Budget smartphone owners often face a shortage of space, and the Xiaomi Redmi 7 is no exception. Despite its reliability and excellent autonomy, this device, released in 2019, has a limited amount of internal memory, which is quickly filled with modern applications and multimedia.
When internal storage is overflowing, the device starts to run slower, and notifications of space shortages appear at the most inopportune time, and you need to regularly audit files to optimize the operation of the operating system and avoid hanging out.
There are many ways, from banal removal of photos to deep cleaning of system logs. In this article, we will discuss all available methods that will help to return your gadget to performance without losing important data.
Analysis of vault occupancy
Before we start taking any drastic measures, we need to understand what takes up precious gigabytes, and the MIUI has a powerful data visualization tool built in to quickly identify heavyweights.
Go to the settings and find the About Phone → Storage section, and the system will show you a pie chart where the color is highlighted apps, images, videos and system files, which will help you make an informed decision about what to delete.
Often, it turns out that the lion’s share of the space is occupied by the cache of messengers such as Telegram or WhatsApp, which ruthlessly save all the media files viewed, and system logs that accumulate after numerous updates or crashes can also take up a significant amount of space.
Don't ignore the "Other" section, which can sometimes grow to incomprehensible sizes, which is a repository of temporary files that are created during the operation of various programs and often forgotten by software developers.
Use of the built-in "Security" application
The easiest and safest way to start cleaning is to use Xiaomi’s standard tool, which is pre-installed on all of the brand’s devices and can efficiently find unnecessary files.
Run the program through the main screen or settings menu. Click on the "Clean Up" button, and the system automatically scans the device for temporary files, remnants of deleted applications and advertising debris.
⚠️ Note: When using Deep Clean, carefully monitor which files are marked for deletion. Sometimes the system may suggest that important documents or saved Wi-Fi passwords be deleted.
Once you scan, you'll see a list of categories: app cache, large files, duplicate photos. Pick the right items and confirm the action. This will help you free up from 100 MB to several gigabytes of space.
☑️ Quick cleaning plan
In the same menu, you can also use the "Accelerate" feature, which unloads processes from RAM, and while this doesn't free up storage directly, it helps stabilize the interface immediately after cleaning.
Cleaning the cache and application data
The most voracious elements in a smartphone are social networks and instant messengers, which accumulate a huge amount of temporary data that can be safely deleted through system settings.
To do this, go to Settings → Apps → All apps. Select the program you want (like YouTube or Instagram) and find Memory. There you will see two buttons: Clear cache and Clear everything.
Use the "Clear Cache" button if you want to just free up space, but if the application doesn't work properly, you can click "Clear Everything," but remember that this will reset the program to a factory state, and you will have to re-enter logins and passwords.
| Type of data | What's removed | Is it safe? | Impact on the account |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cash. | Temporary files, thumbnails | Yeah, totally. | No influence. |
| Application data | Settings, logins, database | Careful. | Re-entry required |
| Deletion of the annex | All content of the program | Yes. | Total reset |
| System cache | Update and crash logs | Yes. | No influence. |
Pay special attention to multimedia editors and navigators. Offline maps in Google Maps or Yandex.Navigator can take several gigabytes if you have ever downloaded maps of entire regions.
How to clean the cache of all applications at once?
Working with Photos, Videos and Cloud Services
Media files are the main enemy of free memory on Redmi 7. The cameras of modern applications take high-resolution pictures that weigh a lot. Regularly transferring the archive to the computer or to the cloud is a necessity.
Use the Google Photos app with the Free Space feature, which will find photos that have already been uploaded to your cloud account and remove a local copy from your phone, which is the safest way to save memories without losing access to them.
Also check the DCIM →.thumbnails folder. In this hidden directory, the system stores thumbnails of all your photos and videos for quick viewing in the gallery. Over time, this file can grow to 1-2 GB. It can be safely deleted through the file manager.
⚠️ Note: The.thumbnails folder is hidden by default. To see it, turn on the hidden files in Explorer settings. Delete the contents only when the gallery is closed.
Remember the Download folder, which often saves documents, APK installation files, and browser images, and audit the directory and delete anything that is out of date.
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Set up automatic synchronization of photos with Google Photos or Yandex.Disk, so that new pictures immediately fly to the cloud, and only high-quality previews remain on the phone.
Removal of duplicates and large files
When using a smartphone, copies of the same documents or photos are often created, for example, when editing a picture in a third-party application, the original is often saved and a copy is sent to the editor.
Xiaomi Redmi 7 is convenient to use the built-in Explorer. Open Explorer app, click on the menu (three bars) and select Files. Sort files by size to find the heaviest videos you may have forgotten.
You can use third-party tools from Google Play to find duplicates, such as “Files by Google,” which scan memory and suggest that you delete the same files, freeing up space without risking losing unique data.
Note the messenger folders: Android/media/com.whatsapp or tencent/MicroMsg (for WeChat), which often contain hundreds of received video files that you don’t need, but take up space.
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Regular file size sorting allows you to quickly find forgotten heavy videos and archives that take up to 40% of memory.
Expanding memory by means of SD-map
Fortunately, Redmi 7 supports microSD card installation, which is a great solution for storing photo archives, music and movies, allowing you to offload internal storage.
Insert the card into the slot (combined with the second one) SIM-Once installed, the system will suggest using it as a portable storage device or as part of internal memory. For Android 9 (which is based on it). MIUI In this model, it is better to choose formatting as a portable medium to avoid problems when resetting.
After setting up the map, transfer the camera to the shooting immediately on SD-Also, in the settings of some applications (for example, offline maps or music players), you can specify the path to save data to an external medium.
Using a fast UHS-I or higher card is critical, and cheap and slow cards can cause twitching interfaces and long photo gallery loads, negating all the benefits of expansion.
Radical methods: Reset to factory settings
If none of the above methods worked, and the phone continues to signal a shortage of space, the last resort is a complete reset, which will return the device to the state of "out of the box".
Before the procedure, be sure to back up all important data to your computer or to the Mi Cloud. After the reset, it will be impossible to restore deleted files.
Go to Settings → About Phone → Settings Reset → Erase all data. The process will take a few minutes, after which the phone will restart with a clean system that will not have any garbage.
⚠️ Warning: Make sure the battery level is at least 50% before starting reset. interruption of the process due to discharge can cause damage to system partitions.
Once turned on, don't rush to install all the apps at once. Set your phone up as new, install only the essentials, and watch the memory fill up, which will help you understand which program has started to eat up space again.