How to remove photos from the cloud storage Xiaomi: step-by-step instructions

Modern Xiaomi and Redmi smartphones feature powerful high-resolution cameras that take up a significant amount of internal memory. Users often activate sync with Mi Cloud to secure their data, but over time face a 5GB quota overflow. There is a need to make room by removing old or unnecessary images from cloud storage without losing important memories.

The process of cleaning a gallery in the cloud has its own nuances related to the operation of synchronization algorithms. If you just delete a photo from your phone, it can disappear from the cloud, or vice versa, return back to the cloud after updating the page. In this article, we will discuss secure methods of managing files that will help you organize the digital space competently.

You don't need to be an IT expert to understand your Mi Account settings, but we'll look at the Gallery mobile app, the web interface on your computer, and the system settings on your smartphone, and understanding these processes will allow you to control your data and avoid situations where important photos disappear forever.

Relationship between Local Gallery and Cloud Storage

Before you start deleting, you need to understand the architecture of the Mi Cloud service, not just a remote hard drive where files are copied once and stored independently, but a dynamic system that constantly compares the contents of your smartphone and server, trying to bring them to a common denominator.

When the sync function is active, any change in one of the points (phone or cloud) is automatically reflected in the other. If you delete a photo on the device, the system perceives this as a signal that the file is no longer needed, and deletes it from the cloud. Conversely, deleting it in the cloud will cause the image from the phone to disappear on the next Internet connection.

⚠️ Before mass deletion, make sure you have a backup of important photos on an external medium or other cloud service, as the process may be irreversible.

There is a concept of a local album and a cloud album, local files are stored only in the memory of a Xiaomi device, POCO or Redmi. Cloud albums are available from any device where you log in to your account, and separating these concepts is critical for proper memory management.

Delete photos through the Gallery app on your smartphone

The easiest and most affordable way to manage media files is to use the standard Gallery app in the MIUI or HyperOS shell, a method that is convenient when you need to quickly delete several photos taken recently or clean a particular album.

To start, open the app and go to the Albums tab, and here you'll see the Photos, Videos, and albums created by apps like WhatsApp or Telegram. Find All Photos or Recents, which usually store synchronized photos.

Select the desired images, (long press) on one of them, and then mark the rest. At the bottom of the screen, a toolbar will appear. Click on the basket icon. The system will ask for confirmation of action, warning that the photos will be deleted from the cloud if sync is enabled.

If you want to delete photos only from the cloud, leaving them on your phone, the standard procedure through the basket will not work. In this case, you first need to turn off sync for the gallery. Go to Settings → Mi Account → Mi Cloud → Gallery and turn off the switch. After that, the deleted files in the cloud will remain in the memory of the smartphone.

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Use the Invisible Album mode to hide personal photos instead of deleting them if you’re afraid of losing them accidentally.

Managing Files via i.mi.com Web Interface

For mass cleaning and easy management from a large screen, a computer is best.The web version of Xiaomi’s cloud service provides full access to all files, including contacts, notes and, of course, photos.

Open your browser on your PC and go to the official i.mi.com website. Sign in by entering your Mi Account. The interface may be in English or Chinese, but the navigation is intuitive thanks to the icons. Select the "Gallery" or "Photos" section.

Here you can select photos in groups. Press Ctrl (or Command on Mac) to select or Shift to select range. After selecting, press the delete button. The files will be moved to the bin, where they will be stored for another 30 days before final erasure.

The web interface is especially useful when you need to vacate space urgently and you don't have a phone on hand, or when you need to audit your archive for several years, and the statistics of the space you occupy are updated almost instantly after cleaning the basket.

Synchronization setting and folder exclusion

Often the problem of cloud overflow is not in the main pictures, but in junk files from messengers and social networks. By default, MIUI can synchronize screenshots, photos from WhatsApp, Viber and other applications, which quickly eats up free space.

To prevent unnecessary garbage from loading, go to the sync settings. In the Gallery app, click three dots in the corner or go through Settings → Mi Akkaönt → Mi Cloud. Find “Cloud Sync” and click on it.

You'll see a list of albums with switches. Disable folders you don't need in the cloud, like screenshots or temporary messaging files, which is a critical step to save space.

You should also pay attention to the option “Size at Sync.” If you choose “Original”, the photos will take up a lot of space. If you choose “Optimize”, the cloud will save a smaller copy, and the original will remain on the device (if memory allows), but for complete removal, it is better to work with the originals.

⚠️ Note: Disabling sync for a particular album will not remove photos already uploaded from the cloud.

Cleaning the basket and final removal

Many users forget that deleting files is a two-step process: first, an object enters a clipboard, the analog of a basket on a computer, in the Xiaomi ecosystem, deleted photos are stored there for 30 days, then destroyed automatically.

If you want to make space available on the Mi Cloud server instantly, you need to clear this intermediate step, and in the Gallery app, go to the Remote (or Recently Deleted) album, where you will see all files deleted in the last month.

Press the Clear button or select specific files and delete them permanently, and the system will issue a strong warning that no recovery is possible, and once this operation is confirmed, the amount of memory in the cloud will decrease immediately.

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Memory in Mi Cloud is released only after cleaning the folder "Deleted" Just by moving the photo to the basket, you will not return the free space.

This feature serves as the last frontier of security. If you accidentally delete an important frame, you have almost a month to find it on this album and recover it. But if you purposefully clean the vault, it's pointless to ignore this step.

Solving Common Problems in Removal

Sometimes users are faced with a situation where photos are deleted, but after a while they reappear again, this is due to desynchronization or the presence of a copy of a file in another folder that is also synced.

Check if sync is enabled with other services, such as Google Photos. If you have two cloud storages running at the same time, they may conflict. Google Photos can recover a photo deleted from Mi Cloud if it is in Google's backup.

Also, the problem may be in the app cache. Try to clear the Gallery and Mi Cloud app data through the Settings menu → Apps → All apps. This won’t delete your photos, but will reset the sync settings, which often helps solve software glitches.

⚠️ Note: Do not attempt to delete system files through the file manager in folders MIUI/gallery/cloud. This can damage the gallery database and lose all thumbnails.

If nothing works, try logging in from another device and deleting the photo from there. Sometimes the server part requires a kick from another device. IP-Addressing or OS version to apply changes correctly.