How to delete photos on Xiaomi: a complete guide to cleaning memory

Owners of Xiaomi, Redmi and Poco smartphones often face a lack of free space in the device’s memory. The main reason for overflowing storage is multimedia files, especially high-resolution photos and videos, the situation is aggravated if the user actively takes pictures or receives media files in messengers, which are automatically saved to the system gallery.

The process of removing images in the MIUI shell or the new HyperOS has its own features, different from standard Android. Incorrect cleaning can lead to the loss of important data or, conversely, leave “junk” files in hidden folders. In this article, we will discuss all methods of freeing up space, from simple deletion to working with cloud services.

Understanding the file system structure of your smartphone will help you avoid mistakes, and you will learn not only to erase pictures, but also to do it effectively by finding hidden copies and duplicates that take up precious gigabytes.

Basic removal through a standard gallery

The most obvious and common way to clean up is to use the built-in Gallery app. The interface is intuitive, but many users are unaware of the mass selection and sorting features that greatly speed up the process. To remove one or more images, you need to open the application and go to thumbnail viewing mode.

For single deletion, just click on the photo and select the appropriate basket icon. However, if you want to free up a lot of space, it is more effective to use group selection. Press your finger on one of the pictures before the mark appears, and then swipe your finger across the screen or point to select other files, this action will mark them for removal.

And it's important to remember that when you press the delete button, the files don't disappear immediately, they go to a special folder called "Recently Deleted," where they're stored for 30 days, a security feature that allows you to recover images in case of an error, and in order to completely erase the data and make space instantly, you also need to clean this basket.

It's worth noting the difference in how the system behaves when you delete photos from different sources. The photos taken by the camera are deleted without problems. However, if you try to remove an image from a WhatsApp Images or Telegram album, it can only be removed from the gallery view, but remain in the folder of the messenger application.

Working with albums and hidden folders

The Android file system on which Xiaomi phones are based is organized in a tree-like structure. The standard gallery only displays the contents of certain folders, but does not cover all directories. Often users forget about the existence of hidden albums or folders created by third-party applications that continue to occupy space.

To access the full list of folders in the Gallery app, go to the Albums tab and scroll down to the end. There may be a Show Hidden Albums button (if you have them and password protected) or just a list of system directories. Deleting a photo here is similar, but requires care.

⚠️ Attention: Removing photos from system albums (e.g. Screenshots or Downloads) may result in the loss of important documents or interface images.Always check the content before mass cleaning!

Social media albums require special attention. Apps like Instagram, Viber or TikTok create their own folders in the phone's memory. If you delete a photo through the gallery, it disappears from viewing, but the file itself can remain deep in the system.

The file manager gives you a deeper control. Unlike a gallery, it shows the real structure of the directories. You can find the DCIM folder where you store photos from the camera, or Pictures, where you save images from other programs. Directly removing files from here ensures that they disappear from all display levels.

Using a Conductor for Deep Cleaning

When standard methods fail to find memory-eating files, File Manager is a tool that is needed for advanced users who want to conduct a total review of the contents of a Redmi or Poco smartphone.

To get started, open Explorer and select Images category, and the system automatically scans the memory and displays all the graphics you find, sorted by date or size, a convenient way to find heavy but unnecessary images that are lost in the mass.

A more accurate method is to navigate through folders. Go to the root directory of internal memory.

• 📁 DCIM/Camera — Here you can find all the photos and videos taken on the front and main camera.
• 📁 Pictures – folder for images from social networks, screenshots and edited photos.
• 📁 Download – often contains images uploaded from the Internet that the user forgets.
• 📁 MIUI/Gallery/Cloud — Cloud gallery cache, which sometimes grows to huge sizes.

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Use size-sorting in Explorer to instantly find the heaviest images that take up the most space and delete them first.

When working with a file manager, be careful with system folders. Deleting files from directories with Android, data, or system names can disrupt applications or the entire HyperOS operating system. Delete only files that you are fully certain of the origin of.

Cleaning up the Mi Cloud Cloud Storage

Xiaomi’s ecosystem is actively using the Mi Cloud cloud service to synchronize data. If you have gallery sync enabled on your device, deleting a photo on your phone can cause it to be deleted in the cloud, and vice versa. However, there are situations where files get stuck or occupy a cloud quota without showing up on the device.

To manage cloud photos, the best way to do this is to use a web interface or account settings. Go to Settings -> Mi Account -> Mi Cloud -> Gallery. Here you will see sync status and the ability to manage content. If the cloud is crowded, the system may stop backing up other important data.

It's important to understand the difference between "Storage Optimization" and "Deleting" completely. The optimization feature replaces the original photos on the device with their smaller copies to save space, leaving the originals in the cloud. If you want to delete the photo permanently, you need to select specific pictures and click the delete button, confirming the action.

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Deleting photos from a crowded Mi Cloud is the only way to unlock synchronization of other data, such as contacts and notes.

If you plan to sell your phone or give it to another person, be sure to log out of your Mi Account and untie the device, otherwise the new owner will not be able to fully use the smartphone due to activation blocking, and your deleted photos can theoretically be restored when you log in to your account.

Delete via Google Photos and Google Drive

Many Android users prefer standard Google apps. Google Photos is often installed by default and can duplicate the functions of the Xiaomi gallery. The feature of this application is that it can store photos in two places: on the device and in the Google account.

To delete only a photo from a device, saving it to the Google Cloud, you need to select an image in the Google Photos app, click three dots in the corner and select Delete from your device. If you click on a regular shopping cart, the photo will disappear wherever your account is synced.

It's also worth checking the Recycle Bin in the Google Photos app itself, and like MIUI, deleted files are there for 30 or 60 days, and cleaning up this partition is a quick way to get back a few hundred megabytes of free space.

⚠️ Note: When deleting a photo via Google Photos, make sure you understand where the original is. Sometimes users delete a single copy of an important image from the cloud, thinking they are only cleaning the phone.

Google Drive integration also plays a role. If you set up an automatic upload of a photo to a Drive, check it out. Files can take up a 15GB quota that is common to Mail, Drive and Photos. Freeing up space in one service can be critical to the work of others.

Recovery of Accidentally Deleted Photos

Situations where important photos were deleted by mistake happen often. Fortunately, there are several layers of protection in the Xiaomi and Android ecosystem. The first and simplest is the gallery's "Recently Deleted" folder, and as mentioned earlier, files are stored there for 30 days.

If you cleared the shopping cart on your phone, but sync with Mi Cloud or Google Photos was active, try accessing these services from a computer or other device. Often deleted from your phone file is still available in the cloud shopping cart for some time.

For more complex cases, there are specialized data recovery programs (such as DiskDigger or PC applications), but their effectiveness is not guaranteed, especially on modern smartphones with data encryption. The fewer operations you perform with your phone after deletion, the better the chances of success.

The best protection is regular backups: set up automatic uploads to an external hard drive or to an additional cloud storage (such as Yandex.Disk or Dropbox) to have an independent copy of important memories.

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