How to Clean Xiaomi Redmi 9 from Garbage: The Complete Guide

Modern smartphones, including the popular Xiaomi Redmi 9, inevitably become digital junk over time. This is not just a myth, but a technical reality: app cache, remnants of deleted programs and temporary files take up valuable storage space. When free memory becomes critically scarce, the MIUI operating system begins to work slower, there are delays when switching between windows, and the battery lasts for less time.

Cleaning a device is not just about freeing up space, it's also about extending the life of a gadget. In this article, we'll detail how to safely and efficiently remove redundant data without damaging important documents. Regular maintenance helps avoid sudden crashes and keep the speed at the level of the first days of use.

Many users are afraid to get into the system settings for fear of accidentally removing something important. However, the tools built into the Android and MIUI shell are designed with error protection in mind. Following proven algorithms, you can conduct a deep cleaning of your Redmi 9 in literally 10-15 minutes, returning it to its former ash.

Use of the built-in Security application

The first and most reliable tool for putting order is a standard application preinstalled by the manufacturer, called "Security," and it has a green shield icon, and it's deeply integrated into the system, so it knows which files can be deleted without risking operating system stability.

Run the app and select Clean up. It will run a quick scan and show you the amount of garbage you can remove right now. Usually, temporary files, remnants of APK installation packages and an advertising cache. Press Clean up to make room.

⚠️ Warning: Don’t use third-party accelerators from the Play Market with dubious reputations.They are often the source of advertising themselves and can slow down the Xiaomi Redmi 9 instead of helping.

Then go to Deep Clean, where the algorithm analyzes large files, duplicate photos, and rarely used apps. Be careful when you look at the list: the system can flag some files you created yourself, such as saved documents from messengers, as garbage.

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Turn on the Auto Clean function in the Security settings so that the phone will delete temporary files on its own when less than 10% of the memory is freed.

Manual cleaning of app cache and messengers

The most active users of memory in Android are traditionally social networks and instant messengers. Telegram, WhatsApp, VK and Instagram store a huge number of media files. Even if you viewed a photo or video once, it remains in the memory of the device.

Go to Settings → Apps → All apps. Find heavy programs on the list. Inside the app card, you're interested in Memory. There you'll see two buttons: Clear and Delete. The first one deletes the cache, the second one resets the app to factory status (re-authorization required).

Pay special attention to gallery and browser garbage. The DCIM folder often accumulates bad pictures and screenshots that you no longer need, while browsers save the cache of pages to load sites faster when you visit again, but over time this cache inflates to gigabytes.

• 📱 Open the gallery and delete any blurred or random photos.
• 🗑️ In the browser, go to history and select “Clear browsing data».
• 📂 Check the Downloads folder for old installers.
• 🎵 Remove music you’ve already listened to and don’t plan on listening to again.

Storage analysis and removal of large files

Sometimes the problem isn't with thousands of small files, but with a few heavyweights, and the MIUI shell has a handy storage analyzer that visualizes the (busy) space, showing which categories of files occupy the most space, and that helps you quickly find forgotten movies, TV shows, or archives.

Often users forget about downloaded maps of offline navigation or seasons of TV shows in online cinemas, such files can weigh 5-10 GB each, deleting even one such movie instantly frees up a significant part of internal memory.

You can use a built-in tool in the gallery or third-party lightweight utilities to find duplicate photos. Duplicates often occur when you copy them wrongly or synchronize them, and deleting them is the easiest way to get additional space.

Removing unnecessary applications and services

Xiaomi Redmi 9 originally has a lot of pre-installed apps, some of them useful services from Google and Xiaomi, and some of them are advertising software or games that you've never used, which are called bloatware, which not only take up space, but can also run in the background, consuming the resources of the processor.

Go to Settings → Applications → All apps. Go through the list and find programs you don't use. If the Remove button is active, delete it safely. If the button is inactive (gray), it's a system component, in which case it can only be "Disable" that hides the icon and prevents the launch, freeing up some resources.

A special category is games. Modern high-resolution mobile games can take 2 to 4 GB each. If you pass a game or you drop it, you ruthlessly delete it. Unlike photos, you can always download it again when you want to play.

⚠️ Be careful when removing applications called “Services”, “Framework”, “System” and “Services” and removing critical system components may result in a cyclical reboot or loss of phone functionality.

Cleaning through computer and file manager

For deeper cleaning, it is convenient to connect Redmi 9 to your computer via USB-cable, file transfer mode (MTP) You get access to the entire file system, and it allows you to quickly sort documents, transfer photos to your PC's hard drive, and find hidden folders that are hard to see from your phone.

Use a standard Windows Explorer or a third-party file manager like Total Commander. Look for folders with remote game names, old WhatsApp backups (often in the Android/media folder), and temporary browser folders. It is easier to select groups of files on your computer and delete them en masse.

Folders to check when connecting to the PC:


/Android/data (game and application cache)




/DCIM/.thumbnails (cache of thumbnails)




/MiCloud (local copies of the cloud)




/Bluetooth (received files)

You can also run an antivirus check on your connected phone to exclude the presence of malware that masquerades as system processes and generates garbage.

Resetting to factory settings as a radical method

If neither cache clearing nor file deletion helped and the phone continues to slow down, the last resort is a full reset, which will return the Xiaomi Redmi 9 to a store-like state, and all data, including contacts, photos and apps, will be destroyed.

Before starting the procedure, be sure to back up your important data to the Mi Cloud cloud or your computer, and make sure that your battery is at least 50% so that your phone doesn’t turn off during the process.

To perform the reset, go to Settings → About Phone → Settings Reset. Select “Erase All Data.” The phone will reboot and start the cleanup process, which can take 10 to 20 minutes. Once turned on, you will get a clean system without debris and errors.

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A complete reset is the only way to ensure that all hidden system errors and viruses are removed, but it requires a mandatory data backup.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

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To prevent quick memory filling, set up autodelete media files older than 1 week or 1 month in messengers.