Getting a new smartphone is usually an exciting experience, as you will upgrade your device for a more recent and technically advance handset. Most contracts last two years, and you may have noticed in the past your device drops in performance after the initial first year – this should not be the case. You can do things to avoid these lags, freezes, and errors. Having said this, let us give you some useful tips and tricks:
Don’t keep apps you don’t use
Almost every article you can read on this subject will tell you, only keep applications that you frequently use on your device. Doesn’t it sound obvious? If you keep all the applications you don’t use on your phone; you are cluttering your memory storage device. Memory storage is hugely important and can help with multitasking on your phone when you use more than one application at a time.
Don’t have everything running at once
Various applications and games often operate in the background, permanently collecting data and sharing your information with its company. Some apps will give you notifications if you haven’t been on them in a while too, social media apps are massive spammers for this! Smartphones are known to be capable of having more than one application open at any given time, however, having more than what you are using is unnecessary and plays a massive part in your phone’s speed. Try to adopt closing all your applications at the end of the day or a few times throughout the day; this will make a noticeable difference.
Keep it lite
Many applications such as social media have lite versions of their software; for example, there is a lightweight version of the Facebook app. These lightweight apps often designed with entry-level devices in mind, or for users who want to keep things simple. Using lite versions of apps can improve your phone’s performance, and you’ll also be maintaining storage space to a minimum.
Clearing your cache files
Clearing the cached data can sometimes help too, making the app smoother as it removes old data which might cause it to lag or freeze. When the data gets deleted, the application can keep newer versions of the same files. This method is beneficial if you regularly use Facebook or Instagram as they store tons of images and other data on your device. If you are going to clear your cache files, please be aware that this will sometimes reset the app to its default settings – if you have made any setting changes, they could be reset too.
Update your phone regularly
Every new version of your Operating Software (OS) comes with various device performance enhancers built-in. If you have more than half of your overall storage free, we would highly recommend it. Upgrading sooner or later can-do wonders for your device, however, not all mobile OS is updated regularly, so it’s dependant on how kind your manufacturers are. If you are low on storage space, upgrading your operating software is not recommended due to them usually taking up more space on your device. If you would like to install a new OS however you are out of room, delete applications that you don’t use or save your photos onto a computer and format your phone’s gallery.
Restart your phone
One technique often forgotten is turning off your phone for a while; this will allow it to reset and forget about anything non-essential for you. For example, you wouldn’t leave your PC on all day and all night – so why are phones any different? Restarting the machine can help them make their way through hard times, when you reboot your device, it deletes any temporary files that will slightly speed up your phone.
Leave your home screen tidy
Filling up your home screen with live wallpapers/photos and widgets sometimes seems like a funky option. Under the hood, unfortunately, all these things put extra load on the hardware and affect the device’s performance. Sometimes you might see your phone struggle to load the content of the home screen, this in short just means there is too much on it. Keeping your home screen as clean as possible can be one of many ways of keeping your phone speedy. It won’t have to load all the content every time you return to the home screen once unlocking or turning on the device.
The last resort
For most this doesn’t seem like a viable option, for others their top-secret hack. Putting all your devices content onto an external memory unit and resetting your phone to factory settings can usually reboot the device into that speedy phone you once knew. Some go as far as doing this twice a year, and this is resetting everything on the phone top to bottom and installing a new version of any compulsory files needed for the phone to operate. In theory, this should give you a brand-new phone every time; it is highly dependent on how much you then load back onto the phone. If you install basic applications and upload only a portion of your gallery, you’ll see a noticeable difference.