Xiaomi and Redmi smartphone owners often face a situation where the device starts to work slower and free space on the drive disappears rapidly. The main reason for this phenomenon is the accumulation of temporary files, residual records and bloated cache in installed programs. MIUI has its own features of working with memory, which require the user to understand the cleaning processes to maintain high performance of the gadget.
Unlike simply rebooting or removing rarely used software, deep cleaning of these applications allows you to eliminate software errors and return performance. Many users confuse the concepts of “clean the cache” and “erase the data”, which can lead to the loss of important information such as logins, passwords or game progress. In this article, we will discuss in detail the safe methods of freeing up space and optimizing the operation of the operating system.
Regular maintenance of internal memory of the smartphone is not just a way to free up gigabytes, but also a necessary prevention of crashes. RAM and permanent storage require attention, especially if you are actively using messengers, social networks and navigators. The right approach to file management will allow your Redmi to work as fast as on the day of purchase.
Difference Between Cache Cleanup and Complete Data Reset
Before you start taking action on your smartphone settings, you need to clearly understand the difference between the two main types of cleaning: cache is a temporary file that the application creates to speed up the loading of frequently used content. This can be thumbnails of images, temporary scripts or fragments of web pages. Cache deletion is safe and does not affect your personal settings or accounts.
On the other hand, Clear Data (or Delete Data) returns the application to its state immediately after installation. Full reset removes all user settings, authorization tokens, saved games and local program files. If you decide to take this step for a messenger like Telegram or Viber without prior backup, you will lose all the history of correspondence.
⚠️ Before performing a complete data cleanup of any application, make sure you have an up-to-date backup of important information in the cloud or on your computer.
The method you choose depends on your goal. If the application is just slow or takes up too much space, start by clearing the cache. If the program is not working properly, crashes, or you want to completely remove traces of its use, then a data reset is used. In the Android system, which runs MIUI, these functions are separated for the security of user information.
It is important to note that some system applications can take up a significant amount of memory due to the sprawling update cache. Periodic cleaning of services such as Google Play Store or Gallery can significantly improve interface response. However, be careful with system components, deleting the data can lead to resetting the settings of the entire phone.
Standard cleaning methods through MIUI settings
The MIUI Operating Shell provides users with powerful built-in memory management tools that are often more effective than third-party solutions. To access detailed information about each application, you need to go to the device settings menu, a path that is universal for all Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO models.
To start, open the Settings section and find the App item. In some firmware versions, it may be called All Apps or have an icon as a square with internal elements. It displays a complete list of installed software, sorted by frequency of use or amount of space occupied. Selecting a sort by size helps you quickly find heavyweights, consuming your storage.
Selecting a specific app from the list will take you to the About App screen, where the Warehouse button is available, and clicking on it will reveal detailed statistics that will separate the size of the app itself, user data and cache, and that's where the two key control buttons are: Clear Cache and Clear Everything (or Erase Data).
☑️ Manual cleaning algorithm
Use Clear Everything only if you are sure that losing your app settings won’t be harmful. For social media, it means re-authorizing; for gaming, it means losing progress if it’s not saved in the cloud; for navigators, it means removing offline maps that you’ll have to download again.
And you can also see how much space a user's data takes up, and it's often the data that inflates the size of an application to a few gigabytes, for example, in messengers, it's the history of correspondence and the media they receive, in browsers, it's the saved pages and the download history, and regular monitoring of this partition helps keep the system clean.
Use of the built-in "Security" application
Every Xiaomi smartphone has a Security app installed out of the box, which is the central node for optimizing the device, not only protects against viruses, but also provides convenient tools for quickly cleaning up garbage.
When you first run the Cleanup section, the system will analyze the file system and suggest removing what's called garbage. The analysis algorithm scans folders with temporary files, remnants of deleted applications and the advertising cache. The process takes only a few seconds and usually allows you to free up from 100 MB to several gigabytes of space.
However, standard cleaning is often superficial. For a deeper analysis, click on the Garbage icon or go to the appropriate section within the app. Here you will find categories of files that can be safely deleted: thumbnails, temporary files, empty folders. The system itself marks safe to remove items, but the user can manually select additional categories.
⚠️ Note: Be careful when cleaning the category “Large Files” or “Recent” so that you do not accidentally delete important documents or photos that you recently downloaded.
