Owners of Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO smartphones often face a situation where the claimed 6 or 8 GB of RAM in reality show only half available. This is not a defect of the device or a system error, but a feature of the MIUI and HyperOS shell, which actively uses resources to preload applications. Understanding how Android and the proprietary shell control memory is the first step to optimize the work of the gadget.
Modern operating systems are designed to make free RAM waste, but in the case of Chinese firmware versions or overloaded applications, the balance can shift, causing lags and forced closure of background tasks. In this article, we will detail the mechanisms for redundancy and provide working tools to free up critical space.
Don't panic if the numbers don't make you happy. There are a number of software limitations and hidden features that you can reconfigure. Good process management will allow your smartphone to run faster without having to buy a new model.
System reserves and features of the MIUI shell
The first thing to understand is that a significant portion of the memory is reserved for the needs of the Android operating system itself and the visual add-on MIUI. Xiaomi shell is known for its functionality, but beautiful animations, widgets and services have to pay for resources. Basic system processes such as telephony, network management and account synchronization occupy their own memory pool, which the user cannot use to run games or applications.
In addition, manufacturers often use aggregated memory when a portion of the physical RAM is allocated to video memory for a graphics accelerator, which is especially true for models without a dedicated video buffer, as a result, the user sees a smaller number than stated in the store specifications. For example, from 4 GB, only 2.5-2.8 GB can be physically available immediately after turning on.
⚠️ Warning: Using third-party memory accelerators that force shut down all processes can backfire, and the system will immediately reopen system services, consuming battery power and causing micro-lags of the interface.
It's important to distinguish between "busy" and "reserved." Reserved memory is physically inaccessible to applications, while busy memory can be managed. HyperOS shell tries to optimize this process, but in basic versions of MIUI, algorithms may be less efficient for budget models.
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System reserve is a payment for stable operation of the basic functions of the phone, and it is impossible to completely free this part of memory without flashing the device on custom assemblies.
Aggressive caching and background processes
The main reason why users feel resource-poor is aggressive caching. Android tries to keep frequently used apps in RAM so they open instantly. However, MIUI often expands this limit by preloading data from social networks and instant messengers. This is convenient for multitasking, but critically affects devices with 4-6 GB of RAM.
Many apps, especially social networks like Facebook, Instagram or Telegram, use mechanisms to constantly update feeds in the background. Even if you swipe an application, its processes can remain active, waiting for an incoming message or content update, a phenomenon called background activity, and it eats free gigabytes throughout the day.
- 📱 Social media often uses up to 300-500MB each in the background.
- 🔄 System synchronization services (Google, Mi Cloud) are constantly consuming resources.
- 🎮 Game engines may not release memory after leaving the game.
To combat this, you can limit background processes in the developer settings or through special menus, but you need to be careful not to disrupt the messengers, and the optimal solution is to manually control heavy applications through the battery menu.
Memory Expansion: Marketing or Real Help?
Modern Xiaomi and Redmi models have a feature called Memory Extension, which allows you to reserve a portion of ROM and use it as RAM, which at first glance seems like the perfect solution to the problem of resource scarcity, but technically it’s getting more complicated.
The speed of reading and writing internal flash memory is much lower than that of real RAM. When the system starts to actively use this virtual swap, the interface may become less responsive. Using memory extension on devices with fast memory UFS 3.1 gives minimal increase, whereas on budget models with eMMC 5.1 it can even slow down the system.
| Type of memory | Reading speed (approximately) | Impact on the system | Recommendation |
|---|---|---|---|
| LPDDR4X (RAM) | ~20-30 GB/s | High speed of operation | Basic memory |
| UFS 3.1 (ROM) | ~2 GB/s | Slower than RAM. | Permissible for expansion |
| eMMC 5.1 (ROM) | ~0.3 GB/s | Strong lags in swaps | Better turn it off. |
If your smartphone starts to brake after you turn on this feature, it makes sense to turn it off. Honest 6 GB of fast memory works better than 6 + 3 GB, where the added 3 GB will work at the speed of the flash drive. You can check the type of memory of your device through applications like CPU-Z or AIDA64.
How to turn on or off memory expansion?
Cache cleaning and autoload management
The most effective way to get back the memory is to manually control the autoboot, and MIUI has a hidden menu that allows you to prevent applications from running with the system, which doesn't delete applications, but prevents them from starting until you open them yourself.
To access these settings, you need to go to the settings menu, find the application section, and select autorun management, and you need to leave only messengers on if you care about notifications and system services, and everything else, including marketplaces, news aggregators and games, you better turn off.
☑️ Optimizing autoloading
Also, clean up heavy app cache regularly. Cache can grow to gigabytes, taking up space not only in storage, but also affecting RAM indexing, especially for YouTube, TikTok and browsers with many open tabs.
⚠️ Note: When cleaning the application data (not to be confused with cache), you will lose logins and saved settings. Use the "Clear Cache" function, not "Erase Data" if you do not want to configure the application again.
Hidden opportunities for developers
For advanced users, Xiaomi opens the Developer Menu to the "Background Process Limit" option, which defaults to "No Limits" and allows the system to keep dozens of applications open, and changing this to "No More than 2-3 Processes" will free up a significant amount of RAM.
To activate this menu, go to Settings → About Phone and quickly click on the MIUI version 7 times. After that, a new option will appear in the advanced settings. Be careful: too strict restrictions can cause music in the background to stop and the navigator to reset the route.
Path to setup:
Settings → Additional settings → For developers → Applications → Limit of background processesAnother useful feature is to turn off animations. While this won't physically free up memory, the visual system will become more responsive and the CPU load will decrease. Reduce the animation scales of windows, transitions and animator duration to 0.5x or 0x.