There are a few points to be considered before we embark on the journey of how to stop Android phone from lagging. First is that you have to accept that your device is “older” if it is 2 years old: it is simply not going to compete with the latest flagship phone that your spouse has. Second, there might be some hardware issues that cannot be resolved by software solutions and you may need to visit your local tech repair shop to get things back into shape. Now that we have covered the basics, let’s start with 5 ways you can stop Android phone from lagging.
Detective Work
Your smartphone is slowly dying and you need to know what the problem is. Is your CPU being overloaded by apps in the background? Is the RAM filled to its capacity? There are numerous factors that will affect the speed of your smartphone and thankfully, there are certain tools that will help you narrow down the problem. We highly recommend that you download a system monitoring app that will help you observe real time data from your device. Trepn Profiler, AIDA64, Simple System Monitor, and Full System Info are a few apps that will help you monitor live CPU and RAM usage on your device. With these apps running, monitor your device usage and see any abnormalities. For example, if your CPU usage is a little higher than it should be, there’s a high chance an app is running a background process.
App Management
Some apps are notorious when it comes to resource usage, especially in the background. Most of the social media and messaging apps take up a little bit of processing power and network usage even when you are not using your smartphone. This is understandable though, they need to keep up with the messages and notifications. However, if you’re having a problem with one of the apps being an annoyance in keeping your device awake for a long period of time, you can easily get an app killer and order off the processes. However, we recommend that you completely remove the app from your device if it is not that necessary. Some antivirus apps like to scan your device for your security. If you don’t have a schedule for the scans, make sure you set a time for them to scan your phone, otherwise they might be scanning and causing lag.
Storage
This may seem a little bit odd but if you have filled your smartphone’s internal storage to the brim, it might be the reason why it is lagging now. Android does a great job of reminding you that your smartphone is running out of storage and this usually means that you need to clear out your phone and make room for essential storage space. Technically speaking, your Android phone needs more storage space than the apps would recommend. There are a lot of things being saved behind the background and an app like Facebook can take up to 400 MB when it’s being used consistently over a long period of time. This is due to the fact that Android likes to cache files for easier and faster access, we would discuss it in the next point. However, if you’re running out of storage and need to clear it out, you can use a backup app to store your data on another device like your PC, use the best cloud storage apps to upload them, get a great photo backup app for Android, or simply delete unwanted content from your device. This will free up the space and hopefully the lag will be reduced. If deleting a lot of stuff from your smartphone is a chore, you can use CCleaner to help you in removing junk files from your smartphone. Over time, your device can accumulate a lot of files and folders that are no longer in use. This is especially true when you download a lot of apps and delete them afterwards, there are some residue files left behind that are not deleted automatically. A good system cleaner app like CCleaner would be able to quickly identify the issue and remove junk files from your device, thus making more room for things that matter.
Clear Cache and RAM
Clearing out the cache can resolve a lot of issues and make your device run smoothly. You don’t even need to go to individual apps to clear the cached data, you just need to do a simple restart of your device. This will flush out the cache and hopefully your device will run smoothly once more. When it comes to clearing RAM, you can either do it by going into the settings of your smartphone and clearing it from there or restarting the device. While this may not work because some apps will simply start up again and start hogging system resources. For that you’ll need an app killer to completely control the situation. Or, if you are sure a certain app is slowing down your smartphone, you can easily delete it from your device. If all else has failed, and you don’t see any way forward, you can do a factory reset of your device. We absolutely don’t recommend this step because it is not guaranteed to work, but if you have properly backed up your data, there is no harm in trying this before giving up completely.
Hardware Issues
This one is highly unlikely to happen but it does happen, especially if you have been using the device for a couple of years. There are several factors that can make your device lag. One of the major issues is the battery capacity, it is inevitable that your battery will grow less efficient by time. And if your device is lagging all the time and you notice that the battery is not performing as it used to, perhaps it’s time to swap out the old one for a brand-new one from the company. You can do that by visiting your local manufacturer’s franchise or if you are tech savvy, you can replace it yourself (which is a lot cheaper and saves time). Another reason might be because you use a faster device and going back to your older one makes you feel the difference. Technology has been growing rapidly, especially when it comes to smartphone processing speeds and the new budget range smartphones rival the flagships of 2015.
Closing Notes
These were some of the ways you can stop your Android phone from lagging. Of course, there are numerous other factors that may affect your device’s performance, but these are the most common and tested methods to stop your smartphone from feeling like a turtle. I upgrade every 3 years and haven’t seen much of a performance downgrade in Android smartphones, especially the new ones with the latest version of Android do a remarkable job of keeping your device lag free. So moving forward, we all will see less lagging performance from Android smartphones and more smooth sailing. What are your first experiences with Android lag? Are you satisfied with its performance or are you feeling the choppiness crop up? Do tell us about your smartphone and how long you’ve been using it in the comments, this guide is a general idea on how Android is improving overall. Feature Image Credits
