Cleaning Other on Redmi Note 8: The Complete Guide

The situation where Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 smartphone starts to run slowly and space shortage notifications appear with alarming regularity is familiar to every owner. Visual analysis of storage often reveals the mysterious category of "Other" or "System," which can take up tens of gigabytes. Users are lost, not understanding what exactly is hiding behind the term and how to safely delete data without damaging the MIUI operating system.

The accumulation of digital garbage is gradual: Messengers save copies of photos sent, browsers cache pages, and apps create temporary files to speed up work. Over time, this data ceases to be useful, but continues to occupy precious space in the internal drive. Understanding the structure of files is the first step to effectively manage your gadget’s memory.

In this article, we will look at proven cleaning methods, from standard system tools to advanced ways of working with the file system, learn which folders can be deleted without fear, and which ones are strictly forbidden to touch, and a competent approach will return the device to its previous response speed and make room for new photos and applications.

Analysis of vault occupancy

Before we start radical measures, we need to determine exactly what is taking up space. Standard Android tools and the MIUI shell provide basic information, but it is often too general. The system groups files by type, but hidden logs and remnants of remote programs can be masquerading as system processes.

For a detailed study, we recommend using the built-in Cleanup tool, which scans the device and suggests removing obvious debris. However, for a deep analysis, you should turn to third-party visualization utilities that show the memory card as a diagram, which allows you to instantly identify heavyweights, files that you might not even know existed.

Note the size of the app cache: Some programs, especially social media and streaming services, can grow to several gigabytes, and regular monitoring helps keep things under control and avoids suddenly blocking updates.

Standard cleaning methods through settings

The safest way to free up space is to use the regular functions of the smartphone. In Redmi Note 8, the Security app and the storage settings section are responsible for this, and you can delete temporary files that do not affect the operation of programs, but occupy a significant amount of space.

Go to Settings → Memory. The system will prompt you to clear the cache and remove rarely used applications. This method is ideal for users who do not want to risk the integrity of system files. Xiaomi algorithms automatically detect safe to delete objects.

It is important to check the Recycle Bin section of the gallery regularly, and deleted photos are often stored there for another 30 days, continuing to take up space, and it is also worth checking the download folder, where APK installation files and documents from the Internet accumulate.

⚠️ Note: When cleaning through standard settings, read file names carefully. Do not delete files with the.obb or.data extension unless you are sure they are remote games.

Working with the cache of applications and messengers

The main memory consumers on a modern smartphone are messengers. WhatsApp, Telegram and Viber by default store all received media files. Over time, this turns into huge archives that slow down the device and take up gigabytes in the “Other” section.

To clean up, go to the application settings and look for “Data Use and Storage,” where you can choose “Clear Cache” or “Storage Management,” and unlike complete data cleanup, this method saves your correspondence by only deleting temporary files and thumbnails.

• 📱 Open WhatsApp Settings and go to the Storage and Data section.
• 🗑️ Click on “Storage Management” and select chats with a large amount of attachments.
• 🎞️ Remove the video files that take up the most space, leaving a text history.
• ⚙️ In privacy settings, turn off auto-save to the gallery for new media.

Telegram is a special focus. This messenger caches all videos and photos viewed. Data and memory settings → Memory usage can be set to automatically clean the cache, for example, every 3 days or week, to prevent uncontrolled growth of application folders.

Deletion of residual files and folders

When you delete applications, you often have their tails left in the system — empty folders, error logs, and configuration files — that are useless, but they create visual noise and take up space, and you'll need a file manager to find them, like a built-in Explorer or File Manager.

At the root of internal memory, look for folders with the names of remote programs. Android/data and Android/obb. It's where the game and the application data is stored. If you delete the game, but the folder with its name is still there, you can erase it.

Be careful of folders that have strange names of numbers and letters, often the identifiers of ad networks or analytics services, and Google their name or search the developer forums before removing such objects.

⚠️ Warning: Never delete folders with the names of system services Google (com.google.android...) or Xiaomi (com.miui...) unless you know exactly what they are intended for.

Using a computer for deep cleaning

Connecting Redmi Note 8 to your computer USB-This allows you to use powerful analysis tools like WinDirStat or TreeSize Free to build a detailed map of occupied space that you can't get on the phone.

Connect your smartphone to file transfer (MTP) mode. Run a scanner on your PC and select your phone's drive. You'll be surprised to find forgotten 4K videos, duplicate music albums or gigabyte error logs. The computer allows you to quickly isolate and delete large groups of files.

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Use the Ctrl+A hotkeys to highlight all files in the folder and Shift+Delete for irrevocable deletion, bypassing the computer basket, which will save time when cleaning up large amounts of data.

It's also convenient to sort files by modification date through your computer, and you can transfer old documents and project archives that you don't need on your phone to your hard drive, freeing up internal memory, especially for a 64GB model that fills up quickly.

Radical measures: Resetting to factory settings

If the Other partition is an abnormally large volume and cannot be cleaned by standard methods, there may be critical errors in the file system, in which case the solution would be a complete reset, which would return the smartphone to the out-of-the-box state.

Before the procedure, make sure to back up all important data to the Google Drive cloud or computer. Reset will destroy all information, including contacts, messages and files. Once reset, the system will work as quickly as possible, and the Other partition will take up the smallest possible volume.

To perform the reset, go to Settings → About Phone → Reset. Select “Erase All Data.” The process will take a few minutes, after which the phone will restart and require initial setup. This is a guaranteed way to get rid of software debris.

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Hard Reset is the only solution that is guaranteed to eliminate system errors of memory storage, but requires a mandatory data backup.