New MIUI Gallery storage leak? [Mi 11 Ultra/MIUI13]

[TheRealGroot]

I'll start by saying that I upgraded from MIUI12, so the issue could be a leftover bug that moved with me to MIUI 13.0.5.
My phone is Mi 11 Ultra 12/512 (CN with EU rom). I installed clean EU rom (12.x) and upgraded to MIUI 13.0.5.
The problem:
MIUI Gallery app storage is at 14.88GB. Specifically this is "User Data" that takes 14.85GB.
- I deleted almost all media from my phone and it doesn't appear to change that number (14.85GB.
- I tried clearing cache although it has nothing to do with the data.
- I checked that both Trash and Trash Bin are empty.
- I searched around with File Explorers to find where's MIUI holds this data, couldn't find it.
- My phone is not rooted (bootloader unlocked though).

What am I missing here? I really don't want to factory reset because of it, I prefer finding the cause and fix it.


//-----------------------EDIT: I guess Media-Storage is just my actual content on the drive, so ignore this one. Let's focus on the Gallery bug------------
Another interesting thing which may or may not be an issue:
"Media-Storage" also with high storage usage with "User Data" of 15.29GB!
Here there is a "Clear data" , but I'm worried to click on it. It's just that 15.29GB of user data seems excessive.

Would love some help with this.
Thanks!

 

[Kacper Skrzypek]

It's probably caused by removed photos. In fact, they aren't really removed, but being kept in Android/data/com.miui.gallery/files/trashBin.

 

[TheRealGroot]

It's probably caused by removed photos. In fact, they aren't really removed, but being kept in Android/data/com.miui.gallery/files/trashBin.

Thanks for the reply.

As I said, I made sure the Trash and Trash Bin are both empty (from the Gallery UI).
But I decided to check in Android/data/com.miui.gallery/files/trashBin anyway:
Cache: 0GB
Files: 3.8GB
Files\gallery_cache_disk - 3.2GB
Files\trashBin - 396MB
Files\vlog - 50MB

Still missing 14GB..

 

[Kacper Skrzypek]

Download "DiskUsage" app from Play Store, maybe it will explain something. If you're rooted, you could check the /data/data/com.miui.gallery directory as well...

 

[TheRealGroot]

Download "DiskUsage" app from Play Store, maybe it will explain something. If you're rooted, you could check the /data/data/com.miui.gallery directory as well...

Diskusage only shows what I can already see.. the folders are in orange colors, so I guess I will need root permission.

I wonder if anyone will take a look at this bug, this is a really nasty bug - 10-20GB of data that can't be freed on a phone is A LOT!

I don't have much choice but to factory reset the device and never give Gallery any permissions later. Sigh..

Thanks for the help Orjon!

 

[AmazDev]

MIUI 13 v13.0.9, I don't have this issue and I also never had it. That's very weird! I think it's worth mentioning that I factory reset my phone from settings, even after installing with first install script.

I Can absolutely tell that factory resetting really fixed all the issues I was having

 

[Blastboom Strice]

Check for any file named ".protected_image" btw.

 

[TheRealGroot]

MIUI 13 v13.0.9, I don't have this issue and I also never had it. That's very weird! I think it's worth mentioning that I factory reset my phone from settings, even after installing with first install script.

I Can absolutely tell that factory resetting really fixed all the issues I was having

Thanks for your reply.
So I did a factory reset yesterday, but this time I decided I don't want to use the MIUI gallery anymore to prevent another unneeded factory reset.
The problem is that MIUI doesn't let other gallery apps delete files :/
I get a pop-up notification every time :

Are you familiar with it?

 

[TheRealGroot]

Found it !!

 

[Blastboom Strice]

Found it !!

Just to know, if you leave that on, it moves the media in ".protected_image" folder till you chose to delete them.