Why are photos duplicated in the gallery on Xiaomi and how to fix it

You open a gallery on your Xiaomi to show your friends vacation photos, but instead of a neat selection, you see chaos: the same photos are repeated over and over again. 2-3 It's a familiar situation, and duplicate photos are one of the most common problems on Mi, Redmi and other devices. POCO, It does not depend on the model or version. MIUI. In some cases, the doubles are up to 30% internal memory, and manual removal of the memory becomes an endless process.

In this article, we’ll break down 7 key reasons why Xiaomi is starting to “multiply” photos, from cloud sync bugs to hidden cache folders. You’ll learn how to distinguish real duplicates from ghost copies (which take up 0 bytes but are displayed in the gallery), what settings are available. MIUI You're responsible for the problem, and why even after you've cleaned it, you might see it again in a week, and most importantly, you'll get step-by-step instructions for each of the reasons, including hidden commands for the photos. ADB Little-known functions of the standard gallery.

The method that worked on the Redmi Note 10 Pro may not help the owner of the Xiaomi 13 Ultra — it all depends on the firmware version, the cloud services used, and even how you transferred files to the phone, so we structured the material so that you can quickly find your case and apply a point solution.

1. Cloud sync: why Google Photos and Mi Cloud create duplicates

The most common reason for duplicates is conflict between several cloud services. Xiaomi smartphones are integrated with Mi Cloud by default, but most users also use Google Photos. When both services are set to automatically download, the following happens:

• 📁 Mi Cloud creates a copy of a photo in a folder /MIUI/Backup/AllBackup (hidden).
• 🖼️ Google Photos saves a thumbnail in its cache (/Android/data/com.google.android.apps.photos).
• 🔄 When you restore from the cloud or sync, both services return their versions of files, but the gallery displays them as separate images.

The problem is especially pronounced after resetting or switching to a new phone, when both clouds are trying to recover media files at the same time, while Google Photos can create duplicates even without your knowledge - the service automatically saves edited versions of photos as new files (for example, after applying filters or cropping).

⚠️ Note: If you use Google Photos in Original Quality mode, the duplicates will take up full disk space. In High Quality mode, the copies weigh less, but you can still see them in the gallery.

How to check if the clouds are to blame:

1. Open Settings → Accounts and Synchronization.
2. See which accounts have access to the Photos (usually Mi Account and Google).
3. Go to Settings. → Annexes → Application management → gallery → Memory and check how much space the cache takes up.

2 Hidden folders and cache of the gallery: where hidden "invisible" takes

Even if you have never used the cloud, duplicates can appear due to hidden system folders and the cache of the Gallery app. MIUI There are a few traps":

• 🗃️ The.thumbnails folder stores thumbnails to quickly load a gallery, sometimes growing to gigabytes.
• 📂 folder DCIM/.thumbnails — duplicates the miniatures specific to the camera.
• 🔍 folder Pictures/Screenshots/.thumbnails — screenshot.
• 📱 folder Android/data/com.miui.gallery — The gallery stores temporary files here.

The tricky thing about these folders is that they're hidden by default, and the standard file manager doesn't show them, and Xiaomi's gallery scans all the media on the device, including the cache, and displays them as full photos, and you see the same pictures in the main folder. DCIM/Camera and in hidden cache.

How to find and clean hidden folders:

1. Install a file manager that supports hidden files (such as Solid Explorer or FX File Explorer).
2. Turn on the display of hidden folders in the manager settings.
3. Cross the path. /storage/emulated/0/ manually delete the contents of the.thumbnails folders.
4. To clean the gallery cache: Settings → Annexes → gallery → Memory. → Clear the cache.

💡

Before removing hidden folders, back up important photos – sometimes unique thumbnails that cannot be restored get into.thumbnails.

File portability errors: why copying from a PC or flash drive creates duplicates

If you have transferred photos to Xiaomi from a computer, flash drive or other phone, chances are that the duplicates were due to incorrect copying.

• 💻 When connected to MTP (Media Transfer Protocol: Windows or macOS can create temporary copies of files in the.Trash or.Temp folder.
• 📁 If you copied the photo to a folder that already contained files with the same names, the system could automatically add suffixes like copy(1) to the names).
• 🔄 When using sync programs (e.g. Xiaomi File Manager or Send Anywhere), sometimes backup copies of files are created.

Especially often, the problem arises when transferring photos from iPhone to Xiaomi through iTunes or cloud services. Files from Apple albums can be duplicated due to differences in storage structure: MIUI Does not understand the time stamps of iOS and creates new entries in the gallery database.

