How to completely clear Play Market history on Xiaomi phone: search, downloads, activity

Google Play Market activity history on Xiaomi smartphones (including the Redmi, POCO and Mi line) can reveal your preferences, search queries and even installed apps – even after they are removed – that information not only takes up space in your Google account, but is used for targeted advertising, app recommendations and, in some cases, can become a privacy vulnerability.

Unlike standard instructions, which suggest removing history only through the web version of the Play Market, we will consider all available methods - including hidden MIUI settings that allow you to clear the cache of Google services without completely resetting the phone. It is important to understand that Xiaomi modifies the Android shell (MIUI), so some menu items may differ from "pure" Android. This article takes into account the features of the firmware MIUI 14 and MIUI 15 (Android 13/14), as well as the nuances for devices with global and Chinese versions of the software.

Why Play Market History Continues Even After App Deletions

Google Play Market captures three types of activity that most Xiaomi users don’t know:

• 🔍 Search history – all queries you entered in the Play Market bar (e.g., “best search”); VPN for China" or "how to bypass the blocking of banking applications").
• 📥 Installation/Deletion History – A list of all applications ever installed, even if you have uninstalled them long ago.
• 🕵️ Google account activity – data on interaction with the Play Market (reviews, ratings, complaints about applications).

The main problem for Xiaomi owners is that MIUI It integrates Google services in a non-standard way, for example, the Play Market cache can be stored not only in the app itself, but also in system folders. /data/data/com.android.vending/, Moreover, even after manually clearing the history through the Google web interface, some data can be restored the next time you log in to your account, which is due to synchronization of Google Activity Controls.

⚠️ Note: If you use Xiaomi with Chinese firmware (China) ROM), You may not have a pre-installed Play Market, in which case the history is stored in an alternative Mi App Store and other actions will be required to clean it up (see Section 5).

Method 1: Clear history through Play Market settings on your phone

The simplest method, which works on all Xiaomi smartphones with Google Play Market installed (including Redmi Note 12, POCO X5, Mi 11, etc.) is suitable for removing search queries and list of installed applications, but does not affect Google account data.

1. Open the Play Market app on your Xiaomi.
2. Slip on the profile avatar (or account icon) in the upper right corner.
3. Select the option “Manage apps and device” → Management.
4. Go to the Installed tab → press three points (⋮) top-down → Clear history.
5. To clear your search queries, go back to the main profile menu and select Settings → General → Clear your search history.

This only removes the local history on the device, so if you're logged in to a Google account, the data will still be in the cloud and available on other devices, and you'll need a 2 or 3 cleanup to be complete.

The Play Market search history is cleared on this device

Removes the list of installed/removed applications (locally only)

Google account data is not affected (remains in the cloud)

The cache of recommendations is not cleared-->

Method 2: Complete cleaning with Google Activity (web version)

If you need to delete your history permanently (including backups in your Google account), use Google Activity web interface.This method is suitable for Xiaomi users who want to:

• 🧹 Remove all search trails in the Play Market for the past year (or all time).
• 🔒 Disable the preservation of history in the future.
• 📊 Delete data on ratings and feedback on applications.

Instructions:

1. Open the Google Activity page in your browser (on your phone or PC) and log in under the same account as you do on Xiaomi.
2. In the left menu, select Other Google → Play Market actions.
3. Click on the Filter by date and product → select period (e.g., For All Time).
4. Check all entries or select specific ones (for example, only “Search in Play Market”).
5. Click on the basket icon (🗑️ Delete) → confirm.

To disable automatic history saving in the future:

1. Go back to the Google Activity homepage.
2. Go to History Management → find the Activity section in the Play Market.
3. Turn off the switch to Save Activity in the Play Market.

⚠️ Note: After disabling the history saving, you will not be able to recover deleted data, and the recommendations of the applications in the Play Market will become less relevant, and this may affect the operation of Google Play Protect services).

