Owners of the Xiaomi Redmi 9 Note Pro smartphone often face a situation when built-in storage of 64 or 128 gigabytes suddenly becomes insufficient. the Android 10 operating system in the MIUI 11/12 shell takes up a significant part of the space, and the installation of modern games and messengers quickly eats up the remaining resources. Standard methods of cleaning the cache give only a temporary effect, and the user faces the question of expanding the physical amount of available memory.
Fortunately, this model supports the use of microSD cards, which opens up room for maneuver. However, unlike older versions of Android, modern Xiaomi shells do not allow you to simply press the “Move to SD” button in the settings of each application.
However, there are proven ways to get around these restrictions without obtaining superuser (Root) rights, and we will look at how to activate the forced port through ADB debugging, and analyze the risks and features of external applications, which will allow you to free up precious gigabytes of internal space for system needs and photos.
Features of the MIUI file system and the limitations of Android
Since Android 6.0, Google has introduced Adoptable Storage, which allows you to format your memory card as part of your internal storage. However, smartphone makers including Xiaomi often hide or completely block this feature. In the Redmi 9 Note Pro, the memory card defaults to portable storage mode, where you can only store media files.
The main problem lies in the optimization of the MIUI interface. The system seeks to keep frequently used applications on a fast internal UFS 2.1 memory module to provide instant response.Moving heavy games to a slower card can lead to increased loading time and periodic twitching of the interface.
⚠️ Warning: Forced transfer of system applications or critical services to Google can lead to unstable smartphone performance, up to a cyclical reboot.
However, for archive programs that you rarely use, or for heavy games with a large amount of cache, external storage is a great solution, which allows you to keep the system as a whole running, unloading the main partition.
Preparation of memory card and smartphone for work
Before you start technical manipulation, you need to make sure the quality of the drive used. For the Redmi 9 Note Pro, it is recommended to use Class 10, U3 or V30 cards. Using cheap and slow cards will cause the phone to work noticeably slower.
Insert the card into the slot, which is combined with the tray for the second SIM-Use a paper clip from the kit to remove the tray, make sure the contacts of the map and tray are clean, and the card sits tightly in the socket, and once turned on, the smartphone should automatically recognize the new media.
- 📱 Make sure your battery is over 50% before setting up.
- 💾 Format the map through the smartphone menu in compatibility format.
- 🔄 Backup important data as formatting will delete files.
- 🔌 Use the original cable to connect to your computer when working with ADB.
After the physical installation, go to Settings → About Phone → Storage. If the system suggests formatting the card, agree. Select the use case as Portable Storage, as the internal storage mode in MIUI is often hidden and requires complex manipulations with editing system files.
☑️ Checking readiness
Activation of the transfer function through ADB
To unlock the hidden portability of apps, we'll need the Android Debug Bridge (ADB) utility, which is Google's official developer tool that lets you send commands to your smartphone from your computer. Don't be afraid of the word "teams," the process is simple and safe enough if you follow the instructions.
First, you need to activate the developer mode on your Xiaomi Redmi 9 Note Pro. Go to Settings → About the phone and press 7 times in a row on the item "Version" MIUI". After the inscription “You became a developer” appears, you can switch to the connection setting.
adb shell pm set-install-location 2This command translates the preferred place to install applications to external storage: 0 returns default settings (auto), 1 returns internal memory only, 2 returns external memory. Once the command is entered, the changes take effect immediately, no reboot is required, but they may need to be reinstalled to apply to already installed programs.
The process of transferring installed applications
After activating the command via ADB, additional options may appear in the standard settings menu, but in MIUI they often remain hidden. For port management, it is most convenient to use third-party file managers or specialized ulites, such as App2SD or built-in application management tools, if they become available.
Go to Settings. → Annexes → All applications. Select the program you want to move. If the function is activated successfully, the app menu will show a button "Change" or "Move to" SD-If there is no button, then the developer of a particular application has prohibited the transfer at the level of its code (manifest attribute), and it is impossible to get around this without Root rights.
| Type of application | Recommendation on portability | Impact on speed | Risks. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Social media | Not recommended | High (brake) | High (notification failures) |
| Hard games | Recommended | Medium (long load) | Low. |
| Office programmes | Maybe. | Low. | Average. |
| System services | Forbidden. | Critical | Critical (bootloop) |
It's important to understand that not all applications are ported, that some data, especially those that require quick access, will still be stored in internal memory, that the framework and some resources will be moved to microSD, which will free up 30 to 70 percent of the amount of data that is used.
Alternative methods of vacating space
If ADB seems too complicated or risky, there are less radical ways to optimize, especially Telegram and WhatsApp, which have their own storage settings that change how you save your media and cache.
In Telegram, go to Settings → Data and Memory → Memory Use. You can limit the size of the cache or set it to automatically clean it. You can also specify a folder on the memory card in the save path settings if the application supports Android 11+ paths.
- 🗑️ Regularly clean the Downloads folder where installation files accumulate. APK.
- 📸 Set the camera to save photos and videos immediately SD-map through the settings of the camera application.
- 🎵 Download music and maps for navigation (Google Maps, Yandex.Navigator) directly to external media.
- 📺 Use streaming services instead of storing video files in your device’s memory.
Another effective method is to use the "Second Space" function or cloning apps with caution, and duplicate social media doubles your space, so only keep the accounts you actually use on a daily basis active.
⚠️ Note: When you reset your phone to the factory (Hard Reset) all data on the internal memory will be deleted, but the data on the phone will be deleted. SD-The map may be saved if you don't choose full formatting, but the ported applications will stop working and have to be reconfigured.
Possible problems and ways to solve them
When you use a smartphone with portable apps, you may encounter a number of specific problems, such as widgets that stop updating or app icons disappear from the desktop, because MIUI aggressively unloads processes from the external drive to save energy.
If the application stops running, try removing the memory card and pasting it again, or restarting the device, sometimes by re-executing the ADB command to reset installation preferences, and also making sure the memory card is not corrupted and has no file system errors.
In rare cases, after a firmware update Xiaomi settings may go wrong. Check the status of the transfer after each major system update. If you notice a strong decline in autonomy, try to return the most commonly used applications back to internal memory.