correspondence history will be lost without the possibility of recovery, if a backup was not made.

⚠️ Before clearing the application data, make sure you remember your account password and back up your chats to the cloud (Google Drive or iCloud).

Working with the “Other” folder and system files

One of the most puzzling categories for MIUI users is the Other section, which places files that you can't automatically identify, as well as data from running applications, browser cache, and temporary update files, which is often inflated to enormous proportions.

To reduce the volume of this folder, the first thing you need to do is clear the browser cache. If you use Chrome or the built-in Mi Browser browser, go to their settings and find "History" or "Privacy." Clearing cookies and image cache can free up from 500 MB to 2 GB of space.

Also in the folder “Other” often get files updates system that have already been installed, but not deleted, they may be in hidden directories, access to which requires the rights of the superuser Root, obtaining which on modern Xiaomi devices is difficult and not recommended to ordinary users due to the risk of loss of warranty.

The safest way to use file managers with analysis features like Files by Google or Total Commander, which allow you to visually estimate the size of folders and find forgotten archives or documents you downloaded months ago. Remember to check the Bluetooth folder, where you often automatically save your received files.

Removal of duplicates and large files

Over time, the smartphone gallery accumulates a lot of identical photos, which can be due to failures in sync with the cloud, re-saving screenshots or simply inattention of the user, duplicates take up precious space that can be used for new shots.

The MIUI gallery has a feature for finding similar photos, but it doesn't always work perfectly. You'd better use third-party apps or the cleaning tool I mentioned above. When you delete serial shots, leave only the best shots, and send blurry or unsuccessful versions to the cart.

Video files are worth a special attention. Videos at 4K resolution or 1080p/60fps are huge. Go through the DCIM/Camera and WhatsApp/Media/WhatsApp Video folder. Often you will find long videos that are no longer valuable, but weigh 100-200 MB each.

• 🎥 Sort files by size to see the heaviest objects right away.
• 📂 Check the Download download folder, there are often game installers and documents that are no longer needed.
• 📞 Don’t forget to check the recorder, if you use it to record lectures or meetings, these files can weigh a lot.

After deleting files, remember to clear the recycle bin in the gallery and file manager. As long as the files are in the recycle bin, they continue to take up space on your device. In MIUI, the files in the recycle bin are stored for 30 days, then deleted automatically, but it is better to do this manually right away.

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Regular file sorting by size and date is the fastest way to find hidden memory reserves without installing additional software.

Optimization through Developer and ADB settings

For advanced users who want to make the most of their Xiaomi, there are deeper cleaning methods, which require a computer connection and the use of the ADB (Android Debug Bridge) toolkit, which allows you to remove system applications and cache that are not available through the normal interface.

To start, activate Developer Mode. Go to Settings → About Phone and quickly click 7 times on MIUI Version (or OS Version). Then, in the Developer Menu that appears, turn on USB Debugging.

Connecting your phone to your PC can be a command to clear the cache of all applications at once, but be careful: improper use of ADB commands can lead to unstable system operation.

adb shell pm trim-caches 999999999

This command instructs the system to trim cache files across all packages to free up space, targeting a specific amount of free space (in this case, a very large number to force maximum cleaning).

⚠️ Attention: Use of teams ADB Type commands carefully when checking syntax, as an error can result in the removal of important system components.

You can also limit background processes in the developer settings, which indirectly helps the system run faster, although it does not free up physical space on the disk. Find the "Limit of background processes" option and select "No more than 2 processes".

Transferring data to the cloud and external media

If internal memory is physically scarce, the smartest solution is to move the data archives to external storage.Modern Xiaomi smartphones often lack a microSD card slot, so cloud technology is no alternative.

Google Photos allows you to store unlimited photos in compressed quality (or original, if you have a subscription), set up automatic upload and enable the Free Space feature, which will remove from the device those photos that are already saved in the cloud.

Alternatively, Xiaomi Cloud or third-party services like Yandex Disk and Telegram (using the Save channel as unlimited storage) can also help keep your smartphone light.

Keep in mind that storing data in the cloud requires a stable Internet connection. So before you go to places with poor communication coverage, make sure that the necessary files are stored locally. Balance between local storage and the cloud is the key to comfortable use of your smartphone.