Modern Xiaomi, Redmi and Poco smartphones are equipped with powerful cameras that can create high-quality images. However, high resolution and detail occupy a significant amount of internal memory, which over time leads to a lack of free space for installing applications or operating the system. Many users face a situation where the standard removal of images through the gallery does not free up space as expected.
The problem lies in the architecture of the Android operating system and the proprietary shell MIUI or HyperOS. When you just swipe a picture or click the delete button, the system often only marks the file as deleted, but physically it remains in memory until the moment of overwriting with new data or cleaning the basket. Moreover, copies can be stored in cloud storage or messenger cache, creating the illusion of vacant space.
In this article, we will discuss proven algorithms that ensure complete and irrevocable erasure of visual content, learn how to clean system folders, work with cloud services and use specialized tools to deep clean the device from unnecessary files.
Cleaning the Standard Gallery and the Basket
The first and most obvious step is to work with the standard Gallery app, which is where the bulk of user images are stored, but simply highlighting a photo and pressing the delete button is not enough to completely free up space. MIUI has built-in protection against accidental data loss, sending deleted files to temporary storage.
To start, open the Gallery app and go to the Albums section, where you need to find a folder called Deleted or Recently Deleted. Depending on the firmware version, this album may be hidden at the bottom of the list or in the viewing settings menu, and that's where the files you've allegedly deleted are, but they still occupy space on the disk.
Once you enter this folder, you will see all images that have been deleted in the past 30 days (or 60, depending on your settings), and to delete them permanently, you must click on the "Clean" button or select all files and confirm irrevocable deletion, after which you will not be able to restore data using standard means.
☑️ Pre-deletion check
You should also look at albums created by third-party apps. Messengers and social networks often automatically save the images they receive to separate folders inside the gallery. Check out Telegram, WhatsApp, Viber and Instagram albums. Often, this is where gigabytes of advertising pictures and postcards that you don't need accumulate.
⚠️ Before cleaning the albums of messengers, make sure that among the saved images there are no important documents, receipts or scans of passports that could be sent to you in correspondence.
Working with Google Cloud Storage Photos
Xiaomi smartphone owners often use sync with Google Photos, a handy backup tool, but it can cause photos deleted from their phone to continue to take up space or recover back. The cloud mechanism implies that deleting on one device may not affect others if a certain sequence of actions is not followed.
If you want to delete a photo permanently, make sure that the sync is complete or turned off first if you don't want to lose pictures from other devices. Open the Google Photos app and find the image you want. When you delete it, the system will ask if you want to delete the photo only from this device or from the cloud.
It's important to remember that the shopping cart in Google itself, and even after you've been removed from the cloud, the files go to the library section --> shopping cart -- which is where they're stored for 60 days, and to make room for your Google One account, you have to go to the shopping cart and select "Clean the cart."
- 📸 Open the Google Photos app and click on the profile avatar.
- ☁️ Select "Photo Settings" and check the status "Sync".
- 🗑️ Go to the "Library" section and find the "Basket" folder".
- ✅ Click "Clean the basket" for irrevocable removal.
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Use the “Free Space” feature in Google Photos to automatically remove images from your device that are already securely stored in the cloud.
Removal through Explorer and Hidden Folders
The standard gallery does not always display all files that exist in the file system of the smartphone. Some applications create hidden directories or store cached images that are not visible to the user during normal viewing.
Run Explorer and go to file viewing mode (not by category, but by folder). You're interested in the root directory or the Internal Storage folder. Here you'll look for folders with application names like DCIM, Pictures, Download. Inside the DCIM folder, there's often a folder called.thumbnails (hidden), which can weigh several gigabytes. This is a sketch cache that sometimes doesn't get deleted automatically.
To remove hidden folders, you may need to enable the display of hidden files in Explorer settings, usually via a three-dot menu or slider at the top of the screen. Be careful: deleting files from system folders (not from custom DCIM or Download) can lead to malfunctioning applications.
| folder | Description of the contents | Security of removal |
|---|---|---|
| DCIM/Camera | Original camera photos | Safe (if there is a copy) |
| Pictures/WhatsApp | Images from the messenger | Safe. |
| Download | Uploaded files from the browser | Safe. |
| Android/Data | Application data and cache | Dangerous (Resetting Apps) |
What is a folder.thumbnails?
Cleaning the cache and application data
Often, the memory problem is not the photos themselves, but the garbage that apps accumulate. Social networks, browsers and instant messengers store temporary files, including images viewed, in their cache. These data are not visible in the gallery, but take up valuable gigabytes.
To clear the cache of a particular application, go to Settings -> Apps -> All Apps. Find the app you want (like Telegram or Chrome) and click on it. In the menu that opens, select Memory or Storage. There you will see the Clear Cache button.
A more radical method is to clean up the data. Click "Clear all data" or "Reset." This action will delete all application settings and authorization, you will have to re-enter passwords, but it will ensure that all temporary files are deleted, including those that may have been left over from deleted photos.
- 📱 Go to the smartphone settings.
- 📂 Select the "Applications" section and find the "heavy" application.
- 🧹 Click "Storage" and select "Clear Cache".
- 🔄 If necessary, use "Clear all data" for a complete reset.
Using Xiaomi's built-in cleaner
The MIUI and HyperOS shells have a powerful built-in optimization tool that can find duplicate photos, blurred images, and similar images that a user may have missed in manual sorting, and it's one of the most effective ways to clean up.
Look up the "Security" app on your desktop or "Cleanup" app. Run a scan. Once you've done the check, the system will suggest removing the garbage, but we're interested in the "Deep Cleanup" or "Remove similar photos."
In this section, AI algorithms group together snapshots of the ponies, so you can pick a group of similar photos, leave one better photo, and remove the others in a batch, and you can quickly get rid of serial shots or multiple identical screenshots.
⚠️ Note: When using the function to delete similar photos, carefully check groups. The algorithm can find completely different pictures similar if they are taken in the same place or have a similar color gamut.
Radical measures: Resetting to factory settings
If the goal is to transfer the phone to a new owner or sell it, or if the system is not working properly due to memory overflow, the only guaranteed way to delete all photos permanently is a full reset.
Before performing this procedure, be sure to back up important data to your computer or external hard drive. After resetting, it will be impossible to recover information without special expensive expertise. Go to Settings -> About Phone -> Reset.
Select "Erase all data." The system will alert you to the risks several times. Once confirmed, the phone will restart and start the formatting process. This takes 5 to 15 minutes, leaving no trace of your presence on the device, including previously deleted photos.
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Full reset is the only method to ensure that data cannot be recovered even with professional digital forensics software.