2 hours ago, sometimewoodworker said:

None of those are apps.

They are all system files. They are usually hidden 

virtually no apps have a “.” In the name none that I know of have more than 1

So what do I do about them? How did they get there? Do I need them? They are certainly not hidden. Thanks for your help.

29 minutes ago, NoshowJones said:

So what do I do about them?

Nothing, or delete them. They don’t affect the phone unless they are eating memory 

 

29 minutes ago, NoshowJones said:

How did they get there?

Created by the system or other apps.

29 minutes ago, NoshowJones said:

Do I need them?

Maybe no, maybe yes, if required they maybe recreated, if deleted they may stop applications working (but probably not)

29 minutes ago, NoshowJones said:

They are certainly not hidden.

They may have been.

You may have done something to display them.

if you have done nothing your install / system may have got corrupted.

caveat: if you don’t know exactly what you are doing randomly deleting files can brick your phone. That is why sections of the OS are designed to be hidden.

example

normal view

 

what is actually there

i know enough to know what I can delete or change and what must be strictly left untouched 

 

I don’t know (or care enough) to bother with the details of Android systems. But I know enough about enough OSs to know how they function and the way files are named.

 

4 minutes ago, sometimewoodworker said:

Nothing, or delete them. They don’t affect the phone unless they are eating memory 

 

Created by the system or other apps.

Maybe no, maybe yes, if required they maybe recreated, if deleted they may stop applications working (but probably not)

They may have been.

You may have done something to display them.

if you have done nothing your install / system may have got corrupted.

caveat: if you don’t know exactly what you are doing randomly deleting files can brick your phone. That is why sections of the OS are designed to be hidden.

example

normal view

 

what is actually there

i know enough to know what I can delete or change and what must be strictly left untouched 

 

I cannot delete them, so they will have to stay, I have had the phone for about 3 years, It has a lot of gigabytes added to it with hundreds of songs and videos, I think I will just replace it for a Samsung and get a lot of gigabytes added to it. 

One more question, when I buy a new phone and get a lot of space added to it can I get everything that is on the Xiaomi transferred to it.

Again, thanks a lot for all your help.

20 minutes ago, NoshowJones said:

I cannot delete them, so they will have to stay, I have had the phone for about 3 years, It has a lot of gigabytes added to it with hundreds of songs and videos, I think I will just replace it for a Samsung and get a lot of gigabytes added to it. 

One more question, when I buy a new phone and get a lot of space added to it can I get everything that is on the Xiaomi transferred to it.

Again, thanks a lot for all your help.

If your thinking about getting a Samsung just fyi they have updated and increased the OS and security updates 

so for example A33 A53 released in March 2022 will receive 4 years of Android OS updates and 5 years of security updates

https://droidsans.com/samsung-galaxy-a13-a23-a33-a53-a73-specs-compare/

 

https://www.samsung.com/nz/news/local/galaxy-a53-5g-and-galaxy-a33-5g-awesome-mobile-experiences-open-to-everyone/#:~:text=Galaxy A53 5G and Galaxy A33 5G support up to,five years of security updates.

 

I have a Xiaomi phone which was released in 2018 as I don't use the phone as a dual sim I have a 512GB storage card as well as the onboard 64GB storage giving me combined storage space of 576GB 

43 minutes ago, NoshowJones said:

 

One more question, when I buy a new phone and get a lot of space added to it can I get everything that is on the Xiaomi transferred to it.

Again, thanks a lot for all your help.

As I said “I don’t do Android” however you can almost certainly transfer most, if not all, of the music and videos if there is enough space on the new phone.

How to transfer data from your old Android phone to your new phonehttps://www.samsung.com/uk/support/mobile-devices/how-do-i-switch-my-android-device/

https://support.google.com/android/answer/6193424?hl=en-GB

 

In some cases not all data will be transferred so it worth making a note of file sizes and number of files in each directory and compared results from old phone and new phone

7 hours ago, NoshowJones said:

I cannot delete them, so they will have to stay, I have had the phone for about 3 years, It has a lot of gigabytes added to it with hundreds of songs and videos, I think I will just replace it for a Samsung and get a lot of gigabytes added to it. 

One more question, when I buy a new phone and get a lot of space added to it can I get everything that is on the Xiaomi transferred to it.

Again, thanks a lot for all your help.

Personally, I wouldn't stress over it. We buy second hand 'phones from a friend who has a mobile 'phone shop on our local High Street. Transferring data and settings from old to 'new' mobile is part of his service. We've also purchased a few second hand laptops from him even though he isn't a computer shop. Any issues with hardware, software or configuration he sorts out for us. 

 

I suspect that your 'phone is now full. All you need to do is a 'factory reset' which will return it to original settings and applications. However, doing so will wipe all your data, photos, videos and documents. It is essential that these be saved to a cloud service BEFORE you perform the factory reset.  Alternatively, you can connect your mobile to a computer and copy the contents from 'phone to computer and then back again afterwards. 

 

As previously mentioned, if you have a regular and friendly 'phone shop they will be able to help you with this. Better to spend a little cash with them than lose your irreplaceable photographs etc. 

1 hour ago, The Fugitive said:

if you have a regular and friendly 'phone shop they will be able to help you with this. Better to spend a little cash with them than lose your irreplaceable photographs etc. 

however true that is, and it’s absolutely true, it is far better to save copies of photos automatically so that a disaster to the phone is a non event

39 minutes ago, sometimewoodworker said:

however true that is, and it’s absolutely true, it is far better to save copies of photos automatically so that a disaster to the phone is a non event

Absolutely. I also frequently 'weed' the photos I wish to keep and upload them manually to another cloud service. Having done that I then clear the 'camera uploads' folder and the photo gallery folder on my 'phone. The OP mentioned that he has lots of Gigs of files on his 'phone. I suspect the issue is retaining files instead of uploading to cloud then deleting from 'phone.