Modern smartphones Xiaomi and Redmi are equipped with powerful built-in functionality for creating screencasts, which allows you to instantly record what is happening on the display without installing third-party applications. Users often face a situation when the record is successfully created, but finding it in the file system of the device is not so easy because of the features of the MIUI or HyperOS shell. The system by default hides folders with media files in the depth of directories so as not to clutter the gallery with unnecessary content.
Understanding where these files are stored is critical for anyone who creates training videos, fixes bugs in games, or saves important moments from instant messengers. If you don’t know the exact path, you can spend a lot of time going through hundreds of photos in a shared feed. In this article, we’ll go into detail all the possible ways to discover and view your records using standard system tools.
Xiaomi device owners have several ways to access the created content: through the system gallery, through the voice recorder/screenshot app, or directly through the file manager. Each method has its advantages depending on whether you just need to view the video, edit it or send the file to another user. We will look at each option Step-by-step to eliminate any navigation difficulties.
Search for records through the Standard Gallery
The most obvious and quick way to find a video of a screen is to use the standard Gallery app, which is pre-installed on every Redmi smartphone. The system automatically sorts media files by type and date, creating separate albums for screenshots and screen recordings, usually when a new record is created, it instantly appears at the top of the Photo tape or in a special album.
To access the archive of all records, you need to open the application and go to the Albums tab, and here you will find a folder called Screen Recorder or Screen Recorder, which stores all videos created by regular means, sorted by time of creation, and this is the most convenient way to quickly view, since the gallery interface allows you to immediately play the file without going to other menus.
If you don't see the file you want in the shared feed, check the Video or Recent folder. Sometimes the system classifies long recordings as full-fledged video files and places them in the appropriate categories, ignoring the screenshot album, and you should also look at the date filter at the top of the screen, which can hide old recordings if the "Only Today" viewing mode is activated.
⚠️ Warning: If you delete a video from Screen Recording, it moves to the Gallery Recycle Bin, where it is stored for 30 days.Be sure to clear the cart if you want to make room, or restore the file if it was accidentally deleted.
Use of the Screenshots app for archive
There is a separate system application in the MIUI shell that often goes unnoticed by users, although it is the central repository for all captured images and videos. It's simply called Screenshots and has its own database, independent of the main gallery, and this is where you can find a detailed history of all screen capture actions.
To open this archive, look for an icon called Screenshots on your desktop or in the Tools folder. Once you run the app, you'll see two main tabs: Screenshots and Screen Record. Switching to the second tab, you'll get access to the full list of videos, and here the files are presented as a list with the date, time and duration of the video.
The advantage of this method is that even files that may have been lost in the general gallery feed due to indexing errors are displayed here. In addition, you can immediately send a file through the messenger or delete it from this application without opening additional menus.
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If the Screenshots app icon is missing from your desktop, use a global search by phone by entering the app name in the search bar on the home screen.
Inside the app, you can sort by file size or date, making it easier to find specific records from a week or a month ago, especially when you need to find an old screencast among hundreds of new images, and the system allows you to allocate multiple files simultaneously for batch processing or deletion.
Direct access through the File Manager
For users who prefer to work with the file structure directly, or in cases where the graphical shells do not display the file, the standard Explorer becomes an indispensable tool. Understanding the logic of data storage in Android allows you to find a video recording even in the event of a gallery failure.
To find a video, open the File Manager app and go to the Video section, where you often create an automatic ScreenRecorder or ScreenRecord folder. If there is no file in the shared video section, you should go to internal memory and follow the path: DCIM → ScreenRecorder. This directory is where all videos created by the system recorder are stored by default.