💡

If you install and remove apps frequently, it is recommended to clear Play Market history once every 2-3 months, which will reduce the amount of data Google uses to analyze your behavior.

Method 3: Reset the cache and Play Market data via Android settings

If the story is not cleared by standard methods (for example, after a MIUI update or sync failure), you can apply a forced reset of cache and data of the com.android.vending application (this is the system name of the Play Market), which is suitable for Xiaomi devices where the Play Market is unstable or shows outdated data.

Instructions:

1. Open the settings on your Xiaomi.
2. Go to the Apps → Application management.
3. In the search box, enter the Play Market (or Google Play Store for Russian firmware).
4. Select the app → Storage and cache.
5. Click Clear Cache, then Clear Data (or Erase Data in newer versions of MIUI).
6. Reboot the phone.

After this procedure:

• 🔄 Play Market will look like it was after the first installation (re-entry will be required).
• 📂 Search and installation history will only be reset on this device.
• ⚠️ Application recommendations will become standard (without personalization).

⚠️ Note: Some Xiaomi models (e.g. Redmi) 10C or POCO M4 Pro) after cleaning the Play Market data, you may need to re-activate the device via Google (entering the login / password and confirming by SMS). Make sure you have access to the mail and phone linked to your account.

Once a month

Six months

Never cleaned.

Only when the phone starts to brake-->

Method 4: Delete History via ADB (for Advanced Users)

If you use Xiaomi with an unlocked bootloader or root rights, you can delete the Play Market history through the ADB-This method allows you to clear the data that is not deleted by standard methods, including:

• 📁 Hidden cache files in /data/data/com.android.vending/.
• 🔑 Authorization Tokens That Can Restore History After Resetting.
• 📊 Activity logs that Google uses to analyze.

This will require:

1. Enable USB Debugging on Xiaomi (Settings → About Phone → MIUI Version → 7 times tap to unlock Developer Settings, then enable debugging).
2. Connect the phone to your PC and start the ADB (installation instructions: official documentation).
3. Execute commands:

adb shell pm clear com.android.vending


adb shell rm -rf /data/data/com.android.vending/cache/*




adb shell rm -rf /data/data/com.android.vending/files/*

These teams:

• Clear all data and cache Play Market.
• Delete temporary files that may contain history.
• It does not affect MIUI system files.

⚠️ Attention: Use ADB Xiaomi with a blocked bootloader can lead to a reset of protection FRP (Factory Reset Protection: If you are not sure what you are doing, you should use methods 1-3.

Method 5: Clear History in the Mi App Store (for Chinese firmware)

If your Xiaomi is running on China ROM, instead of Google Play Market, it uses the Mi App Store (or GetApps) to clean up the story in a different way:

1. Open the GetApps app (Blue Package Icon).
2. Go to the I (or Profile) section at the bottom menu.
3. Tap on. ⚙️ Settings (cog in the upper corner).
4. Choose Clear Search History.
5. To reset the list of installed applications, go to Application Management → Installed → Clean.

Features of the Mi App Store:

• 🔒 History is only stored locally (not synced to the cloud, unlike Google).
• 📌 After cleaning, recommendations are reset to standard (without personalization).
• ⚠️ In the Chinese version MIUI There is no way to disable the history preservation – it is only manually cleaned.

Additional measures: how to prevent the preservation of history in the future

If you don’t want Google or Xiaomi to continue collecting data about your Play Market activity, follow these steps:

1. Turn off personalized ads: Go to Google Settings → Advertising. Turn off Personalized Ads. Reset the Ad Identifier (this won’t delete the story, but will reduce targeting).
2. Use alternative stores: Install APKMirror or F-Droid to download apps without tracking. For Chinese firmware, use CoolApk (a popular Chinese store).

Clean the cache regularly:

• Use the SD Maid app (requires root) to deep clean the residual Play Market files.
• MIUI has an integrated Optimization (Security → Cleanup) utility, but it does not remove activity history.