How to Clean Android and Free Memory on Xiaomi Redmi

Xiaomi Redmi smartphones are known for their excellent value for money, but even powerful devices are slowing down over time. The main reason for the decline in performance and lag is often crowded internal storage. When the space runs out, the Android operating system cannot correctly create the temporary files necessary for performance.

Owners of Redmi Note and Redmi Pro devices often face a situation when the phone stops accepting updates or new applications, and the camera is running with delays. These are direct signals that an urgent file system revision is needed. In this article, we will discuss in detail the proven cleaning methods that will help return the device to its previous speed.

There are many ways to free up gigabytes of space, from using built-in utilities to manually removing hidden debris. The Other system partition in Xiaomi storage can take up to 20GB if not cleaned in time. Let's take a look at where to start optimizing your gadget right now.

Use of the built-in "Security" application

The easiest and safest way to start cleaning is to use the standard tool preinstalled in the MIUI or HyperOS shell. The Security app has access to system files that are not available to third-party cleaners, and can delete the cache without risking damage to the OS. Launch the program and click on the Cleanup button to scan the device.

After analysis, the system will suggest removing temporary files, remnants of deleted applications and advertising debris. However, do not blindly trust the automation: carefully review the list of files before confirming an action. Sometimes, the category "Junk" can fall into the thumbnail of photos or important logs of working applications.

Special attention is paid to the Deep Clean section, where you can find and remove duplicate photos, old screenshots and rarely used programs, and this feature is especially useful for models with low memory, such as the Redmi 9A or Redmi 10C.

• 📱 Click on the “Security” icon on your desktop.
• 🗑️ Select “Clean” and wait for the scan to be completed.
• ✅ Confirm the removal of proposed files or select specific categories manually.
• ⚙️ Go to the Deep Clean section to find large files and duplicates.

💡

Run a full check through the Security app periodically, but don’t use third-party accelerators from the Play Market, as they often contain ads and can slow down the system.

Manual cleaning of cache and application data

Social networks and instant messengers occupy the largest amount of space in modern smartphones. Telegram, WhatsApp, Instagram and TikTok store every video and image viewed in local memory. Over time, the cache of such applications can reach tens of gigabytes, which critically affects the free space.

To free up memory, you need to go to the settings of each heavy application separately. Go through the Settings → Applications → All applications, find the desired program and select Memory. Here you will see two buttons: Clear cache and Clear everything.

⚠️ Note: When you select the Clean All option (or Delete Data) you will log out of your account in the app and all local settings will reset. Use this feature only if you want to completely reinstall the app or if it doesn't work properly.

For instant messengers, it's better to use built-in cleaning tools to keep your correspondence history intact. On Telegram, this is done through Settings → Data and Memory → Memory Use → Clear cache. This allows you to free up space while retaining access to all chats.

Storage analysis and removal of large files

Often users forget about downloaded files that have been dead for months, such as APK installation packages, forgotten movies, archives or documents, and can be found and deleted by an integrated storage analyzer or file manager.

The standard File Manager has a handy sorting by type and size. Go to Documents or Downloads and sort the list by size. Files over 100MB that you no longer need should be ruthlessly deleted.

It's also worth checking the DCIM →.thumbnails folder. In this hidden directory, the system stores thumbnails of your photos for quick viewing in the gallery. If you deleted thousands of photos but the memory didn't free up, the problem could be right here. This folder can be as big as a few gigabytes.

Working with cloud services and Google Photos

The modern memory management approach on Xiaomi Redmi is based on the use of cloud technologies. Google Photos allows you to store original images in the cloud, freeing up space on the device.

To activate the function, you need to enable sync in your Google account settings. Once all photos are uploaded to the server, use the Free Space feature in the app menu, which automatically deletes from your phone those photos and videos that have already been saved in the cloud.

A similar mechanism works in the branded cloud Xiaomi Cloud, but the amount of free storage there is limited. For the main dataset, it is better to use Google Drive or Yandex Disk, setting up automatic upload of photos and videos over Wi-Fi.

• ☁️ Open the Google Photos app.
• 👤 Click on the profile avatar in the upper right corner.
• 💾 Select the item "Free the place».
• ✅ Confirm the removal of local copies of already uploaded files.

Cleaning the “Other” folder in the storage

One of the most puzzling problems Redmi owners have is the inflating of the category “Other” in the memory settings, which can take up the lion’s share of space, and standard methods of cleaning it can not always be possible, hiding the remains of remote games, cache streaming services and system logs.

To combat this, you can use the built-in cleaning feature in the Security app, but it's not always effective. A more effective method is to find the source of the garbage manually. Often the heavyweights are cached data from YouTube, Spotify or browsers.

If automatic cleaning doesn’t work, you can try to clean up your Media Storage system data. Go to Settings → Apps → Show all processes → Media Storage → Memory → Clean everything. After that, the phone can “think” for a few minutes by re-indexing files, but the DOther partition size should decrease.

⚠️ Warning: After cleaning up Media Storage data, recreate the thumbnails of photos in the gallery, at which point the phone can noticeably heat up and run slower - this is a normal indexing process.

💡

The Other section is most often inflated by the cache of streaming services and residual files of remote games - check them first.

Memory map and data transfer

If your Xiaomi internal memory is critically small, the best solution is to install a microSD card. While modern versions of Android do not allow you to transfer the apps themselves to the map (with rare exceptions), you can free up internal storage by transferring all media files there.

Photos, videos, music and documents safely move to an external medium. To do this, select the desired folders in the file manager (for example, select the necessary folders, DCIM, Music, Download, select Move and point the way to SD-This will instantly free up gigabytes of space.

In addition, in the camera settings, you can specify the saving of new images immediately to the memory card. Go to the camera settings, find the item "Save on the memory card". SD-This will prevent the internal memory from overflowing in the future.

Radical measures: reset to factory settings

When none of these methods yield the desired result and the phone continues to work slowly, the last option is a complete reset. Formatting will return the Redmi smartphone to the state of “out of the box”, removing absolutely all user debris, viruses and system errors.

Before starting the procedure, make sure to create a full backup of the data. You can use Mi Cloud, Google Drive or just copy important files to your computer. After the reset, you can restore the information from the created copy.

To perform the reset, go to Settings → About Phone → Settings Reset → Erase all data. The process will take 5 to 15 minutes. Once turned on, you will get a clean system with maximum free memory.

Settings → About the phone → Reset settings → Erase all data

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)