Cleaning RAM on Xiaomi: myths and working methods for Redmi, POCO and Mi

RAM on Xiaomi smartphones is one of the most talked-about topics among users. Many believe that regular cleaning of RAM speeds up the phone, but in practice it often leads to the opposite effect. The fact that the MIUI system itself controls the allocation of memory, and the forced release of RAM can force it to restart applications from scratch, which will only slow down the work.

In this article, we’ll look at when cleaning up Xiaomi’s RAM is really necessary and when it’s only harmful, how to free up memory without compromising performance, what system tools are available, and why closing background apps manually isn’t always a good idea, and we’ll also analyze the myths of “cleaning RAM” and show how memory management in MIUI 12/13/14 actually works.

Why is Xiaomi always busy and should it be fixed?

If you opened the task manager on your Redmi Note 10 or POCO X3 and you saw that out of 6 to 8 GB of RAM, only 1-2 GB is free, which is normal. The MIUI system specifically keeps applications in memory so that they open faster when they are re-started, this is called caching, and it doesn't hurt performance, but instead saves battery power and CPU resources.

Problems begin when:

• 📱 The phone slows down when switching between apps (for example, Instagram or TikTok hangs).
• 🔄 Apps are rebooted every time they return to them (e.g. YouTube starts a video anew).
• 🔋 Battery goes down quickly due to constant process reboot.

In these cases, cleaning up RAM can help, but it's important to do it right, for example, closing all background processes through Task Manager will cause the system to boot them again in a few minutes, which is pointless, and instead you need to find and fix the cause of the overload.

Method 1: Built-in RAM cleaning through Security

The easiest and most secure method is to use the built-in Security app, which is available on all Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO smartphones with MIUI, which does not require root rights and does not harm the system.

Instructions:

1. Open the Security app (the shield icon).
2. Click on the Optimization button (or Acceleration in new versions).
3. Wait for the analysis to be completed (usually 5-10 seconds).
4. Click Clear Memory (or Free RAM)

This method removes unnecessary background processes but leaves important system services, but it does not solve the problem of memory leakage when an application eats up RAM for no reason, and in such cases, you need to use other methods.

Method 2: Manually close applications through Task Manager

If you notice that a particular app (like Facebook or Wildberries) consumes too much RAM, you can close it manually, but you need to do it selectively, not en masse.

How to Close the Application Properly:

1. Open Recent Apps (swipe up late or the "square" button).
2. Find the application you want to close.
3. Make a swipe up his card (on MIUI 14 - swipe sideways).
4. For forced stop: go to Settings → Applications → Application Management, select the app and click Stop.

⚠️ Warning: Do not close system processes like com.miui.home or android.systemui, which can cause a launcher crash or a phone reboot.

Also remember that some apps (like Telegram or WhatsApp) restart immediately after closing, which is normal behavior. To completely stop them, you need to turn off auto-start in the settings.

Method 3: Disable Auto-Run Unnecessary Applications

Many apps run automatically when you turn on your phone or connect to the Internet, even if you don’t use them, which is one of the main reasons why Xiaomi overloads RAM.

How to turn off autostart:

1. Go to Settings → Applications → Application Management.
2. Select an application (for example, AliExpress or Yandex.Music).
3. Press Autostart and turn off the slider.
4. Also turn off Show notifications if they are not needed.

List of applications that can be safely disabled:

• 🛒 AliExpress, Wildberries, Ozon (unless you use it daily).
• 🎵 Music, Spotify (if you rarely listen to music).
• 📺 IVI, Kion, Okko (video services load RAM with background).
• 🎮 Game Center (if you don't play games).

Once you turn off auto-run, these apps won't be hanging in the background and taking up RAM, but they can open longer when you first start.

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To check which apps are loading the most RAM, use Settings → About Phone → Memory Status. This shows the top users over the past 3, 6 or 12 hours.

Method 4: Using ADB for deep cleaning (for advanced)

If standard methods do not help, you can use them. ADB-This is a method that is suitable for advanced users and requires connecting the phone to a computer.

Instructions:

1. Enable Developer Mode (click 7 times on the MIUI version in Settings → About Phone).
2. Activate Debugging by USB in Settings → Additional → For developers.
3. Connect your phone to your PC and open the command line (Windows) or terminal (Mac/Linux).
4. Enter the command to check the connection: Adb devices must appear serial number of your device.
5. Execute the command to clean RAM: adb shell am broadcast -a android.intent.action.CLOSE_SYSTEM_DIALOGS This team will close all system dialogues and free up some of the memory.

For more aggressive cleaning, you can use:

adb shell "echo 3 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches"

But this command resets the core cache and can temporarily slow down the phone.

⚠️ Note: Do not use commands like adb shell killall or adb shell pkill – they can cause the system to crash and need to restart.

Method 5: Resetting cache via Recovery (last resort)

If the phone is slowing down and RAM is constantly overloaded, you can reset the cache through Recovery mode. This will not delete your data, but will clear temporary files that may interfere with the system.

Instructions:

1. Turn off the phone.
2. Press the Power button + Volume up until the Mi logo appears.
3. From the Recovery menu, select Wipe & Reset → Wipe Cache.
4. Confirm the action and wait for the completion.
5. Reboot your phone (Reboot → System)

This method helps if:

• 🐢 The phone has become slower since the update. MIUI.
• 🔄 Applications are constantly rebooted.
• 📱 RAM is clogged with unknown processes.

However, cache resetting is not a panacea: If the problem is a lack of RAM (for example, you have a Redmi 9A with 2 GB of memory), then only optimizing applications or buying a phone with more RAM will help.

Myths about cleaning RAM on Xiaomi, which you should not believe

There are a lot of tips on the Internet to clean up RAM, but most of them are not only useless, but also harmful.

The only time when cleaning RAM is justified is to fight a particular "gluttonous" application that is not working properly and clogs up memory.

FAQ: Frequent questions about RAM on Xiaomi

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Xiaomi RAM cleaning is only needed in extreme cases, and 90% of situations are better off relying on automatic MIUI optimization and setting up auto-launch applications correctly.