Owners of Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO smartphones often face the unpleasant situation when a notification of a memory shortage appears suddenly.The Android system shows that the storage is crowded, but detailed analysis reveals that the lion’s share of space is occupied by the mysterious category “Other Files.” This section can grow to tens of gigabytes, turning the device into a slow gadget that slows down even when typing.
The concept of “Other” in the shell of MIUI or HyperOS is a hoard of system cache, residual data from remote applications, error logs and forgotten downloads. Standard cleaning methods often fail to overcome this category, because it masks real data volumes. In this article, we will examine proven methods to safely free up valuable space.
Before we start taking radical measures, it's important to understand the nature of garbage accumulation: the system doesn't automatically delete temporary files to speed up the re-launch of applications, but over time, this mechanism begins to harm performance. We'll look at both the standard tools and advanced methods through the computer that are guaranteed to give you back space.
Category Content Analysis Others
To effectively combat this problem, you need to know the enemy in person. The Other category is not a virus, it's the normal operating mechanism of the Linux file system on which Android is based, and it includes data that the system cannot uniquely classify as photos, videos, music or documents.
Telegram and WhatsApp store copies of sent files, channel cache and temporary thumbnails in hidden folders, which the memory analyzer refers to other files, and can also hide offline maps of navigators and cache of streaming services.
System logs and error reports are another hidden memory eater. If a smartphone crashes, Android creates reports for developers that can weigh hundreds of megabytes. These files are not deleted on their own and require manual user intervention to clean.
- 📂 Residual files after deleting applications (folders with settings and cache).
- 📱 Social network cache and instant messengers (Telegram, WhatsApp, Viber).
- 💾 System logs, error reports and temporary update files.
- 🗺️ Downloaded maps for offline navigation (Yandex, Google Maps).
⚠️ Warning: Before mass cleaning, be sure to check the folder DCIM Sometimes users accidentally save important documents there, which the system can also classify as "other files" if they have changed the format or extension.
Using the built-in Xiaomi cleaner
The first and most secure step is to use the regular Security app, which, unlike third-party solutions, has deep permissions to access MIUI system partitions and knows which files can be deleted without risking the system.
Launch the app, select Clean up and wait for the scan to be completed. The system will prompt you to remove obvious debris, but the Other category often requires a deeper analysis. Click on the folder icon or Files to see details by data type.
Some versions of the shell offer Deep Clean, which analyzes similar images, large files, and long-unused applications, and is effective in removing tails from remote programs that form the basis of the Other category.
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Use the "Accelerate" function in the Safety app before starting the cleaner, which will close the background processes and allow the scanner to work faster and more accurately.
Don't just rely on automatic mode. Manually go through the list of large files that the cleaner offers, often there are forgotten video files from messengers or APK installation packages that are no longer needed.
Manual cleaning through the conductor
Automation doesn't always see what's obvious to humans. Manually checking the file system through standard Explorer allows you to find and delete specific folders that inflate memory. This method requires care, but gives you better results.
Open the Explorer app and go to the root folder of the internal drive. Notice the folders with the names of popular applications: com.whatsapp, org.telegram, com.viber. They often contain a folder called cache or media, which can weigh gigabytes.
It's also worth checking the Android/data folder. It stores game and heavy app data. If you delete the game but the folder is still there, it keeps taking up space. Deleting the contents of remote app folders is safe.
☑️ Checking garbage folders
Pay special attention to the folder MIUI -> debug_log. In some versions of firmware there is a bug in which debugging logs are not deleted automatically and can take up to 10-15 Boldly deleting the contents of this folder won't hurt your phone.
Cleaning through a computer (Mode) USB-storage)
The most reliable way to get rid of “other files” is to connect your smartphone to your computer. On the big screen, the folder structure is visible better, and data transfer speeds allow you to quickly delete large amounts of information.
Connect your phone to your PC, select file transfer mode (MTP). On your computer, open the device as a regular drive. Now you can use size sorting to instantly find the heaviest files hidden deep inside the system.
Search the.log,.tmp, or.bak extensions. These files are temporary and backups. Deleting them is 100% secure and often frees up a significant amount of memory that the phone has defined as "busy with other files."
⚠️ Note: When connecting to a PC, do not delete files with the.obb or.dat extension from active game folders. This will lead to the need to re-download the game's multi-gigabyte cache.
For advanced users, it will be useful to run disk analysis through a program like WinDirStat or TreeSize Free, connecting the phone as a disk. Visualization will show which folder has eaten the memory, even if it is hidden in the system directories.
Using ADB for deep cleaning
If standard methods don’t work, ADB (Android Debug Bridge) is a developer tool that allows you to access system partitions that are hidden from the average user and even from some file managers.
To work, you need to enable USB debugging in the Developer Menu, and then by connecting the phone to your PC, you can execute commands to clear the cache of specific applications or system partitions that inflate the Other category.
adb shell pm trim-caches 999999999This command forcibly cuts the cache of all applications to the specified limit (in bytes). In this example, the limit is almost removed, but the command forces the system to recalculate and clear the bloated cache, which often causes the appearance of “other files”.
How to enable debugging on USB?
You can also use ADB to remove system applications that cannot be removed through settings, but this requires caution: removing system components can lead to unstable HyperOS or MIUI.
Resetting settings as a radical method
When the Other category is over 30-40GB and can't be cleaned, there may have been a file system error, in this case a full factory reset is guaranteed to remove all the garbage and indexing errors.
Before the procedure, be sure to back up your data in the Xiaomi Cloud or on your computer. Reset will delete everything: contacts, photos, apps and settings. The phone will become the same as you bought it in the store.
| Cleaning method | Efficiency | Security | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cleaning in the Security Appendix | Low. | Tall. | Low. |
| Manual removal in the Conductor | Medium | Medium | Medium |
| Cleaning through PC (USB) | Tall. | Tall. | Low. |
| Reset to factory settings | Maximum | Tall (with backup) | Tall. |
After reset, don't be in a hurry to install all the apps at once. Try using a clean phone for a couple of days. Often this helps you figure out which app is causing junk files to grow rapidly.
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A complete reset is the only solution if a file system error has resulted in an incorrect display of memory when the occupied space does not match the sum of the files.
Prevention of garbage accumulation
To prevent the problem of "other files" from returning in a month, change your smartphone usage habits. Regular prevention takes a couple of minutes, but saves gigabytes of space and speed of the device.
Set up automatic cache cleanup in messengers. In Telegram, for example, you can set the cache autodelete in 3 days or a week, which will prevent thousands of images and videos from being accumulated in hidden folders.
- 📅 Once a week, run a standard cleaning through the Safety app».
- 📸 Turn off auto-save photos from WhatsApp and Viber to the gallery.
- 🗑️ Check the Downloads folder regularly and delete installation files.
- 📲 Remove apps you haven’t used for more than a month.
Also keep an eye out for system updates. Xiaomi engineers periodically release patches that fix memory optimization errors. If you have an older version of MIUI, the update can solve the problem of spontaneous growth of “other files”.