Xiaomi, Redmi and Poco are all famous for their functionality, but crowded internal memory is a problem that everyone knows. When the storage is full of pictures, the system starts to work slower and new photos stop being saved. Cleaning the gallery becomes a critical task for the stable operation of the device.
Often users delete images in the standard way, but memory is not freed, due to the features of the MIUI shell and HyperOS, where deleted files can be temporarily stored in the basket or duplicated in the cloud services. Understanding the structure of the file system will help you manage space efficiently.
In this article, we will discuss all the methods of freeing up space, from basic deletion to working with system folders, you will learn to find hidden duplicates and properly clean cloud syncs to forget about the shortage of gigabytes forever.
Standard removal through the Gallery app
The most obvious way to free up space is to use the built-in Gallery app, which is a method that can be used to clean up a few failed shots or entire albums at a time, and the interface is intuitive and allows you to quickly highlight the desired objects.
To start, open the app and go to the Photos tab, where all images are sorted by date, making navigation easier, and then press your finger on one of the pictures to activate the highlight mode, and then tag the rest of the files.
Once you select, click on the basket icon at the bottom of the screen. The system will request confirmation of the action. It is important to understand that at this stage, the files do not disappear without a trace, but move to a special buffer.
⚠️ Note: If you delete photos through a standard gallery, they will remain in the Deleted folder for 30 days, continuing to take up space in the phone’s memory.
To erase the data, you need to do the second step: go to the Albums section, scroll to the bottom of the list, and find the Deleted folder, and inside you will see all the files deleted in the last month.
Press the "Clean" button or select specific images for permanent deletion, and only after this procedure will the device's physical memory be released, a common mistake by users who wonder why the place is not returning.
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Use the “Clear All” function in the shopping cart only if you are sure that there are no important documents or screenshots among those deleted that you may need later.
Managing Files through a Conductor
For deeper cleaning, it is recommended to use the system application Explorer. This tool gives access to the file structure and allows you to delete not only photos, but also the messenger cache, which often takes gigabytes.
Run Explorer and select Images, where files are sorted by application folder, you can find heavy pictures from WhatsApp, Telegram, or screenshots of the system, and you can delete them bypassing the standard gallery.
Social media folders are often automatically stored images from chat rooms that you don't need, and manually sorted in Explorer allows you to quickly identify and eliminate such "parasitic" files.
Unlike a gallery, Explorer deletion may not send files to the bin, but delete them immediately. This speeds up the process, but requires increased care. Always check the contents of the folder before pressing the delete button.
And you can also find it by file size, and by sorting through the image by volume, you can quickly find and remove heavy files. RAW-Photos or videos that take up the most space.
Cleaning up Google Cloud Sync Photos
Many Xiaomi users use Google Photos to back up, which is convenient but creates confusion: photos can be deleted from the cloud but remain in the phone’s memory, or vice versa.
To free up space on your device using the cloud, open the Google Photos app. Make sure the backup is complete. Then click on your profile avatar and select "Free up space."
The system will automatically find copies of photos that have already been saved in the cloud and prompt you to delete them from your device, a safe way to ensure that your data is not lost.
☑️ Checking before cleaning
However, if you delete a photo directly in the Google Photos app (clicking on the shopping cart), it will be removed from both the cloud and the phone. Be careful with this action. To manage only cloud storage, you should use the web version of the service through the browser.
In the web interface, you can remove the excess from the cloud, and after a while, the app on the phone syncs the changes, freeing up local memory, which is ideal for those who want to store the archive on the Internet rather than on a smartphone.
Search for hidden folders and duplicates
The MIUI and HyperOS shells have the ability to create many hidden folders for different functions, such as screenshots from games, saved statuses from instant messengers or thumbnails can be duplicated in different directories.
Use the built-in Cleanup tool in the Security app, which can find similar images and duplicates, run a scan and carefully review the files proposed for removal.
It's also worth checking the DCIM folder manually through Explorer, and it could be subfolders with the names.thumbnails or a cache of third-party cameras, and these files are hidden from normal viewing in the gallery.
| folder | Description of the contents | Recommendation |
|---|---|---|
| DCIM/Camera | Main camera photos | Sort by hand |
| DCIM/Screenshots | Screenshots of the system | You can remove old ones. |
| MIUI/Gallery/Cloud | Cloud gallery cache | Clean through settings |
| WhatsApp/Media | Photo from the messenger | Check before removal |
Duplicate content often occurs after a system update or reset with a backup recovery, and storage analysis helps to identify such anomalies and return hundreds of megabytes of free space.
Why is the.thumbnails folder so big?
Using In-Based Cleaning and Optimization
Xiaomi smartphones have a powerful optimization tool preinstalled, it's in the Security app and is available through a desktop widget, and using it regularly prevents critical memory from filling up.
Start Cleanup, and the system will prompt you to delete temporary files, app cache and remnants of deleted programs, often including forgotten large-scale video files.
In the Deep Cleanup section, you can find large files, sort them by size, and delete unnecessary videos or archives, and often people forget about downloaded movies, which take 2-3 GB each.
⚠️ Note: When using the Deep Clean feature, carefully look at the path to the file so that you do not accidentally delete important documents from the Download or Documents folder.
Automatic optimization can also be set to run regularly, which is useful for less experienced users who want to keep the phone in order without manual intervention, but automation does not always distinguish between important and unnecessary files perfectly.
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Regularly cleaning the cache through Xiaomi’s built-in tools is more effective than installing third-party “accelerators” that consume resources themselves.
What to do if the photo is not deleted
Sometimes users are faced with a situation where the file cannot be deleted: an error appears or the process freezes, this can be caused by a malfunction of the media scanner of the system or damage to the file system.
The first step is to restart the device, which will restart all system processes and can unlock the file. If that doesn't work, try putting the phone in Safe Mode and removing the photo from there, eliminating the influence of third-party apps.
The problem may also be access rights: If the photo is in the system folder, it may require a superuser (Root) permission to delete it, although this is rare for ordinary users in modern versions of Android and MIUI.
As a last resort, connect the phone to your computer in file transfer mode (MTP) and try to delete the image through the PC file manager.The computer often ignores the smartphone's software locks.