Xiaomi’s smartphones are famous for their performance and rich functionality, but even the most powerful devices can slow down over time. Users often face a situation where the interface begins to slow down, applications open longer than usual, and games suddenly fly out. One of the main reasons for this behavior is overflow of RAM, or RAM.
In Android, and especially in the MIUI shell or the new HyperOS, resource management works by its own rules. Many gadget owners mistakenly believe that the constant forced cleaning of memory through embedded utilities is always useful. However, modern memory manager is more complex, and blind adherence to myths can lead to the opposite effect - reducing overall autonomy and speed.
In this article, we’ll explore how to really free up resources efficiently, which system features are worth activating, and which actions are best to refrain from, and learn about the hidden power of the engineering menu and how to use the built-in optimizer to keep your phone flying again.
Understanding the operation of RAM in MIUI
Before we take decisive action to clean up, we need to understand how RAM (Random Access Memory) works in the Xiaomi ecosystem. Unlike computers where free memory is considered a sign of a system’s health, in Android mobile OS, full RAM is often the norm. The system specifically keeps frequently used applications in memory so that they run instantly, rather than being rebooted from the drive, which would require more energy and time.
The MIUI shell has an aggressive back-end control mechanism that can sometimes be redundant. When you swipe or close an application through a manager, the system doesn't always delete it completely from memory, it just pauses it. This is done to quickly return to the program. However, if there are too many background processes, they start competing for CPU resources, causing lags.
Why does the memory fill up immediately after switching on?
It's important to understand the difference between the app cache and the RAM data. The cache is stored on the internal drive and speeds up programs, whereas RAM stores the active states of running programs. Cleaning the cache frees up space on the disk, and cleaning the RAM offloads the processor right now.
Standard cleaning methods through the security menu
The easiest and safest way to free up resources quickly is to use the built-in Security app, a system tool that is already pre-installed on every Xiaomi, Redmi, and Poco device, and it is integrated deep into the system and knows what processes can be completed without compromising stability.
To do the cleaning, open the Security app (the shield and lightning icon) and on the home screen you'll see a pie chart showing the current state of memory. Click on the Cleanup button or the diagram itself. The system will analyze the processes running and suggest closing the ones that consume the most resources.
☑️ Proper cleaning through the Security app
Once you've finished, you'll see a message telling you how many megabytes have been released, but it's worth remembering that this method has a temporary effect. The apps you need all the time (messengers, mail) will be re-launched in a few minutes, because that's their standard behavior. Use this method when you need to launch a heavy game or video editing app right now.
⚠️ Attention: Don't be fanatical about "free 0MB." If the system is constantly resetting all background processes, it's wasting battery power to restart them. Use cleaning only when there are clear signs of memory shortages.
Manual control of running applications
More flexible memory control provides a multitasking menu, an interface that opens with a swipe from the bottom up (or a square button) and shows the cards of all open applications, where you can selectively close programs that are not exactly needed at the moment.
Newer versions of HyperOS and MIUI 14 add application locking in memory. If you want a particular program (like a navigator or music player) never to unload from RAM, you can pinch your finger on the app card and select the lock icon. All unlocked apps will close when you press the Clear All button (cross or clear button).
- 📱 Swipe up from the bottom edge of the screen to open the menu of running apps.
- 🔒 Press and hold the card of the important application, then select the lock to fix it in memory.
- ❌ Press the cleaning button (usually a cross or broom) to close all unprotected programs at once.
- 🗑️ Swipe a particular app up to close only it without touching the rest.
This approach allows you to create a whitelist of mission-critical programs, for example, you can leave messengers in your memory to keep messages in mind, but close heavy games or browsers with a dozen tabs that have eaten all the RAM. This is a smarter approach than completely cleaning everything.
Advanced settings for developers
For advanced users who want to gain maximum control over the system, there are hidden settings, and in the Developer menu, you can find parameters that affect the limit of background processes, which allows you to forcibly limit the number of applications that can be in memory at the same time.
To get into this menu, go to Settings → About Phone and quickly click 7 times on MIUI Version (or OS Version). Once the notification “You became a developer” appears, go back to the main settings menu, select Additional → For Developers. Find the “Applications” section and the “Background Process Limit” item.
Settings → Additional → For developers → Limit background processesThe default is "Standard Limit," which you can change to "No More than 2 Processes" or "No More than 4 Processes," which will severely limit the system's appetite, but beware: if you set too low a limit, you may find that the music will stop when you switch to the browser, and the navigator will reset the route.
| Setting up | Description of effect | Recommended value |
|---|---|---|
| Standard limit | The system decides how many processes to keep. | Yes (default) |
| No more than 1 process | Only the active application remains in memory. | No (calls constant reboot of applications) |
| No more than 4 processes | Optimal balance for devices with 4-6 GB of RAM | Yes (for acceleration) |
| No background processes | All applications are closed immediately after leaving. | No (extremely uncomfortable) |
💡
Changing the background limit is reset once the device is fully restarted, and if you've used this method to speed up, you'll have to re-use it every time you turn off your phone.
Optimization of extended memory (Memory Extension)
In modern Xiaomi models with a large amount of embedded drive (UFS), the function “Memory Extension” is available. It allows you to use part of the permanent memory (ROM) as a virtual RAM. This can be useful if you have physically little RAM (for example, 4 GB or 6 GB).
You can find this feature by Settings → Expand Memory. Here you will see a switch and slider that allows you to select the amount of memory you add (usually from 2 to 5 GB). Once you turn on and reboot, the system will create a paging file. Technically, this does not increase the speed of RAM, since the drive is slower, but allows you to keep more applications open without unloading them.
Should I turn this on? On devices with 8GB of RAM or more, it's probably not, but it's not. Built-in memory LPDDR4X or LPDDR5 is much faster than even a fast drive. Enabling an extension can even slow down the interface slightly because of the nature of the paging file. But on budget-based users with 4GB of RAM, it can be a lifeline for multitasking.
⚠️ Attention: The memory expansion function takes up space on the internal drive. If your phone is packed with photos and videos, turning on this option may lead to a lack of space for the system to work.
What Not to Do: Breaking Myths
In the pursuit of performance, users often make mistakes that only harm the device. There are many myths about memory cleaning that hail from the era of older versions of Android and are no longer relevant to modern Snapdragon and Dimensity.
First, don’t install third-party Task Killers from Google Play. Applications like Clean Master or their counterparts often work more aggressively than the MIUI system itself. They constantly hang in the background, consume battery and force the processes that the system immediately tries to reopen, creating an endless cycle of load on the processor.
- 🚫 Don’t use memory clearing widgets on your desktop – they’re often just advertising spaces.
- 🚫 Do not disable system services through ADB, If you don’t understand their purpose, it can lead to a cyclical reboot.
- 🚫 Don’t believe apps that promise to “up to 200 percent RAM” software — it’s technically impossible.
Second, manually cleaning RAM all the time, just in case, reduces autonomy. When you clean up the memory, the CPU has to read the application data back from the drive, which consumes more power than just storing it in sleep mode in RAM. Trust the built-in MIUI algorithm, it's pretty smart.
💡
The best memory optimization is the absence of unnecessary applications in the autoload and timely update of the firmware to the current version.