The situation where the space on a Xiaomi, Redmi or Poco smartphone starts to disappear at an alarming rate is familiar to every owner. Yesterday, 10 gigabytes were free, and today the system is already screaming about the lack of space and refusing to take new pictures. This is not magic or mysticism, but the result of the Android operating system and the shell MIUI or HyperOS, which are by default configured to collect huge amounts of temporary data.
The problem is that the user sees only the tip of the iceberg, and the standard explorer displays photos, videos and installed applications, but eats gigabytes of other processes, which can be remnants of remote programs, messenger cache that grows to unimaginable sizes, or system error logs. Understanding the structure of the file system is the first step to freeing up space.
In this article, we will discuss in detail which folders and processes are the main "eaters" of disk space. Android/data It often weighs more than your gallery, and how to safely clean up your system of digital garbage without losing important documents.
System analyzer of storage: the first stage of diagnostics
Before you manually delete files, you need to understand the real picture of the disk filling. MIUI And HyperOS has a powerful tool built in that's often ignored, and it allows you to visualize the distribution of data into categories. → Memory (or About the Phone) → Memory) to see the distribution diagram.
Here you'll see the division into "Apps," "Images," "Video" and "Other," which is the last item that most often raises questions, because it can take up tens of gigabytes. This category includes app cache, downloaded files from messengers, offline maps and system temporary files. Without a detailed analysis of this category, it is impossible to understand where exactly memory goes.
It's important to note that a standard analyzer may not be able to tell the exact size of some hidden caches, especially if you're talking about streaming services like Netflix or Spotify that hide data in secure directories, but it's perfect for an initial evaluation, because if you see that The Other takes up more than 20 GB, you've got a lot of temporary files on the system.
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The “Other” category in memory settings is not a single file, but a collection of cache of all installed applications and system logs that can be safely cleared through the memory management menu.
Don't ignore the "Applications" section. It often happens that one game or social network takes up the game. 5-10 GB, though it weighs everything by itself 100 MB: This happens because you download additional resources, like game maps or saved dialogs, and if you click on a specific application in the list, you'll see a detailed breakdown: the size of the app itself. APK-file size, user data size and cache volume.
The Android folder phenomenon: data and obb
The biggest black box in the Android file system is the Android root directory, which contains two key folders: data and obb. This is where all the app data is stored: game progress, downloaded episodes of TV shows, offline music and browser cache. When you delete an application through a standard Manager, these folders often remain in place.
The obb folder is designed to store heavy application files, such as textures and 3D-If you deleted the game, but the folder with its name remained in the game. Android/obb, The data folder is even more insidious, it stores messenger data, for example, Telegram or Viber can store gigabytes of photos and videos viewed here, even if you didn't save them to the gallery.
⚠️ Be extremely careful when manually cleaning the folder Android/data. Deleting folders with system service names (e.g. com.android.providers.downloads) or important applications (banks, navigators) can result in resets or loss of saved passwords.
To access these folders in newer versions of Android (11, 12, 13, 14), a standard Explorer can request special permissions or hide content, in which case it is recommended to use advanced file managers, such as Files by Google or MiXplorer, which are able to correctly request rights to read system directories.
Why does the Android/data folder re-fill after cleaning?
Messengers as the main consumers of space
Modern messengers have become full-fledged media combines. WhatsApp, Telegram, Viber and Discord automatically store every photo and video received in the memory of the device, unless otherwise configured, the problem is aggravated by the fact that these files are duplicated: a copy remains in the cache of the application, and a copy goes to the shared gallery.
Telegram is the most flexible way to handle this. In the app settings (Settings → Data & Memory → Memory Use), you can set a cache limit or autodelete files. For example, you can set a rule: "Save photos for 3 days, video for 1 day." After this period, files are deleted from the phone's memory, but remain available in the messenger cloud.
- 📱 WhatsApp: Go to Settings → Warehouse and data → Storage management: You can delete files larger than 5MB massively here or clear all media from specific chats.
- 💬 Viber: Go to More → Settings → Memory. The app will show the fullness graph and allow you to clear the cache or delete all media files.
- 🎮 Discord: Discord cache often grows unnoticed. Cleaning is best done through the Settings menu. → Annexes → Discord → Warehouse → Clear cache in Android system.
