Cleaning Viber on Xiaomi Redmi: how to free up your phone memory without losing chats

Viber is one of the most popular messengers, but over time it turns into a real memory eater on Xiaomi Redmi smartphones. Photos, videos, stickers, voice messages and cache accumulate gigabytes, slowing down the phone. Especially acute problem is on the budget models of the Redmi Note or Redmi A series, where internal memory is sorely lacking. In this article, we will discuss how to properly clean Viber on Xiaomi without removing important chats, and return the phone performance.

Many users mistakenly believe that it is enough to simply uninstall the application and reinstall it, but this method not only does not solve the problem, but also leads to the loss of correspondence history. We will show safe ways to clean up, including hidden Viber settings, optimize media files and work with backups. And also explain why standard decache through the MIUI settings is often insufficient.

Why Viber takes up so much memory on Xiaomi Redmi

On Xiaomi Redmi smartphones (especially on models with 32 GB or 64 GB of memory), the Viber can take from 1-2 GB to 10 + GB - and that's not the limit.

• 📸 Automatic Media Download: Viber saves all photos, videos and documents in your phone’s memory by default, even if you didn’t open them.
• 🗑️ Cache and temporary files: messenger creates duplicate media for quick viewing, which over time are not deleted.
• 🔄 Backup Chats: If Auto-Reserve is enabled, Viber saves your correspondence archives to Google Drive or locally by taking up additional space.
• 🎵 Stickers and GIF-Animation: Each loaded pack of stickers weighs 5-50 MB, and they accumulate dozens.
• 📱 Features MIUI: Xiaomi shell sometimes duplicates Viber files in folder MIUI/Extra, compounding.

For example, on the Redmi Note 10 Pro with 128 GB of memory, users often find that Viber “eats” up to 15% of the total storage, while the standard cache cleaning through Settings → Applications removes only 100-300 MB – drops in the bucket compared to the real weight of the messenger.

⚠️ Note: If you use Viber Out for calls, the app also saves conversation records (when the function is enabled) and these files can weigh 50 to 200 MB per hour and are not automatically deleted.

Preparing for Cleanup: What to Do Before Deleting Files

Before you start cleaning, follow 3 mandatory steps to avoid losing important data:

1. Backup your chats: Go to Viber → ⋮ (menu) → Settings → Account. → Backup. Select to create a copy and save it to Google Drive or memory card, which will take anywhere from 5 minutes to 1 hour depending on the volume of correspondence.
2. Check important media files: Open chats with valuable photos/videos (such as documents or family photos) and manually save them to the Gallery or the cloud. → ⋮ → Save.
3. Turn off automatic download: Go to Settings → Media and files and deactivate Automatic Photo/Video Download options. This will prevent the re-accumulation of garbage.

If you are using Xiaomi Redmi with MIUI 12-14, check the MIUI/Extra/Viber folder through any file manager (e.g. Files by Google or standard Explorer) that can store duplicate media files that are not visible in the messenger itself.

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If your chat backup weighs more than 1GB, break it up into parts. To do this, manually export your chats to individual chat rooms: open a dialogue. → ⋮ → Exports of history.

Method 1: Clearing Viber cache and data through MIUI settings

The easiest, but least effective method is to remove the cache through system settings, which is suitable if Viber has started to slow down but has not yet taken up a critical amount of memory.

Instructions:

1. Open Settings → Applications → Application Management.
2. Find Viber in the list and tap it.
3. Choose Warehouse.
4. Click Clear cache (it is safe – only temporary files will be deleted).
5. If you need to reset the settings of the messenger, click Clear data, but note: this will delete the entire history of correspondence and account settings.

Redmi with MIUI 13/14 may receive a notification “Viber optimized” after cleaning the cache, which means that the system temporarily limited the background activity of the application, but this does not affect the amount of memory occupied.

⚠️ Note: Some Redmi models (e.g. Redmi) 9A or Redmi 8) after the data is cleaned, Viber may stop syncing with the cloud, in which case you will have to re-sign in to your account through the cloud. SMS-code.

