How to Clean a Xiaomi Phone if You Are Lacking Memory

The situation when Xiaomi suddenly begins to slow down, and in the notifications appears annoying warning about the lack of space, familiar to every smartphone owner. MIUI operating system and its new version of HyperOS are perfectly optimized, but modern applications, high-resolution photos and messenger cache are able to “eat” even 256 gigabytes of internal storage for a couple of years of active use.

When the free space runs out, the device not only runs slower, it stops updating correctly, taking pictures and saving new files. It is important to understand that simply removing several applications often does not give tangible results, since the bulk of the hidden system files and messenger data. In this article, we will discuss proven deep cleaning methods that will return your gadget performance.

Storage analysis and search for major consumers

Before you delete files at random, you need to determine exactly what is taking up space. The MIUI shell has a powerful data visualization tool built in. Go to the Settings → Memory (or Storage) menu to see the color diagram of the file distribution. The system will tell you which categories are inflated the most: it can be Applications, Photos and Videos or Documents.

The other or the other is a big part of the screen, and often, the mask hides temporary update files, offline maps of navigators, and streaming cache, and the analyzer shows the exact amount of space each program takes up, and if you see one app weighing 10-15 GB, even though it was originally set up as 100 MB, it has accumulated a huge amount of garbage.

For a more detailed look, you can use third-party utilities like Files by Google or DiskUsage that build a memory card in blocks, which allows you to visually find the “heavy” folders that a standard conductor might have missed, but in 90% of cases, Xiaomi’s built-in tools are enough for initial diagnosis.

• 📊 Open Settings and find Memory for a general score.
• 🔍 Click on a specific category (such as “Apps”) to sort them by size.
• 🗑️ Note the “Basket” section in the gallery that is often ignored by users.

Remember, checking the storage regularly helps prevent critical overflows: Don't wait for the phone to go stake, but check the chart at least once a month.

Use of the built-in "Security" application

Every Xiaomi smartphone has a Security app installed out of the box, and it's not just an antivirus, it's a powerful harvester to maintain the system. Run it and select Cleanup. The scanner will automatically find temporary files, advertising debris and remnants of remote programs. Pressing the Cleanup button will safely remove only what is not necessary for the system to work.

But standard cleaning is often superficial, and inside the Security app, there's a Deep Cleanup section, and it's going to ask you to delete large files, duplicate photos, unused files. APK-Be careful: Before you delete large files, check their contents so that you don't accidentally erase an important document or video.

⚠️ Note: The Cleanup feature in the Security app can delete authorization data in some applications. If you don't want to re-enter passwords on social networks or games, read carefully what is marked to delete.

Also available in this section is the “Clean WhatsApp” (or other messengers) feature, which allows you to selectively delete videos and GIFs that have been viewed once and are no longer needed, while saving text correspondence, which is one of the most effective ways to quickly free up a few gigabytes.

Use built-in tools regularly to avoid accumulating gigabytes of garbage. Automating this process in the application settings will allow you to clean your phone when you lock the screen.

Clearing the cache and data messengers

The leaders in memory consumption are traditionally Telegram, WhatsApp and Viber, which store every photo and video received in the memory of the device, and unlike other systems, cleaning requires a personalized approach for each messenger.

Telegram has a built-in memory management mechanism. Go to Settings → Data and memory → Memory usage. Here you will see the Media Store slider. Set the value of 3 days or 1 week. Also click the Clear Telegram cache button. This action will not delete your correspondence, media files will simply be re-uploaded from the cloud if necessary, freeing up space on the disk.

WhatsApp is more complicated because backups and media are stored locally. Go to Settings → Data and Storage → Storage Management. The app will show files larger than 5MB and chat rooms that take up the most space. You can selectively delete videos from specific dialogs without deleting the correspondence itself.

• 💬 In Telegram, use the function “Autodelete” for the cache so that it does not grow.
• 📼 On WhatsApp, turn off automatic media saving in the gallery in chat settings.
• 🗑️ Regularly check the Favorites folder, where heavy files often fall.

