Many owners of Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO smartphones sooner or later face an unpleasant situation: free space on the drive is running out, and a mysterious category that occupies tens of gigabytes appears in the system storage. This section is often designated as “Other” or Other, and standard cleaning methods often prove powerless against it. The user tries to delete unnecessary photos or videos, but the amount of memory occupied does not change much.
The reason is that the system analyzer does not always correctly classify temporary files, application cache and remnants of remote programs. In the MIUI operating system or the new HyperOS, this section can be inflated due to the operation of messengers, browsers and system logs. Understanding the nature of this data is the first step to successfully clean a device without losing important information.
In this article, we will discuss in detail the safe ways to free up space. Manual cleaning requires care, but it gives a better result than automatic scripts. We will look at which folders can be touched and which ones are better left alone so as not to disrupt the operating system.
⚠️ Note: Before any manipulation of system files is initiated, it is strongly recommended to back up important data.
What is hidden in the category "Other"
The Other section is a collection of files that the system failed to categorize as standard categories like Photos, Videos, or Music, most often containing streaming cached data, temporary update files, and application archives, which can range from a few megabytes to 20-30 gigabytes on long-term devices.
Apps like Telegram or WhatsApp store the media they receive into their hidden directories, which standard memory analyzer often ignores or attributes to other things. App cache is temporary data that speeds up programs, but over time it can take up a critically large amount.
Also in this category, the remnants of remote games and programs are often hidden, and if you delete a game but do not clear its data folder (OBB or Data), it will continue to occupy space, and system error logs and statistics sending reports can also accumulate if the corresponding option is enabled in the MIUI settings.
Why can't the system see these files?
Use of the built-in "Security" application
The first tool to use is the standard Security app preinstalled on all Xiaomi smartphones, which is the safest way to start cleaning up, as it does not require superuser rights and minimizes the risk of deleting system files. Launch the app and select Cleanup.
Once scanned, the system will suggest removing the obvious debris, but to work with the Other section, you need to go deeper. Click on Clean again or select Deep Clean (if available in your version of MIUI), where you can find large files and duplicates that are often disguised as otherwise.
☑️ Verification by standard means
Don't just rely on automatic mode. Manually check the Apps section inside the clean menu. Here you can see how much space each software installed takes up. Cleaning the cache of heavy applications like browsers or social media can release a few gigabytes instantly.
Manual cleaning through the conductor
For more advanced file system work, you’ll need a built-in Explorer or file manager with advanced rights, like MI File Manager or Total Commander. Go to the internal drive root directory. You’ll need to find the Android folder, which is often the main source of junk.
Inside the Android/data folder, you store all the apps you installed. Each folder here corresponds to a specific program. Be very careful: deleting the active application folder can reset it or cause you to lose progress in games. Look for folders with the names of previously deleted games or applications.
Special attention should be paid to the tencent folder (if WeChat or Chinese versions of apps are installed) and the messenger folders, which often contain cache and temp folders. Their content can be deleted safely. Also check the Download folder, which often downloads APK installation files, which after installation become useless.
| Folder/The Way | Description of the contents | Can I remove it? | Risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Android/data | Application and game data | Only remote applications | High (loss of progress) |
| Android/obb | Heavy game cache files | Only from remote games | Medium (the game won't start) |
| MIUI/debug_log | System logs for debugging | Yes. | Low. |
| DCIM/.thumbnails | Photo miniatures | Yeah (recover) | Low (galleries slowing) |
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Use file size sorting in the Explorer to quickly find hidden heavyweights that occupy space in the Other section but have non-standard names.
Cleaning up messengers and social networks
The most active memory eaters are instant messengers. Telegram, for example, caches all photos and videos viewed by default so that they load instantly when reopened. Over time, this cache can reach tens of gigabytes, remaining invisible in the shared gallery.
To clean up Telegram, go to Settings → Data and Memory → Memory Use. Here you will see the “Clear Cache” button. Click it boldly, your correspondence and media files in Favorites will not be lost, they will simply be re-downloaded from the cloud if necessary. A similar feature is available in WhatsApp in the Data and Storage → Storage Management.
Social networks like VK, Instagram or TikTok also accumulate a huge amount of temporary data. These apps often don’t have a “clean everything” button in their settings, so you have to go to the phone’s settings: Settings → Apps → All Apps → [Select App] → Storage → Clear cache.
⚠️ Warning: Do not confuse the Clear Cache button with the Delete Data button (or Clear Everything) and the second option will completely remove the app along with your logins and correspondence if they are not saved in the cloud.
Analysis of storage by third-party utilities
If Xiaomi's built-in tools don't give you the full picture, specialized analytics apps will come to the rescue, and one of the most effective tools is DiskUsage or Solid Explorer, which builds a visual memory card, showing in blocks which files are taking up space.
With these slits, you can see hidden folders that a standard explorer doesn't display without enabling the "Show Hidden Files" mode. You can visually estimate the size of each directory. Often, the "Other" is one particular forgotten folder with logs or a navigator cache.
Using third-party software requires permissions to access files. Make sure you only download apps from the official Google Play store or GetApps to avoid malware being introduced. Visualization helps you quickly find anomalies, such as a 5GB file left over from a failed screen recording.
Radical methods: Resetting and flashing
In cases where the Other partition takes up more than 50% of the memory and is not cleanable by any methods, radical intervention may be required, and often the cause of inflating the partition is file system errors or “broken” index files that are not deleted by standard means.
The most effective way is to completely reset to the factory settings (Hard Reset).Be sure to back up all the important data to your computer or the cloud before that. Go to Settings → About Phone → Reset → Erase all the data. This will return the phone to the state “out of the box” by completely clearing the “Other” section.
Settings → About the phone → Reset settings → Erase all dataEven if resetting doesn’t work (which is extremely rare), the problem may be a physical drive malfunction or a critical firmware error, which may require flashing the device through the computer using the Mi Flash Tool, a complex procedure that requires an unlocked bootloader.
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Hard Reset is the only guaranteed way to get rid of system junk that cannot be manually removed, but it requires a full backup of data.