Xiaomi smartphone owners often face a cryptic space-shortage notification when standard cleaners show that photos and apps are running low and memory is crowded. The culprit is usually the system category “Other,” which can grow to tens of gigabytes, becoming a digital temporary data dump. Understanding the nature of this storage is the first step to getting your device back on track without losing important documents.
This partition of the file system accumulates application cache, residual files after deleted programs, error logs and update fragments. The “other” system folder on Xiaomi is not deleted completely, as it is part of the Android structure, but its contents can and should be safely cleaned. Ignoring the growth of this partition leads to a critical slowdown of the interface and the inability to install new updates.
In this guide, we will not only examine manual cleaning methods, but also advanced ways to analyze disk space. You will learn to distinguish system debris from important data that can not be touched. A competent approach will free up to 10-15 GB of free space, which will significantly prolong the comfortable use of the gadget.
Anatomy of the Other folder in MIUI
To effectively combat overcrowding, you need to be clear about what exactly is behind this label in the conductor. The Other category (or Other) is an aggregator of files that the system has failed to classify as images, videos, music or documents, including archives, APK installation packages, instant messenger data and streaming cache.
Social networks and messengers like Telegram or WhatsApp store the media they view into hidden caches that the standard analyzer perceives as unknown data, and over time these tails can take up more space than the operating system itself.
Also, this section often includes remnants of deleted games and programs, and if you delete a heavy game, its additional files (data cache, maps, textures) can remain dead weight, the system sees them as orphaned files and puts them in a pile.
Basic cleaning through standard means
The safest and fastest way to start fighting for gigabytes is to use the built-in Security tool, which has deep access rights and can delete temporary files without affecting critical settings. Launch the application, select Cleanup, and wait for the scan to be completed.
After the initial analysis, the system will suggest removing obvious debris: thumbnails, ads and temporary files. However, for a deep cleaning of the category "Other" this may not be enough. click on the "Clean all" button, but be prepared for the fact that a significant part of the volume will remain intact, as the algorithm is afraid to remove something extra.
For more detailed control, go to the storage settings, and you can see the breakdown by file type, and often people forget about downloaded files that can also be disguised as system files, and regular monthly prevention will help keep the "Other" partition size within a reasonable range of 2-3 GB.
☑️ Monthly Memory Prevention
⚠️ Warning: Standard cleaning is safe, but it only removes the surface layer of debris.
Manual analysis through the conductor
The MIUI file manager allows you to look inside the folder structure and find large files that inflate the "Other" section. Open the Explorer app, go to the root of internal memory and sort files by size. Look for folders with application names or system names that take up a lot of space.
Pay special attention to the Android/data folder. This is where the app data is stored. If you delete the folder of a long-deleted game or program, you will free up space. However, be very careful: deleting the active application folders will cause them to reset or lose progress in games.
Also check the DCIM/.thumbnails folder, which stores thumbnails of your photos and videos, and this hidden file can grow to huge sizes if you browse the gallery often, can be safely deleted, and the system will create a new, but smaller, file.
Hidden folders that can be deleted
Use of disk analyzers
When embedded tools are powerless, specialized tools for visualizing disk space come to the rescue. Apps like DiskUsage or Files by Google build a visual memory card, showing which file or folder occupies the most space in the Other section.
These programs scan memory and output the result in color blocks. You will immediately see that, for example, the folder of the messenger cache takes 5 GB. This allows you to pinpoint the "heavyweights" without touching the system files. The interface of such applications is usually intuitive even for beginners.
It's important to give these applications all the permissions they need to access their files, because without full permission, they can't show the hidden directories where most of the garbage is hidden, and then you can just go through the folder chain and delete the junk.
| Annex | Type of access | Security | Functional |
|---|---|---|---|
| Files by Google | Complete. | Tall. | Basic cleaning and double search |
| DiskUsage | Complete. | Tall. | Visual memory card |
| SD Maid | Root/ADB | Medium (for experts) | Deep cleaning of system debris |
| Clean Master | Complete. | Low (lots of advertising) | Aggressive cache cleaning |
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Use Map mode in the disk analyzers to visually assess the scale of the problem. Large squares are large files that need to be checked first.
Cleaning the cache of messengers and social networks
The majority of the other content on smartphones today is messengers, Telegram, WhatsApp and Viber store every photo and video you see in cache, which are not visible in the gallery, but take up gigabytes, and you need to clean them through the settings of the apps themselves.
On Telegram, go to Settings → Data and Memory → Memory Use. You can see the total size of the cache and clear it with a single button. Importantly, this won't delete your correspondence, the media files will be re-loaded when you re-view, but the space will be freed up instantly.
On WhatsApp, the situation is similar: Settings → Data and Storage → Storage Management. The app will show you the list of chats that occupy the most space and allow you to delete media files selectively or completely. Regular cleaning here is the key to free memory.
⚠️ Note: Clearing the messenger cache does not delete the text of the correspondence, but deletes the uploaded photos and videos from the phone’s memory. They will remain on the server (in Telegram) or in the backup, but you will have to download them again to view them.
Resetting settings as a radical method
If none of the methods helped to reduce the size of the Other folder and it continues to grow for no apparent reason, it is possible that the system has accumulated a critical error log or a file table crash, in which case the most effective solution will be a complete reset to factory settings.
This procedure will completely destroy all the data on the device, returning it to a store-like state, and the "Other" section will disappear and reappear, but it is the minimum size necessary for the system to work, and this is the only way to guarantee that you will remove system debris that is not amenable to manual cleaning.
Before starting the procedure, be sure to back up your important data to the Mi Cloud or your computer. Reset is irreversible. Go to Settings → About Phone → Reset → Erase all data.
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Full Reset is the only solution that is guaranteed to remove file system errors that inflate the Other partition, but requires a full backup.