Xiaomi’s Complete Waste Cleanup: 7 Proven Ways

Your Xiaomi smartphone is slowing down, running out, or reporting memory shortages? Most often it's due to the accumulated digital debris: remnants of remote applications, cache of system processes, duplicate photos and unnecessary logs. Even new models on MIUI 14 are not immune to this problem, as the manufacturer installs dozens of preloaded services on devices that actively consume resources.

In this article, you will find 7 deep cleaning methods, including hidden MIUI features, commands for power users and recommendations for optimizing the system after cleaning. We will analyze which files can be deleted without risk and which should not be touched, even if they take up a lot of space.

Why Xiaomi is quickly clogged with garbage

Xiaomi MIUI-based smartphones have two key features that accelerate the accumulation of unnecessary data:

• 📦 Double cache: The system creates copies of temporary files for both user and system applications. For example, com.miui.gallery can store thumbnails of photos you deleted long ago.
• 🔄 Aggressive background activity: Even after the application is closed MIUI It leaves its processes in memory for "quick start." 1-2 seconds at opening, but eats up to 500 MB of memory for a week.
• 📱 Embedded Services: Mi Cloud, Mi Video, Mi Browser, and other pre-installed apps create logs and cache, even if you don’t use them.

According to tests of the laboratory XDA Developers, after 3 months of use on the Redmi Note 12 Pro with MIUI 14 accumulates an average of 3-4 GB of garbage, of which:

A critical mistake many users make is using Google Play’s “memory optimizers.” Most of these apps (like Clean Master or CCleaner) not only don’t clean up system debris, but also leave behind additional background processes that consume up to 10% of battery life per day.

Preparation for cleaning: what to do before you start

Before you start deleting files, follow 3 mandatory steps to avoid losing important data or system failures:

1. Backup via Settings → About Phone → Backup. This is especially true for MIUI 13/14 users, where factory resets can delete data from internal memory.
2. Check the space in Settings → Memory. If less than 10% of the total volume is free, the system begins to work unstable.
3. Turn off automatic optimization in Settings → Battery & Performance → Optimization. Otherwise, MIUI may interrupt the cleaning process.

We also recommend connecting your smartphone to charge or making sure your battery level is above 50%.Some operations (such as scanning the file system) can take up to 20 minutes and actively consume energy.

⚠️ WARNING: If you use Xiaomi.eu or custom firmware, don’t clean the folder /system This can lead to a "brick" of the device (completely inoperable), which will only fix the flashing through the Fastboot.

Method 1: Built-in cleaning utility MIUI

The safest method is to use the built-in Cleanup tool, which is available on all Xiaomi smartphones starting with MIUI 10.

• 🗑️ Application cache and systems
• 📁 Temporary files (.tmp,.log)
• 🔍 Remains of the remote APK-file
• 📷 Miniatures and gallery cache

How to start:

1. Open the Security app (shield icon).
2. Go to the "Cleanup" tab.
3. Click Scan and wait until it is completed (may take 2-5 minutes).
4. Select all categories of garbage and tap "Clean".

For deeper cleaning:

1. In the same menu, click "Deep Cleaning".
2. Select "Unnecessary APKs" and "Large Files".
3. Delete files larger than the size 50 MB that you do not recognize (for example, com.xiaomi.midrop_20230515.apk).

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If files with the.odex or.vdex extension remain in the list after cleaning, do not delete them - these are components of system applications without which MIUI can work incorrectly.

Method 2: Manually cleansing the application cache

The built-in utility doesn't always delete the cache completely, for example, Google Play Services and Mi Account can store up to 1 GB of temporary data that doesn't fall under auto-cleaning.

1. Go to Settings → Applications → Application Management.
2. Sort the list by size (click on the three dots in the upper right corner).
3. Select apps with a cache of more than 100MB (e.g. Facebook, Instagram, Mi Video).
4. Press "Storage" → "Clear the cache".

Pay special attention to these system applications (their cache can be cleaned without risk):

• 📺 com.miui.videoplayer (video player)
• 🎵 com.miui.player (music player)
• 📷 com.android.gallery3d (gallery)
• 🌐 com.android.browser (browser)

⚠️ Note: Do not clear the cache for com.google.android.gms (Google Play Services) and com.xiaomi.account (Mi Account).This may result in sync errors and loss of access to your Xiaomi account.

To speed up the process, use the command via ADB (computer required):

adb shell pm list packages -f | awk -F= '{print $2}' | xargs -I '{}' adb shell pm clear '{}

This command will clear the cache of all user applications at once.The system applications will remain intact.

