How to Clean Your Other Folder on Xiaomi: The Complete Guide

Owners of Xiaomi, Redmi and Poco smartphones sooner or later face a mysterious category in storage called "Other" -- a section that can take up tens of gigabytes, causing panic among users who don't understand where all free memory has gone. Unlike photos or videos, this data isn't always obvious to delete, making fighting for every gigabyte a difficult task.

Android’s MIUI or HyperOS shell classifies files fairly rigorously, but system debris, messenger cache, and temporary update files often fall into this hidden category. Understanding the nature of this data is the first step to successfully clean a device without the risk of losing important information or disrupting the operating system.

Next, we'll look at safe and advanced ways to free up space, learn how to distinguish between system files and user garbage, and get your gadget back to the speed it was on the day you bought it, and don't rush to delete everything, because smarter than radical measures.

What is hidden in the “other” section in fact

The Others section is not a single directory, but a collection of different types of data that the system cannot uniquely classify as images, music, or documents, including ZIP and RAR archives, APK installation files, and the cache that apps create to speed up their work, and the more you use your smartphone, the faster it grows.

Special attention should be paid to messengers like Telegram or Viber, which often save the photos and videos viewed in cache, which the system sees as unidentified data, and may contain the remnants of deleted applications or temporary files created during a firmware update, sometimes the volume of this partition reaches 10-15 GB, which is critical for models with a small amount of internal memory.

It's important to understand that some of this data is necessary for the operating system to function properly, that completely removing all content manually through the file manager can cause applications to crash, so the approach must be selective and conscious.

• 📦 Cache of applications and browsers, which occupies the lion’s share of space
• 📂 Temporary System Process Files and Updates
• 📱 Residual files of remote games and programs
• 💾 Archives and installers forgotten by the user

Basic cleaning with MIUI and HyperOS

The safest way to start the fight for space is to use built-in optimization tools. Xiaomi smartphones have a pre-installed Security app that can analyze storage. Run it and select Cleanup. The system will automatically find obvious garbage, but often misses the deep cache.

For a more detailed analysis, go to the storage settings. The path usually looks like: Settings → Phone → Storage. Here you will see a visualization of the occupied space. Click on the "Other" category to try to offer cleaning options. However, the standard tools are often superficial.

⚠️ Warning: Don’t use questionable apps from Play Market with names like “Super Cleaner” that promise miracles, often creating additional junk and displaying intrusive ads, slowing down your smartphone.

If standard cleaning didn’t work, try clearing the cache of specific heavy applications manually. Go to Settings → Apps → All apps, find a problem program (like a browser or social network) and click Clear Cache. This is a safe operation that won’t delete your personal correspondence or logins.

Radical method: cleaning through Recovery Mode

One of the most effective ways to remove an inflated “Other” section is to clear the cache through Recovery Mode, a method that is safe for your personal data (photos, contacts) as it only deletes temporary system files but requires careful navigation.

To enter Recovery mode, turn off your smartphone completely. Then press the Volume Up button and the Power button at the same time. Hold them until the Mi logo or recovery menu appears. Navigate with volume buttons and select with the power button.

Wipe Data → Wipe Cache (not to be confused with Wipe All Data!)

From the menu, select Wipe Cache. Confirm action. Once the process is complete, select Reboot to restart the system. When you first turn on, the phone may run a little slower until it reassembles the necessary temporary files, but the volume of the Other partition should be significantly reduced.

Analysis of storage using third-party utilities

When embedded tools are powerless, specialized disk space analyzers come to the rescue, and applications like DiskUsage or Storage Analyzer visualize memory as graphs, showing which folders have swelled to giant sizes.

Install the tool you choose and give it permission to access files. It will build a memory card where the size of the rectangles will correspond to the amount of data you occupy, and you will see hidden folders, such as.thumbnails (a gallery thumbnail cache) or streaming services cache, which are not visible in a regular file manager.

Once you find a three-dimensional folder, don't rush to delete its contents with the Delete button. First, explore the path to the file. If it's a system directory, you'd better use Clear Cache in the settings of the relevant application. Direct deletion of system files can lead to Android errors.

💡

Use the Big File Analysis feature in Explorer to find forgotten high-resolution videos that may have been lost in the Downloads or Documents folder.

Specificity of messengers: Telegram and WhatsApp

The main culprits of the “Other” section are most often messengers. Telegram, for example, by default caches all media files viewed so that they load instantly when reopened. Over time, this cache can weigh 5-10 GB or more, remaining invisible to the average user.

To solve the problem, go to the settings of the messenger itself. In Telegram, the path looks like this: Settings → Data and memory → Memory Use. Here you will see the current cache size. Press Clear Cache. Don't worry, your chats and important files will not disappear - they are stored on the server and will be rebooted if necessary.

Set a limit, such as 500MB or 1GB. Once the cache reaches this volume, the app will automatically delete the oldest files. This will prevent future space shortage problems.

• 🗑️ Enable autodelete the cache in the messenger settings
• 📹 Turn off auto-save video in the phone gallery
• 📅 Set up periodic cleanup of call and media history

⚠️ Attention: Clearing the data (not the cache, but the application data) in the Android settings will delete the entire history of correspondence if it is not stored in the cloud».

Working with a file system via PC (ADB)**

For advanced users who have not been helped by standard methods, there is a way to clean up through a computer connection using USB debugging (ADB), a method that allows access to hidden system folders that are usually protected from the user.

First, activate Developer Mode. Go to Settings → About Phone and quickly press 7 times on MIUI Version (or OS Version). Then, in advanced settings, enable USB Debugging. Connect your phone to your PC and install Xiaomi USB Drivers.

Using the command line on your computer, you can delete specific temporary files. However, this method requires caution. The command to clear the cache of a particular package looks complicated, but there are graphical shells for ADB that simplify the process. For example, you can delete the cache folder at the root of the system, but only if you are confident in your actions.

adb shell pm trim-caches 999999999

This command forces Android to force the space out by removing the app cache until the specified free space value (in bytes) is reached. It is a powerful tool built into Android itself that is often ignored by users.

💡

The trim-caches command via ADB is the most effective way to force cache cleanup without deleting personal data, but requires a connection to a PC.

Prevention of memory overflow

To prevent the problem with the “Other” partition from returning regularly, you need to develop a habit of monitoring the storage. Do not allow the memory to be filled to the end – Android needs free space (at least 10-15% of the total) for normal virtual memory and temporary operations.

Check Download regularly, and app installers often accumulate there, PDF-files and images from the browser that you no longer need. It is also worth turning off automatic updates of applications over the mobile network if you have a limit tariff or slow Internet, since temporary update files may remain on the system.

Use cloud storage for photos and videos. Services like Google Photos or Yandex.Disk can automatically free up space on your device by deleting media files that have already been uploaded to the cloud, which will free up gigabytes and reduce the load on the system's file classifier.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)