How to delete messages on Xiaomi phone: the complete guide

Owners of Xiaomi, Redmi and Poco smartphones often face the need to free up internal storage or simply clean up correspondence. Message deletion is a basic but important feature that helps not only preserve privacy, but also speed up the operation of the device when resources are scarce. In the MIUI operating system and the new HyperOS, this process can have its own nuances, different from standard Android.

There are many ways to clean up, from manually deleting individual dialogs to automatically configuring autodeleting old emails. You can act through the standard Messages app, use a file manager for deep cleaning, or even turn to backups if the goal is to free up space without losing important data. Below we will discuss all available methods in detail.

Don’t ignore the accumulation of multimedia investments in MMS, as they take up significantly more space than plain text. Understanding how caching and data storage works on your Xiaomi will allow you to manage memory more efficiently. Let’s look at the basic methods that will help you quickly remove excess.

Deletion of dialogs and individual messages in the standard annex

The most obvious and quick way to get rid of unnecessary correspondence is to use the built-in functionality of the Messages application. The interface may vary slightly depending on the version of the shell, but the logic of actions remains the same for all models: you will need to open the application, find the right contact or number with which you were correspondence.

To remove the entire dialog, you need to pinch the contact name line in the shared inbox, and you'll see an action menu where you want to select the basket icon, and if your goal is to delete a particular message within the chain, open the dialog, press and hold your finger on the specific text, and then select the deletion option, and the system can request confirmation of the operation.

⚠️ Note: If you delete the dialogue through the standard menu without saving it, it will not be possible to restore the correspondence by standard means.

Mass Deletion allows you to select multiple dialogs at once, and in the main window of the Messages app, it is often enough to click three dots in the corner of the screen or make a long press on the first dialog, and then tick the rest, which saves time if you want to clear the history of dozens of old contacts.

• 🗑️ Click the dialog in the list to call the contextual delete menu.
• 📤 Use the “Clear” button to quickly eliminate your entire correspondence history.
• ✅ Check multiple contacts for group removal.

Cleaning multimedia attachments and message cache

Text messages take up negligible space, but the situation changes dramatically when it comes to the question of the text. MMS And attached files: Photos, videos and voice recordings obtained through SMS-service, stored in the memory of the device and can weigh hundreds of megabytes. To remove only "heavy" content, leaving the text, it is better to use cleaning tools.

The MIUI and HyperOS shells have a built-in Security or Cleanup app, and once you run it, you can go to Cleanup and find a category related to messages or media, and the system will analyze attachments and suggest that you delete large files, which is a safer method than manually deleting, because you see what you're erasing.

You can also manually go through folders in the file manager. The path to attachments usually looks like Internal Memory → MIUI → bluelight → share or similar directories depending on the firmware version. Deleting files from here will make room, but in the Messages app itself, attachment icons may remain, although you can't open them.

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Before mass cleaning of media from messages, copy important photos and videos to the cloud or to the computer, as recovery of deleted files is difficult.

Sometimes the Messages cache grows to inadequate sizes due to software errors, and cleaning the application data through system settings will help, which will reset the program settings, but will not necessarily delete the texts themselves if they are stored in the system database, but the risk of losing history is high.

• 📂 Use the Security App to Find Heavy Investments.
• 🖼️ Check the Downloads folder and system folders for old ones. MMS.
• ⚙️ Cleaning the cache of the application can solve the problem of hanging correspondence.

Using the Files app for deep cleaning

Xiaomi's standard file manager (Mi Files) or third-party counterparts like Total Commander allow you to access system files hidden from the average user. This is an advanced method that requires care. You need to find the root message folder where the SMS database is stored.

Normally, a database is located on the path /data/data/com.android.messaging/databases/, but access to this directory is often restricted to root rights. If you don't have superuser rights, you can't delete files from here directly, so the focus shifts to folders with media attachments that are publicly available.

⚠️ Warning: Manually deleting files from system folders through a file manager can cause the Messages app to malfunction or the entire story to disappear at once.

The safer way to go through the file manager is to search by file type. Select the Images or Video filter, sort by date, and find the files that you get from the messages, and deleting them through the file manager is like removing them from the gallery, but it will free up the space that the SMS attachments used to occupy.

Remember that deleting a file from memory doesn’t always remove its “trace” in the message database. You may see the file icon in the dialog, but you’ll get an error when you try to open it. To clean it completely, you need to delete the message entirely through the Messages app.

Setup to Automatically Delete Old Messages

To avoid manual cleaning in the future, set up automatic deletion, a feature that is present in many versions of the MIUI shell, which allows you to set a limit on the number of messages saved for each contact or a general limit on all incoming messages.

Go to the Messages app settings (usually three dots in a corner or gear) and find the "Additional" or "Settings" section. SIM-There's an option called "Delete old messages." Once you activate it, you can select a restriction like "200 messages per contact." Once the limit is exceeded, the oldest message will automatically be deleted.

This is ideal for those who don't want to keep track of memory, and the system will keep the balance by deleting the archived data, but if you want a complete history of correspondence over the years, it's best to leave it off.

• ⚙️ Find the Messages app settings in the menu.
• 📉 Set a limit on the number of messages (for example, 500 pcs.).
• 🔄 Turn on auto-removal function to maintain order.

Specifics of removing messages in Google Messages

Many Xiaomi users are switching to Google’s standard app, Google Messages, especially because of support for RCS (enhanced chats).The deletion logic here is slightly different from the native MIUI app. The interface is more minimalistic but functional.

To delete a dialog in Google Messages, you also need to pin it in the list. However, to delete a specific message within the chain, you sometimes need to click on it once to appear on the menu, or use a long press. It is important to note that Google Messages has a shopping cart where deleted items go before they finally disappear.

In Google Messages, you can find the Recycle Bin (if it's active in your region and app version) where deleted messages are stored for 30 days, which is a great insurance against accidental deletion, but they also take up space in memory until the cart is finally cleaned.

⚠️ Note: In Google Messages, deleting a message for yourself does not delete it from the interlocutor if the mode is used. RCS (In the normal SMS Removal only applies to your device.

If you use Chats (RCS), deleting a message may work differently than in a classic SMS. Some versions allow you to delete sent messages for all participants in the conversation, but only for a short time after sending and only if the interlocutor also uses a compatible application.

Table: Comparison of methods for deleting messages

So to make it easier to choose your cleaning method, we've developed a comparison table that will help you understand which method is best for your specific tasks: whether you need to make room, remove sensitive information, or just remove visual noise.

As you can see from the table, standard dialog removal is best for a one-time quick cleaning, and if the goal is deep optimization, then a combination of methods using built-in cleaning tools will yield the best result.

Remember that regular smartphone maintenance, including messaging, extends the life of the smartphone and makes it more comfortable to use.

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The safest way to free up space is to use the built-in Cleanup tool in the Security app, as it analyzes files before being deleted.

Recovering deleted messages on Xiaomi

Often, users wonder not only how to delete, but how to return accidentally erased. On Xiaomi, without a pre-created backup, this is extremely difficult. Android does not store remote SMS in the public domain for a long time.

If you have Google Drive or Mi Cloud enabled sync, you can recover data by doing a full reset of your phone (which is risky) or trying to recover only messages from the cloud when you first set up your device. In Mi Cloud, this is done through the Recovery from the Cloud section.

There are third-party PC software that restore data, but their effectiveness is often questionable, especially on modern versions of Android with data encryption.

To avoid such situations in the future, set up automatic backups. This will take a couple of minutes, but will save important codes and correspondence in case you need to delete or break the phone.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)