It is definitely not uncommon to find yourself struggling to use a slow phone for an important job. Particularly if your Android or iOS phone belongs to the old generation, and you cannot afford to buy a new one yet. In many cases however, it has much less to do with the age of your phone. Rather, you may have been using your phone for a while. And your phone faces its own stress issues from continuous usage, charging and draining, file and data uploads and downloads (and so much more).
Regardless of the age or technology of the phone, you can expect it to face speed and performance issues with time. So there is a need to speed up your phone if multitasking and internet tasks are to be done effectively.
But not to worry, there are simple hacks you can apply to boost your phone’s performance and make it run faster. So you don’t necessarily have to dispose of your phone prematurely before you are ready for an upgrade. Here in this article, we will examine the top reasons for experiencing a slow phone. And how to speed up your phone on a normal day.
Table of Contents
My Phone is So Slow: What Could Be Wrong?
Your Android or iPhone mobile/tablet may be moving slowly in reaction to work overloads and internal limitations of the hardware, in general. Specifically, the following reasons may be responsible for your phone’s slow performance:
- Errant/Faulty Phone Memory
- Your Phone Battery is Getting Old
- RAM/Main Memory is Already Full
- Several Apps Running in The Background
- Heavy Apps (in byte size)
- So Many Apps (in the First Instance)
- Software Not Updated (Apps or Operating System)
- Possible Malware
- Internet Connection Speed
Check Out These 8 Hacks to Speed up Your Phone
Without further ado, we recommend that you take the following helpful steps to unburden and speed up your phone, one after the other. However, do not expect your phone to hit top speed by running these hacks. Because your phone has suffered internal ‘wear and tear’ so to speak, and cannot truly return to its original youthful agility. But a combination of these actions should boost your phone speed and performance to some satisfactory level.
Restart Your Phone
Sounds obvious, huh? In any case, it would probably be the last thing that would occur to you when your phone starts slowing down. One way to speed up your phone is to release its memory from excess work (at least temporarily). That is what a restart does. Depending on how long it takes your phone to start slowing down, I recommend that you restart it at least once a week.
Close all Open Apps in the Background
Users frequently open apps and leave them running. This can tie down and keep the RAM space (and CPU time) occupied and working. Because the apps constantly refresh and update themselves in the background, burning data and slowing down the phone. So you can close all open apps.
For Android phones, click the Home button (hamburger or square icon at the bottom of your phone) to see all open apps. Release them by sliding each app upwards.
Check the Internet Speed
Sometimes the internet speed may not be as optimal as expected, and this could affect the phone speed. So check your phone’s internet connection, if it is fluctuating or stable.
Remove Long Unused Apps
Check your phone’s desktop to identify those apps you no longer use actively. Long-click each of them to display the Settings symbol (or a circled ‘ i ‘ symbol) and choose ‘Uninstall’.
You may also uninstall each app using the Google Play Store (Android) or App Store (iOS). Click your profile, then click ‘Manage Apps and Device‘. Or, Settings > Apps & Notifications > Uninstall.
Clear the Phone Cache
Your phone’s cache could be so occupied as to slow down your phone performance. You can access your phone’s cache to clear it as follows:
- For Android phones, open your Chrome browser, click the three dots at top-right corner, then choose Settings.
- Select Privacy and Security.
- Go to Clear Browsing Data.
- Then select Advanced. Click all the checkboxes for options you wish to clear out (including the cache). Then select ‘Clear Data’ button at the bottom right corner of the screen.
You can similarly clear the cache for an iPhone’s Safari browser. A fast method is ti click on the iPhone/iPad Settings > Safari > Clear History & Website Data.
Change That Old Phone Battery
As your phone ages and you obviously use your phone frequently, the battery capacity reduces. It also tends to make the phone heat up and subsequently slow down the CPU speed. When the phone battery is no longer at its peak, it is best to change the phone battery. Preferably get the help of a phone expert to do so, as most modern phones have sealed-up batteries you cannot remove by yourself. A worst case scenario would be to buy a new phone entirely.
Keep Your Software and Apps Up To Date
Outdated apps and software tend to run slower and give a less than optimal experience, so keeping phone apps and software up-to-date is a sure way to speed up your phone.
Find out if your phone’s operating system is up to date by checking Settings > About Phone, where you will see the latest version of your Android (or iOS) operating system. Clicking it may show you if there is a newer version of the software, and prompt you to download and install the update. In some phone models, a notification will pop up on your phone when a newer version of your operating system is available for download.
Similarly, your apps can be updated from inside the Google play store (for Android) or App store (for iOS). Click your profile (top right-hand corner) and select ‘Manage Apps and Device’. Either you update each app by clicking the ‘Update‘ button beside it, or click ‘Update All’ (if preferred).
Scan your Phone for Potential Malware
Your phone should have an antivirus (or anti-malware) software installed, which you must necessarily update regularly. Use it to scan your phone from time to time, or set it from its internal settings to do a regular scheduled scan. This will help to remove any virus or malware, as malware often slows down the speed of your phone.