The Security app also offers a deep cleaning feature that analyzes the content of instant messengers, which lets you see how much space is occupied by photos and videos in WhatsApp, Viber or Telegram chats, and remove them selectively, which is much more convenient than searching files manually through a Explorer, since the structure of the messenger folders can be confusing.
Why does the cleaning not free up the expected amount of space?
This is recommended once a week or when notifications of space shortages appear, and regular use of built-in MIUI tools prevents critical memory filling, which can lead to an interface freeze or inability to install updates.
Cleaning up data in popular messengers
Messengers are the main memory consumers on modern smartphones. WhatsApp, Telegram, Viber and Instagram store every photo and video you receive into the device’s local memory, even if you’ve already viewed them in chat. Over time, the folders of these applications can grow to tens of gigabytes, taking up the lion’s share of available space.
Telegram is most elegantly handled by the cloud nature of the service, where you can set up automatic cache deletion in the app settings, Data and Memory, for example, set up a cleanup of media files if they haven't opened for more than 3 days, and this allows you to use all the functions of the messenger without clogging your phone's memory, since the history of correspondence is stored on the server.
WhatsApp takes a different approach: it stores all files locally. To clean up, go to Settings → Data and Storage → Storage Management. Here you will see a list of chats sorted by space you occupy. You can select a specific dialog and delete only heavy videos or files, leaving text messages intact.
| messenger | Where to look for a cleanup | What's removed | Risks. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Telegram | Settings → Data and memory | Cash media files | Low (files in the cloud) |
| Settings → Storage | Photos, videos, documents | Medium (removal from chat) | |
| Viber | More. → Memory. | Multimedia cash | Medium (sync needed) |
| Phone settings → Cash | Temporary files | Low (entry required) |
Viber also has a built-in cleaning tool available through the “More” menu, which allows you to delete cache and temporary files, as well as view the largest chats.
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Turn on the “Autodelete” function in the Telegram and WhatsApp settings so that the application gets rid of old files by itself, freeing up space without your participation.
Regularly checking the storage of messengers should become a habit. Often users are surprised to find that one chat with videos takes up 5 GB of memory.
Working with Android folder and system garbage
In the newer versions of Android (11 and above), access to the Android and obb system folder is restricted to third-party applications for security purposes. However, Xiaomi’s built-in Explorer or special permissions file managers still allow for revision.
Special attention should be paid to the obb folder, where additional files of heavy games are stored. If you delete the game, but the folder with its data remains, it will take up useless space, checking this directory allows you to find "orphaned" files from long-deleted applications that were not deleted correctly.
Also at the root of internal memory, there are often folders with remote application names or strange lettering, which are leftovers from various services. Before deleting these folders, make sure they do not belong to actively used programs. System debris can accumulate for years if it is not checked periodically.
Use the Analyzer feature in the standard MIUI Explorer. It visualizes occupied space by showing a diagram of file distribution by type, which helps you quickly find forgotten downloads, large archives or duplicate photos that can also be classified as garbage.
⚠️ Note: Do not delete files and folders that you do not know the purpose of, especially if they are in system partitions.
For advanced users, it is possible to connect a smartphone to a computer and perform manual cleaning through the PC file manager, which gives a broader view of the file structure and allows you to move large amounts of data to an external medium faster.
Automation and additional cleaning tools
To avoid manual cleaning, you can set up process automation. The Security app has a Schedule feature that allows you to set time for automatic garbage cleaning and virus checks. The smartphone will perform maintenance at a predetermined time, such as at night when the device is not in use.
Also worth considering is the use of cloud services to unload internal memory. Google Photos, Yandex.Disk or Xiaomi cloud storage allows you to upload media files to the Internet and delete local copies of them. Google Photos’ “Free space” function does this automatically, leaving only thumbnails or recent pictures on the device.
For users who lack standard tools, there are alternative file managers, such as Files by Google or Total Commander, which offer more flexible tools to find duplicates, large files and residual debris.
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The best cleaning strategy is a combination of automatic messaging settings and weekly manual storage checks through built-in MIUI tools.
Remember that overcrowded memory affects not only the speed of the drive, but also the life of the drive. Constant recording and overwriting data in the absence of free space accelerates the wear of flash memory. So maintaining at least 15-20% of free space is not only a matter of comfort, but also the durability of the device.