Xiaomi and Redmi smartphone owners often face a situation where the device’s internal memory is overcrowded and the system insists on vacating space. It would seem that you have already deleted all the extra pictures, but the space does not appear, or you want to make sure that confidential images have disappeared forever. The standard deletion of files in the gallery only moves them to the buffer zone, from where they can be restored within 30 days.
To permanently delete data, you need to perform a number of additional actions affecting system folders, cloud services and application cache, and in this article we will discuss all possible ways to clean up, including hidden memory partitions, which are often overlooked even by experienced users.
Understanding the structure of the MIUI or HyperOS file system will help you not only free up gigabytes of space, but also protect personal information from prying eyes. We will look at the regular tools of the system, work with Google Photos cloud storage and the specific features of removing media on devices of the Chinese brand.
Cleaning a standard basket in the Gallery
The first and most obvious step is to check the standard Deleted folder, which defaults to storing files for 30 days, and many users ignore this section, believing that once you click the Delete button, the file disappears instantly, but in the MIUI shell, this security buffer works aggressively, saving the original images.
To access this section, you need to open the Gallery app and go to the Albums tab. Scroll down to the very end of the list where Deleted is located. Here you will see all the images that have been erased in the last month. To make room right now, click Clear or select specific files and confirm that they have been destroyed.
⚠️ Note: Once this folder is cleaned by standard means, file recovery through the phone interface will become impossible.
It is worth noting that the process of freeing up space can take some time if you erase a large number of heavy video files or serial shooting in high resolution.The system must update the file system indexes to display the correct amount of free memory in the settings.
Working with Hidden Albums and Folder.thumbnails
One of the features of the Android operating system on Xiaomi devices is to create hidden thumbnails. Even if you deleted the original photo, the.thumbnails system folder can still have a smaller copy of it, which takes up space. This data is hidden from normal viewing, but takes up valuable megabytes.
To get to these files, you’ll need to access the root directory through an integrated file manager or a third-party guide with hidden system file rights.The path is usually as follows: Internal Memory → DCIM →.thumbnails. The contents of this folder can be safely deleted if you’re not afraid to lose the gallery’s preview before they’re reopened.
- 📁 Open the Explorer app and click on the menu (three dots).
- 👁️ Activate the “Show hidden files” switch».
- 🗑️ Go to the file. DCIM And find the directory.thumbnails.
- ✅ Select all content and select “Delete».
It's also worth checking the Hidden Albums folder in the Gallery itself, and the photos that are placed there don't show up in the general stream, but they continue to take up space, and you have to open the Albums tab to access them, pull the screen down, and enter a password or fingerprint if you have security installed.
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Deleting the folder.thumbnails can temporarily slow the scroll through the gallery, as the system will have to regenerate thumbnails for the remaining photos.
Synchronize with Google Photos and Cloud Services
A common cause of undelete photos is active synchronization with cloud services. If your Xiaomi has enabled autoloading to Google Photos or Mi Cloud, then deleting the image from the device may not affect its cloud copy, or vice versa - deleting from the cloud may not erase the local file under certain sync settings.
You need to clearly distinguish where the original is stored. Open the Google Photos app and look at the cloud icon next to the image. If you delete a photo from the phone gallery but see it in the cloud, then the backup is left. To completely delete, you need to go to your Google account settings and select the option to free up space or delete the file directly in the cloud interface.
| Service | Positioning of the basket | Storage period | Feature of removal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Photo | Library → Basket | 30 days | Requires separate cleaning |
| Mi Cloud | Gallery → Albums → Deleted | 30 days | Synced with the Mi Account |
| Telegram/WhatsApp | Folders in the file manager | Indefinitely | Duplicate files from chat rooms |
| Dropbox/OneDrive | In the service appendix | Depends on the tariff. | They often have their own baskets. |
It's important to remember junk files in messenger folders. Images received on WhatsApp or Telegram are often saved to the gallery automatically. Even after you delete them from the chat, you can find copies in Android/media folders or the root directories of the corresponding applications.
Using the “Security” app and cleaning the cache
Xiaomi’s built-in Security app has powerful tools to find duplicates and residual files. Standard deletion often leaves tails in the form of a thumbnail cache or temporary edit files. Cleaning through a system optimizer allows you to find these hidden amounts of data.
Run the Security app and select Clean up. The system will scan and suggest that you delete temporary files. However, for a deeper cleanup, go to Memory or Deep Cleanup (if available in your version of MIUI), where you can find large files, duplicate images and files that have not been deleted correctly.
☑️ Checking before deep cleaning
Special attention is paid to cleaning the cache of the Gallery app itself. Sometimes the thumbnail database grows to an incredible size. Go to Settings → Apps → All Apps → Gallery → Memory and click “Clear Cache” This will not delete your photos, but will reset temporary display files, which can solve the problems with the hanging gallery.
⚠️ Note: When using Deep Cleanup, look carefully at the file list. The system algorithm can flag as trash rarely used but important documents or screenshots.
Radical methods: formatting and resetting
If the goal is to sell the device or transfer it to another person, simply deleting files is not enough. Data can be recovered by special utilities. The only guaranteed way to delete deleted photos from Xiaomi forever is full memory encryption and then reset to factory settings.
Modern versions of Android use disk encryption by default. When you reset (Settings → About Phone → Reset), the system removes the encryption keys. Without these keys, the recovered memory sectors are a set of unreadable digital noise. For maximum reliability before reset, you can fill the memory with unnecessary large files (for example, write several hours of video to 4K), and then format the device again.
Settings → About the phone → Reset settings → Erase all dataThis method is the most effective for ensuring confidentiality: after a clean reset procedure with pre-filling memory, the probability of recovering personal photos tends to zero even with the use of professional equipment.
Why does simple deletion not erase data?
Overflow prevention and memory management
In order not to face the problem of crowded memory and the need for emergency photo deletion, it is recommended to configure automatic storage management. Xiaomi offers flexible settings for automatic uploading of media files to the cloud and subsequent removal from the device.
In camera or gallery settings, you can activate the “Free Space” function. When you turn it on, after successfully syncing photos with Google Photos or Mi Cloud, the originals will automatically be deleted from the phone’s internal memory, leaving only thumbnails in the cloud, which allows you to store thousands of pictures without taking up space on your smartphone.
- ☁️ Configure sync only over Wi-Fi so as not to waste mobile traffic.
- 📉 Check the Download folder regularly where garbage accumulates.
- 🔄 Use third-party apps to find duplicate images once a month.
It is also useful to disable auto-save in messengers, in the WhatsApp and Telegram settings, you can prevent the saved media files in the gallery of the device, which will prevent memory from clogging with advertising images, postcards and unnecessary screenshots from chats.
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A comprehensive approach to memory management, including cloud synchronization and disabling auto-save in messengers, will eliminate the need for manual removal of photos in the future.