Special attention should be paid to the function "Save to the gallery." Most messengers by default enabled the option to automatically save all incoming media in the system folder DCIM or Pictures. disabling this feature in the settings of each messenger will instantly stop the growth of duplicates.
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Use the built-in Cache Clearing feature inside the messengers themselves, not just through your Android settings. This allows you to delete temporary files while saving important correspondence and account settings.
Hidden folders DCIM, Thumbnails and MIUI
The DCIM folder is the standard place to store all the photos and videos taken by the camera. However, it often hides the.thumbnails folder inside it (the point at the beginning of the name makes the folder hidden). This is the gallery's thumbnail cache. When you flip through albums, the system creates smaller copies of the photos for quick display. Over time, this file can grow to several gigabytes.
Deleting the.thumbnails folder is safe, the system will recreate it, but it's smaller. However, if you have thousands of photos in the gallery, it will grow back quickly. MIUI It's the root of the internal memory, and it's the recorder, the screenshots of the errors. debug_log), Topics and data of the Mi Cloud.
| Folder/File | What does it contain? | Can I remove it? | Effects of removal |
|---|---|---|---|
| DCIM/.thumbnails | Cash miniature gallery | Yes. | The gallery will be slower to open on the first run. |
| MIUI/debug_log | Logs of system errors | Yes. | No, he'll make room. |
| Android/data/[app_name] | Data from a specific application | Careful. | Resetting the application or loss of progress |
| Download | Files from the browser | Yeah (selectively) | Removal of downloaded documents and installers |
It's also worth checking the Download folder. Browser (Chrome, Mi Browser) often store installation files there for years. APK, PDF-Regular cleaning of this directory is the easiest way to free up the files and forgotten images. 1-2 GB space.
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System garbage: logs, reports and updates
The Android operating system is constantly generating reports about its work. If the system crashes or the application crashes, a log file is created. On a healthy smartphone, there are few such files, but if a particular application is "glutty", it can generate megabytes of reports every minute, quickly filling up memory.
Another hidden eater is the update files. After a successful system or application update, the installation package often stays in memory. MIUI file downloaded_rom, It's also worth checking out the tencent folder (if it's a company-owned product installed), which is famous for its ability to create deep temporal file structures.
⚠️ Warning: Do not attempt to delete files from the System or data folder unless you know exactly what they are responsible for. Deleting system fonts, drivers or configuration files can lead to a phone bootloop (cyclic reboot.
To clean up your system debris, it's safer to use the built-in Security app (green icon with shield) to run the scan and press Cleanup. This tool knows which files are safe to delete and which ones to not touch, and it also finds large files and duplicates.
Radical methods: resetting and formatting
If the analysis shows that the memory is occupied by obscure system files and cleaning the cache does not help, it is possible that the file system is damaged or fragmented. In such cases, the solution is a complete reset to factory settings, which is guaranteed to remove all accumulated digital debris.
Before this procedure, be sure to back up important data to the Google Drive cloud or to your computer. Once reset, the phone will look like new, and you can track exactly which apps are starting to take up a lot of space again. SD-card, if used, because it also accumulates file system errors.
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Full Reset is the only tool that removes hidden system logs and file system errors that cannot be removed by a conventional cleanup.
In some cases, especially on older models with the type of eMMC memory, the write speed may drop as the disk fills up. For such devices, it is critical to keep at least 10-15% of the total memory free, otherwise the phone will start to run extremely slowly.
Prevention: How to prevent overcrowding
To keep the memory problem from coming back, you need to change your smartphone usage habits. Set a rule: check the downloads folder once a month and delete the unnecessary ones. Set up automatic cache cleaning in messengers. Use cloud storage for photos and videos by enabling the Free Space feature, which deletes local copies after uploading to the cloud.
Keep an eye out for system updates. Security patches and MIUI updates often fix errors that cause memory leaks. If you notice that memory disappears immediately after an update, try clearing the recovery cache, but don't do it unless you're sure you're doing it.
Remember that today’s apps require more resources. If you have a phone with 64GB of storage, that’s not much in 2026-2026, try not to install heavy games unless you play them all the time, and use “lite” versions of apps (like Facebook Lite, Google Go) that take up less space.