How to Clean Up Your Xiaomi Phone: The Complete Guide

Owners of Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO smartphones sooner or later face an unpleasant situation: the device starts to work slower, applications fly out, and the system persistently reports a lack of free space. Internal memory is filled not only with your photos, but also with hidden system files, remnants of remote programs and social network cache. The problem is relevant even for models with more storage, as modern applications have become “heavier”.

Freeing up space isn't just about removing a few extra songs, it's about taking a holistic approach to maintaining the MIUI or HyperOS operating system. Cleaning up the drive to extend its life and restore the interface to its responsiveness. In this article, we'll look at proven cleaning methods, from built-in tools to advanced folder techniques.

Before you start radical measures like resetting, you should try less aggressive but effective ways, which don't require root rights or a computer connection, but the main goal is to safely remove the excess while preserving important user data.

Analysis of vault occupancy

The first step is always to diagnose. You can't effectively deal with a problem without understanding what it takes gigabytes. Xiaomi's shell has a handy tool that visualizes the structure of memory. Go to Settings → Memory (or About Phone → Storage) to see a detailed diagram.

The system breaks down the data into categories: apps, images, video, audio, etc. It often turns out that the lion's share is occupied by messengers like Telegram or WhatsApp, who have been accumulating media files for years, and analysis of the structure helps to understand where the main "eater" of the place is hidden.

Note the Other section, which may contain update files, system logs, or remote game data, and if this partition takes up a suspiciously large amount, you may need to manually check the file manager.

⚠️ Warning: Do not delete files from system folders that you do not know the purpose of, which can lead to unstable interface operation or login in service applications.

For a more detailed look, you can use a standard Explorer. Open Explorer → Folders and sort them by size. Look for folders with app names you haven't used in a long time. Often there are temporary files or old backups.

Use of built-in optimizer

The easiest and safest way to clean up a Xiaomi phone is to use the regular Security app, a system tool that is deeply integrated into the shell and has access to hidden cache that is not available in normal file deletion.

Launch the app and press the Cleanup button, and the scanner will analyze the system for junk files, residual data and duplicates, a process that takes only a few seconds, but the result can be impressive — from 500 MB to several gigabytes.

Deep Clean allows you to customize the process in more detail, and you can choose the types of files to delete: APK installer packages, empty folders, large files, and rarely used applications. Autocleaning works in the background, warning of garbage accumulation.

It's important to use this tool regularly so that memory doesn't get clogged critically, because it tells you when the amount of space is going to be small, but it's better not to wait for red notifications.

Cleaning the cache of applications and messengers

Social media and instant messengers are the main culprits for space shortages: Telegram, WhatsApp, Viber and TikTok store every photo and video you view into your device’s memory, and over time, these files turn into gigabytes of useless ballast.

To clear the cache of a particular application, go to Settings → Apps → All apps. Select the program you want (like Telegram) and find Memory. Here you will see two buttons: Clear cache and Clear everything.

Use the Clear Cache button.** This will delete temporary files, but save your logins, passwords and correspondence.The Clear All button will reset the application to a post-installing state, which will require re-authorization.

The messengers themselves also have built-in cleaning tools, like Telegram, you go to Settings → Data and Memory → Memory Use, where you can set up autodelete the cache and manually clean it from the comfort of the application, which is often more effective than system cleaning.

Work with Gallery and Cloud Services

Media files are the most space-consuming of most users. High-resolution photos and 4K videos eat up space quickly. Before you delete them permanently, consider moving them to the cloud.

Xiaomi Cloud or alternatives like Google Photos and Yandex.Disk allow you to store media files remotely, and once you upload the originals to the cloud, you can use the Free Space feature, which will delete local copies by leaving a preview in the gallery.

Don't forget to check the Recycle Bin folder in the gallery. Deleted photos often stay there for 30 days, continuing to take up space. Cleaning the Recycle Bin is a must-do step to actually free up space.

And you also have to look at the DCIM →.thumbnails folder, which stores gallery thumbnails, and sometimes this folder grows to giant sizes, and you can safely delete it through the file manager, and the system will recreate it if you need it, but it's smaller.

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Use the Compressed Photos mode on Google Photos or similar services, which will allow you to store thousands of photos for free, taking up minimal space on the device itself.

Removal of duplicates and large files

When you use a smartphone, you often create copies of files, which can happen when you download the same documents from different sources or when you fail to save them, and it's difficult to find and delete them manually, but it's possible.

The Explorer or Files app often has a duplicate search function, and if it doesn't, you can use size sorting, sort all the files in memory by size, and the heaviest ones will be at the top of the list.

Often, forgotten movies, archives, or game installation files are at the top. Check the Download folder. APK-files that have already been installed.

Removing duplicates is a safe operation, but be careful. If you see two identical files with different names in different folders, make sure they are indeed copies, not important system files with a changed name (although this is rare for custom folders).

Removal of unnecessary applications and their residues

Applications you don't use must be removed, but standard deletion doesn't always remove all traces of the program. Residual files may lie at the root of internal memory or in the Android/data folder.

To find these tails, you can use specialized analyzer utilities available in the Play Market, or manually check the contents of folders with the names of remote programs, often leaving error logs or temporary settings.

Notice the pre-installed apps (bloatware) that come bundled with your phone. Many of them can be disabled or removed through Settings → Apps. This will not only free up space, but also reduce the load on the processor.

⚠️ Be careful when removing system applications from Google or Xiaomi. Disabling important services may disrupt notifications, geolocation or app store.

If you're an avid gamer, check the folders with the game cache. Sometimes, after you delete the game, the cache (folders with the name of the developer or game) remains dead weight.

Additional methods and advice

There are more subtle settings that will help keep order, such as disabling auto-save statuses on WhatsApp or automatically uploading videos to Telegram, which will prevent the accumulation of garbage in the future.

Regularly restarting your smartphone is also helpful, clearing your RAM and removing temporary system files that may have been stuck. Do this at least once a week.

If nothing helps and the memory fills up on its own, there may be a problem with the file system, in which case formatting the internal drive may help, but this is an extreme measure requiring a full backup of data.

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Regular prevention takes less time than battling overflowing memory: set up automatic cleaning and sleep well.

Using SD cards (if the model supports) also solves the problem, allowing you to transfer photos, videos and music to the card, leaving the internal memory fast and free for the system and applications.