Owners of Redmi and Poco smartphones sooner or later face a situation where the once-quick device starts to work slowly, the MIUI or HyperOS system over time acquires a huge number of temporary files, remnants of remote applications and messenger cache, an inevitable process that leads to overflow of internal memory and a decrease in the overall performance of the gadget.
Cleaning a smartphone isn’t just about removing photos, it’s about taking a comprehensive approach to operating system maintenance. Many users mistakenly rely on embedded utilities alone, ignoring the hidden parts of the system where most of the digital trash is stored. In this article, we’ll look at proven ways to free up space.
Timely maintenance of the gadget allows you to extend its life and avoid sudden freezes at the most inopportune moment. You will learn to safely delete unnecessary data without fear of damaging system files or losing important contacts.
Built-in utility Security
The first step to freeing up space is to use a regular app that is already preinstalled on every Xiaomi device, a tool known as Security that has access to system partitions that are closed to third-party programs and is able to find files that a user doesn't see when browsing folders normally.
To run a deep cleaning, you need to run an application and select the Cleanup function, and the system will automatically scan the device and prompt you to delete temporary files, advertising debris and installer package residues, but you should be careful: sometimes the algorithm flags as garbage the cache of important applications that you will have to download again.
⚠️ Warning: Before running a full cleanup through a regular app, make sure you have a backup of important correspondence, as some messengers store history in shared temporary folders.
Special attention should be paid to the Deep Clean section, where you can find forgotten APK installation files that have been left behind after software updates, and often users forget to delete them manually, and they take up gigabytes of space for years.
- 🗑️ Removing the app cache with one click
- 📦 Cleaning up the download folder from old documents
- 📸 Search for duplicate photos in the gallery
- 📉 Analysis of space by category
Regular use of this tool at least once a week will help keep the system on track, and you should not wait until the space reaches a critical minimum, as this can negatively affect the speed of writing new data.
Manual cleaning of messenger folders
The main consumer of free space in modern smartphones are messengers such as Telegram, WhatsApp and Viber. These applications by default store all received images and videos in internal memory, creating huge archives of data. Standard cleaning tools often cannot get to the nested folder structures of these programs.
The most efficient way is to use the built-in File Manager Explorer. You need to go to the root directory of the storage and find the Android → media folder. This is where modern versions of Android store application data. In older versions of the system, folders could be in the root or in the tencent directory.
Inside the messenger folders, you often find subdirectories called Video, Image and Document, and that's where most of the garbage accumulates. You can safely delete files from the Cache folder, but you can not touch database files or settings to avoid losing your correspondence history.
For Telegram users, there is an easier way through the settings of the app itself. In the Settings menu → Data and memory → Memory use, you can see the exact size of the cache. By clicking the Clear Cache button, you will delete temporary copies of media files, but they will download again when you re-watch.
- 📂 WhatsApp's Way: Android/media/com.whatsapp/WhatsApp/Media
- ✈️ Telegram's Way: Android/data/org.telegram.messenger/files/Telegram
- 💬 Viber's Way: Android/media/com.viber.voip/ViberMedia
Once you manually check folders, you'll be surprised at how much space was used for videos and open images, which is the most efficient way to quickly free up a few gigabytes without removing important applications.
Storage analysis and duplicate search
Often, the user does not even know what exactly occupies space on his Redmi. Data visualization helps to understand the structure of memory consumption. In the settings of the phone along the Settings path → About phone → Storage, basic statistics are presented, but for detailed analysis it is better to use third-party utilities or built-in advanced reports.
One of the common problems is the presence of duplicate files: when you download the same document several times or when the synchronization of cloud services fails, copies can be created, specialized scanners allow you to find the same images, even if they have different names or slightly different resolutions.
⚠️ Warning: When using third-party disk analyzers, carefully check what you delete.
Also worth paying attention to the Download folder, where browsers and social networks often save files that the user forgets immediately after downloading. PDF-Documents, game installers and presentation videos can lie there for months.
Analysis reveals heavyweights, applications you haven't used in a long time but that are very large, and removing them or cleaning up their data is a quick way to get free space.
Cleaning system cache and Dalvik
A more advanced method that requires caution is to clear the system cache through the Recovery Recovery menu, which contains temporary operating system files that may accumulate after MIUI updates or application failures.
To enter Recovery mode, you need to turn off your phone and press the Volume Up + Power button combination. In the menu that appears (manage volume buttons, select the power button), you need to select Wipe Cache. Don't confuse it with Wipe Data, which will completely reset the phone to factory settings.
This procedure is especially useful if after a system update the phone starts to run unstable or quickly discharge.Dalvik cache reset (in some versions called ART cache) causes the system to re-optimize installed applications the next time it starts, which can take time, but improve performance.
It is worth noting that on modern data-encrypted devices, access to some Recovery functions may be limited or require unlocking the bootloader, in which case it is better to limit yourself to software-based cleaning methods inside the operating system.
Removal of residual files after uninstallation
When you delete an application in the standard way, it often leaves its tails on the phone, which are folders with settings, saved profiles or downloaded content, and over time, hundreds of folders from long-deleted games and utilities are dialed, and they continue to take up space.
To find these residues, you can use the file manager and look at the Android/data and Android/obb folder. This is where the application data is stored. If you see a folder with the name of a remote game or program, you can safely delete it manually.
There are tools like SD Maid (requires caution and access rights) that specialize in finding "orphaned" files, scanning the system and comparing the file list with the list of installed applications, suggesting that you delete anything that does not have a host.
| Type of file | Location. | Is it safe to remove? |
|---|---|---|
| Cash app. | Settings/Memory | Yes (data retained) |
| APK remnants | Download / Install folder | Yes. |
| Logs of error | Log/MIUI folder | Yes. |
| Miniatures photo | DCIM / .thumbnails | Yes (recreated) |
Regularly checking these directories allows you to keep the file system clean, but you should be careful when removing folders at the root, if you do not know their name, you should check it in advance in the search engine.
Optimization of MIUI and hidden settings
In addition to deleting files, you should pay attention to the settings of the MIUI shell itself. The memory extension function, which uses part of the internal storage as virtual RAM, can be useful, but it also takes up space and puts additional stress on the drive. If you have enough physical RAM (8 GB or more), this feature can be disabled in the settings Additional → Expansion of memory.
It’s also worth checking your auto-save settings in the gallery and cloud services, and often the phone stores two copies of the photo: the original and the optimized version for the cloud, or saves copies from different social media albums, and disabling syncs for unnecessary folders will help reduce the amount of garbage.
⚠️ Warning: Disabling system processes or removing unknown applications ADB It can cause your phone to malfunction. Only delete what you're 100 sure of%.
Another hidden source of debris is debugging logs and error reports. These can be cleaned by going to the Settings menu → About Phone → MIUI version (multiple taps to turn on developer mode are not required for cleaning, but are useful for diagnosis). There is an error report item on the developer menu that can also take up space.