Cleaning the “Other” section on Xiaomi: The Complete Guide

Xiaomi and Redmi smartphone owners often face a situation where internal storage suddenly fills up and a mysterious section called “Other” becomes the main “eater” of space. Android does not always correctly classify files, including app cache, remnants of deleted programs, error logs and temporary system services data, which causes frustration, since standard cleaning methods often prove powerless against bloated system debris.

We'll explore why your device's memory is unpredictable and where gigabytes of free space are going. Understanding the nature of this phenomenon is the first step to successfully optimizing your gadget. Unlike photos or videos, files in the Other category are hidden from the user's eyes in a standard file manager, making it difficult to manually delete them.

In this article, we will look at proven ways to free up space, ranging from secure built-in features to more advanced methods. It is important to act carefully so as not to damage the MIUI or HyperOS operating system. We will not use third-party software with dubious reputations, but focus on the regular tools that are already in your phone.

The nature of the occurrence of system debris in the storage

The Other section is not a virus or a bug, but a feature of the Android architecture, and it includes data that the system cannot uniquely attribute to media files, documents or installed applications, most often the cache of streaming services such as YouTube, Spotify or Netflix, which save buffered video and audio for smooth playback, over time these files accumulate and can take up tens of gigabytes.

Another source of partition sprawl is logs and error reports. If an application is unstable or crashes all the time, it can generate debugging text files by recording every action it takes, and it also includes remnants of remote programs that haven't been completely wiped out of the system, and temporary update files. Xiaomi tries to deal with this automatically, but the algorithms aren't always effective.

Telegram and WhatsApp often store the received media files in hidden folders, which the system sees as “Other”, especially if you often send files or are in active group chats. Clearing this data requires a personal approach through the settings of the applications themselves, rather than through a shared storage analyzer.

⚠️ Note: Do not attempt to delete files from system folders manually through root-right file managers without understanding their purpose.This can result in a cyclical device reboot or loss of important settings.

Understanding what exactly takes up space helps you choose the right cleaning strategy. If you're actively using a navigator like Yandex.Navigator or Google Maps, they can cache huge maps offline. Checking the settings of these applications often gives you a quick result of freeing up space.

Basic cleaning through the standard Security application

The easiest and safest way to start the fight for space is to use the built-in Security app, which is designed specifically for the MIUI and HyperOS shells, and has access to the parts of the system that are hidden from the user. Run the application and select Cleanup. The system will scan and suggest removing obvious debris: advertising files, remnants of deleted applications and temporary data.

However, standard cleaning often doesn’t affect the deep layers of the Other section. For more in-depth analysis, go to the storage settings via the Settings menu → About Phone → Storage. Here you’ll see a color diagram of memory allocation. By clicking on the Other section, you can get more detailed, though not always complete, information about what exactly takes up space.

• 🧹 Click the “Clean” button in the Security app to delete temporary files.
• 📂 Check the Downloads section and delete old installation files APK.
• 🔄 Restart the device after cleaning so that the system recalculates the file index.

It is important to do this regularly to prevent critical memory filling. When the space runs out, the smartphone starts to run slower, and applications may stop saving new data, and the system caching is disrupted, leading to interface lags.

⚠️ Attention: Deep Cleaning in the Security app may suggest you delete files you recently created. Carefully check the list before confirming so you don't accidentally delete important documents.

Using regular funds is the foundation of maintaining order, and don’t neglect them in favor of third-party accelerators, which are often themselves a source of advertising and excessive resource consumption. Xiaomi’s built-in tools are quite effective for daily maintenance.

Managing the cache of applications and messengers

Social networks and messengers make the biggest contribution to the Other section. Telegram, for example, defaults to storing all photos and videos you receive in your device’s memory, even if you’ve already viewed them. To fix this, open Telegram’s settings, go to Data and Memory → Memory Use. You need to change the “Maximum Cache Size” setting or enable automatic cleaning.

For other apps like Instagram, TikTok or YouTube, the cleaning procedure is a little different. You need to go to Settings → Apps → All apps, find the right app and select Memory. There will be a “Clear Cache” button. It is important not to confuse it with the “Clear Everything” button, as it will delete your logins and login settings, requiring re-authorization.

