Memory cleanup Xiaomi: how to remove excess and partition

Xiaomi and Redmi smartphones are famous for their performance, but even the powerful hardware faces a shortage of free space over time. Users often notice that internal storage is crowded, although there are not many photos and videos. Especially annoying is the mysterious “Other” section, which can take up tens of gigabytes, blocking the installation of updates and new applications.

In this article, we will look at proven methods of freeing up space that really work on the shell of MIUI and the new HyperOS. You will learn where hidden files hide, how to safely delete the cache of messengers and whether you should trust the built-in cleaners.

Do not ignore memory overflow, as this directly affects the speed of the Android operating system. When the free space runs out, the smartphone begins to slow down, and applications can fly out or incorrectly save data.

Analysis of vault occupancy

Before you blindly delete files, you need to understand what exactly takes up space. Xiaomi's built-in tools provide fairly detailed statistics, but they're not always obvious to the average user. The system divides the data into categories: applications, images, video, audio, documents, and so on.

The most interesting category is “Other” or “Other” — often temporary update files, error logs, remnants of remote applications and a cache of streaming services — a system analyzer helps identify the largest users of the place, but sometimes hides the real volume of data of some programs.

For deep analysis, third-party utilities such as Files by Google or DiskUsage are recommended to visualize the folder structure, showing even hidden directories that a standard Explorer can ignore, which allows you to find forgotten downloads or huge log files left by failed applications.

⚠️ Warning: When using third-party disk space analyzers, be careful. /data or /system It can lead to unstable smartphone operation or cyclic reboot.

Cleaning cache and temporary files

The safest and fastest way to free up space is to clear the cache. Cache is temporary data that apps save to make things faster, like thumbnails of images in a gallery or uploaded parts of videos to YouTube. Over time, this garbage accumulates and can take up a significant amount of space.

The standard Security app (or Security) has a built-in Cleanup tool that automatically finds temporary files and prompts them to be deleted, but for a more thorough cleaning, it's better to go to the settings of each heavy application separately, especially for social networks and browsers.

It is important to distinguish between Clear Cache and Clear All Data. The first operation is secure and only deletes temporary files. The second operation completely resets the application to the factory settings, removing logins, passwords and local saves. Use a full cleanup only if the application is not working correctly.

Working with the “Other” section

The mysterious “Other” folder often causes panic among Xiaomi owners, and in fact, it is a hodgepodge of files that the system cannot uniquely classify, including instant messenger databases, offline navigator maps, downloaded tracks in music services, and remnants of remote games.

Often, the bulk of this section is the junk file miui or folders with debugging logs. In some cases, the bloating partition is due to an error in indexing media files. If you deleted a lot of photos, but the volume of "Other" has not decreased, it may be worth rebooting the device or clearing the cache of media services.

You can use a file manager to manually clean the Other section, go to the root of internal memory and look for folders with the names of remote applications or services you no longer use, and check the MIUI -> gallery -> cloud folder, where thumbnails can be stored.

Cleaning messengers: Telegram and WhatsApp

Memory consumption leaders are traditionally messengers. Telegram and WhatsApp by default store all received photos and videos in the memory of the device. Without regular cleaning, chats can “grow” to 10-20 gigabytes or more.

Telegram has a built-in and very convenient memory management tool that lets you see which chats take up the most space and clear the cache selectively, and you can set up automatic cache deletion if it exceeds a certain limit, such as 1 GB.

WhatsApp is more complicated because it stores backups and media files in the file system, so to clear the space, you have to go to Storage in the app settings, you can delete large files or clear the history of a particular contact, and it is also useful to disable auto-save in the gallery.

💡

In Telegram, enable Autodelete in Settings -> Data and Memory -> Media Autodelete, which will prevent the accumulation of garbage in the future.

Don't forget the Android/media folder, where modern versions of Android upload instant messenger files. Even after cleaning the app, files can remain in this directory. Check the Android/media/com.whatsapp and Android/media/org.telegram.messenger paths through the file manager.

Removal of duplicates and large files

Often, users don’t even know they’re storing multiple copies of the same video or document, especially for those who frequently upload files or edit photos, and finding and removing duplicates is an effective way to quickly recover multiple gigabytes.

Xiaomi's file manager has a duplicate search feature, but it doesn't always work perfectly. You'd better use specialized applications or built-in file size search. Sort files by size ("Big first") and look carefully at the list. Often there are forgotten movies or long screen recordings.

Special attention should be paid to the Download folder, where many applications, especially browsers and email clients, store all attachments there, and the application installer files (.apk) are also often left in this folder after installing programs and take up space without any use.

⚠️ Warning: Before mass deletion of files by size, be sure to open them and check the contents. System files or important documents may have strange names and large sizes.

Use of cloud services and memory cards

If internal memory is crowded, the logical solution is to transfer data to external storage. Cloud services such as Google Photos, Yandex Drive or Mi Cloud allow you to store media files remotely, freeing up space on the device.

Google Photos’ “Free Space” feature automatically removes images and videos that have already been safely stored in the cloud from your device, a safe and quick way to clean up your gallery.

For Xiaomi models that support microSD cards, you can transfer some of the data there. Although modern versions of Android do not allow you to transfer the applications themselves to the map, you can set the camera and voice recorder to save files immediately on the map. SD-You can also transfer music and documents to the map.

💡

Cloud Storage Combination for Photos and Use SD-Media card is the best way to forget about memory shortages forever.

Radical measures: Resetting to factory settings

If none of the above methods worked, and the Other section continues to grow, there may have been a critical error in the file system, in which case the only effective solution is to completely reset the device to factory settings.

This procedure completely removes all user data, apps and settings, returning the smartphone to the “shop-like” state. System files are rewritten clean, which is guaranteed to eliminate software debris and indexing errors.

Before you reset, make sure to back up your important data. Sync your contacts with your Google account, save your photos to the cloud, and write down your application lists so you don't forget anything when you restore them.

To perform the reset, go to Settings -> About Phone -> Reset. Select "Delete All Data." The process will take a few minutes, after which the phone will turn on as new. This often brings old devices to life, making them work again quickly and smoothly.