The problem of overflowing memory in Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO smartphones is familiar to many users. When you try to find out what takes up space, the system often displays a mysterious category called “Other,” which can weigh tens of gigabytes. This is not a bug, but a system feature of the MIUI or HyperOS shell that combines heterogeneous data that didn’t make it into standard sections like Photos or Apps.
Dealing with this chaos is necessary, because the lack of free memory directly affects the speed of the interface. The smartphone starts to hang up, applications fly out, and the system is unstable. Cleaning a folder is not just garbage removal, but an important maintenance procedure for your Xiaomi, allowing you to extend its comfortable life.
In this article, we will take a closer look at what’s hidden within this category, and what cleanup methods are safe and what can lead to the loss of important data, learn how to find hidden files, clean messenger cache, and use third-party utilities to analyze storage in depth.
What is hidden in the category Others
The Other section is a kind of black hole in the Android file system, where the system resets everything it couldn't automatically classify, including temporary files, remnants of deleted applications, social media cache, and even data that you've already deleted but it's left in the shopping cart. The file system doesn't always update the index correctly, which keeps deleted content listed as busy memory.
Telegram, WhatsApp and Viber store every photo, video and voice message you receive in hidden folders. Even if you look at a picture in a chat and forget about it, it takes up space on the disk. Android considers this data as system or user application files, so it classifies it as “Other”.
It can also hide data from streaming services like Spotify or YouTube, which cache music and videos you've watched to speed up your work, sometimes including update files that haven't been deleted after you've installed them, and understanding the structure of that data is the first step to successfully optimizing your memory.
💡
Often, files from cloud storage that are labeled “offline available” are added to the Other folder. Check the sync settings of Google Photos and Yandex.Disk.
Basic cleaning through standard means
The easiest and safest way to start fighting for gigabytes is to use the built-in Security app, which is a regular MIUI tool that can find obvious garbage. Run the app, select Cleanup, and wait for the analysis to be completed. The system will suggest removing temporary files and advertising debris.
However, a standard scanner is often superficial. It doesn't touch the cache of heavy applications and rarely looks into system folders. For a deeper cleaning, go to Settings → Memory. Here you'll see a visualization of occupied space. Click on the Others category to see the detail if the system allows it to do so in your firmware version.
☑️ Xiaomi's Basic Cleanup
It's important not just to blindly click "Delete everything" but to analyze the system's suggestions. Sometimes a standard cleaner can count important application logs as garbage, which will help diagnose problems, but in normal mode this is not critical. After cleaning, be sure to restart the device so that the system recalculates the file index.
💡
Xiaomi’s standard tools are safe, but only remove about 10-15% of the real-world junk from the Others category.
Analysis of storage using third-party snails
When built-in tools aren't enough, specialized analytics apps come to the rescue, and Files by Google or DiskUsage is the leader in this field, and they build a visual memory card that shows you which folders and files are taking up the most space, and that allows you to see what's hidden from the standard explorer.
Install the app you select from Google Play and give it all the permissions you need to access the files. Run a scan. You'll see a folder tree where each element is proportional to the space it occupies. Find the largest blocks -- most likely folders with a cache of cards, navigators or instant messengers.
Why does DiskUsage look so weird?
Be careful when deleting files through these analyzers. Only delete data that you know is true to origin. For example, the Android/data/org.telegram.messenger folder contains a Telegram cache. Deleting the contents of this folder will make space, but you will have to re-upload media files in chat rooms when you view them. Third-party analyzers give full control, but require technical literacy.
⚠️ Warning: Never delete files with the.obb or.apk extension from your system folders unless you know exactly what they are responsible for.
Cleaning the cache of messengers and social networks
As mentioned, the main culprits behind the “Others” category are social media. Telegram, WhatsApp, Instagram and TikTok aggressively cache content. Telegram, for example, can cache up to tens of gigabytes unless automatic deletion is configured.
To clean up Telegram, go to Settings → Data and Memory → Memory Use. Here you will see the “Clear Cache” button. Also turn on the “Self-Delete” function, setting a time limit for, for example, 3 days or 1 week. This will prevent the accumulation of garbage in the future. Messenger cache is the safest and most effective source of free space.
WhatsApp is similar, but it's managed through the built-in file manager or storage settings inside the app. Go to Settings → Data and Storage → Storage Management. You can delete large files or media files that were sent over 30 days ago. Social media stores previews of images and videos that also take up space.
| Annex | Pathway to clean (inside annex) | What is removed | Security |
| :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |
| Telegram | Settings → Data and memory | Photos, videos, chat files | High (media will download again) |
| WhatsApp | Settings → Data and Storage | Media Files, Messages | High (backup saved) |
| TikTok | Profile → Three stripes → Free space | Temporary files, drafts | Medium (drafts may disappear) |
| Instagram | Settings → Browser → Clear | Search cache, temporary files | High |
💡
Regularly cleaning Telegram cache through built-in settings can free up to 10 GB of space monthly from active users.
Working with Android folder and system garbage
The hardest part is working with the Android system folder, which is limited from Android 11 and up, and you'll need an advanced file manager like Total Commander or MT Manager to get there, or a PC connection. Inside the Android/data folder, you'll need an application data store.
You can find folders of remote games that have been left lying dead weight, and it is also worth checking the Download folder (APK), PDF-I've been on my phone for years, removing old installers. APK Files are secure because the application is already installed.
.thumbnail folder in DCIM
Pay special attention to the Xiaomi folder at the root of internal memory, if it is present. There may remain system logs, error reports and backups of themes. Files with the.log or.txt extension in the root directories can often be deleted, but it is better to pre-copy them to the computer.
⚠️ Attention: When cleaning the folder Android/data Take care, delete the folder with the name of the bank or an important application can reset its settings or log out of the account.
Radical methods: Resetting and flashing
If neither method worked, and the Other category still takes up the lion's share of memory, it's possible that the file system has accumulated critical errors or "broken" sectors, leaving a full reset, which will return the phone to factory status.
Before reset, make sure to back up all important data to the cloud service or computer. Reset will delete everything: contacts, photos, apps and settings. Go to Settings → About Phone → Reset → Erase all data. After that, the phone will be as new and the category “Other” will disappear.
☑️ Preparation for full discharge
An alternative to a complete reset might be to flash the device through a computer with data saved (the option is “Clean all” without cleaning the data in the MIUI Flash Tool, although it does not always work correctly for memory problems). However, if the problem is physical wear of flash memory, software methods can only give a temporary effect.
⚠️ Warning: Complete reset is irreversible. If you have not made a backup, it will be impossible to recover the data after the reset by any means.
Prevention and useful advice
To keep the problem from coming back, change your smartphone usage habits. Check your Downloads folder regularly and delete the unnecessary. Set up automatic cache cleaners in messengers. Use cloud storage for photos and videos, removing them from your device after synchronization. Prevention is always better than cure.
Also, avoid installing accelerators and cleaners from unverified sources, often the source of advertising junk and viruses that further clog memory, and trust only proven tools from Google or built-in Xiaomi features.
💡
The best prevention is the habit of checking the storage once a month and setting up autodelete the cache in Telegram and WhatsApp.