Method 3: Removing duplicate photos and videos

One of the most voracious places on Xiaomi is the DCIM folder, where they accumulate:

• 📸 Duplicate photos (created when editing in the Xiaomi Gallery)
• 🎥 Video copies (for example, after cropping in Mi Video)
• 🖼️ Sketch and miniatures (folder.thumbnails)
• 📁 Screenshots with the same content (e.g, Screenshot_2023...(1).png)

To find and remove duplicates:

1. Install Files by Google from the Play Market.
2. Open the tab "Clean up" → "Duplicates of files".
3. Select groups of duplicates and click "Delete".
4. For a deep check, use the “Big Files” option – it will find videos larger than 100 MB that you may have forgotten.

An alternative method for power users is to use ADB to search for duplicates by hash:

adb shell "find /sdcard/DCIM -type f -exec md5sum {} + | sort | uniq -w32 -dD"

This command will display a list of duplicate files in the DCIM folder, and you can delete them through the adb shell rm "path to file".

Method 4: Clean Download folder and instant messenger downloads

Download folder and messenger directories (WhatsApp, Telegram) often contain gigabytes of unnecessary files:

• 📄 PDF-The documents you downloaded for later"
• 🎵 Audio files from messages (voice, music)
• 📦 APK-files (application installation packages)
• 🖼️ Memes and pictures from chat rooms

How to clean:

1. Open Files (standard MIUI application).
2. Go to the Inner Memory → Download.
3. Sort the files by date or size.
4. Remove anything over 6 months old and weighs more than 10MB.

For messengers:

• 📱 WhatsApp: Internal Memory → WhatsApp → Media → Delete WhatsApp Animated Gifs, WhatsApp Audio, WhatsApp Video folders (if files are not needed).
• 📘 Telegram: Internal Memory → Telegram → Telegram Documents and Telegram Images.

⚠️ Attention: Do not delete the folder WhatsApp/Databases — It's a backup of your chats, and if you want to make room, move it to your computer or the cloud.

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Regular cleaning of the Download folder can free up up to 2-3 GB of space. Set up automatic deletion of old files in Google Files (section "Clean up → Settings → Auto Clean up").

Method 5: Remove Unnecessary System Applications (without root)

MIUI is known for a large number of pre-installed applications, many of which cannot be removed by standard means, but can be disabled or removed through ADB without obtaining root rights.

List of safe applications (do not affect the system):

Instructions for removal through ADB:

1. Connect your smartphone to your PC and enable USB Debugging (Settings → About Phone → MIUI Version → 7 times tap, then Additional → For developers → USB debugging).
2. Open the command line on your PC and type in: Adb devices (should display your device).
3. Run the command to delete (e.g. for Mi Drop): adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.xiaomi.midrop

To return the application, use the command:

adb shell cmd package install-existing com.xiaomi.midrop

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Before you uninstall system applications, create a restore point in TWRP (if installed) to help restore the system in case of errors.

Method 6: Reset to factory settings (last chance)

If previous methods didn't work, and the smartphone still brakes, it's a hard reset, and it will delete all the data, including:

• 📱 Applications and their settings
• 📁 Photos, videos, music (if not saved) SD-map)
• 🔑 Wi-Fi passwords and accounts
• 📋 Messages and Contacts (unless synced with Google)

How to reset:

1. Go to Settings → About the phone → Reset settings.
2. Select "Erase all data."
3. Enter the password (if installed) and confirm the action.
4. Wait until it is completed (it will take 5-15 minutes).

After discharge:

• 🔧 Do not restore backup through Mi Cloud – it may contain the same garbage.
• 📥 Install only the necessary applications.
• 🔄 Turn off automatic download of media files in messengers.

⚠️ Note: On some models (Redmi Note 10 Pro, POCO X3 Pro) after reset, the Internal Storage partition in the conductor may disappear. To return access, restart the device in Recovery Mode (press Power). + Volume Up and select "Wipe Data" again.

Method 7: Optimization after cleaning

After removing the garbage, you need to configure the system to avoid the re-accumulation of unnecessary files:

• 🔄 Turn off auto-update apps in the Play Market (Settings) → Auto-update → Never).
• 📴 Limit background activity for social media: Settings → Battery → Choice of applications → Set “Limited” for Facebook, Instagram.
• 🗃️ Transfer the heavy files to SD-map (if supported): Settings → Memory. → Data portability.
• 🔍 Set up a weekly automatic cleaning in Google Files.

For advanced users:

• 🛠️ Install Magisk and Universal Module GMS Doze to limit background activity of Google Play Services.
• 📊 Use Greenify to hibernate unnecessary apps (root required).

Check the efficiency of cleaning:

1. Run AnTuTu Benchmark and compare the results before/after.
2. See the battery consumption schedule in Settings → Battery → Use.
3. Use the command to check the free memory: adb shell df -h (note the /data string - there should be at least 20% free space).

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Regularly cleaning the cache and disabling unnecessary services can increase battery life by 15-20% and speed up application launches by 30% (GSMArena test data).

FAQ: Frequent questions about Xiaomi cleanup