Owners of Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO smartphones often face situations where internal storage is overflowing and the system insists on freeing up space. One of the most effective measures is to clean up deleted files that don’t really disappear immediately after clicking the “Delete” button. The MIUI operating system and the new HyperOS implement a “Basket” mechanism that saves deleted objects for 30 days, taking up precious gigabytes of memory.
Many users mistakenly believe that deleting a photo or document permanently erases them from the device, but this only moves the file to a hidden partition. To really free up space, you need to manually clean this buffer. In this article, we will detail how to find and clean the basket in standard applications, gallery and file managers on Xiaomi devices.
The cleaning procedure may vary slightly depending on the shell version and the application, but the general principle remains the same for the entire ecosystem. It is important to understand that once completely cleaned, it will not be possible to restore data with standard means, so make sure that important information is not available before the final deletion.
The principle of the basket in MIUI and HyperOS
The Android security system, coupled with the shell from Xiaomi, provides protection against accidental data loss. When you delete a file, it is moved to a special hidden folder, where it can be stored for up to 30 days, which is given to the user for a “respite” to return a mistakenly deleted photo or document.
⚠️ Attention: Files in the bin take up space on the internal drive just like normal data. If you run out of memory, cleaning the cart is the first thing you need to do.
It's important to note that there's no single system basket for the entire phone, and every application, whether it's Gallery, Explorer or Browser, has its own isolated buffer of deleted files, so you'll need to go through each of them separately to clean the device completely.
The newer versions of HyperOS have optimized memory algorithms, but the principle of temporary storage has remained the same, and some users have noticed that after cleaning the Recycle Bin in the Gallery, space is not immediately vacated, which is normal, since the system takes time to recalculate the file system indexes.
Cleaning the basket in the Gallery appendix
The largest partition where digital garbage accumulates is the media library. Deleted photos and videos can take up a significant amount of memory, especially if you shot in high-resolution 4K or RAW format. To clear this partition, open the standard Gallery app.
Go to the bottom tab of Albums and scroll down to the very end. There you will find Deleted. When you click on it, you will see all files that have been deleted in the last 30 days. Access to the management functions may require authorization to Mi Account or fingerprint confirmation.
- 📸 Open the “Deleted” section to view all hidden files.
- 🗑️ Click “Clean” in the upper right corner to remove all contents completely.
- ✅ Select specific photos for selective removal or restoration.
- 🔄 Use the Restore button if you need to return the file to its place.
Once confirmed, the system will warn you that recovery is not possible, which is critical because the only way to recover data after that is through complex root-rights data recovery procedures, which does not guarantee success.
☑️ Check before cleaning the Gallery
Delete files from Explorer and Downloads
The second most popular remote object cluster is the standard file manager, which, depending on the version of MIUI, can be called Explorer or Files, and which stores deleted documents, APK installation packages, and archives.
To clean up, open the app and go to the Categories tab or immediately look for the Recycle Bin icon at the top of the screen (often looks like a crossed-out garbage can). In some versions of the interface, click on the three-dot menu and select the appropriate item.
Inside, you'll see a list of deleted files sorted by date, and there's also a 30-day rule, and if you deleted a file a week ago, it'll stay here for another 23 days, taking up space, and the mass deletion here is done in a similar way to a gallery, either through the Clear button or selective deletion.
| File type | Average size | Where it's stored | Storage period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Photo (JPG/HEIC) | 2-5 MB | gallery | 30 days |
| Video (MP4) | 50-500 MB | Gallery/Files | 30 days |
| Documents (PDF) | 1-10 MB | Conductor | 30 days |
| Archives (ZIP) | 10-100 MB | Conductor | 30 days |
The Downloads folder is worth mentioning separately. Files deleted from there also end up in the Explorer bin. If you download files from the Internet often, check this section regularly, as temporary files can accumulate very quickly.
What to do if the “Clean” button is not active?
Cleaning the cart in Google Photos and the Cloud
Many Xiaomi users use sync with Google services, in which case deleted photos may be in the basket of Google Photos cloud storage, not just in the memory of the phone. This is important to consider, since cloud overflow can also block the creation of new backups.
Open the Google Photos app, go to the Library section and select Recycle Bin. This is where files are stored for 60 days if you have a Google One subscription, or 30 days for standard accounts. Clean up here is done by the Clean Recycle Bin button in the top right corner.
It’s important to understand the difference: Deleting photos from your Google Shopping Bin will free up space in your Google account, but it won’t necessarily change the memory stats on the device if the originals have already been deleted from your phone. However, if the photos are only stored in the cloud (Saving Space feature), cleaning the cart is critical.
- ☁️ Open Google Photos and go to the Library.
- 🗑️ Select the item "Basket" in the list of utilities.
- 👆 Click “Select” for manual sorting or “Clean the basket».
- 🔒 Confirm the action by entering a password or using biometrics.
⚠️ Attention: Deleting Google Photos from the Recycle Bin permanently erases data from Google servers.
Specificity of cleaning in messengers (WhatsApp, Telegram)
Messengers create their own local copies of deleted files. WhatsApp, for example, has its own media basket that works independently of the system, and to clear it, you need to go to the chat settings or the Data and Storage section.
Telegram is similar, but it’s also worth paying attention to cache.While it’s not exactly a shopping cart, clearing the Telegram cache often frees up more space than deleting specific files. Go to Settings → Data and memory → Memory Use and click Clear Cache.
For WhatsApp, the path will be: Settings → Data & Storage → Storage Management. Here you will see the files that take up the most space and you will be able to delete them, including those that were deleted in chats but remained in the application database.
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Use Xiaomi’s built-in Security app, which automatically finds large files in instant messengers and prompts them to be cleaned, often more effective than manual sorting.
Using the “Security” application for deep cleaning
Xiaomi smartphones are pre-installed with the system application Security, which is a powerful tool for memory management, and it can find the remnants of deleted files that may have been lost in system folders.
Start the app, select Clean up. The system will scan the device and prompt you to remove the garbage. Note that standard cleaning does not always affect the Gallery basket, so this method should be used as an additional method, not the main one.
In the Deep Cleanup section, you can find large files, duplicates, and rarely used applications, which is a great way to address memory shortages after cleaning the trash.
If you use the "Second Space" function, be sure to check the shopping cart there. Files deleted in the second profile are stored in its isolated shopping cart and do not appear in the main profile.
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Comprehensive cleaning includes not only the Gallery basket, but also the messenger cache, as well as temporary files of the system conductor.