How to remove an album from a gallery on Xiaomi: all the ways

Removing unnecessary albums from Xiaomi Gallery is a challenge that every MIUI smartphone user faces. Over time, the Gallery's standard app is filled with automatically created folders (screenshots, downloads, instant messengers) and takeovers after transferring photos to a new phone. But not all albums can be removed in the standard way - some are protected by the system, others are simply hidden from direct access.

In this article, we will discuss all possible ways to delete albums on Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO devices, including hidden system folders, Mi Cloud cloud albums and the nuances of working with different versions of MIUI (12 to 14).

Why Xiaomi Gallery Has Extra Albums

The Gallery app on Xiaomi automatically sorts media files according to several criteria, which often leads to unnecessary folders.

• 📁 System albums: created for screenshots, downloads, images from messengers (WhatsApp Images, Telegram Pictures).
• 🔄 Duplicates after the update: when switching to a new version MIUI Or transfer data via Mi Mover may appear copies of albums.
• ☁️ Cloud Albums: If you’ve used Mi Cloud or Google Photos, synchronized folders will show up in the gallery as separate albums.
• 🤖 Third-party applications: Some programs (such as photo editors or launchers) create their own folders for temporary files.

It's important to understand that not all albums can be removed directly, like the Camera or DCIM folder, which is protected by the system because it's used to store new photos, but albums like Blurred or Collage are usually deleted without any problems.

Method 1: Standard removal of the album through the gallery

The simplest method is for custom albums that are created manually or automatically, but not protected by the system. MIUI 12–14:

1. Open the Gallery app (icon with multi-colored squares).
2. In the bottom panel, click on the Album tab (or Folders in older versions).
3. Find the album you want to delete and hold your finger on it for 2 seconds.
4. At the top of the screen will appear the toolbar – click on the icon of the basket (or Delete).
5. Confirm the action by selecting OK.

If the delete button is inactive (grey), then the album is protected by the system, in which case move on to the following methods.

Method 2: Delete through the file manager

Many of the albums in the gallery are just folders in the phone's memory, and can be deleted through Files (the standard file manager of Xiaomi), which works even for system folders, but requires caution.

Step-by-step:

1. Open the Files app (an icon with a yellow folder).
2. Go to internal memory: press Device → Internal storage.
3. Open the DCIM folder (all media files are stored here) or Pictures.
4. Find the folder corresponding to the album (like Screenshots for screenshots).
5. Hold your finger on the folder → select Delete → Confirm.

⚠️ Please note: Do not delete the Camera folders and DCIM completely, which can lead to errors when taking new photos.

If the folder is not deleted, it has the system rights, and the ADB method (described below) will help.

Method 3: Cleaning Albums from the Mi Cloud

If the album is synced to Mi Cloud, deleting it through the gallery will only lead to the disappearance of the phone — the files will remain in the cloud and return the next time you sync.

1. Open your Settings → Xiaomi Account → Mi Cloud.
2. Choose a gallery (or photo).
3. Click on the basket icon in the upper right corner.
4. Select unnecessary albums and click Delete Forever.

Then turn off the gallery sync in Mi Cloud if you don’t want your albums to be restored:

Settings → Xiaomi Account → Mi Cloud → Gallery → [Disable Synchronization]

Method 4: Removing Protected Albums via ADB (for Advanced)

Some system albums (such as MIUI or Wallpapers) can’t be removed by standard methods, and Android Debug Bridge (ADB) – a tool for low-level phone management – will help.

⚠️ Warning: Misuse of the right ADB This may cause a malfunction of the phone.

Steps to remove:

1. Enable Developer Mode: Settings → About Phone → MIUI Version (click 7 times)
2. Activate USB Debugging: Settings → Additional → For Developers → Debugging by USB
3. Connect your phone to your PC, install ADB Tools, and execute commands: adb shell pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.miui.gallery This will delete the gallery, but the albums will remain in memory. Use root file manager to delete them.

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If you don't want to delete the gallery completely, you can turn off the display of unnecessary albums through the.nomedia file. Create an empty file with that name in the folder of the album - it will disappear from the gallery, but will remain in memory.

Method 5: Reset Gallery settings

If the albums continue to appear after deletion, the Gallery app settings may have gone wrong, in which case the reset will help:

1. Go to Settings → Applications → Application Management.
2. Find the gallery and open its settings.
3. Press Warehouse. → Clear the data.
4. Confirm action. Attention: This will remove all gallery settings, including sorting and select albums.

After reset, restart your phone.Albums that were previously deleted should not recover (unless synced to the cloud).

💡

Resetting the gallery doesn't delete the files themselves, it only deletes the settings, and the photos and videos will remain in the phone's memory.

What to do if the album is restored after removal

If the album came back after a reboot or synchronization, the reasons may be:

• ☁️ Cloud sync: check your Mi Cloud or Google Photos settings.
• 🔄 Automatic creation: Some albums (such as Screenshots) are restored by the system when new files appear.
• 📱 Cash Gallery: Clear the Gallery app cache in the settings.
• 🔧 Firmware error: on some versions MIUI (So, for example, 13.0.4), there's a bug that recreates albums.

For final disposal:

1. Turn off sync with the clouds.
2. Delete the album through Files (see Method 2).
3. Create a.nomedia file in your album folder (through a file manager with access to hidden files).

FAQ: Frequent questions about removing albums on Xiaomi