Method 2: Manually clean media files in Viber

If the cache is low in space and the bulk of the cache is photos, videos, and documents, clean them directly in the messenger, which allows you to selectively delete unnecessary files without affecting important ones.

Step-by-step:

You can also use the function "Store Cleaning":

1. Open Viber. → ⋮ → Settings → Warehouse and data.
2. Put the vault clear.
3. Select the file types to delete (e.g., "Photos and Videos" or "Documents").
4. Specify the period (e.g., “Older than 6 months”) and confirm the cleanup.

On Xiaomi Redmi with MIUI 14, this feature is unstable - sometimes Viber "forgets" to delete files from the /storage/emulated/0/Viber folder. After cleaning, check this directory manually through the file manager.

Method 3: Remove backups and duplicates

Chat backups and media duplicates are the main “invisible” memory eaters; on Redmi, they can take up to 3-7 GB, without the user even knowing they exist.

Where to look and how to remove:

• 📁 Local backups: The way: /storage/emulated/0/Viber/backup. Delete files with the.vcb extension (if they are older than the last successful copy in the cloud).
• ☁️ Cloud Copies in Google Drive: Open Google Drive → Delete old archives (they take up space in your cloud storage).
• 🖼️ Media Duplicates: Use apps like Files by Google or CCleaner to find repetitive photos/videos in Viber and other folders. DCIM.

On the Redmi Note 11 and later, MIUI automatically creates duplicate media files in the MIUI/Extra/Viber folder. These files don't appear in the gallery, but take up space.

1. Connect your phone to your PC via USB (in file transfer mode).
2. Open the Internal Storage → MIUI → Extra → Viber folder.
3. Delete all files inside (they are copies from the main Viber folder).

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Backups older than 6 months can be safely deleted – they rarely contain up-to-date information, but take up to 2-3 GB of memory.

Method 4: Optimize Viber to save memory

To prevent Viber from accumulating garbage in the future, set it up according to these rules:

• 🚫 Turn off autoload media: Go to Settings → Media and files and deactivate all auto download options. Now files will only be downloaded after you have confirmed.
• 🗑️ Enable automatic cleaning: In the same section, activate "Delete Media After Watching" (available in the latest versions of Viber).
• 📥 Limit the size of the downloaded files: C Settings → Data and storage set a limit on the download of large files (e.g. 50MB).
• 🔄 Set up backup: Leave only monthly copy creation (instead of weekly) and save them only to the cloud, not locally.

On Xiaomi Redmi with MIUI 13+, it is also useful to turn off Viber background activity to save charge and memory:

1. Open Settings → Applications → Viber → Battery.
2. Select "Limit background activity."
3. Turn on Sleep Mode (this will not affect notifications, but will reduce memory consumption).

After these settings, Viber will take up 30-50% less memory after a month of use.

What to do if Viber takes up a lot of space

If Viber continues to inflate after all the manipulations, try these radical methods:

• 🔄 Reinstall Viber with full cleanup: Remove the app, then manually clean folders /Viber and /Android/data/com.viber.voip After that, install Viber again and restore the chats from the backup.
• 📱 Transfer Viber to memory card: Redmi with microSD support (e.g. Redmi Note) 10S) You can transfer some of the Viber data to a map, and then use the "Move to" option. SD-map in the application settings.
• 🛠️ Use alternative messengers: If Viber is critically overloading your phone, consider switching to Telegram or WhatsApp – they are optimized for memory savings (e.g. Telegram stores media in the cloud, not on your device).

On Redmi models with 64GB of storage and a less radical reset may be the only way out.

1. Save all important media files from Viber to a separate folder.
2. Export your correspondence history (if it is critical).
3. Make sure you have access to the email linked to your Viber account (for recovery).

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If Viber fills up memory quickly again after reinstalling, check your phone for viruses using Google Play Protect or Malwarebytes. Some malware masquerades as messenger files.

FAQ: Frequent questions about cleaning Viber on Xiaomi Redmi