How to avoid doubles when transferring:

1. Use archives to copy files (ZIP/RAR) — So you can transfer files without changing them.
2. Before copying, check if the target folder has files with the same names.
3. To transfer from your iPhone, use Google Photos in “Original Quality” or iCloud for Windows.

4. MIUI: Famous firmware errors that create duplicates

Some versions MIUI They have system bugs that cause the gallery to duplicate photos for no apparent reason:

If your model makes the list, check the version first. MIUI (Settings → The phone. → Version. MIUI) If you don't have any updates, try resetting the gallery settings:

1. Go to Settings → Applications → Application Management → Gallery.
2. Press Warehouse. → Clear the data (this will delete all gallery settings, but not the photos themselves).
3. Reboot the phone.

⚠️ Note: On some devices with MIUI 14 gallery reset can result in the loss of hand-crafted albums.Before reset, export important albums to the cloud.

5. Duplicator applications: which programs create copies of photos

Many third-party apps automatically save copies of photos without alerting the user.

• 📸 Editing apps (Snapseed, Lightroom, PicsArt) – save the original + edited.
• 💬 Messengers (WhatsApp, Telegram) – create folders WhatsApp Images and Telegram Images with copies of sent / received photos.
• 📱 Launchers and themes (Nova Launcher, MIUI Themes – cache wallpaper and icons in the folder /MIUI/theme/.
• 🔍 File managers (ES Explorer, Total Commander – can backup when moving files.

The easiest way to find the culprit is to sort through the gallery photos by folder, if you see duplicates in folders like this. Pictures/Snapseed or DCIM/Camera/Edited, The problem is in the applications.

How to stop the creation of duplicates:

1. For instant messengers: Turn off auto-save media in the chat settings.
2. For editors: in the settings, select the option Save on top of the original (if any).
3. For launchers: clear the cache in Settings → Annexes → [The name of the launcher] → Memory.

Open the gallery and switch to the view of "Folders"

Check folders with application names (WhatsApp, Snapseed, etc.)

Clear the cache of suspicious applications

Disable autosave in messengers-->

6.A damaged media database: When the gallery "goes crazy"

If the duplicates appear even after cleaning all folders and turning off the clouds, the problem may lie in a corrupted media database. MIUI In particular, the system database media provider, which indexes all media files, is responsible for displaying the photo:

• 🔄 Duplicate records of the same file.
• 👻 Show photos that are no longer on the device (phantom files).
• 📊 It is wrong to sort photos by date.

Signs of damaged base:

• Doubles have the same size and date, but different paths (e.g, /storage/emulated/0/DCIM/Camera/IMG_1.jpg and /storage/emulated/0/Pictures/IMG_1.jpg).
• After removing the takes, they reappear in a few hours.
• The gallery takes a long time to load or freeze when scrolling.

How to restore the media base:

1. Delete the database file (root rights required or ADB):

adb shell


su




rm -rf /data/data/com.android.providers.media/databases/external-*.db




rm -rf /data/data/com.android.providers.media/databases/internal-*.db




reboot

1. If root is not available, use a standard reset:

adb shell pm clear com.android.providers.media

1. After the reboot, wait. 10-15 minutes - the system will automatically rebuild the base.

⚠️ Attention: Cleaning up the media base will result in the reset of all albums and tags in the gallery, and thumbnails may also be lost in other applications (for example, WhatsApp).

💡

If after cleaning the base, the doubles returned through 1-2 The problem is one of the apps that re-targets the index. Try to find the culprit by disabling the programs one at a time.

7 Hardware problems: when the drive is to blame

In rare cases, duplicate photos can be a symptom of problems with internal memory or microSD card. If the drive starts to "fall down", the system can:

• 💾 It is wrong to write files by creating copies of them with distorted names.
• 🔄 Re-store the same data across different sectors.
• 🚨 Issue reading errors that cause the gallery to duplicate the preview.

Signs of hardware problem:

• The doubles appear only in the photo saved on the SD-map.
• The files are of different sizes, although they should be identical.
• When copying photos on PC, errors occur.
• The phone will give you a notification periodically. SD-map damaged.

How to check the health of the drive:

1. Connect your phone to your PC and copy all the photos to your hard drive.
2. Check it out. SD-utility-card H2testw (Windows or F3 (macOS/Linux).
3. Use internal memory to check your internal memory ADB:

adb shell


su




dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0 of=/sdcard/mmcblk0.img bs=1M count=100




md5sum /sdcard/mmcblk0.img

If the hash amount changes during the repeated test, the drive is defective.

Decision:

• For SD-maps: format it in FAT32 or exFAT via PC (not via phone!).
• For internal memory: back up and complete reset (Settings) → Additionally. → Recovery and discharge).

FAQ: Frequent questions about photos in Xiaomi