Next articleThe Others in Xiaomi Memory: What It Is and How to Clean It

Owners of Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO smartphones often face a mysterious situation: free space on the drive is rapidly melting, and when you analyze the storage in detail, the lion’s share is occupied by the incomprehensible category “Other”, which can grow to tens of gigabytes, causing system brakes and the inability to install new applications or take photos.

Understanding the structure of the MIUI and HyperOS file system is critical to maintaining a device properly. Unlike the standard Android system, the Chinese company’s shell has its own file indexing features, which causes many data to fall into this hidden section, ignoring the standard categories of Photos or Video.

In this article, we will discuss in detail what lies behind the mysterious name, why the system can not properly classify files and what methods can be safely cleaned this partition without deleting important data.

The nature of the category “Other”

The Other category (sometimes referred to as Other or System) is not a virus or bug, but a system mechanism for grouping files that failed to automatically distribute into standard types. The Android operating system, in conjunction with the Xiaomi shell, constantly scans memory, trying to determine the extension and type of each byte.

But there are files that don't have a clear extension, are corrupted, are temporary cache of running applications or system logs, and they are sent to a shopping cart called Others, often containing remnants of deleted applications, messenger cache (especially Telegram and WhatsApp), and data from the "basket" of the gallery.

⚠️ Note: Do not attempt to delete files from system folders through root-right file managers without understanding their purpose).

This partition is dynamic, it can grow in the background when you're using your browser or watching high-resolution video, and caching streaming content is one of the most common causes of a surge in space.

The main components occupying the place

To effectively combat memory filling, you need to know the enemy in the face. Within the category "Other" most often hide the following types of data:

• 📂 System cache and logs: Error and application log files that accumulate for months.
• 📂 Remnants of Remote Programs: Configuration files and application libraries that were incorrectly deleted.
• 📂 Temporary Update Files: Parts of system or application service packs that were not deleted after successful installation.
• 📂 Hidden folders: Telegram, for example, stores downloaded files in hidden directories that the system does not always recognize as “Documents” or “Video».

You should pay special attention to multimedia files. If you edited videos in CapCut or processed photos in Lightroom, projects and temporary renders can also settle in this section, the system sees them as a set of binary data, not as a finished media file.

Another important aspect is the Recycle Bin: In modern versions of MIUI, deleted photos and videos do not disappear immediately, but move to a hidden section, continuing to occupy a place in the Other category until the expiration of the storage period (usually 30 days).

Diagnostics: How to see hidden files

Xiaomi’s standard Explorer often hides the real picture by showing only generalized numbers, and for deep diagnostics, it is recommended to use specialized utilities or built-in analysis tools.

One of the most effective ways is to use the built-in storage analyzer. Go to Settings → Memory and wait for the analysis to be completed. You can often see a more detailed breakdown here than you would on the main menu.

For advanced users, there are analytics apps like DiskUsage or Files by Google that visualize memory as a block map, where you can see which file or folder takes up the most space.

Using third-party analyzers gives a more accurate picture, but requires permissions to access all files. Be careful when choosing such applications, preferring trusted developers.

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Before deep cleaning, back up your important data to the Mi Cloud or your computer, which will take time, but save your contacts and photos in case of an error.

Cleaning by standard means of the system

The safest way to free up space is to use the built-in MIUI tools, and the system knows which files can be deleted without harming its operation.

To start, use the Safety app (green zipper icon). Select Cleanup inside. The system will prompt you to remove debris, cache and duplicates. This is a baseline that rarely cleans the entire Other section, but is safe.

Deeper cleaning is done through the application management menu. Go to Settings → Apps → All apps. Find apps that take up a lot of space (often browsers, social networks or navigators). Select the app and click Clear → Clear cache.

⚠️ Warning: The Clear Everything (or Reset) button in the app settings will not only remove your cache, but also your logins, saved passwords, and game progress. Use it only if you are ready to reconfigure the app.

Also, remember to check the Download folder, which is where files downloaded from the Internet often lie for years and automatically fall into the Other category if the type is not determined.

Radical methods and work with PC

If the standard methods did not help and the "Other" section is still a critical volume, you have to resort to more serious measures, one of the effective ways is to connect your smartphone to your computer.

When connecting via USB, select File Transfer (MTP) mode. You can see the phone's file system through Windows Explorer or macOS. Look for folders with application names or temporary files with the.tmp extension. These can be manually deleted.

However, modern versions of Android (starting with version 11) restrict access to /Android/data/ for third-party explorers and even PCs. To circumvent this limitation, you can use special file managers such as Material Files or FX File Explorer, which are able to request special permissions.

The most radical but effective method is a complete factory reset, guaranteed to remove all the garbage that has accumulated over the years of use, and make sure to make a full backup before you do that.

Settings → About the phone → Reset settings → Erase all data

Once reset, the phone will be like new. The category of "other" will be reduced to the minimum (a few hundred megabytes) that system files will take, which often solves the problem when a software failure causes an incorrect calculation of free space.

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Full reset is the only solution that guarantees 100% system debris cleanup if software errors caused memory to be displayed incorrectly.

Prevention of memory overflow

To keep the problem of “bloating” the “Other” section from coming back, digital hygiene is essential. Regularly cleaning the cache of heavy apps like TikTok, Instagram and Telegram works wonders.

The messengers themselves often have automatic cache cleaning features, such as a Telegram timer that says "Storage media for 3 days" or "1 week" to prevent gigabytes of images from accumulating in memory.

Also keep an eye out for system updates. Xiaomi engineers periodically release patches that fix file system bugs and improve memory cleanup algorithms.

Using cloud storage allows you to transfer heavy files (photos, videos, documents) to the Internet, freeing up local space. Set up automatic synchronization of the gallery with Google Photos or Mi Cloud with the Free Space function.