How to increase internal memory Xiaomi Redmi: the complete guide

Xiaomi and Redmi smartphone owners often face the unpleasant situation of a device suddenly starting to run slower or stop taking new photos.The system reports that internal memory is crowded, blocking the ability to install updates or new apps.This is a common problem as modern applications take up more space and basic versions of smartphones often have limited storage.

There are several proven ways to free up gigabytes of space without losing important data.You don’t need to be a technician to perform a basic system cleanup. In this article, we’ll look at both standard MIUI tools and advanced storage expansion techniques that will help your gadget fly again.

Before we go to radical measures like resetting, we should try to optimize the current state of the system. Proper file management allows you to significantly extend the life of a device with a small amount of built-in storage. Let's look at the basic methods that are guaranteed to give results.

Analysis of storage occupancy through standard means

The first step is always diagnostics. Android and MIUI have built-in tools that show what's taking up space. Don't rely on guesswork; it's better to know exactly where gigabytes have gone. It often turns out that half the space is taken up by messenger cache or long-deleted videos.

To get started, you need to go to the settings menu. Find Settings → About Phone → Storage. Here you will see a color diagram showing the different colors of the file types: apps, images, video, audio and system files. Click on any of the sectors, you will get detailed information.

Note the Other section, which is often where residual files from remote programs or temporary system data are hidden, and cleaning up this section can instantly free up up to 5-10 GB of space, but be careful not to delete files that you don't know what they're supposed to be if they're marked as system.

⚠️ Warning: When cleaning Downloads, carefully check the contents. It often contains important documents saved from the browser or received through messengers that the system considers “junk».

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Diagnostics through built-in storage is the safest first step to visually assess the scale of the problem.

Use the built-in Security utility (green shield icon) and it has a Cleanup section that automatically finds temporary files, advertising debris and APK installer packages. It takes a couple of minutes to launch this feature, but it gives tangible results.

Use of the SD-Cards as an extension of internal memory

Many Redmi models support microSD card installation, which is the easiest way to physically increase the amount of space available, but simply inserting a card is not enough, you need to configure it properly so that the system perceives it as part of internal storage, not just as a media drive.

In modern versions of Android, this feature is called Adoptable Storage, which allows you to format a map so that you can install applications on it. To do this, insert a map, wait for notifications and select "Use as internal storage." If the notification does not come, go to Settings → Storage, select your card and click "Configure".

Once formatted, the system will transfer some of the data and applications to a new medium, which is critical for models with 32 or 64 GB of memory. However, it is worth remembering that the memory card’s speed is lower than that of the phone’s embedded chip, so it should not be surprising if heavy games will load a little longer.

If standard means to format the card as internal memory fails (the manufacturer hid this option), you can use the computer and the ADB utility. This method requires USB connection and input commands, but it allows you to bypass the manufacturer's restrictions.

Cleaning up cache and data heavy applications

The most voracious consumers of memory in Xiaomi smartphones are traditionally social networks and instant messengers. Telegram, WhatsApp, Viber and TikTok store every video and picture viewed in cache. Over time, this “snowball” can grow to tens of gigabytes.

To solve the problem, you don't have to delete the app. You just go to the settings inside the system. Go to Settings → Apps → All apps. Find the app you want (like Telegram) and select Storage. There you'll see two buttons: Clear cache and Clear all.

The first button is secure, it will delete temporary files but save your correspondence. The second button will reset the app to "just installed" by deleting your account login and history. Use it only if you want to start from scratch or reinstall the program completely.

⚠️ Note: Telegram messenger is better to use built-in cleaning: Settings → Data and memory → Use of memory → Clear the cache. You can also install autodelete the cache, for example, after 3 days or a week.

The YouTube app and browsers deserve special attention. The cache of online videos and saved web pages take up a lot of space. Regularly cleaning the history and data of sites in the Chrome browser or the built-in MIUI browser is a good habit for maintaining order.

Transferring photos and videos to the cloud

Media files — photos and videos — usually take up the lion's share of memory. Modern cameras shoot in high resolution, and one minute video in 4K can weigh 300-400 MB. Store thousands of such files on a device with 64 GB of memory is physically impossible.

The best solution is to use cloud services. Google Photos offers a “Free Space” feature that automatically removes from the device those pictures that have already been successfully uploaded to the cloud, similar to Yandex.Disk or the Mi Cloud.

Set up automatic gallery sync, and once you connect to Wi-Fi, new photos are sent online, and the local copy can be deleted, allowing you to access all your archives from any device without clogging up your phone's memory.

If you don't trust the clouds or you don't have fast Internet, use the old-fashioned method of transferring to a computer or an external hard drive. Regularity is the key to success. Set aside one day a week to upload fresh photos to your PC.

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Enable the “Save Space” feature in Google Photos. It compresses images up to 15 MP without a noticeable loss of quality for the smartphone screen, saving up to 80% of space in the cloud.

Removal of system debris and residual files

Even after deleting applications, the system still has tails — folders with settings, error logs and temporary files. There are hidden partitions in the MIUI shell that are not always visible during normal browsing. For deep cleaning, you can use file managers with advanced functionality, such as Total Commander or FX File Explorer.

Note folders with names of remote games or applications, often at the root of internal memory or in the Android/data folder. Newer versions of Android have limited access to this folder, but file managers can request special permission to work with it.

It's also worth checking the folder. MIUI/debug_log. It stores the system debugging logs, which can grow to huge sizes if the system has failed. If you're not a developer and you're not debugging the firmware, you can delete the contents of this folder.

⚠️ Note: Never delete files from folders Android/data and Android/obb manually, if you are not sure of 100%, It's because they belong to an application that's already remote, and that can cause the installed programs to malfunction.

Radical measures: resetting and reflashing

If none of the above methods worked, and the phone still writes “Not enough memory,” it could be that the problem lies in deep file system errors or accumulated system debris over the years of use, leaving the “nuclear option” – a complete reset to factory settings.

This procedure will return the phone to a “out of the box” state, all your contacts, photos, apps and settings will be permanently deleted, so make sure to make a full backup of the data to your computer or the cloud before starting the operation.

To perform the reset, go to Settings → About Phone → Settings Reset → Erase all data. The phone will reboot and start the cleanup process, which can take anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes. Once turned on, you will get a clean system with maximum free memory.

There is an alternative to a full reset, which is to flash the device through the computer using the Mi Flash Tool, which allows you to install a completely fresh version of the operating system, removing even hidden recovery and update sections that sometimes take up extra space, but this requires more technical knowledge.