It is important to distinguish between Clear Cache and Clear Data in Android settings: Clearing the cache is secure, it deletes temporary files, and cleaning the data will reset the app to the post-installing state, removing all logins and correspondence.

Deletion of duplicates and sorting of media files

A smartphone gallery is often a memory-absorbing black hole. Screenshots, failed shots, series of identical photos and screenshots of correspondence can take up tens of gigabytes. New versions of MIUI and HyperOS have a smart duplicate search feature in the Gallery app.

Go to Albums → Screenshots or search by image. The system will suggest finding similar photos. It's also worth checking DCIM →.thumbnails. It's a hidden folder that stores thumbnails for quick viewing of the gallery. Sometimes it can be as large as several gigabytes. Deleting files from this folder is safe - the system will recreate them, but smaller if required.

⚠️ Note: The.thumbnails folder is hidden by default. To access it, turn on the display of hidden files in the Explorer by entering ".thumbnails" in the search».

Don't forget to check the Recycle Bin folder in the gallery. Deleted photos are stored there for 30 days and continue to take up space. Once the final cleanup is done, you will be able to go through the social networking folders (Instagram, Facebook, TikTok), which often duplicate saved stories and videos into the shared gallery.

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Use Google Photos (Yandex Drive) with the “Free Space” function, which automatically deletes photos from your phone that are already securely stored in the cloud.

Regularly sorting photos not only frees up memory, but also speeds up the gallery, and heavy albums make the indexing system work harder, consuming the battery.

Working with Android folder and system garbage

For advanced users, manually cleaning system folders is available, and at the root of the internal drive is the Android folder, and inside it is a data subfolder that stores application data, and be very careful: deleting folders of unknown applications can lead to malfunctioning or loss of progress in games.

But there are safe places to clean up. The Download folder is often filled with APK installation files that you don't need after you install the software. The MIUI folder can have debugging logs and error reports that you can delete. Also check the streaming service folders (Spotify, YouTube Music, Netflix) if you're listening to offline music, there may be gigabytes of cached music.

To access system files, use the built-in Explorer or the more functional File Manager+. Turn on the display of hidden files in the Explorer settings to see all directories.

Manually cleaning folders is the best, but it requires careful attention. Always check the purpose of the folder online before you delete its contents.

Memory Map and Cloud Technologies

If internal memory is full and there is nothing to delete, it is worth considering the expansion of storage. Many Xiaomi models support microSD cards. Once you install a card, you can transfer all photos, videos and music to it. In the camera settings, you can immediately set the saving of new images to the memory card, which will save the internal storage.

The alternative is cloud storage, services like Google One, Yandex 360 or Mi Cloud allow you to store files on servers, and when synced, photos are automatically uploaded to the cloud, and local copies are deleted, remaining available for viewing over the Internet, a modern solution to the problem of space shortage.

Using the cloud requires a stable Internet, but frees up space most efficiently. Combine local storage of important files and cloud storage for archives.

Radical measures: Resetting to factory settings

If nothing helps and the memory fills up on its own even after cleaning, it may be that critical errors have accumulated in the system or that fragmentation of the file system has reached a limit, in which case a full reset helps, which will put the phone back out of the box.

Before reset, be sure to make a full backup of your data via Settings → About Phone → Backup Recovery or via Mi Cloud. Once reset, all apps and files will be deleted and you will get a clean system with maximum free storage.

⚠️ Warning: Resetting to factory settings will completely destroy all data on the phone.Make sure you remember the password from your Google and Mi Account account, otherwise the phone may lock after reset.

This method is recommended to be carried out every 1-2 years of active use of the smartphone, it not only frees up space, but also significantly improves the overall performance of the device, removing the system “garbage” accumulated over the years.

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A complete reset is not a panacea, but a last resort, and always try to remove the heaviest apps and transfer the photos to the cloud before it.

Once reset, install only the necessary applications. Often we put "just in case" programs that lie dead for years, taking up space.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)