How to Clean RAM on Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus: The Complete 2026 Guide

Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus (codename vince) is still a popular budget smartphone, but its 3 GB of RAM is often clogged with background processes. If your device slows down, applications spontaneously close or the system gives a notification “Not enough memory”, the problem lies in overloaded RAM. Unlike the new models with 6-8 GB of RAM, on the Redmi 5 Plus, every megabyte is on the account – especially if you use heavy messengers like Telegram X or games like Genshin Impact.

In this article, we’ll look at 7 proven ways to clean RAM, from standard MIUI features to hidden developer settings. Importantly, the methods will work for Redmi 5 Plus on any firmware version (including MIUI 12/13/14), but some tricks will require activation of Developer Mode. No root access or complex manipulations, only safe and reversible actions.

1. Built-in RAM cleaning in MIUI

The easiest way is to use the built-in MIUI tool to free up memory, which closes the background processes, but does not delete the application cache (this is a separate procedure).

How it works:

• 🔄 Open the Settings. → Annexes → Clean (or click on the Brush icon in the notification bar).
• 📱 In the RAM section, click Clean – the system will show how much memory is freed up (usually 200-500 MB on a loaded device).
• ⚡ For quick access, add the “Cleanup” widget to the main screen: press your finger in a free place. → Widgets → find MIUI Cleaner.

⚠️ Attention: This method is temporary - in 10-15 minutes the background processes will start again.

2. Manual stop of background processes

Many apps (especially social networks and instant messengers) continue to work in the background even after closing, they can be forcibly stopped, this will free up to 1-1.5 GB of RAM.

Instructions:

1. Go to Settings → Applications → Application Management.
2. Select an app (like Facebook or Instagram) → click Forced Stop.
3. For a mass stop, use Settings → Battery and Performance → Battery Management → Application Selection → Set the “Limit Background Activity” mode.

💡 Tip: Don’t stop system processes with the names com.android. or miui.

3. set up auto-cleaning memory in MIUI

MIUI has a hidden function to automatically clean the RAM when the screen is locked, and by default it is disabled, but its activation reduces the load on the system.

How to turn on:

1. Activate Developer Mode: Settings → About Phone → 7 times click on the MIUI version.
2. Back to Settings → Additionally. → For developers.
3. Find the option to Clear Memory When Locking (or Limit background processes) and set the "Standard Limit" value.

⚠️ Note: If notifications from messengers stop coming after auto-cleaning is enabled, add these applications to the “Exceptions” via Settings → Battery → Battery management.

4. Cleaning the application cache and system

Cache takes up internal memory, not RAM, but overflow indirectly affects performance, and when the cache grows to 3-5 GB, the system begins to slow down when you open applications.

How to clean:

• 🧹 For a separate application: Settings → Annexes → [Select an application] → Warehouse → Clear the cache.
• 🗑️ For all applications at once: Settings → Warehouse → Clear (in the section "Cached data»).
• 🔧 To clean the system cache: use MIUI Cleaner (Brush icon in the application menu) → Deep cleaning → Systemic debris.

📌 Important: After cleaning the cache, apps will load longer when they first run (like YouTube or Google Maps), but then work stabilizes.

5. Optimize MIUI with Hidden Settings

MIUI has hidden parameters that reduce the consumption of RAM by turning off visual effects and animations, which does not clean the memory directly, but reduces the load on the system.

What can be turned off:

Settings → Additional → For developers → Windows:


- The scale of window animation: Off.




- Transition animation scale: Off.




Duration of animation: No animation





Settings → Screen → Screen resolution:




Install HD (1440×720) instead of Full HD+ (if not critical)

🔍 Effect: These changes reduce RAM usage by 100-300MB by reducing the load on the Adreno 509 GPU.

💡

If the interface has become “twitchy” after disabling animations, return the animation scale to 0.5x – this is a compromise between smoothness and performance.

6. Use of third-party optimizers (with caution!)

There are hundreds of RAM cleaning apps on Google Play, but most of them are either useless or harmful. We tested 3 safe options that actually work on the Redmi 5 Plus:

⚠️ Note: Do not install "optimizers" like Clean Master or DU Speed Booster – they consume RAM themselves and show false notifications about the “critical state” of memory.

7.Extreme measures: reset to factory settings

If nothing works and there is less than 500MB of free memory, it may be infected with viruses or overloaded with unnecessary services, in which case hard reset will help.

How to make the reset safely:

1. Create a backup: Settings → Additional → Backup and Reset → Local backup.
2. Go to Settings → About the phone → Reset settings.
3. Select to erase all data (reset to factory).
4. After the reboot, restore the data from the backup (but don’t restore the applications – install only the ones you need manually).

After resetting on the Redmi 5 Plus, up to 1.2-1.5 GB of RAM is released by removing background services and cache, but this method should only be used as a last resort.

💡

Factory reset is the only way to completely remove viruses and system debris, but it erases all data. Always back up before reset!

FAQ: Frequent questions about cleaning RAM on Redmi 5 Plus