A special case is maps and navigation. If you use offline maps, check if you've downloaded any extra regions. Map files can weigh several gigabytes. Navigators usually have a built-in map management feature that can remove unwanted areas.

• 🗑️ In Telegram, enable autodelete the cache (for example, after 3 days).
• 📸 On Instagram and Facebook, clean the cache regularly through the app’s settings.
• 🗺️ Check offline maps in Yandex.Navigator or Google Maps for relevance.

Regularly cleaning the cache of heavy apps is the most effective way to keep the Other section under control. Users who actively consume video content should pay special attention to this.

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Use the “Light version” function of applications (Lite) if the memory on the device is critically limited. They consume less resources and create less cache.

Storage Analyzer and Hidden Files Search

If standard methods don't help you pinpoint the source of the problem, a built-in storage analyzer will come to the rescue. A MIUI or HyperOS file explorer often has a space analysis feature, which visualizes the data and shows the heaviest files, regardless of their type, and it allows you to find forgotten high-resolution videos or archives that have been lost in the back of folders.

Also worth paying attention to is the Android/data folder, which stores game and application data, sometimes when you delete a game, its tails stay there, and if you audit that folder, you can find and delete the remnants of the remote software, but be careful: removing the active game folder will lead to a loss of progress or the need to re-download resources.

For more advanced users, there is the ability to connect the phone to a computer. In file transfer mode (MTP), the folder structure is more clearly visible. You can sort files by size and date to find the "culprit" of the celebration. Often, at the root of the internal drive are the ADB debugging logs or memory dumps that can be safely deleted.

Using an analyzer helps you understand the structure of memory filling. The Android file system fragments over time, and old data can interfere with the recording of new ones. Periodic sorting and deleting excess extends the life of the drive.

Radical measures: resetting and formatting

When software cleaning methods fail and the Other partition continues to grow, I have 30-40% of memory, and you have to take drastic measures. The most effective way is to completely reset to factory settings. This action completely erases user data, applications and settings, returning the phone to the "out of the box" state. The Other partition disappears completely as the file system is recreated.

Before doing this, it is critical to back up all important data. Use Xiaomi Cloud or Google Drive cloud services, and save photos and documents to your computer or external drive. After resetting, you will need time to set up your phone and install apps, but you are guaranteed to get a clean system without hidden debris.

There's also a less radical, but effective method, which is to clean through Recovery mode, which is to turn off the phone, clamp down the button combination (usually Volume Up + Power), and select Wipe Data, which is analogous to resetting through settings, but it's done at a lower level, which sometimes helps if the system is stuck and doesn't allow you to reset through the menu.

⚠️ After resetting on new smartphones, Google protection works FRP. Remember the login and password from the Google account that was linked to the device, otherwise you will not be able to use it.

The frequency of a full reset depends on the intensity of the phone’s use, and active users who install many test applications are encouraged to do so every six months, and once a year is enough for regular users or when selling a device.

Preventing memory overflow in the future

To prevent the problem from returning in the near future, you need to change your smartphone usage habits. First of all, set up automatic cache cleaning in heavy applications. On Telegram and WhatsApp, this can be done in the Data and Memory section by setting a media storage time limit (for example, 3 days or 1 week).

Second, check the Downloads folder regularly. Files downloaded from your browser or received via Bluetooth often stay there forever. Set a rule: browse this folder once a week and delete the unnecessary. It's also worth turning off the autosave statuses of WhatsApp and Instagram Stories if this feature is enabled, as they occupy space in the gallery and system.

Use cloud storage for photos and videos. Services like Google Photos allow you to free up space on your device at a single click, removing originals already uploaded to the cloud, which frees up gigabytes of space that would otherwise be occupied by media files, indirectly affecting the size of the Other partition, as it is easier for the system to index smaller amounts of data.

• ☁️ Set up sync with the cloud and use the “Free space” function».
• 🚫 Turn off auto-save statuses and stories in messenger settings.
• 📉 Set a cache limit for streaming services (YouTube, Spotify).

Prevention takes less time than dealing with the consequences. Operating your phone avoids situations where your device starts to brake due to space shortages. Watch the memory indicator in the notification curtain or widgets on your desktop.

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Regularly configuring autocleaning cache in messengers eliminates 80% of the overflow problems of the “Other” section.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)