How to Clear Memory on Xiaomi: A Complete Guide to Freeing Up a Place

Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO are famous for their price-performance ratio, but even devices with large volume of internal storage sooner or later face a shortage of free space. Overflow memory is not just a message about a shortage of gigabytes, it is real brakes in the interface, the inability to install updates applications and failures when creating new photos. When the system partition is clogged, the MIUI or HyperOS operating system begins to work unstable, which annoys any user.

There are many ways to solve this problem, from using embedded tools to manually deleting hidden files. In this article, we will discuss proven methods that will help to safely free up space. It is important to understand that simply cleaning the cart does not always give the desired result, since many applications create deep copies of data that remain in the system.

We’ll look at how to find and remove “digital garbage” that has been accumulating for months. Xiaomi’s Android system partition can take up to 30% of the space due to logs and temporary files if you don’t do prevention. The right approach to managing storage will prolong your gadget’s life and return it to its previous speed.

Diagnostics: analysis of storage occupancy

Before you start taking action, you need to determine exactly what is taking up space on your device. Standard MIUI tools provide enough detail, but often hide details. Go to Settings → Memory to see the overall picture of the data distribution. Here you will see a breakdown by category: applications, images, videos, documents and system files.

And you should pay special attention to the Other section, which is often where gigabytes of messenger cache, remnants of deleted programs, and temporary download files are hidden, and analyzing large files helps you quickly find things that can be deleted painlessly, for example, you can find old video courses or forgotten archives that are dead weight.

Use a built-in analyzer to sort files by size, which will instantly identify the heavyweights that steal precious gigabytes. Don't rush to delete everything, first check the date of creation of the files.

If standard tools can not find the cause, you can use third-party utilities to visualize the disk, but in most cases, the built-in functionality of Xiaomi is enough. The main thing is to act consistently and not delete system folders, the purpose of which you do not know.

Use of the built-in "Security" application

Each Xiaomi smartphone has a Security system app preinstalled, which includes a powerful cleaning tool. This is the first line of defense worth using. Launch the app and select Cleanup. The system will automatically scan the device for temporary files, remnants of remote applications and advertising debris.

Automated cleaning is often superficial, however. For a deeper analysis, click on the "Dumpster Cleanup" option inside the app and then select "Deep Cleanup." Here you can manually select the categories of files that are safely deleted. App cache is the main source of garbage that can be safely cleaned without fear of losing personal data.

⚠️ Note: When using the Deep Clean feature, read the file descriptions carefully. Do not delete files with the.obb or.apk extension if you plan to run the relevant games or install the applications again.

Regular use of this tool helps keep the system clean. Set up an automatic cleaning schedule so that the phone itself frees up temporary files once a week, especially for models with 64 or 128 GB of storage.

💡

Set up automatic cleaning in the Security app for a time when your phone is not in use (like 3 a.m.) so that the process doesn’t interfere with your work.

Clearing the cache and data messengers

Messengers like WhatsApp, Telegram and Viber are the main memory eaters on modern smartphones. They store every photo, video and voice message they receive into the device’s local memory. Over time, folders with media files can grow to tens of gigabytes. Clearing the cache in the app’s settings is a safe way to delete temporary files, but it doesn’t always solve the problem completely.

To solve this problem, it is better to use built-in cleaning tools inside the messengers themselves. In Telegram, for example, you need to go to Settings → Data and memory → Memory Use. Here you can clear the cache and set up automatic deletion of downloaded files after a certain period of time. This is a critical setting for Xiaomi owners with a small amount of storage.

On WhatsApp, the situation is similar: go to Settings → Data and Storage → Storage Management. You will see a chat list sorted by location. You can delete specific media from correspondence without deleting the correspondence itself. This allows you to save important text messages, but remove heavy videos.

Remember that cleaning the application data (not to be confused with cache) will result in a complete reset, including logging out of your account and deleting local settings. Use this feature only in extreme cases when the application is not working properly.

Removal of duplicates and large files

Over the years, the gallery has accumulated a huge number of duplicates, which can be the same photos taken in serial mode, or copies of files saved from different sources. Xiaomi's built-in file manager can find such duplicates. Open the Explorer app, go to the Images category and use the function of sorting or searching for similar files.

Also worth looking at is the Download folder, which is where browsers and social media often save open documents, pictures and installation files, and many users forget about the folder, allowing it to grow for years, and manually checking the directory often frees up a few gigabytes of free space in minutes.

To find really big files, use file manager size sorting. Files over 100MB are usually video archives or update files. If you find a file with a 1GB.log extension, you can delete it safely -- it's a bug log of some program that's bloated to obscene size.

⚠️ Be very careful when removing files from Android system folders and MIUI. Delete only files that you know exactly where they came from (for example, your personal photos in the file). DCIM or downloading to Download).

Cleaning through Developer Mode and ADB

For advanced users who want to make the most of their device, there is a USB debugging and computer cleaning method. By connecting the smartphone to a PC, you can use ADB (Android Debug Bridge) commands to remove system debris that is not available to the average user. This requires pre-enabled developer mode.

To activate mode, go to Settings → About Phone and quickly click on MIUI seven times. Then the Advanced Settings will show “Developers” and activate “Debugging USB.” Once connected to your computer, you can use commands to clean the dalvik cache and other system temporary files.

adb shell pm trim-caches 999999999

This command is a force to cut the cache of all applications to a minimum, but it is worth using it with caution, since after cleaning the applications can load a little longer on the first run. System cache is an acceleration mechanism, and its complete removal can temporarily reduce the performance of the interface.

💡

Use of the ADB-commands allow you to clean up system debris that is not available through a standard interface, but requires a computer and basic command line knowledge.

Also, you can remove pre-installed Xiaomi apps that are not deleted in the usual way (bloatware) through ADB, which will free up not only space but also RAM, but it is strongly recommended that you make a full backup of data before removing system components.

Prevention and Cloud Solutions

To prevent memory loss from returning, you need to work properly with cloud storage. Google Photos or Xiaomi's built-in Cloud allows you to store original photos and videos online, leaving only compressed copies on the device or completely deleting them locally.

Check the list of installed applications regularly. Many programs are used once and forgotten. Removing unused software is the easiest way to free up space. MIUI has a feature that shows when the application was last launched. If you haven't opened a game or service for more than a month, feel free to delete it.

Use microSD cards if your smartphone model supports this feature, and in the storage settings, you can specify to the system that new photos and videos should be saved immediately to the card, which will keep the system partition free for operating system and updates.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)