In some versions of the firmware, the path may be slightly different, for example: MIUI → screen_recorder. If you are using a third-party file manager, simply search for the file name or extension.mp4 And sort the results by the date of the change, and that's guaranteed to allow you to find the fresh record, no matter what folder it's physically in.
| The Way to Memory | Type of contents | File extension |
|---|---|---|
| DCIM/ScreenRecorder | System recording of the screen | .mp4 |
| Pictures/Screenshots | Screenshots (sometimes video) | .png /.mp4 |
| MIUI/screen_recorder | MIUI's Alternative Path | .mp4 |
| Android/data/... | Records of third-party applications | .mp4 /.mkv |
Using a Explorer gives you the advantage of being able to copy the exact path to a file or see its actual size in bytes, which is not always displayed in the gallery, which is important if you plan to transfer the video to your computer or to the cloud. You can also rename the file by assigning it a clear name instead of an automatic one. VID_20231025....
☑️ File verification
Quality and format of preservation
Before you start using the recording function, it is useful to understand the settings that affect how the file is saved. In the recorder settings menu, you can change the resolution, frame rate and bitrate, these parameters directly affect the final file size and its compatibility with various players.
To access the settings, open the control panel (curtain) and click on the Screen Record icon, then select the gear settings in the corner. Here you can choose the resolution: 1080p will provide high quality but take up a lot of space, whereas 720p will be the optimal balance for fast sending in instant messengers. You can also configure the sound source: record only system sounds, only a microphone, or both sources at the same time.
The format of the frame is an important parameter. For most modern tasks, a standard 30 fps (frames per second) is suitable. However, if you are recording dynamic gameplay, it makes sense to set 60 fps to make the movement look smooth. Remember that increasing the frame rate proportionally increases the weight of the final file.
⚠️ Attention: When choosing the highest quality (1080p and 60 fps) make sure your device has enough free memory. Long-term high-resolution recording can quickly fill the internal drive.
You can also activate touch on-screen in settings, which is a useful feature for creating training videos, because it adds a visual circle at the fingerstroke, but for film or confidential correspondence, it's best to turn it off so you don't get cluttered with extra elements.
Display problems and hidden files
Sometimes users are faced with a situation where the record seems to be going, the time indicator ticked, but after the file stops, the file is nowhere, often because the file is marked as hidden or has been placed in a secure folder due to write errors, in which case the standard gallery may ignore the presence of the media file.
The first thing to do is check the settings for displaying hidden files in Explorer. Click on the menu (three dots or bars) and activate the item "Show hidden files." After that, revisit the folder. DCIM. If the file has a name that starts with a dot (for example,.screen_record.mp4), It has been hidden by the system or user before.
Another common cause is a video encoding failure: If the phone died or had a forced restart at the time of recording, the file could have been saved as broken or temporary. In the record folder, look for files with the.tmp extension or zero-size files. Unfortunately, it is rare to recover a full-fledged video from such fragments, but try to open them through the Internet. VLC-Player still stands.
Why can the video be black?
Also consider the limitations of the Android operating system. Starting with version 10, access to the file system for third-party applications is limited. If you are trying to find a record through a downloaded file manager, rather than through a standard one, it may simply not have the rights to read the DCIM folder.
Editing and sharing of recordings
Once you've found the record, you often need to edit it, cut the beginning and end, overlay the music, or add the text. The built-in MIUI tools allow you to do basic framing right in the gallery. Open the video, click Change, and select the cropping tool to remove the extra seconds at the beginning or end of the video.
For more complex editing, such as watermarking, snippet acceleration, or transitions, it’s wise to use third-party apps like CapCut or InShot. They import the file from a standard folder, and once processed, you can save the new version back to the gallery without deleting the original.
When sending messages via messengers such as Telegram or WhatsApp, it is important to choose the option “Send as a file” if you need to maintain the original quality. When sending videos normally, it is compressed, which can make text on the screen unreadable. For transferring files of large size (more than 1 GB), it is better to use cloud services or a direct Wi-Fi Direct connection.
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Always make a copy of the original recording before editing so you can go back to the original material in case of an error.
Remember to clean the folder regularly with the screen recordings. Video files take up a significant amount of memory, and the accumulation of hundreds of megabytes of junk rollers can slow down the smartphone. Periodic audit of the contents of the ScreenRecorder folder will help keep the device in optimal condition.