How to Clean Xiaomi Phone From Unnecessary Files: The Complete Guide

Xiaomi’s smartphones are famous for their speed and rich functionality, but even the powerful hardware gets tougher over time. Users often notice that the device is slower, apps open longer, and notifications of space shortages appear with frightening regularity. It’s a natural process of accumulating digital junk that is inevitable when you use it actively.

The main reason for slowing down is the overflow of internal memory and fragmentation of the file system. The MIUI or HyperOS operating system creates many temporary files to speed up the download of applications, but rarely deletes them on its own, resulting in a month of active correspondence, watching videos on social networks and installing games can accumulate several gigabytes of useless data.

In this article, we will discuss in detail how to clean a Xiaomi phone from unnecessary files using both built-in system tools and third-party tools. You will learn how to safely delete cache, find hidden folders and optimize storage to return the smartphone to factory speed without losing important personal data.

Analysis of occupied space and search for heavyweights

Before you take any drastic action, you need to do a thorough review of your device's content. A standard analyzer often only shows general categories, hiding real memory eaters. It's worth looking at the storage settings to get a sense of the overall distribution of data.

Go to Settings → Phone → Storage. Here you will see a color diagram where each sector is responsible for a specific type of data, and you should pay special attention to the “Other” or “System Files” section, since this is where the remnants of remote applications and error logs are often hidden.

For more detailed analysis, you can use the built-in Explorer tool. Open Files app and select size sorting, which will instantly reveal video files you forgot to delete or archives left over from installing programs. Often users store duplicate photos or old backups of chats that take gigabytes.

⚠️ Note: Before removing files from folders with system application names or folders with unknown abbreviations, be sure to specify their purpose on the Internet. Deleting critical system files can lead to unstable interface operation MIUI.

It's important to understand the difference between user data and system cache. If you can safely delete the former if you need to, you need to be careful with the latter. App cache speeds up their launch, but over time it inflates to inadequate size. Cache cleaning is safe, but after that applications can load a little longer the first time.

Use of the built-in "Security" application

Each Xiaomi smartphone has a Security system app, which is the main tool for maintaining the system. Despite criticism from some experts, this tool is deeply integrated into the shell and has access to areas closed to third-party programs.

Launch the app and select Cleanup, which automatically scans the device for temporary files, uninstall residues, and ads, taking 30 to 60 seconds depending on the amount of debris it has accumulated.

After scanning, you will see a list of categories to clean up. Be careful: by default, "big files" that are actually important to you (for example, saved maps offline or downloaded TV shows) may be selected. Always check the contents of the folder before confirming deletion.

It also has Deep Clean, which analyzes similar photos, unused apps, and large files, and it's a great way to find forgotten downloads in the folder of downloads you downloaded six months ago and don't remember them anymore.

• 🗑️ Cache Clearing: Deletes temporary files, speeding up the system, but does not affect your logins and passwords.
• 📦 Removal APK: Finds application installation files that remain in memory after successful program installation.
• 📸 Search for duplicates: helps to find the same photos and screenshots that take up extra space.

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Use the "Accelerate" function in the same "Security" application immediately after cleaning the memory. This frees up RAM and closes the background processes, which gives instant performance gains.

Manual cleaning of garbage through the conductor

Automatic cleaners can't always find anything that's not necessary. Manually checking through built-in Explorer allows you to control every byte you remove, and it's the most effective method for those who want to bring perfect order to the file system.

Open the Explorer app and go to internal memory. First of all, check the Download folder. This is where browsers and messengers default to save all downloaded files. Often there you can find old presentations, installers and documents that have already lost their relevance.

Pay special attention to social folders. Android → media → com.whatsapp (or com.telegram.messenger) stores all the media you receive. Even if you delete a photo from a chat, a copy of it often stays in the file system. The Thumbnails folder inside camera albums can weigh several gigabytes, saving thumbnails of the videos you watched.

Don't forget the folder. MIUI → debug_log. It stores the system debugging logs that only developers can use to find bugs. For the average user, this section is completely useless and can take up a significant amount of space.

Cleaning the cache of applications and messengers

The most voracious apps on any Android smartphone are messengers and social networks. Telegram, WhatsApp, Viber and Instagram cache every image and video viewed so that when you reopen the chat, content loads instantly. Over time, this cache can grow to 10-20 GB.

The best way to clean them is to use the built-in tools of the apps themselves. For example, in Telegram you need to go to Settings → Data and memory → Memory Use. There you can set up autodelete the cache (for example, in 3 days or a week) and force to clear the current volume. This will not delete your correspondence, they are stored on the server, but will free up space on the phone.

For other applications, use the system path: Settings → Apps → All apps. Select a heavy app, click Memory and then Clear Cache. Don't confuse it with the Clean All button, which will reset the app to a state immediately after installation (fly out of your account).

When you clear your browser cache (Chrome, Mi Browser), you delete your browsing history, cookies, and temporary site files, which is useful periodically to improve privacy and eliminate page display errors, but be prepared to re-enter passwords on some sites.

Removal of system debris and residual files

When you delete applications in Android (and MIUI in particular), you often have tails — empty folders or configuration files — that don't affect the system critically, but they clog the file system, and you can find them in the root directory of internal memory.

Look for folders with names of remote games or programs. If you delete a game but the folder with its name and logo is still there, you can delete it. It's also worth checking the Backup folder if you're not backing up to your computer or the cloud. Local MIUI backups can take up tens of gigabytes.

For advanced users, there is a possibility of using ADB-commands to clean the system cache, which is not available through the normal interface. USB.

adb shell pm trim-disk good

This command tells the system that the data is no longer needed, and allows the file system to mark those blocks as free, especially for eMMC-type memory phones that are prone to degradation of the filling rate.

⚠️ Attention: Use ADB-If you're not sure what you're doing, you need to be careful. If you don't type the wrong command, you can delete the system partitions. If you're not sure what you're doing, you can limit yourself to standard cleaning methods through the settings.

Storage optimization and data transfer

Once the garbage is removed, it is important to organize the remaining data so that the problem does not arise again in a month, optimally when the free space is at least 15-20% of the total memory, this is necessary for the recording algorithms and Wear Leveling to work correctly.

Use cloud services. Google Photos lets you store your photos in a compressed (but high-quality) format for free. Set up automatic sync and enable the "Free Space" feature, which will remove photos from your phone that are already stored in the cloud.

Xiaomi users also have their own Mi Cloud, which perfectly syncs contacts, notes, voice recorder and gallery. Transferring heavy files to a memory card (if the phone model supports microSD) is another great way to offload internal storage.

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Regular cleaning (once every 2 weeks) takes less time than dealing with the effects of overflowing memory, when the phone starts to brake at every step.

Remember to check the Recycle Bin folder in the gallery and in the file manager. Deleted files often stay there for 30 days, continuing to take up space. Cleaning the Recycle Bin is the final touch in the process of putting things in order.