Xiaomi: How to Remove Hidden Garbage and Clean Your Memory

Owners of Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO smartphones often face a nasty situation: the device’s internal memory is full, and a detailed analysis of the storage reveals that the lion’s share of space is occupied by an obscure “Other” or “Other” section. This section can grow to tens of gigabytes, occupying up to 40-50% of the total available volume, making it impossible to install new applications or shoot high-resolution video.

MIUI and its more recent HyperOS shell aggregate all files that cannot be uniquely classified as photos, videos, audio or documents into this category: cached messenger data, temporary update files, residual remote game files and system logs. Clearing the Other section requires caution, as mindlessly deleting system files can lead to unstable work of the gadget.

In this guide, we will discuss safe and advanced ways to free up space: you will learn how to find hidden files through the file manager, which folders can be deleted without risk, and how to use the developer tools for deep cleaning.

The Anatomy of the Other Section: What is Stored There

Before we take any action, we need to understand the origin of junk files, and the Others section is not a virus or a system bug, but a routine mechanism for storing temporary data, and first of all, it's where app caches are put together. Social networks like Telegram or WhatsApp store images and videos in cache so that when you open the chat again, content loads instantly. Over time, this cache can weigh 10, 20 or more gigabytes.

The second source of sprawl is system logs and error reports. If a crashes application or system encounters conflict, MIUI stores diagnostic information. This section often includes files left over from a failed firmware update or incomplete removal of heavy games. Sometimes users accidentally download files of an unknown format that the system cannot recognize and put them in a pile.

⚠️ Warning: Do not try to delete files from system folders that you don't know the names of, especially if they are in the root directories of Android.This can lead to a "bootloop" (cyclic reboot) of the phone.

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Before you start cleaning, be sure to back up important contacts and photos on Google Drive or computer to eliminate the risk of data loss if you accidentally delete the desired files.

Basic cleaning with built-in MIUI and HyperOS

The safest and first step for every user is to use a regular cleaning tool, which is built deep enough in Xiaomi shells to safely delete temporary files without affecting important data. To start the process, you need to open the standard Security app (green shield icon), which is preinstalled on all devices of the brand.

Once you start the app, click on the Clean up button. The system will scan and suggest removing the garbage. However, standard cleaning often only affects the surface layer. For a deeper analysis, click on the garbage icon or go to the memory management section through the settings. Here the system will show a detailed breakdown of what exactly occupies space. Often, this is where you can see which application generates the most data in the Other section.

If a standard cleanup didn't work, try Deep Clean, which analyzes similar photos, large files, and rarely used applications. MIUI may suggest removing the installation APK-It's one of the most effective ways to quickly free up a few gigabytes.

Manual Deletion through File Manager

Automatic tools don't always see all the trash, especially if it's scattered across different folders. Manually checking through the built-in File Manager allows you to control every byte you delete. Open the application and go to the Folders or Internal Drive section. You're interested in directories related to specific applications you actively use.

Pay special attention to the Android/data folder, which stores data from all installed games and applications, for example, the cache of maps in the navigators or offline translator files can take up a huge amount of space, and check the Download folder, often containing forgotten documents, installers and images from browsers that automatically fall into the category “Other”.

You can use size-sorting to find duplicates and heavy files. From the Explorer menu, select "Sort by Size" to see the heaviest objects immediately. If you see a file with a.tmp,.log or a large, obscure character set, it's likely a safe candidate for deletion.

• 📂 Tencent folder: Often inflated by WeChat cache and QQ, It may also contain garbage from other Chinese apps.
• 📂 folder MIUI: Here are screenshots of photo editing and topics that can be deleted if you do not use customization.
• 📂.thumbnails folder: A hidden folder with gallery miniatures that can weigh gigabytes.

Cleaning the cache of messengers and social networks

The leaders in filling the “Other” section are always messengers. Telegram, WhatsApp, Viber and social networks save media files in their internal cache, which the standard phone memory analyzer often does not see as “Photos” or “Video”, but refers to “Other”, the most effective way to combat is to use built-in cleaning tools inside the applications themselves.

In Telegram, you need to go to Settings → Data and Memory → Memory Use. You can see the size of the cache and clear it with a single button. Important: this will not delete your correspondence, the files will be reloaded if necessary. WhatsApp is a little different: Settings → Data and Storage → Storage Management. Here you can delete files larger than 5 MB or clear the entire cache.

If the built-in tools don't work, you can use the system management of applications. Go to Settings → Applications → All applications, find the right messenger and select Memory. Pressing the "Clear Cache" button is safe. However, the "Clean All" or "Erase Data" button will delete all your correspondence history and login, so use it only as a last resort, pre-declared backup.

Using Developer Mode and ADB for Advanced

When standard methods are exhausted, the developer tools come to the rescue, which removes system debris and cache that is hidden from the average user, and activation requires 7 clicks on the build number in the About Phone section to create the Developer Menu. It should include “Debugging by USB».

By connecting your phone to your computer, you can use the ADB (Android Debug Bridge) utility. ADB commands allow you to force the cache of a particular package or the entire system. For example, the adb shell pm trim-caches 99999999999999 tries to free a specified number of cache bytes in all applications. This is a powerful tool, but it requires a PC and installed drivers.

Also in the developer menu on the phone itself (the item "Download new applications") you can find the option of forced stop and clean the system processes, but you need to do this with extreme caution. ADB-commands do not require Root rights, which makes this method safer than interfering with the system partition with superuser rights.

adb shell pm clear com.android.cache


adb shell pm trim-caches 999999999

⚠️ Attention: Use of teams ADB Introducing the wrong command can lead to the removal of important system components or resetting to factory.

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Using ADB is the most effective way to remove “stuck” system debris, but requires a PC connection and basic command line knowledge.

Radical measures: Resetting to factory settings

If the Others section continues to grow even after all the cleanings, it may be that the file system has accumulated errors or damaged index files, in which case the only reliable solution is a full reset to factory settings (Wipe Data), which will completely delete all user data, applications and settings, returning the phone to the “out of the box” state.

Before performing this procedure, it is critical to save all the important data to an external medium or to the cloud, and once reset, the phone will work faster and the Other partition will occupy the smallest possible volume necessary for the system to work, which often solves problems not only with memory, but also with periodic interface freezes.

You can reset via Settings → About Phone → Settings Reset → Wipe all the data. If the phone doesn't turn on or freezes, you can use Recovery mode: press the volume and power button, then select Wipe Data. After the procedure, you will need to reconfigure the phone, which will take time, but the result is worth it.

• 🔄 Complete isolation: The method ensures the removal of any virus or hidden miner that may have masqueraded as a system file.
• 🚀 Performance gains: Not only space is freed up, but RAM is also freed up as the background processes of older applications are removed.
• ⚙️ Fresh system: You get a clean version MIUI/HyperOS without accumulated over the years errors of the registry of files.