Xiaomi brand smartphone owners often face a situation where built-in cloud storage is overflowing.The Xiaomi Cloud automatically saves your snaps for security, but sooner or later the 5GB limit ends.This causes constant notifications of space shortages and blocks the creation of new backups.
Deleting photos is not always intuitive, especially when you need to clear the server space, but leave files in the phone's memory. Wrong actions can lead to the loss of important frames forever. In this article, we will discuss in detail all ways to manage a gallery in the cloud.
Principles of synchronization of the gallery
Before you start cleaning, you need to understand the logic of the service. Synchronization is a two-way process. If you delete a picture in the cloud, it can disappear from the device if the option is enabled. Conversely, deleting from the phone often erases the file from the cloud.
The key here is connectivity status, and when a smartphone is online, any changes to the DCIM/Camera folder are instantly reflected on the company's servers, which ensures data security, but requires careful file management.
There's an important difference between deleting from local memory and deleting from the cloud, and users often confuse these concepts, which leads to unexpected results. To manage space properly, you need to have a clear idea of where a copy is stored right now.
⚠️ Before mass deletion, make sure that important photos are saved to an external hard drive or other cloud service to avoid permanent data loss.
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Use the Favorites feature in the gallery before cleaning, so that tagged pictures are easier to find and not accidentally delete them.
Removal through smartphone settings
The easiest way to free up space is to use the standard Gallery app on the device itself, a method that is handy when you need to delete a few specific photos or albums that are no longer needed.
To start, open the app and go to the Cloud tab, which shows all the media files uploaded to the Mi Account server, highlight the unwanted images and press the delete button, and the system will ask for confirmation of the operation.
It’s important to note that when synced, deleting here will affect all devices tied to your account, which can be useful for cleaning up old garbage everywhere at once, but dangerous if you were planning to leave a photo on your tablet.
- 📱 Open the Gallery app and go to the Albums section".
- ☁️ Choose the album "Cloud" or "Xiaomi Cloud".
- 🗑️ Click "Select", mark files and select the basket icon.
- ✅ Confirm the action in the pop-up window.
After these actions are completed, the files are moved to the cloud storage basket, where they are stored for another 30 days, and only after this period they will be permanently deleted, taking up a place in the quota.
Cleaning through the web interface i.mi.com
Content management via a browser on a computer is often more convenient, especially if you need to audit a large archive.The web version of Xiaomi Cloud provides full access to the file structure without the limitations of the mobile interface.
Go to the official website of the service and log in using your Mi ID. The interface resembles a standard file manager. From the menu on the left, select the Gallery section. Here you will see all the albums synced from your phone.
The web interface allows you to use keyboard shortcuts to speed up the process, for example, by holding the Shift key, you can highlight a range of photos, and Ctrl (or Cmd on a Mac) allows you to select individual files scattered, which greatly speeds up the cleanup.
☑️ Pre-deletion check
You should pay special attention to the section "Recently deleted" because even after cleaning the web, files get there, and to make room, you should go to this section and select the "Clean everything" option.
Disconnecting synchronization before removal
A common problem for users is to want to delete photos from the cloud but store them in the phone's memory. The standard MIUI and HyperOS logic is mirroring changes. To break that connection, you have to temporarily turn off sync.
Go to your smartphone settings and find "Mi Account." Go to "Xiaomi Cloud." Here you'll see a list of applications that are stored on the server. Find the Gallery and turn off the switch.
Once you turn off sync, the system will offer two options: leave the data in the cloud or delete it. If your goal is to clean the cloud but leave a photo on your phone, select Leave in the cloud when you turn off, and then delete the files through the web interface.
⚠️ Warning: If you just turn off the sync slider, new photos will stop loading, but the old ones will stay in the cloud.
There's a nuance to the quality of the photos you upload, and you can choose "Original" or "Compressed Image" in the settings, and when you choose a compressed version, you store a smaller copy in the cloud, which saves space, but reduces the detail when you view it from other devices.
Comparison of storage management methods
Different methods of removal have their advantages and disadvantages depending on your current task. Below is a table to help you choose the best method for a particular situation.
| Method | Convenience | Speed of operation | Risk of error |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gallery annex | High. | Medium | Medium. |
| Website i.mi.com | Average. | Tall. | Low. |
| File manager | Low. | Low. | High-pitched |
| Third-party annexes | High. | Tall. | High-pitched |
Using a file manager requires caution: Directly deleting files from system folders can disrupt the gallery index. A website is the safest way to clean up massively, as it has additional confirmations.
Recovery and basket management
Xiaomi's security system provides a safety net, and all deleted photos are not instantly deleted, but are moved to a special folder called "Recently deleted" with a storage period of 30 days.
This gives you time to recover randomly deleted footage, and to get back a photo, you just go to the album, find the file you want, and select the "Restore" option, and the image will go back to the original album and start syncing again.
However, if your goal is to make room right now, ignoring the cart is pointless.The files in it continue to occupy your 5GB quota. You need to manually clean this section after the main deletion.
- 🕒 Files are stored in the basket for exactly 30 days.
- 🗑️ Manual cleaning of the basket frees up space instantly.
- ↩️ Recovering the file after cleaning the basket is impossible.
- 📉 The quota is not updated instantly, there may be a delay of up to 1 hour.
Remember that when the cloud overflows, new photos may stop syncing, in which case cleaning the cart is a critical step to restarting the backup.
Alternative solutions and advice
If you’re constantly lacking 5GB of built-in volume, it makes sense to consider alternatives. Xiaomi Cloud is primarily designed to synchronize contacts, notes and important documents, rather than storing huge archives of video in 4K.
Many users are switching to Google Photos or Yandex Drive, which often offer more flexible rates or better compression quality, and you can set up automatic upload to a third-party service and disable gallery sync in Mi Cloud.
How to transfer photos to Google Photos?
There is also the possibility of expanding storage within the Xiaomi ecosystem: paid subscription rates allow you to increase the volume to 50 GB or 200 GB. This is true if you are deeply integrated into the brand ecosystem and use a smart home.
⚠️ Note: When changing your smartphone to a device of another brand (for example, Samsung or iPhone), access to Xiaomi Cloud is possible only through the browser, since there is no system application for other OSes.
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Regularly checking cloud occupancy once a month will help avoid a situation where important new images are no longer saved.