Poco and Xiaomi smartphone owners often face a situation where the device suddenly starts to run slower or stops taking new photos. The main cause of such problems is overflowing internal drive. The MIUI operating system on which these gadgets are based requires a certain amount of free space for the correct operation of background processes and caching applications.
Understanding how your phone’s memory is distributed allows you to not only free up space, but also extend the life of your device. In this article, we’ll take a closer look at the full-time diagnostic tools, hidden engineering menus, and third-party disk space analysis tools, and learn how to distinguish system files from user garbage.
Freeing up space is not just about removing images, but about working with the cache, duplicates and residual files of remote programs, and we'll look at proven methods to help get the gadget back to its previous speed.
Staffing means of checking the storage in MIUI
The easiest and safest way to find out the amount of free space is to use the built-in Android interface adapted by the MIUI shell. To do this, you need to go to the settings section, which displays aggregate information about all the resources of the smartphone, and here the data is presented in a graphical form, which makes it easier to perceive.
To access detailed statistics, you should open the Settings menu and select About Phone. At the top of the screen, you will show the total amount of internal memory and the number of gigabytes available. By clicking on the memory display bar, you will be taken to the expanded storage management menu.
⚠️ Note: Do not delete files from system folders unless you are sure of their purpose, as this may lead to incorrect operation of the operating system.
In the window that opens, the system will suggest cleaning or analyzing content by category, and you will see a breakdown into apps, images, videos, music and documents, which allows you to quickly identify the heavyweights occupying the lion's share of space.
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The built-in memory analyzer in MIUI shows only the main categories, hiding the system cache and temporary files, so additional actions are required for deep cleaning.
Use of the "Conductor" and "Cleaning" application
Each Xiaomi and Poco smartphone has pre-installed file-management tools, the Explorer app allows you to manually folder and delete unwanted objects, but the Security system utility is better suited for quick assessment of the situation.
Run the Security app and select the Cleanup tool. Once scanned, the system will give you a volume of junk files that can be deleted at a single click, which includes browser cache, installer package residues, and temporary files.
- 🗑️ Removal APK-files after installing programs.
- 📸 Cleaning of miniatures and sketches from the gallery.
- 💬 Compression or removal of old correspondence in messengers.
For a deeper analysis, Explorer can enable hidden file displays to help you find forgotten downloads or application logs. The path to display settings is usually in the hamburger menu at the top left of the screen.
Analysis through engineering menu and hidden codes
For advanced users, more detailed technical information can be provided through special codes, and entering the combination of characters in the Phone app gives access to diagnostic data, which is useful when standard menus do not show the full picture.
Dial ##6484## to log into the CIT engineering menu, and you can find hardware tests, including memory checks, and although this interface is designed for service centers, it makes sure that there are no physical errors in the drive.
##4636##This command opens the test menu, where you can see statistics on running processes and their RAM and permanent memory in the Usage section, and be careful: changing the settings in this menu may affect the operation of the radio module.
What if the code doesn't work?
Third-party applications for disk space analysis
The regular tools don't always show which file is taking up space. The perfect way to visualize folder structure is with specialized snails, which build a disk map where the square size is the file size.
One of the most popular solutions is the DiskUsage app, or Files by Google, which scans the internal storage and the memory card, if it's installed, and then you get a visual diagram that shows you what's eating up gigabytes.
| Annex | Functional | Advertising | Demands Root rights |
|---|---|---|---|
| DiskUsage | Visual memory card | No. | No. |
| Files by Google | Cleaning and management | No. | No. |
| Total Commander | File manager | No. | Optionally. |
| SD Maid | Deep cleaning | Got it (free) | Preferably. |
Using these tools, you can find forgotten folders from remote games or videos downloaded from social networks, and this is the most effective way to find hidden data volumes, and regular analysis helps maintain order.
Clearing the cache and data messengers
The leaders in the consumption of space on modern smartphones are messengers such as Telegram, WhatsApp and Viber, which store all the media files viewed in the memory of the device, over time these folders can grow to tens of gigabytes.
Each messenger has a data and memory section or similar, where you can set up automatic cache cleaning, for example, on Telegram you can set a limit: you can only store media files for 3 days or a week.
- 📱 Open the settings of a specific messenger.
- 📂 Go to the section "Data and memory».
- 🧹 Select “Memory Use” and click “Clear Cache».
It's important to distinguish between cache cleaning and data cleaning. Cache is temporary files that can be deleted safely. Data is your correspondence and settings, the removal of which will lead to a complete reset of the application.
☑️ Checklist of fast cleaning of messengers
Removal of duplicates and large files
Often, users forget about downloaded movies, TV series or podcast series. It can take a long time to manually search for such files. Fortunately, MIUI has a built-in tool for finding duplicates.
In the Explorer or Security app, find the Find Duplicates function, and the system will analyze images and documents for exact copies, especially for those who often take screenshots or photograph documents.
Also worth paying attention to is the Download folder, which is where everything you download from your browser gets, and checking this directory regularly is a good habit for keeping the system clean.
⚠️ Before mass removal of photos, be sure to check the shopping cart in the gallery, as files can only be deleted permanently after it is cleaned.
Transferring data to cloud services and PCs
If the device's physical memory is exhausted, the best solution is to move the archives to an external storage. Xiaomi offers a cloud service called Mi Cloud, which is integrated into the system. Photos and contacts can be synchronized automatically.
Alternatively, Google Photos, Yandex.Disk or Disk. By setting up autoload photos, you can safely delete the originals from the device, leaving them available in the cloud. This frees up a significant amount of space.
For a full backup, you can connect the phone to the computer through USB-cable, file transfer mode (MTP) Smartphone is defined as an external drive. Copy heavy folders of photos and videos to your computer's hard drive.
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Use the “Free Space” feature in Google Photos – it will automatically delete from the device those pictures that are already saved in the cloud.